Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Have Still Yet To Play A Game With A Full Lineup

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk last night's Canucks OT loss to the Capitals (6:00), plus they chat with PWHL Senior VP of Hockey Ops & Canadian Women's Hockey great Jayna Hefford (26:54)  on yesterday's sold out PWHL Takeover Tour matchup at Rogers Arena. 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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da! 6-0-1 on a Thursday! Happy Thursday, everybody! It is Alfred at his brow,. 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. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Regular Zach, good morning to you.

Good morning. Halford and Brough for 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 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 Kintec studio. Kintec, footwear and orthotics, working together with Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Footwear and Arthotics working together with you in step. Kintec. Nope, still don't have it. Guest list today begins at 6 30. We are going to be joined by Jaina Hefford. She is the senior vice president of hockey ops for the PWHL and last night Marie Marie Philippe Poulin scored twice as her Montreal Victoire. I'm working on all my pronunciation this morning.

How's that going for you? Not bad. They down the Toronto Scepters 4-2 Wednesday in the first ever PWHL game in Vancouver at Roger's Arena. 19,000 people there, over 19,000. They set a record for the biggest midweek attendance in PWHL history.

Way to go Vancouver. So we'll talk to Jane Hefford about that at 630. Seven o'clock Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join the program. We are just two days away from the start of wild card weekend, get started Saturday afternoon with the Chargers and the Texans. It ends on Monday night between the Rams and the Vikings

We're not sure where that game is gonna be played yet We can look ahead to all of the games with Nick We can also ask him if Bill Belichick is already headed back to the National Football League We'll explain more later in the show. He said he's saying there. He said he's staying at UNC. Oh, he said it did he? Yeah, yeah He's staying there. I bet you stand there 8 UNC. Oh, he said it, did he? Yeah, yeah. He's staying there. I bet you he's staying there. Eight o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program.

Of course, we will discuss last night's two-one loss, Vancouver Canucks in Washington against the Capitals. If you're wondering, wait, it's Thursday. It is Thursday. Rick's moving off his usual Friday slot today. Thomas Drance will be taking his spot tomorrow. I don't know as the designated Rick Dollywell handler, if you reached out to him last night or vice versa, but Rick will be joining

us at eight o'clock to talk about all things Connect. I think we might talk a little bit about Rick Tuckett's future because that is starting to gain some momentum now that some reports are out there about what his contract actually is. The mutual option contract. Yeah, I mean, it's a team option, but he has the right to say, like, no, thanks to your option. So Rick Dollywell is going to join us at eight. Nick Shook is going to join us at seven. Gina Hefford is going to join us at six thirty. Big guest list ahead. We got a lot to get into.

So without further ado, Zach, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. Let's tell everybody 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. Pierre-Luc Dubois. New mortal enemy of the Vancouver Canucks scored his second goal of the game late in overtime. Washington Capitals beat your Vancouver Canucks 2-1 on Wednesday

night. If there's any silver lining specifically for the Halford and Bruff show, it's at Vancouver's streak of loser points rolls on, on this road trip. That's two now out of the five games on the road. We can only imagine what will be in store for Carolina, Toronto, and then Winnipeg. All in all, it was a good performance by the Canucks who are once again without Elias Pedersen. And, you know, despite all their injuries, the one thing that you have to say is

that they're not getting dominated in games. Nope, they really aren't. Even in a game like the one a few games ago against Nashville where they were shut out, they weren't dominated by the preds. I mean, that's not exactly congratulations. You didn't get dominated by Nashville at home, but I don't think they're playing terribly. They're just without some key players right now and the defense is not good. It's just not. I mean, it needs, it's missing Hronik and it needs something more than that anyway.

The Canucks outshot the Caps 31 to 18 last night, marking the first time Vancouver reached 30 shots in like 15 games. I think Shorty mentioned on the broadcast, it was the second longest streak in franchise history of not getting to 30 shots. I don't know who's keeping all those records, but I mean, I had noticed it.

And I think a lot of other people had noticed how many times you would turn on the game. Maybe you missed part of it and you're like, we only got seven shots and it's like halfway through the game. So last night was a little bit different. What wasn't different was that Quinn Hughes was incredible for the Canucks.

He logged over 27 minutes on the night with an assist on the Canucks' only goal of the game, a power play market by Connor Garland in the second period. If only Hughes had not been trapped in the penalty box for the Canucks' four minute power play in the first, I know there was a lot of people that were saying, you gotta get a whistle, gotta get a whistle. Shoot the puck at the goalie. Yeah, but honestly, well, everyone was thinking it. Everyone was thinking it, but.

It's like, stop the play. Yeah, how? Dranse suggested to talk at post game that you intentionally flutter a puck towards the goalie and then crash the net to it. Yeah, well, thatutter a puck towards the goalie and then crash the net to and shoot the goalie. That's a problem for the Canucks. They can't get shots on goal.

Except for last night. 31 of them last night. Yeah, but not on that power play, not without Quinn Hughes. Yeah, it was frustrating and Quinn Hughes noted his frustration after the game. Yeah. We've got the audio here, correct?

The Quinn Hughes audio. So Hughes has done a really good job as the captain and he actually references a lot of maintaining that balance. Like he's very much the embodiment of don't let the highs get too high and don't let the lows get too low. And I did notice that last night, he managed to maintain a really even kill,

but he was very terse and very short in his responses. We'll let you see what you think. Dear listeners here is Quinn Hughes following a 2-1 OT loss. Another overtime loss for the Vancouver Canucks, this time in Washington. Yeah, well, I think we're a good team. So they're a good team, but we're a good team too. And, you know, we battled through a lot of adversity this year. I don't think we've had our full lineup yet this year.

But guys are playing really hard right now and yeah, we're a good team too so we expect to get two points against any team. There was a good effort last night. I think we said this. Actually, the second period was very good. They held Washington without a shot for 11 minutes in the second period. If you go and read the gamers from the Washington side to things, so I went and read the AP one, courtesy of our friend to the show, Steven Wynow. He actually said that coach Spencer Carberry will still have a lot to be unhappy about despite this win. He went on to say that

it was another sluggish performance from the Caps. He said the Canucks had a lot to do with that. All of these things though, are kind of being mitigated by the fact that the Canucks keep losing games. The overtime losses now, as much as this become like a jokey meme for our show, you can tell that the players, particularly the captain, Quinn Hughes and the coach, Rick Tauke, are getting frustrated with the fact that they are by far, by far the leaders. And I like to use like NHL best, not NHL worse, but NHL tops among teams that can't get it done in overtime or the shootout.

Cause at the end of the day, it's still a loss. Um, the Canucks are now three and nine in overtime and maybe that's partly bad luck, but the coverage, I mean, the coverage on the capitals winning goal was not good. All three Canucks on the ice following Alexei Protas into the corner.

Uh, he was then able to feed Dubois who was wide, wide open to come in and deke Lankinen. You watch the replay and Miller lost his stick behind the Canucks net and he wasn't able to defend. Clearly at least one of Myers or Debrusque, probably Debrusque, cause he's the forward, should have hung back in the middle of the ice or at the very least, you know, turn your head to see what was

going on behind you. Just, just take a look. Um, you know, that was, that was the worst part of the night for the Canucks. I don't know, overall, it was a good performance. That was not a good moment. Um, let's, uh, let's talk about when the Canucks might have a full lineup because there's a couple

of things here. They're missing Pedersen and they're missing Hronik. There's kind of news on both those guys. First of all, that Pedersen is getting close to playing and Tockett said in the morning, he was just like, you know, like you can go through the doctors and you ask them if he's ready to go and then you just have to go to the player and say,

are you comfortable playing? So clearly I think what he was saying is that Pedersen's been cleared to play, but it's just a matter of when he is feeling comfortable enough to play. And the Canucks really need him at this point. And you know, Quinn Hughes is out there playing and he's got a bad hand, clearly.

He's not a hundred percent. Um, and listen, I'm not saying that, that, that PD's just like, oh, I'm not, I don't want to, I don't want to play right now. And I'm, I'm not as tough as, you know, Quinn Hughes or whatever. I'm just saying like they need them back. Yes.

They need this guy back and they need them back playing at a high level. And as for Hronek, there's some good news here. He is headed down to Abbotsford on a conditioning stint, not to play games, but he is going to practice down there. And I want to play Rick Tocket, uh, talking about Hronik, uh, after the game last night, because the news had come out during the day that he would be going

down to Abbotsford, a conditioning stint. It sounds like Philip Hronik has been working real hard at coming back and maybe he's a little ahead of schedule. Well, I think, well, he's been really training hard, like really hard. Now, I don't know if it's accelerated the date, but I will say he's expedited a lot of things because of the way he's worked. So I give him a lot of credit and he'll be going down there and practicing, so I don't know when he's going to be back. But I will tell you, he's expedited a lot of things on his rehab. You weren't expecting to play though, down there? Where?

You're not going to get into games down there? No, no, no, no, no, no. He'd kill me if I went out there. No, no. Okay, so he's not going to play games for Abotsford, which apparently was a thing on social media yesterday. Hironic has been out exactly six weeks since he fell awkwardly into the boards against the Penguins.

At the time of the injury, they said it would be approximately eight weeks. So I think that's what they're talking about it being expedited here is that it looks like he might return a little earlier, although... So when do you think they're going to have a full lineup? Can they squeeze it into this trip? I doubt it. Can they get him? No, God, no.

Can they, can they expedite him on Tuesday when they take on the Jets? I really doubt it. No. Maybe first game back after the, after the road trip. Yeah, but Dak is out too. Yeah.

But he's not on a long-term injured reserve. He's retroactive to the third. None of the guys are on long-term injuries. Yeah. But I'm saying like none of them are longer than what this trip might be. So maybe it'll be that first game back after the. I don't know. I think Herodot is going to take a little time.

He can stay in a conditioning loan for two weeks. Yeah. So the part. Then he could come up after and still just be practicing with the Canucks. Yeah. Like this is him skating with Abbotsford and getting puck touches and that sort of thing. It's, it's, it's really just so he can skate with someone out there and not just by himself.

I think the news that he got the conditioning loan, if there's one thing to be taken from it's like, there's kind of a light at the end of the tunnel now for this group. Yes. Which is, um, Demko has survived the back spasms and Pedersen sounds as though he's ready to return and Hironic is now pushing himself to that next level

where he's gonna skate with the American League team and Joshua, fingers crossed, although he was very ineffective when he was in the lineup. I mean, I've got a list of the guys that haven't scored in a while, which we can get to in a sec. So one texter into the Dunbar Lumbertex line pushed back on when I said, I think they're playing fine.

I think they're playing okay, considering all the injuries that they have and the state of the blue line. Do you agree with that? Last night? No, just in general, just in general. Like I don't think they've been awful. No, I don't think they've been awful. Considering what they've got, The injuries and the blue line,

which needed help even before Hronik went out and before Hughes went out. I don't think they're playing terribly. Yes. There was a horrible breakdown in overtime. Yes, that's, that's, that can't happen. But I think considering what they've got right now, they're treading water. They're getting points. They got a point in Montreal. And maybe that felt like a lost point

because they had a lead, but Washington, very good team. They went in there. They got a point. Well, they dominated statistically last night in terms of, you know, possession, shot metrics, all that stuff against the top three team in the NHL. And Washington has been very good at home this year. I think they only had four regulation losses at home this year. I think they only had four regulation losses

at home this year. I understand where people's frustration is because the moments of struggle have almost always, over this last little bit, correlated with losing games. It's come in these big, loud, unfortunate errors, a lot of them in overtime, and then a lot of them at end of games when they're trying to close out leads.

Yes. So I get that. I get why. Seattle end of the game was a disaster, but for 55 minutes they played well. But if you. And listen, listen, I'm not home or radio. You know me.

I'm not, I'm not a guy that's just like, going to be like, let's look at the positives. But I just think overall, they're not playing terribly considering the circumstances. One of those like societal tests. If you were to ask people now, uh, retroactively what they thought about that loss against Seattle, I bet you a lot of people would just instinctively

say the Canucks played like garbage. Like that was junk. That was terrible. I can't believe they did that because they blew the lead at the end. Yes. A lot of people aren't looking at it and saying for 55 minutes, they were by far the better

team against Seattle. Drantz didn't think so for some reason when we were working the show. He's like, I thought Seattle was all right. I'm like, I don't know what game you were watching. Seattle looked terrible. Well, maybe people are somewhat conflating like a boring style of play sometimes and lack of scoring chances with not playing well. There is that.

I mean, they're playing, as Ruff said, as good as they can based on what they have probably, which still isn't great because they don't have a lot, but I mean, I don't know how you could expect much more right now. I mean, they have what they have. Look at the blue line that they've got right now. It's an AHL blue line pretty much. Except for Hughes. Other than obviously Hughes.

And you know, Tyler Myers is playing way too much. And I thought it was like, it's the picking on Myers has started up again because he's playing too much. He's their second best defenseman right now. I noticed he tried to do that huge spinorama on the power play and I was like, oh my God, what's he doing? Well, Susie is an absolute shell of himself.

I know he actually saved a goal last night defensively, but with the puck, like he has no confidence with the puck right now. And then you're asking Juleson to be a puck mover. You're asking who, Forbert to be a puck mover. I mean, I do wonder if Brandstrom might get into a game soon. They must think so little of Brandstrom's defensive game. Like, I want to, I want to like underline, illustrate, highlight, whatever, how little they must think of his defensive game, because they have no options on the blue line right now,

but they still are confident sitting them out for multiple games in a row. Well, you know, on the winning goal in overtime, everyone was so quick to leap at Tyler Myers. I'm watching that and I'm like, what is the brusk doing? Yep. Why are you going into the corner? Like what, that's not what your position does. Like if, if anyone's going to go into the

corner and follow a guy with the puck, it's the defenseman. What is the brusk doing back there? He's the guy that left Dubois wide open, not Tyler Myers. So I want to start paying attention. People are just ready to leap on any mistake that this defense makes, and I get it.

Yeah, I get it. I get it, especially Myers, because he's playing a lot, and he was the guy running the power play when Quinn Hughes was in the box, and it did not go well. No. It did not go well. Myers shouldn't be out in three on three overtime. On any other team in the NHL that has got Stanley Cupper playoff aspirations, he's not a guy that's an option in overtime.

No, I mean for the connection it should be Hughes and Hronik and that should be the only two guys and then maybe another guy that isn't on the team right now. You have maybe reached the point where you could make a viable argument that you should play three forwards in overtime, as opposed to playing one of the defensemen that they currently have not named Quinn Hughes. Because at that point I'd say it's a coin toss as to whether you're gonna get the same kind of coverage

from an actual defenseman as opposed to a forward. Now, a lot of this, and there's a real divide here about Rick Taukett's approach, strategy, deployment, all that stuff, and then the guys that he's forced to use in those moments. And I'm gonna start paying attention to this more and more because it sounds like there's these little moments in Rick Taukocket's media availability where

he's becoming he's already he's obviously cognizant of it but he's he's less afraid to mention the fact that especially on defense he's got one guy that he can play and one guy only so there was some audio from yesterday in the scrum following the loss in Washington where IMAC asks him this question I think we've got it in the audio but I'll just reiterate it if Tocket is shocked at the team's record in overtime in the shootout, which is what, three and eight, three and nine now,

despite the guys that he has at his disposal, basically, how can you be losing this many games with the amount of good players that you have? Tauket's answer was pretty interesting. We'll play the entire clip, we'll pick it up on the other side. Rick Tauket being asked about overtime and the guys that he can play and not play following a 2-1 overtime loss in Washington last night. Is it hard to

believe with what you have on this team that you haven't won more games over time? Well, you know, we can't play Hughes the whole game. I mean, so I don't know. I don't have an answer for that. You know, we had some chances. Unfortunately, what happened? So you did have an answer for it. The answer was you can't play Hughes the whole game. And that's kind of where they're at with the blue line.

That's that's where it is. They have we thought, you know, it's funny sometimes we look at trying to identify all the problems with the team and why isn't this working? Why isn't that working? Why is the shot generation there? Or why is it not there? And sometimes you look at it and you're like,

your best defenseman is playing through noteworthy hand injury. You don't have your second best defenseman. And as we said time and time again Susie and Myers are a 5-6 maybe a solid five but a five five six defensemen on a good team yeah right now four or five yeah okay whatever but with the point being is they're being deployed as top end guys right now. And. And Susie is struggling.

And Susie's probably playing the worst hockey that he's played since he joined the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah. So it's not like you're getting, let's call him a five. It's not like you're getting a five that's been elevated and he's holding his own. Yeah. You're getting a five that's elevated. He's like, I'm playing like a seven or an eight.

Like he looks yippy with the puck. And when there's no pressure on. Yeah. Sometimes it's like he's handling grenades right now. Yeah. And it's, you know, now I want to point to another thing when people are talking about, while the offense has dried up, the shot generation is low and they're not scoring enough goals. Um, one thing that's, I mean, I know it's, it was bound to happen inevitably

because you can't count on depth guys to score at the rate they were going. But remember earlier in the year, we were like, don't worry about, you know, Pedersen and Miller not scoring goals because Sherwood's putting them in with regularity. Pugh Souter was the leading goal scorer at one point. Sherwood's got one goal in 10 games.

Kiefer Sherwood's offense has kind of returned to where you expected it to be for Sherwood, right? Is Nils Hoeglund ever going to score again? No. You could actually see his frustration last night when he went offside ahead of Max Sassen early in the game. Hoeglund had plenty of time to stop up and he

just realized it too late and he took away a good chance for Sassen and Hoeglund had given Max Sassen the pass. It was really nice pass. Sassen's got speed. He might've been able to get in there on a really good chance and then Hoagie just goes offside and then he's like, realized at the last

second, oh, I should probably drag my leg here. And it was like way too late. They're really, you know, there is a lot to like about Hoaglander from a raw tools perspective. We all know he's got talent and he's got a motor. The Pepperpot. It's the hockey IQ and it's the, it's the bad penalties. And you know, last season he had 24 goals, all at even strength.

And I know some of the times he was playing up in the lineup. So that helped him. And this season he hasn't, but he's got two goals. Yeah. Two. Yeah. And, and, and, and, you know, he's taken bad penalties, you know, the one against Montreal,

not smart. Remember how you used to say that you, you thought when his name kept resurfacing in trade conversations, you're like, you could probably sell a nice story about Hogelander that this year was the anomaly. And, you know, this is a guy that scored 24 goals, all of them at even strength, like a fantastic

five on five. Yeah, the story is getting less effective now. It would be very hard pressed to sell that, I think right now for what's going on because, uh, like goal scoring droughts of this nature are pretty egregious. There's guys that can go double digits games without finding the back of the net.

But again, this is a guy that did all his damage at five on five. It's not like there was a asterisk to last year's 24 goals saying like, yeah, but he feasted out with the man advantage or he scored a bunch of empty net goals. Like he came by them honestly and earnestly and you thought, well, here's a guy that doesn't need to have all of these primo

opportunities to score. He just goes out and makes it happen. That's completely gone from his game. Yeah. Like they're snake bitten. I get that part, but this goes way beyond bad luck. This is like an inability to read plays,

zero confidence, zero confidence whatsoever. And at a time where you're struggling to score goals and you need somebody to step up, it sure would be nice if the guy that put in 24 last year could do it. So Rogers Arena was busy last night with a hockey game, but not a Canucks game. It was a PWHL game, over 19,000 people there for the women's hockey game. And one of the top executives from the PWHL and former international player, Jaina Hefford is going to join us next, talk about what she

saw last night in Vancouver. And we'll ask her the question, could Vancouver get a PWHL team at some point? Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro from conference rooms to kitchenettes and everything in between, Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean, and disinfected. For a free quote, visit JanPro.ca.

You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drantz. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 PM on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. Thomas Drance will dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. On Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. It's too early for this, eh, Doug? Nope.

It's way too early for this. Nope. I know it's thrash Thursday, but it's... Never too early for some thrash, bro. It is actually. There is an actual hour of the day where it is too early for thrash. Let's hope it's not this hour. And 6.32 on a Thursday is

you are listening to the Halferd and brush show on sports net 650 half in front 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 our one of the program. Jane Hefford is going to join us in just a moment here. PWHL senior vice president of hockey ops talk about last night's game at Rogers

arena. Our one of this program 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. Last night it was Marie Philippe Poulin scoring twice as Montreal down Toronto. Yay Toronto lost 4-2 Wednesday in the first ever professional women's hockey league game at Rogers Arena. Joining us now as mentioned, Jayna Hepford here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet

650. Good morning Jayna, how are you? Good morning, I'm doing great. What did you think of that big crowd in Vancouver last night? It was incredible. The energy in the building obviously, you know, sold out. It was just, it was electric. It was rocking. You know, the players, I know, love the experience and we're thrilled

with how the game went last night. What's it been like for you to put together this barnstorming tour of all the cities where there aren't PWHL teams, but cities like Vancouver, which might want one. You know, it's been really fun. It's a great opportunity for us to bring the PWHL experience to new markets, allow fans to experience what our games are like firsthand. We think it's just an amazing opportunity for people to see the best players in the world.

The games are fun, they're exciting, there's so much energy in the building. So it's been really great to be able to do this and we're only on game two. We've got seven more in the takeover tour, but it's been really a wonderful experience so far. So when you were growing up, what hockey players did you look up to? Because I think, I mean, I'm speaking personally here, but I think it's so important for girls to have these players in professional leagues, for someone to look up to and say like, one day I want

to be on, you know, Montreal Victoire, like Mary Philippe Poulin is, or something like that. How was it for you when you were growing up? Yeah, I didn't have that. I looked at the NHL. I was a big Wayne Gretzky fan. I dreamed when I was a young girl of playing in the NHL. Of course, you get to an age where you realize simply because of your gender that is something

that's not going to happen. My dreams changed to be a hockey player and play for the national team and play in the Olympic games when I saw the first Women's World Championships on television. So as Billie Jean King always says, you have to see it to be it. When I saw that first World Championships, all of a sudden, something clicked for me that that was now what I wanted to be because i could see it uh... and now the opportunity that the pw h l provide for so many young girls uh... it's

it's game-changing and uh... it's exciting uh... we have best players in the world into people for people to be able to see this on a consistent basis and for those that get there if you live game uh... and be immersed by it i i know there's so many young girls that are being x inspired every time our players step on the ice to see a live game and be immersed by it. I know there's so many young girls that are being inspired every time our players step on the ice.

A lot of them as well, the volume of fans last night. So it's 19,038 in attendance on Monday. Biggest midweek attendance in PWHL history leads me to the question about expansion. Is that something that's on the horizon for the league? Yeah, absolutely. You know, we've been pretty public that we're looking at expanding up to two teams as early as next season. So we haven't committed to anything yet, but we're certainly doing a lot of work to learn

about markets that might be ready to do this. And certainly, you know, these first two games play in Seattle and then of course Vancouver last night, the excitement in the market, the want to have a team here. But there's a lot of other things we look at, economic opportunities, what youth hockey looks like, what venues are available. So there's a lot of things that go into it, but we certainly are looking closely at this market and if last night's any indication of what we could do here, it would be pretty special.

So from a business perspective, the league is wholly owned by the Mark Walter Group. So it's not like the NHL, which has individual owners for each team. Will it eventually get to the point where it will be individual owners of each franchise, perhaps in the next expansion, or would the two new teams or however many get added in the next two years, if that does happen, would those teams still be owned by the Mark Walter group? Yeah our business

structure is not going to change in the short term but you know over the course of time anything could happen depending on what Mark Walter chooses to do but right now we are a single entity so we own all the teams and that's how this future expansion would go in the near term anyways. Why did the previous leagues not work ultimately leading to the PWHL and why is this league going to work? Well, I think it starts with the investment as we just talked about. So you have someone like Mark Walter and our advisory

board and Stan Cast and Royce Cohen from the Los Angeles Dodgers. We have Billie Jean King and Alana Kloss. And so the people at the top and the investment that's been made to get this off the ground is game changing. We haven't seen anything like this in women's hockey in the past. And so when you, you know, match that with having all the best players in the world that are able to compete in one league.

And then of course, you know, this point in time where women's sports is certainly on the rise and it doesn't seem to be just a fad or a trend. Women's sports isn't going anywhere and the excitement and demand for it is real. And we're seeing that every market we step into, which is really exciting. Why do you think women's sport is on the rise? Well, I think there's been increased visibility in the last number of years. I think that, you know, the next generation has

different expectations as it relates to equity in our day-to-day lives. And so they see female athletes as not different than male athletes and for many years women athletes just haven't had the opportunity to compete consistently, had a platform where people could see them or had investment behind them and now we're seeing that across basketball, soccer and now hockey where you have real investment and it's creating business opportunities for people that are really appealing. And so now we're seeing the women's sports being looked at as a business

and no longer sort of a right to do or a charity. And that's changed everything. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good point too. And it's, you know, the WNBA this season, you know, it wasn't, it definitely wasn't like one of those, well, you should watch this because of equity in society. It was, it was people were genuinely very

interested in the Caitlin Clark story and everything that, that, that kind of arose from that, even the controversy stuff. It was a bit soap opera-ish, which is kind of what sports is. What can the PWHL learn from other women's leagues like the WNBA? Yeah.

I mean, we look to the WNBA as a leader. They're I think 28 years old now. We looked at the NWSL and what they're doing. Um, and you know, I think we just want to, you know, continue to increase the visibility of our athletes and tell the athletes stories. And I think that's what people are falling in love with. And then they're looking after that at that quality of play and the talent out there.

And it's just, it's exciting that the fandom is real. And to your point, people are now watching women's sports because they're a fan of teams, they're fans of athletes. teams or fans of athletes. And that's completely changed. You know, we get a lot of questions about what does it feel like to be in a building and all the young girls? And what does it mean? But now we're starting to get questions about the game and, you know, what did you think of this person's performance or what did you think?

Why did you make that coaching decision? And and so now people are looking at our sport as a fan of the sport and not just about what we should be doing and what's right. Yeah, well they certainly did last night in Vancouver. Again, awesome turnout for a very important game and it was cool to see it all unfold. Hey, Jaina, thanks for taking the time to do this today.

We really appreciate it. Best of luck with the remainder of the tour. Hope it all goes well. Did in Vancouver and hopefully we can get an expansion team here sometime soon. Yeah. Appreciate the support. Thanks, Jaina.

Jaina Hefford from the PWHL here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Uh, so let's return to the Dunbar Lumber text line here and any comments you have, you can text in on the Dunbar Lumber text line. Metro Vancouver's trust your choice contractors and Renault Warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. There was one texter who texted in and said that the Canucks were bullied last night.

And he even went as far to say as once the Canucks got bullied, Washington took over the game, to which I wonder if he saw the second period. Were they finished with 18 shots and one goal in regulation? I thought the Canucks stood up rather nicely to the likes of Tom Wilson and Pierre-Luc Dubois.

They stood up. They stood up. Now, you know my thoughts on the matter. Well, tell me your thoughts. My thoughts are it's been a recurring problem for this team this year, that when one of their players either gets laid out with a big open ice hit, clean or dirty, or there's liberties taken with

certain players, there's not enough of an immediate response. Okay. What did you think of last night? There was a response. It was okay. What do you want more of? Like, do you want Garland to take out Tom Wilson

or something? Okay, when Dubois had the first, let's call it fracas with Hughes, Sherwood jumps in, knocks him, that's good. When Dubois pushes Hughes to the ice, Dubois should be a dead man the moment that he gets out of the box. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I, that, that I, here's the thing. Preemptively. So you don't have to text it in, save your texts for your loved ones. I understand two things about that school of thought. I understand how neanderthalic it is. And I also understand that you run the risk of

taking a penalty and putting your team down a man and then scoring and potentially losing the game and losing the points. Like I think Hughes would have taken just being shoved to the ice by Dubois for that extra two minutes. Totally he would have. Now Hughes was probably upset that somehow he got a penalty out of all that and then there was no stoppage in play. So he was actually in the box longer than Dubois was, even though Dubois got a double minor and Hughes only got two minutes. That was the frustrating part of that.

But otherwise, I mean, I think the response for the Canucks would have been to score on the power play because. You know. It's hard not to argue with that. Because the sole purpose of being out. It was so dumb by Dubois to take that extra two. Sole purpose of being out on the ice is to win

the hockey game, get the points and stay in your playoff spot. I understand that, but you can't tell me that collectively, big picture, identifying yourself as more of a Wolfpack isn't equally important in that moment. I thought they were a Wolfpack. You can't have. They were. There was a bunch of scrums where every player on the ice was involved.

And I think that actually helped them in the game that kept them in the game. And I think overall, are we all agreeing that it was a pretty good performance last night, considering the circumstances again, Washington, they actually stood up for Hughes, which I was like, oh, they stood up for each other. Yeah. They stood up for each other. I mean, they don't have the guys like Tom Wilson is a tough dude. He is big and he is strong.

Asking someone on the Canucks to go over and beat him up is a tall task. It's not beating them up. It's challenging them. It's saying, you know what? Like I, there have been guys that have picked fights with bigger, stronger dudes and like, this is probably this is probably gonna end well for me It's and I like I'm not reinventing the NHL wheel here and saying this I see it all the time I'm okay if you want to say that the Canucks need more toughness in their lineup a little bit more pushback

I know day hard they tried. I know he tried he did they took a penalty Hey, I'm the sportsman like for it, and I know that he took a penalty that that put the Kinnock shorthanded. I know that's what I'm saying. And that's the bot scored. That's the risk of doing it. Yeah, right there. So I understand that this isn't like a perfect like argument. I'm saying from my opinion.

I mean, I've got I've said it in like adult beer league when one of our guys gets wrecked and I'm like, I can't believe we all just stood around And just let it happen Boy, am I getting tired of people? Pining for Nikita's it or off like he was some sort of star defenseman, you know, I get it I understand it but ask Bruins fans what they think of Zadorov right now They're not fans and I'm Canucks, like, I understand. It would have been nice if the Canucks could keep Zdorov on an affordable contract, but the contract he's got in Boston,

I don't want that. They're asking about Zdorov for this particular reason. Yes, I know. Yeah. Okay. I know. Because I feel bad because I brought this up. The Reese Johnson hit on Pettersson, this goes all the way back to December of 2023 when they're playing Chicago. And Zdorov, I don't even think Reese Johnson had time to blink between hitting Pederson and then having Zdorov, like it's go time. That's not an ask, that's not a question. This is me telling you it's go time. Here's the thing people, it doesn't have to be Nikita Zdorov, it can be anybody.

But they did last night. No, I know. They did last night. Yeah, but there's, I mean, in certain instances, I mean, it doesn't need to be a fight, I guess, cause that's the currency of the day in the league. I also think that you need to do it with some regularity, or the very least in these certain moments that

stand out where we're not cherry picking this We didn't you know go into the game and say you know what we're gonna isolate this As something we want to talk about we spent the first half hour of the program It ain't even mention it but the postgame show was littered with it the in basket was littered with it unprompted And this is about the fourth or fifth time there was the leckar aie hit, which game am I thinking of, where he got smoked at the beginning, the Montreal game where he got smoked by Gouli. Yeah. And there were reasons why that didn't elicit a response.

Hughes got smoked on the November 14th game when they were playing the Islanders. I think it was Siplikoff. And there were reasons and excuses why it didn't happen then. I was with you on those games. Yeah. But last night I wasn't, I thought they did their best to stand up to guys like Tom Wilson. And it's hard, like that's what Tom Wilson does.

That's why he gets this big contract in, in, in Washington. That's why there was talk about him maybe being on team Canada for the four nations, right? Like that's, that's why he won a Stanley Cup. Yeah, Tom Wilson's like one of five in the NHL. I put Sam Bennett in that category too, but they're, they're very unique players.

Yeah. They're tough to deal with. That's why you want. Tom Wilson, I think is a lot tougher than Sam Bennett. Right. But I'm just trying to put like, he's not worried. He's scary tough, right? Like he's like, he's like, you saw that, you know,

I think the one guy that I would say maybe could have gone over and fought him was Noah Juleson, right? They were jawing at each other, but I know Juleson's a tough guy, but Wilson is real tough. Yeah, well Wilson was like kinda egging him on. You see Juleson like the gears going in his head. Like, I probably could go over there and fight him. I don't know if I want to though.

He's a big dude. He is. Juleson was like, yeah, we're already down defensemen, so I don't wanna take a fight to though. He's a big dude. He is. Juleson was like, we're already down defensemen so I don't want to take a five point major. Too important to the team. So I'm number three defensive right now guys. And on site, on site text just came in, this is pretty funny.

Halford sounds like my wife telling me to do something often right after I've already done it, right. No, don't get me wrong. Guys tried last night. Sherwood jumped in. Dayharnay tried to get after him. Juleson tried to get me wrong. Guys tried last night. Sherwood jumped in. Day Harnay tried to get after him. Juleson tried to get after him. But I mean, I think what I'm referring to,

and maybe I need to make this a little bit more clear, is that it's been a trend through the first 40 plus games of this season where responses haven't been ideal. But I think last night was the absolute wrong time to bring it up as a problem, because I think they actually did stick up for each other. Yeah. And I like seeing that. I'm still gonna fire a little bit I think they actually did stick up for each other. Yeah.

I am still going to fire a little bit. I will admit, I'm still going to fire. I mean, I thought it was great. Like Connor Garland, I mean, he got crushed by Wilson behind the net, which I thought could have been a penalty. It was right at the end of the period and Wilson clearly instigated it, but you could see the size difference there.

Yep. I was like someone picking on a kid there. Yeah. Right? And Garland to his credit, he just hopped right back up and he was John at Wilson and he was annoyed, but you asked Connor Garland to do something to Tom Wilson, like he did a few times, he gave him a couple of crosschecks,

but that's all he can do. Yep. Oh yeah, Garland's not. And so I thought the Canucks, you know, they did stick and, and for people like someone should have jumped Dubois, Darren A tried, he got a penalty and then the cap scored. Is that what you want? Which is exactly what Dubois set out to do. Was like the thing is if you, if you jump someone, you better hope that

they're ready to fight, that you don't take the extra man, and then it's worth it. Sometimes you jump a guy and it's like, I didn't even manage to do anything to him, right? What are you going to do, really hurt him? Then you're in suspension territory. D.R.N.A. should have fought Tom Wilson. Should have been him.

Yeah, probably. There's one guy. He's big. Yeah, but another guy. It's pretty much have been him. Yeah private. There's one guy like he's big Yeah, but the other guy much wiser Myers doesn't know much. You know, they don't do it. I fight Who cares he can? When you're up against an experienced fighter your size just following the guy use your size Yeah, yeah, just just overpower. Yeah, lean on probably when Tom Wilson gets that right free He's like, I should be able to hang in here cuz I'm so big, but I keep getting punched in the face. He's like, I made a huge mistake.

Brendan in New West, it's tough to have a wolf pack mentality when you've got two of your alphas fighting each other and dividing the pack. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. All right, so what's next for the Canucks on this road trip? They go into Carolina on Friday and then Saturday in Toronto and they finish off the road trip Tuesday in Winnipeg at the risk of skipping

ahead past Carolina, because that's going to be a tough game. And we will talk about Carolina more probably tomorrow. I think Saturday in Toronto is going to be interesting because every time you're in Toronto, you got to face the music of the media there and the fact that it's Leafs Canucks Saturday night on hockey night in Canada. And you know that the broadcast is going to be

ready for all this stuff. And I do wonder how the Canucks are going to handle the, not only the challenge of playing back to back Carolina, then into Toronto on Saturday, how they're going to handle all the questions. We've talked a lot about Rick Tocket and how he's looking a little bit more tired when he's

answering questions for media. Maybe not quite as open and not surprising, not surprising, but it often reaches kind of like a fever pitch Saturdays in Toronto when all the hockey world seems to be watching and the Canucks are one of the teams that's the talk of the NHL. It's the Canucks and it's the Rangers.

You know, for a while it was the Sabres when they were on that long losing streak, but maybe it's died down a little bit, this whole Miller Pedersen thing, but if both those guys are in the lineup on Saturday, you know the cameras are going to be focused intensely on Miller, Pedersen, Tauket, Quinn Hughes, and there's going to be a lot of talk and there's going to be a lot of noise.

And, you know, as a media guy, I'm kind of looking forward to it because I'm curious to see how the team responds because it could be a good thing. It could be a bad thing. Well, in a game the night before too, right? That's, I mean, that plays into this whole thing is you're going into Toronto. You're going to be not just tired, but also playing a very tough opponent on Friday. Like let's not underscore the Carolina. Yep. Hey,

Carolina is a team that's given the connects a lot of problems in the past. Uh, good team that can skate and can put the puck in the back of the net and is one of those teams that will, um, tilt the ice and possession and shot clock counter in their favor because of the style that they play. So it could be one of those nights where the connects are pinned. Let's not forget. They haven't had many of those nights though. I know they haven't had, you know, I, when that could be one of them, but, but when, when Hughes went out, I know he's back now, but when they were without a lot of their guys,

I remember we were talking to Drantz and he's like, you gotta think about this team, like they're the Anaheim Ducks now. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. They didn't have much star power or depth at all. I thought they were gonna get dominated. They haven't been dominated. We saw the Canucks a few years ago.

We know what it feels like to be dominated when you're just the whole game you're hanging on. Yeah. And at the end of the night, you're looking at the shot clock and it's like, you know, 40 to 20 or something like that. That hasn't happened to this team.

And I do think as, as much as we're critical of this team and rightly so for a number of things, like I do think that you have to give credit to this team for hanging in there. They have not fallen apart yet and maybe that's a low bar but I think they deserve some credit. If you want to push back on that, that's fine but the way I'm watching it right now, I think they're hanging in there. Now, when they get their full lineup back, if that ever happens, if they're all healthy, I will hold them to a much higher standard.

I won't give them a standing ovation for quote unquote hanging in there. But for now, I think they are doing a pretty good job of sticking together as a group and getting games to overtime, getting points and hanging around in the playoff race. Uh, lots more to get to on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. On the other side, we're going to talk a little NFL. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us to preview wild card weekend. It begins on Saturday. It wraps up on Monday night.

We can also get in to the latest of the coaching carousel in the national football league. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.