Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/5/24
Episode Date: June 5, 2024Mike & Jason look ahead to the Stanley Cup Final with Sportsnet NHL analyst Jeff Marek, they chat with The Athletic Ottawa's Ian Mendes about the new-look Travis Green era Sens and how the Oilers ARE ...NOT Canada's Team, Â they talk some Canucks with Sportsnet's Dan Murphy, 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.
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You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. Ready for Jeff Merrick. Now it is time for Jeff Merrick live from Dukat.
It is Jeff Merrick on behalf of the Roth Show.
632.
What was that?
What was that?
What was the inspo for that one?
We're going experimentally here, folks.
It's like sprockets.
Yeah, that was sprockets.
That was like a me reference.
I wanted to make something that the more times you hear it,
the more annoying and equally funny it gets.
I think you succeeded then.
Thank you.
And it fits in with our Euro Club Wednesday theme.
That's true.
That's how it all started.
What was the bit from sprockets?
You had a pet monkey, right?
I forget.
Would you like to see my monkey?
Would you like to see my monkey? Would you like to see my monkey?
Well, it's on Jeff now to brush over the monkey next week, I suppose.
Jeff Merrick, host of the Jeff Merrick Show and the 32 Thoughts Podcast,
is going to join us in just a moment here on the Halford & Brough Show
on Sportsnet 650.
I'll let that intro music sink in for Jeff while I attend to some business.
Hour one of this program is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling.
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To the phone lines we go.
Jeff Merrick joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.
Morning, Jeff. How are you?
That was Sprockets meets Chase scene from Beverly Hills Cop.
Yes.
Did that not have like an Eddie Murphy from Beverly Hills Cop. Yes.
Did that not have like an Eddie Murphy,
Beverly Hills Cop, Banana in the Tailpipe vibe about it?
I loved it.
What?
Did it not have a Beverly Hills Cop vibe about it too?
I don't know about Beverly Hills Cop. What was the name of the guy that did all the synth music
that you've referenced?
Faltmeyer?
Falkmeyer?
Faltmeyer?
Faltermeyer.
Faltermeyer.
Yeah, but yeah, yeah, okay, right.
Yeah, I get that.
I get that part.
Okay.
Okay.
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do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, the big bucks, folks, you just heard it. Good. Wow. Great. That was awesome.
Just made my day.
Jeff, I want to talk a little bit more about Marty Natchez.
And because this guy has been discussed at length in Vancouver,
and I'm sure in a few other markets around the league.
Yeah.
Why has he not fully blossomed in carolina i think that's um a couple of things i think that
there's a certain level of frustration that rod brindamore has about martin natchez which is which
is not kind of unlike the same frustration he used to have about sebastian ajo like it wasn't
too like we tend to forget this like the initial relationship between these two, Ajo and Rod Brindamore,
wasn't exactly great.
Like, I don't think that Brindamore really liked the way that Ajo played,
one-way game, et cetera, was unbudging in how he played.
And I think Martin Natchez is kind of similar here.
Now, it all worked out with Ajo and Rod Brindamore,
and he's gone on to be one of the best players in the Carolina Hurricanes,
one of the best players in the league, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I do think there is a level of frustration with how Ajo plays away from the puck.
There's no denying the offensive skill. And I'll tell you,
one of the best
things about Martin Natchez
is, much like in Edmonton when it's
three-on-three time, here we go
overtime, and Edmonton throws
right-sided on McDavid over the boards,
and you say, okay, well this is automatic.
You can pretty much say the same thing about Ajo
and Natchez. Natchez in
overtime with all that room to create is dynamic.
He's phenomenal.
It's the five-on-five and the defensive responsibility,
but a lot of people will come back to, well, hold on a second here.
The hardest thing and the most expensive thing in the NHL are goals,
and that's one of the things that Martin Natchez can help produce.
I also think that there's a level of frustration that Natchez has,
which is, you know, I think in his mind he deserves to be on power play one
on a consistent basis.
And when that's not there, sometimes it's reflected in the play.
So it's been a tough relationship between the two sides here. There's no denying
the offensive skill at all, but I think everything away from the puck can kind of give you a fit.
How about that? So knowing that or hearing that, my first question would be, how do you think you
get along with Rick Tockett? Because there a guy named andre kuzmenko here that uh didn't last long under rick tocket yeah no um there certainly is that but don't
forget too like the um to put it bluntly the arrogance of every organization is this get them
in our program and we can fix them right like how many times have you made what are teams in love
with the reclamation project?
Oh,
we'll get them at a bargain basement price or something lower than market value based,
based on his failings.
And we'll fix them when we get them into our system.
Like if you're a Rick talk it as much as you might look at,
yeah,
there's some things you love about his game and some things you don't part of
you as a coach is like,
yeah,
let me,
let me drive that.
Like,
give me the keys to that
because i can help unlock um the potential for martin niches and develop and then develop him
into a full player so i think that i think the most high-end coaches look at players like that
and say yeah you know what i'm not going to turn my i'm not going to turn them down
based on his failing i'm a coach that can help players with their failings.
So I kind of have a couple of minds here about Natchez and Vancouver.
I know on the surface you look at it and say,
eh, that could be a disaster.
But don't forget, like, Hockett's done great work with a lot of players here.
I think part of the arrogance, and I say that as a compliment,
part of the arrogance of being a good coach is saying,
I can fix anybody.
And obviously the reason that the Natchez name has been out there so much is the most recent revelation, courtesy of Frank Cervalli,
where he suggested that the trade might happen before the start of the Stanley Cup Final,
which we are waiting and waiting and waiting for as it doesn't get underway until Saturday.
I know that the scheduling isn't great, Jeff,
but it does allow us to build up to the Edmonton, Florida Stanley Cup final.
Let's just ask the most obvious question to you.
How excited are you for this matchup,
this stylistic matchup between the Oilers and the Panthers?
Well, this is great because there's a whole bunch of sidebars
attached to it as well, right?
And, you know, in a lot of ways,
let me know if you think this one is strained,
but I was thinking about both these teams
and when you have a stretch like this,
you say to yourself, okay, so now let's have a look back
and have a look at how these two teams,
you know, came into the NHL,
who's responsible for them coming into the NHL.
And for me, all roads with both of them
lead to Wayne Gretzky.
Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers, WHA,
Wayne Gretzky, of course, the centerpiece there,
never subject to an NHL draft.
That's a discussion for another time.
But a key piece of the Edmonton Oilers,
for lack of a better term, merger
between the four teams of the WHA and the NHL back in 1980.
And then the Florida Panthers were a byproduct
of Southern expansion, which was brought about shell back in 1980 and then you know the uh the florida panthers were were a byproduct of southern
expansion which was brought about um by the way in gretzky trade and popping hockey in los angeles
and all of a sudden there's anaheim uh with michael eisner of disney and there's wayne
huizenga in florida who uh who owned blockbuster and the idea was that uh that uh that um eisner
was going to make the movies and i think it was going to make the movies, and I think it was going to distribute the movies,
and there were going to be hockey movies,
and this was the opening of the door with the Mighty Ducks, etc., etc., etc.
I mean, it didn't ultimately work out,
but sort of all roads for both of these teams still kind of go through Wayne Gretzky here.
And Gretzky is responsible for, in a lot of ways, on that Gretzky trade, for in a lot of ways on that Gretzky trade for both these teams
being in the NHL there's also the delicious sidebar of a little bit of a taste of the old
battle of Alberta was Sam Bennett and Matthew Kachuk and that's why I really crossed my fingers
and hope that Evander Kane is healthy in this one because we can all think of the fights and the
wars that Sam Bennett would have with Evander Kane and all the battles that Matthew Kachuk would have with Evander Kane and everybody else on that Edmonton Oilers team.
So to say nothing of having the best player in the game and Connor McDavid involved in the series,
like there's a whole lot of levels here for what makes this one intriguing. And even to get ahead of ourselves here,
we're already having the debate of
who does each captain pass the Stanley Cup to?
I don't know if you guys knew that
before the beginning of the Stanley Cup final,
but it's always interesting to think about,
okay, if Florida wins, who does Barkov hand this off to?
And if Edmonton wins, who does McDavid hand it off to? Who does McDavid hand it
off to? Nugent?
He's the longest tenured? Yeah, he's the longest tenured
Oiler, right? I would think
Ryan Nugent, because a lot of people say, oh well,
Leon Dreisaitl. I
would have to say probably Ryan Nugent
Hopkins. Have you thought about the Florida Panthers one?
Either
Kyle Ocposo or Aaron Eckblad.
Yeah, maybe Ocposo. Aaron Ekblad. Yeah, maybe
Ocposo.
He's been around
for forever.
Yeah, but he
hasn't been with
the Panthers for
that long.
No, but yeah,
it would have to
be those two
guys.
That's an
interesting one.
Those are good
sidebars.
The one that I
was thinking of,
and it kind of
was spawned from
the Battle of
Alberta thing,
is I'm very
much hoping that
this will be the
spiciest Stanley
Cup final that
we've had in
years. I mean, maybe hearkening all the way Cup final that we've had in years.
I mean, maybe hearkening all the way back to Bruins Canucks in 2011
because of the pieces that are involved.
I know Matthew Kachuk and Sam Bennett were there last year,
but they were so banged up and so beat up that it was almost like
by the time they got to the final, they were just completely out of steam.
They're going to have a week-long break to get their energy ramped back up
for this one.
The other part of the subtext here is that Edmonton just got through a series,
all due respect to the Dallas Stars, who I thought played their asses off,
but it was not a nasty series by any stretch of the imagination.
I was actually shocked at times at the lack of physicality,
especially since I think in the second round,
the Canucks did show a bit of a blueprint that if you are able to get into the
Oilers' kitchen, you can do some damage.
It just never seemed like that happened against Dallas.
Yeah, that's a great point.
I'll throw another one out at you because you mentioned 2011 there a second ago.
So I was having a conversation with someone Friday after the radio show,
I was driving back home.
This is someone who's been around hockey forever, going back three lockouts, actually, who said to me that he was getting strong
Boston Bruin 2011 vibes from the Florida Panthers.
Not sort of player to player,
but by way of roster composition
and also by style of play.
So I had Bill Zito on the show a couple of days ago
and I asked him that.
And Bill, as you guys know,
formerly in a previous life, was an NHL agent and represented Tim Thomas. So
I figured, okay, A, he knows this Florida Panthers team, and B, he knows the 2011 Boston
Bruins quite well, and so he'll be somewhat of an authority to speak to it. And he said,
well, I never really considered it. And I said, well, let me sell you a little bit on it. So you have Barkov in the Bergeron place.
There is no Zdeno Chara because they're outside of Larry Robinson
with the Montreal Canadiens in the 70s.
Has never been a Zdeno Chara in the NHL.
But you look at someone like Matthew Kachuk playing the role of Brad Marchand.
You look at Sam Bennett playing a combination,
sort of Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic,
to a certain extent to say nothing about how they play
and how they've been put together
and how, like, they fight for every single inch of the ice.
And Zito kind of warmed the idea and said, like,
look, I've never really thought about it,
but I think you might have a point here.
Now, no one's going to compare, you know,y bobrovsky who's like a pretty chilled out
goaltender like he's a really mellow laid-back guy with tim thomas who is the exact opposite of that
as everyone in vancouver knows going back to 2011 but let me ask you guys this i think that the
vibes are there are you getting 2011 boston Bruin vibes from this Florida Panthers team?
You know what's funny, though, Jeff, is that the 2011 Stanley Cup final,
no one predicted that it was going to be like it was.
It just kind of happened, right?
And there was some biting, and then it just kicked off, right?
And so I,
I don't know.
I,
I,
I suppose maybe,
well,
I think stylistically,
stylistically,
but I think there's a lot of teams that have played stylistically like the
Bruins,
like they're the heavy style.
I mean,
the St.
Louis blues out Bruins,
the Bruins and their Stanley cup final.
So I don't know.
We'll see. It has to, I have to see it play out, though.
But don't forget, the Blues also had a Bergeron-type player
in Ryan O'Reilly as well.
And I think that's where this whole thing starts with the Florida Panthers.
I mean, how many times have you heard me make the bad joke
that Barkoff is finished for Bergeron?
Yeah.
But it's true, right?
Well, that's because most Stanley Cup champs have a Selkie Trophy type of guy.
I mean, that's where I wonder.
I mean, that's the most interesting part of the matchup for me, really,
is Barkov and Forsling versus McDavid and Dreisaitl.
And is offense going to win or is defense going to win?
Obviously, there are other concerns like
who's going to be the better goaltender and you know all the complementary players but for me
that's that's the matchup yeah and that's why i wonder i wonder as well as i mentioned earlier
and that if evander kane isn't healthy does that give the florida panthers essentially a free pass to run around so and
give sam sam bennett a chance to be sam bennett and ditto for matthew kachuk to try to run run
the oilers out of the building i mean as you mentioned it you're right like vancouver like
vancouver threw everything at the oilers right physicality all of it like get inside and pound them right work to the what what's it what
what's the old uh uh what's the old boxing term water in the basement don't get inside and rip
to the body body water in the basement water in the basement like that's what vancouver was trying
to do to edmonton and i wonder if the florida panthers can do the proverbial water in the
basement with the edmonton all this year what What happened to Sam Bennett once he went to Florida?
Why did we not see this Sam Bennett in Calgary?
And was Calgary wrong to move on from him,
or was it never going to work out in Calgary for Sam Bennett?
For some players, you know, it is really interesting.
For some players, you don't really actualize
until you get to your second team. It's funny, Vito mentioned this on the interview on Monday
too. Like, I don't think that there's a collection of obvious playoff players. Like, every team
says, yeah, you got to go get the playoff guys. Like, there's this, like, group of playoff
players sitting in a room waiting to be signed. I think that players have it in them.
Like, you don't get to the NHL without being super competitive
and also having a big sidebar of FU.
Because by the time you get to the NHL, you've heard and read
and seen everything about your game.
I just think that in Florida, for a lot of these guys,
and you could even make the point with Barkov as well, I think that there are just some teams where that side of your personality is able to come out. Sam Bennett before in flashes in Calgary. We just didn't see it all the time.
Right?
And now, would he have gotten there eventually in Calgary?
Maybe.
But he sure got there really quickly with the Florida Panthers.
And the one thing about the Panthers is, if you look at how Zito has put this team together,
right, like there's only like four players that are left over from the Dale Talon era.
If you look at how, like I always focus on the first move that a general manager makes.
What's the first move that Bill Zito made?
He brought in Patrick Hornquist.
That was move number one because there's a feeling around the NHL, you guys know,
that the Florida Panthers were an easy two-point.
Tampa was going to be tough,
but you could go into Florida, get two points,
have an easy game, and be out of the state.
And he wanted this team to be tougher.
And right away, the message was,
I'm going to get Patrick Hornquist
because we need to be miserable to play against.
And if you look at everything that he's done since,
he's gone out of his way to grab miserable hockey players.
And that turns guys that may not have had that personality,
whether it's, you know, Reinhardt or whether it's Verhege,
like they may not have had that already in their personality.
But when you get in a room with a bunch of miserable hockey players,
the miserable side of you comes out.
And so don't you think that we're seeing that with everybody? Like, did you see Reinhardt? with a bunch of miserable hockey players, the miserable side of you comes out. Totally.
And so don't you think that we're seeing that with everybody?
Like, did you see Reinhardt?
Like, I'm not talking about the goals, but did you see Reinhardt play this way in Buffalo?
Have you ever seen Brandon Montour play this way
before he got to Florida?
Like, not at all.
But this is a room that brings out the miserable part of every single hockey player.
And I think that Sam Bennett is no different than anybody else.
Well, you've got to get super competitive guys, too, especially in a market like Florida.
That's true.
We always bemoan the pressure that we put on the players on the Canadian teams in the
NHL.
And there's no doubt that that pressure can be really tough to overcome.
And there can be the fishbowl aspect of it.
But the opposite can sometimes be true in places like Florida where,
you know, let's be honest, the entire city or state isn't,
they don't live and die with the Florida Panthers.
And you could easily get real comfortable in Florida.
Can you imagine playing hockey in a place where you're not really recognized that much,
you're still making a lot of money,
and after every practice, if you want, you can go play golf?
Yeah.
That's attractive to a lot of guys.
Also, playing in Canadian markets are attractive.
Some guys crave a big stage, right?
And it's not like either a knock on anybody who chooses to play in a quieter market
or make a choice based on lifestyle for them or their family.
But the interesting thing about it is, you know, Sheldon keeps comments like,
well, welcome to what the NHL is really like, because Toronto is not the NHL.
You mentioned Canadian markets.
In a perfect reality for the NHL, every American market is like a Canadian market, right?
Like that's the story of the NFL and the success of that league.
Everything is built all around.
Everybody is obsessed with that team, right?
Like you look at every market and how the fan base
and how the entire province revolves around that team.
Like that's what every market in the U.S. wants to be.
Is it conducive to winning?
Not necessarily, but that's what every market is aiming at, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, you bring up everyone except Jacksonville, maybe.
Jacksonville just immediately popped in mind.
Everyone except Jacksonville.
I think they spend most of their time in England, actually.
Your point is largely understood.
Jeff, we're right up against it for time.
We'll let you go for now.
When we do this again, we'll finally be a couple games into the Stanley Cup final,
and that'll be next Wednesday.
I'm a media member from the East, and I did an entire interview on
a Vancouver radio station, and
nobody hates me yet.
Yet.
Yet.
Thanks, Jeff.
Appreciate it, buddy.
Jeff Merrick, host of
the Jeff Merrick Show on the 32 Thoughts Podcast,
and the author of the Rink Fries blog here on the Halford & Brough Show
on Sportsnet 650.
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You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.
You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.
The phone lines we go.
Ian Mendez joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.
Speaking of franchises that have had questionable ownership,
let's talk a bit about the Ottawa Senators.
What a segue.
What a segue.
Now new ownership and now a new coaching staff,
a name familiar to Canucks fans.
In fact, a few names familiar to Canucks fans.
Travis Green is the head coach.
His old right-hand man in Vancouver, Nolan Baumgartner, is an associate coach or an assistant
coach, and so is Mike Yeo. What has the response been to the hiring of Travis Green as head coach
in Ottawa? Yeah, and you know what? In fact, I felt like I should be asking you guys some questions here
about Yo and
Baumgartner. But I'll tell you
the reaction, if you went back
I want to say it was like the first week of May
so about a month ago when they hired Travis Green
like I think it's very fair
to kind of portray
the reception as
you know, fairly
negative from a lot of fans who felt like, are you kidding me? Like your,
your solution to fixing our seven year playoff drought is a guy with a,
you know, I think Travis's career winning percentage is 477 or whatever.
Right. And so there was a lot of apprehension, skepticism,
negativity in the marketplace. I, you know,
after Travis did his initial press conference
in town i would say that some of that skepticism and anger has sort of alleviated i think a lot
more people are willing to take okay let's just let's just take a wait and see approach here
on how it goes and i do think that a lot of people are pretty happy with the bench staff in that
you know mike yo is a really accomplished coach in in in, you know, what he did in Pittsburgh in the early years out of this Hillary cap.
And then obviously being a head coach in a place like Minnesota and St. Louis.
And, you know, Nolan Baumgartner, I think he's always kind of been Travis's right-hand guy, right?
Like Utica, Vancouver.
But what I'm curious about and what I am going to ask you guys is in that
four-year window with Green and Baumgartner,
I think what a lot of Ottawa fans are curious about is like the deployment
of the defense and kind of some of those things.
Because, I mean,
Tyler Myers is a guy that now Ottawa fans are like, ooh,
is this guy coming here?
Like, you know, I think those are, or Tanev, for example,
another guy who's a potential UFA.
I think a lot of Ottawa fans are wondering, like,
who are their favorite guys in that kind of four-year window?
Well, I mean, there's a lot to unpack about the Travis Green era.
And it was, I think, ultimately less about Travis Green.
The pandemic affected the team in a major way. You know, it was harder to
play in Canada than it was in the United States. And they also lost some real key guys. In the
bubble, they looked like they were a team that was going to be, you know, keep growing. And they
had some young stars like Quinn Hughes and and Elias Pettersson and you
know things look good and then the pandemic hit and for whatever reason maybe it was budget reasons
or just poor management overall they lost some really popular guys in the room including uh
Chris Tanev who goes to Calgary so does Jacob Markstrom Tyler Toffoli. Hadn't been with the Canucks for long, but he went away.
And then the all-Canadian division happened, and it just fell apart.
It just all fell apart.
The culture fell apart.
What I think is interesting about Travis Green being hired
is that in the same offseason, Craig Berube got hired,
and both those guys communicate a lot with Rick Tockett. I thought Craig Berube would actually be
a perfect fit for Ottawa, and I wonder if Ottawa Senators fans were hoping for a guy like Craig
Berube because we've interviewed Craig Berube on this show before
and so much of what he talks about is similar to what Rick Tockett talks about. I think Travis
Green has some similar ideas. Like Travis Green just wants guys that play hard and that's what
Rick Tockett wants. He wants guys that win battles and he wants you to be a responsible player. He's not the type of guy that's just going to say, you know, like Bruce Boudreaux was,
where it was like, just go play the game.
Trust in yourselves and go play the game.
The Canucks needed a coach that showed them how to do that,
and I think Travis Green might bring that to Ottawa.
I don't know if he's going to have the same success as Rick Tockett had in Vancouver Rick Tockett also got a bunch of new players that
he was able to deploy so what I'm curious what did Travis Green have to say in his press conference
yeah and you know what's funny guys I think and I agree 100% with what you said.
Like, I think Ottawa fans were really hoping for Berube
when he was, like, the big fish on the market.
But I think if you're Craig Berube,
six, eight weeks ago,
and you were looking around at the open chairs in the NHL,
and Ottawa was open, but so was, you know,
Toronto was potentially going to be open,
and then New Jersey was open.
Like there were some places where I think he could parachute in and kind of go right
into wind now, right?
Toronto for sure.
Probably New Jersey.
Ottawa is going to be a little bit more maybe of a work in progress.
So I don't blame Berube for going to a better spot and probably getting a bigger payday
with a bigger market.
But, you know, it's funny because when Travis Green came in and spoke
at his press conference, and this is why he said I think there was some
alleviation of the frustration after he spoke, is that he said all of the things.
Like if you had just removed, if you just took the quotes and you took out
Travis Green's name and you said, these were said by Craig Berube or Rick Tockett,
people would be like, yes, this is what we need.
Accountability and a 200-foot game.
And, you know, he said all of those things.
And so I tried to point kind of people back.
And, you know, I know Thomas Drance kind of did the same thing.
Hey, listen, when Rick Tockett took over in Vancouver,
like the anger in the marketplace, it was ready to boil over,
and people were not happy because you're rolling in with a guy
who had a 478 or whatever career winning percentage
as a head coach in the league.
And, like, what had Rick, what had he ever done, right?
And so there are absolutely some parallel tracks,
but I think what Cockett really had this year
is he had the best defenseman on the planet
this year in
Quinn Hughes. He had some unbelievable
goaltending.
Demko gives you a chance to win every
night, and then you have
your stars playing like stars
up front. Ottawa hasn't had any
of those things in the last couple
of years, and so if they somehow get
great goaltending, and if they get a Norris-cali couple of years and so if they somehow get great goaltending
and if they get a norris caliber defenseman and if they get their top end players playing like top
end players yeah absolutely this could this could turn around this season under under travis do they
have the right personnel because i think one of the things that really buried travis green and
nolan bomb gardner was actually responsible for the p PK and they didn't have the personnel for the PK.
The person, like if you look at who they had killing penalties,
you know, frankly, before this season,
they just weren't capable penalty killers.
Canucks management went out and signed a bunch of guys
that could kill penalties and it made quite a big difference.
Does Ottawa have the type of players that can be good defensively?
You know what?
I think this all comes down to, and I hate to boil it down
to such a simplistic, in such simplistic terms,
but so much of this, guys, comes down to goaltending, doesn't it?
And I'll tell you, I'll give you a stat here.
I might be a little bit off on the numbers,
but the core of what I'm about to say will resonate and is accurate.
So Ottawa this season obviously played 82 games.
In about half of the games that they played,
they received sub-900, say, percentage from their goaltending.
So either Corpus Allo or Forsberg played in goal
and they had a sub-900, like 880 or whatever save percentage of the game.
They won two of those games, okay?
Two out of 41 games.
The other 41 where they had 900 save percentage,
they were something like 36-4.
Their record was almost the exact reverse and i
think in ottawa people aren't even saying like give us 9 15 9 20 say percentage it's like can
you give us 905 like give it and and that to me uh will help alleviate a lot of the you know the
penalty killing issues and the defensive zone issues, like just average goaltending.
What would this team look like with average?
Like people aren't even saying give us all world.
Yeah, but it doesn't happen in a vacuum, right?
Like I think that's what we've all learned.
You know, we've all learned and we all kind of knew in our heads
that if you have good defense in front of the goaltenders,
if you have everyone on the same page,
knowing what to do in certain situations,
and that's one thing that Taka drilled home to the Canucks,
like oftentimes at a very elementary level,
but it needed to be done.
And, you know, if the goaltenders know more
about what's going on in front of them
and everyone knows what to do,
the goaltender's going to make more saves. So that's going to be the challenge for Travis Green I imagine I do Ian I
don't want to rush off this topic but I do want to ask you about this latest article that you've
published at The Athletic and it is music to my ears because the headline is why the Oilers are not Canada's team in the Stanley Cup final.
You referenced the Boston pizza ad in the article, which infuriates me every time I see it. And I've
seen it approximately millions of times. I apologize to a major sponsor of Rogers. But
I think the whole notion of cheering for the last Canadian team,
if you're a hardcore hockey fan that wants your team,
not some other Canadian team, to bring the Cup home to Canada,
it's totally ridiculous.
And the whole idea of Canada's team, man,
I don't know if you're a truly hardcore, loyal fan of your own team,
if you're able to suspend that fandom and go go oilers
i i can't believe that this narrative still exists in 2024 and again part of it is we're
living in a 31 year drought of the cup and in canada but but i think there's this sort of weird
perception in amer America that like,
ha ha, you guys haven't won the cup
and you're so desperate to bring the cup back.
And sure, there's probably
some degree of like, it would be nice to have the
cup back, but you only want it in
your city or for the team that you're cheering
for. Why would I care?
What does it do? Vancouver's
never won the cup. They've been in the
league 54 years. They've never won the cup. You know, they've been in the league 54 years.
They've never won the cup. What does the drought kind of like,
do you lose 10% of the drought because the Oilers brought it back?
No, you add to it. You add to it.
Your jealousy levels are off the, off like off the charts.
If I saw Toronto with the Stanley cup brand, I might retire. Like I just,
I'm done. Like, and it's, and it's almost close in in edmonton and calgary
you know growing up as a kid i hated the flames absolutely hated them i didn't even hate the
oilers because they were like so good that it didn't even it wasn't even worth hating them but
like the flames gave me you know there was a game in 1989 against the flames that made me cry i'm
not gonna celebrate if they win the Stanley Cup.
No, even in, like, if you think about 89
and that stupid Joel Otto goal,
which I still think he kicked in, but whatever.
That's the one that made me cry.
Yes, and, like, and I always think about,
oh, man, if Smeal puts that, anyway,
now I'm going to make you cry again.
But, like, imagine in 1989 saying,
ah, you know what, we lost to Calgary in a 7-0 tee, but I was so happy they won the Cup.
Good for them.
No.
And just like this year, you lose to Edmonton in a seventh game
where you just felt like if they were going to have game seven,
they were going to tie it.
It was just ridiculous, this idea that we would cheer.
I likened it today.
I was like, it's like if your neighbor won the lottery.
Like, would you feel like you'd feel jealous and you'd be like, well.
Unless they give me a million bucks for being a neighbor, then maybe.
Maybe I'd be happy.
But even then, you know, there'd be a jealousy factor.
Yes.
And I maintain this.
So to me, when we talk about Canada's team, it's obviously Olympic level or FIFA or, you
know, we rally around that.
Like we have viewing parts, even though, and I brought this up, the Raptors in 2019, it
was, it felt like it was coast to coast.
Like there was viewing parties in, in different places from Halifax to Victoria and everybody
got on board.
I even looked this up.
Cineplex Odeon, the movie theater, they opened up their theaters in 2019, 33 theaters across
the country just to show Raptors games.
Would you go, would you roll into Burnaby or Richmond or any, and be like with your
buddies, let's go watch the Oilers game on the Cineplex tonight?
No.
I mean, we have complicated relationships with, I mean, in Vancouver,
I'm a huge Seahawks fan and I was a big Sonics fan.
I don't cheer for the Kraken.
I hate the Kraken.
Like that's one day I hope going to be one of my biggest, you know,
or one of Vancouver's biggest sports rivals.
It's complicated, but it is what it is.
It's what's right, I feel in my heart.
And I always think that, you know, this whole notion of Canada's team, it's coming from Americans for sure who don't understand, who don't understand.
And I think it's like, I don't want to insult anyone,
but it's like coming from casual fans.
Like, wouldn't it be great if Canada,
oh yeah, do you live and die with your team every day?
Well, no.
So you don't know what the hardcore hockey fan goes through.
No.
And to me, Canada's broken up into two trifectas.
Like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton.
From the Smythe days, everyone hates each other.
Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, geographically, historically, they all hate each other.
The one outlier that maybe you could talk me into, but again, I don't think that they have a national appeal, is Winnipeg.
Winnipeg's a little bit of an outlier.
I don't think anybody hates Winnipeg per se.
We all feel a bit sorry for them.
Let's be honest.
Yes, we do.
But I don't feel like if they were in the cup final,
even then I don't think that we would be like,
this is Canada's team.
I don't think so.
Ian, this was great, bud.
Thanks for taking the time to do it.
You are the best, and thank you for writing that article.
You are the best.
Thank you.
You got it, guys.
Have a good one.
Ian Mendez from The Athletic
in Ottawa and Utah,
I suppose,
on the Halford & Brough Show
on Sportsnet 650.
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It's sort of like industrial prog metal, but it's got enough techno in it to count for
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I knew what half those words meant.
Aggressive metal, industrial, you know.
Okay, never mind.
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That's all you got to know.
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I used to think it was prong rock, not prog rock.
Come on.
I didn't realize.
What?
I thought it was prong rock.
Like they had a bunch of salad prongs on stage and just hanging them together?
It was like an instrumental accoutrement.
Oh, they're about to do the prong right now.
Oh, they're going to do the prongs.
I didn't realize.
That's something I love.
Progressive rock.
I love it.
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So, Orfi, what are you waiting for?
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Our next guest is proof that you can guilt people
into coming onto your radio show.
Dan Murphy, Canucks host on Sportsnet,
joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.
What up, Murph?
What's going on, fellas?
Yeah, there was no
progressive metal
at the gym today.
It was more,
I went back to the early 2000s
with some Screamo.
Andy would know what that is.
Nice.
Like, emo turns into Screamo.
That's what my band was like.
You guys were Screamo?
Silverstein.
Ah, Silverstein.
Hawthorne Heights.
Nice.
You know?
So, that's what I was
rocking with.
Noel X on fire?
Noel, yeah, a couple songs were in there. Bullets Frogs, that's what I was rocking with. No Alexa on fire? No,
a couple songs
were in there.
Bald Frogs,
that's a great tune.
Oh,
great song.
I like Metallica.
You've lost both,
you've lost both the hosts.
Before we get started,
can I say something
on Luke Gassick?
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah,
and don't worry,
no,
don't worry,
it's like,
listen,
as someone who gets
a little bit online hate,
not a lot,
but usually
from, you know, opposing fan bases, you know, suggesting I perform lewd acts on players, etc.
I learned to not snap back.
But I'm sure Luke didn't mean to say what he said about the organization.
He probably had in mind what he wanted to say about the fans or the online trolls.
And it just came spewing out. But yeah, I mean, the people that get online and, you know, tell
yourself, you know, tell you to kill yourself or suggest all these horrible acts against your
family. I mean, come on, people, like, let's rise above it. It's a, it's a sport. Luke can be biased
in the team he cheers for as long as he gives an unbiased opinion when he's doing the games. That's all that matters.
I think we all realize
Kevin BX is biased towards the Canucks,
but he's going to call out
the Canucks when something goes wrong.
I think we should lay off Luke.
He's a good guy. He said one wrong thing.
Please don't go on and attack
him or his family. That's just garbage.
Anyway, that's my rant.
Yeah.
We said something similar yesterday.
I think the challenge for media and the players is you can,
or any public figure for that matter,
you can say how wrong it is to say those things,
but it's not going to go away.
It won't.
It's not going to go away.
So you can either accept that in your job,
that sort of stuff is going to happen.
You can, it doesn't mean it's never going to bother you.
Like it's going to bother you with some of the things that are said,
but you kind of, if,
if you just accept that there's nothing you can do about it,
it almost makes it easier.
It just is funny.
It always comes from, you know, someone with like, I'm proud father of three girls, you know, you know, it almost makes it easier. It's just as funny. It always comes from someone with a proud father of three girls.
I know.
Anyway.
I know.
It's like those lucky girls.
They're going to have a great day.
Yeah, they're going to have a great day.
Murph, how was your golf round with JT Miller and Nikita Zdorov?
And we can ask you about it because you made it public.
Yeah, no, it was fun.
I mean, Capilano, we got a little bit of rain in there. Jeff Williams is my buddy. He's a member up there. He was there. We call him the random fourth.
So he had us out and we got a little bit of rain, but it was still a beautiful
day and of course in good shape. JT Miller is
really a good player. He is, you know, I've played with
Nick Taylor and adam hadwin and
uh some of these guys and he is as long or longer than those guys are uh he is tour long he's a
really really good player and this is or if someone's been playing for about four years and
he can move it off the tee as well so uh you know it was a fun time to get out there and
slash it around and have a couple of beers.
You guys must have had some laughs out there.
Oh, yeah.
What kind of a round was it?
Were you chirping each other?
Was it like you playing with Shorty and Ferraro? Or did you not know each other well enough to get to that point?
No, no, no.
It started right away.
It literally started right away because JT had to give me four shots and jeff
four shots and the key to nine and i started three three and birdie birdie so right away they're on
us um and you cannot be thin-skinned uh out there um anything is uh is directed at you it's i imagine
it's just what it's like on the ice you i don't think anything was off limits and they they had to ask, you know, is this a safe space for us to go at you like this?
And I said, yeah, Jeff, it doesn't mind.
Can you publish the transcript?
I don't think I can do that.
I don't think I can do that.
But, yeah, that was a good time. Listen, I'm not going to betray any confidences with the time you had with Zdorov and Miller,
but is there anything you can say about Zdorov and his future wherever or somewhere else?
This is what I'll say.
They live in Florida in the offseason, and I don't know if the preference is to be down south, but he did say that his wife absolutely loves it here.
You know, the kids loved it here going to school.
He lives on the North Shore.
And he said the number obviously wants to make his money, but the number one thing for him, he wants to be in a winning environment.
And so he's not just going to take a big ticket because you know columbus had offered it to him so he is
looking for obviously a decent term and money uh but the number one thing on his list right now is
having a chance to win and so that uh coupled with his wife loving it here which is always a big
thing um i would say i wouldn't rule it out but again i mean what's
the price tag for a guy who's going to be playing behind hughes and carson soucy uh in all honesty
although i think we could say that this past year like the second and third pair were not
interchangeable but it was kind of like you know uh 2a and a 2b type of thing yeah so um yeah so
if they can figure out how to get to closer negotiations,
this would be more of a Dollywall topic, how far they're apart.
I think that he'd be more than agreeable to stay in Vancouver.
Speaking of Sportsnet, Stan Murphy here on the Halford & Brough Show
on Sportsnet 650.
Murph, now that you've had some time off and the season has been done for a while,
have you allowed yourself to do that sort of retrospective look
at the year that was and all the really good and cool things
that happened to the organization that you were along for?
You were along for the entire ride,
and you were along for the previous rides,
which were much rockier and much bumpier.
This was a good year.
Have you allowed yourself the time to kind of sit back
and take it all in and reflect?
Yeah, I mean, it was fun, right?
I mean, I was conditioned by the past decade,
like I was like anybody else, that when things kind of went a bit sideways,
I expected it to just go in the trash.
It never did.
You know, until the end of the season, I was like,
okay, so maybe this isn't the same old, same old.
You know, it's disappointing the way it ended.
You know, I would say probably these guys were going to the summer
thinking about, you know, game four and game six more than any but this was a successful season by you know
any way you look at it like I far exceeded expectations you know they make it the second
round and and they could have beaten Edmonton although I do think Edmonton was a better team
in that round I don't think you can deny that.
So, yeah, I mean, it was fun to be talking about more wins than losses
because it's been a while.
And, you know, on the panels and stuff,
teams losing early and often,
you're stuck talking big-picture stuff right away.
And talking big-picture in November is never a fun idea.
So it was much more enjoyable to cover a team like this year
as compared to last year.
God, it was so fun to break down games.
Like, how do you think this game is going to go
as opposed to, like, who cares?
Should the Canucks tank or retool?
Exactly.
When do you think the moves might start occurring?
Because we were trying to figure out the timing of the Heronix situation.
Do they need to get some finality on that before July 1st,
or could they feasibly let that linger into July and August?
I don't get the sense this management group is one that's going to procrastinate
or put things off.
I think they probably have a plan
set out they've got a checklist and you go in the order of what you want to do things
and if one domino doesn't fall you move on to the next um so i would think these are things
they're trying to get done right now and i mean these guys have a ton of work i mean they did a
lot of work before last season and you could argue they have more this year, right? I mean, some big-time UFAs,
Inzadorov and Joshua,
a big-time RFA and Hronik.
What's going to happen here? Lindholm?
Can they try to make that work?
I'm not sure.
The whole penalty kill is gone
if none of these guys are resigned so you know i think
that they've probably uh you know have an extensive plan already and they're going about
trying to execute it i mean i remember mcintyre saying like before the playoffs that they were
trying to get guys done then but once it got close to the playoffs they stopped you know they said
we're not gonna we're gonna put these on the back burner i have to assume as soon as the playoffs
ended it was front burner again and they're trying to're not going to put these on the back burner. I have to assume that as soon as the playoffs ended, it was
front burner again, and they're trying to figure out
how to put all the pieces together.
It's going to be very interesting to see what
this lineup looks like
at the start of next season, because it's going to be vastly different
from the one we saw in game number seven.
Is there something to be said for a vastly
different lineup?
I've kind of
grown into the whole like you need to have
constant change even if it's significant and you know and i think sometimes teams just focus
too much on trying to keep everything together and they're unwilling to take the risk to make
some changes and you know you don't know where things are going to lead. You don't know who's going to show up and play, you know, better to his potential.
I think that they came, you know, who were not key players on their team,
come together and they create this great team.
Now it's a risk to make changes, but I think it's almost a bigger risk not to make changes.
Yeah, and I think one of the biggest examples here was, you know,
how many of us
were carving the Horvat trade
and then spending the first
and the second to get a Rona.
I was.
Well, we can still carve it
if it turns out badly
because the risk of the Rona...
I know what you're saying.
I know what you're saying.
I mean, Murph,
you and I both wanted
to trade JT Miller.
Like, did you tell him that
on the golf course?
He was like,
you know what?
I wish you weren't here. I we, you said like, did you tell him that on the golf course? He was like, you know what? I wish you weren't here.
I'm sure you're.
So,
yeah.
So,
I mean,
that's,
that's just a big indication
of it,
right?
Like you,
you sometimes you have
to make these bold moves
and hey,
listen,
Bo Horvat was not the problem.
He was one of our,
you know,
top scorers who are great
on the power play captain,
but sometimes changes
needed to move forward
to,
to,
you know,
shore up the other positions
that you need to make yourself a more complete hockey team. Um, and you know,
the other thing we can say is that after last summer, I think there's gotta be some faith in
this management group to be able to do it again, right. To, to go out and locate the guys that
can fill in these spots. And, you know, I don't know what the change in direction was to the scouting staff,
because I don't think there was much turnover with the actual staff,
but what they sent them out to look for has to be different because after,
you know,
a number of years where there were not many hits in terms of free agent
signings and trades,
there haven't been many misses since this group took over. So, you know,
if there is going to be a lot of change,
I think Canucks fans probably have a little
bit of faith that
Alvin and Rutherford
are the guys to go
out and find
maybe like the next
Joshua.
Who knows?
Murph,
this is great, man.
Thanks for taking the
time to do it.
We really appreciate it.
Enjoy the rest of the
offseason,
all the golf and all
that stuff.
Maybe we'll do this
again when we further
guilt you into coming
onto our show.
Next time you get an
invite to cap,
feel free to text me
about that. All right. Talk to you guys in September. See you into coming onto our show. Next time you get an invite to cap, feel free to text me about that.
All right.
Talk to you guys in September.
See you.
See you, buddy.
Dan Murphy here on the Halford & Brough Show
on Sportsnet 650.
Yeah, Murph is like,
I'm not going to say anything more
that might get me in trouble.
I said yesterday,
because Murph was listening to the show
and he texted you during the show.
I said, Dan Murphy, longtime listener of the show who refuses steadfastly to appear on it.
So I think he did us a solid there.
So thank you to Murph.
You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.