Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Are Spiraling Out Of Control

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk last night's disappointing Canucks loss to the LA Kings (6:00), plus the boys hear from the listeners who try and understand what's going on with the team (27:00). 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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It is Alfred. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Well, well, well. Laddie's back in the house. Good morning to you, Laddie. Hello, hello. I am back. Was it tough being under house arrest? I didn't have to deal with all the Canucks nonsense

over the last week or so. So that was the one perk. Could we offer you some congratulations? Thank you. Congratulations, Laddie. I'm not getting much sleep these days. Is it because of the house arrest? Yes.

You still have that ankle bracelet I noticed. Yeah, it's be-flapping on the other now. You're beeping in the background, just ignore it. You can just hacksaw those off. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street

in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. So we got a show ahead today. We got a show I won't classify it by size It's neither big nor small. I don't know if it's gonna be happy or sad. It's gonna be a show I can guarantee you that we're here for the next three hours I already know that there's a lot of you listening and a lot of you texting in it quite frankly ungodly hours And I had a guy get it. I understand it. These are tough times for the Vancouver Canucks and tough times for their fans.

We will do our best to both commiserate, yet entertain over the next three hours. Our guest list today begins Well, it's seven o'clock. AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway is gonna join us. If there was ever a reprieve from these dark and tough times, it's always our favorite pizza shop on East Broadway. AJ is gonna join us at seven o'clock. in tough times. It's always our favorite pizza shop on East Broadway. AJ is going to join us at seven o'clock. Right after AJ, Jason Greger is going to join us for Edmonton. What better way to soothe the jangled nerves of Canucks fans than by bringing on Jason Greger from Edmonton. To talk about how well the Oilers are doing. They got behind three nothing yesterday in their game. Had a far better outcome than

the Vancouver Canucks though. Well, it helps that they're getting away with headshot after headshot. Two headshots in a row from the Edmonton Oilers. Two headshots? We'll talk to Jason Greger at 7.05 this morning. The Canucks obviously host the Edmonton Oilers tomorrow night, Saturday night, in the culmination of hockey day in Canada.

So all the eyes of the country will be on the Canucks and the Oilers. Nothing will possibly go wrong. 7.30, Bob the Mojmar Janovich is gonna join the program. It is the divisional round of the country will be on the Canucks and the Oilers. Nothing will possibly go wrong. 730, Bob the Mojmar Janovich is going to join the program. It is the divisional round of the NFL playoffs this weekend. We'll talk to Moj about the four games on tap. Eight o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. Noted Canucks insider, agent to the agents, to the stars. Rick is going to join us at eight. Jason Bruff is the official Rick Dollywell handler on the show.

What are we going to talk to Rick about today? Last night's debacle. Last night's debacle, okay. You know what? We thought, hey, it's tough times for the listeners. Teams not playing very well. What if we had a Friday show filled with contests and giveaways?

So we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway today. That's going to go to the best Ask Us Anything or What We Learned. Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650-650. Text in. A lot of you already have. If you want to win, hashtag it A-U-A or W-W-L, whichever one you choose. Put a pizza emoji into the text.

You'll be entered into the grand prize contest for a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We're also giving away, final day this week, a $50 gift card and a pair of tickets to the big football party hosted by Sportsnet 650 at the Clayton Public House on Sunday, February the 9th. That one's going to be a call in. You're going to call at 815 this morning, caller number 3, 604-280-0650.

That number again 604 280 zero 650 caller number three will win a pair of tickets now Let's be clear about this not to the Super Bowl to the Super Bowl party still had one guy yesterday Super Bowl tickets No, what a diss what you should tell him yes No, and then tell him that's only one responsible for this only one the Super Bowl is being held here at a pub in Surrey and you get to go they got some temporary stands put up just sit the back somewhere there's no assigned seating at this Super Bowl anyway we got a big show ahead guest list real quick working in reverse 8

o'clock Dolly Wall 730 Marjana bitch 705 Gregor 7 AJ that's what's happening on the program today laddie. Let's tell everybody what happened What happened? 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. Alex Turcotte scored twice and added an assist. All of it early in the game as the Los Angeles Kings thumped

the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 on Thursday night at Rogers Arena. Quinn Hughes scored the lone goal for the Vancouver Canucks but that was it as far as good news went for the Canucks. Darcy Kemper 20 saves that's your Demko 16 Canucks lose 5-1 after losing 6-1 to end their five game road trip in Winnipeg. What a disaster it was last night. That's the kind of game where you wonder when the other shoe will drop. Will it drop this morning?

Will it drop soon? Someone's waiting for a shoe to drop. Maybe the Canucks are waiting for a shoe to drop. It was a horrific performance and you wonder after watching it, if the Canucks are waiting for a shoe to drop. It was a horrific performance and you wonder after watching it, if the Canucks are broken beyond repair, this group at least. It started off with a JT Miller giveaway in the

first minute of the game, soft pass back to the point that didn't get to Hronik. Hronik probably should have recognized and started skidding you know backwards but he went for it and the Kings poked it past him and they went off on a two-on-one and they score. So that's one strike against JT Miller. The second strike came about eight minutes later when Miller got beaten way too easily by Kevin Fiala and then didn't do much to make up for it. Fiala shot it, Miller kind of turned away from it, and the Kings scored on the rebound. Now Miller didn't have anything to do with the Kings third goal. That was Pedersen's turn to

look bad. He got beat through the neutral zone and the Kings scored on a 3 on 2. The first period ended with the Canucks down 3-0 and the vibe was spicy at Rodgers Arena. But Quinn Hughes is still on the Canucks and you can always count on Quinn Hughes who did his thing at the blue line where he skates around and creates a shooting lane and scored with a long shot. So the Canucks had life! Ah, but then came strike three for JT Miller who flung it away in the Kings end then decided to dive in as Rick Tauke likes to say and help the Kings create another odd man rush. Fiala kept it on the two-on-one and beat Demko and it was four to one Kings. At that point JT Miller was told to take a seat

at the end of the bench. He still played a few shifts the rest of the game, but didn't get any better for him or the Canucks who allowed a sloppy fifth goal and lost five to one. Not great. Not great, Bob. Did I, did I miss? Oh, there was some, some two terrible power plays early in the game. If I, that's, that's what I missed. Did I miss anything else?

Yeah, they did exact a very slight measure of revenge on Tanner Janow. No, they did not. If you can call it that. No, they did not. That was the, that was another disappointing part of the night. Day or nay did what he had to do. Day or nay stepped up and, I don't know, hung on to Janow's jersey the whole time. And then eventually I guess- He made a good business decision because I think he was going to get tuned up. hung on to Geno's jersey the whole time. And then eventually I guess- He made a good business decision because I think

he was going to get tuned up. Well, I guess he got the tackle. He tackled him at the end. Yeah. Okay. Yep. That's, I mean, I let's, do you want to play some audio and then we'll talk about JT Miller?

Well, let's let Rick talk about JT Miller first, because he was asked about number nine's performance in the aftermath of the five one loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night. And, um, it was a pretty frank answer. Patrick Johnson, I believe was the one that asked the question in the scrum and it was just straightforward.

What does JT need to do to get things right or to get his game back on track? Uh, Rick Tocket didn't mince a lot of words here's Tuckett on JT Miller following a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at Roger Serena. Yeah he's struggling. He's caught in between you know he's seems like every time he's on the ice something bad happens I think he's got some bad luck but he's also got some reads that he's got a He's got a look at himself right now focus on some of these reads I mean you can't dive in on the forum for things like that. I think I think he's trying

Sometimes I think the focus level has to get a little higher It was kind of shocking to see how little effort he put into checking Fiala on the second goal. And he is quite clearly not mentally in the games right now. And it's tough to play in a league like the NHL, it's so fast out there when you're not dialed in. I don't want to make any assumptions about why he's not mentally invested. I think we need to remember and try and be sensitive to the fact that he took a leave of absence earlier in the season.

Still don't know much about that leave of absence, but it was taken and at the time it was reported that he needed a mental reset. We need to remember that these guys are human. All that being said, this is not good for the Canucks and it's not good for JT Miller. You can't play hockey like the Canucks played last night. Miller was a distraction, not to mention a liability not good for JT Miller. You can't play hockey like the Canucks played last night.

Miller was a distraction, not to mention a liability on the ice. It just, it just really sucks that it's all playing out like this. It was another night with no points for Elias Pedersen. He was better than Miller last night, but that really doesn't say much. Um, you know, I, I really, I really, I don't have the bandwidth to hear about any of the other

issues with this team right now. They're meaningless until they figure out what's going on with their two top forwards. Now it might be a relationship with the coach. Um, so I think coaching you can bring into this. This is one of the most bizarre developments in Canucks history, this whole thing. And it started honestly, back at the all star

break in February with Pedersen. And you'll remember how flummoxed I was, flummoxed with what's going on with Elias Pedersen and that continues. It's almost a year now. And, um, you know, again, this is one of the most bizarre developments in Connect's history. And this is a team that's had some pretty bizarre

episodes in its history. Like, you know, it's hilarious that there's just the what abouting. The what about this? What about that? I'm like, no, like you're two top forwards guys you've given really big contracts and financial commitments to in a hard cap league where those financial commitments don't go away easily look like shells of themselves. Like both of them.

Both of them now. And like you've got your Miller, it seems to be in the fan base, like you've got your Miller camp and your Petey camp. So whenever Miller's criticized, well, what about Pedersen? Whenever Pedersen's criticized, what about Miller? It's criticized, well, what about Pedersen? Whenever Pedersen's criticized, what about Miller's like, guys, what about both of them? What the hell is going on with this team? Yeah, their productions, I mean, way, way, way, way, way too low. And then there's one guy who's going to be like, like, yeah, they can't move the puck,

right? Like, but that doesn't, that shouldn't be part of it. No, because it's obviously way more than that. I mean, anyone, anyone that is trying to pin this on anything other than a fractured room and a disjointed team because of the distractions that are going on, uh, is being disingenuous. You can point to the defense right now, but last night, their defense was their defense. It had everybody there. Everyone that they had, you know, when they,

when they were ready to roll this season, this is it. I think there's a lot of people right now. I saw the sentiment popping up a lot among the fan base yesterday. And look, trying to gauge the fan base's reactions right now is very difficult because people are on tilt and they're emotional and they're firing stuff off left and right. But, part of our gig is pay attention to the people that are listening to the show and consuming your content. There's a lot of people out there right now with the sentiment that you can blame roster construction and injuries and everything else as much as you want, but this is 100% on the organization collectively

for letting things spiral out of control, not nipping some of this stuff in the bud. And I went back and I remember, and I know that we've gone back historically and looked at moments in certain Canucks teams and other teams' history where things were spiraling out of control and management stepped in and made a big move. So this is one outside of the Canucks realm, but, um, those, the Red Sox

team that famously came back against the Yankees and broke the curse of the Bambino won the world series in 04. One of the most famous teams of all time in that season, they were mired, mired under a cloud. And the cloud's name was Nomar Garcia Parra because they had pursued Alex Rodriguez in free agency to play shortstop and they thought they had him and then they didn't and Nomar's feelings were hurt and everyone in the room was like it's super awkward and uneasy because this guy's obviously not

happy and it's weighing on us every day. And every day that we come in, there's this cloud hanging over us like, when is something gonna happen? When is something gonna change? When is this distraction gonna go away? Because until it doesn't go away, it means it's here. Then at the trade deadline, they send them to LA,

they go to Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mankiewicz and they went and won this World Series. And you know, it's funny, you talk, you listen to all those guys that were in that room and they said, it's nothing statistical or analytical. You could just feel that a cloud was lifted out of the room and we didn't have to talk about it anymore and it was in the past and we could move

forward. And I do wonder how close this management group is to making that move. Do you think there were still some fans that were like, I still believe in Noma. I'm sure, you know what? And the aftermath probably not. But.

Fire the manager. In the moment. And he went, and look, I know for those youths out there that don't remember this, because it was 21 years ago. Noma was a big deal. He was the franchise. Yeah. He was the franchise. Yeah. He was the guy.

Although there were diminishing returns on him because he was getting a little bit older. It was a big, bold, profound move to shake a team out of a slump. And you reach your breaking point because at a certain time in the season, you know that it's going to go one of two ways. You're either going to get through this and come out the other side or it's going to sink

you. Now, I'm not saying that that was last night. I'm not saying it could be on Saturday and regardless of whatever happens against you others, it might not come until the trade deadline. But if they wait that long, there's a very good chance that this season has sunk. Because you know what I had to do last night? I had to pay attention again to a St. Louis Calgary game

for out of town scoreboard watching. Watch out for the Blues, man. The Blues are coming. The Blues have the exact same amount of points as the Canucks right now. I'm like, this shouldn't be what I'm doing right now. This shouldn't be what the collective fan base is doing right now. I'm like, I don't, this shouldn't be what I'm doing right now. This shouldn't be what the collective fan base is doing right now.

It's trying to scratch and claw loser points to barely make the playoffs and probably be fodder for whatever first round opponent you get. This is supposed to be the step forward season. I actually thought last night, I tweeted it out. Are we watching the last game of JT Miller's tenure as a Canuck? And listen, I don't know. The thing with the NHL is it's so hard to make trades. And I was also thinking last night, geez, if any team that wants JT Miller is really interested in JT Miller, you hear about the Rangers' interest

in JT Miller, if they're watching that, are they like, actually, maybe not. I get what you're saying. The only reason I could see it happening is because the Rangers are in as equal a funk and they might need to just shake things up. But I was curious to hear, I think it was about a week ago, Elliot Freeman was saying that other teams are trying to do their due diligence and they're essentially trying to find out what the hell is going on with the Canucks. What is the story with Pedersen and Miller? And I think that's, that's like the frustrating thing as, as a fan of this team.

You know, I know there's a lot of people that out there that are super confident they know what's going on. No, you don't. Unless you're in the room, you really don't know what's going on. I've been watching Pedersen for a year now. I don't know what happened to him. I don't know why JT Miller had to take a leave of absence and I can't explain his play

last night. I don't know what's going on, but I know it can't continue. That's pretty much the only thing I can tell you. Well, talk it. It can't continue. The more talk it rolls, um, JT Miller out for less than 10 minutes of ice time at five on five. The more JT Miller is held to like 13 or 14

minutes a night, the more people are going to be asking questions in the aftermath, like what's going on here? Because it's not like he's getting 20 plus to try and get his game back on track. And Tauke said himself, he's struggling. Now Tauke did say he felt like Miller was trying. And I don't know if that's a coach trying to protect a guy

or whether he genuinely believes it. And at this point, I don't think it matters. At this stage of the game with how little he's given over the last little bit that sort of aforementioned Zabinajad for Miller swap you might want to reconsider it just for the change of scenery aspect. I know everyone in the modern NHL is terrified of asset management and asset return and whatever else, but you need to ask yourself at this point, like what is the asset? And that's why I asked Frank this week earlier. I said, hey, look, Frank, based on what you've heard,

has the first 40 plus games of this season tarnished JT Miller as an asset league wide and he pushed back. He said no. Said look at him making that four nations face-off roster over a lot of highly qualified guys is the answer to your question. I was like okay I'll take that for what it's worth. If you're gonna make a move and I don't look quite frankly I don't know if Canucks brass I hate putting it this way but has the stones to do it because it's a huge move it's a massive move and it is an acknowledgement that things have gotten so sour that you are putting the short-term health of your franchise over maybe even like losing a trade full stop.

Like we're going to lose this trade, we're going to get the inferior player, we're going to get the inferior package, but we are in such a state that we have to do this. Well, you say, do they have the stones to do it? Do they have the stones to continue on like this? You think it's going to get better Saturday against Edmonton. I mean, it might. It's actually hard to get worse than it was last night against the Kings. And we have seen this group every once in a while, pull themselves together and have a good effort. Um, you know, recently the Washington Capitals

game was a good effort. The Toronto Maple Leafs game was a good effort, Maple Leafs game was a good effort, but man, like it felt like, you know, the Winnipeg game was bad and then you're waiting for the, for the bounce back, the one game bounce back. The connection I've had all season, the one game bounce back and then back to the old, and like it didn't come up, it didn't come last night and it

didn't come, I would say in spectacular fashion. I just, I really want to reiterate though, um, how rare this is. Like what we're seeing right now, we'll go down and, uh, you know, Canucks history is like a major chapter in the franchise. Like the, what happened to Pettersson and Miller?

Sure. You follow up. Like we're seeing this, you know, and I'm like, and like, I want everyone to, to realize, because I still feel like some people are kind of like, you know, they're focused on other stuff. But this is a, this is a a mystery what is happening right here. And I only hope that Canucks management, the

organization, the people in charge actually understand what's going on because that's the only way it gets fixed, right? Well, I think they're fully cognizant of what's going on. I don't think it's a matter of identifying it if there's a problem or not. I think the question is, and the reason I said

stones was the easiest thing to do is nothing. The easiest thing to do is to let it play out and say, you know what, we're going to get to the off season. We're going to figure it out then because it's easier to make a deal in the summer, in the off season. The difficult thing is trying to do this right now. The easy thing is to say the

season's sunk. We might scratch and claw our way in or we might just get in because the bottom half of the west is so bad. How bad is it for business though? If you're the owner and you look at the home record and some of the performances that the Canucks have given. If I had paid 200 bucks for my seat and maybe brought my family to last night's game, student rush, $179. I saw that. Yeah, I saw that text. It's like, you're not selling it very well, guys. Like it's not much of a deal at the moment.

Yeah. I don't know if you're watching the team play, but. It's also like. $179 a news. I guess I'll hit up my student loan moment. Yeah. I don't know if you're watching the team play. It's also like. $179 a news. I guess I'll hit up my student loan again. Yeah. You know, you're at that game. I was texting some friends of mine at the game

and they brought their kids and the kids were fine, they were like, whatever, go to popcorn. But, you know, they were like, what am I watching here? What am I watching? You know, the Miller effort on the second goal was shocking to watch. He gets beaten so badly on a one-on-one by

Kevin Fiala, and then he just kind of straight legged skates to the middle of the ice. And actually. The controller gets unplugged meme. He literally just like stops moving. No, he didn't stop moving because he turned away from the shot. Oh yes, he did turn away. Turned away from the shot.

And that, that, that was shocking. Um, we're at the end of the first segment. Um, we do have another open segment on the other side. So we'll dare to dip into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 6 5050. 6.50. I know a lot of you wanted to hear Mount Brough this morning. I don't, I'm too confused.

Too confused. Like there was a bit of Mount Brough this morning, you know, and I was like, what the hell is going on with this team? But I, last night was man, that was just, it was, this whole thing is just bizarre. What is happening with this team? But text in to the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650-650.

Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. Let's hear your thoughts. Maybe you're not as confused as me. You're listening to the Halford & Breaux show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshah, your destination for everything

Canucks, exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen four to 6 PM weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. For whatever reason, some guys are at the focus level. I don't know if it's the nerves. They're not reading it. Yeah. 6.32 on a Friday.

Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. That voice you heard, that of a relatively measured Rick Tauke following a 5-1 loss on home ice to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at Rogers Arena. Do you think he goes home and screams into a pillow after every game like that? I can't tell. I don't know if he's screaming into a pillow per se. He's just so calm I just don't understand it. I think you may be witnessing a coach that knows exactly

what the problem is with this team and maybe that's why there's a, like, it's not like he's flummoxed. He's just like this, I know what it is, but I can't change it. He's exasperated. It's not like he's... Really? I think he is. I think because he keeps saying like, it's on me to fix it. So he's probably like, how do I motivate these guys? How do I get them emotionally invested? And... See, I personally think that's all coach speak. I think that's what a coach does when he Like how do I motivate these guys? How do I get them emotionally invested? And. See, I personally, that's all coach speak. I think that's what a coach does when he just doesn't want to one, bring the issues to the

forefront and two, doesn't want to put his players in the spotlight. You know, Rick, talk. I don't know, man. I think. He's had plenty of opportunities to throw guys out there. Plenty.

No, no, no, but he's thinking about behind the scenes, how can I get these guys going? How can I get them emotionally invested? This is my, the problem is for him, like that's his job, that's his job to motivate the guys. That's his guy, that's the coach's job is to get buy-in and this team does not have buy-in right now. And you know, whether or not you want to blame the

coach or not, or whether or not you think the coach is doing a good job or not, I think it's very fair to wonder if he's lost the ear of JT Miller and Elias Pedersen. Before we get into the rest of this, take care of some business. Halford and Brev in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier

destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Uninterrupted, 100% all Halborough this morning. No guests in the first hour. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Should we dare to dip into the Dunbar Lumber text line and read some texts after last night's disastrous performance by the Vancouver Canucks? I feel like we're obliged to. There are many listeners.

So we get in. It's crazy man. Well, some of us get in at a reasonable time. And I got in this morning, the texts were flying fast and furious before we even got to air, people, maybe some of them couldn't sleep. Maybe some of them were jolted awake because they were so upset by the performance of the local hockey squadron. Whatever the case, there are a lot of texts. So yes, let's dive into the Dunbar Number text message in basket.

Al from Nelson texts in, for the first time in a very long time, I turned the game off after the second goal. No post game, no highlights, just the score and you guys, sounds like I picked a good night to watch The Affair. Wasn't that show like 10 years ago? Anyway, it's just not the Canucks year, injuries, roster, construction, and chemistry.

Wave after wave of adversity, and we just don't have the horses or coaching staff to figure it out. Uh, it was interesting, I thought that Taukeed was asked, you know, what do you need? And he said, I'm looking for character guys and leadership right now. And I've mentioned this a few times, but not only are Elias Pedersen and JT Miller, the

Canucks two best forwards, the highest paid guys, they're also wearing A's on their jersey. They're captains. They're supposed to be part of this leadership group and we heard so many positive things about the leadership group last season and we said, Rick Tocque did such a great job empowering the leadership group.

Of the guys wearing letters, you know, at least Quinn Hughes is showing some leadership out there. At least he hasn't given up. And, uh, you know, that's, that's a major red flag. I mean, that's if we need more red flags, but when two of your leaders are playing the way they're playing, that is just awful for your group. Just awful.

Tim in Vancouver texts in the team is a complete mess. Make no mistake. But this whole situation is also a huge red flag on Rutherford and Alveen. They are totally MIA from the public eye, other than one interview with IMAC, who is basically, anyway, I won't read that. They have a reputation of making preemptive deals and being so proactive with roster moves. Yet they have done absolutely nothing to try

and fix whatever the hell is going on. There would be situations with other teams where the GM would hold an availability. The president of hockey ops would hold an availability. You know, I saw Charlie Jacobs, the owner in Boston do an availability the other day. I'm not counting on that happening in Vancouver,

but you know, at this point, the fans and the customers are looking to hear from someone with some authority in the organization to tell them that, you know, there's a plan to fix this. Sure. Uh, I, you know what is funny. I want to just circle back on something that you brought up. You talked about the leadership angle and

guys wearing A's on their Jersey. Uh, there is some audio from yesterday. I'm just going to let it roll and you, the listener can decide how you feel about it. JT Miller did conduct a scrum prior to the Canucks 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. And it didn't make the Canucks social media channels for one reason or another.

But this is how it went. You can decide and infer and read into whatever you want. We're just going to play the audio as it sounded. It's a multiple series of back and forth question and answer. There's a couple from Farhan in there. You'll probably recognize the voice. Here is JT Miller's media availability prior to a 5-1 loss

to the Los Angeles Kings last night at Roger's Arena. JT, your ice time on the trip, as it progressed, decreased a little bit. Is bit. In your mind, what do you think has led to that? Yeah, I don't know. I probably could play a little better. I don't know what you want to say. Look, over your time here, there's been a lot of success on the ice. You've been praised at times, you've been criticized criticized but you've always kind of

been the emotional heartbeat of this team that emotional side we've seen less of just from the outside do you see it that way like do you feel that part might be a little bit missing or how you see where you're at that's probably for you guys to interpret right I I'm not really conscious of it. What's the key to creating those opportunities against them? You have to be willing to play an ugly game. Get inside, get cross-checked, be physical, stuff like that. If you're committed there, you'll have success. There's been a bit of time, I think before the third period of the last game, talking

to the trainer. There's been some suggestion that maybe you're dealing with an injury. I know you're not going to get into specifics, but how healthy are you? You just answer your question. I'm good. Okay. You can say that he sounded standoffish and pissy and not interested and, you know, disenchanted with the whole thing, that's fine. You could also say he doesn't owe the media anything and he doesn't have to answer

and he's tired of answering the same questions and he just wants to play hockey. Whatever side of the ledge you're on, that's fine. Let the audio speak for itself. Accountability, when you're in these positions, comes in a variety of ways, right? Accountability looks like five or six different things and it can be five or six different ways that you can show it

or you can actually just physically do it without showing it. If you wanna blow off all of the public facing stuff, talking to the media, answering reporters pre and post game, stepping up and taking personal responsibility for a loss. If you want to push all that to the side, that's fine. The usual course of action is I let my play speak for itself. You hear that a lot, right? He leads by example. He's not a talker.

He doesn't have to go out there and say what he's going to do. He's just going to go out there and do what he's going to do. When you don't do either one, right? You don't answer for anything publicly and you don't do either one, right, you don't answer for anything publicly and you don't take the accountability publicly and then you play on the ice fall short, then I think it's fair game where people start asking questions like what's going on here, right? Where's the leadership part of this? Because you're not leading by example, you're not pulling the team out of a funk on the ice. And then when you're asked

questions about it, which I think is justifiable, you're punting on those too. And then if that's the dynamic in the room and that's the dynamic with the guys on the ice and the players, I think it's very difficult for the room to correct and police itself. I don't think you can have JT Miller dressed for games if he's gonna perform like he did yesterday. Well, I mean, look. But you can't. I mean, he got demoted to the end of the bench and then took a few, and I'm assuming those cursory shifts

in the third period were just so they didn't sit there the whole time. If I'm the head coach, I'm like, the game's over, it doesn't matter anyway. Let's give them a couple spins and a couple twirls so it doesn't look like I've bolted them to the pie in the end, because then there's more questions to answer. Right? Yeah. But don't you think though, I mean, we got a Hockey Day in Canada game against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night. And, you know, it's going to be one of the

regular season games where a lot of Canada is watching this game, if only to tune into the Edmonton Oilers at the very least. And like, you can't, you can't have JT Miller out there playing like he did last night. I honestly think there's a decision to be made. You have to go, someone has to go to JT, the coaching staff, whoever and go like, Hey man,

are you good? Are, seriously, are you good? Because that can't happen again. The crazy. And his answer might be like, no, I'm not good. The crazy part is that five games ago, and I know it feels like a long time ago, but five games ago, JT Miller had two goals and four points and basically was the singular reason that the Canucks were able to get a point out of Montreal. That wasn't that long ago.

It was five games ago. And then if you want to talk about the other guy whose performances have been underwhelming, we're what? Four games removed from Elias Pettersson winning the Selkie brackets from his teammates on the bench in that three nothing win over the Maple Leafs. That is the actually the only time that two of the three leaders of this team have truly embodied the spirit and the ethos of the entire Canucks organization are Miller and Pedersen because they've shown the highs and

then they've immediately come back with a series of lows. If you want to talk about team identity when we talked about being consistently inconsistent, look no further than those two guys. I want to read a text from Jay and Calgary. Okay. Jay and Calgary text in, I think that the team has given up on the front office, like in New York. Management's dumb idea of antagonizing the players in the media to motivate was so stupid, it's not funny. Not to mention the roster issues are their fault anyways. Yeah, PD has been bad and Miller's out of it,

but they also have so much responsibility as the bottom four of the defense is so bad. Um, let's focus on the idea of antagonizing the players in the media. Because that was clearly the point of putting out all this stuff. And I think it was obvious, Patrick Alveen's interview with Ian McIntyre, I think had a strategy behind it and everything you hear from Elliot Friedman

was, you know, the connects are testing these players. They're holding their feet to the fire and they're going to see how they respond. Well, I don't blame management for that at all. I don't either. I firmly disagree with that text. No, no, no, no, no, no. But okay, whether, okay, look, I, whether or not it was a good idea, let's take

that out of the equation. Okay. Don't you think it is possible though, that Miller and Pedersen, maybe not the team, but Miller and Pedersen are like, or maybe Miller, is like, screw you. You want to put my name out there and trade rumors over and over and Pedersen, we heard about the tough love approach that they'd gone with.

Maybe he's just like, well, screw you guys. Oh, I think it's entirely possible. But I put all of this. What do they call it? Quiet quitting? But I put all of this on the players. If this group has shown one thing throughout the last three coaches, Green, Boudreaux, and now Tauke,

it's that when adversity hits, and make no mistake, adversity is always going to hit, they lack the maturity and they lack the experience to deal with it and move past it. Did this management group err in putting the pressure on them? Maybe, but I think all that does is reveal a lot of characters. Yes. So Mike, the urologist from Brockville, Texan, if these players don't like being criticized and respond by mailing it in, fire them all into the sun. And that's where I agree.

And I'll like, it's not supposed to be easy. You're supposed to embrace the heart. This, this, this whole thing of being a professional athlete is not supposed to be easy. It's why they make a lot of money. It's why they've got the fame. It's why they work so hard to get to where they are. And then once you get into the league, the NHL,

it gets harder because then your goal is I gotta win a Stanley Cup or I wanna win a Stanley Cup. I hope that's the goal and that's really hard. Never been done in Vancouver and there's 32 teams in the league now. It is very very difficult. It's not supposed to be easy. These professional athletes, part of the job is dealing with criticism. Part of the job is dealing with expectations. Part of the job is, especially in today's landscape, is dealing with social media and the criticism.

And when you play in a market that's passionate about the team, that's part of it. Like that's, it's in, it's not just like, get pucks in deep and score some goals. It's deal with the pressure of being an athlete, deal with the expectations, deal with the tough love. They ain't dealing with it right now. Oh, I would also add as well is this is a management group, specifically

Alveen that spent what the first two and a half years on the job, perfecting the art of saying nothing when asked questions about the state of his team. It's not like Alvin was holding his players and his team's feet to the fire constantly, and are repeatedly criticizing. Like he used this card after essentially two years on the job of saying nothing inflammatory. And if the first instance of him doing it results in this,

I would say that's pretty telling. It's not like Patrick Elvin's been every six months being like with the, you know, the meme with the guy with the stick poking him. It's like, come on, do something like he hasn't. LJ texts in, he goes, the goal is the bag, just like everyone else. LJ speak for yourself, buddy. Like, believe it or not, there are some people that do work. Yes.

For money to make a living, but also because the work has meaning. Like Sidney Crosby has left millions of dollars on the table. I know it's Sidney Crosby has left millions of dollars on the table. Sidney Crosby's happy financially. Do you think money is what drives Crosby? Do you think money is what drives Conor McDavid? Do you think money is what drove a guy like Patrice Bergeron? Really? You think that?

It's not. It's nice. It's nice to have and it's obviously important, but those guys are living their lives and part of their lives is being competitive and winning. Money is secondary. It might be a big secondary, but it's secondary. Seriously, of all the great athletes in the world, do you think money motivated them? Do you really think that? No. No.

No. Do you think money was what motivated a guy like Tiger Woods? No. Again, it's the women. It was the women, right? It was Hooters. But it's just, you's- It was the women. It was the women. Right? It was Hooters. But, you know, it's just-

Love the wings, love the wings. You know, these guys, do you think money motivated the Sidines? I bet they don't even spend money. I don't know, I mean, I guess we can keep entertaining this, but like, I think the, I don't, it doesn't enter the equation for- No, no, no, but a lot of people are saying like,

Pedersen got the bag and then he was done, right? And I do not believe that. I don't know what's going on with Pedersen. He was struggling before he got the proverbial bag. We need to stop saying bag. I don't think it was like, well, I got my contract and I'm gonna pack it in. Does he look happy?

Does he look like a guy that's like, well, I'm rich, so whatever. He looks miserable. I mean, here's the thing, and shout out to Doug. What up, Doug? He pointed this out. He's like, it's hard to talk about. It's hard to talk about because I hate doing

the analysis in the aftermath thing with a lot of this. Because all you end up doing is trying to, well, one, play armchair psychologist. But the other one is you're not really, the important thing is what comes next. You know, you hear, especially the coach of the team talk about it. He's like, you know, we got to move on, have a good practice, figure out what went wrong, move on to the next one. I think for us, it is important to remind everybody that there's a game on Saturday night and that this thing needs to get fixed one way or another. Now, how they're going to fix it.

That is where I find the conversation gets the most interesting and the most difficult to answer, because I, if you want to make it a really black and white thing, I see two ways out of this. Either one, they just let things roll the way that they're rolling and hope that they get enough sort of blip on the radar performances every fourth or fifth game where these guys show up and decide like they want to play. And that's the collective.

And they scratch and claw enough points and they get 95 points and they're in as a second wild card team. And they have an early exit from the playoffs. That's the collective. And they scratch and claw enough points and they get 95 points and they're in as a second wild card team. And they have an early exit from the playoffs. That's one option. The other option is the nuclear option, which is where you say, all right, we can't keep doing this. We are not in the business of flushing a season away.

And that would be flushing a season away. And we're gonna make a move that might be short-sided and might be us taking an L, but collectively it could save our season. Both those things can be true. You can lose a trade, you can get the inferior player, you can get the worst contract, and you can make your team better.

You can. I'm with you. You can, you can get the worst contract and you can make your team better. You can't. I'm with you. You can't. I'm with you on that. You can't. If you're willing to embrace that, that we're gonna take a lousy contract or an inferior player or pennies on the dollar,

you might be able to reconcile what's gone wrong. But the other, well, because honestly, at that stage of the game, I do think it's very black and white. There's two options. Either you address the problem now, or you don't, because we're past the halfway point of the season. Right now, unless there is the most dramatic

in-season turnaround, one one of in franchise history, you're talking about a team that's gonna muddle its way through, right? There will be the odd performance. Like at this stage of the game, I would not be surprised if they come out with their hair on fire against Edmonton and then fall apart the game following.

Or the inverse, they play terrible against Edmonton and then they light the world on fire for one or two games. But the only thing that I've come to expect from this team is that there's zero consistency. They have no idea how to string together three or four or five impressive results or efforts in a row. There was even, there was even inconsistency from the inconsistency because we thought last night would be the bounce back from Winnipeg. Game on, game off. But then they were inconsistent with that.

Game off, game off. Yeah, a lot more to get to on the program. We're gonna get- Do we? I feel like I've said my piece. Can we wrap it up? We got some guests on the show. It's not just us anymore.

AJ from AJ's Pizza is gonna join us on the other side. Jason Greger from Edmonton is gonna join us as well. Moj at 7.30. Dolly Wall at 8. We're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We're giving away a pair of tickets and a $50 gift card to Clayton Public House's big football party on Saturday, Sunday, February the 9th. It's all coming up on the final two hours of the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.