Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Bruins Got Blankinend

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk a big Canucks road win over the Bruins (6:00), plus they chat the latest hockey stories with Sportsnet's David Amber (27:50). 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.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough. Now to Hughes on the line, long shot, deflected, rebound, they score! Jake DeBrusque, the former Bruin, knocks it home on the backhand in the crease, and the Canucks take a 1-0 lead. A2 games are not going to have pretty wins, so we'll get out of here and take it. I don't know what happened. I might have lost my balance by the absurdity of the call, or maybe I tripped.

That might have been the shrooms talking. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Alfred. It is Ralph. It is 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. Laddie, good morning to you.. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. Intern Spencer, good morning to you as well.

Good morning. Halford and Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

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One of those very cool back-to-back games in the NHL kind of days where we get to talk about last night's game. A big win for the Vancouver Canucks over the Boston Bruins. And then we get to talk about tonight's game as well. Canucks are back in action tonight. 4.30. Nope, the start time. 4.30 in Pittsburgh against the lowly Pittsburgh Penguins.

Pre-game, post-game, and the actual game all right here on Sportsnet 650. Our guest list today, I'll run through it real quick. 6.30, David Amber is going to join the program. 7 o'clock, Frank Cerevelli. 7.30, Vancouver Giants head coach Manny Viveros. And then 8 o'clock, Randy Bjanda, who's doing double duty as well. On the call last night. On the call again tonight.

We have a lot to get into. There's a lot of Canucks talk. There's a lot of hockey talk in general. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was...

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Jake DeBrusque scored in his return to Boston. Connor Garland had a goal and an assist. But Kevin Lankanen, he did the blankanen. His teammates should be thanking him. 32 saves, his second shutout of the year. You like that, admit it, laddie. 2-0 win for the Vancouver Canucks in Boston on Tuesday night.

Yeah, it wasn't the prettiest game, but a win is a win. And every once in a while, you're just not going to have it offensively. The Canucks still found a way to grind their way to a win. And now they won a ridiculous eight straight on the road. The Canucks blocked 26 shots on the night with 32 getting through to Lankanen, who was the star of the game. Let's hear now right away from head coach Rick Togby.

Jason, you're wrong. He's not just the first star of the game. Rick said he was the first, the second, just the first star of the game. Rick said he was the first, the second, and the third stars of the game. Here's Rick Talkett after a 2-0 win in Boston on Tuesday night. Well, it's definitely top. I mean, he was, you know, first, second, third star.

Like, he was very good tonight. Saw the puck extremely well. They made a couple of nice, where they were, they think they were going to shoot it. They were going to shoot it, and he went back, you know, the cross ice, and he just read it. That's when you know their goal is on tonight. So he made a couple of those saves.

They're tough saves he made tonight, really tough. So Lankanen has bounced back really nicely after, I would say, a couple of so-so performances against the New York Islanders and the Nashville Predators. The New York Islanders one was the one I was like, oh, he's getting tired and he's kind of losing his focus a little bit. Nashville wasn't great either, but yeah, the Islanders. No, but the Islanders were on, remember the third period?

The pucks were getting through him. It was just like, it was an ugly night overall for the team, but that did include him. He bounces back, gets the win in Ottawa. The Sens scored a couple ones late on the power play and I guess with the man in the, or with the goal he pulled. But the Bruins game, you know, wasn't his first shutout of the season because he also shut out Philly

earlier in the season in Philly. But I think that was his most impressive game he wasn't game as a Canuck he wasn't the first second and third stars in Philadelphia but I mean one of the reasons he was the you know according to the head coach he was the first second and third stars uh last night is because nobody else did much of anything no right like Garland was good DeBrusque did his thing, but it was a Lankan show last night. They didn't play very well.

I mean, I guess you would credit the Canucks for blocking 26 shots on the night. That's not typically how you want to play, but every once in a while, look, you're not going to have it. You're not going to have your legs. And the other team is going to be playing motivated hockey,

and the Bruins right now are playing motivated hockey, and they are right now are playing motivated hockey and they are playing on a specific way under their new head coach Joe Sacco and they're getting back to I guess the Bruins identity of locking down games and being really good defensively and the Canucks probably knew that they probably watched the games that Joe Sacco had coached. It was a one-nothing win over Utah and a 2-1 win over Detroit. And they probably figured, listen, if we can get a goal or two, we had a chance to get a point or get a win in these games. So let's be really responsible defensively. Let's keep the Bruins as much as we can to the outside.

Let's block a bunch of shots, 26 shots. Julson had four block shots. Myers, Soucy, they had four blocks each. Hughes didn't have any. Not a team player, that guy. Selfish. Selfish. Selfish. He thinks you're bigger than getting in front of a shot, Quinn Hughes.

Again, the Canucks may not be thrilled with everything that happened last night. And frankly, maybe they even got a little lucky with some bounces. But, you know, we talked about this yesterday. That's exactly the type of game we predicted it would be. The Bruins can't score. No. They can't. And they were maybe a little unlucky that they didn't score a few last night, but if you watched them play, you'd be like, wow,

who are their scorers there? You know, Pasternak had some chances, I guess, but it wasn't like a crazy amount of chances. I did not notice Justin Brazow that much, their third-team scorer. You know, again, I think they probably went into that game and said if we keep things tight and we get good goaltending from Lankanen,

which we did, and if we can find a goal or two, we can win the game, and that's exactly what happened. The power play came through for them when former Bruin Jake DeBrusque hopped on a loose puck that had deflected off a garland from a Quinn Hughes point shot wasn't pretty but it's the kind of goal you can score when you just go ah screw all this passing it around on the perimeter let's

just put the puck on net and go to the front of it I actually think that's um that's the main strategy of the Canucks power play these days. I don't hate it. You know, pass it around a bit on the outside. Give it to Quinn. Waste a bit of time. Half-heartedly look for a Petey one-timer. And Petey's usually not even ready for it.

He's like, don't give it to me. I'm not going to shoot this thing. And then Hughes just, like, throws his hands up in the air, does some tap dancing at the point and wrists one in. And, you know, once in a while it'll bounce tap dancing at the point and wrists one in. And once in a while, it'll bounce around. Sometimes it'll just go straight in. Once in a while, it'll bounce around in front of the net, and then someone will bounce on it, and it's a goal.

If I was Yogi and I was coaching the power play, my philosophy would be Quinn should have the puck, and then when Quinn doesn't have the puck, the question should be when do we get it to him? And the answer should be quickly. It works. It worked yesterday. It was all right. They actually had the puck for a while before he finally flung one on net,

but nothing was presenting itself. I didn't hate that power play, actually. No, they had the puck for a while. Yeah, I saw the context of the game, and it was like, they're looking for something here because I think one goal might win this game. It was a super low event. Like, let's make no mistake. You could tell right off the bat it was going to be a very low scoring game.

Boring. It was boring. Oh, man. I was struggling. Look, it was exciting in the end when... Yeah, it got a bit better. It was exciting in the end when you're like, okay, are they actually going to hold on?

You know, the third period was a bit of holding your breath, wondering if the Bruins were finally going to break through. But yeah, the first two periods was a snooze fest. Sometimes at the beginning of the game, you can get a real sense of what the game is going to be like. Neither team had a single shot on goal until David Pasternak

unleashed the one-timer at seven-minute mark of the first period. Like that's that was the game in a nutshell. It was going to be really low event back to the power play, though. I didn't I could I almost felt like I knew what they what the mood of that extra man unit was. And it was, hey, this is a probably critical moment in the game for us.

There's not a lot of penalties being called. We're probably not going to get a lot of looks on the power play, and there's not going to be a lot of goals. So let's make sure we get something at the net here and not try the Pedersen one-timer off the edge or whatever. Now, I'll say this. Did you notice after Jake DeBrus scored, his muted celebration? Yeah.

That was a guy that had thought about scoring against his old team, and he made up his mind prior to that it was going to be a very muted celebration. If I was DeBrusque, I would have done the most elaborate goal celebration ever. I think they had just had a video welcoming him back, and then he scored. It's a very soccer thing to do, by the way. There's a big article in The Athletic talking about the complicated etiquette of celebrating against your former club. A lot of guys just really make a point of not celebrating at all.

Right. I don't like that. You should go out. Do the gritty. Come on. Embarrass them. I don't think DeBrus gets it. And embarrass yourself in the process.

Yes, Andy. We should all be embarrassing everyone. I get it. DeBrus didn't have any ill will towards the bruins it didn't seem like oh no no he played there for over 400 games he left in free agency that's fine right so he went back and it was a very muted celebration also ended up being the game-winning goal so i think that maybe he even understood it's like it's a big goal yes and it's important but he kept it under wraps um i think it's going to be a very different type of game tonight in Pittsburgh

against the Penguins because I think even if the Penguins did want to lock it down, like the Bruins, I don't know. They know how. Completely incapable of doing it. This team is, and again, we hope we're not jinxing this, but the Penguins are the worst defensive team in the NHL. And whether you want to argue about if it's goaltending, if it's the players in front of the goalies, if it's Mike Sullivan's system, whatever, doesn't matter. They allow a lot of goals and it's going to be,

I think, a much easier game for the Pedersen line, which got absolutely dominated last night in Boston. Yeah, I know DeBrusque scored, but that was on the power play. At five on five, they were pinned. And I think they went up against the Lindholm line. And the Lindholm line obviously didn't score because it was a shutout, but territorial at least. DeBrusque, Pedersen, and Sherwood had their worst game together.

Sherwood didn't even get his requisite 10 hits on the night. I was just asking these guys back here, did you guys notice Lindholm and Zdorov at all? I noticed Zdorov was trying to make some big things happen. He nearly clobbered Arch Steve Baines in the first period. Lindholm was pretty solid. He's never flashy, though. No, I know.

He's not the kind of guy you really stand out. He was pretty solid. He got robbed by Lankanen at one point, didn't he? Yeah. What a nice save that he made. The thing that struck me with Lindholm when he first came over to Vancouver was he doesn't play fast. He's not a fast player.

He's super strong. He was very good in the playoffs. He's hard on the puck. He has a stiff stick. Yeah, he's a good net front, I thought. He's a big, strong guy, and he's good positionally. And he's good positionally in a lot of ways because he doesn't skate that fast. He has to be, right? He just has to be in the right spots, and he's good positionally and he's good positionally in a lot of ways because he doesn't skate that fast. He has to be.

He just has to be in the right spots and he usually is. And if you run into him, he's probably going to take the puck off of you. He, to me, was a guy whose game was much more useful, advantageous, in tune with playoff hockey. Also,

he was miscast right from the get in Boston as a 1C. On a good team he's a 2c and on a great team he's a 3c which is ideally what you want because it doesn't produce the points enough he's a maybe 50 to 60 point guy yeah i know he got up into the 80s with calgary but he was also playing alongside johnny gadreau and matthew kachuk so that helped right in boston right now the way that they're playing right now probably fits his style of play even better, where he can go out and play the minutes that he's playing,

gain, as you mentioned, a territorial advantage, but not be counted upon to try and score 30 goals and end up with 80 or 90 points, because it's not going to happen. I like this text from Wes from Nanaimo. And you can text into the Dunbar L Lumber text line at 650-650. Wes says, how long have you guys been Canucks fans for? I've been watching this team as a diehard fan for over 30 years.

Feels like you guys have been watching longer. Don't we all know that the games like they play tonight are the ones they lose? Tonight will be the game that Crosby scores a hat-trick and the Penguins start a 10-game streak. I've been watching since the beginning. Start a 10-game streak, right. I've been watching since the Vancouver Millionaires. I don't know about you guys. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's going to be...

They should be the favorites in the game because, listen, Pittsburgh, I'm telling you, is bad. This is a team that has really lost its way. They're slow. They're not good defensively. And you keep thinking, like, well, they turn around. They've got all this Hall of Fame talent.

The Hall of Fame talent isn't what it used to be. But it won't be easy because the Canucks played last night in Boston. And whether this is fair or not, I know where you're going. Presumably Seelov's gets the start tonight. So that's, that's a wild card. Let's put it a nice way. It's a wild card. His last outing allowed, it wasn't horrible, but he allowed four goals on 33 shots and a 4-3 loss to the Rangers. His overall save percentage is 8-57 and his only win came over Chicago. And we've gone over many times on this show

that Chicago can't score. And Conor Bedard isn't even getting shots on goal. And whether you want to blame Bedard or you want to blame the terrible team that he's surrounded with, they're not a good offensive team. That's

his only win of the season. So it's a wild card tonight. I mean, in his starts, he's basically a minimum of three goals a game guy. He gave up six to Calgary in the opener, then it was three to the Lightning and that was a 4-1 loss because there was an empty netter. There was another six to New Jersey. As Lightning, and that was a 4-1 loss because there was an empty netter. There was another 6-0 to New Jersey.

As you mentioned, there was a decent game against Chicago in there, and then there was another four goals against the Rangers. So it's a wild card in the sense that you don't know what you're going to get except that you can kind of anticipate that there's going to be some goals surrendered. Now, the interesting thing here is that for now, at least for tonight, the Canucks only have a choice of two goalies, Kevin Lankanen or Artur Silovs. But soon, soon, it will be a third.

Can we pull up the audio from Patrick Alvin yesterday before we play the talk and audio? Patrick Alvin was on with the intermission with Murph yesterday talking about a variety of things with the team, including Thatcher Demko. And it was the first kind of time that we actually got some semblance of a timeline, importantly, from a front office member, not some sort of media speculation.

So Patrick Alvin was discussing JT Miller, which we can get to in a sec. And then, of course, it was about Thatcher Demko. When might he return to the lineup and how his progression from injury, returning from injury, is going. Here is Canucks General Manager Patrick Alvien on with Murph yesterday in the first intermission of that aforementioned win against the Boston Bruins. I think he feels that he needs a couple more reps here to get into the rhythm. Tough when we don't have many practices here, playing a lot of games.

So we're just going to be patient. I mean, he's been working so hard and, again, showing how committed it is to come back to play for the Canucks and play for his teammates. I don't envision that far away. He looks good to me in practice. So good on IMAC, who's traveling with the team right now.

He decided to ask Rick Tockett, especially after last night's game where Kevin Lankanen posted a 32-save shutout. When Thatcher Demko returns and he's healthy, is Lankanen still going to be playing a bunch? Might he retain this lion's share of starts? Rick Tockett maybe caught off guard by this one. Here's the question and answer

after last night's game against the Bruins. You're growing attention on when Thatcher is going to get back. With what you've seen from Kevin Lankan in these 20 games, is he going to be part of the conversation, no matter what, from here on in? Well, I mean, what's presented in front of you, I mean, he's playing very well. I mean, he's presented in front of you, he's playing very well. I mean, he's been great for us, so he's going to continue to play for us.

I mean, I don't know how to answer that in the sense that he's not going to sit at the bench. Okay. Just answering that. Okay. I mean, I'm not set by the bench. No, he's been terrific. And like I said, he lives for the moment, you know, game to game, which that's what I love about him.

Rick, does the name Wally Pip mean anything to you? So are we all kind of targeting December 6th, Friday, December 6th, at home against Columbus for Demko's start? I know we're not. Old midweek Columbus game. No, it's Friday night. I've heard Lankanen has Taylor Swift tickets, so he's actually not available for that game. So Demko's going to have to start that game.

That makes sense. Yeah. By the way, that is going to be wild downtown. I just realized they're playing a home game that night. If you're going to that game, because I have a feeling that it's going to be more than just the people going to the Taylor Swift concert.

I feel like there's going to be people down there just to be down there. At least 10 Canucks won't be in the lineup that night. They'll be going to the... Taking the Sky Train to Vibe Central. Like, that's... No, but don't you think, like, you know, we've been...

I've been to games when there's either a Lions game or even a big concert at BC Place and a Canucks game. Yeah, it's very busy. And it's busy, but I feel like this is going to be even crazier because I think there's going to be a lot of people that are downtown for these concerts that just want to hear the concert while it's going on,

even though they can't get in. I know it's been a problem. I know in Toronto, they actually had the security setting for Taylor Swift. You couldn't just hang around the stadium close by. And in other places, there's a word for it. It's like Swift gating or something like that. It's something weird where people will, they just want to be part of it.

They don't have tickets, but they want to hear it. They're like, I can hear her. And, you know, BC places like that. If you can hear what's going on. There's tickets to the gate. It's called Taygating. Swift gating? Taygating?

Thank you for the real Swifty weighing in. There's tickets to the concert. There's tickets to the concert they're selling where you're behind the stage. You can't even see her. And they're selling for $2,300. They should do like a watch party outside of the concert downtown. Invite everyone. Well, yeah, but there will be restaurants that host that sort of thing or bars that host that sort of thing. That's why I'm saying it's going to be wilder than normal.

Feels like a Demko night. Feels like a Demko night, right? Yeah. And I'm prepared for anything with Demko. And thank God Lankanen is around because I would hate this to be a scenario where it's like, thank God he's finally back. Oh my God, the goaltending has been so bad.

We need you back so badly buddy okay starting tonight be amazing because i don't know if it's necessarily going to work like that just because not only the injury the rust yeah and the lack of the lack i didn't get any preseason games. He didn't get a training camp. He's just working his way back in. And it's like, all right, go. All it would take is one soft goal for people to be like, uh-oh. He's not ready yet. I get that.

And I think that's why IMAC sort of asked the question. I think it's why it's a valid conversation. Lankanen is easily a top 10 goalie in the NHL this season. I think you could maybe stretch it out if you want to look at some of the advanced analytics and say he might even be in the top five. He's got the two shutouts. I think the league leader is Hellebuck, who's got three.

The same percentage dipped because of those aforementioned games against Nashville and the Islanders, but he's still at a 9.09. He's top five in wins, which is the most important stat for all goalies. Actually, if you go to Moneypuck, goals saved above expected,

he's right there. Yeah. No, no, he's average. Yeah, but in terms of the metrics... He's not a top 10 goalie. In terms of the metrics that I'm throwing out, you could make the argument that he's in that conversation, right? Like you said, 9-0-9, safe.

I still think the Canucks are a pretty good defensive team, though. They are. Last night was a... You know, it's funny because I think a lot of people were sort of down on last night's performance, in large part because the ice was so tilted and it wasn't a banner offensive night from the Canucks. I thought the shot blocking was good.

I also thought, and it's funny, when we talk about Vanni Sartini getting sacked yesterday on the show, and he had that quote that, you know, when you're not at your best, you have to find a way when you're maybe close to your worst. And you need to win games like this. Not be fortunate that you won games like this. I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying here, people at home. You need to be able to win games like this. Good teams can go out and won games like this i think you're misunderstanding what i'm saying here people at home you need to be able to win games like this good teams yeah can go out and win

games like this bad teams go out and put up a dud offensively and don't get anything out of it well you don't want to have regular games where you're getting outplayed like the canucks did last night in boston i mean that's how it felt to watch the Canucks, what, five years ago? Yeah. I was like, oh, God, it's one of these again. And I remember the Canucks had a start to the season where they were winning a bunch of games like that. And, you know, Tanev and Edler were still there, and they were gamely blocking shots. And it was one of those things where you're like, wow, good for those guys,

blocking shots like that and sacrificing, but this doesn't look good. This is not trending in the right direction. But the Canucks haven't had a bunch of games like that. That's not the type of team they are. And if you do find yourself in a game like that, it's nice to know that you have the ability

to win them. Yeah, it's a versatility thing, right? You've got to be able to win games different ways when you're playing 82 of them during a regular season. Yeah, it's a versatility thing, right? You've got to be able to win games different ways when you're playing 82 of them during a regular season. And if it's a combination of, well, our guys are going to get in front of a lot of pucks and so too is our goalie, you give it a clap, you give them a round of applause, you say it wasn't a great night tonight, but thankfully we've got a less daunting opponent tonight.

Amazingly, I'm saying that about a team that has Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin. We've got to get going here, but Austin and Langley text in, if Lankanen keeps playing like this, when do we look at extending him? If Lankanen keeps playing like this, the Canucks won't be able to afford him. Because Lankanen, don't forget,

didn't sign with the team until he signed with the Canucks because he thought he deserved more money. And ultimately, the Canucks won the game of checking with him, and they signed him to a very low contract. And Lankanen, I think, unless he's had a complete change of strategy, I think he's going to be like, no, I'm getting paid now.

Big raise for you, Kevin. $900,000. $875,000. Exactly. I don't think they're going to be able to afford him. For you, Kevin, $900,000. Yeah. $875,000. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I don't think they're going to be able to afford him. He also, I mean, this has worked out great for him, though. I mean, this situation, very unique, where you get to join a good hockey team with the number one goalie out for an extended period of time. I mean, Lankanen could have gone to a lousy team and might have been ventilated

and wouldn't have been able to show and put up the numbers that he's put up. I mean, he's going to be competing. I wouldn't even say for a backup job somewhere. Someone's going to look at it and say, like, we have to consider this guy as a 1B, maybe a 1A, maybe a full-fledged starter. But you're right. The payday is going to be the big thing. And Artis Silov, if he's able to go down to Abbotsford

and continue to work on his game and not face the pressures of being on an NHL roster night after night after night, maybe his game grows and goes to another level where you're comfortable with him as a backup. David Ember is going to join us

next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post-game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.33 on a Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service has a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet, NHL host,

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To the phone lines we go. David Amber joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, David. How are you? Doing well. How are you guys doing? We're well. What did you think of the Kevin Lankanen show last night in Boston? Impressive. Impressive indeed. I mean, what a run it's been on the road for the Canucks this year. We really liked watching the game last night, liking

what the defense was doing in front of them. I mean, he had to make some big saves and certainly was the star of the game, but guys were sacrificing and doing the things you've got to do to win games, especially tight games on the road like that. So, by all accounts, an impressive win. I really can't wait to see what the Canucks look like when Demko's healthy. I mean, Lankanen and the goaltending hasn't been an issue, but I just can't wait until we have the full complement of players

and JT Miller and get the whole crew and get the band back together and see what the Canucks can do this year. We probably haven't made enough, actually, in the intro of the show. We were talking a lot about Lankanen, but he does become the fifth goalie in NHL history to begin a season 8-0-0 on the road. It's funny because we've seen so many games, Jason and I especially, been to a couple games at home already,

seeing the performances at home have not been great. The road record, borderline sterling. And now they get another shot to do it tonight in Pittsburgh in what is a very busy night, David. 15 games across the NHL, so I'm going to run through the Canadian games tonight as you guys have a very busy night on Wednesday Night Hockey. You got

Calgary and Detroit, Toronto and Florida, which is going to be the signature game tonight across the Sportsnet networks. Vancouver and Pittsburgh, Montreal and Columbus, Winnipeg and LA, and then finally the nightcap, Ottawa and San Jose. So you've got a busy night ahead of yourself here. Yeah, what a weird schedule. And we always

find this, I guess, U.S. Thanksgiving being tomorrow. There's not a single game tomorrow, but there's 30 teams playing tonight. There was barely any games last night. It's just a strange week as far as scheduling goes. But tonight's going to be fun. You see all this Canadian action.

Yeah, Toronto-Florida is our marquee game. It looks like Austin Matthews could be drawing back in. They've been great without them. It's kind of like this whole run the Canucks have been on without some of their good players. But they've been 7-1 without Austin Matthews. They've played a really locked-down, defensive-style game. It's been low-event hockey. It's not

been the run-and-gun, typical Leafs 6-5 shootout type games. It's just been really, at times, just really running in mud for both teams, which is exactly what Craig Berube wants, getting into that sort of habits, the playoff habits

where you can grind out wins. They've been quite good at that at least this year, and they're getting amazing goaltending, just like Lankanen was stellar last night. I mean, Stolarz, there's a lot of people saying, I wonder if he's working his way into strong consideration for the Four Nations face-off U.S. team. Certainly if he were holding a Canadian passport,

I'd say he'd be a no-doubter. But that would be quite a storyline too if somehow he supplants you know conceivably Jeremy Swayman and becomes that third goaltender for the U.S. so uh yeah that'll be interesting Florida's been reeling of late guys they've lost four in a row but you know they're the Florida Panthers no one's taken them lightly so that's one matchup and you again, we get to see the Canucks go back to back. And this is one of those games I'm sure Rick Tockett has penciled, like, let's not sleep on this. We know the Penguins are last in their division.

They've been struggling. But, you know, they've been sitting at home waiting for us. And we played last night. Let's not have any sort of lapse because it's not a situation where you want to give up two points in a, you know, very winnable situation you have in pit yeah sadly i do have to admit that the leafs look pretty good under craig berube i don't care for it but i have bought into berube's system uh the defense is holding up the goaltending looks good so our Leafs fans starting to talk themselves into this team and going, maybe it'll be different this year?

I laugh only because I was on Matt Marchese's show with Mike Futa yesterday, and Marchese said, yeah, my dad called me and said, you know, you're still looking pretty good. I just started laughing because, I mean, fool me once, right? Fool me 60 times, then shame on me, I guess. But, yeah, listen, the Leafs do look better. They bulked up their blue line.

Chris Tanev, OEL, two former Canucks, you know, they've really helped their blue line with those guys. And the goaltending's been really good. They've gone from 25th in save percentage a year ago to third or something. I think third or second. They're right there. It's made a massive difference. It's not just the goaltending's better, but they're just giving up less quality chances and allowing themselves to live another day. When you have Marner and Nylander

and a healthy Austin Matthews, you have enough guys who can score some goals. You don't have to be in a track meet and giving up chances. You can wait and be opportunistic. And these guys are skilled enough and creative enough that they will find ways to get goals and get scoring opportunities. So, you know, that's something I think that Craig Berube has drummed into this group and it looks like they're buying into it and they're playing a certain brand of hockey that is, you know, been successful. But again, it's November. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. But yeah, the early returns have been great and at least look good. What is the consensus on Mitch Marner's future? Because 28 points in 21 games,

playing a lot, he's playing well over 20 minutes per game. Obviously, a very important part of this team who is also a pending UFA, who is probably going to look at how much money Austin Matthews makes and William Nylander makes and is probably going to look at how much money Austin Matthews makes and William Nylander makes and one's probably going to be like, yeah, I want just as much as those guys. Yeah, I mean

that's been a bit of the conversation here. You know, again, I've said this before, Brad Trey Living has time and he should use time to his advantage. You know, Mitch Marner, especially in his last eight games without Austin Matthews, seven of those eight games,

he's had multiple points. I mean, he has carried this team. He has shown himself to be an elite player. But the knock on him, as it's been with this whole core group, is, okay, when it matters most, where is that offense?

I mean, if you really want to dig in, guys, if you really want to take a closer look at the Leafs' troubles throughout this playoff run with this core, it doesn't come down to goaltending. It doesn't come down to defense. It comes down to scoring goals. In the elimination games the Leafs have faced in the last six or seven years, go through it, Game 7 last year versus Boston,

they scored one goal, and that game went into overtime when they got eliminated by montreal i believe they scored one goal in that game seven uh columbus when it was the the the bubble the elimination game five they scored i think i think they got shut out bottom line is you see the point i'm making uh all this great offense that m Barner and Matthews and everyone provides, if it's not there when it matters most, why break the bank for these guys? And I think if I'm Brad Trey Living, you

have a guy who wants to be there in Mitch Barner. You want him to stay here because he's an elite, elite player, but I don't think the impetus is on you to have to pay that money right now in November to lock him down. Is it possible they wait until after the playoffs? Well, I don't know.

I mean, then you run the risk, right? First of all, you run the risk. And we've seen that in other situations. You don't necessarily want that to be the case. But I think you definitely can't negotiate feeling like there's a gun at your head to to just pay this man whatever he wants because he's doing so well in november like to me i just think you have to take a much more measured approach and use the time to your advantage we're speaking to david amber hockey night canada sports net nhl host

here on the halford and brough show on sports net 650 i do want to once again zero in on the Winnipeg Jets, who are back in action tonight in Los Angeles against a slumping LA team. Again, running out of superlatives to throw at the Jets. They're 18-4-0. They do every single thing as a hockey team that you need to do well. They do it well. They have a great home record. They're 9-1.

They're unreal on the road. They're 9-3. They're plus 37 goal differential right now. Their offense is amazing. They've got 89 goals scored, which actually isn't the tops in the NHL, but it's top three. The 52 goals against. And it's funny because even when they have an off night like they did

the other night when they beat Minnesota, you remember you're like, oh, yeah, you got to try and beat Connor Hellebuck and Nett, who's just been fantastic as well this year. They're such a talented and well-rounded team. I'm going to try and pay close attention to that one tonight in L.A., in part because the Kings are sputtering a bit and have fallen behind the Canucks in the Pacific Division standings. Jets will look great, guys.

I mean, they're on pace for, remember Boston had that prolific historic year. They're basically on pace with what Boston did. I mean, there's obviously no expectation for them to keep this pace and to finish with 138 points or whatever it would be but um that's how good they've been to date and and you're right they show no weakness it's not like whoo Hellebuck has to make 40 saves every night certainly when they've called on him he's been sensational but the team in front of them, they have depth, they score, their special teams have been good.

You know, their power play has been through the roof. And they have chemistry, right? They have an identity. They will grind out wins when they have to, and they can roll up their sleeves and get creative on offense

and do a lot of different things as well. So it's been really impressive. The thing I'm most interested in guys and is seeing what Kevin shovel day off does, what he identifies as the needs last year, they got to Foley and Monahan. And I know they didn't, I know they didn't win their round against Colorado.

They lost, but, but he identified, you know, we need a bit more scoring depth. He added it and ultimately didn't work. But I want to know what he's going to do this year because obviously the team has shown, unlike our windows now,

we could win a championship this year, and they could. So I'm so interested to see what Shovel Day Off and that group does. And I think Scott Arneal deserves a lot of credit, too. He jumped into a tough spot. You know, Rick Bonas retires, and he had to kind of create his own identity, moving from assistant to head coach and how he would utilize the players and how he would gain their trust

and respect and everything else. And I think he's done that so incredibly quickly. And he's pulled the right strings, whether it's shifting his lines or knowing who to use when and where. And it's been really a well-oiled machine. You could argue, guys, we're, what, eight weeks into the season that the Jets are probably the best story of the year?

That's a pretty fair argument, isn't it? I mean, it's pretty interesting. I don't think many of us had us going into this season thinking the Jets would be the story the first eight weeks. I did not have the Jets at 18 and 4 after 22 games. I hope not have the Jets at 18 and 4 after 22 games. I hope not. David, I'm curious how closely people in Toronto are following Kyle Dubas' challenge with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Canucks are in Pittsburgh tonight to play the Penguins, and we're probably jinxing ourselves here, but the Penguins have a minus 34 goal differential in 23 games. They're the worst defensive team in the NHL. And I just don't know how they're going to improve that team over the next couple of years. Like I don't, I don't see it. They're almost to the point for me, they're almost entering San Jose territory when San Jose had all those formerly great players,

but older players locked up to long-term contracts. And it's just like, man, there's only one way out of this, and that is to shed some salary and start again. Yeah, honestly, I think you're right. I mean, we can't obviously put this all on Kyle Dubas. He adopted a lot of this. And once Fenway Sports, the ownership group, sort of said, continue on, we're not going to break up the band.

Let's see what happens here. And then they brought in Eric Carlson, which is an albatross right now as far as that contract is concerned. They are dedicated to trying getting back to the playoffs. But I mean, when you say I liken them almost to be San Jose, I mean, I think if you were to ask the 30 other GMs, not San Jose, not Pittsburgh, which lineup, which roster would you rather have moving forward? I think the large, large, large majority, and this isn't a knock, obviously, on Crosby

or Malkin or whoever, but you're going to take an 18 year old Macklin Celebrini in an entry-level deal over Carlson and and all these other guys Lateng who's injured and all these other guys at multi multi-million dollar deals who are past their prime so for the record I meant San Jose a few years ago before they had to do yeah oh yeah yeah yeah right we're good with Coach Herpovelsky and everything. Yeah, they just seem like they've hit the tipping point. And obviously what makes it such a greater spotlight, guys, is that Sidney Crosby, one of the greatest players of all time, is in the middle of this and still playing at an elite level. Like, I think he's going to be the captain.

I think it's a no-brainer that he's the captain for Four Nations face-off Canada's team. Like, some people are saying, oh, is it going to be McDavid? And I was like, I don't know how it couldn't be Sidney Crosby. You know, he's still playing at a very high level. This has to be incredibly frustrating for Sid to be going through this. You brought up a good point.

How do you tear it down? These are untradeable contracts from what I can tell. And unlike other teams, they don't have a ton of draft capital. You know, I just don't think a ton of draft capital. You know, I just don't think you can stack here some second round picks and take this contract off of me.

I just, it's going to be very difficult to do. This is going to have to be quite a magician. If they, if they suddenly say, let's turn this, like, let's,

let's start this from scratch. Let's break this down. I don't know how you get rid of some of those parts. I don't know how you move some of those contracts and you don't have a ton as far as a nucleus to build on. You just, you know, you tell me who the nucleus of the Pittsburgh Penguins is. And I don't mean Sidney Crosby and those guys. I mean like the young nucleus. I don't see it. So yeah, it could be,

there's going to be some pain ahead for the Pittsburgh Penguins and it's, it's tough to see. I don't think anyone feels bad for them. They won three Stanley Cups in this era of their players. But you certainly feel bad for Sidney Crosby if this is how he's going to close out his career over the next three or four years. The Pittsburgh Penguins will host the Vancouver Canucks tonight in Pittsburgh. It's one of 15 games and a bunch of Canadian teams in action.

As I mentioned, Calgary and Detroit, Florida taking on Toronto and Florida, Montreal and Columbus, Winnipeg and LA, and Ottawa in San Jose to end it all off. David, you got a busy night ahead of you. We'll let you go. Enjoy it all tonight.

It should be a lot of fun. We'll do this again next Wednesday. Yeah, thanks so much, guys. The next one day is going to be a big one. We're doing the reveal for Canada and U.S., the Olympic, not the Olympic teams, the Four Nations Faze. So there's going to be a lot of

Canucks fans, I'm sure, wanting to hear exactly what happens. JT Miller, Quinn Hughes and everyone else. So thanks so much and we'll talk soon. Thanks, David. Appreciate it. That's David Amber, Hockey Night Canada Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. If Sid gets traded or requests to trade,

and it's not Vancouver, and it's not Vancouver, would you want to go and see him have success? Yeah. But what if it comes at the risk of it potentially? He gets one year of success. No, no, no. He can do the re-bork. He can go to Colorado.

He can play with McKinnon. He can win to Colorado. He can play with McKinnon. He can win a cup. Well, what if Colorado knocks out the Canucks? That would be very unfortunate. The risk that you run? Maybe the risk is too much. Maybe I need to think about this more. I don't think he's getting traded.

You think he's just going to stay? I think he's just going to stay. Yeah. He just wants to retire as a guy that played his entire career for the Penguins, won three Stanley Cups, first ballot Hall of Famer. If there was a first ballot of first ballot Hall of Famers, he'd be on that first ballot as well. He'd be on the first ballot of the first ballot of the first ballot.

Come on, Sid. You want to leave. You want to leave. Did you see him fighting the other day? Yeah, he's frustrated. How embarrassing. How embarrassing. I know Kipper and Bourne were talking about this, and it really struck me. Did you see him fighting the other day? Yeah, he's frustrated. How embarrassing. How embarrassing.

I know Kipper and Bourne were talking about this, and it really struck me. How embarrassed would you be if the Penguins, if Sid is out there fighting? I just got frustrated. I was going to say, how embarrassing does it get beat up by Sidney Crosby? No, no, no.

No, that he's out there fighting. If you're on the Penguins, and you're losing so badly, and your captain is so frustrated that he's out there dropping the gloves, I think you'd be like, wow, I need to up my game. There was definitely a message being sent by Crosby. It's a shot across the bow of the Penguins. Didn't really respond to it at all because they got skunked. But maybe they just can't.

Maybe they're just so bad and so old and really just lacking quality depth that they, you know, like, we're trying. We just can't. It's like us trying to put together a good radio show. Like, we're trying our best. We just can't. God bless these guys. I don't like comparing Gurley to NHL,

but we've all been parts of those teams, right, Bruff, where it's like, we just don't have the horses to keep up with these guys. Like, there's nothing we can do to literally get ourselves back in the game. And keeping up, I think, i think is like the key phrase because you just look at some of those guys and they're old and their legs aren't what they used to be and you know eric carlson i've seen multiple times this season i think it was daniel sprung who just walked past him. And that has happened

to Carlson way too many times through the neutral zone. And, you know, some people are like, oh, you got to have a better effort than that. And maybe that's true. Maybe that's true. But Carlson has never been like this, you know, stiff defenseman that, that you know like you can't get past this guy right stalwart on the back right so when he starts to lose it and he loses a step like would you know that's what you get that's what you get you're gonna get a guy that's gonna get caught flat footed sometimes in the neutral zone or the defensive zone, and it's going to look like he doesn't have much effort because he's getting old. Well, the game that was here earlier in the season in which the Canucks staged that comeback

and had that big second period where they had all the rush goals against the Pittsburgh Penguins, that was one of the few games this year that I've watched where I've seen an NHL team visibly struggle with it when the speed of the game increased on them Pittsburgh just looked like they could not keep pace not with individual skaters but the game got fast the game kind of turned into a rush chance game and for some fleeting moments in that game it looked like Pittsburgh might be interested in trying to play it like hey we'll trade. And then it quickly became apparent that the game got too fast for them.

But the Canucks are trailing 2-0 in that game. That's what I'm saying. It's like the game tilted on them. Oh, yeah. No, I understand. We're not guaranteeing a Canucks win tonight. This is going to be still going to be a tough challenge. They played the night before in Boston.

Some of those guys might have had ice bags after all the shot blocking that they did. They're still missing some key players, especially JT Miller. And, you know, Pittsburgh still has the talent to score goals. Sure. They're just not a good team.

I don't think we need to correlate the analysis of Pittsburgh's awful season with whatever happens tonight. Like, they're two separate conversations. Like, Pittsburgh's bad. Pittsburgh's a bad hockey team. It doesn't mean anything for tonight. It just means that they're rad. And their best goalie might be in Wilkes-Barre

because Yoel Blomquist is no longer with the team. It's just Nedeljkovic and Tristan Jari. I don't know who starts tonight, by the way. Yeah, it's not great. I know that Nedeljkovic was in for the last game against Utah, and he was on the hook for all six goals. He might be worse than Jari this year. The numbers on both are not good.

877 save percentage for Nedeljkovic. 869 nice for Tristan Jari. Both well below the league average, which is roughly 900 now. Blomqvist was the only guy that had a save percentage above 900. And they finally decided to just do away with that three-headed goalie monster and just ride with Ned and Jari and see what happens. And we're going with our two-headed goalie monster. Is that a white flag right there?

I did wonder that. I did wonder that. There has been talk that this is the most low-key stealth tank of all time, going with this team and trying to get a high draft pick next year and bringing them into the fold with whatever you come back with next year. I wonder if they just hope some of the guys can go on LTIR. Is Letang in that position soon? It would be one of the few.

Could this be Letang's last season in the NHL? It would be one of the few things that makes sense to hold on to Sullivan. If you're like, we're just going to wave the white flag on this season and we're going to try and obviously keep Sidney Crosby

and try and retool something. Maybe Phil Tomasino. Right. Tomasino is going to take everything. Child around him. Those are such dubious moves, by the way. Waving Valtteri Pustanen so you can bring in Phil Tomasino. Just rearranging chairs on the Titanic, right?

Like, it's just, I don't know, man. It's unfair that I say this, but I laughed the other night. But Dubas' stock has fallen so far with not only what's happened in Pittsburgh, and you can say, well, the Fenway Sports Group told him to do it. He's still the guy pulling these deals, right? He's still, I mean, listen, if you don't really want to do it, then fall on your sword right so or go into a situation right you know be willing to say like hey we might have to tear this thing down and you know if you disagree don't take the job at any rate what true living

has done in toronto in terms of addressing the goaltending, addressing the defense, bringing in a coach that's going to play a certain style that is more conducive to playoff success, adding a just like emphasizing toughness. Dubas never really seemed to do that. Dubas was, and whether this is fair or not, always painted with this guy is an analytics guy. He's going to try and moneyball this thing. And that's what it feels like he's doing in Pittsburgh,

and it's not working. Frank Cervelli is going to join us next on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.