Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Really Need To Knock It Off With These Slow Starts

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they set up tonight's road matchup in Minnesota versus the Wild (6:00), plus they talk the latest stories from around the NHL with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (30:29).  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-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- second of the night for Jack Hughes. Colt Moore would have been hanging over the bench, banging his stick, saying, I'm coming after you because you tried to embarrass us. F*** embarrassing! Quick throw outside. The ball is intercepted. Intercepted by the Broncos down the east sideline. This is going to be a house call. Oh, the Denver Broncos.

Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Alfred. It is Bruff. 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.

A-Dawg, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar 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, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

So, Orfit, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we've got a big show ahead on a Tuesday. Guest list begins at 6.30. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN is going to join us. We can talk about the imploding New York Rangers with Wish. We can also talk about the Wyshinski Awards. Yeah, that's right. He handed them out on the internet.

That means they're official. Given to the best and worst of the first quarter, Mark, of the NHL season. He handed those out yesterday. Very exciting. Everyone loves the golden wishes. I really want to talk to Wish and anyone we possibly can, frankly, about the New York Rangers because I watched their game last night.

Man, they got blown out again at home against the New Jersey Devils. They'll say that they didn't play that badly, but they lost 5-1 at home to the New Jersey Devils in the midst of a slump that has kind of – it might be the number one story in the NHL right now because a lot of people are wondering if they're going to make a big trade and like a blockbuster trade

because clearly Chris Drury's plan to wake up the team has not worked. No, 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro is going to join the program. Speaking of New York Rangers, a former New York Ranger, Ray Ferraro, is going to join us. Ray is not doing the Canucks game tonight. He is, however, doing a game.

He will be in Boston, original six matchup between the Red Wings and the Bruins. We'll be doing that for ESPN. So we'll talk to Ray at seven o'clock, 730. Joe O'Donnell is going to join the program. He is the radio play-by-play man of the Minnesota Wild, who will host the Vancouver Canucks tonight,

five o'clock puck drop our time. A reminder, pregame, postgame, and the actual game will be all right here on Sportsnet 650. And I bring that up because the guy on the call tonight, Brendan Batchelor, he's going to join our program at 8 o'clock this morning. We're also giving away another pair of tickets to see ACDC. They're going to be coming through BC Place in April of 2025.

If you didn't listen yesterday, let's do callers. Callers. Callers. We're going to do callers today. So at 8.15, let's say the 10th caller. Caller number 10 at 8.15 this morning. Don't call too early. For those listening on the podcast or on delay, maybe your radio is slow.

I don't know. Now you know. We will mention this a couple times. 815 AM, 815, call our number 10 for your chance to win a pair of tickets to see ACDC this April. Sorry, this coming April. April 2025 from BC Place.

Real quick, working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, it's Batch. 7.30, Joe O'Donnell. 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro. 6.30, Greg Wyshynski. That's what's happening on the program list. 8 o'clock, it's Batch. 7.30, Joe O'Donnell. 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro. 6.30, Greg Wyshynski. That's what's happening on the program today, laddie. Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? 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. Yesterday, your Vancouver Canucks practiced in Minnesota ahead of their road trip finale, which again, we'll go tonight, 5 o'clock, from the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota. It's been a very good road trip for the Canucks so far. Not a ton to report from practice yesterday. The Canucks don't have any extra skaters at forward, so it's not like they can make any changes up front,

I guess unless you were going to play Mark Friedman as a forward. They did kind of shuffle around the blue liners, though, yesterday. Yeah, we'll see if Hughes tonight sticks with Tyler Myers or if Myers and Susie are reunited which could leave Hughes with Juleson I guess one big question is will Deharnais come out of the lineup for Mark Friedman that would be quite an indictment of Deharnais because I don't even think Mark Friedman's played many games in the AHL this season. The other indictment would be Deharney's play. Well, Deharney was on the ice for every goal against Sunday in Detroit.

So we'll see what they do on the blue line there. Shuffle around some deck chairs on the Titanic. The Canucks really do have to knock it off with these slow starts. Something that Rick Tockett is clearly focused on. He mentions it a lot. Vancouver has scored first in just nine of their games. That's one of the lowest totals in the league. In fact, only Seattle has taken the lead in fewer games, eight.

Tonight's opponent from Minnesota, in stark contrast, has taken the lead 16 times, one of the highest numbers in the league, and the Wild have one of the best records in the league. I suppose it's a credit to the Canucks that so often they are trailing 1-0 and they do not have a losing record, and that's why Rick Tockett has said that he likes the fight in the team. He likes the resilience of the team, but he would also just like to see a team that starts on time. Now, this has been an ongoing problem, and a few weeks ago, Tockett suggested that,

and here's his quote, a couple of guys need to understand how we will play more predictably. We're taking too many risks early on and not sticking to our structure. Now, some of you might think, well, some of their slow starts are related to that backup goalie

that is probably going to be in the AHL pretty soon, Erder Silovs. When you allow the first shot of the game, it tends to look like a slow start. Yes, that's true. But I think, you know,

Sunday's game in Detroit, they were sleepy to start. They did surrender the first goal, but, you know, fortunately, they got a five on three and they were able to turn that into two quick goals to start the second. You know, I don't know why they start slow because last season it was complete opposite. They scored first all the time, and they got off to these great starts. Why do you think this team can't start on time? I know that the most obvious, everyone points to the coach on this one, right? It's like they're not prepared before the game. The coaches hate it when their team has this issue because it's like, hmm, who's in charge of getting these guys ready to go?

And Taka will speak about it in his pressers. He'll say, maybe we've got to change something up or we've got to ditch the morning skate or maybe we need the morning skate or maybe the guys need to readjust their nap schedule or like he will go and try and change anything. Maybe you need to have your first coffee earlier in the day. All those little things, which quite honestly, the coach has no control over anyway, because it's the players. And I know this is very trite and cliched,

but it's the players that are out there playing, not the coaches that are out there doing it for them. I do think there's something to be said for the predictability part of it. I do wonder if Taka would like to see the guys play a little bit more of a straight line, straightforward, let's not confuse the issue start to the game. Maybe only

to reverse what's happened over the first 20-25 games of the season. Yeah, I mean a lot of it starts with puck management. Yeah. You know, if you can hold on to the puck and not give it away cheaply, that helps your starts. How do you so often get pinned in your own

end quite often it starts with a turnover a puck that should have gotten out and then all your teammates are like all right cool that puck's getting out oh no it's turned over god i'm tired i've been out here for a while now, and now we're going to have to start defending. And, you know, that's got to stop, obviously. And the Canucks have had their issues with giveaways this year. There have been times that the defense just has not broken the puck out very well, and that's on the forwards as well. So it's just, I think, something to, we're not going to sit here and try and figure it out for the Canucks.

That's their job. But I think it's something to watch for tonight, especially against a really good team in Minnesota. The Canucks will be decided underdogs today, and that's fine. Minnesota's a good team. The Canucks are shorthanded. The Canucks are 4-1 on this road trip, though.

Man, if they can just find... I sound like a soccer guy here by saying, if they can just get a result. Just get a result. You know, get a result. They did a really good job against Buffalo Detroit getting it into overtime. And I know it's terrific that they scored in overtime

and they won those games. But in reality, I'd have been perfectly happy if they'd have lost those games, but at least they got a point out of them because the number of players that they're missing right now i think anytime you can get a point on the road is a good thing yeah and they this is just look it's one of the it's one of if not the toughest opponents that the canucks have played this year it's in the visitor's barn it's at the end of a lengthy road swing so all signs point towards the canucks being a decided underdog and most books have them anywhere between plus 122 to plus 124.

The Wild are really good. In case you're unaware, the Wild are 16-4-4. They're first in the Central Division. And that's worth noting because the Central Division also holds the Winnipeg Jets, who up to this point have normally, through the first six weeks of the season, been atop that division. But they've been surpassed by the Wild. And it's funny.

If you want to do the game, the capsule on the Wild, they're really good in all departments. They don't have any weaknesses. They've got fantastic goaltending with Gustafson, and I do expect him to get the start tonight. They've got a legit Hart Trophy candidate in Kaprizov, who's one of the top scorers in the NHL. They've got another high-end guy in Matt Boldy,

so it's not just sort of this one-man show. They might have one of the best defenses in the NHL. Just in terms of adaption. Their top four is Faber, not Chris Faber, Spurgeon, Middleton, and Brodine. And they just added David Juracek to that as well. What a trade that was with L.A. to get Faber. Faber's been great. Again, not Chris Faber.

Wasn't he the captain of the Gophers, too? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He was a gopher. I think he was. Three putt Shane Texan. Maybe they need to crank up some ACDC before the game. Good start.

That'll get you going. That'll get you going. Shoot to thrill. Hell's bells. Paradise City. Just kidding. Wonderwall. Wonderwall.

Okay, so there was a report from andy strickland uh he's a reporter out of st louis but uh has lots of sources that show numerous times usa hockey is expecting jt miller to be available for four nations which begs a few questions uh when is he going to be available for the Canucks yeah uh Miller has been on most of the mock rosters I've seen for the four nations and that and those rosters come out tomorrow of course Miller on a lot of those rosters if they have lines a lot of the times he's a winger yeah which kind of makes you wonder if Miller makes it, Besser is going to miss probably. I think Besser is probably going to miss regardless.

But can you imagine if Miller can't play? Would that possibly give Besser an in? Especially if they see Miller as a winger? Or are there just too many guys ahead of? Yeah, like I saw a mock roster the other day that didn't have Dylan Larkin on it. That's the thing. It's like, well, if you're going to do the hierarchy of guys on the outside looking in, I'd say that Besser's maybe not even atop that.

I do wonder, and I get that Besser's a terrific player, but I do wonder if they look at his lack of speed relative and go, man, we're going to be playing Canada. We're going to be playing Sweden. And these teams are fast. And we're going to need to be fast as well. You mentioned Matt Boldy, who we'll see tonight. I call him a bubble guy in terms of,

I don't think he's a lock to make this roster. On some mock rosters, I've seen him. On others, he hasn't been there. I think he probably will be. Bill Guerin's smart. He'll put him on the team. You don't want to disrupt and upset your own guy. Then you end up like Marty St. Louis and Steve Eisenman back in Tampa Bay.

Remember that? I saw in the province the other day. I don't know. I think it was a peach who wrote it. It might have been Coos. It's like this yearly reminder. Hey, the Canucks could have drafted Boldy, you know? Yeah. Instead, they took Pod Colson.

I remember. Yeah. Not the best. Arizona had a bad pick there, too. Like, they took Soderstrom, the defenseman. So it went Pod Colson, 10, Soderstrom, 11, and then Boldy number 12. And then Cole Caulfield,

who's probably going to be on the American team as well, he went something like 15th to Montreal. Hello, darkness, my old friend. How about some of the Arizona picks, though? They haven't done a great job. Will we sit there and go,

you know, man, would have been nice if they could get Boldy with that pick or Cole Caulfield with that pick. picks though like they haven't done a great job well we sit there and go you know man like would have been nice if they could get boldy with that pick or cole caulfield with that pick but at least we got quinn hughes sure well part of the whole quinn hughes thing was that arizona took barrett hayden everyone looks at everyone looks at detroit and rightly so they went with zadina and hughes was playing in their backyard at michigan Michigan. But I remember watching that draft and thinking, first of all, I didn't even know who Barrett Hayden was because I'm not like a big-time prospects guy.

So all of a sudden, they're like, Barrett Hayden. I'm like, okay. It just opened everything up. The sea parted, and we're like, oh, my God, they're doing it. It's really happening right now. Hayden on the pick. Oh, God. I knew you were going to go there.

I respect it, actually. It's not too bad. By the way, just to put a bow pick. Oh, God. I knew you were going to go there. I respect it, actually. It's not too bad. By the way, just to put a bow on this conversation, and we'll move into the Filiperonic stuff here. The bubble guys, I went to the athletic because they seem to be the most dialed in with the amount of writers that they have around the U.S. team. The bubble guys are Robertson, Keller, Terry, Besser, Thompson, Kreider, Trocek, and Brock Nelson. So, I mean, you're talking about a slew of really talented guys.

That's on the assumption that Larkin makes it. So it's a stacked team. I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to get really excited about this tournament. Yeah, it's interesting. The more we talk about it. Some people really aren't into it. They're not expecting it to be intense. They're not expecting it to be very good. Nah, it won interesting. The more we talk about it. Some people really aren't into it. They're not expecting it to be intense.

They're not expecting it to be very good. Nah, it won't be best time. It won't be Olympic level, but I think it'll be better than the last World Cup or whatever you want to call that. It'll be better than that. It will be better than that, for sure. If they had those dog races, it would be better.

That's true. That's not World Cup. I'm getting excited. At least I can get into it emotionally. Nathan from Poco, I know you're Viking stat, by the way. You should change that on your uh on your text thread thing um he was very dismissive of the tournament yesterday texting in on the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650 650 to the show calling it like a glorified exhibition which I mean in a way I suppose it is but I think that in a very rare moment of like asking people to buy in

I think everyone should go in with an open mind and not a skeptical mind because at the very least at the very least even if the tournament doesn't come off the way that everybody wants it to it's still an important appetizer for the Olympics. It's been so long since we've had

best and best. Yeah like here's the thing if you want to build for the Olympics having this tournament you could say since we've had best and best. Yeah, like, here's the thing. If you want to build for the Olympics, having this tournament, you could say, like, at the very least, it might rekindle something inside of guys, and it might spark guys. And even if this tournament doesn't go off great, it can be like, well,

it's a good table setter for the Olympics. I'd be pretty surprised if the intensity isn't very high for Canada-USA. Yeah. Guys don't want to get injured for the playoffs, right? A lot of these young guys have been waiting for this moment. That's true. Connor McDavid has been waiting to play on a team

with Sidney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon and all the other great Canadians and to go up against the Americans because they've grown up watching it themselves and they've been like, why haven't I been able to participate in a tournament like that that isn't kind of some

bastardized version just to I don't even know what they were trying to do with that last World Cup of Hockey. Make money. I guess get as many NHL players as possible. And make money. And show off some of the young players by having a young guns tournament. They didn't even make a lot of money.

Do you expect there to be a lot of physicality? Yeah. Tom Wilson makes the team. That's the only criticism that I might have is guys are like, well, we don't want to get injured for the playoffs, which is the running argument, right? I think having the tournament in the middle of the season is going to be a big plus compared

to the World Cup of Hockey, which was like guys came in out of shape. Yeah. Right. And I mean, understandably so they're like, look, our summer is short enough.

We don't need to truncate it even more just so we can play in this meaningless exhibition. I think this is going to be good. Okay. I want to talk a little bit about Philip Hronik here. Based on all the reports on him, it seems like the question is to have surgery or not have surgery. Typically, the advantages of having surgery is that

you're more sure that you'll fix the issue and have a predictable timeline, with the cons of that being that, A, you need surgery. That's a con. And B, you miss more time. In some cases, major shoulder surgery takes four to six months to recover from,

which helps you understand why Hronik is being so careful. If it's four months, he's back in time for the playoffs. If it's six, might be too late by then. Yep. We also don't know a lot of things. We don't know if Hronik for sure hurt the same shoulder. He had issues with last season. Of course, Hronik did not admit he was injured last season.

Just ask J-Pat. And don't forget that Hronik arrived in Vancouver with an injury. That might have been a shoulder injury too. I know he had that big hit by Reeves, which I think was a concussion. But I'm pretty sure there was a shoulder issue that he was traded to Vancouver with. This is massive for the Canucks and the rest of their season. I do wonder if they're going to have to abandon their plan to operate without LTIR, their cap accrual plan. Not the accrual plan.

Not the accrual plan, but that was everything. Kind of was. If Hronik is out multiple months, and especially if he's out till the end of the regular season, this is where management is really going to have to earn its money because there are multiple balls in the air with this situation. One, there's the medical thing where you want the best for Horonic, but also the team. And then look, if you're going to, it sounds like he's going to be out for a while. Sure. Regardless of whether he gets surgery or not, I think they're going to need to replace him. I know the Canucks have done fine in the last few games.

Yeah, they are 2-0 without him. I mean, they're 100% win record without him. I think they're going to have to replace him regardless. Now, this is, I suppose, on the table. I don't know how likely it is, but could they pull a Vegas and put him on LTIR until the playoffs? That way, they get to replace him and keep him for the playoffs.

Of course, they have to make the playoffs in order for that plan to work. That was the Vegas plan last year. Because remember, Vegas was not a shoe-in to make the playoffs last year. They struggled down the stretch with all their guys out because it was hurdle and stone right and then they popped back in now what happened there Vegas made the playoffs and we're out early so there's

risk involved for sure I kind of I my I was using the meme that Patrick Alvina has the chance to do the most hilarious thing ever and that would be hey, hey, Vegas did it. We're going to do it as well and put him on the shelf. It will be interesting to see if he undergoes surgery. That's all this really comes down to if we want to boil it down to its essence, because surgery comes with a more defined timeline, but also in this case, probably a lengthy one. And if that's the case, then you're looking at, you put them on LTIR, you probably play the Vegas game, and then you open up that space to try and go make a move.

Now, any good executive takes a look at a season. I mean, look at, not good executive, but look at Chris Drury in New York. Sometimes plans change on you. Sometimes things go awry, and you've got to be able to adjust on the fly. I love all the people trying to put together a canucks rangers blockbuster here it's the natural thing to do it is the totally the

natural thing to do as a fan and i'm enjoying some of the trade proposals because jacob truba right shot defenseman i'd be down bloated contracts i love truba it'd be so entertaining they would have to retain a large amount of that contract. Two years left at eight million. They'd have to retain a lot.

One and a half years. It wouldn't be, look, if Veronik was LTIR and then you fit Truba in for him, that's fine for this year, but then you might go

into next year and be like, oh, we got to get Besser signed. We got to make improvements Trubin for him that's fine for this year but then you might go into next year and be like oh we gotta get Besser signed we gotta make improvements to other areas of our team and also there's the whole fact that Jacob Trubin hasn't played all that well no at any rate like I just think there's a lot of people out there putting together some fun potential blockbuster deals. There was also that report that the New York Rangers called the Canucks about JT Miller. Yeah. Okay.

And that is, I know I've used this phrase a lot. You know, Rick Taka talks about eating the elephant. I just talk about the elephant in the room with JT Miller. You know, I hope nobody eats that elephant because he's just sitting there in the room with JT Miller. You know, I hope nobody eats that elephant because he's just sitting there in the room, not bothering anyone. He's a different elephant. You know, we don't know what's going on there.

And until we know, then we can, you know, it's hard to talk too much about this. But, you know, I think it's one of those, I want to talk to Wish about the Rangers right now because again I I watched them last night and the Madison Square Garden faithful were not very happy because this is the New Jersey Devils one of their main rivals that came into MSG blew them out on the scoreboard and their fans were enjoying it. There's lots of Devils fans there and a lot of the Rangers fans. They just left.

Yeah, they've lost six of their last seven. All six losses have been a regulation. So no consolation, no loser points. There was Devils fans in attendance at MSG last night laughing and openly mocking Igor Shesterkin, who, by the way, if you want to talk about a guy where the shine has come off going into this contract that he needs to sign, 24 games played this season.

The Rangers have given up five or more goals seven times already. So whatever he was at one point, like the finger in the dam, keeping it from bursting, it's kind of burst on the Rangers. Before we go to break, and I know we're up against it for time, but I want to play this before we get wish on the show. The collective media in New York is teeing off on this Rangers team right now. Larry Brooks had a scathing article in the New York Post. Boomer Esiason, yeah, him, the former Bengals quarterback. He's on WFAN and he's a huge Rangers fan. And he wrote that it was a horrendous loss last night.

No words to describe the level of disgust. So everyone from every avenue, radio, television, print in New York is all over this Rangers team. Even their own broadcast team. I'm going to play something from the intermission yesterday. Steven Vallecat, a guy that we know very well. Kevin Woodley is always referencing his clear-sight analytics, former NHL goalie, now he's an analyst with the Rangers. During the intermission yesterday, when it was 2-0 Devils,

he took issue with Jack Hughes going in on one of his multiple breakaways in the period and doing the one-handed Peter Forsberg move on Igor Shosturkin. Now, the move didn't work. Hughes didn't score. But the fact that he tried it and the fact that the Rangers had nothing to do about it or say about it really pissed off Valaket. Here's what he said during the Rangers broadcast yesterday. I don't like that because Hughes set out to embarrass Shosturkin there by slowing down

and going to one hand. And that should send a shock wave to everybody on the bench. I know in my day that Colt Moore would have been hanging over the bench, banging his stick, saying, I'm coming after you because you tried to embarrass us. And that's blatant disrespect. And I'm sort of surprised I didn't see a response from the team that way. Is that how you read it? I'm interested to hear more about that. What did you read about that body language or that moment? Because maybe it was he just knows that Igor is really good on breakaways and didn't want to shoot right away. No, he's had success against Igor, playing him straight up.

And I thought he slowed down. He wanted to put a fancy move on. It was more Instagram hockey than intense hockey. There wasn't much of a back check, so that allowed him to do it. But I'm looking at him going like this and doing what, in a practice, a goalie would get mad at a teammate for doing, saying that would never happen in a game.

When was the last time you saw somebody one-hand score like the Forsberg move? In a game. Not a shootout, but in a game. And I think that the Rangers should be upset about that. So we've got a lot more to get to on think that the Rangers should be upset about that. So we got a lot more to get you on this topic and more.

Don't go anywhere. Keep it on the dial. Greg Wyshynski is going to join us next. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with

Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll 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.

634 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, 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 one of the program.

Greg Wyshynski is going to join us on the heels of this new metal version of ESPN on or NHL on ESPN. He'll join us in just a moment. Hour 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.

North Star Metal Recycling. Before we get to Wish, we're going to do a quick recap. Not of the game last night in which the Devils went into MSG and thumped the Rangers 5-1. Further cementing the Rangers and whatever funk they are currently in. We're going to play the hot audio. We're going to play a snippet of what Stephen Valliquette said again. I know we played this already, but I want to play it again. This was Stephen Valiquette during the intermission of the Rangers-Devils game

calling out Jack Hughes and the New York Rangers after Hughes' fancy boy shootout attempt, or sorry, breakaway attempt on Igor Shosturkin. Hughes set out to embarrass Shosturkin there by slowing down and going to one hand. And that should send a shockwave to everybody on the bench. I know in my day that Colt Moore

would have been hanging over the bench, banging his stick, saying, I'm coming after you because you tried to embarrass us. And that's blatant disrespect. So the move didn't work. It was the one-handed Forsberg. It didn't score.

And, of course... What was the score of the game at the time? Do you know? 2-0. Okay. Yeah. So not really... Pretty early in the game.

Yeah, not really a blow to the... Look, I got thoughts on what Valak had said and why everyone's missing the point anyway. But, of course, some intrepid reporter asked Jack Hughes about this after the game. And not surprisingly, Jack Hughes kind of had no idea what he was talking about. Then he got up to speed.

Anyway, here's the back and forth. Jack Hughes asked about Stephen Valliquette's remarks after the game last night. The Rangers broadcaster thought that you were trying to embarrass Mr. Durkin. Just take me through that. And what was your reaction to hearing that? What did he say?

He said he thought you were trying to embarrass the circuit on that breakaway. Wouldn't you come to the fourth bird? Yeah, I mean, I don't even know what that means. Like, what does that even mean? Yeah, I don't even know what that means. Always a good response. That would be so confusing, though. Yeah.

If you got that, it's like, what? I'm trying to score. He's also like, who said that? Let's go to the phone lines now for more. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wish? I've interviewed Jack a lot. And the thing you got to do is you have to spell out what it is you're talking about.

You sure do. Because he's got blinders on. He's so focused on what's happening on the ice and in his prep he doesn't like talking to us anyway so it was really funny to hear the framing of that question and hear the response because he had no one said anything to him he had no idea anything had been said between periods it's pretty classic jack now listen classic Jack. Now listen, as an insult, Instagram hockey is great. It's a great, crusty, old guy thing, and an old

guy, I think I'm the same age as Valaket, so I can understand where he's coming from generationally. It's beautiful because it's dismissive of the younger generations of doing things on the ice for themselves, for the gram, versus doing things on the ice for themselves, for the gram versus

doing it for their teams, you know, which is the way it always used to be. And so the problem with the insult was not the insult. It's great. The problem is that it was misapplied. Like he's trying to score a goal. And as Pete Blackburn pointed out this morning in a video clip tarasenko did the same damn thing in in msg yep uh no less than two years ago so like i didn't have any issue with the move i think the instagram hockey thing could be applied to like trevor ziegris circa 2022 uh

versus what what jack hughes is trying to do last night against ig. What's going on with the Rangers, though? That's what I want to know. They're playing MySpace hockey. Completely out of touch. The site doesn't load correctly. Here's my theory on the Rangers. My theory on the Rangers is that there has to be some kind of disconnect right now between the coach and the core.

I don't think that you get the kind of seasons you're getting out of Zidanejad and Kreider and some of the other veterans on this team if they're content with what's happening behind the scenes. And let's be honest about Peter Laviolette. He's got an expiration date in most cases. He's a guy who comes in, gets immediate results, and then eventually the act wears off. All this leads me to say that despite there being a memo sent to 31 other teams

saying we're open for business and, hey, would you like a slightly used Chris Kreider, which to me was more about trying to get Chris Kreider and Zbaneczak going than anything else, it's a lot easier to fire the coach than it is to trade a player, especially a player that has half the league on his no trade clause. And so I circle back to something that was circling around the Rangers when Laviolette got hired, which is that they really wanted Quenville. And he wasn't available. I don't know if it got to the point where they asked the league

if he was available, but the bottom line is he wasn't hired. But that's, you know, we talked about that two years ago. Like, that was the guy that they wanted. They ended up with LaViolette, who I think has done a really good job there. But like I said, eventually the message kind of fades, and it might be lost on veteran players there. Quentinville's still available. Bowman gets hired in Edmonton.

So now you have someone who you know broke the ice and hiring one of those ex chicago guys and and it's the classic jim dolan moves let's fire a coach making a lot of money and hire a coach making even more money and let's let's hope that fixes the team where is jacob truba's game right now? It's not great. You know, I think part of that is maybe the age curve. And I think part of that is also just, again, like the vibes are bad. He's coming off an offseason in which the team actively tried to trade its captain and would have done so were it not for his trade protection. So, I mean, you come into this season with what to prove.

I don't know. Like, you want to win, but ultimately you know it's a lame duck season for you because if they can't trade you, they're just going to treat you like they treated Barclay Gaudreau. So, you know, the vibes on this team are bad, and I think it tracks back to the way they've treated some of the players that are on this roster and are no longer on this roster. And, you know, I think Chris Drury deserves a certain amount of blame

for what's happening here, too. Sure. Not only because of the vibes and not only because of the direction of the team, but also, like, the logistics of what they did. I mean, like, Zibanejad and Kreider needed a winger. And I talked to Mika after last season, and it was pretty obvious that he was looking for someone more in the mold of like a Matt Zuccarello, who was, I think,

the best player to interact with those two guys in their heyday as a line. And they ended up with Riley Smith, who I think is a nice complementary player on a good team, but by no means should be your first line winger with two of your most important veteran offensive players. So, you know, that was the solution that Chris Drury landed on for whatever reason. And I don't think it's necessarily worked. And, you know, everything's kind of gone awry here two months into the season for the Rangers. Do you think Drury meant it to get out? When you send a memo to all the GMs, it might get out.

Of course he did. That's what I just said. He did it and he put Kreider's name in there to try to send a message to his veteran core that if you guys think you're safe, you're not safe and you better start playing because one of the most beloved and important players in this team

is now on the block because of how you've performed. I don't think it's coincidental that's a name that was mentioned in there. I mean, Trouba's mentioned just because obviously they're trying to get rid of him, but like Kreider's in there for a reason, I think. And it may be that he actually is going to trade him. Somebody texted me the other day, Brad Marchand for Chris Kreider, who says no. I'm like, Brad Marchand probably does at this point. But I think he sends the memo knowing that the memo gets out and knowing that Kreider's name is in the memo. And I think it has as much to do with the PR of it all than anything else.

Look, like I said, I wrote a piece on the NHL at the quarter mark yesterday on ESPN and handed out some awards and superlatives, and I'll repeat what I wrote in it. Between the letter proclaiming a rebuild and the memo proclaiming that they're open for business, the Rangers have written more important public perception shifting documents as a New Yorker than Alexander Hamilton. They are that important in the documents that they send out to the rest of the league. A quick aside here.

Do you think Marshawn's a lock to re-sign with Boston? I don't know. I could see him being a guy that is in that realm of, I love it here, I've had success here, and I want to remain here type player. You have to remember the other part of it, too, with Boston is that there is this grand tradition of keeping the veteran players around, and they pass the culture

of the team down through the next generations of players, and maybe something's gone a little wonky with Marchand being that guy, based on how they've played, but I don't know. I think he probably wants to stay. I don't think he wants to be a Ranger. I don't think he necessarily relishes that idea, but I don't know. I think he probably wants to stay. I don't think he wants to be a Ranger. I don't think he necessarily relishes that idea.

But couldn't you see him, like, in Vegas one day or something along those lines? I could see that happening. Colorado with Sid and Nate. Why not, right? Who says no? But, you know, I tend to believe that he'll want to stick around Boston as long as Boston will have him, which, you know, I tend to believe that he'll want to stick around Boston as long as Boston will have him, which, you know, given how Don Sweeney's operating, might be for like a week.

Based on the kind of panicking moves they're making at Boston these days. We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I do want to get into the Wish Awards here, which was very entertaining, very well done. But before we get to those, one, how much attention are you paying? And how focused are you as we get into Wednesday with the announcement of Team USA for the Four Nations faceoff? And on your personal roster, do you have JT Miller on it?

I do. I understand the inherent drama involved in making that declaration. If I'm Bill Guerin, I have some sense of what's going on, and I have some sense of whether or not it's fruitful to have him on the roster. I mean, he's obviously a vital player for this team. He's a bona fide 200-foot player. He's got the experience you want versus some of the younger guys on the roster. He's clearly one of the more important names that's going to be

on the roster if he can play. If everything seems pointed towards him coming back to Vancouver at some point maybe in the next month, let's say, then I have no problem putting him on the roster. The drama for me with the Team USA roster

is in the overall construction of the bottom six. I think they've got some really interesting offensive talents that they could put on this roster. Dylan Larkin being one of them, Cole Caulfield being maybe the more prominent one as far as all offense, no D. Do they go more in that direction to fill out the roster behind Hughes and the Kachuks and all those guys? Or do they like put on a Chris Kreider or a Vincent Trochek

or players that might be more guys that can kind of carry the grinding load of a bottom six player? Because, again, the essential question about Team USA isn't about talent. It certainly isn't about goaltending. It's whether you can get younger players and star players to kind of fill the roles that are necessary on a winning team and play a little bit of defense

and do that kind of thing. And so it's going to come down to whether or not Bill Guerin believes the young players in this roster can do that or if he needs to import some veterans that might be able to play those roles more effectively. Has Guerin tipped his hand at all as to what direction he might go? Because we ran through the list of guys, conceivable bubble guys, and it was interesting because they're all very good players. But as you pointed out, like all very distinctly different where you could go with guys that are really offensive minded or guys that

are more quote-unquote 200 foot players it's it's interesting because you could really remake a lot of the identity of the team just based on the last few forwards that might make it yeah i asked him that we had him on the drop uh a few weeks ago on estn and i asked him that question and he he kind of he kind of punched it a little bit as far as the philosophy of the team um but again like that's that's the real mystery because this is the first time that you have an american side where you could just put the pedal down and say we're we're going to score goals yeah and we're just going to be as offensively dominant as we can be knowing that we have Connor Hellebuck on the back end

or Jake Ottinger on the back end. It's the first time that they've had this assemblage of talent to be able to have the luxury to do that. The question is whether or not they'll choose to knowing that since 1980, there's always been this scrappy underdog kind of narrative about Team USA where you're going to have to have your Ryan Callahan's on the roster and you're going to have to have these guys that are role players in the roster. exhibition tournament, at the end of the day, that's all it is. Why not load up and flex and see what you've got versus trying to meticulously build a team for maybe a longer tournament? So I guess long story short, I'd love if they just put everybody on the roster that can score a goal

and then worried about the blue-collar stuff in 2026. We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. I mentioned the wish awards, the golden wishes as we're calling them here as of, as of 15 minutes ago. So there was a bunch of good categories, but worst regression,

the winner, I guess it's not really a winner, but the winner, Conor Bedard. Now I bring this up because yesterday the Blackhawks were in Toronto. It was an Amazon prime game. There was a lot of attention paid to it because it was Austin Matthews' second game back in the lineup. Matthews scored.

Conor Bedard did not in a 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs. And if you look at his box score, there were a lot of zeros, right? In 1852 of ice time, no goals, no assists, no points, no shots, no hits, nothing, right? It was tough. He finished minus one. They lost again. And it's interesting because it just kind of feels like the frustration isn't going away and almost keeps growing.

Like, we have the conversation here. It's like, look at what Macklin Celebrini's doing. And now there's these conversations about the Four Nations faceoff roster and the Olympic roster. It just feels like there's a lot of roadblocks and a lot of stumbles going on right now. So the regression of Conor Bedard, where do you see it going from here now that he's won the Golden Wishy?

Well, first of all, I mean, he should just obviously just get his ass to Germany. They fix you in Germany. You go to Germany, you come back, you score goals, you know, go to Germany. Didn't work for Christian McCaffrey. No, that's true. It didn't. And that was a horrific highlight to watch. Oh, man.

Not good. Not good. So there's a couple of ways to approach this. First of all, from a personal perspective, I can't tell you what's going on with his offensive game. He's such a talented goal scorer. To have his numbers be where they are right now is kind of alarming.

Again, he's going to be fine. It's a sophomore jinx, whatever you want to call it. But it's his overall happiness right now and contentment that's really the issue. And part of that is some of the moves that Kyle Davidson made in the offseason haven't panned out. Tyler Bertuzzi should probably get a lot more scrutiny

as being a potential bust through the first two months of the season. And that was a guy that was bought on to at least, at the very least, use their power play a little bit. And the team's not good. And so part of that is some of the moves they made haven't panned out

and maybe they're still trying to like slowly progress you know get more high graphics and that kind of thing and and honestly that's okay because it brings me to my other point which is that conor bradar has to realize these things take time and i think that he's putting an enormous amount of pressure on himself to make the blackhawks into a winner well before they're ready to be a winner and i think it's it's kind of like playing out statistically for him that he is trying to shoulder all that load. That being said, there's also blame for the coach, Luke Richardson,

who is trying to rebuild Bernard's game by having him play with defensive players and stuff and moving him to the wing and doing all this nonsense, which I don't think ultimately benefits him. And it certainly hasn't lit a fire under him. Yeah, we started this with talking about coaching with Quenville and LaVey. We'll end it with Richardson. Now that we've had a couple dismissals in the NHL, who do you think might be the next guy to go?

I still think it's probably Lalonde in Detroit. I feel like it's going to get to a point where they feel like they need to do something there in order to really make a serious push for a playoff spot. And, you know, him without a contract beyond this season kind of puts him in that prime territory to potentially get bounced. You know, I don't know how many more coaches Iserman has there. I mean, we'll see. But that seems to be the most logical one for me. Yeah.

But, you know, Richardson, when we did our coaches hot seat, was right there with Lalonde as being someone who I think is going to be the most logical one for me. But, you know, Richardson, when we did our coach's hot seat, was right there with Lalonde as being someone who I think is going to be under an enormous amount of scrutiny. When your star player is unhappy, when the team could end up regressing behind where they were last year, and when you obviously are making some pretty specious decisions, I mean, to healthy scratch Taylor Hall without communicating to Taylor Hall

that that could be a possibility, that wasn't just like a moment in which he had to kind of like say my bad in a press conference or, you know, to the media in Chicago. That was a moment when the rest of the league agents, everybody else kind of looked at it and said, whoa, wait a second here.

This is not the protocol that should be followed when you have a player with the reputation and said, whoa, wait a second here. This is not the protocol that should be followed when you have a player with the reputation and the experience of Taylor Hall on your roster. Are you hearing anything about Marty St. Louis security in Montreal? I think it's good. I've got to be honest with you. I know what you're saying. And that team should be moving up the standings a bit more than it is.

And we've been waiting for Montreal to be kind of relevant again as a contender for a while. But they picked up an option on his contract for two additional seasons. I know there's probably some frustration up there with how they look in the standings, but some of their underlying numbers are okay, and I think that they appreciate the job that he's done

with some of the younger players. So I think he's probably safer than you'd think he is from the outside. But at the same time, I mean, it's a pressure-filled market. They're not succeeding. And how long do you wait for that to happen? Because I bring them up because they were kind of tied to Jim Montgomery before he got the boot in Boston because there was and it was almost like a race to see who could get Monty because well the Blues had actually already

hired him in the offseason it just wasn't official they were like did we lose out to the Blues because he still worked but anyway the only reason I bring that dynamic up is because I wonder if the same thing is at play with Quenville right now where you look around the league and it's like would the Rangers make a like would the Rangers make a move would the Red Wings make a move and if they are it could be like well who's going to be the first one to just say okay we're getting rid of our guy because we don't want to lose out on Quenville well the thing about Joel though is that I still think that there's a obviously going to be a perception of well this guy was ostracized in the league and he should take whatever comes to him.

But at the same time, he's the second highest winning coach in NHL history. He wants to maybe try to get close to Bowman's record for wins. The only way he's going to do that is by taking over a team that's going to be successful in the regular season for multiple seasons. He's older and he also makes a ton of money. I mean, this guy was making like $6.5 million, I think, when he was forced to resign in Florida.

And despite the idea that he should be desperate to take whatever job comes his way at whatever price is set for him, I don't think he's taking too much of a haircut. He's Joel Quindle. Someone's going to pay him a lot of money to take over their team, thinking it's going to pay him a lot of money to take over their team

thinking it's going to be the recipe for success between being a good regular season team and a potential Stanley Cup championship team. All of these factors are at play if you want to hire this guy to be your head coach. Wish. You're the best, buddy. Thanks for doing this.

As always, enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Anytime, boys. Thanks. Thank you. As always, enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Anytime, boys. Thanks. Thank you. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of the NHL on ESPN, Ray Ferraro is going to be doing a game tonight. One of those teams we just mentioned, the Detroit Red Wings, taking on the Boston Bruins.

We'll talk to Ray next coming up on the other side of the break on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Then at 7.30, Joe O'Donnell, play-by-play voice for the radio for the Minnesota Wild. We'll talk to him ahead of tonight's game. 5 o'clock puck drop from Minnesota. It's the Wild. It's the Canucks. I nearly said something I've rarely said in my life.

What's that? I'm curious about the Wild. I know. I'm kind of curious about the Wild. This is the best they've ever been? I think this might be the best team they've ever had in Minnesota. I don't remember them ever getting off to a 16-4-4 start. And how much dead cap space do they have?

A lot. It's crazy. They are going to be paying Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Ryan Suter has now had three contracts since Minnesota. I got to double check on that one. It's crazy. He's getting paid by everyone. Two more buyouts, I think.

Yeah, I think the Canucks are paying him somehow. I don't even know how. He is living the dream. Best job ever. Checks from everywhere. Isn't that the ultimate goal? To get paid for multiple jobs you no longer work at? Oh my goodness.

Like every fifth game you play, it's against a team that's still paying you? That's Ryan Suter's life right now. Some people consider it an insult. I consider it a gift. I'm not one of those people. Okay, we're going to talk to you, Ray Ferraro, next, and then Joe O'Donnell from the Wild after that. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.