Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Need To Get Back To Their Identity

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason look ahead to what's next for the Canucks leading up to tomorrow's road matchup at Tampa Bay (3:00), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Here it comes. 8 o'clock on a Monday. Holiday Monday, Thanksgiving Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfi, what to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. So, it is a holiday Monday. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. If you're doing your dinner tonight, good luck. Best of luck with the fam.

If you did it over the weekend, congrats on surviving. It's over. It's over. You made it. You can eat a turkey sandwich and just take a deep breath. Think about all the times you got triggered. How much I had to drink. It was amazing.

We do several things of tradition on this show. Several traditions. And one of them is anytime we're coming in on a holiday Monday to work, we want to share in the moment with all of our listeners who are doing the same. They're out there working. They have their grind set on like Laddie. Laddie, how many games did you call last night? Can you tell from my voice?

How many games did you call last night? Five in a row. And what time did you get home? I got home after 11 o'clock last night. When did this all start? I started at 10 a.m. I was supposed to have a break. I was only supposed to do four games, but I gave up my break to do another game.

And I ended up doing five straight games with 15-minute breaks in between the games. What games were all these? This is the JPHL Showcase, which was out in Chilliwack. There's also the BCHL Showcase,

which is in Abbotsford right now. It's sort of a split event. But you can't do both. You can only be in one place. There's only so much laddie to go in. I can only be in one. And I was the one. And also, I should add,

no color commentary. Just me. Just play by play. For five straight games. I apologize to everyone. Sat missed the show today because he was feeling a little under the one. And also, I should add, no color commentary. Just me. Just play-by-play. For five straight games. I apologize to everyone. Sat missed the show today because he was feeling a little under the weather. Sat needs some of that laddie grinds there. Anyway.

Now I can't talk. I want to make sure that all of you. So this is a shout-out to David from Kelowna, Steve from North Saanich, and his son, Jonathan, who's got that laddie grinds. Jonathan reffed seven games. Seven games this weekend. Woodrow, the eligible bachelor. Chris from East Sook.

Sook? We never really came to a conclusion on that one. We did. It's Sook. Tyler on the mountain. Justin in East Van. He calls it Sook. I just did.

Colin in Tawasin. Aaron, the assistant cruise director in Marcus and Gibson. Just some of the people who are out there grinding away on a holiday Monday listening to the Halford and Brough show. Sook. Sook. We definitely went over this. Shout out to Sook.

Sook. Sook. We tried to get through all of the local sporting squadrons in the first hour of the program. By the way, download hour one of the Halford and Brough show if you want to catch a scintillating recap of the Canucks, the Lions, and then we kind of mentioned the Whitecaps. The Whitecaps played yesterday. Their final home game of the season, regular season version anyway.

30,000 people in attendance at BC Place. A 2-1 loss to LAFC. Okay, so how did that loss happen? The Whitecaps give up an early goal. 90 seconds into the match. That's a good start. Barely had my tequila soda in my hand, my cold tequila soda. Boom.

Goal. Back of the net. But they pulled themselves together and managed to tie the game. Remarkably so with all the guys that they were missing. So this match, let's be clear, should not have been scheduled for this weekend. Aside from being on a holiday Thanksgiving Sunday, where most people are, you know, doing Thanksgiving, this match was also rescheduled smack in the middle of an international break. So if you look around the globe,

not many club teams are playing games right now. As a matter of fact, none of them are, except for LAFC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. And that was because... This is one of the things about MLS that drives me crazy by the way it was such a hastily like ah we got to make this one up ah just tack it on but they even schedule regularly schedule right through international breaks so this one wasn't originally scheduled no i know but they do they do they do they just plow through they're like whatever so among the guys missing, Ryan Galt, who played for Scotland

in their heartbreaking loss to Croatia on the weekend, Fafa Pico, two of the Canadians, Ali Ahmed and Sam Adekube, Kubas and Vita, all gone. So getting back to yesterday's match, Whitecaps valiantly fight back. They get a nice goal in around the 70th minute. It looks like they're going to scratch and claw a well-earned point against the second-best team in the Western Conference, LAFC. Remember Kai Kamara?

Yeah. He got subbed on, played a very integral role. 93rd minute sets up the game-winning goal. What was going on right before Kamara's setup when there was one LAFC guy who danced through two white caps? Hey, Meg Utvik. That was bad, man. It was very bad defense.

The whole sequence was bad. There was actually a very questionable non-call on a foul at the other end of the pitch that the white caps were insensible. It was right in front of me. So were they distracted? Did they forget how to play defense? They did. They forgot how to play defense.

Just like that. And it cost them a very crucial time. Anyway, the ramifications are I think the Whitecaps are going to be in that wildcard playoff, that one game playoff

against Portland. Whether they host it or not remains to be seen. Can we power rank the three local teams? The Canucks are clearly at the top right now in terms of their form

and they have yet to win a game. Correct. So they're a game. Correct. So they're number one. Yeah. And then it's, I don't know, man. The Lions are so bad right now that I would even have them below the Whitecaps. I would go Canucks, Whitecaps, Lions, which is crazy.

To have the Whitecaps ahead of anyone given their current form. The Whitecaps are 0-4-2 in their last six MLS matches, and yet I would agree they're still ahead of the Lions because while they're losing, they're not getting blown out. Yeah. The Lions are getting blown out. They lost by 31 points on the weekend. But hey, 30,000 people were at BC Play.

Where do the Warriors slot in in that hierarchy? They haven't started yet, so that's tough. They had a good offseason. Come on, you can have some expectation. They have not started yet, but when they do, number had a good offseason. Come on. You can have some expectations. They have not started yet, but when they do, number two. Good non-answer. Yeah, number two. Good job.

Yeah. Anyway, so that's the local story. Let's focus on the Vancouver Canucks here, though, because they will be back in action tomorrow in Tampa Bay and then Thursday in Florida. I kind of said prior to going to break in hour one that they might actually welcome the early season roadie just to get out and get some of the new guys into the mix, have a team dinner.

Like Sherwood, you're paying. DeBrusque, you got the other half of it. Right now it works. And it could be a good thing because while it hasn't been a disastrous start to the season by any stretch you can definitely sense the frustration i think and i'm not i don't think we're putting that on for clicks is people still accuse us of even though there's no clicking um we're just looking at the landscape and say hey where's the frustration level between talk it in his audio

talk it and his expressions on the bench. Pedersen, for sure. IMAC wrote a piece about it. If you want to go check it out, it's sportsnet.ca, talking about two games in, and number 40 is already under the microscope. And in writing that piece, IMAC actually asked to speak to Elias Pedersen, put in a media request,

and it was, I guess, denied by either the player or the club. But either way, he didn't get a chance to speak with with him which probably says more about where pedersen is at in terms of just wanting to focus on getting this right i just had a 20 minute interview with yogi yeah right he did a lot of talking i'm sure they are do you think the canucks know what they're doing when they do that when they have yogi out there talking to him for 20 minutes in front of reporters canucks are on high alert with um petterson yeah i think i think everything right now like they did to when talk it says we have a plan with him yeah i think they do it includes a bit of pr doesn't it uh yeah because i don't think they're gonna let him speak no no in terms of just like making sure that everyone

knows that they're working with them but that's part of what i'm saying is they're not gonna let petterson go out and say like i'm i've got a plan but or like i'm working on things that they're working with them. But that's part of what I'm saying is they're not going to let Pedersen go out and say, like, I've got a plan. Or, like, I'm working on things. But they're going to control that. They're going to be, like, the visuals. Spend time with Yogi. Yogi just writing on a whiteboard, we're not going to win a cup unless you're good,

an underlining good over and over again. Do you follow this? The audio that we played following the loss on Friday to Philadelphia or sorry. Yeah. Friday to Philadelphia. Very specific and very direct in calling out who made the coverage mistakes. Yeah, it wasn't just Pettersson. It was sprung as well.

But there's just I said it earlier and I'll reiterate it for those that might have missed our one of the show. It definitely seems like Taka is not interested in giving a long leash or being patient with anybody, right? There's a reason that Daniel Sprong was bumped off the Pedersen line in the first game of the season, right? And those guys. And now Sprong is down and Heinen is up.

Yeah, and those guys really didn't play all that much five on five against the Flyers because the Bluger line was playing so well. I don't think it was pure coincidence that Deharnais got dropped from the lineup after one game and was replaced by Noah Juleson. I don't think that patience is in a lot of the Canucks

coaches and executives vocabulary right now. I don't think they're interested in waiting for things to happen. I think they know that they're good, and they know that good teams get down to business and get down to the business of winning early. So at Canucks practice on Saturday, Garland wasn't there. Garland has been a little – I think he's dealing with something, although he's playing very well. So these were the lines at practice Saturday.

Note that Garland was not there. DeBrusque and EP40 were still together. Heinen was with them, and he'd been with Miller and Besser before. Hoaglander gets the bump up to play with Miller and Besser, and Hoaglander, man, that was a nice goal. Yep.

That he scored. And a great pass by, I think it was Garland, right? To just get it to him really quick. When we said who the best forward was so far, I think it's Bluger, maybe Hoaglander's in that conversation. And Garland's in there too. Yeah, and Miller had a really good first game. Not as good in the second.

The third line was Suter. That was Bluger between Suter and Sherwood probably filling in for Garland there and then the fourth line was Amon, Ratu and Sprong. Sprong is no guarantee to get into that game because what if Garland comes back into the lineup and then Sherwood's dropped down to the fourth line with Amon and Ratu. Now Amon could could be a healthy scratch. Who knows? But, you know, it's funny. A lot of the stuff we talked about heading into this season, the challenges that they were going to have, a lot of it's kind of coming to fruition. Like, getting the new guys acclimated

was going to be tough. The things, what I called the natural progression of the team from a team that played very structured, conservative hockey into a team that still wants to play with structure, but also wants to create more off the rush. I think that is a work in progress. We talked obviously about Petey and the pressure that's on him

and two games into the season, two games into that giant contract extension, by the way. The pressure is fully on. And we talked about the good things and the bad things about Daniel Sprong and some of the reasons why he's bounced around in the NHL. Yes, he can do things offensively, but he also gets lost when he doesn't have the puck. And you could argue that it costs the Canucks the tying goal against the Philadelphia Flyers. Like that was dreadful defending by Sprong. He was serving no purpose where he was on the ice. He gets sucked over to his off. I don't know what he was thinking, leaving his point man like that. The puck finds his way to the point man.

Sprong can't get back there. And then they score. You laughed at me when I was saying, I'm really intrigued by Sprong. And you were like, who are you looking for? And I'm like, I want to see Sprong. Because I wanted to see exactly what the deal was. And you know what?

And I tweeted this out on the weekend. Good on Daniel Sprong for wasting no time in giving everyone in Vancouver the full Daniel Sprong experience. He's like, you want to see what I'm all about? Here it is. Yeah, he scored like the first goal of the season with a nice little snipe. Yep. And then he's just running around on his own end,

just doing his own thing, freelancing on defense, right? Speaking of defense, do you think the Canucks will bring up Branstrom? Is that who it was at some point? He looked really, really good in Abby the other day, like really good. Oh, we should do a Tyler Myers update as well. I don't even know if we've done that yet. So Myers got hurt against Philadelphia, left in the first period. They left him shorthanded on the blue.

Did not look good. Yeah. Sounds like he dodged a bullet, though. Yeah. Talk had confirmed that Myers underwent imaging right after the loss to Philadelphia. Kind of hinted in his media availability on Saturday that they think they dodged a bullet and listed him as day-to-day. It is obviously...

And he's going to go on the trip, which is good news. He's going to go on the trip, yeah. So, I mean, all signs point to a big exhale. They managed to avoid a pretty serious injury there. Because you don't want to have to go into the depth of your defense right now when you're still trying to get Forbort, who I think had a pretty decent second game, actually. I think they were pretty awesome.

Made a great play on the Bluger goal. Do you think they might bring up Brandstrom and Sid Darnay maybe for games to see what he could bring? I mean, obviously very different kinds of players. No, I don't think so. Not right away. I think these were the pairs that practiced on Saturday, Hughes and – they would have called them up already.

They're off on a four-game road trip. Yeah, that's true. Hughes and Hronik are still together. Soucy was with De'Arne. So De'Arne filled in for Myers. Well, not filled in. He's probably replacing him, at least for the game in Tampa. And then Forbort and Julsen were together.

That bottom four right there, that is... Dicey. That's Dicey. I said that from the start. Well, everyone said that from the start. When you lose Zdorov and you lose Ian Cole, who had a totally hard luck playoffs, I realize that was tough to watch. That was almost slapstick comedy what was

happening to Ian Cole in the playoffs. But you lose him and you lose Zdorov and you essentially replace those two with Forbort and Darnay, the latter of whom especially is a real project. It's going to be a challenge for the Canucks. And the Oilers are in the same situation with their defense, right? I mean, they lost Day-Arne, who was a fairly regular for them.

And then the guy that replaced him in the playoffs, Broberg, was the guy that left on the offer sheet to St. Louis. And now everyone's looking at that Oilers defense and going, well, that's not deep enough. Right? They're in very similar situations right now. De'Arne is like Juleson to me. He's a fine 7th D.

I don't know if he should be in a top six. So I'll tell you this right now. I would not get your hopes up about seeing Brandstrom any time because the knock on him is that all the stuff that people are seeing in the American League right now, like the expected goals is off the charts, he's making all these great plays, he's driving plays, is because he's playing with the freedom of a guy who isn't terrified of losing his spot in the NHL. Because he's very, very soft defensively. That was part of the reason why he got drummed out of Ottawa. They actually played him on the wing a little bit.

They probably want to teach him a lot. They want to teach him a lot about how the Canucks play. I know he kind of plays like a rover sometimes, and I don't know if that will work for Rick Tockett. I just don't think it's a roster fit right now for what they want to do. They want to get back to their identity. You hear it time and time again. Rick Tockett has said,

we need to re-educate ourselves on our identity, and I don't think Eric Brandstrom is a fit. I want to hit some people. I want to smoke some people. Brandon and Langley text in, Rasmus Andersen should be their number one target this year and next at four and a half. Brandon, I think you texted this in last week.

The way the Flames are going right now, they're going to the playoffs. Keep Rasmus Andersen. Brandon, go download 32 thoughts fantastic podcast listen to it after you've downloaded the halford and brough show of course uh because elliot and kyle who we just had on the show talked about this for a fair length of time saying that one calvary's not going to do anything and they'll be keen to try and re-up with anderson because he's not old if he keeps playing like this and they aren't

as bad as they think they're going to be, they also said he might end up being a guy that because of the style that he plays and then he might have a few more years left on the odometer or whatever. He's a guy that you sign and then helps you get through this sort of rebuild. He's still a new player. If they do decide

to move him, the price is going to be sky high this will not be a oh we managed to you know snatch the door off out of there for under market value like there's going to be teams across the picks that none of them being a first yeah like if that's a first round draft pick and a top prospect type of player and every team going into the deadline that's a contender will be like frothing at the mouth to get him right because he's on a reasonable cap hit very good defenseman nice little dangle last night against the Oilers that's like I get what you're saying Brandon but that's going to be a real tough one for any team

to pull off let alone the Canucks uh what was the big story for you over the weekend in the NFL well I mean this one's pretty easy anytime that a team gets blown out as badly as the Dallas Cowboys did on Sunday, it's the Dallas Cowboys. I know. 47-9 in Dallas. It was a score, Gami. By Detroit. It wasn't all good news for Detroit, though.

Unfortunately, they lost Aiden Hutchinson. The dreaded Tib-Fib break. Oh, man. And it was kind of an ugly injury. I think they only played the replay once. Yeah, they did. So he's got to be done for the season. So good news in that Detroit went in there

and basically played with the Dallas Cowboys, like played with their food. Ben Johnson was not that Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions was, you know, dialing up his creativity. I didn't love that. I didn't love it. The one to Panay Sewell was the one where I was like, this,

you might miss. I loved it because it's Dallas. I know, but like. Dallas was missing a lot of players too. It's just like, you know, you already had a guy hurt in Aiden Hutchinson. It's like, why would you like Panay Sewell? No, I know, but like... Dallas was missing a lot of players, too. It's just like, you already had a guy hurt in Aiden Hutchinson. It's like, why would you... Pene Sewell's like... No, I know.

You know, it's just like, maybe you're taking it too much. But anyway... Regardless. I love the gadget plays. They ran a flea flicker. They ran like, you know... They're doing everything outside the box, which is great offensively. And they scored 47 points on the road.

To beat the Cowboys, though... And yes, the Aiden Hutchinson thing is terrible. And it's six to eight months recovery for a tip fib break so his season's done when you beat the Dallas Cowboys at home by that kind of score you're gonna get

like a lot of runoff and a lot of like secondary stories and one of them was right away afterwards because Jerry Jones always does media after home which is always crazy and again i'll take a brief pause here to like we are going to when jerry jones passes like everyone will um it's going to be a sad day because we're going to look back one day and we're going to say there was a time that the owner of a team would come down and would answer questions from the media not the the general manager, not the coach, the owner,

who spent the entire game up in his press box schmoozing with people and having a good time, maybe knocking back a couple cocktails. And they'd come down and be like, okay, who wants to talk football? It's never going to happen again. Anyway, Jerry Jones did his usual. By the way, he's also the general manager. I know, but you know what I mean. He's the owner.

He's the owner. I mean, I know he's a GM, but anyway. He's also the president. He's everything. He's going to be the head coach soon if this keeps up. Because he was asked, you know, are you considering a coaching change? And he is sage and he is wise. He's been around for a long time.

And he, like, looked the reporter dead in the eyes and he's like, no. And he's like, I'm not considering a coaching change. He's like, I'm not even sure I want to answer this question because I feel like I'm getting set up for a soundbite. I'm like, attaboy, Jerry. He gets it. But McCarthy's on such thin ice there in Dallas. He doesn't have a contract beyond this year.

This is the second sort of really embarrassing loss that they've had. In the previous one, so they've had these games at home where they've gotten blown out in the first half at home. Against Baltimore, they were able to rally and come back and make it reasonably close. Against Detroit, they didn't. They just got killed. That game seemed to go on forever, too.

I think it went on four hours. Yeah, it just wouldn't stop. I own Dak Prescott in fantasy. Minus.74 points. He actually took food off the table of my other fantasy producers. So a bad day for Dallas all around. Other than that, it was kind of a ho-hum week. I'm not going to lie.

A ton of things jumped off the page. I know that they're still talking about benching Deshaun Watson in Cleveland because it was another sort of horrific outing. Way to go, Nick Sirianni, for throwing it in your own fans' faces after beating a very lowly Browns team. The Seahawks got a nice result because the Cardinals lost to Green Bay. Yeah.

So it's still the Seahawks and the 49ers. Three and three, baby. The Seahawks, to me, are... I watched Daniel Jones and the New York Giants yesterday, and all through the game, all I kept saying is, Lost to these guys? How did this team put up

29 points on the Seahawks? And control the game, too. Seven! They scored seven points yesterday against a Cincinnati team that was one of the worst defensive teams in football. That was a big win for the Bengals, though. Yeah, but it was ugly. They won it with their defense.

But I'm like, how did this Giants team come in into Seattle and put up 29? How? It's unbelievable. It made me feel worse about the Seahawks season watching the New York Giants play football yesterday. Because now I'm like, the Seahawks defense is even more problematic than I thought it was going to be.

What's your curiosity level for Bills and Jets tonight? After all that's been happening with the Jets. Huge. First game after firing a coach. Yeah. Like I think Aaron Rodgers. At home too for the Jets. Put it this way.

If Aaron Rodgers has anything left in the tank, and that's still to be determined, but if he does, he's putting up 400 yards tonight and like six touchdowns. If he doesn't, he's quitting. Right. Because this is like, there's a handful of statement games

for a guy that's 40 years old and coming off an Achilles. And the first one is your first game back for real, which he played in and they lost to the Niners. He's coming off an Achilles and he said himself, like, I've got an ankle sprain. Right.

And he played, he's had a good game this year. That second game after they lost to San Fran, he had a good game. It's been really bad the last two weeks, but he understands the optics and the business of the NFL better than anyone. If you get rid of the head coach and you change play callers, you need to have,

if you've got anything left in the tank, it has to be tonight. You have to have a game where there's some hope left. Prime time. Everyone watching these games are meaningful, right? If you throw for 167 yards and one touchdown and two interceptions, you're cooked, I would say.

So they've got a new play caller. They've got a new head coach. And Buffalo's got that clunker that they were coming off the previous week where they just made horrific decisions down the stretch in that late loss. So we'll see what happens. Well, the AFC East, there's a bit of an nfc west feel to it because the bills would be i don't know the 49ers yep that's you know like they are now expected to win that division because you got the jets dolphins and patriots the latter of whom are

dreadful even though drake may i guess threw a nice touchdown pass yeah two nice touchdown passes actually yeah he got picked off a bunch too yeah he's sacked don't worry about that he's Drake May, I guess, threw a nice touchdown pass. Yeah. Two nice touchdown passes, actually. Yeah, he got picked off a bunch, too. Yeah, he was sacked a few times. Don't worry about that. He was just slinging the ball out there. All right, get your what we learns into the Dunbar-Lumber text line, 650-650. A ton of stuff happened over the weekend.

If you want to talk about the Canucks, send in a what we learned for that. Lions, Whitecaps, ugh. We haven't really mentioned the baseball. The NLCS got underway with a resounding win for the LA Dodgers over the New York Mets. Any NFL you want to text in, 650-650 is the Dunbar-Lumber text line. You're listening on a holiday Monday to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. 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. Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time.

It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show. 832 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving Monday, everybody. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought

to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. I had to cut it short so I could hit the post there.

Also called not hitting the post. You know, okay, so Pat and Coquillam just texted in. And I was thinking about this because I think I've said it like three times during the show. And called not hitting the post. You know, okay, so Pat and Kukwilum just texted in and I was thinking about this because I think I've said it like three times during the show and you're right, Pat. I do keep saying that the Canucks lost both games

in a shootout. That's not entirely accurate. It's not at all accurate. In the sense that it's wrong. Well, the 6-5 game was kind of like a shootout. Yeah. Lots of goals.

There you go. See, I love that. Different goal. Political spin. Nice. Yeah, Pat. Old John go. See, I love that. Different goal. Yeah, political spin. Nice. Yeah, Pat. Old John Rustad over here. Please stop.

I like saying the name incorrectly. So, Pat, you're right. Obviously, the first loss of the season was an overtime loss to the Calgary Flames, followed by a shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Pat, happy Thanksgiving. You see, Pat was nice about it too. Pat writes, I chalk this up to your own admission

of having overeaten, drank too much, so you are not as quite as sharp as you normally are. Pat, this is exactly how sharp I normally am, sadly. Okay, let's do some what we learned here. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but the Canucks are in Sunrise, Florida on Thursday to play the defending Stanley Cup champs in the Florida Panthers. Some of the defending Stanley Cup. out or posted it from X. Barkov and Kachuk will both miss that game.

Kachuk is going to miss about a week with an illness, according to the head coach there, Paul Maurice. Paul Maurice. And I guess Barkov got hurt, right? Barkov got hurt against Ottawa last week. Right. Racing for the empty net against Stutzla.

So the Panthers already lost some players from that Stanley Cup team. And if you look at their bottom six right now, there are some guys whose names I've never heard of. Do it. Say them. Pronounce them properly. Oh, Laddie would be like, this guy was a star in BCHL or whatever. Like, how do you not know him?

I will be. Mackie Samoskiewicz. He was not. Samoskiewicz is one guy. He was a star in the BCHL. Uvis Balinskis. He sounds Latvian. He's very Latvian.

Uvis Balinskis. Patrick Giles. Giles, maybe Giles. Giles, maybe Giles. Giles, maybe. And our old friend Jonah Gajevich. I know how to pronounce that one. Yeah, yeah. So those are some of the players that the Canucks will face.

You know, you've still got, yes, Carter Verhage and Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhardt, but this is a very undermanned Panthers team that the Canucks are going to face on Thursday. Now, first things first, they got the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. But advantage to the Canucks, I suppose, in terms of injuries, although they will be probably still missing Tyler Myers by that point. Give me a mook on that. Speaking of injuries, another one to pass along from early in the season and this one also of

great significance Macklin Celebrini is now out week to week for the San Jose Sharks because of a lower body injury Celebrini did play in San Jose's opening 5-4 loss overtime loss to the Blues in which they blew a 4-1 lead and And for a while, Celebrini, like the Sharks, looked great. He had a goal and an assist, played 17-35, but then they lost. And then on Friday, the day after that game, Celebrini wasn't at practice, and he was placed on injured reserve on Saturday.

The Sharks head coach, by the way, if there was one coach that I would have forgotten in that list of the 32, which I think I know all of them, it was San Jose Sharks coach Worsofsky. There you go, Ryan Worsofsky. Sergeant Worsofsky. Worsofsky! He said, quote, Macklin's week-to-week.

That's all I've really got. I can't put a timeline on it. That's bad. I think week-to-week is right around what we're thinking. He's been dealing with that for a while now. So, Celebrity left practice during training camp with a lower body injury, then left a preseason game against Utah also with the same injury, and now he's re-aggravated. Do you think he just goes home?

He's like, Dad, I'm hurt. Fix me. Around here, it's a lower body thing. He's like, I got it. It's too bad, though, because I watched that first game. I'm not going to lie. The San Jose Sharks were actually moderately exciting to watch. They had Celebrini.

They had Will Smith. They have like five guys who wear numbers in the 70s. It looks like a preseason roster. Also, not going to lie, might be the worst first career goal I've ever seen. Yeah, someone's... He meant to do that. There was a spinorama off the defenseman's skate.

It was... It's a new generation of players. He knew what he was doing the whole time. It's up there with the guy who was picking up his stick while it caromed off him and in for his first goal. It's up there as one of the worst I've seen in recent years. Hey, you got to go to the net. That's right.

It's paying off that he's living with Thornton because it's very much a Joe Thornton style goal where he's like tries to make this beautiful play. Right. Thornton's probably watching like, ah, that's my boy. That's all of Thornton's goals were just banks, passes off people's legs. But this is obviously very disappointing just because, you know,

you want to see Celebrini, not just because he's a local kid, but he's a very talented first overall pick. And he'll be gone week to week, Mukami. Laddie? Well, we learned I want to have an addition to your injury roundup. Today was announced Linus Olmark not with the Senators, and Mads So so guard has been recalled that's bad so that's bad for ottawa in terms of the injury front good for mads

bad for not mads he's not mads because he's called up so stupid by other what we learned how often do you see teams you know at the end of the period when there's like a couple seconds on the clock offensive zone face off you pull the goalie you get the extra guy out there how often do you see a team actually score? Win a peg. You ruined my what we learned. We did it already. Okay, fine.

And we talked about it. We talked about it with Kyle Bukowski. That was earlier in the show. You wanted to do the audio? No, I don't have the audio. I just wanted to say, I've never seen it actually work, or it's been a very, very long time since I've seen it actually work. So that was perfect.

They could have pulled that off in like 0.3 seconds. Yeah, they still had time to spare. Yeah, so as a goalie, you got a cup of coffee. seen it actually work. So that was perfect. They could have pulled that off in like 0.3 seconds. Yeah. They still had time to spare. Yeah. So as a goalie, you got a cup of coffee. Yeah, we did. We scored twice on that one.

As a goalie, do you know what the appropriate amount of time is where it's safe? Because that's what they were talking about on the pod. Yeah.

Cassidy was the one who didn't. I don't know if you were at this game. They said Bruce Cassidy when he was coaching Boston did it in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final during one of the games. I think I remember that.

He pulled Rask with a few seconds left in the period. I don't remember that. And then Elliott asked Cassidy how many seconds are left where it's safe. I think on that attempt, there was a shot down at the net that didn't end up making it in time, but it was close. They said five. Five seconds? From face-off to if...

So let's say the defensive zone team wins the draw, gets it back to a defenseman. He flings it down the ice to the empty net. I was going to say three seconds. He said five. And he said five was like leaning to the danger time. Definitely leaning to the danger time. I think you're probably looking at four or three.

Because you win it back to the D-man, you could just hammer it high off the glass. He's got nothing to lose. It's got to be a good shot, though. He's either got to get lucky with the bank off the glass. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

I'm trying to think. And then you're telling all your guys, if this is a lost draw, you better get on this. Yeah. Or, yeah. Could you imagine? I wonder if you tell one of the guys, if the draw is lost, do you tell one of the D-men,

he's like, get on your horse and just get back just start skating back the other way I guess yeah well I don't know but then why would you it might be it might be it might be over your head trying to think here like also I'm more interested now in seeing someone score the empty net goal yes what do you do if you're the coach

you come in you're like you resign you resign we took a risk. We tried it. And we screwed up big time. And then you have to resign during the intermission. Yeah. Okay.

Mukau that. Andy, do you have an injury update you want to pass along? No, I'm okay. Okay, good. We were joking at the break that we were all going to do injury updates. And then Andy was going to come on and talk about how he had the sniffles. He wasn't feeling so hot. Yeah, I have a cold.

A little cold. Yeah. Didn't sleep at all last night. But I'm still here. Yeah. Okay, book out that. Print. And we have officially eliminated the fire plan,

much to the chagrin of the listeners on Friday who really wanted it. Yeah, I got some pushback. I was a little surprised. We have to push forward. People like routine. Trey, the Gulf Island ferry worker. What we learned, my parents got me tickets to the Grey Cup. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be seeing the Lions in that game.

I'm almost to the point, almost to the point that I'm cheering for Saskatchewan because I know their fans will travel. Yeah. You know, so all the people that bought tickets to the Grey Cup, you're kind of like, at least they can sell them or it'll still be a good party. I know Winnipeg will still travel, but, you know, I think if the Rough Riders get in,

they will really travel. Yeah, I'm not to the point of already finding other teams to root for because it's the CFL. Yeah, I know, I know. However, there are zero, and I mean zero signs that the Lions have the ability to turn this around. The one that people keep bringing up, when I talked to a couple people, was like,

well, what about the game against Montreal? I'm like, that's a distant memory. That doesn't, like, I know that they went to Montreal and beat the best team in the CFL. Yeah. But that is a distant memory. And this is, since since then they've had like a mini qb controversy there's been injuries there's been blowouts they needed the defense against calgary and calgary's terrible yeah like it just is not happening uh what we learned this is from joe the typical whistler

ski bomb i like that what we learned full, 50% new top six forwards. We'll take some time. Last night had some more dangerous moments. Two games in two points easily could be four. I think we need to start giving the team the same benefit of the doubt. We give management now. If things are bad in December, I'll be worried. For the record, we said right off the start of the show,

the start has not been disastrous. No time to freak out. I don't think the Canucks have played badly. In the first game, I think you can, it doesn't feel good to do this, but I think you can pin that on Sealefts. He needed to make some more saves. They didn't give up a whole bunch. He should have been able to help the Canucks protect that 4-1 lead. In the second game, I thought they came out really well, forced some power plays, couldn't convert.

And they kept the Flyers in it, and for whatever reason, they have trouble with the Flyers. But they got that one to a shootout. They got a point. They got a point in both those games. This is not a disastrous start. The Oilers, they're off to a disastrous start.

Yep. The Canucks are not, but there are some concerns. There are some concerns. I think there are concerns about who's going to fill in and who is, who are going to be those wingers in the top six like is Heinen going to be a fit in the top six is Sprong going to be there or are they going to have to bump up

Nils Hoaglander there probably I mean they could really use Dakota Joshua back so we'll continue to monitor that situation I think there's concerns about the defensive depth and i think there were before tyler myers got hurt i think you looked at that blue line and went i don't know if dna and forebort are going to adequately adequately replace ian cole and zadoroff i think how um we framed it and then there's a goaltending situation yeah Yeah, I think there's very obvious signs of frustration. I don't think it's panic. I don't think it's time to freak out. I think there's concern and there's frustration,

but that's as far as I'm willing to go. Lincoln didn't look pretty good. Yes, that's a positive. Absolutely. The Luters look good. Hoaglanders look good. Quinn Hughes has been the usual Quinn Hughes-ian self. There's lots.

Iron Blair. Hashtag hashtag WWE, what we learned. What I learned, New York, New York is an enticing World Series. Just tell that to the Dodgers. Yeah, the Dodgers, that was an emphatic statement because the Mets were the momentum team. The Mets had the most momentum out of anybody in baseball, right? They were riding high, and they were all the big hits and Lindor heroics, and then at Jets. And then their starter came in he was like i haven't played much baseball lately just got

smashed by like there's what they couldn't find the strike zone and when he did there's losing an opener and then there's getting blasted nine nothing because the dodgers came in there we're on this run of our own and it's a run where we don't give up any runs what's the record at 33 straight innings now? Crazy, man. First team since the 1905 Giants, I believe, to have that kind of run in the playoffs. At least the Padres probably felt good about watching that. They're like, no, we're not the only ones.

Well, I mean, I watched the game on Friday where they lost. And the Padres, like, you, Darvish, made two mistakes. I know. And that was it. Otherwise, you pitched brilliantly. And that was it. Two home runs. Two solo shots. The Dodgers didn't make those mistakes. They're playing And that was it. Otherwise, he pitched brilliantly. And that was it. Two home runs. Two solo shots.

The Dodgers didn't make those mistakes. They're playing real good baseball right now. This is from Jay. What we learned, Nathan Roark desperately misses Dominique Rimes and WestJet lost his mojo somewhere between Vancouver, Jacksonville, New England, New York, and Atlanta.

Yeah, I think it'll be interesting. Let's say this season ends the way it's probably looking like it's going to end, and that is, let's face it, in the West semifinal, whether that's in Saskatchewan or Winnipeg. Prove me wrong, boys. Prove me wrong. But let's say it does. I think it'll be interesting to do an autopsy of what exactly happened to the team when Nathan Rourke returned to it and how difficult a task was that for Nathan Rourke to not play meaningful football for a year and a half and then be put into this situation. How much of it is on the offensive line?

How much of it is on the play calling? It just seems like it's not like he isn't making any plays out there or any throws. There's just not that elite level of quarterback play that we saw. And it'll also be interesting. I assume it'll be Nathan Moore coming back to the Lions next season. Okay, that's exactly what I want to get. There has been that elite quarterbacking in the past.

I think the solution here is you get your coaching staff, and then you tailor guys around Rourke. And that includes you've got to move on from Vernon Adams. You can't have this dynamic any past this season. No, no, no. There's no way. So you need to be like, Nathan. No, you don't go back.

You can't afford to bring both back. nathan we paid you a lot of money we're gonna find an offensive coordinator that works better with your abilities we're gonna find a new head coach and we're gonna start it all over again it's too bad that we couldn't salvage the season but there is a next season and nathan rourke will be here for it uh this isn't what we learned but i wanted to read it anyway it's unsigned it says uh talk it reminds me a bit of travis green his instinct is to turn everyone into a grinder sprung won't last 10 games you saw this one too i think that is 1000 unfair and completely wrong to travis green and rick talk it yeah go watch the tying goal that the flyers scored. Sprong was running around aimlessly in his own end, leaves his point man, which is his main responsibility.

Point man gets the puck, has all the time in the world to pick a corner, and he does, and the game is tied. There's nothing to do. There's not grinding. That's playing your position. That's playing your position there is playing your position there is one part of this text there's no there's no part there's no part where it's like he wants to turn them into grinders no he wants people to do their jobs there is one part of this

text that might be right though the one that says sprung won't last 10 games that might be right that might be very accurate there's you got the what is it the causation wrong like it's not that's not the reason it's not gonna turn him into a grinder sprung might not last 10 games because i remember seeing stuff like that it's like ah he's like it's unfair to gold open or whatever no like you gotta and also um everyone does have to grind a little bit it It's the NHL. If you're not winning battles out there, you can't just be like, I scored some nice goals. Do you do anything else?

Absolutely nothing. But I did score some nice goals. Right? I will not survive in the league like that. Aaron, the assistant cruise director, hashtag WWO what we learned, Utah has quickly become the must-watch team of the league with a perfect three

and oh start to their inaugural season thanks in part yes of course to league leading five goals from their rising star dylan gunther unfortunately it is moments like these when i can't help but think what could have been as gunther was drafted with the pick vancouver gave up in the oel connor garland trade yep it. It's going to be there. Gunther, I was funny. I was listening. I listen to as much 32 Thoughts as I can. It's a wealth of information.

And I remember them saying early in the preseason, they were talking to Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley. And they're like, Gunther has the craziest shot that we've seen. Not on our team. Not with guys I played with ever. And they're like, Gunther's got a crazy shot. And I was like, oh, that's interesting because Clayton Keller scores a lot, puts up a lot of points. And then I watched Gunther play and I'm like, oh, there it is.

And yeah, it's going to be there for forever. I try not to focus on the negatives all the time. But that one. Does it need to be said that there's no guarantee the Canucks would have taken that guy? That does need to be said. The fact that they could have taken him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's 100%.

I get it. I get the frustration. I get it. He's going to be really good. You know, at the end of the day, I think the Canucks lost that trade. Yeah. Connor Garland, not only,

I give him credit on two fronts. One, good player, and he's become a real heart and soul type guy. Yeah. But also, he did a 180 on his the perceptions of him locally totally people were down and i think we probably were two of them but because he didn't have a fit until last season right there was no there was no and and i suppose credit talk it for that but maybe also just finding the right guys to play with and when he started

playing with uh dakota j Dakota Joshua and Teddy Bluger, you know, he just found something. Because I did what? What are you going to accuse me of? No, in a good way. You're always texting on the group chat about, like, you love Garland's, like, tenacity and his ability to win puck battles. But I wasn't always like, this guy has been a great fit for the Canucks.

Like, I wasn't a Garland truther. I think Trance was. Like I wasn't, I wasn't a Garland truther. I think Trance was, but I wasn't, I, I, I was, I would have been happy if the Canucks were able to trade him and get rid of his cap hit.

We've got some like real, like what we learned like just right now. Okay. Buffalo Sabres. We mentioned they got that big win to stem their three game losing streak to the season. Doesn't seem as though it's, it's,

it's mellowed out everything in Buffalo though. Still some bad times, still some frustrations. Rasmus Dahlien fought Peyton Krebs in practice? Man, that's interesting

because he just got named captain, too. I wouldn't say it's a full-on gloves drop, but they did drop them eventually. Now, looking at the video again, yeah, there was a big

hip check thrown. I can't tell who's hitting who. It's a video that check thrown I can't tell who's hitting who it's a video that a reporter took of their cameraman's like lens in the camera so you can't really

see very much but they were throwing them at Sabres practice so you remember when the Blues I like to see that you remember when the Blues won the Stanley Cup

and everyone thought it was because Craig Berube got instilled as head coach started a fight club no it was Robert Bortuzzo beat up Zach Sanford at practice.

Turned the whole thing around. Sometimes a practice fight is okay. Maybe that's what we need here. Well, no. Not yet. Then HR gets involved. Oh, at the station. Yeah.

Oh, okay. I meant us. Like us, us. I would actually love to see that. You and Adog behind the glass. A real dog. Hoffer and I would be banging on the studio glass. We're just banging on the glass like that guy in dallas yeah it's a real dog fight i've been poking him with a stick singing off key they're all fired up this is

from rylan the combine repairman what we learn i'm thankful to be a rough riders fan after the beat down on saturday or was it perhaps a bold plan by the lions to give saskatchewan nothing to game plan against when they most likely meet in the west semi yeah the riders head coach afterwards was like yeah that game means nothing no like we are taking nothing away from that. And Rick Campbell said, yeah, same. Rylan, I love your optimism, but I do not think that

was Rick Campbell playing chess trying not to give anything to the Ryders. I think they just got thumped real bad. I think I have one more game to make up for, though. So the Lions have, you mentioned this yesterday, they've got the Owls game and then a bye. And then they've got a bye week. Yeah, I love the CFL.

So great. Okay. 19 league. We've got to get out of here for today. We will be back tomorrow. We've got a loaded show tomorrow on a Canucks game day. It is the Canucks and the Lightning. Very excited to see how they do in the first of two in Florida.

Thank you all for listening on Thanksgiving Monday, and thank you all for contributing. But for now, we got to go. Signing off for now, I have been Mike Halford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A-Dog, and he's been Laddie. This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.