Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Were Right There

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk yesterday's Canucks road loss to the Montreal Canadiens (3:00), plus they discuss the latest NHL news and notes with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (27:29).  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.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. We're right there. Into the Vancouver Zone, stand it out front. They score again. And it's Carrier again. We're right there. OEL, breaking. He's got Nylander on the wing of shot.

Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his broth. It is sports at 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful. Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adah, good morning to you. Good morning. Gladdy, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio,

make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. It is time now for the morning guest list rundown. It's the Duick Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 630. Greg Wischinski is going to join the program. At 630, our NHL insider from ESPN.

Busy night in the NHL last night with nine games. An even busier night tonight with 10. Greg was playing close attention. to the huesa-palooza. Remember when that used to be a big deal here? Quinn, Jack, and Luke, all playing together. Well, it happened in Minnesota last night. Big win for the devils, too, I might add.

Greg Wischinski's going to join us to talk all things, NHL at 630. 7 o'clock, Brandon Bachelor, the play-by-play voice of Vancouver Canucks here on SportsNet 650. Canucks lost for the seventh straight time last night, 6-3 to the Habs in Montreal, and they're right back at it tonight. 4 o'clock puck drop against Travis Green

and the Ottawa Senators. You can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650. Batchel joins at 7 to talk about all that. Speaking of the Ottawa Senators at 8 a.m. We're going to talk to Alex Adams, Ottawa Senators writer for Sportsnet. Been a rough couple of weeks for the Ottawa Senators. They've lost four straight and seven of their last nine.

There were also those online rumors about Linus Olmark that the club addressed last week. Alex is going to join us to talk about it all and preview tonight's game at 8 a.m. Working in reverse real quick, Alex Adams at 8. Brandon Bachelor at 7, Greg Wyshinsky at 6.30. That's the Durek morning drive. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Miss that? You missed that?

What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies to best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA. CA. Last night in Montreal, as you heard in the intro, Alexander Carrier scored twice. Habs beat the Canucks.

Six-three. Canucks lose their seventh consecutive game in a row. But as Adam Foote said, they were right there for most of it. That was a fun game, at least. I really like watching the Habs. They absolutely buzz around out there. They're buzzy. They're buzzing. They're buzzing.

Busen. Good skaters. They move the puck quickly. Very creative and encouraged to play that way. by Martin Saint-Louis, their head coach, that Demadov kid is one of the most entertaining players in the league. It's fun to watch that one. I'm not sure if their style or their goaltending

is going to be successful in the playoffs, but they made the Canucks in the regular season look pretty silly at times last night. I don't know what the Canucks were doing defensively. They knew what they were up against because Adam Foote said so before the game. It was like, this is a very creative team. They can score off the rush.

And then he said after the game, he's like, we went into the game knowing we couldn't turn the puck over at their blue line and then we turned it over four times. That's a tough one. Then they settled down and then they were right there. And then they were not right there. You know, early on, the reason it was entertaining is the Canucks seemed pretty happy to just trade chances with the Habs. Maybe not trade, but like the Habs would get two, they'd get one. The Habs would get two, they'd get one. There was an exchange.

It wasn't equal. Yeah, yeah, right. I felt bad for Nikita Tolopilo, who'd been forced into action with another injury to Thatcher Demko, who we'll talk about in a bit. Tolopilo, I think he started four games, and then in two of them, he's faced over 40 shots. Yeah. Right? Like, that's pretty tough for a rookie. Adam Foote was critical of Nikita Tolapilo last night, his postgame media availability.

Yeah. He said he thought Tolo wanted a couple of those back. He also said that the pace was probably not what he's used to. and I think Adam Foote was quite upset with the way the third period started. The Canucks went into that period tied and then very quickly. They were down two goals and then three goals. There was on the fourth goal, if you listen to Adam Foote's scrum, I know he doesn't normally criticize his players and he didn't call Jake DeBrusk out by name,

but he may as well have. You don't hear this phrase often, but, He said that Jake DeBrusk over backchecked, which is, it's not like he was working too hard on the back check. It's just that he went too far back down into his own end, and he actually followed a Habs player all the way down to essentially the Canucks goal line. He went too far. And then the puck went back to the point, and Carlson, the other winger, on Pedersen's line, had to cover for Jake DeBresk at the point. And then the point man, he passed it to the other point man. and that guy was wide open

and Pee-D kind of had to fly out there and cover for Carlson and then they scored. Foot mentioned that over-back check at least eight times in his post-game media available. And he's just like, you can't do that. You got to stop.

You've got to stop. And so, you know, Jake DeBresk was a healthy scratch not too long ago. And, you know, I think he's played with certainly a lot more energy after that. But I don't, you know what?

I don't think he's a favorite of Adam Foote. The underlying stats did not reflect well on the Canucks, who did manage, again, to keep the score tied through two periods. But the Habs, like the Canucks score-wise, yeah, they were right there at the beginning of the third. But the habs were the better and the more dangerous team the entire game. You can tell there's something special. Forming in Montreal, the fans of the Bell Center were loving their young, exciting team last night.

Now, I made a prediction about last night, and that is that Brock Besser would finally score. I was wrong. Had his chances. He had a few good chances during a garbage time power play, but remains scoreless since late November. Is it, what is it, 19, 20? What, how many, 18, 19, 20 games?

I thought yesterday was number 20. Oh, okay. Well, whatever. I know people are wondering if Adam Futt is going to healthy scratch Brock Besser soon. I've wondered about that myself. Last night, the only healthy

forward that didn't play was Baines. I kind of find it hard to believe foot would scratch Besser for Baines, but who knows at this point? Speaking of scratches, Buhiam was a healthy scratch last night as the young defenseman.

You know, D.P.D. had his struggles in the Toronto game and he was sent back to Abbotsford. Bougham had his struggles in the Abbotsford or in the Toronto game. And he was put in the press box. Is the time going to come for Tom Fielander, who I think made a mistake on the Montreal's fifth goal? Like, is that going to happen soon?

By the way, when I say that the only healthy forward was Baines, that's because Sherwood is hurt now. Yeah. Sherwood's out and it's going to be between one to three weeks. It was kind of an odd update yesterday from the head coach, Adam Foote. Shortly after the morning skating Montreal, Foot did provide an update. First, he said that Sherwood was injured.

Considered day to day, but could miss up to one week, potentially three weeks. And I think maybe, just maybe, that wide lens in terms of how long Sherwood could be out It has to do with the fact that, let's be real. He shouldn't play another game as the Vancouver Can I get until he's traded? No. Can we all just throw that out there? Like his season is so shot.

There's zero point to bringing him back. He's already proved what he can do. I don't think there's anything left for him to do other than get more hurt. Should Demko play another game this season? Well, that also came up yesterday as well. So the Canucks did indeed send Demko back to Vancouver prior to the Montreal game so that the medical staff can evaluate his latest injury. Now I say injury singular there because it might not just be one.

I'll get to that in a sec. Foot said that Demko would be out a week or two after leaving that game against Toronto on Saturday. The Canucks did the sort of cursory thing by placing him on injured reserve. As you mentioned, total appeal was called up on emergency circumstances. The quote from Foot was on Demko. He's got a couple of things going on. missed a couple of times. So it's one of those things.

He's been dealing with this all year a couple of things. Foot was then asked about a timeline. And again, it was sort of a wide breadth in terms of how much time Demko could miss. He was then asked if Demko could be shut down for the year. And he did say it might be possible. So I have no idea what's going on with Demko other than it's a multitude of injuries that he's dealing with. It feels like a guy that's dealing with a body that's breaking down. That's the only way to look at it.

It's terrible. It's incredibly unfortunate for a real competitor who you can tell wants nothing more than to get back on the ice, but also not carry the label of a Band-Aid. You can tell every time Demko gets asked about his health, he does not want to be that guy. The problem is, with every passing day and week and month in the Canucks season, he's that guy. He becomes that guy. Yeah.

He's just not healthy. And his body, by way probably of the position that he plays and how aggressively he trained at it, is just breaking down right now. That contract looks pretty onerous for the Vancouver Canucks right now because if he can't stay healthy, it's a two-part problem. One, he can't contribute to your team on the ice, although anything good that he does in Net Now prevents them from falling all the way further into the basement. But the other thing is you can't move them.

Yeah. There's no trade on the horizon if Demko's not healthy. And I don't think he wants to retire. I've seen a few people say that, right? And I'm like, he's only 30 years old. He doesn't strike me as a guy that wants to retire. So all these people who are wondering, you know, can the Can the Canucks just, you know, stash them on LTIR?

It's not that easy. I really wonder how mentally taxing this has been. Again, you don't get much from Demko when asked about it. And I kind of get it. When you start talking about your health constantly, that does sort of become your personality. We've seen it with NHL players in the past. They've dealt with health and they've been open and vulnerable about it.

Well, that becomes your identity. And Demko clearly doesn't want to be that. At the same time, the number one question that you ask about Thatcher Demko now is, can you stay healthy? That's it. Okay, we got a few texts about this, and I noticed this was a talking point after the game. Unsigned text here, at what point does the market start talking about how Adam Foote has already lost the room? Lots of noise out there that the players are tuning them out.

I get not wanting to tank the tank, but how does the... the front office keep him there. Yeah, it's, you know, I, I tweeted a couple of times about Adam Foote last night because it honest, that game, it was entertaining like some of the Bruce Boudreux games. Yeah. You know, it didn't seem, it seemed like the Canucks were playing pond hockey, shini. And that made for an entertaining night and it played right into the Montreal Canadiens. Like they're such a creative team.

They move the puck so quickly. Their passing is so good that if you run and gun with those guys, you know, what happened last night is what's going to happen. And when, you know, there is a lot of, there is more noise about Adam foot and whether or not the players have tuned him out. And I don't know about that stuff. Rumors like that happen, you know, as the Ottawa senators. Maybe the connection.

release a statement that the Canucks have not tuned to Adam Foot. It's all the trolls that are doing it. But like you watch them play and you're kind of like, well, what are you guys trying to do? When you watch them play, it's comical to think that going into the year, the goal was to make the playoffs and keep Quinn Hughes happy because it's so, so far off it. Speaking of Bruce Boudreau, connects are now mired in a seven-game losing streak. This is the organization and franchise's first seven-game losing streak.

the opening seven games of the 2020-23 season with Bruce Boudreau, of course, famously got off to that awful start, which was punctuated by Jim Rutherford going on Hockey Night in Canada and saying that we had a lousy training camp. Not long after Bruce Boudreau was dismissed as the head coach of the Vancouver Cubs. There's some similarities there for sure. Is there any sense in firing him because you do have young players in the lineup? Okay. I realize you want, or a lot of fans, they're fine with the losses.

But, you know, if they talk about they want to have a good environment for the young players to develop. That has to be a consideration. If indeed, and if I was management, I'd be trying to find out about this. Like, are the guys listening to Adam Foote or is Adam Foote? effectively communicating his message. Okay, so Sat and Bick were talking about this on the postgame show yesterday. And it was in response to a handful of texts that said, don't overanalyze any of this.

This is what a rebuild looks like. This is what a tank looks like. This is what losing is. And Sat astutely pointed back and said, the analysis isn't going to stop just because they're losing and they acknowledge that they're in a rebuild. You don't just throw up a white flag. like as a fan base in media and be like, well, they're losers now.

We'll check back in on a close. We'll check back in closer with a microscope when they're winning again. There's still a process that has to be followed. Right. And in this particular instance, Adam Foote is responsible, if not for wins and losses, for creating an environment in which young players learn and grow and hopefully thrive, but also it's, got to be a system of accountability.

Now, I think he went there with the healthy scratch of Jake DeBusk a few games ago. I thought that was an important part of the process. It was like, hey, if we're bringing young guys into the mix here, there's got to be accountability for them, that they're learning the way, how we want to play and what's right and what's wrong at the NHL level. But there's also got to be accountability for our veterans that there's a certain standard that they're held up to. and those standards are based on how much they're getting paid,

what they're expected to do, all those things. For example, best or not scoring in 20 consecutive games to me is unacceptable. And at a certain point, if you're going to set the bar among your group about where the standard is and where the bar is, a guy making the kind of money that he makes and having the kind of opportunities that he has

can't go 20 games without scoring a goal and be minus 25 on the year. It just means you're not doing a good enough job. Is it all his fault? No. But oftentimes accountability isn't all about blaming one particular player. What if he thinks the effort has always been there and maybe he felt otherwise about Jake DeBrasse. Like Jake wasn't bringing his all every night?

Then I hope that messaging is clear to the players. Yeah. And I don't know if foot's going to be willing to go there to explain it publicly. I don't know. Because he's been very loathe to do any sort of individual criticisms throughout his time as a Canucks head coach. And when he calls somebody out, he doesn't do it by name,

he does it by action, right? Yeah. And there is a decided difference there. Like last night, it was very clearly calling out Jake DeBusk, approximately eight times in his post-game media availability. He just kept coming back to it. It's like, did you guys see that overback check?

Did you see it? Because it really cost us. And I get his rationale in terms of I'm going to pinpoint the moments in the game where we were there and then weren't. And it was the mistake on the 4-3 goal, the mistake on the 5-3 goal. But collectively, it's very tough,

very tough for anyone to buy the coach's messaging that that game was decided by one or two mistakes. And that's my biggest criticism of it. Like, I think... Yeah, that game was not decided by one or two mistakes. It was decided by one team being significantly better than the other. I get what. what you're saying.

Like, well, it was 3-3, and then we made a mistake on this 4-3-goal and that 5-3-go. So you're breaking it down to its sort of basic component parts. But it could have been any other handful of bad reads or mistakes

or quite frankly, just a lack of talent that you have on the ice that prevented you from winning that game. I don't know. It's a difficult task for a coach. I think Adam Foote is acutely aware that they're not going to win a lot of hockey games

over the second half of this season and he's got to kind of do the same thing that he's doing, which is trot out the same lines and say the same thing. So you're going to hear a lot more of, we were right there. He's a big fan of, well, you guys saw it. He dropped one of those last night. And then he's a big, we got to move on guy. He's like, we just move on to the next one.

We move on to the next one. And then we move on to the next one. Although we're kind of feeling like that way, too. And that is where complacency can creep in to a group, right? There's a lot of young guys right now. And I know Boolean wasn't in the lineup last night, and I'm not really sure how I feel about that. I'm going to need some time to sit and think with that one.

But there's a lot of young guys that are, this is their learning on the job. Like, this is it. This is basic training. And a lot of these lessons and things that they learn, they're going to carry with them for a while moving forward. So it's that part of the quote unquote over analysis, like hyper-analysing it that the post-game show does,

that's what you're going to be doing over the next few years. In a rebuild, you're going to be hyper-analizing what that rebuild looks like and if it's trending in the right direction. I think we're all very sensitive in Vancouver to what's going on in the room. So we hope that the players are still listening to their coach and we hope that the veterans are sending a good example for the young players that you do have to listen to the coach.

He might not be perfect, but you can't undermine him. And that's always a concern when the team is going through. or a losing stretch like this. Like you can imagine scenarios, right? You know, again, I haven't heard this, but you can imagine scenarios like the old guy's going to the younger guys, like, don't worry what he says. Right.

Right. Like, I mean, everyone's been in a work environment like that. One right now. Right where you're like, don't worry about what he or what he or she says. Like, I don't know what they're talking about. Sure. Just do your job. Just do your best.

Yeah. Do your best. Doesn't matter. That guy won't be here for long. Like, hyper-analysing the DeBrusk situation for last night, part of what DeBrusk did, the over-back check, is probably a result of trying to do too much because he knows that, to steal some English football parlance,

he's under the cost right now. Like, he's under a lot of pressure. He's been called out. He's a veteran guy. I think he genuinely believes when he gets in front of a microphone and he's like, I need to be better, I need to step up, I need to provide more. I think he genuinely believes.

I don't just have to back check. I have to over back check. Yeah. By the way, that is something I have never been accused of. Over back checking. No, only a handful have. Right? You've tried too hard on the back check. And lo and behold, trying to do something right. Extra effort, determination, dogged pursuit on the back check. What does it do? It costs you a goal and gets you called out multiple times by your head coach in the post game media availability. Okay. Very quickly. the biggest stories from last night in the NHL. Well, I guess we got to start with what's going on in New York.

And the New York Rangers right now are, I would say, as big of a mess as the Vancouver Canucks. Last night at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers were up two nothing, lost four to the Seattle Cracken. That is now their seventh loss in their last eight games. There were very audible fire jury chance at Madison, Square Garden last night.

Do we have the very short J.T. Miller clip at the ready here? J.T. Miller, and the audio is kind of muffled, but I just want to play it because it's the brevity and the sadness in Miller's voice. He has no idea what's ailing this team right now, how they were able to come out with such jump and then completely flatline at home at a place where they have been just miserable this year at Madison Square Garden in front of the blue shirt, Faithful. Here's J.T. Miller, very short audio clip being asked, why they lack.

the juice they started with yesterday after a 4-2 loss of the Seattle Cracken. Did you feel like anything you get from that point forward in the second? I don't know. That was, I'm sorry, I don't know. I'm sorry.

He's just completely out of answers. That wasn't the only part of the scrum. He didn't start it that way, but he did say a few things before, but they asked for an answer on why he didn't have any energy and he said, I don't know, I'm sorry, I don't know. Yeah. Like that's, and he's the captain of the team.

And like it or not, like you need to have some semblance of an answer. And if you don't, there's real issues. He apologized at least. Yeah, I did apologize. Sorry. That's another loss for them. And they are in a real rough shape right now. The Leafs aren't?

Leifes played great last night. We played the audio of Joe Bowen's goal call in overtime as the Leafs went into the toughest building in the National Hockey League to get a win. Colorado ball arena and emerged four three victors. In overtime, I know no one wants to hear Leafs praise and love right now, especially given how the local hockey squadron is doing, but it bears paying attention to what the Leafs have done over the last couple weeks. Some big wins, specifically against Florida a couple games ago. They got the big win over the Canucks, obviously, on the weekend.

They go into Colorado and beat the Aves 4-3 in overtime. Joseph Wall is playing fantastic hockey right now in net for them. There's another guy that needs to stay healthy because when he's in net and on his game, they are a very, very difficult team to beat and they move into the second and final wildcard spot in the east with that thing. I don't like that Austin Matthews is heating up ahead of the Olympics.

Yeah, he's playing very well right now. I was hoping that he'd be not feeling very confident heading over to Italy and now you hear things like Barube, his head coach saying like, yeah, he's demanding the buck now. He scored a very nice goal last night on a toe drag and then went over to the glass and did the sort of like gladiator, are you entertained? And then some guy in an ab's just.

Jersey, gave him the biggest double middle fingers ever. Did I get that on camera? Yeah, you got that on camera. Right. What are you doing? I don't know. I went to block in front of my screen. Anyway.

Well, you don't have to actually do it. Well, I was just getting into the character. Alfred's freaking. Justin and these fans are going to be all over that. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't clip it. Don't get Halford in trouble.

Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the Halford Inbrough show on SportsNet 650. Coming up on the... Halford has to act out everything that he says. Oh, no, he's still doing it. It makes it easier to get into the character. And bring the energy that they had in ball arena last night. Anyway, Greg Wischinski's going to join us coming up next. Nine games in the NHL last night,

10 more tonight. I wish we'll talk about everything that's going on in the National Hockey League. You're listening to the Halford & 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 podcast. 633. on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford, Brough, SportsNet, 650. I'm going to hold my safety pen now. That's why I was holding my hand. Your Bob Dole pen? Yeah. So I don't do any wild gesticulations with my hands. Just hold my pen.

You're special, buddy. I forgot. Okay? Not a big deal. Sometimes I forget things. See, he's got to hold his pen so he doesn't do the double-bill finger. The whole reason is there. It's to prevent any such incident from a current.

Yeah. Don't let your other hand free. Halford, Brother of the morning is bratsy by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. Still an hour one of the program, Greg Wyshinsky. Our NHL insider from ES fans going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one of this program is brats 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 Pall Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go, Greg Wosynskiy, joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Greg. How are you? Bob Dole. Bob Dole is one of the names that you can't hear without thinking about the way it was said by Norm MacDonald while playing Bob Dole on Saturday Live. It's much like how you can't think of the name Barbara Bush without thinking of how Borat said it.

A Barbara Bush. Every time I see Barbara Bush's name or hear Barbara Bush's name, the first thing I think of is, a Barbara Bush. Wish gets us. He gets the show. It gets the pop culture references that we have. Because we were thinking, because they're not recent. No,

I was like, how many people remember Norm McDonald doing Bob Dole, only a handful of them? But I've been holding this Sharpie, not unlike how Bob Dole used to hold it, just to, because I had a bad hand gesture

on the live stream earlier in the program. I'm trying to remedy that by keeping my hands busy. I can think of a few years. you could do with a Sharpie. So you might not be out of the woods. Hey, I want to start with Husa Paloza,

which used to be a big deal in Vancouver. Not so much anymore, but it was going on in Minnesota last night, and the devil's got a big win in Minnesota in the latest iteration of Huesa Palluzza. I'm assuming you took in the match. What did you think of what went on last night? Well, first of all,

I correctly called the final score on my show with Merrick yesterday. I said, this is the kind of game they're going to win like 5-2. Saw that. because, like, for real. Like, I literally said that. That's awesome. It's coming off of a couple of terrible games. The whole thing is spiraling.

Everybody's talking about Dougie Hamilton's trade protection and Pallat being a piece of garbage. And then, you know, Dougie comes back in the lineup. plays great. Pallat scores two goals. Of course he does. And they end up winning a pretty emotional game, I'm sure, for Luke and Jack. So, you know, what does it mean?

Ultimately, it could mean the same thing. it's meant all season for them, which is they take one step forward and then they stumble back three steps, which has kind of been the problem. Or maybe it could be a launch point. Who knows? I still think there's some systemic problems on this team. I'm intrigued to see what the reaction to Luke Hughes is going to be at the next home game because they haven't had one since the booing incident. They've been on the road since then. But it also doesn't, it doesn't, you know, eliminate the situation with Dougie Hamilton

where he had his agent and Tom Fitzgerald kind of going back and forth in Pierre LeBrun's Twitter feed regarding what Hamilton status is was to scratch something to force a trade you know does he want to leave all this stuff and then if they managed to

get his money off the cap in some way like what do they have in mind to improve what is the glaring weakness in this lineup right now which is to find a finish for their top six. I admittedly haven't been paying a ton of attention, but how far is Douggy Hamilton's game falling off? Well, it's an interesting question because defensively, I think he's not been very good this season in his own zone lapses and being a bit ineffective. Offensively,

his numbers are really not up to par for him. But I think some of that is sort of the devil's bizarre lack of rush offense. Like, Dougie's good on the first pass. As we saw, last night with Brat, he's also pretty good on the rush himself. And if you look at the analytics or the Devils this year, kind of inexplicably, their chances off the rush have really declined. And I don't know if that's a function of Jack Hughes being hurt for as long as he was, or if they're playing a different system or something. But like, whatever they've tweaked or whatever they're not doing,

it's not playing to Dougie's strengths. I still think he's a very viable defenseman. I think he could really help the team. You probably need to pair him with a stout defensive defenseman. But the issue is his contract, and I think that's going to be the most intriguing thing, like what are the devil's going to have to do to sweeten the pot to get that money off their cap, or how much of that money are they going to have to keep if they end up trading him? Hey, Wish, what do you make of the resurgent Toronto Maple Leafs?

You must be pretty happy to see Austin Matthews heating up ahead of the Olympics. Well, that is a relief. the idea that they're going to go to war in Italy with this team and Matthews is like, you know, 30% of himself was not something that I really like to think about all that much as an American hockey fan, but I guess we're not firing Craig Bruby anymore.

Is that to what I'm to understand? That's correct. He's got them playing, no wish. He's got them plan. Yeah. No, man. It was fun to see them get a huge win on the road. I mean, that's a statement win.

They're the first team to really hang an L on Colorado on home ice like that. And I think, you know, their top skill players are playing well. And it's, you know, along with Matthews, like they've certainly gotten other players back in the lineup who have been banged up as well. So I've always thought they're probably good enough to make the playoffs in the East. I don't think they'll do much more of that, than that, rather.

But this was a good, this little stretch they've had is a good indication that they were not nearly as bad as their record indicated about a month ago. It's going to be tough to make the playoffs in the East, though, isn't it? There's 11 teams with a positive goal differential in the East. There's only six in the West. San Jose's got a playoff spot right now with a minus 19 goal differential, and Washington is on the outside looking in, temporarily maybe,

but their goal differential is plus 17. What do you make of that? Well, I mean, that's what was funny about the, the Columbus news yesterday is what the people being like if they were in the West, they probably wouldn't have fired Dean Eveson. That would probably be a wildcard team at this point. Yeah, they'd be three points out of the playoffs. Yeah, it's not necessarily untrue.

No, it's a meat grinder. You know, there's certain teams that you're looking at and side-eyeing like Philly that you assume are going to, you know, at some point the apple's going to fall from the tree. And then there are obviously some teams that are wallowing in the in the abyss right now, devil's being one of them, Florida being another, that you assume are going to, find some upward mobility in the standings. You know, Washington is an interesting case because I think that that team, of that pack of teams that are sort of around the wild card right now, and, you know, Buffalo is one of them,

having been one of the hottest teams in hockey in the last month. Washington is the only one with real proof of concept that they know how to make the playoffs. And with the goaltending that they have and with the, you know, the advantage of scoring that they have, I still think the smart monies on them. I also think they probably have the second best coach in the conference in Spencer Carbury. But you're right. I mean, it is an extremely competitive, tightly packed conference. I mean, and league. I mean, we've got six teams right now that are under 500 in this league, which is insane. We're speaking to Greg Wischinski from ESPN here on the Halford and Brough show

on Sportsnet 650. With regards to the move in Columbus, what was more surprising that Dean Eveson was the first coach fired this year or that the first coach off the unemployment line was Rick Bonus? The Rick Bonus. part. I mean, unless we're going to give Don Waddell the ultimate credit, which is that the last Winnipeg Jets coach that said he was done coaching that came back won two consecutive Stanley Cups. Good point. He's trying to just, he's just trying to recapture the magic with Rick Bonas. Like, listen, anytime a guy steps away from the game and says he's done it and then he's back behind the bench, and he won, you kind of feel sad a little bit. You're like,

you know, this was, you run off in the sunset, man. You're going to hang out. out with your grandkids. And now you're back behind the bench trying to figure out how to get Kent Johnson going. But at the same time, I mean, like, for what they had in Eveson, which was a guy who was, you know, not bad cop necessarily, but certainly stirring with his players and hard on his players and demanding of his players to the point where maybe when things weren't going well, they tuned him out. To go into Rick Bonas, whose modus operandi is really sort of the interpersonal connection

between coach and player. I think it's a smart move. I think he's a pretty decent fit for that team. And, I mean, we're only a few years removed from him being a, you know, a Jack Adams guy. Like, it's a pretty bold statement from Waddell, if we're being honest, that he thinks that this team could be a lot better than what it is. And I don't necessarily know if that's true when you think about the depth on defense behind Worensky and when you think about the fact that they've played an entire season

so far with one goal league that's good. Tampa Bay Lightning have won 10 in a row I wonder how many people around the league actually know that and they've been blowing some teams out recently like you mentioned Philly following off I mean Philly was outclassed by Tampa over the last two games Tampa beat them 7-2

and then 5-1 Braden Point got hurt last night though have you heard anything about that because it looked like a knee you got tangled up in front of the net on a goal that he scored. And obviously, as Canadians were a little worried about that. I only heard the same thing you heard last time from Cooper that they're going to kind of reevaluate it in the next couple of days

and see where it is. I mean, listen, if you're looking from a Tampa Bay lightning standpoint, it's a bummer, that's a guy that needs as much runway as he can get to really, really get back on this game. I think that it's improved, but it's still not. where they wanted to be. And then the other aspect, obviously for you guys, with the Team Canada aspect,

and the good news there is that it's not like there aren't able-bodied replacements at the ready to move in if Braden Point can't go, one being Sam Bennett, and the other being Connor Bardard, you know, if they really want to ratchet up the offensive potential of this lineup. I think Connor, when he's been healthy, has played well enough to be an Olympian. It's just a matter of whether they want to go down that road

or if they want to maybe make a safer bet with a guy who, you know, was on the Four Nations and also has a consmise to his credit. Did you happen to catch the fire drury chance at Madison Square Garden last night? I didn't, actually. I try to avoid watching the Rangers. They're like one of the most painful teams to watch this league right now. It's a bad sit. It's like it's not even like bad entertaining.

It's just like bad bad. It's an interesting chant because it comes a, about a week after James Dolan gave him a vote of confidence. And not only that, but said that, like, he's got the full faith in Mike Sullivan and Chris Drury to continue to change the culture of this team.

And, you know, so there's some fire jury chance, sure, but it's almost as if ownership has already put it out there that they have a long-term vision of what Drury is trying to do here. And, you know,

if the short-term results aren't there, I mean, if you're going to go by what Dolan says and what Dolan says can change within a 48-hour period, like they're comfortable having this season be what it is and continue to change the roster over into what they believe it needs to be. Yeah, but Wish, aren't they screwed for the next few years? Like, you look at it, they're probably going to lose Panarin, right?

I don't think they're going to... Well, that's contingent on them. Like, he wants to stay. Okay. It's just a matter of whether or not they want to give him the term that he's looking for and that's really the sticking part uh the sick the sticky part of the equation i mean they've got they've got some they got some good young players i mean not enough of them he's got one of the best goalies in the world they've got adam fox and when he plays with

gaburc off they're quite good um up front though they're getting old well they are but they also have they also have rules of money but the problem for them is that now everybody else does too. And the cap is going up so high that those players who might leave for the riches of the Rangers can stay where their stuff is for maybe like 90% of those riches. And so it becomes a little bit harder for them to acquire that type of player. But I mean, your point's taken. It feels like a window closed and they don't necessarily know what the next window looks like. But there's some pieces on that team I really like. And, and, uh, and, and, uh, and, and, and, again, like the ownership has kind of given them at least publicly a little bit more runway to

figure out what they want to do here. We're speaking to Greg Wischinski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I wanted to save this one to the end, Greg, so we could give you adequate runway to answer. The situation in Ottawa regarding the online rumors about Lena Solmark and the club boldly addressing them last week in a somewhat unprecedented PR move. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that before. Just take this one any direction you want to know and go, because I know you were kind of embroiled in this one.

And there was some feedback between you and Ian Mendez, who we also know from being a guest on the show before and working with the Ottawa senators. Your thoughts on the situation in Ottawa. Yeah, Ian called me out in a blog post yesterday. But, I mean, like, I think he and I are fine. I haven't talked to him about any of this. But like my point, my problem with what, he said there is that he seemed to believe that the first time I heard about these rumors was when

the senators put out their statement. And that's not true at all. I knew about him like two weeks earlier because I'm on Reddit like everybody else. I am perpetually online. Yeah. Yeah. For the perpetually online, I think we all heard about this. And I'm glad you use that phrase because I think this is a perpetually online reaction. Like you got to take a step back and realize what the internet is. It's a thing that has got its own velocity. And, you know, next month, we are only talking about the Olympics. When Olmark comes back and he decides he wants to speak, that deflates this balloon completely, right, with whatever is going on with him or if he's able to say something that tugs at your heartstrings and it makes everybody feel bad for even believing these kinds of rumors. Like,

there's a number of different things that can happen that don't require you to put out a strongly worded statement that quite frankly a brings an enormous amount of of more attention to something that was kind of in in some corners of the internet and and contained in the city of ottawa and then b kind of comes out swinging so hard that a lot of people that want to believe this rumor probably believe it even more now yeah for sure for sure you know what i mean like there they're the the statement and and what brady kachuk said there's a whole lot of you you protests too much to the reaction of this thing that is not, again, I'm not saying that it's true. I'm just saying that when you, and I'm saying this as somebody who actually worked in public

relations before I became a sports writer. Like, when you're dealing with a scandal, the last thing you want to do is, A, let more people know about the scandal, and B, behave in a way in which people might believe that the scandal has some validity. And I think the senators did both of those things in the situation. And in that case, it was the completely wrong approach. if it was local media that was asking for a statement, just said it to local media. Work one-on-one with those guys. Like, don't blast it out into the world

where I'm hearing from people in Finland that are like, I don't even know this was going on. Or, again, as I started saying at the beginning, just don't touch it. Just let it be, let it live for whatever. Yeah, it's still going to surround your team. People still talk about Corey Perry and what happened with the Blackhawks.

Like, this kind of stuff just sticks to players. but it certainly would have had the air leave the balloon at some point because that's just how the internet works. Yeah, it's really interesting. We had the conversation before the show, and we said that, speaking of terminally online, like Ottawa is the most online organization, possibly in pro sports,

but at the very least, in the National Hockey League, because this isn't the first time for them. Remember the Brady Kachuk to the New York Rangers rumors where they came out swinging and accused the Rangers of soft tampering? and it was all about addressing the online rumors and seemingly getting out in front of the internet, which is an impossible task. And I do wonder if this might prove to be a cautionary tale for anyone really

that the internet kind of remains undefeated in these instances. And it's best just to ignore because if we do know one thing, it's another story that'll pop up within 24 to 48 hours that'll take the attention away. Well, maybe or, you know, like one of those things that Jeff Merrick, and I talked about yesterday on his show was like this idea that the players drove them to make a statement.

Like you guys got to say something about this. In which case, if you're the team, you just go, we know better than you. This is just going to make it worse. Then you don't say anything. But like, you know, one of the things that Elliot Friedman's kind of put out there in a number of ways is this idea of like,

by doing this, they've opened the eyes of people who might want to sign in Ottawa that they'll have their back. And like, there's a certain amount of truth to that. Like you want to know that you have the support of the organization no matter what. But I'll dial it back one step and say, it doesn't matter what the organization does if the crux of this is a market where a rumor like this can thrive. Now, I'm not saying a senator's fan

started it, but it's clear that it's circulated through that city with such velocity that they felt like they needed to do something. And so that's what that market is. Like you could, you could be like, You know, the trolls on the ugly people on the internet and their laptop. Whatever you're saying doesn't matter when the bottom line is that it's a market where a rumor like that can get so loud that your family's hear about it and that the team is compelled to make a statement about it. So no matter what they do, it comes back to maybe sign in San Jose. Wish you're the best, buddy. Thanks for doing this as always. We appreciate it. Anytime. See you later.

Greg Wischinsky from ESPN here. on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. You know, we've gone almost the first hour of the program. We haven't mentioned the football game last night. By design. Yeah, that was a bit of a clunker. What are the Steelers going to do? I don't know.

You didn't watch the end, because I think you told me you turned it off, actually. I turned it off. Yeah, so after the game, and I think part of this might have been a pre-production decision that they would regret. they did the solo cam on Aaron Rogers as if to say, we're going to follow around this future Hall of Famer and what's probably going to be his last NFL game. Just the moment didn't feel right. Part of it had to do with the fact that they got waxed

on national television quite badly. And he and the Texans defense dominated. And also there's been so much shine off of Roger's Star and like luster off of him that he doesn't really have that same gravitas as a, as this like walking hero leaving the arena.

You know? By the way, speaking of perpetually online. Yeah. I think Aaron Rogers is. Because did you hear his defense of Mike Tomlin? And then he got asked about it a second time. But he defended Mike Tomlin and he basically blamed

all the coaching changes on, you know, our society today and all the experts on on Twitter. And, you know, I don't think, I think he kind of misses the point. It's like Mike Tomlin has been a great head coach in the NFL and,

um, he's lasted, what, 20 years? Mike Tomlin has one Super Bowl. He won a way back in 2010. He's lost seven consecutive playoffs. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's kind of like, fair questions. Yeah. Like no one's saying he's a terrible coach. No one's saying he's, he's a bad coach. But,

you know, you also don't blame Steelers fans for being like, uh, Can we change this up a little bit? Because I'm kind of tired of, you know, being around a 500 regular season team sneaking into the playoffs and then getting blasted in the first round. I kind of want something different.

And, you know, Mike Tomlin's been here for a while. We're not saying he's a terrible coach, but maybe there's a different way we could go about it. Yeah. You know, Roger's got a lot of oxygen in a game where he put up six points of offense. He got a lot of oxygen yesterday. all of the post media availability was based on him and look I get it

Brett and I work in media and we understand how it works you follow the big stories and Aaron Rogers is a bigger story with all due respect to the Houston Texans than the Houston Texans but Houston went out and punched the Steelers in the mouth repeatedly despite CJ Stroud trying to give them the ball in every turn he was also punching his own team like he was not doing a good job and they went out and they won that football game. And in the aftermath, the talking points were Aaron Rogers

and Mike Tomlin's future. And I know what they were trying to do. I understand it. Aaron Rogers is one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. But his Swan song, if that's what it was, it just didn't have the same sort of vibe as like when Peyton Manning went out

or Tom Brady went out or anyone else. Part of it has to do with the fact that he still walks around like he's got this gigantic chip on his shoulder. Like that chip on his shoulder, for when he got passed over on draft night two decades ago was never left and he still got that animosity towards a lot of people and I watched his post-game media

availability go check it out if you've got time this morning. He doesn't really like people I don't think he's not a big fan of other humans You know like embrace the moment It could be your last ever NFL game He went out swearing at the media For a question that he didn't like That was how it ended right

And if you hate the media and that's your persona That's great but that was the same media that was giving you all of this attention walking out and your chance to shine one last time. Man, did it not go well for Aaron Rogers and the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday? Okay, we are way up against it for time. Hour one is in the books.

Hour two is on the other side. Brendan Batchler, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join us ahead of tonight's game. Back to back for the Canucks, four o'clock. Canucks senators from Ottawa. A batch is going to join us next

on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.