Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Have A Tough Test Tonight

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they preview tonight's Canucks matchup at Colorado (3:00), plus they talk the latest NHL news with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (28:44). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough You know, you know, I love Jordan Bennington. The lie to take the test of Derman, that was a lot. Marcus Jones, he's under between the hash marks at the 6. He runs it left to the 15. To the 20, it celebrates 30, 3, 5, 40, beating Gillen off the head and come on the near side 40. To the 30. Marcus Jones, going to the 20, to the 10, to the house.

Touchdown, Patriots. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Is Alfred, it is brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Addo, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. as well. Hello, hello. Halper and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two much lower payments, and three financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are right now, our one of the program. Hour one is brought to 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. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Now's the time, to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics. Before the year runs out, visit kintech.net. It is the Duick morning drive right now is rerun through today's guest list on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. It is brought to you by the Duick Auto Group.

It's a big one today. Guest list today begins at 6.30. Greg Wischinski, our ESPN NHL Insider, will join us tonight. Five games in the NHL last night, 10 tonight, including the Canucks and Avs. We'll talk about that with Wish at 6.30. 7 o'clock.

Brandon Bachelor, play-by-playman. He'll be on the call for tonight's game. That's 6 o'clock puck drop from Ball Arena in Denver. That's at 7 o'clock. At 7.30, Jesper Sorensen is going to join the program manager of your Vancouver Whitecaps. Whitecaps take on Inter Miami on Saturday in the MLS Cup final. Yvesper joins us today at 7.30. They fly tomorrow to Miami ahead of the big match. 8 o'clock. Aeref Dean is going to join the program. He's an Aves beatwriter from Colorado Hockey now. We've had him on the show a few times before. The aves host the Canucks tonight. The aves are 10, 0, and 2 at home this year. And their last overtime loss was in October.

They are very good at home. But they haven't played the Canucks at home yet. No, that's a totally different challenge. And then it might be easier than the other ones. Araf's going to join us at 8. It's a preview things. How do we look interested on the ice right now? Some will call it a challenge.

Some won't. We'll ask ARIF. No, we won't. Why are they skating after the puck? It's so easy. So much room out there. Eric is going to join us today. We have more stuff to get into.

7.30 this morning, we're giving away a $50 gift card to White Spot. We're doing that every day this week. Call our number 5 at 730 is going to win the $50 gift card to White Spot. 604-280650. At 8 o'clock, we're doing Halford-enbrough's 12 days of Christmas here on SportsNet 650. If you listen every day until December 16th, we're going to be giving away secret prizes every show. Yesterday was Maui Jim sunglasses. Today, I can't tell you until the prize has been announced,

but at 8 a.m., we're going to be giving away the day two of Haliford & Brough's 12 days of Christmas. You know what's going to be really frustrating for the Canucks is one of the days we're going to give away a really good second-line center. Just give it away? Yeah, we've got one. Just like that. We found one.

I went to Pew Souter? Yeah, it was actually, it was actually really easy to find. It wasn't hard at all. It didn't cost that much either. I don't know. We kept some money aside for one And we found one And lo and behold

Okay, so I will remind everybody About our contests during the show But they are at 8 and 730 That's what's happening on the program today Lots to get into Without further ado Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No No What happened? I missed all the action because I'm We know how busy your life can be What happened? You missed that? What happened?

What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies invest in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca. We will begin with the Vancouver Canucks ahead of tonight's game 6 o'clock from Ballerina in Denver. The Canucks actually practiced in El Segundo yesterday in California before flying out to Denver for tonight's game.

A couple news and notes from yesterday's practice. Nils Hoaglander returned and joined the group for the first time since suffering that ankle injury in the preseason. He appeared on the ice in a non-contact jersey. That was rosier news for the Vancouver Canucks than what they got on the Connor Garland front. Connor Garland, unlike Nils Hoaglander, did not skate with the team after sitting out Saturday's loss

to the Kings with an undisclosed injury. I guess Adam Foote told reporters that they wouldn't have an update on Garland until he was seen by team doctors back in Vancouver. So using the powers of deductive logic means he probably won't play tonight when they take on the aves in Colorado. I think he might already be in Vancouver.

And IMAQ had a good chat with Brock Besser, who tonight will find himself on a line with David Kempf and Kiefer Sherwood, which he probably didn't intend to start the story. Do you think he had any idea? Any idea that it would be like this. In training camp? I don't like so. This is still the second line.

It's not like, you know, Brock has been knocked down to the third or fourth line because he's not playing well. I think Brock is playing quite well, actually. He's getting opportunities. There's one game a couple games ago where he had a bunch of chances to score. Didn't, but then next game, he does score.

You're looking at the Kinex top six right now? David Kamp is the second line center again with Sherwood and Besser on his wings and then you got Petey between Jake DeBrusk and Evander Cain

and you're going up against the Colorado Avalanche it's going to be tough you know I think there's two ways that the Canucks get wins these days and one is if they get

a really good goaltending performance and two is if they win the special teams battle which is why there was so much frustration in San Jose the other day when they went what was it 0 for 6 or 0 for 7 on the power

play didn't have any answers there and they end up losing the game that's kind of the formula right like you have to you have to get power plays and you have to take advantage of them because that's where the Canucks can get their key players all together

out on the ice with the first unit right and you know it evens and if you know, if there is dysfunction on that power play and at times there does look like there is, then it's going to be even worse for the Canucks. Overall, their power play has actually been fine this season. But, you know, that's how they're going to win games

because it is in it evens. And when you look at the lineup, it's easy to see why. So the article that you're talking about, IMAX on the road with the Vancouver Canucks right now, and I believe the genesis of his article stemmed from a Canucks Army report in which Canucks Army wrote a piece highlighting, and I'm using that term very loosely, but highlighting that in 26 games,

all the different second line centers that the Vancouver Canucks have used this season have contributed one secondary assist this season. That's how many, is it? One. Brock Besser, the winger oftentimes on that second line, now playing left wing, which is a rarity as well,

has seven primary assists. So IMAC decided, hey, I'm on the road. Why not, you know, dive into this a little bit further? He asked Adam Foote yesterday about the team's chance generation. It is actually kind of amazing that the Vancouver Canucks have scored the amount of goals that they have this season and have generated the amount of chances that they have despite getting literally zero. Not literally because there's one, almost zero from the second line center position, which, as you know, having covered the game quite thoroughly over the last decade or so,

it's very important to have a good contributing second line center. Well, there's a team we're going to talk about in just a bit, the Winnipeg Jets that they have a 2C problem as well. There's a lot of teams out there that are looking for second-line centers and nobody's doing deals right now. Anything else on the Canucks note? Should we talk about the Aves at all, or should we wait to speak with Araf about that?

I mean, if you haven't been paying attention at home in listener land there, this is the best team in the National Hockey League. they are first overall in the NHL standings with 42 points to put that in perspective they are four points clear of the second best team Dallas their divisional foe and they have a game in hand

on Dallas they're 181 and 6 they have lost one game in regulation this season they're 10 and 2 at home they suffered a rare loss on Friday to Minnesota in a shootout and Minnesota's playing well though and they were so furious about it that they went out the next night and blew the doors absolutely beat the break

off of Montreal 7 to 2. And now they've just been sitting there waiting for the Vancouver connects to roll through. So Kevin Lankan will get the start tonight and he'll be backed up by Patera because there's been more back and forth between some of the goalies. Tolo Pilo is back in town reportedly

because his wife is in labor. Yeah, she went into labor early so he's returned to Vancouver for the pending birth of his child, which means presumably Lankanin gets the start and yeah, you mentioned your... I don't think Fudd's going to be like, I've got a hunch tonight. Let's try this Patera guy. It worked out last time.

That would be the textbook dictionary definition of throwing somebody to the wolves. Okay. So there's a couple of teams I want to talk about who aren't the Canucks and aren't the Colorado Avalanche. One is the Winnipeg Jets and the other is the St. Louis Blues, specifically Jordan Bennington. Let's start with the Jets. Okay.

Who lost again last night. They lost five to one. in Buffalo and this game was over early I think it was 2-0-0 for Buffalo in the first few minutes 3 minutes into the game 2-0-0-0-0-1

after the first period 4-1 after the second it was done and afterwards they had a closed-door meeting so you know things aren't going well with Winnipeg and if you think this is just about Connor Hellebuck missing

it's not it's something to do with Connor Hellebuck missing but we've mentioned a few times on this show the Jets underlying numbers have been problematic all season and they've cratered compared to last year did they win the president's trophy last year

they sure did best team in the national hockey league featuring the MVP and the Vesna winner and in the off season they lose a guy like Nick Eilers and they bring in Jonathan Taves they've got some other veterans like

Tanner Pearson and Gustav Nyquist and it has not worked for the Jets and I just wonder if they're going to be able to get out of this because if this was just you know well we don't have Hallibuck and our goaltending hasn't been very good you just be like well whatever

but even when they started the season I think they started the season something like nine and three yeah they were fantastic to start the year but again they're underlying numbers weren't. And I think they were on a bit of a PDO bender. And now you can see things are, this is a collapse in Winnipeg now. Things are falling apart. And the closed door meeting says something because, you know, normally when you're in Buffalo, you don't want to extend your time there. I don't want to get out of there. You don't want to be like, we're going to have a closed door

meeting. We're going to spend even more time where we're going to yell at each other in Buffalo. You have that meeting on the plane or at the very least the hotel. You're like, get the hell out of there first. Here's some audio from Jets head coach. Scott Arneill following a drubbing at the hands of the basement-dwelling Buffalo Sabres yesterday. Five-one loss back and forth with the reporter where Arneal confirms the players-only closed-door meeting and also says it was an embarrassing effort from their veteran group. Here's Scott Arneill, head coach of the Winnipeg Jets. Couldn't help but notice it took a long time for the room to open, not asking for any trade secrets,

but they had their own. They had their own team, you know, they were initiative, so that was low, yeah. career what can something like that do and how often does that happen is it fairly rare yeah i think so i mean um sometimes it happens and you don't know it maybe it's after i speak to them but tonight that was them that was loud taking it so you're hoping that the response on the end our next game is a lot better than what it was tonight um you know we're a veteran group recognize you just embarrassed ourselves and we're going to have to be a heck a lot better next one I'm sure everything's in play here.

We'll see where we are. We'll check with our injured guys. Obviously, we're going to look at this, and we'll make a decision for once in. So five wins in 14 games for the reigning president's trophy team. You think it might have a little bit more to do with Hellebuck than Brough suggests. They're one in five over the last six, and the goal scoring is dried up. But in that stretch, if they have Hellebuck, he posts a shutout in one of those games. He just wins them a game?

And they're two and four, and we're going, oh, well, that's the lowest. point the Jets are going to get this season and then they're going to move on and be fine again. Is it not the reason why they're in this stretch because their MVP? The Vesna winner is out of the lineup. I feel like that's the clear reason they're one in five. I reached out to Murat Atesh, who's the beat writer for the Jets with the athletic and I just text him. I was like, hey man, what's up with the Jets? And he said, great question. Their underlying numbers were pretty bad even when they were 9-3-0. They've probably improved Since then, since certain guys got healthy, but this last week or two, it's been messy.

They've lost while playing well, lost while playing poorly, and then tonight looks just awful. It was bad last night. It was really bad last night. And, I mean, it's not surprising that with things cratering. I think now I haven't paid enough attention to all 32 teams yet, but that might be the first player is the only meeting of the year. I haven't heard of another one. You'd think it seemed like, I don't know, Vancouver, National. They might have had one by now, maybe Calgary.

And another thing, Lattie, the Jets' underlying numbers last year were good. And you lose a player like Eilers and you don't replace them well. I think when Jonathan Taves signed with them, we were all happy for Taves. Yep. But we were also wondering, what kind of role are you expecting this guy to play? They're too top heavy right now. The scoring is Shifley-Connor Valardi, and then it just kind of falls off a map. Need a writer is okay

but I mean he is sort of is what he is at this stage of his career I'm going to be fascinated to watch them because they're in a division now where they're like miles off the pace we mentioned Colorado obviously we mentioned Dallas the top two teams in national hockey

like you can't write them off entirely right now but they're in a position where they're like if they turn it around they're wild card bound potentially and if they don't make the playoffs that would be a huge step backwards for a team that had so much success last year mentioned Colorado and Dallas. Minnesota's been great. Minnesota's like in the last 10,

get a load of this. This is the top three teams in the central. Last 10, Colorado is 9-0-1. It's a Canucks opponent tonight. Dallas is 8-1-1 and the wild are 8-0-2. And that wild run is largely based on some improved goaltending as well, right? Isn't Walsett now carrying the load for them? Yeah, he's very good. He's going to be something special. Okay. On the subject of goaltending, Speaking of goaltending. Let's turn our attention to the bad goaltending now. You heard this clip in our intro. We'll play it a longer version in a moment here.

But last night, Jordan Biddington's night did not last very long. The Blues goalie was pulled after allowing two goals in 10 minutes against the Anaheim Ducks and an eventual loss to the Anaheim Ducks. It wasn't just that he allowed two on 10. It was that the two goals, they had the stink lines coming off them and everything. And there was this great shot of the Blues broadcast of Jim Montgomery. looking up at the board watching the replay after the second goal. And he was like, that's not good. That's not good at all.

It was by Canucks target, Pavel Minchikov. Was that who it was? Yeah, okay, nice. He scored the second goal. He broke Binnington, although some would say he was already broken. Anyway, there's another great shot from the Blues cameraman, catching Binnington going off the ice after getting pulled and jawing with Jim Montgomery. So everyone thought, well, we got to ask Monty about this in the post game.

Here's what Jim Montgomery had to say about. about the incident with Jordan Binnington after pulling him in an eventual loss to the Anaheim Ducks last night. Here's Jim Montgomery. Goleys, when you get pulled over the years, what did you make? You know, I love Jordan Binnington. He's a competitor. He raises his games in the big moments all the time.

I love him. You know, he walked off the ice. He said, I love you. I said, I love you too. And we're both competitors by nature. And at the end of the period, he waited for me. we apologize, we moved on. It's over and done with.

I bet it's not over and done. You know what? I bet they didn't say I love you. I bet it was something you. Yeah. But I don't think it was, I love you. He was trying to put that to bet. So I watched the rest of the presser as well.

And he had a little longer spiel Montgomery did about dealing with conflict. And he's like, you have to deal within the moment. And then you move on. He was flustered, though. Yeah, well, I don't think that like Jason said, the back and forth was I love you. man. No, I love you, man. I think it was a lot different than that, but he put a nice shiny bow on it so that they could, again, try and move on. Here's the thing. Binnington has an 882 save percentage. That's 43rd among qualified NHL goalies right now. He's 6.5 and 5. I've lost

count of the amount of times that he has had to pull Bennington in favor of Hofer. And the big question, Jason, of course, is Canada really going to take Jordan Biddington? to the Olympics. I know we've had this conversation a million times, but it feels like every passing day he gets a little bit worse, and he gets a little bit older. He's 32 years old. And I'm not sure.

He aged 10 years since the Four Nations. Seriously, man. I'm trying to think of a guy whose game has gone in a more south direction. Well, you've also got Doug Armstrong, who's in charge of all this. so it's a great philosophical debate I mean right now the best goalie Lattie feel free to

chime in here for Canada is Logan Thompson right so he's so he's the guy so do you take Logan Thompson but do you still have Bennington there and then you take one more because typically at the Olympics you're taking three

goalies you're not playing all three if you play two you've kind of you're like uh you might you might play two in the round robin when one of the games is against like latfier or something right you might might give them a rest sure but is the you know every time that elliott friedman talks about it and i trust elliott he's like yeah bittington's going to be on the team he pretty much calls him a lock like he's going to be on the team but so how does that that dynamic work when you get to italy and he's on the team does he get because of Four Nations

does he get the first shot? Is it his to lose? And we've seen that happen. We've seen goalies for Canada lose the job. That's how Longo ended up as the goalie in 2010. I think that would be foolish.

To what? To just run Biddington out there with the season he's having. I think that makes him out of the Olympics. Here's how I look at it. Rob's right. Frege just said on a number of occasions that he's going to go.

So let's base this on he's going. at this stage, you have two different scenarios that can play out. One, you start him. And you just, you're like, you go with the Jim Montgomery explanation. He's a battler, he's a game where he's shown up for us before we trust him. The second option is you sit him as the backup. Now, if you do that, you're essentially saying, hey, and let's say it's Logan Thompson for argument sake. Hey, Logan Thompson, you're in and you have the shortest leash.

because the moment that something falters for you like everyone's probably going to be clamoring for the backup like they always do and it's going to be everyone's waiting for Binnington the guy that won us the Four Nations to come and take the job. So in that sense you're asking are you even really giving him a bona fide shot

at the starter's job? I think who, Bennington or Thompson? Thompson, right? He would have to be rock solid lights out the whole tournament and he might be able to do it. He's been great this season, right? But the first falter, and we've seen it at tournaments before. I mean, God, we saw it from Binnington

in the round rob, and phase of the Four Nations people were worried about his shaky play. But he pulled it together in the gold medal. He dog was worried the whole tournament. Yeah, I was with him. Even when he started playing amazing at the end, I'm like something's still going to go wrong. Doesn't inspire confidence.

Having Binnington in the net, I don't know. Well, does anyone inspire confidence right now? I was just thinking that like Thompson and Blackwood would be my one and two with Kemper as the third. Yeah. To me, that would be the safest. The thing that, I know some guys, some of the veteran players, will still make it on the team

regardless of how they're playing exactly. I mean, did Braden Point already get named to the team? Believe he was one of the courts. I think he's so, like, he's not having a great season. But wasn't the message from the management? Like, it matters. In-form matters. Yeah.

You need to be in form. But they said that for the Four Nations too. And then they just kind of went with the guys that they went with. there's the inherent trust factor, right? It's like, are we going to take into consideration the first three months of a condensed season where nobody's been great and parity has ruled the league? Are we going to go with guys and they're always going to fall back on two things? What have you done for us internationally in the past, especially the Four Nations?

Then what have you done in the Stanley Cup playoffs? Which is why I think like Sam Bennett's going to be on that team. Yeah, there's a few people texting in with some decent points, I think. Three Putt, Shane says, I may be crazy, but Team Canada's defense may be better than St. Louis is. Stephen Langley, Bennington had a sub 900 save percentage going into four nations and he played Lights Out. He's a gamer and I think he will start Thompson as the backup.

Steve is a good safe option. Hold on. Bennington was not Lights Out in the tournament. Bennington was Lights Out in the final. I thought he was pretty good in the tournament. I disagree with that. I think he was, I wouldn't maybe wouldn't say Lights Up but I thought he was good. I thought he made some pretty good saves along the way. And I wasn't as worried as you guys were

About the goaltending But 9-07 and 4 games At the 4 Nations He got better as a tournament He was huge in the final 9-07 and 4 games In the tournament I'd say solid is how I would describe

He was fine solid I wouldn't say he was amazing But he also didn't have to be He was fantastic in the fun Yeah when he had to be amazing That's when he turned it back And that's exactly what he did When they won the Stanley Cup

And again those are going to be Big deciding factors For hockey Canada I think This decision is going to be fascinating. I'm still not convinced Badaard's going to be on this team. He's got to be.

I don't know. Celebrity and Badard have to be on it. I'm still not convinced, but I'm still not convinced. I think you're not convinced that they should be on there? If they're still on a team will be on it.

I think he should. I think it should be a progressive approach. If he's still at this points percentage by the time they get to like the selection, he'll be named. There's no way they wouldn't. He's like, what, third in the league and scores? Bruff and I are, in addition to the Canadian men's national soccer team,

we're big supporters of England. And during the Garris Southgate era, which had great success, they fell short of winning a title, but they had great success. They won a lot more matches than they lost. There would always be the young upstart and the young hot shot that was trying to push their way into the national team, and more often than not, he would go with the guys that he trusted. Yeah.

Because it was just... Especially like on the back line, The young guys would never get in there. Because it's a short tournament and you can try and expect the unexpected and prep for what might happen. But the reality of it was most times, you just go with the guys that you inherently trust. Harry McGuire's in there. Right. And Jordan Pickford was always the goal.

This is what's going to happen, though. If like him and Celebrating don't make the team and all of a sudden they can't score a goal and like, man, we could use an extra goal or two right about now. Oh, I guess we could have used Badard and Celebrity then. One of them will make it. for sure I would hope at least one make I don't think this is the same thing as the world juniors though

the world juniors was different I don't think that after this tournament you know if Canada has trouble scoring with Connor McDavid Nathan McKinnon Kale McCarr

and it's kind of on those guys right like it's not going to be like well they could have used Boudarders like they had Nathan McKinnon Connor McDavid and Kail McCarr Four of the top five scores in the league are Canadian. And you're like, ah, we'll take two of them.

What are you thinking? No, you take all four. It's just what we can do. We like to make it. We like to make it as hard as possible. I also, I know we're up against it for Tom. I also just want to throw out, like, if you're John Cooper and you've got a fairly considerable say over who's on the roster and who plays, when you say, are you going

to take guys that you don't know all that well in Bedard's celebrating? Man, we suck right now. I'm not taking anyone from Tampa. Well, but that's what I'm just been watching Tampa? No, I know they're doing better. But I'm saying in those moments, he's probably going to be like, I know and trust, Point and Sorrelli more. For his guys.

Yeah. And so that could be a deciding factor as well. So, yeah, Greg's right. Baderd defensively is not. No. He doesn't have to worry about that. Baderd offensively. Oh, you don't have to worry about defense?

No, they got like the best defense in the NHL back there. Just let them do their thing. So Bada can just hang out on the offensive zone. We're way up against it for time. The hockey talk will continue on the other side, though. Greg Wischinski from ESPAN is going to join the program. That's coming up at 630. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650.

Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on SportsNet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 635 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halfermbrough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how.

Visit sands-trustee.com. We are still in our one of the program. Greg Wosinski from ESPN's going to join us in just a moment here. the highlight of Hour 1. Hour 1 is brought to 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 the Middle 1770 Powell Street in Vancouver.

To the phone lines we go, our next guest is our NHL insider from ESPN. It's Craig Wyshki here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wish? Greetings from the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, where I'm here for Dallas Stars practice, ladies and gentlemen. Nice. Did you happen to watch? That's exciting. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Dallas Stars practice. You don't get a lot of those. Did you happen to watch? I know you did. Did you happen to watch the New, I don't know, you don't. New Jersey Devils last night. So we were talking about Brendan Dillon's 1,000th game in Vancouver here because he's a local guy and it was a great story undrafted.

There was that very emotional moment prior to game. And then there was a very unfortunate moment during the game. game where he exited after a second period scrap with Dermitri Vornikov. And it was ugly, it was a bad visual, Dylan got knocked out, left the game. So I want to talk about a variety of things here. One, the incident, the fight, the punch that led to his exit and two, him coming back into the game, which I don't think was a very good thing either. I'm just curious to get your thoughts, given your devil's fandom, then of course, that

being one of the more prominent moments from last night's NHL action. Well, I guess the first question is, can we call it a punch? Sure. Because, you know, the way that Sheldon Keefe described it is kind of the way that I saw it, which is that, you know, Dylan gets into this scrap. He gets his jersey almost immediately pulled over his head. And then he kind of gets just dragged, faced first to the ice, it feels like. It wasn't even like a punch that I think leveled him.

I think he just kind of like got sent to the ice face first. And then, you know, he gets help coming off the ice and then comes back to sit on the bench. and to the surprise of everybody actually starts playing in the game again. Listen, this league is it's not exactly transparent when it comes to its concussion protocol, so I can't say for certain

that I feel extremely comfortable with Dylan coming back. That being said, I think they're pretty careful about it. And if he was cleared in the back to come back and play in the game, I mean, as you guys know, this guy's a thousand games into a career

where he's taken all sorts and manner of punishment. and one supposes he got the clearance to come back and play. I mean, I don't think it's one of these deals where it's like, well, it's your 1,000th game, so we'll look the other way on your broken orbital bone or whatever. Like, I don't think that's the way it works, so I assume that he's cleared. Now, the aftermath of this, if you're the devils,

is extremely frustrating because this is the kind of thing that happens in a game where then you win the game, right? You rally around your guys. There was a ton of fights after this incident. You're out on home ice, like the emotions are running high, and then they give up like two quick goals and they lose the game 5-3 to a division rival, a team that's chasing them.

And so if you're the devils, you've got to be a little bit frustrated right now with the overall response to what happened to Dylan last night because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many scraps like Cody Glass gets into, right? The ultimate comeuppance is on the scoreboard, and that's where they fell short last night. Stefan Nason.

I mean, he tried his best to stand up for his teammate. We were, Greg and I were talking about it at the break. He fell down numerous times trying to fight Vorkenov the second time. But I do want to focus on some of these other teams around the NHL, like the Devils, who had a fair level of frustration last night. How close attention are you paying to what's going on between the pipes in St. Louis, where Jordan Binnington is having a miserable season. He got pulled last night.

Wish is American. Of course he's looking at it. He's loving it. He was jawing with his head coach. And then we automatically pivoted. like, who cares about the blues? Let's talk about Canada. How big a story is this going to be

as we get closer and closer to the Olympics? Well, so there's two questions there. The first is that the blues goaltending situation this entire season has been an absolute joke. I mean, whether it's been Hofer or Bennington and both those guys have been absolute sieves analytically, I think they're the worst

goaltending tandem in the league right now. And so that brings us the second part of the question, which is the Olympics. And, you know, you can't help but notice that while Jordan Bennington is having one of the worst starts of his career, like everybody else that's chasing the Canadian Olympic crease is like playing out of their minds.

Like Logan Thompson's playing insanely well. Scott Wedgwood's having like the season of his career at a time when all of a sudden like he's been added to the big list of players for Olympic eligibility. It's kind of amazing that in this moment where Bennington definitely had the bag after playing as well as he did in the overtime of Four Nations. Like he's completely fallen apart at a time when the competition seems to be playing better and better with an eye towards at least making the roster if not trying to take the job away from Bennington.

Do you think Bennington will make the roster, though? I think there's a certain amount of loyalty in having him there. Because at the end of the day, I mean, like, there's something to be said for having the guy who still has on his resume backstopping a team as a rookie to the Stanley Cup and still has on his resume playing the best goaltending of his life in one of the biggest pressure situations for his country in the Four Nations tournament. I mean, recently, I mean, obviously, like the Olympics is more important than a fake made-up tournament. But, I mean, it doesn't change the fact he played extremely well in enemy territory.

Now, if you wanted to be cynical about it, you can say, well, the Olympics aren't in Boston. And that's a fair point when it comes to Jordan Bennington. The man seems to just play really well in Boston. So if you want to make that argument, I'm here for it. But I tend to believe that he'll probably still make the roster. Because if he doesn't make the roster, who are your three right now? You guys have probably Cocktailed napkin this a few times. Logan Thompson.

Who did you have second? I think Kemper, maybe. Darcy Kemper and Blackwood. And Blackwood? That was what Greg is our goalie expert. I defer to him on this. But I think those are the right choices. Yeah, I mean, Mac Black's, you know, legit and he's played really well. I mean, it's, it's kind of a shame that you, you know,

ignore his creasemate in the way that he's played in Colorado in favor of Blackwood. But, no, I mean, listen, the Canadian team is so good that they genuinely just need someone not to screw up. I mean, granted in four nations, Bennington was was better than that. But like, considering what they have up front, considering what they have on the blue line and and we can quibble as to whether the Americans have the better blue line than Canada does. I just think they need competence back there. But, you know, that's the thing about, like, the three guys you just mentioned, okay? None of them have Bennington's ceiling.

Like, we can be honest about that. Like, I'm not a big Jordan Bennington fan, but none of them have Bennington ceiling. None of them have those moments that we saw from Bennington in these pressure situations and doing what he did in overtime in the Four Nations. Like, none of those guys have done on their resume. A couple of them don't even have a Stanley Cup. Right? So, like, it's, if there's something to be said for bringing the guy with the highest feeling, bringing the guy where if he actualizes and plays a great game, you know you're going to get an effort that can win you a gold medal versus bringing three guys that you're just hoping for competency at best. I think you just want Bennington in there, wish.

I think you want it for the drama. I mean, sure. I mean, listen, Binnington, Max Domi, like, you got to populate your roster with gamers. Got real go-getters. That's how I feel about it. Man, this is going to be fun. This is going to be fun. Wish, what do you doing? Did you hear the interview with Pete DeBore, who was scouting the arena over in Italy,

and he went on with Kipper and Bourne yesterday, and he said, the ice surface, it looks like it's going to be smaller than NHL rink standards by probably three or four feet. He said, I don't understand how that happened. He said, I don't believe it's a huge difference. difference, but I believe there is a difference, and it's on the smaller, not the bigger side. What the hell is going on with this arena? I mean, clearly, whoever designed the arena wants Tom Wilson and the Olympics, that's first of all. If you're playing in a rink the size of a postage stamp, chances are

Tom Wilson is probably going to be on your team. Listen, every single, I've covered four Olympics. I'm not covering this one. Emily has the honor of going over there and doing the yeoman's work on this, on site for hockey for us. But I've covered four Olympics and every single time there are facility issues, you know, whether it's we don't know how to make the bike thing or, you know, the water in the diving pool is a different color than it should be. There's always these issues.

Oh, yeah, there's always, I was, I covered that story. It was incredible. The one thing I'll miss about the, not covering the Olympics this year is, is not necessarily just the hockey, but I was the person when I worked at Yahoo, who went to all of the IOC press briefings and like it is incredible I would fill my notebook with these examples of incompetency that come out of these games every single day it's incredible but as far as the dimensions of the ice surface go like clearly it's the first we're hearing of it and and it is astonishing that there could be such an oversight maybe they tried to squeeze in another row of seats for iOC MVP's

or something along those lines but you know listen I think they'll get it done But it is getting a little late. I mean, even in some of the calls I've been having with people around the league, like, not NHLHQ, I should say. But like, it is getting a little late for these types of stories and these types of concerns to be floating in the air about the Olympic facilities because, I mean, we're like two months away, basically, until the tournament starts.

And it's kind of amazing that we're having these conversations. I wish we were talking earlier in the week about how many Canadian teams we expect to miss the playoffs. and I think we set the over under at two and a half or something like that one of those teams that we were debating

and there was a bubble team in our mind was the Winnipeg Jets what do you make of what's happened to them because I think this is more than them just missing Connor Hellebuck, isn't it?

Well it's also them missing McEilers and them playing in a division that I think is a lot better than what many imagined you know as far as not only as far as the relevancy of the Chicago Blackhawks, but maybe Utah's a little bit better than people thought when they're on their game.

And clearly, you know, Minnesota has leveled up significantly since Walson joined the team. According to our friends, it's staff elites, the Winnipeg Jets still have an over 50% chance of making the playoffs. It's based on, you know, the current roster. It's based on Helibuck coming back. So they're not out of the wilderness. I mean, you know, as far as the trouble that they're having right now

and some of these absolute stinkers they've been putting out since Alabok got hurt or I should say after until from when he had surgery, he's been hurt. But I, you know, I could still see them wiggling their way into a wildcard spot

in that conference, but the math has certainly, I think, changed for them a little bit vis-a-vis the central division. How many Canadian teams do you think we'll make it? we could go through like we decided on how many you decide at least

at least three so we said three and we were down to Ottawa Winnipeg Edmonton and Montreal we said three of the four will make that

right who's who's your third like obviously we assume Edmonton and well we said we listed four teams and we were like well three of them we'll make it so we went Ottawa I think we did auto and Montreal is like a singular entity

like one of them will make it and then the other two were Winnipeg and Evanton yeah don't love my Winnipeg pick right now I'll go two I think too I think I think I think I think you're right on either Montreal or Ottawa and frankly like the way that

Ottawa played with Brady Kichick out of the lineup was was pretty admirable and you know they're both not on the right side of goal differential right now I have a bit more confidence, I think, in Ottawa's goaltending than I do Montreal's right now. And, you know, Ottawa's already has, I know both teams made the playoffs last year, but Ottawa I think was a little bit more impressive in doing so.

I'll take Ottawa in Edmonton. I kind of believe in the Bruins a little bit right now. Like, it's kind of stunning that they're as relevant as they are, considering I think we all assume that this might be the continuation of a sell-off this year if they kind of fall out of the playoff picture. But, you know, Marco Sturm has him playing a decent system. They're getting goal scoring from Trimke and offense from Pasternak when he's healthy. I mean, you know, they're kind of dogged.

They're the kind of team that you can see finishing in the last wild card and then getting eliminated in the first round, but that still means they're a playoff team. So is Brad Marchan the type of guy that just talks up his opponent now before decimating that opponent? Because it just seems like he loves to do that because he had some quotes about any critics of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And he said, if you think that your playoff dreams

are done 25 games in, you have bigger problems. I know they don't think that in the room. It's just obviously with the media attention and the fan support they have in Toronto, things get blown way out of proportion up there. Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs are last in the Eastern Conference. Let me talk about Marshan for a second,

about what you just said. And by the way, one of the reasons he's probably saying that is that the Florida Panthers are a scant 0.021 points percentage ahead of Toronto at this point. So when he's talking about people saying seasons are over, there might be a little bit of a putting over his own team and protecting the leaves. But I had a ton of conversations with Brad during the playoffs last year. He is a guy that likes to hold court to no one's surprise after practices. and I got the sense when it comes to the Leafs. I think there's like this perception of, you know, the rivalry with the Panthers and obviously the whole situation

with the Bruins over the years and the Leafs, that it's kind of probably ingrained that he wishes for the worst for that team. And I'm not saying that's not necessarily true. But I am saying that in my conversations with him, I get the sense that he does feel a certain amount of sympathy for the players in that team insofar as the press, pressure that you feel in that city to succeed. And if the words come out of his mouth, putting the Leafs over as, you know, you know,

talking about their plate and being complimentary or what have you, I think part of that is him genuinely feeling like it's unfair that those guys are in the same boat as the Panthers, but, you know, the Panthers have three people covering their team and Toronto has half the city covering their team. So, like, I always felt like there's a certain amount of sympathy coming from Marchand in that instance. And I'm sure that's why that manifests in the things that he says about the leaves. Maybe it's guilt for all the big goals that he scored against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Listen, man, there was a, I'm sure, before he won the cup and fell absolutely in love with South Florida, there certainly was, on his mind, the option of playing in Toronto and being the guy that tries to help them get over the hump.

Like, that's a real thing. Oh, for sure. you know I listen I'm sure like everybody else in this league that doesn't wear the blue leaf there's a certain amount of joy in schadenfreude and watching this team struggle and that's probably not alien to Marchand but I do think that he has a little bit more sympathy not only because of his loyalties as a kid but also like because he genuinely feels bad for the amount of pressure these guys have to play under he wish the connects are in Colorado tonight think they got a chance oh when do we when do we start saying him

Mary's. Listen, you have a chance to go to overtime. I mean, that's pretty much a thing that we know about these avalanche. I was talking with our stats guy at ESPN, Vin Massey, who does a really good job. And we were talking about whether or not the avalanche based on their current, you know, status and the trend lines could challenge that Boston regular season points record. And he made the point that, like, you can't do it through charity points. Like, you got to win a bunch of games in regulation. And I think that's the one, like, they have a very interesting record right now insofar as how many times they've gone to overtime and then how many loser points they picked up for being a team that's that good.

It doesn't diminish what they've accomplished. I mean, I think at last check to the best offensive and defensive team in the league, they're a legit juggernaut. But they're not infallible. I mean, nobody in this league is infallible. And I think everybody, you know, not to parrot a Gary Bettman line, but every time you watch a game, there's a chance either team could win. It's not, it's not, it's not like it's the first week of a college football season where Ohio State is playing, you know, a community college. Yeah, the connects sometimes feel like Appalachian State, although they did have that big upset once. Didn't they go into Michigan and win?

You need a new one now. You need like South Carolina A&T or something like that. Sorry, go ahead. Does your description of the Vancouver Canucks as a, as a D1A college team, does that run a foul of Michael Bublae or are you guys sort of like

allowed to talk smack? I don't have that. I don't have the bandwidth for that discords. I don't want to be entered into this contest because, man. Also, Frank's on the show tomorrow. So we're going to just kind of escape right on past

that entire thing. Who did he, like was there a raining Vancouver Canucks super fan before Bubele market corrected them or has he always been prime superfan? He's had the mantle for a while. I was close to a decade, I would say. And then prior to that. And he knows a team.

He's not just kind of like wearing his jersey and saying I'm from Vancouver and I'm a Canucks fan. Yeah, no, he's a real, he's legit. Yeah, he's legit. Like he might have, he might be on like message boards or Reddit arguing with other fans about the team. There's a chance. There's a good chance. That's really funny.

You know who used to do that, for real, was John Hamm? Like, John Ham was a... With the Blues? Well, I don't know if he did it for the Blues, but he definitely did it for the Cardinals. Like, he was a super St. Louis Cardinals fan and still is. And he used to actually go into the... And this is a shared experience for the three of us.

He used to go into the Deadspin comments and argue with people about baseball. Like, that's what John Hamm used to do. By the way, the devil's super fans went from Saturday Night Lives Joe Piscopo to clerk's director Kevin Smith to I believe now

putty from Seinfeld is probably the That's a pretty legendary run I'm not good That's a pretty legendary run Don't don't don't Don't you know Winks in the face of Michael Blueblade

That's a good cut of fan you have there Compared to you know Joe Piscopo Wish always fun buddy Enjoy the games This week and Check in on the Canucks tonight To make sure they're okay in Colorado

and we'll talk again next week, pal. It would be a shame if they kept losing games and had to think about, you know, trading away Quinn Hughes. Okay, bye now. We're saying goodbye now. Goodbye. Greg Muszynski. Goodbye, Gregory.

Gregory Wichinsky. From ESPN here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Managed to get in all the inflammatory stuff at the end. Okay, we got to go. How are we going to handle this with Frank tomorrow? I don't know. I don't know. I don't we got any ideas

He was on yesterday I'm really looking forward to it though I texted Sam We were on a group thread And he didn't reply Which I thought was very ominous And I said how did it go yesterday Right?

Yeah Because they had Frank on Connect Central It seemed like it was a very I wonder how the text inbox was That's what I'm wondering We should do a conference call Bring in Boubley and hash it out Live on the air

I don't want to go within 10,000 feet of this thing I want no part of it whatsoever I mean Bublai started it Oh no now we're See that you're getting within the 10,000 But I didn't like Frank's retort. It's unnecessary.

We're getting closer and closer to the epicenter of this. We need to distance ourselves. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I just told us to break. We got a break. We can do a break. Here's a, um... Here's a Duick read. Yeah.

Sorry, guys. Love the car. Sorry about this. This whole segment was brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody meets a Duick deal since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond.

visit them online at duick auto group.com. Hour one is in the books. Brendan Batchel is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.