Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Elephant In The Room

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss if the Canucks should give more clarity on the JT Miller situation ahead of their upcoming home stand (3:00), and hear from the listeners on this topic as well, plus they look ahead to the 4 Nations roster announcement today with NHL Network's Mike Kelly (25:22). 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.

7-0-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in hour two of the program. Slight programming note today. At this time, weekly. Usually Frank CeraValli time. Frank. CeraV, usually Frank Cervelli time. Frank Cervelli daily face-off. Frank is dealing with

some flight issues, some flight delays. So he's unable to join us today. So in his absence, Mike Kelly from NHL Network is going to join us at 7.30. Frank will be on Friday. Thank you.

You guys won't be here. No. But Frank will. That's why I didn't mention it. Because it literally doesn't matter to me. Well, the listeners might care to know that Frank will be on Friday. And they also might be happy to know you won't be here. The who?

Oh, the listeners. Listeners don't keep listening if we're not here, right? Is that how it works? It's like a tree falling in the woods. We're not around. Anyway, Mike Kelly is going to join us at 730 NHL Network. We're going to go over a bunch of the four nations face off rosters. We can also go over some of the things that happened in the NHL last night

because he was working. We are in hour two of the program anyway. No Sarah Valley. It's just Halford and Brough. Hour two is brought to you by Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am joking.

Let him do that. Visit him on the internet at Jason.Mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfit, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Okay, so we had the conversation earlier in the show, and we wondered if Patrick Alveen will do an update for reporters

as the Canucks return home. Quite a few issues out there right now. Philip Peronik, they just announced, it was a bare-bones announcement, that he's going to have a procedure. He had a procedure on his lower body, but he also has an upper body injury that won't require surgery. Lower body surgery, upper body injury. Right.

His foot is now his hand. Is that how it works? Is that what we calculated? Yeah. See, they got to clarify this. Otherwise, people will think his hand is now his foot and vice versa. I don't think people will think that. I think they might.

So he's going to be out eight weeks approximately. That's the estimate. There's also Thatcher Demko, who still hasn't played a game for the Canucks this season. A lot of us were targeting Friday as his first game back, the speculation being that once the Canucks are back home, it's easier to rest and recuperate as opposed to being on the road.

But now we're hearing, well, the Canucks didn't have much practice time on the road. So maybe it's not going to be Friday against Columbus. I hope it's Friday against Columbus. And then the big elephant in the room is JT Miller has left the team. They said it's for personal reasons. They said a little something.

Patrick Alvien said, you know, we're glad he's getting help. And people are like, help for what? You know, but he didn't say anything. So we're wondering if he's going to do media. And then we took the conversation to what do the Canucks owe the fan base, if anything, specifically with the JT Miller situation. I think asking questions about Philip Peronic and

his injury is perfectly fair. I think the same goes for Thatcher Demko, but the JT Miller situation is very unique because he's left the team for personal reasons. And a few people have, a few reporters have made, you know, allusions to his mental health. But typically if it's mental health, I mean, we saw Patrick Lainey return to the Habs lineup, score a goal last night, and that was great. And he went into the NHL, NHLPA program, which isn't just for addiction issues.

It's not just for substance abuse. It's for mental health as well. So we're all kind of wondering what's going on here because we're curious about this team. But do we have a right to this information? Probably not. And Billy and Port Moody text in, although it would be nice to have more information sometimes, I feel like when we used to get more info, it was a symptom of the dysfunction of the organization. I'll take less information if it is tied to the competency of the current group. There is no question that this Canuck management group does not like leaks and it does not tolerate leaks.

I think when we're talking about this, let's just focus on this particular situation with Miller because I do think it's different than Hironik and Demko. Is that fair to say? Right? That's fair to say. It's a different situation. You can't lump them all in together.

I think when you're saying, oh, I've got a lot of questions. If I'm the Vancouver Canucks, the one thing I'd say is, I just can't offer you any answers of substance. I don't know what you would say. Really, I thought about it at length. I just don't know what you would say. Really, I thought about it at length. I just don't know what you'd say. You can't give an estimate on when he's going to come back. You can't say what his personal issues are.

And you can't say anything other than what Alvin said seven days ago, which was, we're proud of JT for seeking help. We don't know if he said it, but we believe he's going to be a better person, better teammate, and better hockey player when he returns, and we sure miss him. He's such an impactful hockey player, and I think we and the league have all the right support to help him.

I just, like, I don't know what you can say. And it's not even so much to appease the public or the media or anyone, but I just don't know what you can say that would be of use to primarily the player then to the organization. And then I think third and all this, and I hate to say this is the fans and media and hangers on because they're probably the ones that matter the least, the least in terms of the Canucks perspective right it's I'll say this it's accurate to portray it as unique and rare and confusing and weird and I'm sure it is

for the players too sure it is for everybody involved I just don't know what I wonder if the players even know what's going on. Maybe not. Maybe it's almost easier that way. Here's another text unsigned. There's a part of me that really wants to know everything about everything that's going on, but honestly it doesn't have any meaningful impact on my life.

Miller is away. Whether he comes back next game or never plays another Canucks game, that doesn't impact me at all. I guess if you're gambling or really into fantasy hockey, it might matter more, but that's not a good excuse I like the team being quiet I trust Alvin and Rutherford yeah I get that I mean we all need to take a step back sometimes and just be like it's just a hockey team it's okay but I think you know what we are fans of the team and it's natural to be curious that one of the most popular players on the team just left and we don't know if he asked to leave or the team asked him to leave we don't really know

anything and here's another text unsigned the way the miller thing has been handled really bothers me it feels like from the original press release they set this up to be handled horribly from a PR standpoint and generate distracting questions and speculation slash rumors. I genuinely don't understand why they didn't just indicate Miller was taking time off for his nagging injury, one that's been speculated about since training camp, so it would be believable. And people wouldn't be spreading these rumors, ones they aren't responding to or shutting down. It's a mess yeah mike uh texted and he said they should just lie about jt to shut everyone up honestly there is that i do have time for like yeah he's got a bit of an injury and it wouldn't be the first nhl team to do it right where someone's uh got something going on and it's under the cloak of, he's got a bad back. It happens.

It is. Here's the thing. It's not a revolutionary approach to media relations. It's got an injury. Patrick, why do you keep winking when you say injury? I'm not. You don't have to. I'm not getting much sleep.

Right. It's out of the old school PR handbook. So I don't know why they chose not to go that route. Maybe this is a weird sort of progressive step. I don't know. But to the other ones, Hronik and Demko, I think I would love to know. I think you could answer. Is there a definitive timeline slash plan if they said no i'm like okay that kind of

gives me an idea that uh it's all about feel for demko like when are you when you feel ready to go you tell us and we're gonna get you in there when marco terranious feels that you're ready to go we'll get you in there if there is a definitive plan i'd be like okay follow-up question can you tell me about it a little bit more just when do you anticipate to get him back in the lineup? Because that, to me, is what the entire season hinges upon. Moving forward, all of their questions, I think, are based around a two-parter with Demko. One, does he come back? And I think the answer to that is yes.

And then two, what does he look like when he comes back? Is he good when he's in net? And if he's good when he's in net, can he go the next game and do it again? And maybe do it three or four games in a row? Or is he going to play three or four and be like, my knee's acting up? You know, pop Latias is popping. Well, he said

that's the one thing he definitely wants to avoid. And there's only one way we're going to find out if he avoids it or not. He said, I'm going to put this thing through hell in practice so that I don't return, and in two weeks I've had a setback and want to go back. And so, listen, it's easy to come out and say, don't rush him. Right?

And it's right to say that. It's right to say, don't rush him. Of course, don't rush him. Right? It's December 4th. that. It's right to say don't rush them. Of course don't rush them. Right? It's December 4th. It's not the playoffs. Lankanen is playing great. Lankanen is playing well.

And if you have to put in Silovs or Tolopilo for the odd game here and there, so be it. Don't rush them. Just throw those points away. But, eventually it gets to the point

like, hey, I'm all on board with not rushing them but it is now december 4th that's what i'm saying right like it is like what's gonna what's going on here what's really going on here i mean what how what is is it gonna get figured out but they probably don't know until he gets back in and plays so the first tick that the first check on the priority chart is get him back in, get him to play a game. That's got to happen because he can put his knee through hell in whatever sort of training scenario you want.

But until he gets in and plays 60 minutes or 60 plus, if it goes to overtime of an NHL game, gets off the ice, and then it's like, okay, what does it feel like the next day? Am I ready to go two days from now? That sort of thing. So I know we deal with uncertainty in life and that's part of life you just you don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring but it does feel like relative to normal times with uh any sports team there is so much uncertainty with this team right now well it's also on the the juxtaposition from last year

where everything was fine. Yeah. No one got hurt up until the playoffs. No, until the all-star break when Pedersen started to fall off. Yep. And then Demko got hurt. And remember, it wasn't just an injury in the playoffs. It was an injury before then that they probably did rush him back. And now they're paying the price for. But it in the playoffs. It was an injury before then that they probably did rush him back.

And now they're paying the price for. But it was the playoffs, so you understand why they did that. You understand why they work hard to bring him back, and unfortunately, it didn't work out. But getting back to the uncertainty, I mean, these are major issues by themselves.

Philip Peronic goes out, and there's some uncertainty about how he's going to be when he comes back. They've decided not to do surgery on, I imagine it's a shoulder. Upper body. So we'll see if that comes up again, but

hopefully it doesn't. I mean, with eight weeks, there's got to be some improvement there. And I guess it's good that it doesn't require surgery because it would have been a lot longer then. So that's one element. How are you have been a lot longer then so that's one element how are you gonna you know so that's one thing but also are they going to replace

philip ronick because two months is a long time a lot of games coming up for the canucks especially in the month of december so the horonic thing by itself tied in with the defense massive amount of uncertainty canucks wanted to fix the defense before Hronik went out. Number two, the goaltending. Just went over it. That's the star goalie we're talking about. I like what Kevin Lankanen has done so far, but let's not get fooled by small sample sizes again.

Okay? He's done really well for a couple of months. Do we feel the same way about Lankanen as we would if Demko was fully healthy? He'd never been through this and he's playing at the highest level. I don't think so. Yeah, well that's the knock-on

effect of what I was talking about with Demko. Everything hinges on that. And it's because it will give you an idea of what they want to do going into trade deadline. I think that there's a real decision to be made about sample size or longevity or whatever. If Lankanen's your guy and Demko's your guy or both of your guys. I think that's a huge part of it.

I think understanding that even going further past the trade deadline, you're going to have a decision to make on Lankanen's contract. You're also going to have a decision to make on Demko's contract. So that so much hinges on that return that I can understand the intrigue between when is it going to start? When's the return going to start? I get it. Okay, I'm not done with the uncertainty part, though. And the JT Miller situation.

I mean, this is a, you know, I'll use everyone else's words, the heart and soul of the team that's left the team. And we don't know if it's purely personal reasons or is it personal reasons that affected team issues? Who wanted the leave? Is there, are there some very upset people

right now I don't know we don't know there's so much speculation out there like we don't 100% know if JT Miller

will ever play another game for the Canucks you know so I mean we just don't I mean you can say oh you're fear mongering

but we don't you're fear mongering he left the team something happened something happened he. He left the team. Something happened. Something happened. He's not on the team anymore. And we're just supposed to be like, well, I hope he's doing okay. And that's fine to be like that for now.

That's fine. But, I mean, this is a team that we all care about. And there's a lot of uncertainty going forward with this team, and it just feels like, I don't know. I know it's not the easiest job to handle things from a PR perspective, and if I was running a hockey team, I'd probably want to keep all my information close to the vest as possible, but they have PR people for a reason because it's a public-facing company that people care about.

Sure. And, like, I don't know. Is there a point where the speculation and the rumors become so crazy and so out of left field? Like, I've heard all of them. And I've come up – and people have come up to me, and here's the thing with rumors. It's like people are so certain about them, you know?

Like, I heard from a pretty good source that blah, blah, blah. And you're like, well, this other guy heard from a pretty good source that it was blah, blah, blah. And those things are very, very different. Yeah. Right? So does there get to, I mean, it's kind of a fascinating case study in PR. Do you actually address these things?

Or if he does address, Patrick Galvin addressed these things, does it even make it worse? Because then people parse the words of what's been said and unless it's the full, full story, unless it's the full story, you're kind of being like,

well, they seem like they're being kind of evasive here. Well, is it worth a reporter, assuming Alvin speaks, is it worth a reporter asking just the basic question, will JT Miller play another game? I mean, that's why they won't. I mean, that's, yeah, you're asking like a hypothetical question based on a hypothetical press conference. Well, if the press conference occurs.

And there's a lot of reasons that it should. I've said it on this show before. Sometimes the best answer is don't say anything at all. You can let people speculate. You don't even want to let people know if he's going to ever play on the team again? You can't control what people think anyway. This last statement that he had, people parsed through it. And it was a nothing burger of a statement.

He gave no information or update. But surely you could ask the question, like, so will he play for the Canucks again or what? You can ask all sorts of questions. So there are back-to-back texts into the Dunbar-Lemmer text line. I'm not going to read the actual, like the full text here, but here's how these texts come in. Miller is a not good thing,

and it's not that difficult to figure out. So that person is like, sure, that of this thing. And then another text right below this, Miller, another completely different issue. And then it finishes off, it's pretty obvious. Like that, I'm trying to get, I'm trying to get the point across that.

Nobody has any idea what the hell's going on. But there are some people that are so bloody confident. Yeah. Or Miller this or Miller that, and then some sort of follow-up like, use your brain or figure it out. The more confident you are are the more true your statement is that's how it works everyone knows that and this is fine because this is just sort

of like noise i'm just trying to trying to give you an understanding of what it's like behind the scenes and what it's like to be a media person where everyone comes up to you and goes hey what's going on with so-and-so i heard this and i'm pretty sure about okay like and and when you talk about the organization ignoring the noise i think that kind of noise all due respect to the people listening and texting and coming up to you on the street that noise is easy to ignore it really is you just put the blinders on and leave it the tough ones would it be it be hard? Would it be difficult? What if you're JT Miller and you're hearing all this stuff? The tough stuff for the organization is when it's like, well, what do we do if JT Miller gets selected

to the U.S. Four Nations face-off roster today? What do we do with industry insiders saying that Chris Drury called the Vancouver Canucks about the availability of JT Miller. When you talk about noise, there's actual real tangible noise that you can't ignore and silence doesn't necessarily

deal with adequately because there is a viable question to be asked of is he going to be available for the Four nations face up in February? If team USA takes him, that's a viable question. And also if, if they take them, I mean, it's only a couple of months away.

If you take, if they take them, then physically he must be fine. And then there's another question about, well, if the New York Rangers, the floundering New York Rangers general manager is making a call about his availability, does that mean that he's able to play? So those types of things do cloud the situation and make whatever PR or media spin or handling, it makes it more difficult. It makes it a more difficult task.

There's some things that you just can't block out. I think that's the, and again, I think that you can deal with a lot of things with just not saying anything. I think we live in a society sometimes where you feel like you're, people feel, because everyone's got a platform now, everyone feels like it's their personal responsibility

to address everything. Yeah. And you don't have to. You really don't. Sometimes you can just hope people forget about it, but I don't think that's going to happen in this case. I would agree. People are like,

they were like, I haven't seen JT Miller for a while. Whatever happened to that guy? Today is going to be a pivotal day in this whole thing. At 3.30 our time, a reminder, watch it on Sportsnet. The U.S. roster is going to be announced

for this very big tournament that I might add is put on by the National Hockey League. So they are front and center of the promotional vehicle that is the Four Nations face-off. The roster and who makes it and also who doesn't make it is going to be scrutinized very heavily because the spots are being held up as sacrosanct. These are important roster spots. Guys are going to be snubized very heavily because the spots are being held up as sacrosanct. These are important roster spots.

Guys are going to be snubbed and left to the side so the players can make it. Who's the GM of the States again? Billy Guerin. Well, you don't think Billy Guerin's going to get a question about JT Miller? Maybe. So you pick JT Miller.

What have you heard about this? Or if he doesn't, right? Either or. Either way. Because, I mean, the mock drafts of these rosters have been going on for months so there is that sort of dynamic at play so do you think do you think do you think alvin's gonna speak to reporters this week no if i had to guess i think he's going to okay yeah i mean i'm just i'm going with past history and past behaviors predicting the future.

And for the longest time, since the Pittsburgh regime moved in, it's been... They've done the odd update here and there. Very odd. Patrick Alvien went on, after the JT Miller news came out, he went on intermission shows. They realize that PR is part of this. They can't just be completely silent for months. But I think maybe that would just have been, in their eyes, probably an adequate response.

There's a couple really important things they need to discuss, though. I mean, I think it's... Yeah, it's not just the Miller stuff, right? You're asking me what I think is going to happen, not what I think should happen. But I think he's going to talk. I think it's an organization that has prided itself on keeping things in-house,

keeping things internal. No leaks anywhere. They sure managed to smoke those out pretty effectively. I love how we're almost a parody of sports talk right now. We're talking about, like, do you think he's going to talk to us? Yeah. This guy says yes. This guy says no.

Yeah. It'd be funny if he did the press conference and just didn't discuss any of those things. Just a bunch of like events coming up. Right. That's how everybody's doing. We wanted to give an update on DPD. He's performing well in Abbotsford.

There will be no more questions. Yeah. Does anyone have any questions about Max Sasson? We're also very thrilled with him. He got crunched yesterday, by the way. I thought that should have been a penalty too, but I digress. Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Speaking of the four nations face-off rosters, Mike Kelly from NHL Network is going to join us next to set it up. A reminder, Finland and Sweden get announced at 11 a.m. our time. Among those that will be available via Zoom, Sam Halam, old black Betty Sam Halam is going to be joining Sportsnet as they announce the Swedish roster, the Finnish roster, with their general manager,

Yeri Lettinen, will be announced at 11 a.m. our time and then at 3.30 our time, Canada and U.S. rosters. Mike Kelly from NHL Network is going to join us next to talk about it all. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12ough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 7.32 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, four parts. We are in hour two of the program. Mike Kelly from NHL Network is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominick

at Jason.Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. That's sarcasm. Let him do exactly that. Visit him on the internet at Jason.Mortgage. To the phone lines we go. Mike Kelly from NHL Network joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. What up, Mike? How are you? Hey, doing well. How are you guys doing? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this on short notice. We really appreciate it. And perfect timing because we're about three and a half hours away from the Sweden and Finland announcements

for the Four Nations faceoff rosters. And then later today, three 30 our time, it will be Canada and the U S announcing them right here on sports net. So I know you've been covering this, uh, pretty thoroughly for NHL network. And I've been seeing it on Twitter as well. I actually want to start with the American team because we were just talking about JT Miller and all the uncertainty surrounding his current situation. Based on what you know and what your projections are and how you see this playing out,

are you fully expecting JT Miller to be named to the U.S. roster when it gets announced at 3.30 this afternoon? I don't know. There's a lot of uncertainty, right? We don't really know what's going on other than he's not with the team. It's hard to say like on merit and his ability and his play yes he's like sorry not to cut you off but on merit alone he's in right there's no question about that not a doubt in my mind

um so that's one side of it the other side of it it is how long is JT Miller going to be out? We really don't have a lot of details about what's going on with JT Miller other than he's not with the team and it's not a physical injury. So it's really hard to say how they're going to go about it, USA Hockey, whether they name him to the team or not. All I can tell you is, yeah, based on merit, based on his play, his body of work, his play this season, yes, he's good enough to be on that team. What will be the strength of the American team?

Goaltending, number one. Puck moving, skill. They got a lot of talent on that team. Talent doesn't always win you these tournaments, though. We know that from watching best-on-best international tournaments going back a number of years. Think about some of the teams

that Russia's put together back in the day. It just littered with talent. Oftentimes, Canadian-American teams could find a way to beat them. The amount of skill on this team, though, is going to be pretty incredible to watch. Connor Hellebuck is your starting goalie, and you can argue he's the best in the league.

So maybe they've got the best goalie, and they've got Ottinger as another guy who's one of the best. Their back end, their puck-moving ability from their defense is going to be elite. Quinn Hughes, everybody listening to this knows exactly what he's all about. Charlie McAvoy. Zach Wierenski is a guy that I'm excited to see. I expect him to be on this team that I'm excited to see the world get to see on a big stage

because we haven't really seen a ton of it. In terms of playoffs in his career, he missed the better part of two years and I think was kind of forgotten about by a lot of general hockey fans. He's one of the best defensemen in the world. We're going to get to see him. Jacob Slavin, one of the best defensive guys. So they've got a great blue line. And then the skill they have up front, when you think about guys like Kyle Connor, his scoring ability, the Kachuk brothers, Jack Hughes, they're going to be a nasty team. If you look at the team and do you see any potential weaknesses? Like with Canada, it's obvious, right? With Canada, you're just like, oh, I don't know about the goaltending.

Is there anything about the American team that makes you go, oh, I don't know about that? Well, I don't know how much I value this. And I wonder if it's less than maybe some of the people in the game picking these teams. But I think if you, if you look at what Canada's projected roster is going to be, what kind of the word trickling out is on who's making this team, it seems like they're going pretty heavy on guys who have won guys who have

been through playoff grinds, guys who have that experience. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Canada's going to have more of that, I believe, than the American team. What's that worth? It's hard for me to say, especially in a two-week tournament, but it gets down to crunch time. If this is the third period of the championship game and it's tied and you've got McKinnon and Cros know, McDavid, we all know the names for Canada, um, against a team that doesn't have as many guys who have been in those spots. Maybe that's a bit of an advantage. I think we're kind of, you know, nitpicking a little bit when it comes to a two week

tournament like this, but, um, that's something that the Americans wouldn't have as much of as the Canadians. I don't think based on what we're kind of expecting to see when these rosters get announced. Who do you think will skate with Quinn Hughes? Is it going to be Charlie McAvoy? Maybe even Brock Faber. It's going to be a right shot guy. I don't think it's going to be Adam Fox though.

I would, I would think McAvoy, you know, he's a, he's a physical guy. He can like Quinn Hughes. God, I've been arguing about this for years, and I'm sure you guys agree,

he's not a liability defensively. Just because he's as good as he is offensively, I think sometimes people try to pick his game apart a little too much in that respect. But McAvoy's so solid. I think he would be the guy that would be the best fit beside Quinn. We're speaking to Mike Kelly from NHL Network here on the Halford & Brough

show on Sportsnet 650. In goal for Canada, Mike, I know you were monitoring the game last night, as was I. It was a pretty impressive performance. Maybe a good final salvo from Aiden Hill to say that I should be the number one for Canada. A shuttle win at home over the Oilers. He was great in the third period, especially late.

Do you have a handle on who might be the starter for Canada? And if Hill's making a legitimate push, do you think it'll be Bennington? Well, look, it sounds like it's going to be Hill, Bennington, and Montembeau, if you kind of believe what a lot of the people that have been digging around are saying about this. Right. With this, with what's available for Canada, like who's playing the best going into the tournament,

none of these three guys should be a slam dunk starter for that team because none of them have been good enough all year. And they've been good in stretches. Like Aiden Hill, his last six games, he's been fantastic. And last night, yeah, 16 saves in the third period against a great Edmonton offense in a shutout. He was unbelievable. If he's playing like this, if the tournament started tomorrow,

I'd be really comfortable having Aiden Hill as the guy to start it. Binnington's had some good stretches as well. Both of these guys have won cups, right? They've been there and done that. And Montembeau has just, over the last couple of years in general, been really, really solid on a really poor defensive Montreal team, if he's the third guy. So I think you just go with the hot hand, right?

Because none of these guys have a Connor Hellebutt case or a UC Sorrows case as I'm the starter, just kind of by default based on how good I've been for so long. Obviously, the roster hasn't been announced yet. We don't know for sure. On merit, Logan Thompson's been the best Canadian goaltender in the NHL this season, and it's not really a subjective comment.

There are more things that go into it than just that, but when you're looking at what a lot of people view as the weakness of this team in relation to everything else, it'd be interesting if they don't take them. Okay, that's interesting because I did want to point out, like, Aiden Hill gets the shutout last night, and the headlines are going to be, like, great defensive performance.

He holds for it in a 1-0 game. And like I said, the final submission to Hockey hockey canada like put me in net right after the game bruce cassidy comes out and says you know we defended terrifically well in layers and if it wasn't our best defensive game of the year it was right up there can you expand on that a little bit more because i think it's worth noting like yes hill was great but man, that Vegas team sure did a lot in front of him to make sure that he was able to get that shut out. Yeah, they did. And look, I'm watching the game and I'm talking about it for NHL Network

and I've got to get my notes into them, you know, really as the game's winding down. So before I heard any post-game sound or anything, and, you know, Hill's the number one star, like I said, after the game on the network. But the thing that stuck out most to me was the defensive performance because you're going to have to get saves

against a team like Edmonton regardless. And he made all of them. So you give him the credit for that. Like through 40 minutes of that game, McDavid dry settled and never shot. And obviously things in the third period got tilted. Vegas is defending a lead. Um,

but the best you can do against those guys, you're never going to limit them completely is just try to try to limit the damage as much as you can keep as much to the perimeter as you can. And Vegas did a really good job of that. Even in the third period, when they gave up 16 shots, um, I think 12 of them or 11 or 12 of them came from the perimeter. Yeah, they had a couple of great chances and Hill made the saves,

which is great. But it's a game like that that you have to be able to play to beat good teams. And especially when you talk about playoff series and elimination games, those are the games you have to have everybody connected defensively. And when he talks about playoff series and elimination games like those are the games you have to have everybody connected defensively and when he talks about defending in layers it's watching a back check where a forward comes in and allows a d to gap up and you can just squeeze guys on the boards

and you can push them to the outside and they did a an unbelievable job of that in that game especially in the first 40 minutes hello jul, Julian. Remember he would always talk about layers? Loved his layers. Every time with the Bruins. Loved his layers. We do, defending layers. Who would you, if you had to only pick one team that defends the best and makes it easiest on its goalies,

who would it be? Well, there's a couple really good ones. The Minnesota Wild, it's not an accident that they're as good as they are in terms of their record. They're the number one team in the league. They probably do it the best. LA is still right up there in terms of their overall team defense. Edmonton hasn't been getting the goaltending for the most part this season,

certainly at the start of the year, and that kind of overshadowed the fact that they don't give up a ton either. You know, with Dallas and Florida being the elite teams that they are, they're really good that way as well. The Devils have been really good. So those are teams that

I'd say play the best. We're kind of independent from goaltending here, just team defense, what you give up. Those are some of the top teams in the league this year, and a lot of them have been for quite a while. But yeah, Minnesota, they'll squeeze you. Winnipeg at its best is absolutely one of these teams. The last 10 games, they've completely kind of forgotten

about the vaguest type of details. I was just talking about that make them successful. And that's one thing I don't understand about that team because I remember when Rick bonus was there, they go in the first half of the season and they're one of the best teams in the league and they're playing this incredible elite brand of defensive hockey. Oh yeah.

You did give up a good chance. Well, we've got Connor Hellebuck. And then the second half of the season, it's like they forgot what made them successful and they're kind of doing it again. I know we haven't spent a ton of time speaking about the Swedish and Finnish rosters.

And I mean, understandably so. Everyone's picking apart Canada here and Vancouver, especially with Hughes and Miller and maybe Demko and Besser, the USA roster is pretty prevalent as well. But if you could kind of, let's go through them, just sort of big picture strengths and weaknesses

of the two going into this tournament. We'll start with Sweden and then we'll go with Finland. What sort of caught your eye about Sweden in a good way and then maybe in a less good way? They're going to have a really interesting question and goal, I think, because Philip Gustafsson, you could definitely make a case that he should be the starting goalie. Markstrom's the big name They're going to have a really interesting question and goal, I think, because Philip Gustafson, you know,

you could definitely make a case that he should be the starting goalie. Markstrom's the big name who's, you know, maybe the guy, and he's a great goalie also, obviously. But, you know, the Swedish blue line obviously stands out for how many big names they have back there, and that should be a real strength. Like Rasmus Andersen is a first pairing, lock it down. You know, he's offensively too good. He's good in pretty much every facet,

but he should be a top four defenseman on that team. Rasmus Dallin, I still don't think gets enough credit. I'm so excited to see him play on what will be a good team because Buffalo continues to just kind of be a bit of a mess. Then you've got Matias Ekholm. We know what he's done for the Oilers since he's gone there. He's a very good puck mover, but kind of known as a shutdown guy. Gus Forsling, look what he did with the Florida Panthers.

Victor Hedman, first ballot Hall of Famer. I haven't even brought up Eric Carllson who's already on the team i don't know if you know you'd want to gimme on that one if you're going back and naming your initial guys but he's going to be the healthy scratch he's like he was one of our original six but he's also not that was my next question for mike i'm like if you have to address them they've got seven defensemen like if they name seven and you play six is carlson the odd man out it depends what you want to do with it I guess like I wonder about a guy like Jonas Brodine who just very quietly

um is one of the best defensive defensemen in the league on one of the best teams the best team um there's a lot to choose from there like Carlson might very well be on the third pair and i look if you've followed me at all over the years you know how much i've defended eric carlson um and how much i appreciate his game but yeah it's taken a step in the wrong way this year uh in pittsburgh so their blue line is absolutely loaded um and you know with good goaltending too like that's why they aren't in in any one game i mean that team can beat any team at the tournament so i wouldn't be so sure to say like oh it's you know usa canada whatever one two and then overlook a team like sweden uh same breakdown but for the fins this time uh so you got should be uc saros in that and again this is what i love about this

tournament is that you can any any goalie here can uh can kind of win a game for their team and it's going to be a quick tournament it's going to be fun to watch so uh obviously he's a stud patrick linea comes back last night scores a goal um what's he going to be like in a couple months when this thing kicks off that could be kind of interesting as a bit of an x factor back last night, scores a goal. What's he going to be like in a couple months when this thing kicks off? That could be kind of interesting as a bit of an X factor. Aho Barkov, elite all-around centers, Rantanen game-breaker, Miro Haskinen,

elite number one defenseman. So they've got a lot of talent as well. They're obviously not as deep. That's where you start to see the separation from these countries. But if you've watched international hockey over the years like mikhail granlin is a guy that i left for dead when he went to pittsburgh i'm like this guy is not what he wants why he's having a great year um but they're not as deep

obviously i don't think of sweden and certainly not as the americans and the uh the canadians but if you like i said if you've watched international hockey, it doesn't matter what level, it doesn't matter what gender. Finland, don't ever overlook Finland. Never. Because man, do they know how to find a way. So they'll be fun to watch too. We've only got a few minutes left, but I know how closely you watch the game and how detail-oriented

you are, Mike. So I wanted to ask you, what are you seeing or not seeing, I guess, from Conor Bedard right now? I think Conor Bedard is in a situation where his game can be better. He's got to wear some of the dip in production that he's seen. Getting into the middle of the ice, he's got a great shot, right? He can score from the top of the circles and kind of the perimeter, whatever. No one's ever really going to score at volume doing that.

It's very difficult. He can do a better job of getting in between the dots, below the circles, just the way that he did last year. Scoring chances are down, his goals are down, his expected goals are down compared to last year. He's not obviously a net front guy, but again, I think as guys get older, even elite scorers who are kind of

a little more away from the net Stamko, Sovechkin they still get a good chunk of their goals from around the net I think he can try to find ways to get there some of that comes with playing with better players and that's where I think the Blackhawks organization wears some of this too

there's not a lot of talent around them and there's nowhere to really shelter him and and you're in your second year everybody's played you people see your tendencies you get checked a little tighter and he's you know he's he's kind of popped a little bit here but he went through a pretty long goal drought um and that's where i just think if you had a number one center where you could put him in the two slot, make his life a bit easier for a young, young kid who's in his second year, it might have helped him along.

Like, you go back in time and, you know, every team has these and nobody's perfect. But Dylan Strom is a guy that didn't qualify, working out pretty well in Washington. You know, what if he could take some of that burden away? So he's got more to his game he's going to be a unbelievable player obviously in the league for a long time but um you know something young guys go through and and he's still pretty young chicago back in action tonight uh they are going to take on the boston bruins are in the second of a back-to-back uh morning skate bedard back at center between taylor hall and tyler bertuz center between Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi. The slumping Tyler Bertuzzi.

So we'll see if they can turn things around. Bertuzzi's just cashing a paycheck. He is. Right from day one of that contract, he's like, I'm taking a break. Okay, Mike, we got to get going. Thanks for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy all of the roster announcements today.

Should be a lot of fun. We'll do this later on down the road. All right, guys. Keep catching up with you. Yeah, a lot of fun. We'll do this later on down the road. Alright guys, keep catching up with you. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Mike Kelly from NHL Network here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet. 6.50. It was a very entertaining night in the NHL last night.

There's a lot of overtime goals. So in the span of 17 minutes last night, real-time minutes, not NHL stoppage and whistles minutes. From 6.35 to 6.50 to our time, a 17-minute window. There were four overtime goals scored yesterday. Has the addition of three-on-three been one of the best things

the NHL has, like, ever done? I'm glad you asked that, Jason, because I went and looked, and I'm like, I feel like shootouts are way down this year. Now, I didn't have enough time to crunch the data. I went and looked and it seemed hard. There's, I think there's been less than 20 shootouts this year. And there was that weird time in the evolution of three on three. Remember where everyone was just holding possession for,

and three-on-three actually got kind of boring? Yeah. It feels like the corner has been turned on that a little bit. Maybe it's early in the season that's happening, or it's always the teams

from opposite conferences, or even not within the division to have the more entertaining times. Maybe teams start to realize, hey, it's easier to score when there's three-on-three. Maybe we should try doing that. So the Canucks this year have been to overtime seven times,

including three times on this most recent trip. Last night was a lot of fun, even though they lost. Come on, Besser, you've got to bury that. I mean, I felt bad for Besser. That's three on three. They were trading chances from the very beginning of overtime. The Besser chance was just in a pile of great A's that didn't go in. There has to be, to really get going,

all it needs really is one guy to beat another guy. Yep, that's it. Because if the other team is able to keep three guys behind the puck, then it's going to be pretty boring. But if one guy can beat a guy one-on-one, or maybe someone falls. If someone falls, it's like oh my god it's over baby go crazy right like falling is bad as soon as one guy goes below the goal line you're like

oh that's the danger zone it's funny but when you know I'm obviously cheering for the Canucks but when the other team gets an odd man rush I'm like okay yep all you gotta do is make a save here or miss the net like the worst thing you can do on an odd man rush is miss the net. Like you should be benched and never, if you miss the net, like, come on, if you miss the net and fall down,

I mean, look, you're better technically miss the net. Cause he hit the post and it bounced off the boards and the wild were off on an odd man rush. Now, whatever. I mean, you're going to,

you're going to take that opportunity that the Canucks had. Besser scores a lot of goals. He didn't score on that one. He came very, very close. But that's the fun of three-on-three. And I remember when three-on-three came in, I was really excited for it. But there were some people who were like,

ah, it's too gimmicky. I'm like, no, the shootout is gimmicky. I do wonder if there's been some sort of subtle push to make sure that games get decided in three-on-three. I don't think so. I think they do what they want. Or maybe there's an underlying metric. Maybe there's some fancy stat out there that says

that it's more advantageous to try and get it done in three-on-three. If you're going to the shootout, it's a coin toss regardless. That's what I think. Unless you're a team that's like, we love our goalie in the shootout. And we love our three shooters. Absolutely love it.

Or we've got guys that never miss in the shootout and we've run the numbers and our best. But I don't know how many teams are out there like that.

And also, I think, you know, the players, first of all, it's the regular season. It's not super, super high stakes.

Each team has already got a point. Like the Canucks went into Minnesota yesterday. When they got that point, it's the regular season. It's not super, super high stakes. Each team has already got a point. The Canucks went into Minnesota yesterday. When they got that point, I was like, awesome. Great job. That is the one thing you had to do. So the players are probably like, hey, I play hockey for fun. Also money.

Also the money. Let's go have some fun. Let's go try and score some goals. Anyway, we rip on the NHL a lot, but their decision to bring in three-on-three was one of the best things they've ever done. Yeah, and I think one of the things is when we talk about the evolution, three-on-three, in the brief time that it's been around

compared to everything else, we've seen different evolutions of it. They've tried new things. The issue with the shootout inherently is that it's so structured. There's only a certain amount of things that you can do, right? Well, let me put it this way to you. All those highlight reels, you see the top 50 plays of the month. How many shootout plays do you see versus how many overtime plays do you see on those?

Shootout's boring, man. The only interesting shootout ones are the ones that Kuznetsov and Kane do where they slow down to a crawl. And then people freak out. Yeah. And they do have incredible puck handling in front of the net. If I'm watching the league as a whole, I'm not watching a Canucks game, and I'm flipping around going to different channels or different games on the Sportsnet app, if it goes to

a shootout, I'm flipping off it. I don't care. Yeah. But three-on-three overtime, I'm watching that, regardless of who plays. Shootout. Someone's getting the off it. I don't care. Yeah. But three on three overtime, I'm watching that regardless of who plays. Shootout hit. Someone's getting the point. Yeah.

Don't care. All right. Good luck, right? It was fun for maybe the first half of the season and it's like, I kind of miss penalty shots when they were special

because that was the only time you ever saw that in the Olympics. That's what I'm saying. They should do the golden bat for the NHL and you should be allowed to do a penalty shot once a game with any of your players without anybody stopping you. That's what I'm saying. They should do the golden bat for the NHL and you should be allowed to do a penalty shot once

a game with any of your players without anybody stopping you. You were just in my ear saying break and now you're bringing up the golden bat rule. Well, I'm just saying that would add a lot of excitement to the game, I think. If you can take a penalty shot at any point during the game. But when? Wait. Wait. So you're saying

that at any point during the game, you could just say, I want a penalty shot now. Actually, that would be incredible. With any of your players. Any of your players. Any of your players could do it. That would be so stupid, but also incredible. I'm doing my penalty shot rule.

You know how people always rip on Taka or any coaches? Like, you got to call a timeout. Why didn't you call a timeout? You just allowed three goals. You got to calm things down. That's where you're like, all right, we need a penalty shot. You know you can't take it to the next game, Rick. You got to use it tonight.

Actually, you know what? I didn't realize that. Ibra Flues wouldn't use it. He'd be like, I'm confident that we're going to find a game. The NHL's version of the golden bat. Reducks are down by one going to the third. Wow, they still got their golden penalty shot in their back pocket. So this is how the evolution of your idea went. I thought it was stupid until you explained it.

Yeah. And then you made it more stupider, and now it's amazing. Yeah. Just arbitrarily, like if we're down 3-1, we're getting caved in, but we're still in this game. Imagine you're the Oilers. You go down 1-0, McDavid. You're up.

Yeah, right. I love it. The other team's like, oh, come on. Andy, you're on to something. All right. You are on to something. Rand Deep is going to join us next. We'll talk about the Canucks last night in Minnesota,

and we'll look ahead to the week. The Canucks host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday. It's going to be crazy downtown. I feel, by the way, I know we've got to get to break. I feel like there might be some cheap tickets on the secondary market for that game. First of all, it's Columbus, but also I think there's going to be people that are going, I got tickets to this game.

I'm not sure if I really want to go and face the traffic. So if you're willing to do it, you might be able to find some relatively inexpensive tickets on the secondary market. And then Sunday afternoon, one o'clock start time. Great. Seahawks start at one too. The Canucks host the Tampa Bay Lightning. So we'll talk to Rand Deep about everything Canucks related

coming up next on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.