Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Won A Fun One!

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they discuss yesterday's big Canucks win over the Ducks (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose the fucking Canucks? Duhn, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough.

Passes to the middle for Carlin with a crowd. To-trane, take him to the goal. He scores an unbelievable goal by Connor Garland. He goes right to the net and beats Peter Marasick on the backhand. Ooh, this is nice. The Vancouver Canucks, with all the noise around their team, in spite of all the speculation around their future, and with their top two goaltenders out of the lineup, go into Anaheim and beat the top team in the Pacific.

People keep asking if I'm back. And I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford and is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from AJ's Pete's on 3-2-7 East Broadway in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. It's great to be here. Adol, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. So if you have no idea what's going on right now,

the Halford & Brough show for the second. consecutive week is live on vacation at our favorite spot 327 east broadway a j's pizza you just said live on vacation that's close enough it does feel like it does feel like a vacation here at a jays um i'm actually just here i i mean i will work the show but i'm mostly just here to get a good seat for all the football today and you get first lineup for the pizza and turkey sandwiches which are going to be here of course it is american thanksgiving we got a lot to get to on the program today big show ahead guest list today begins at seven o'clock nick kipryos is going to join the program.

Host of Real Kipper and Born on Fan 590. He recently dropped his first trade board of the season on Sportsnet.com. A couple of Vancouver Canucks on that trade board. We'll talk to Kippur about that at 7 a.m. One of them is Pee-D. I was like, oh, Kipper. Spoiler. God bless you.

God bless you. You're still trying to make it happen. So we'll talk to Kipper about that. I think he's number two on the list. 730, Brady Henderson, our Seahawks, Insider from ESPN, is going to join the program. Seahawks are mere 11.5 point home favorites. against a Minnesota Vikings team this weekend with major issues at QB. We'll talk to Brady about that at 7.30.

8 o'clock, it's the Drancer. Thomas Dranth from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk. Right here on SportsNet 650, Canucks kicked off their four-game road trip, as you heard in the intro with a win last night in Anaheim, 5-4 over the ducks, thank to a 37-save performance from Nikita Tolapilo. Lots of news and notes not pertaining to last night's game,

so we'll talk to Drancor about all that at 8. Now, you've noticed I've run through the guest list pretty quick, the Duick Morning Drive, brought to by the Duick Auto Group. That's because we have not one, not two, but three giveaways today. Like American Thanksgiving, we want to give thanks to all of our listeners. So, 7.30, we're giving away tickets to Guns and Roses. Sorry, 7.30, we're going to give away the Golf Town. That's my mistake.

Yeah, it's a 730. $250 Golf Town gift card at 7.30. At 8 o'clock, we are giving away Guns and Roses tickets. That concert is August 29th. 2026 at BC Place. We're giving away tickets every day this week. And then at 8.30, we're giving away a pair of tickets to see the Vancouver Giants play the Everett Silver Tips in two days time, Saturday, November 29th, the Langley Events Center. So, 730, Golf Town, 8 o'clock, Guns & Roses, 8.30 Vancouver Giants. I know that's a lot this early in the morning. So we will repeat this

throughout the show. All you need to know, every time, be caller number five. And the phone number here is 604-280-0-650. That number again. 604, 280650. Got a lot to get to on the program today, so without further ado, Zach, back at Mission Control, 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? Missed that? You miss that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance,

making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best and tools, resources, and safety training, visit them online at bccsa.ca.ca. And by the way, we are coming to you live from the mobile Kintech Studio. It is mobile. It has wheels and everything. Now's the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics before the year runs out.

Visit kintech.com. Last night in Anaheim, Nikita Tolapilo made 37 saves in his season debut. The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 at the Honda Center to kick off their four-game road trip and style. Although I was thinking, as I was putting together, the notes for the show.

Last week, we also did a live-on-location at Duick-on-Marine, and it was after the Dallas game in Vancouver. The moral victory. Right. And we came in afterwards, and we said, hey, good performance, or I said it anyway. The Canucks tried really hard, and they put a lot of shots on the board,

and they dictated play for long stretches. And then you sat there, and you said, yes, Michael, but to what end? And it got me thinking. Well, because they lost the game. And it got me thinking. It's that with everything that's going on with the team right now and yesterday was another flurry of news

about what might happen with the roster construction and trades and the future of Quinn Hughes, I do wonder what the next, I don't know, three or four weeks are going to look like with everything swirling in the air. Yeah, I think it's going to be pretty nuts. And I think you can basically take that all the way through the Olympic break into the trade deadline.

Things are going to get really interesting for the Vancouver Canucks. Unless they go on some sort of miracle run, that game last night was fun. It was really, it was fun. Neither team was all that interested in defending. There were a ton of high danger chances. The only thing I don't like about the game was the Ducks uniforms.

I know they're in Orange County, but it was a little too Orange County, you know? Aggressively Orange. Aggressively Orange. but, you know, it was entertaining. I think defensively, again, neither team was great, and I think it was kind of funny that the Canucks had another goalie in there

with not much NHL experience, and remember the last time they had one of those. It was Petera, and I think they gave up 40 shots. And then last night it's Tolo Pilo. He's like, this is my first NHL game, so make sure you guys, You guys helped me out a lot. First game this year for Tolapio.

Okay, right? Whatever. Close to his first NHL game. And they're like, how about 41 shots? So I was thinking about that because when we came in after the Florida game, the aforementioned Florida game in which Patero was in net and the Canucks lost 8-5,

I remember chastising the team to a certain degree saying, how on earth can you allow and surrender that many chances, that many great A's, and that many shots with a guy who hadn't played in nearly two calendar years in Yuri Patera. Last night's effort, defensively, marginally better than the one

in Florida? They still got outshot. They still allowed 40 plus shots. The only difference was Tolopila was more up to the task than Patera was, but it wasn't as if they tried to insulate another goalie with a very small body of work at the NHL level. Yeah, Tolo Pilo, I thought he looked a little shaky early on,

like a little unsure of himself, but found his game and and he got the job done I mean it was fun there were some fun moments but I was still watching that game and going like

you know I I don't know is this you know they've been working on their defense apparently and you know there are just some moments where I tweeted so I tweeted out

this is a fun and hilarious hockey games Yes. Because the Ducks were just as guilty of playing questionable defense as the Canucks. And it was almost like right from the beginning, they were like, they made this kind of like silent agreement between the two teams. Like, we're going to make this fun hockey game. Yeah, let's give the fans a show.

Yeah. And I heard that Joel Quenville, the head coach of the Ducks after the game, one of the reporters I saw was like for the one of the first times this season, Joel wasn't very happy with his team. Yeah, and that's understandable. Watching them play last night, you can understand why they are a top three scoring team in the National Oculee with 83 goals this season. I was texting back and forth with Ferraro, and he said, man, these guys are fast.

And I think, again, the Canucks won the game. They had some really nice goal. That goal by Garland, beautiful. Beautiful goal. And it was great that he was able to stay in the game and looked like he was injured again. And that was a beautiful goal by him. And again, they got the win. but this is the position the Canucks are in right now

where it seems like everyone's got it better than the Vancouver Canucks. So, you know, like even when the Canucks win that game and it's a fun game and they score some nice goals and Tolo Pelo gets the win and, you know, they kick off this road trip with a win. A lot of Canucks fans and I was listening to the post-game show, I was listening to the intermission segments. people were texting in

and were like, sure it would be nice to have a bunch of young players like the ducks do young talented players with upside and a long runway like the Anaheim ducks do and oh, did you know that they have a lot more coming? They have a lot more quality prospects coming. So I think we're at this point right now

in Vancouver where everyone else's situation looks better than ours whether that's fair or not, maybe not everyone's situation, but let's face it, there are a lot of teams in a better position

than Vancouver's right now, both in the short term and the long term. Well, in watching the game last night, I had a multitude of thoughts, but one of them was, what do the next two to three weeks look like for the Vancouver Connects? And I'm not talking about the schedule

and what the results will be. I know, organizationally, they're going to say, we want to win as many games as possible. We want to remain competitive, and we want to still try for that playoffs. But the reality of it is, is that if they are going to orchestrate these trades of pending on restrictive free agents... What's the team going to look like? What is it going to look like?

They're not going to get better, at least in the short term. This is a long-term plan that the president of hockey option, General Rutherford said, is to bring in younger players and have a rosier outlook for the future. Oftentimes, when you say that, the unspoken part is we will sacrifice in the present. And again, this is a team that has not had problem scoring goals this year. I think we can say that definitively now, right? Despite the shot totals, and once again, it was kind of lopsided last night. At one point during the second period, the shot totals got to 20 for Anaheim to a mere eight for the Vancouver Canucks.

But the Canucks had scored more goals in the Anaheim Ducks at that point. So they can score defensively, there are still issues. And long term, I do wonder what it looks like if, let's say, hypothetically, they go on a mini-heater here and win a couple of games on this road trip. With the organization's constant flip-flopping and no plan plan, I'll be curious to know what the narrative is put out publicly. Is everything still moving forward with the plan that Jim Rutherford announced on Monday? I highly doubt that anything will change after a couple wins,

but they're now living in two worlds like they often have, is they've got a lot of business that they want to attend to off the ice. Meanwhile, games are still going on, and the players on the ice are still going to be, as driven and is committed to trying to get wins as possible. I mean, that was one of the things, and we'll pivot to Kiefer Sherwood here in a second. There was a big article up on Sportsnet.com yesterday,

courtesy of IMac, talking about Kiefer Sherwood, who now finds himself in sort of main character territory because he's been listed publicly through Elliott Freedman's piece on Sportsnet. com, through Ian McIntyres as well, as the leading candidate probably. He's the easiest to move. If you want to move right now, you have a lot of people that are interested in him. The other pending UFAs

it's a little tougher. Think about it, right? A van der Kaine? I don't know what his value is right now. Teddy Bluger, health-wise. People might be concerned about that. You know, so yeah, Kiefer Shrewood is probably the easiest to move right now.

By the way, there's one team in the NHL that's given up more goals than the Vancouver Canucks. Do you know who it is? Edmonton Oilers? Yeah. Were you looking at myself? screen? Were you looking on my laptop screen?

No, you've got Yuri. You've got Yuri Petera up there right now. Speaking of people who have let in a lot of goals. See, I'm into know. Is it? Canucks have given up 90? Yeah. Ebeneas has given up 95. Yeah. What do you think the next few weeks looks like? Do you think, do you think Sherwood's getting traded

imminently? Because IMAC asked in his piece and he was doing a preview of the Anaheim game. And he said, is this the last game? that Kiefer Sherwood will play for the Vancouver Canucks. It was very... If it is, what a win.

He did score. Because they play San Jose Friday. Sorry, yeah, San Jose Friday. Saturday, it's the L.A. Kings. And then they get a couple days off before they play Colorado, which is going to be fun. They have not surrendered the most goals in the NHL. So we're the most.

But so Frege has also pointed out, and this feels like, He keeps on saying it, so it feels like he knows something. But he's been saying, you know, you know Jim Rutherford, when he decides to act, he acts quickly. The speed in which everything is reported to be happening was what caught me off guard yesterday. When IMAQ tweeted out his Kiefer-Shirwood piece with the kicker, is this the last game that Kiefer-Shirwood plays as Vancouver, Kentucky? It actually took me back. It struck me by surprise because I thought that at the very least there would be, I don't know, sometime between. the announcement that they were going to move on

and the memo being sent to the trades being orchestrated, but Sherwood's always been a guy that, and you know, according to IMAX reporting, going all the way back to trying to get an extension hammered out in the summer, that it always felt like this was going to go one of two ways. It was going to go one of two ways quickly. They were either going to

re-sign them and hold on to a guy that's been a great value signing for the last two years, or they were going to pivot off and move off a guy who could get them something pretty healthy in return. On a personal note, I feel bad that the Kiefer-Shirwood experience, quite frankly, has been wasted. He's coming to this team. Well, maybe not, though, because if it turns into an asset, then it hasn't been wasted.

I know, but I'm talking about a guy that shows up and comes in with very moderate expectations based on his previous body of work and his contract situation. Embraces playing here, embraces being in this market, massively overachieves, both in terms of the responsibilities that he's given and the production that he's given, right? You would like to see a guy like that get rewarded more than, well, we're going to flip you for some sort of asset. It would have been nice if he was able to do that on a team that was

in the playoffs, contending for it, or had a chance to make some noise, even deeper in the postseason. So Tyler texted it into the Dunbar-Lumber text inbox, and he asked, I think, a pretty good question. Wouldn't Kiefer-Sherwood have more value at the trade deadline?

If he kept up this scoring rate, he would. But there is that risk that his heater comes to a close, and all of a sudden people are like, oh, so he's got, what, 11 goals? Didn't he have 11 goals a couple months ago? You're at the trade line now. So there is a bit of a risk there, but I understand what Tyler's trying to say. And we discussed this yesterday.

The Canucks are accelerating what they would normally be getting done at the trade deadline. That's what Jim Rutherford said. Why? Why are they doing that? Is it because the team needs a shot in the arm now?

Or, and this was my theory, my theories aren't always right. Most of the time they are, but this is my theory. They're taking care of business now because they might have a bigger fish to fry around the trade deadline that they might have to deal with. And that, of

course is Derek Foreboard. Right. No, it's Quinn Hughes. Oh, right, that guy. Yeah, no, I, we discuss this theory yesterday, and I do have some time for it because it makes a lot of sense on the surface, right? Is you want, one, Jim Rutherford, and we mentioned this yesterday as well, historically, he's been a guy that gets all his business done, buying or selling well prior to the deadline, just how he likes to do things. He's an early Christmas shopper. He's probably taking advantage to these Black Friday sales right now and getting all of his Christmas shopping done. So will he extend that to this team?

It certainly seems plausible because, as you have pointed out, if you need to entertain the idea of trading Quinn Hughes, and you can get out in front of that as early as possible, this year's trade deadline would be it for all the reasons that you've mentioned in the past. Devin from Surrey, what kind of return are we looking at for Sherwood? That's a good question, too. I have no idea what the market is set at. Because we're not in the trade deadline yet.

A 2C. It's a 2C. It won't be a 2C. Oh, come on. It won't be a 2C. And Thomas Drance, who will have on the show at 8 o'clock so we can ask him again. In his article at The Athletic, he said that they were going to look for, at the very least, a second round pick in exchange for Sherwood. I've got to assume that the price would be higher now.

I'd be very disappointed if all they got was a second round pick, but I'd also be like, okay, fine, I'll take it. Here's the give and take with doing the selling early is you don't allow the market to be dictated. You're dictating it. You're the first one at the table, so. Well, you kind of are dictating it, but ultimately it's... I should rephrase that. It's the team that does the deal with you that dictated it. Yeah.

What were they willing to pay? But I also think, you know, are the Canucks even going to go after picks? I think, I don't think they necessarily want picks. I think they want younger players, either prospects or maybe players in the NHL that they like, that aren't being given a good opportunity with their team. team and then and then we'll have that debate about

are they going to be patient in this process or that quote by Jim Benning a long time ago this is a team that we can turn around in a hurry has there

has there been anyone in charge of the Canucks that has come in and said the opposite of that? No, not a one. Because I still go back to... Trevor Linden. Yeah.

But you didn't say it publicly. And like you said, that was the beginning of the end for him. And I still remember that press conference with... Maybe we can talk about this when your answer comes on the show. Where he was asking Jim Rutherford, like, how long do you think this is going to take? And then I think Rutherford put it back on him. Yeah. It was like, well, how long do you think it's going to take?

And he might have said like, I don't know, two years or something. And Rutherford was like, oh, I hope we can do it a lot quicker than that. Everything is expedited, right? That's been an organizational mantra for a while. It's get it down, but get it down fast. And it was funny because it looked like Rutherford had done that. You know, because they got in Rick Tocke it relatively quickly. There was a bit of a soap opera with Bruce Boudreau.

slight can under them slightly and then they had that great year under talk we're talking wins coach of the year and you know you get to the second round

of the playoffs I don't know if anyone at that point well some people might have but I didn't see them as like a as a cup contender at that point but I saw them as a team that could maybe take their game

to another level with some changes to the system which they tried to do didn't work really didn't work a couple of their players had a bit of a Tiff one of them had to be traded and then that's the trade that still gets referenced to this day

that they're a team in transition because of the J.T. Miller trade and I know everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people in this market want a full scale rebuild, but I don't think this is going to happen. I really don't think it's going to happen. The most interesting thing for me right now is if Rutherford can go into the way back machine And dial it back even just to two years to the early stages of his career as a Vancouver Canucks executive and move and make trades and be a wheeler in deal with the regularity that we've seen in seasons prior. You've got to remember that this was a team that when things were going for them, they were able to orchestrate moves a lot.

They made a lot of them, especially at the beginning of seasons. They were able to make trades at the deadline. They were able to fill gaps in the roster when they needed it to. they were able to make significant additions to the team. Yeah. Right. And they did it with a regularity that gave you hope that that was always going to continue. And now we're looking at it and we're saying the fork in the road was the J.T. Miller trade,

where they, for the first time, I think, felt forced to do something as opposed to being on the front foot and making moves. Well, J.T. ultimately asked out. Right. And that was one where, you know, Rutherford had to do the public plea that you have to bear with us because now we're a team in transition. Since then, the trades have been underwhelming to put it mildly. I know, sure. You'll have to bear with us.

You'll have to bear with us. That'd be funny if they just said that. You have to bear with us for a second. We are experiencing technical difficulties. And they have been for what feels like over a year. And it's been a very, there's been a lot of technical difficulties with the team. But see, it's interesting that we're having this conversation

at 623 in the morning. Coming off a game in which some will argue, there were a lot of things to talk about. And I don't necessarily disagree. But everything that happens on the ice right now, I feel like everyone's looking over their shoulder to upstairs where the executive sit to saying what happens next. That's why I'm glad last night's game was just fun.

It was entertaining to watch. It was a nice break from all the drama. We got to watch some hockey. There was a lot of chances. Not a lot of defense, but there's good goals. You know, on the other side of the break, what I think we should do is look back on how Anaheim got to the point they are right now and the team that you saw

last night. And this isn't to make an argument one way or the other on a rebuild, but let's just examine it. It might be interesting to do. And since we are live on location at AJ's Pizza and we have an open segment on the other side, we can do a bit of a mini ask us anything. because AJ's is the sponsor of Ask Us Anything Friday.

It's Thursday today. Lots of football on TV today because it was American Thanksgiving. So if you want to text in any questions, we'll do a mini Ask Us Anything on a Thursday into the Dunbar-Lumber text line, 650, 650. So we'll look at how long it took the Anaheim Ducks to get to the point they are that we saw last night, which is a pretty young and exciting team. and we'll also do and ask us anything on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Real quick, before we go to break, I need to remind you that this entire segment was brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond and visit them online at duikautogroop.com. 632 on a Thursday, it's a thrash Thursday here on the Halford Abrupt Show on Sportsnet 650. Friendly reminder for those listening, we're not coming you live from the Kintech Studios today. We're coming you live from AJ's Pizza, 327 East Broadway.

They're going to open up right at the end of the show today, 9 a.m. For a full slate of NFL football, there's turkey sandwiches, there's pizza, there's beer. It's the best place to be. this Thursday. So come by and visit 325 and 327 East Broadway. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to 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 in hour one of the program. We're at the midway point of hour one. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Pall Street in Vancouver.

Before we break down in detail, the origin story of the current Anaheim Dux team, which I know everyone's clamoring for this morning. It's not going to be too much detail, but there's a few points I want to make. I think it's an important and instructive exercise, to be honest. But Tatiana in Langley texted and ask us anything because we were asking for them, even though it's a Thursday, we get an entire open segment here. She asks, how many games in the row would the Canucks have to win for you to believe in this group, or would only matter in relation to how the rest of the division is doing

or would it not matter either way after the way they've started this year? This is an interesting question because I think this is what everyone's being faced with right now. So we come in this morning. They're on a one game winning streak, right? Break out the band and people have texted in. They're like, what did you think about Tola Pilo's game compared to Pateras? And other people are asking, what did you think of the Abbey connection on that first goal with Max Sasson and Linus Carlson?

And I, you know, responded to a couple of them And I answered the questions dutifully But I almost wanted to respond to everyone I'm not sure any of it matters I'm not sure anything exactly matters Because there's such an overriding sentiment That things need to change with this team That everything is happening on the ice

And I hate putting it this way Because we are the rights holders of the team And we are the broadcasters But I'm just not sure in the moment That a lot of the stuff that happens on the ice matters Other than does it increase or decrease trade value Does a guy get hurt and prevent him from getting traded Those are the kind of things.

I think it's okay to say it on the rights holder because the team has clearly made a decision on that. And to leave who just texted in, he asked the great question, to what end? Yeah. I mean, if they won 10 in a row, we might be like, hey, do they maybe needs to change direction again? But that's a pretty big if at this point, I think, with the way the team is playing. And just to jump in. And the way the team is playing would dictate a lot of it. Right.

They just won't on a big PDO heater. It'd be kind of like, well, it's fun. And I might be like, you know, foot, there it is, or something like that. But that would be. It doesn't really quite have the same ring, doesn't it? Not so sad. You need the bruce. You need the bruce.

It'd be so sad. You'd have to be like, foote, there it is. Foot, there it is. Yeah, yeah. It's not, it sounds sarcastic, actually. It sounds a little demeaning. Like, the entire premise might be sarcastic. But, yeah.

I just wanted to jump in, though. like, there is something to be said for process, and I'm going to be dead honest. Like, the process last night for the Vancouver Canox, in a win, it wasn't all that much different in the process in several losses this year, right? Yeah. There was defensive inefficiencies across the board. The power play goal that they gave up at the beginning of the second period, let's be honest, it was funny.

Yeah. It, like, all. Nice skill on display. However. Yeah, but. However. But how are the Canucks thinking that it's a good idea to have three of their guys pinned along the wall? And who is it, Jackson Lecombe?

Yes. He's wide open in the slot, wide open. Jackson Lecombe, by the way, sounds like a CBC actor, like starring Jackson Lecombe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A Canadian actor, Jackson Lecombe. Which is funny because he's American. At any rate, yes. To that point, though, like that power play, that snapshot of the power play,

the goal that you're talking about, it lends itself to this idea that there's still the big breakdowns, it's still the big defensive problems that this team has that they haven't necessarily escaped, be it through guys getting back healthy or people figuring out the system or young players maturing. The issues still remain. Did you hear foot say the other day that our system in the D zone hasn't changed? It's been the same for three years. I was like, are you sure? Are you sure? Because there's a big, tighten it up a bit. Then maybe go back and Look at some... Statistically, there's a big discrepancy.

Like, there's a big change in the three years that you used to give up not so many goals, and now you give up a ton of them. And I look at what's going on on a process basis, and to Tatiana's earlier ask us anything, until that fundamentally changes where they can win a variety of games in a variety of different ways.

Because right now, they're not winning a game unless they score five goals. And I'm not even joking. And, you know, the post-game show last night was saying, If the Vancouver Canucks can get 900 save percentage goal tending, they have a chance to win. And that is a damning statistic because if you just need a guy to post a 900 and you've got a decent chance of winning, it shows how many goals you're surrendering, how lousy the goal attending has been. And it's a reason why they're so low in the standings as they are. Anyway, the Anaheim Ducks.

So the Anaheim Ducks had a very good team for a few years and nearly got to a Stanley Cup final. In fact, they got to the conference final twice and lost under Coach Bruce Boudreau one year. Randy Carlyle, another year. Of course, we as Connects fans remember those teams because Ryan Kessler and Kevin B.XA were on those teams. But eventually those teams got old, Getsie, got a little bit old. Corey Perry, well, he's still in the league, got old, and they weren't good anymore. and it was the 2018-19 season where Carlisle gets fired

and then eventually here's a blast from the past name they bring in Dallas Aikins to be the head coach and he was there for four seasons now that was COVID so everything's a little bit of a blur from back then

but let's talk about some of the draft picks that they made too because that group that you saw last night there were there have been a lot of young players that they've drafted that there's been excitement about and now they're not part of the plan anymore Trevor Zegris is the one that sticks out the most ninth overall pick in 2019 A ton of excitement about him. He was on the cover of some video game that A-Dog plays. You know, he had a lot of talent. And he, excuse me.

He is doing quite well in Philadelphia. Philadelphia. He's having a very good year. You know who else is in Philadelphia? Like, Jamie Drysdale. First round pick a year later. First round pick. Now, that was probably a good trade for the Anhyme Ducks.

Cutter Gochie has been very good for them. Yes. But I think what it should. shows is that it takes a long time and there are a lot of things that it doesn't all go smoothly, right? Like they hired Greg Cronin, not to just, it was four years of Dallas Aiken's, and they're terrible, and then they hired Greg Cronin, and they were still terrible, and now they've gone to Joel Quinville, and yes, they're improved, but they're not a lot to make the play. this year. And they got a long way to go.

No. And they got to come together. The Ducks actually, they are the embodiment of the excitement about doing a rebuild. But also, I don't want to see a cautionary tale, but a reminder of how long it takes. And then it doesn't always necessarily work right away. Progress is not linear. And it gets back to the whole rebuild debate. In Anaheim for us was just kind of out of sight, out of mind. mind for a long time because for the for the

Anaheim ducks it's it's they're not like a Canadian team in the NHL you know you're not like you I can ignore the Anaheim ducks if they went away for 10 years and then came back I'd be like okay they almost did you know and attendance definitely

suffered down in Anaheim which brings us to this ask us anything which starts why are you the way you are you cannot compare Vancouver to Anaheim. They are completely different markets with a completely

different fan base and a completely different media base. Anaheim sucked for years to get draft picks and young guys and now those guys are showing their skills. Y'all Media MFs, geez, a little early for that language,

would never stand for a couple years of bad teams here in Vancouver. Now, first of all, how do you know they've never tried? The full-on rebuild. But second of all, there is a good point that's made in there. Okay.

Because if you go down the path of a rebuild, there is excitement about starting the path. Right? Oh, this is going to be great. And then, you know, your first few drafts, you're like, oh, I really like this guy. And then the pressure starts to build to turn it into something. 100%. You know? and that texter does have a point

because if the rebuild wobbled would we point it out? Yep. Yeah. And you'd say it's off course and you'd say that, oh, you know, you made this huge sacrifice to get here and now it's not working.

He's also saying that you couldn't stand to have bad teams. And I'm like, well, have you watched the last decade? We've been through plenty of bad teams. Like, we can stand it. We've experienced it. Let's not do this. Because this is the circular debate that we get into constantly.

Yes, I think that the Connect should rebuild. And I think they should honestly clean slate this thing. I really do. But as a fair and balanced broadcaster, I think last night gave us a great opportunity to look at a team in Anaheim and realize that they didn't just snap their fingers there. No.

And get to that point. They're still not guaranteed. No. Of anything. No, but it's just a path that they chose. And they chose to go as about as scorched earth as you can get because there were some really bad Anaheim teams that were designed to finish so that they could draft the likes of Mason McTavish and Owen Zellweger and everybody else

that they've got in the mix of Minchikoff. I could go on and on and on. You know, Beckett Seneca, who we saw last night, who's a very talented player. But there are a lot of different paths within that rebuild. And again, I think the text, although it was somewhat insulting, I get what you're saying, is that the moment, the moment that there's a wobble on the path to righteousness, in a Canadian market, they're going to freak out.

One of the more interesting things... Well, that's just being a Canadian market, though. But one of the more interesting things... There's going to be criticism, and if people can't accept that, then I don't know. They're going to have a tough time. One of the more interesting things about Montreal right now is that that has been, as far as trajectory,

trajectories go, a pretty linear upward climb. And last year, they got to a very important point, which they made the playoffs, right? Now, where that is interesting is because I was following that in the sort of darker days where they were losing a lot of games, and there was a lot of pressure because, and this is a savvy hockey market, they were saying, like, the losing and the amount that we're doing is by design. However, we can't let that dictate culture, the standard that we want to set for these young players and there was a concern about bringing young guys into a system where you're losing

more often than you're winning. So I'll be honest with you. One of the biggest reasons why I'd like to see the Canucks rebuild is the culture. You know, I think Montreal has a very big tool that they can use and that is Nick Suzuki, their captain. Sure. Not only is a good player, I think he's the type of guy that you want as your captain. Good leader. Canucks might be losing Quinn Hughes And Then

What do you got What do you got If you have to If you have to trade Quinn Hughes What do you go Who's your leader? Who's your culture carrier? Who's the guy out there?

No seriously That's it You know? He uses it right now And people are always like Oh bruff, You're always picking on PD Are you going to put him out as a captain?

That's a big ask That's a big ask for you I mean I think they'd be out of their minds to make Elias Pedersen the captain. And he might just be like, actually, I decline. The first person ever to decline the captaincy. I don't want that. I mean, he's good at saying I want the pressure

and I want the criticism. I want to be in the hot market. Oh, yeah, well, why didn't you do, like, media after the Calgary game? Like, as a regular season game, you want that? You know? And I think the culture, although there have been fits and starts of what looks like a good culture,

I don't think they've had what you can say is a good culture since the Siddines left. And the culture was lost even before the Siddines left. And that's where sometimes I'm like, I think they need to clean slate this thing. Well, it's an interesting theory that you bring up here because when you decide to tear something down and build it back up, you build up everything. Everyone thinks it's about collecting a prospect pool And it is to a certain degree Because you need talent at the end of the day So much more than that

Talent's going to rule the day So much more But a lot of these teams And you notice a couple things When they pivot off particular prospects For a variety of reasons And if you want to point to the Anaheim example I think that they did not necessarily

Think that Ziegress was their type of guy In the culture that they wanted to build And because that was a previous regime Also look at the amount of coaches That some of these go through Now Montreal is an interesting one because they hand-picked Marty St. Louis and grabbed him out of coaching youth hockey to be their guy. It was a risky pick.

And the idea was, is he going to be the guy in charge when we're competing for Stanley Cups? Maybe not. But is he going to be the guy because of how he played and what he means and the fact he's a French-Canadian speaker? Sure, sure, sure. All these things. This is a cool mustache. Right. Are all these things important because we need to set a culture first before we go about,

winning some games and winning some cups and winning meaningful postseason matches. I think it's a great point. And that's a great point that you make because... And they found it right. I think up to here you'd say they found it right with St. Louis. He was the guy that they wanted to do it with. Yes. The rebuild is so much more than just being bad and drafting players.

You are also putting in a new leadership group. And you're bringing in guys. And maybe it starts with Coots. I don't know. They've already got a good guy. There you go. as a prospect maybe it starts with him i don't know if he's got if he's going to be the most high-end player in the league but who knows and you know i i really don't think okay this is going

to sound harsh uh-oh i don't think the connects have had a great leader since henrik i don't think i don't think bow was a great leader i don't like oh was he good yeah it was good but you're asking for great okay i'm asking for great henrik the sidines i mean the sedans were man like you want to bring a how many how many people said like when i came to the team and i saw how hard the sidines worked and you know how humble they were and how they just constantly went out there and worked and worked and worked has anyone said that about a vancouver canuck leader since that didn't say it about a bow you know i think cool i think Quinn, I mean, Quinn, Elliot reported recently, I think, that they had to have a conversation with Quinn.

There was a conversation. Yesterday's 32 thoughts. Okay. There was a conversation about Quinn, about his body language and how he carried himself in post-game interviews. I can read it if you like. Sure, read it. The quote from Elliot Friedman, quote, Hughes has looked unhappy, although I think there was a conversation addressing that. Your captain must project properly.

eventually there'll be a discussion about his future I thought Olympic break might be sooner and obviously he'll have a say over the process and then it goes on to say that ultimately he is still the captain of this team whether he's out the door or not and he has to project properly end quote thanks shorty

yeah no problem so there was a couple other there have been a couple other you know not captains but leaders and J.T. Miller was one and a lot of people liked his style. Some people didn't, but a lot of people liked his style because he wasn't

afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. Yep. But I don't think that's the guy he wanted a captain. And I think when the Rangers made him captain, I remember we were both like, oh, that's risky. It was a choice. See how that pans out. So, you know, this whole rebuild conversation, and I'm glad we're taking it in a slightly different direction here, because, yeah, of course you need talent. Of course you do. And you need to get talent of the right position and usually starts with centers and defensemen maybe a really good goal-swearing winger and of course you got to get the goal-tending but you can get the goaltending in various ways except if you're edmonton you can't

get gold-tending you never get it yeah you never get it um it is a more rebuild of the cult of the organization and the culture and that more than anything is kind of what i want to see yeah it was part of the reason why a lot of people were climbing for major changes to the periphery as well when they brought back guys like like Brock Besser and signed Carnar, Garland, to an extension. People were happy for the players, I think. And in the case of Garland in particular, I think a lot of people admired what he's turned himself into as a player

and how valuable he's become to the Vancouver Canucks. But the facts remain that he's still part of a group and a core group of guys that there are questions about, right? Their ability to win. And no one's quite... And their ability, here's something. How about the ability to inspire each other? Right.

And the ability to just bring everyone together. Yeah. Like I've maintained a few times that when you have a broken culture or you have a broken team, like the Canucks did last year, it's very difficult to put the pieces back together. Right? Sometimes you just have to sweep up the pieces, throw in the garbage, and start a new, buy a new glass or buy a new egg or whatever.

We have heard that the group is tight. You know, like I don't think that they all hate each other in there. But I'm talking about a culture of excellence. And that's what, that's what this, the Cedines brought. And it wasn't just the Cedines. It was, it was other people around them, including people that, the coaching staff, the management group. And that's, that for me, that for me is, is one of the, one of the large, you know, the good things where it convinces me to say, like, I do think they need a big time rebuild. Yeah.

Because it seems like they just been patching things up. for over a decade. Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. As mentioned, we're live on location at AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, 325 and 327 East Broadway. Get here for 9 a.m. for kickoff and for all the pies and the beers

and the turkey sandwiches and everything else that they got going on 325 and 327 East Broadway. We are going to go to break. When we come back, Nick Kiprios is going to join the program. He, of course, the host of Real Kipprin'Born on Fan 590. He, of course, the author of his first Real Kippoor Trade Board of the season. It's up now at Sportsnet.com.

A version 1.0, and a couple Canucks feature prominently on that list. Kipper's going to join us at 7. And then at 7.30, we're going to turn our attention to the National Football League, obviously, with American Thanksgiving. It's a big day. But we're going to look ahead to Sunday when the Seahawks take on the Minnesota Vikings, and we have no idea who's going to be a quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, but we do know that the Seahawks are big 11.5 point home favorites in that one.

We'll talk to Brady Henderson about that at 730. and then at 8 o'clock, the Canucks talk will continue here on the Halford and Brough Show, because Thomas Drance is going to join the program. Canucks talk on Sportsnet, 650, and the Athletic Vancouver. We'll go over last night's game in Anaheim, but also the big picture conversation we've been having throughout the first hour of the show. Hour 1 is now in the books. Hour 2 is on the horizon.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650.