Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Hard Was Not Embraced

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they discuss the news of Rick Tocchet leaving the Canucks (6:00), plus they chat yesterday's NHL playoff action with Sportsnet's David Amber (28:28). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- like this, boys. You have to embrace the harvest. It's gonna get really hard. No, no, no, no. Pearson, center, they score! Brad Howden, a hero again! Back for Goss, it's there. Uh-oh, game over! Series over! Sebastian Ho wins it on the power play in overtime! Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody, it is Halford at his brow,

it is Sportsnet 650 and we are Coney Live from the Kintec Studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. A-Dog, good morning to you. Good morning. Intern Kieran, good morning to you.

Good morning. And Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Broward for the morning is brought to you by S morning. And Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halpern and Brougham for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sands-trustee.com.

We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. We got a lot, and I mean a lot to get into on the show today. Our guest list today begins

at 6.30. David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet NHL host is gonna join us. Can you hear that? Off in the distance, that's the sound of the Toronto Maple Leafs choking away a three nothing series lead against the Ottawa Senators. We'll talk to David about last night's Battle of Ontario and look ahead to another Canadian team

facing elimination tonight. What you, Ugh! God! Choking on my own rage here! Montreal! That's the Leafs. Down 3-1 in their series to Washington. I am projecting on other Canadian teams right now because it's 7 o'clock. We're going to talk to Frank Saravalli about Rick Taukett.

We'll talk to him about the big news from yesterday. Rick Taukett, as you may have heard, will not be back as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. What's next for Rick Tauket? What's next for the Vancouver Canucks? Who's next for the Vancouver Canucks? Why is this all happening? We'll get the answers from Frank, hopefully at seven o'clock this morning. 7.30, Michael D'Agostino, Vancouver as a sports city could be redeemed somewhat this

evening. The caps, Michael D'Agostino, the assistant coach of your Vancouver White Caps, the Caps are in action tonight. Second leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup Semifinal against Inter-Miami and Lionel Messi kickoff is at five. The White Caps need a win, a draw, or a loss by a single goal. That's the math on that one to advance to the final. Ah, sucker.

Five. Five. Five. Eight o'clock, we had to make an emergency call to sat final. Ah, sucker. Five. Five. Eight o'clock, we had to make an emergency call to Sat yesterday. Had to make an emergency call in the wake of the Rick Tauket news to get him on. He's got like a bad phone, but it's the Sat phone

and it's like this red phone that blinks. Just in case the coach that you really, really wanted to stay decides to leave. He's got a private number, you call Sat and he comes on. He's kind of like slide down this pole to get to the phone. Then he comes on. It's a whole other deal. Then he comes on the show.

But as Sat gets older, that pole becomes just like, he's like, oh god. Oh god. God sick. Oh my knees. It's leaking on the way down. Sat's going to join us at eight. Getting escalated here. Sat's going to join us at eight to talk about Rick Tocket. We're going to talk about the

Tocket situation throughout the show today. I'll tell you right now, text in Dunbar Lumber Tax Line at 650-650. Get them in, weigh in your thoughts, your opinions, everything else. We are going to be talking about this a lot today. I'm not even going to work in reverse on the guest list because we have so much to get into. So without further ado, laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how messy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety

simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Rick Tawkit is not going to return as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks next season. That's the story. That's the headline. That's where we're going. Okay.

I think we should approach this in two ways. The first is the straight news and facts. The second is when we can speculate a little bit, philosophize, cry maybe, and answer what this decision says about the state of the Vancouver Canucks and where they go from here. So the first part is the easy part. Now these are all just facts.

Halford, you do the fact checking while I read off the list. Okay. The Canucks are now looking for their fourth head coach in four years. That is correct. Correct? Okay.

Manny Malholtzscher will be on the shortlist for that job. That is also correct. Yeah, Jim. Manny Malholtzscher will be on the short list for that job. That is also correct. Yeah. Jim Rutherford confirmed that yesterday. He also confirmed that Mike Sullivan will not be on the list of candidates. Can confirm.

Okay. Quinn Hughes was a huge fan of talkets. Quinn Hughes is the captain. He's the best player possibly ever. And he's two years away from unrestricted free agency. I can validate that claim. Okay. The Canucks traded away JT Miller this past off season because of a rift with

Elias Pettersson that affected the team in a negative way. I can also authenticate that. Okay. Pettersson is coming off his worst season in the NHL and has a no move clause that kicks in July 1st with seven years left on a contract with an $11.6 million cap hit. Now there are a lot of facts in there. Were they all correct?

All of those are true. Okay. Management has said it needs to dramatically alter its top six this off season. Probably got to bring in a top six center, a top six winger, and maybe one more player Rutherford pegged it at three forwards. Affirmative. Okay.

The Canucks won't have a dedicated practice facility anytime soon. I can also validate that claim. Okay. And the Canucks still haven't signed their top prospect, Tom Willander. I can also verify that claim. Okay, and the Canucks still haven't signed their top prospect, Tom Willander. I can also verify that claim. Did I miss anything? I don't know, I lost track. Did you mention Demko?

Yeah, right, well. Demko might never be the same goalie ever again and make it not get re-signed. Okay. Minor detail. Anything else that we've missed? Oh, and we're all gonna die. Hold on.

I'll speak for yourself. And Adog is sad. Wait, what? And today you gotta get your taxes in. That's the deadline. Ah! Death, taxes, and the Canucks. And Tocket.

Now comes the part where we ask what Tocket's decision says about the state of the Canucks. Well, sir, are we done the validation part? Those are all the facts. Good. We're done. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was a heavy workout at six or seven in the morning. Yeah. You had to find different ways to say, yes, I confirm that. That was tough for you, I'm sure. Validated. I had to put actually all the information together. Let's go. Um, so the part where we ask what Tauquets decision

says about the state of the Canucks. Well, I think you'd have to twist your brain into quite the positivity pretzel. You like that? Positivity pretzel. To see it as anything other than an indictment of the organization. The coach, they really, really wanted to stay,

decided to leave. And here's the quote from Jim Rutherford, we did everything in our power to keep him. But at the end of the day, Rick felt he needed a change. Now you can rack your brain for reasons why Rick might've felt he needed a change that has nothing to do with the Vancouver Canucks. Maybe this has nothing to do with the Vancouver

Canucks. Congratulations on the positivity pretzel that you've turned your brain into. By all accounts, this wasn't about money. The Canucks gave him a really generous offer. And according to IMAC, they went up to five years instead of four. Was it for Taka the thought of Quinn Hughes leaving? Was it the thought of Elias Pettersson staying?

Was it the lack of a practice facility? Was it the exhausting nature of this past off season? Let's face it, the answer is probably yes to all of those questions. Maybe there's a bigger yes here and a bigger and a smaller yes there, but I'm sure they were all factors. The Canucks are trending in the wrong direction and Taked decided that he didn't want to be a part

of the organization anymore. You can call him a quitter if it helps you cope. Embrace the heart and now you leave? What happened to meeting pressure with pressure? You can call him smart. I'd do the same thing if I were him, I don't blame him. But this is a gut punch to the Canucks and management, by the way, isn't trying to suggest it's anything other than that.

So there's no need for anyone to spin it for them. Now, another factor, the Philly job. Maybe, and I would say probably, Tocket ends up taking the Philly job, and there's a press conference next week or the week after that, and he calls it his dream coaching job and that he's always been a flyer at heart.

Yada, yada. But the connects will still be left where they're left and that's with question marks and all the key positions. And that now includes the head coaching position. So yesterday I was trying to put together something in the realm of optimism or house of positivity, something glass half full, if

only to provide a temporary counter from the human doom scroll that is Jason Brough. But. I wasn't even doom scrolling. That was just. Just in general. Not even yesterday. Oh, in general.

Okay. That's fair. But it just- Just in general. Not even yesterday. Oh, in general. Yeah. That's fair. But it was almost impossible to do. I spent hours, okay minutes, but I was trying to find something that would be a positive or any silver lining.

You're like- A to R to looked pretty good in the last few meaningless games of the season. And I failed. Then I started looking online. I'm like, maybe there's someone's ideas I can steal. That's pretty commonplace in our industry. meaningless games of the season. And I failed. Then I started looking online. I'm like, maybe there's someone's ideas I can steal. That's pretty commonplace in our industry.

Maybe Rick Riley's got something for me. Nothing. I've never seen a more universal acceptance from this particular fan base and media, and even the people working in the organization, that as you so eloquently put it, understood, embraced, took, and just acknowledged that this was a gut punch, that there's no way to look at this in a positive light. Even if you are in the anti-talk at camp and wanted him gone

because of his Jurassic coaching style and his conservative approach to offense, even if he wanted him gone, the way that he left can't leave a good taste in those people's mouths either. Because it wasn't as if he got fired. It wasn't as if the Canucks were saying, we don't want you and your coaching philosophies back. They made it abundantly clear they did.

They got turned away. I don't even know if it was at the altar. I don't even know. They made it abundantly clear they did. They got turned away. I don't even know if it was at the altar. I don't even know if they made it that far. But the organization got turned away from a guy who looked at the two and a half years that he was in charge and what the next two and a half years might look like and went, I'm not signing up for this.

And that is something that nobody can spin in a positive fashion. We should go through some of the audio from yesterday and try and answer some of these questions. Do you think Rick Tauke and Quinn Hughes will one day meet in Zuatoneo? Maybe. Do you think Quinn Hughes is called Jim Rutherford back by now? I don't know. Maybe his golf round is still going on. It'd be funny if he still hasn't.

Yeah, we're playing another 18, Jim. Yeah. And another 18. I'm going through a tunnel right now. You've been going through a tunnel for 18 hours. He's at Topgolf. Okay. We got a bunch of questions here and we're going

to play some audio from yesterday. It's either going to be Jim Rutherford, Elliott Friedman audio. Um, what does the new coach need to bring to the table, whether it's, um, you know, Manny Mulholland or any of the other candidates I heard kicked around on the station yesterday after the news broke. Um, glad you're ready to fire up some audio here.

Um, here's what, uh, Rutherford said about what the new coach has to understand. Yeah, that's hard to say. I think we have to go through, first of all, we're going to get lots of calls. We have lots of names We have to break those names down and then we're gonna have to interview these people and see where they're coming from you know and You know we we have a situation here where we have some star players impact players

Anytime you have them coach has to be able to adjust to how you deal with them compared to the rest of the roster. They have to understand that playing in Vancouver, the travel can be tough at times. Can they manage the schedule when we practice, when we travel, all those things? It's a little bit of a unique situation because of that, but we'll break all that down and You have to have some experience. You have to have leadership qualities You have to be have you have to have a good structure and system That the players can lean to when they're not playing well

Those are those will be some of the things that we're going to look for Okay, so when is this new coach going to be hired? Because the connects are going to make a lot of changes this off season, at least they are going to try to their top six group. And you would think if you bring in a coach, you want to have that coach in the room, providing input on those decisions, what kind of players does he think the team needs and what kind of players does he think the team needs and what kind of players does he like?

What's his style? Who does he lean on? And here's Rutherford talking about, well, we're going to have to make some changes and we'd like the coach to be involved. Well, we're going to have to make changes anyways, whether Toc was returning. And we knew we were were gonna certainly make some changes

with our forwards but ideally we know who the coach is so the coach can have input on that it's important for the coach to get players that he wants not for the general manager just to make trades and say here's your guys. You make the adjustments. So hopefully, and we really don't want to do this in a manner that we do it too quick and we make the wrong decision on a coach. We want to make sure that we go through the proper process but the sooner we get it done, the better it is for the planning for the off season.

Okay, so that's on the coaching side and We'll have lots of conversations, I'm sure, over the next little while about who should coach the Canucks and who should be the assistant coaches because I think Mr. Foote is gone as well, wherever Rick Tauke goes, especially if it's for an NHL coaching gig. I don't know if he'd show up beside him on TNT. He'd be like, I'll come with Rick. Yeah. Like what are you doing here? Quinn Hughes. There is a real freak out in the fan base yesterday because a lot of people were joking about, including myself, were joking about what

Jim Rutherford had to say about Quinn Hughes, not getting back to him yet on the phone. And then the people that were catching up later in the day were like, wait a minute, is he really not returning Jim Rutherford's phone calls? Um, and I just want to play the audio, um, from Jim Rutherford, just so everyone understands what's going on here and why people might be

suggesting that Quinn isn't returning Jim Rutherford's calls. Here's what Rutherford had to say about the Quinn Hughes factor in all this. Yeah, well I hope he's playing golf because he usually returns my calls right away and I called him within half an hour after I talked to Rick. So he hasn't called me back yet.

Knowing how he feels about the coach and that he's a sensitive guy, I would suspect that he feels like I do, that we're disappointed. But knowing the maturity of Quinn, he will make the adjustment necessary. But they did have a very strong relationship, a very good one, and Quinn had

a lot of respect for him, and Toc had a lot of respect for Quinn. So there'll definitely be an adjustment there. So this just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? So what does Quinn Hughes really want here? Out? Or this is what Elliot Friedman had to say, because he was on the station too, and he's been all over this story. Elliot Friedman on what Queen Hughes wants at this point. I think that to me, Queen Hughes, that guy wants to win.

Mm-hmm. Right? And it's just wild. Think about the last two years, Vic, I was actually doing this today. Like a couple of years ago, we weren't expecting a year where you guys were going to take Edmonton to game seven of the second round. Right?

And this year you certainly weren't expecting the year the way this happened. So I think to sit here and say, this is going to happen or that's going to happen. It's kind of foolish to do, but I think the truest thing, and we've talked about it a couple of times now is I don't think anybody thought Vancouver was going backwards this year. I think they saw something building, something positive, something good. And now look where we are.

And like, I think this year took a lot out of a lot of people and that's why we are where we are. Um, which brings us to Elias Pedersen. Um, Rutherford didn't necessarily mention Pedersen by name, but we're going to play a clip here from Jim Rutherford. And the good stuff happens at the end, but I want you guys to hear Rutherford's voice and see if you can sense, like I sensed, a little bit of anger right at the end here. As for the major issue we had to deal with in the first half, it wore really hard on everybody. Players, coaches, managers, it was tough, okay?

But we can't talk about that forever. It's behind us now. Whether we did the right thing or we didn't do the right thing, it's behind us. It was a decision that I don't think we had a choice to make based on all the information I have. We did what we had to do. We have to move on from that.

Now it's about getting those, the top players. And when I say that, I don't refer to Quinn. He's a phenomenal player. We don't worry about him. But getting the top players to perform the way they have to. You have to have your impact players win games for you. Not just be one of the guys. And that's part of the job of the coach.

And that's something that the new coach is going to have to figure out. You have to have your impact players win games for you. I'm not talking about Quinn Hughes. What is he talking about Philip Peronik? Kiefer Sherwood. Is he talking about Sherwood? Is he? Well, Besser's gone probably.

Suter, is he? I mean, surely he's not an impact player on the Vancouver Canucks. Third-aim goal scorer. We all know he's talking about Pederson there. Right? What? Yeah. Oh, that makes more sense. So-

Why didn't you say his name? Yeah. So I think this is, you know, I had, I had a lot of friends texting me yesterday, it was like, what happened? I had even a few calls. What, I need to talk to you about this, what happened? And I said, listen, I don't know the ins and

outs of all this stuff. And he said, people always want to boil it down to one thing, right? I think it was everything that we've mentioned, but, and what we might find out in a few days, I wouldn't be surprised. I wonder if the kicker in all of it, and maybe this is why the Canucks were so frustrated when

the news came out, how the media reacted, was the Philly job coming available. Because he was probably already thinking like, do I really want to deal with this? And you got Quinn Hughes and his uncertain future in Vancouver. Um, you know, like, like Petey or not, or like how, like how talk had dealt with Pederson or not for talk at that took up a lot of energy. And by the end of the season, I know Pedersonen had a few good games here and there, but I

don't think anything significant had changed. I don't think there was any proof that he'd been able to get through to Pedersen. I really don't. I think he said some of the right things, but I think the fact that he was still on him on practice habits and et cetera, I think he was probably like, oh my God, can we go through another season of this? Because I would bang my head against the wall. I've never had so many damn meetings

about one player in my life. Was it the practice facility? Probably not, probably not. But when you add it all up and when you add the, you know how you got to like pump yourself up for a season, right? And we sometimes talk about this when it's players are ready to retire.

They're like, oh, can I, do I really want to go through the off season prep and go through all the hard work and you know, if I'm not a hundred percent in, it's going to be really difficult. And a lot of them just be like, they come to a point where they're like, I just don't, I'm not motivated enough to put the work in for this situation.

Now this is a little bit different cause Tauke is not talking about retirement, but I do wonder if when that Philly job became available, was he like, I really don't want to be here. I want to be there. Sure. And that might lessen the sting for some, I know there's some, like's a Todd from Richmond's texting in and fish dancers texting in

talking about the coach part of this. And the coach part of this is a huge element. Don't get me wrong. Who coaches this team, you know, is going to be a major, major factor in how much success they have next year, right? Like I get that part of it. And I understand that some people are saying we might have maxed out in terms of success under what we were going to get from Rick Tauket. I think the important thing to understand here is that what we've been talking about for the first 23 minutes of the show, almost in a way isn't even necessarily about

the skills and attributes that Rick Tauke brought to Vancouver is taking away from Vancouver, maybe taking to Philadelphia. What this really is about is a referendum on where an individual sees the franchise going, right? We can all agree on that. And more importantly, it's a referendum from an individual that the organization wanted to keep very badly, very, very badly. Right. Remove the nameplate from it.

There's someone that the Canucks wanted to keep in a major way, and they were willing to give much term and many dollars to. Right. That was this. That was the situation with Tauke. That dynamic is almost exactly what they're gonna be facing with Quinn Hughes moving forward, is they have an individual that they really, really, really wanna keep and they're willing to give as much term

and as much money as humanly possible to keep him around. Can they sell him? But one person has already said, no thanks, I see what the future looks like. That's a very, very damning thing because much like Rick Tauken has other opportunities to go somewhere else, so too will a Norris winning caliber franchise defenseman. And Jarence was making this point on, on

the station yesterday. Um, you know, even if the Canucks were in a good spot, Quinn Hughes might jump at the opportunity to go play with his brothers. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. You go play with your brothers on a good team in New Jersey and you're two brothers. They're all good players.

And go win a Stanley Cup together? I mean, that's sports dream stuff, right? And for Rick Tauket, for all that we've talked about the state of the Canucks, maybe the Philly job and returning to Philly was similar to that. You know? I am trying to help make everyone feel a little bit better here, but I don't think I'm doing a very

good job because you know, the fact of the matter is we're still going to be left here with the Canucks. But. To me, it doesn't matter where Tauke it ended up. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, TNT, it didn't matter because the only thing that matters is that the choice was not Vancouver. Yeah.

And that's, that's a top point of reconcile. But it might be, it might be a dream job scenario as a coach for Tauke to start with the Philadelphia Flyers and then realize that the organization, you know, isn't in the best spot right now and maybe he can go back there and return to a city where he is beloved. And I'm sure he's still got a lot of friends and

he goes in there and he starts fresh, man. Like, you know, like I know he wasn't in Vancouver for a lot. I was only here for what? Kind of two years or whatever, two and a half years, but you know, a lot of things happened. And the idea of starting fresh with a Flyers organization and bringing in a message that's

going to be new to those guys. We'll see if he takes that flyer's job, but I would be pretty surprised if he doesn't. David Amber is going to join us next and we'll talk about what happened last night in the NHL, the Leafs and the Kings, man. So much regret for the LA Kings. You're listening to the Halford and

Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen four to six p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. ["It Is Time For David Amber"]

It is time for David Amber, he is on the hotline baby. It is time for David Amber, he will talk some hockey maybe. It is time for David Amber, he is on the hotline baby. It is time for David Amber, he will talk some hockey maybe. I'm on the hotline baby. I'm writing to the shrooms talking. I remember what I was doing at 23, pooping in my pants. There's a massive butt coming here guys. No one's fighting rig talking.

No one wants to fight rig talking. I'm on the hotline baby. It is, it's David. It is, it's David. Amber, it is, it's David. He's on the hotline. 6.33 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halperd Gruffs, 4th Net 650. He's on the hotline 6.33 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. As the music suggests, David Amber from Hockey Night Canada, Sportsnet NHL host, is going to join us. In just a moment here in hour one, hour one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone

lines we go, David Amber joins us now on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning David, how are you? Good, good, how are you guys doing today? Fine. Just another day in Vancouver, David. Just another day in Vancouver. So I don't mean to cut you off or anything,

but I imagine like you're working yesterday, you're getting ready, you're getting prepped. There's like four games on the ledger. It's a busy night. And then the Vancouver Canucks drop a news bomb. Like it was like an hour before puck was ready to drop on the Eastern game. So that must have thrown a wrench. What was the reaction like for you and everyone else?

Do you think we could ignore this and just watch hockey? Yeah, maybe we don't have to talk about it. You have to talk about it. A full transfer. So I wasn't in studio yesterday. Ron was manning the, uh, Ronnie and all the manning all the shows yesterday. Uh, so when it did drop though, to be, I'll be honest with you

from a personal standpoint, I, I was expecting this. I think the writing was on the wall. I'm sure you guys were expecting this. I think if it was going to get sewn up between Pocket and Vancouver it would have happened right at the end of the regular season. I mean, what has it been two weeks now? It's been basically two weeks and you know they obviously laid their cards on the table, we want you to stay, here's our offer or whatever and when it didn't get done within a few days I'm like yeah, Pocket's gone. That was my take on it, it

just wasn't going to get done. So I, I wasn't shocked. And, and now I think what becomes very interesting is what does Vancouver do? Uh, is part of it and where does pocket go? And I imagine there's a number of possibilities and a number of suitors and there's a couple of good destinations.

I'm sure he's, he's contemplating. Um, let's talk about, uh, the actual hockey because we just spend a whole segment talking about this and we're emotionally exhausted from this team. How are Leafs fans feeling right about now? Well, I'm scared to leave my house because I walk my dog every day and the mood and temperature of my neighborhood as I walk the dog reflects directly on how the Leafs are doing and everyone's chipper when they're winning.

And people are like, what's wrong with the Leafs? Are they gonna blow this? This is the Leafiest. You know, like that's sort of the mood when things aren't going well. I don't think there's, I think there's certainly some nervousness in the city by the fan base,

which is a pretty normal reaction based on the history of this team and this group specifically. I think within that locker room, there's probably a bit more calm and I'm not sure that's a good thing. I, well, one thing that struck me is I'd like to see a bit more urgency, not panic, but urgency, right? Like Edmondson showing urgency in their series. They went out last night, game five, and they basically took control of that game right off the hop. I didn't get that sense from the Leafs

yesterday and I actually think again not panic but some urgency with how they play and a level of purpose out there that seems far greater than what they've shown in the last few games. And one thing that surprised me were five games into this battle of Ontario guys and and There hasn't been a nasty it just wasn't been as mean right you're watching the Tampa Florida series and guys are getting knocked out and suspended and there just doesn't seem to be that level of Acrimony between the Leafs and the Senators and quite frankly, I think that might serve the Maple Leafs better Yeah, not talking about taking it into the backyard brawl, I just mean like, you want everyone

incredibly engaged in a way it felt to me last night, the Leafs have been a little bit lulled to sleep and All Mark's been very good the last couple of games and I'm not sure that benefits Toronto in this series. Do you think they're just trying to follow Craig Borubi's lead and stay composed in this situation because that's what I remember

from his run with the St. Louis Blues to the Stanley Cup was how he kept that team so composed. Things would go badly. They lose a game. There were some bad calls that went against them and he was just like, yep, onto the next game. And I'm wondering if the Leafs are taking cues from him.

And I've also heard that, was it Marner taking cues from Sidney Crosby at the four nations too? Like the calm and the optimism on the bench, you know, Marner is going to get criticized one way or the other in Toronto. But, uh, you know, I, I, I do wonder if Barube's message is just like, listen, we're going to go through some stuff in the playoffs.

So let's just handle it in the most calm and rational way possible. Yeah, I think you hit it right on the head. That's sort of been his mantra and his demeanor all year. In fact, he actually asked assistant coach Mark Savard, he's like, don't celebrate when we score goals.

And it was funny, we caught a shot of the Leafs bench after they scored a goal and, and Berube is like scolding Savard, calm down. What are you fist pumping for? You know, and he was asked about it and he kind of laughed. He's like, yeah, we got to be cool back there. We don't want our players to over celebrate and we don't want to over celebrate. So I think that's part of it.

Um, but again, I want to see some urgency. We saw, you know, Matthew smash his stick on the bench last night. We saw a little bit of emotion there. Um, but I, you know, you don't want to be running around like your hair is on fire, but you also don't want to be too kind of, hey, yeah, we got a three, two, seriously, that's cool. Like you do have to have a sense of let's close these guys out. Let's not give them life. Let's not give them confidence because you know, Brady Kachuk post game was very, he's been saying all the right things and I'm not sure how much all this

matters, but he's like, yeah, you know, we don't feel the pressure. We're excited at the year. We're, you know, we have confidence right now. We've won two in a row. I don't know how those guys feel. He said, I don't know how those guys feel, which is a great, a great line I thought. But yeah, I mean, there's, listen, there's some, some anxiousness here. You know, we could say the same thing when, when the Oilers were down to Nazi, we say the same things with the Jets fans clearly and, and Montreal.

I mean, this is what playoff hockey is. If your team's not, didn't win the last game, there's a level of nervousness with that fan base, whatever the situation. I thought, I don't disagree with me if you want. I thought the most concerning part of the Leafs game last night was the start of the third period.

Where it seemed like the Sens were in Toronto's end, more than Toronto was in Ottawa's end. And it's the third period, the Leafs are down by one. And then somehow Toronto ended up on the power play and the Leafs kind of flung the puck around the outside and eventually Austin Matthews had just a terrible giveaway that ended up with that odd man rush. Dylan Cousin makes it 2-0 for Ottawa and the game was kind of over at that point. What did you think of the start of the third and maybe this is what you're getting at with the urgency? I think the Senators got better as the

game went on. And that's not a good thing for the Maple Leafs and give the senators full credit. They got more comfortable as the game went on. They didn't panic. And they seem to really kind of get into a groove of keeping Toronto on the perimeter. I think the confidence they have knowing all marks in that, I mean, kudos to Steve Steyos and that management group by picking up a goaltender. And it wasn't always a perfect season for Linus Allmark, but the idea of picking him

up was this guy's won a Vezna, he's been through some playoff action and this is a guy we can count on. And if he gets hot, we can run with him. And right now, at least the last two games, he's been very hot. So yeah, I did pick up on that. I thought the third period didn't feel like a home game you know it felt like the crowd was taken out of it and maybe all the you know playoff demons or you know the fans are just too kind of oh my god the fans

that within you know inside the arena but Ottawa got better as the game went on and you know what power plays are great if you score on them or if you actually have a ton of chances. If they're quiet and ineffective as the Leafs power play has been the last two games, they're 0-7. It works against you. You lose all the momentum and it can really suck the energy out of the building and out of the team. And listen, the Leafs have given up a short-handed goal each of the last two games. This is a storyline we've seen last year against Boston. They were one for 21 on the power play in that series.

They're now 0 for 7 in the last two games. They've allowed two short-handed goals. So this is becoming a bit of a worry in that regard. When you're going up against the Haw goalie and your special teams are getting beaten in the both the last two games We're speaking to David Amber Sportsnet NHL host here on the Alfred and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650 I want to pivot to another series where the momentum has totally shifted another series that is also 3-2

It is in favor of the Edmonton Oilers though They got their win last night 3-1 over the Los Angeles Kings their third consecutive victory in the series So you can point to a few different things in this series where the momentum might have shifted. Jim Hiller's ill-fated challenge in game three, the byfield clearance that wasn't in game four. But Kevin Biax on the panel last night pointed this out and he said something happened during the second intermission of game four where the Oilers went into the breakdown

three one, and then the third period in overtime, they dominated and last night they dominated. And what was interesting was Jean Principe did a walk off with Matthias Janmark last night. At the very end of the interview, Janmark said the exact same thing. He said, last game, we figured something out. I don't know what Knobloch figured out or was

able to unlock about this series, but something changed because that game last night was the first game in this series where Edmonton has been like flat out dominant, as opposed to the other games where they had to rally and come back. That was a, that was a performance last night from Edmonton. If it wasn't for Kemper, that thing would have been a blowout. They just caved them in last night and that was just a masterpiece

that was sort of classic Edmonton Euler hockey that we've sort of been growing accustomed to over the last couple years. Yeah I'm not sure exactly what was figured out. Kevin did make a really good point though saying you know the first couple games Nobla was moving the lines around you didn't know what was going on and now it seems like he's found his four lines. He's found some comfort and some chemistry there. And think about it, Kane hadn't played all year. Frederick had barely played for the Oilers.

So there you have these two new pieces. Where are they going to fit? How's it going to work power forward? And they found their place. So Vander Kane was very good last night, very disciplined, very smart, scored the game time goal. And I think part of it is Edmondson feels confident going into the thirds because they still have energy. Jim Hiller, there's going to be a lot of second guessing here. Certainly that coach's challenge in game three was a massive turning point and also how he's

used his players. He's barely used some of his players up to this last game. So you had guys, even in that, in that overtime game for he had guys who played three and two minutes. Think about that. Uh, that means you're playing other guys way more. He was raised basically running with eight forwards and running with four defensemen. And again, we saw last night, Kempe took some shifts on D and Minton's been rolling lines a little bit more, certainly in the last few games.

And I think they've scored 12 goals, guys, in the third period of this series. In five games, they've scored 12 goals in the third period. And that's a matter of wearing down your opponent and your opponent's fatigued. And they made some fatal mistakes clearly as well. But I just feel Edmonton kind of has their mojo back and the momentum they have carried now into game six is unbelievable. And I give credit also to Nob Log in the sense of he put Calvin Pickard in and maybe it wasn't a hard decision after those first two games but he put Calvin Pickard in and that seems to have stemmed the tide as well. Like

he's just he has the confidence of the team. One thing I took note of after their game four overtime win, watch Connor McDavid. Dry Settle scores, McDavid doesn't go to hug Dry Settle. He darts down the ice to embrace Pickard right away. And kind of like, you're the man, you kept us in there because Pickard didn't allow a goal for the last, what, 35 minutes of that game.

And I think Dave kind of got that feeling now. We don't need Grant Fehr, we don't need Patrick Wah, Roberto Luongo. We just need a guy who's can keep us in the game and Pickard's effectively done that. So there's a ton of momentum there, Jim. Okay. Let's talk about tonight.

The Montreal Canadiens are on the brink of elimination. They need to win in Washington, Florida, Tampa continues that series. Maybe there's going to be another bad hit, probably going to be another bad hit. Aaron Echblad won't play tonight for the Florida Panthers, but I think most of the

focus is going to be on one guy and that is Connor Hellebuck in Winnipeg as the Jets look to turn the momentum around in that series at home against the St. Louis Blues. I'm sure it's going to be loud in Winnipeg, but is it going to be almost like as nervous as Toronto was yesterday? A hundred percent.

And you have to feel for Connor Hellebuck because you just rarely see a player as good as he is in the regular season and stumble as badly as he has now in the postseason and it's not just this year obviously it's the track record over the last few years and he must be feeling an incredible amount of pressure quite simply Scott O'Neill's trying his best to take the pressure off Hellebuck, but it's there. Yes, they have to let him see pucks. And yes, they have to make life more difficult on Jordan Bennington, who clearly is feeling it right now. But yeah, all eyes on Connor Hellebuck. There's no player in the Stanley Cup playoffs right now with more pressure on them than Connor Hellebuck.

And that was probably the narrative even coming into the playoffs before game one. It was like, you know, that's great. You're going to win a third Vezna. He might win the heart. I voted for him for the heart. You know, I'm on, I have a ballot. He was my guy based on, this was one of the best historic goal-tenning years

in the history of the game. And you know, that's all great, fine and dandy, but that's not going to mean anything if he stumbles again tonight and ultimately the Jets lose on the shoulders of bad goal-tending and bad defense which is just such a shock from a team that was so airtight. The Jets are going to do everything in their power to make life easier on Connor Hellebuck but they also need to have Connor Hellebuck be that guy that he was during the regular season and those two things maybe go hand in hand.

Gabe Velarde coming back tonight is going to be a big help for Winnipeg as far as getting some bodies and some traffic in front of Jordan Binnington and a guy who can finish. But yeah, there's an immense amount of pressure on Winnipeg to win tonight. It'd be crazy to think they're going to lose tonight and then go back to St. Louis, which hasn't lost at home since February guys and think that they're going to suddenly break the 14 game home winning streak for St. Louis. So tonight might as well in some, you know, effects be a game seven for the Winnipeg Jets.

Three games on the slate tonight. As Jason mentioned, you get the Canadians and Capitals at four o'clock our time for 4.30 our time it's the Panthers and the Lightning in the Battle of Florida and then 6.30 our time it's the Blues and the Jets. It's another great night on tap. David, thank you very much for doing this today. We appreciate it. Enjoy all the games tonight. It should be a lot of fun.

Yeah, I'm in the studio for Jets, Blues, so I'm pumped for that. We'll see what hellebuck and the Jets have in store. Thanks so much guys. We'll talk to you soon. Thankets, Blues. So I'm pumped for that. We'll see what Hellebuck and the Jets have in store. Thanks so much guys. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you, buddy. That's David Amber, Sportsnet NHL host here on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Do you remember when we were talking about Jets and Blues and the Jets had just won the first

two games of the series and we both kind of agreed like, I don't see the Blues winning four or five against Winnipeg. Now I'm not sure I still see that, but it's certainly a lot more possible now. Well, you remember what I said counter to that though, was that if you can break it down into its component parts and not look at the totality of we have to beat this team four out of five, what you do is you say, okay, if we win our two games at home, which isn't out of the realm of possibility, David just mentioned, like the blues have been fantastic at home.

Then we put ourselves in the opportunity to play a best of three. And then it's an entirely different conversation. Now, I don't know if part of the blues script was to ventilate Connor Hallibuch and have him pulled from consecutive games. That certainly helps with the confidence factor. I have no idea what to expect tonight.

No idea. And that is in part because I have no idea what to expect tonight. No idea. Um, and that is in part because I have no idea what to expect from Connor Hallebuck. The entire series really does hint. Shades of Luongo? Yeah. He's the modern day Luongo. I think that was Todd has bad takes,

texted that in yesterday. He's this generation's Luongo. There are some parallels for sure. Uh, the playoff demons that he's been unable to exercise can't be ignored. I know like laddie broke it down really well talking about what the blues have done with their pre-scout and how they have been able to expose

some of his weaknesses. The issue that I have is like, did regular season teams not able to do that? Like why is it continually happening so often in the playoff? I think you're placing better talents in the playoffs number one. You are. And you can, it's the same opponent night after night after night that has the same arsenal and

skillset and mandate from the same head coach to go out and do it over and over again. They've got practice at it. Well, look at the Oilers series. If you believe this narrative that the Oilers have figured out something on the Kings, right? It's a game of adjustments and counter adjustments and we'll see if Jim Hiller can adjust to whatever

the Edmonton Oilers did to flip the switch in that series and we'll see if the Winnipeg Jets can answer and really get a diagnosis of like, what's going on with all the goals we're allowing? Is it just a matter of our goalie heart trophy candidate needing to be better or is there something we can do in front of them to help them out? That Edmonton series with LA, you never like to say that, I don't know, the moment, momentum

is kind of a fickle thing in the seven game series. It's also usually goes opposite, to be perfectly honest. Because it's always punch, counterpunch, adjustment, readjustment. People figure things out. And there's the desperation that usually plays a role. However, however, that one to me feels like it's slid in one direction because it's not just the results, it's the style of play.

Like Edmonton wasn't good in the first part of the series and Edmonton was getting outplayed in the first, I'd say two and a half games last night. They stepped on them. LA at one point, the shot counter was 33 to 11 in favor of the Oilers. Like the only reason that LA was in that game was because of Darcy Kemper. And then in the third period where you expected some kind of pushback from LA, it didn't materialize.

Like that was about as close to a 60 minute performance. I know it's cliche and everything, but, uh, that Edmonton could put forth. I would love to know if, you know, BXA and Yanmark were accurate and what they were saying, exactly what the flipping of the switch, like how it happened, what it was. I, I, I just don't want to count out the Kings

because they've got guys like Doudy and Kopitar who have been through this before. They've been through incredibly long series and they've won some of them and they've lost some of them. They do have the experience. You know what else those two have been a part of? Yeah, the Oilers. Every loss to the Oilers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Oilers did this to the Winnipeg Jets in the 80s. Like every time they, I think they played five or six times and they beat them every time.

in the eighties, like every time they, I think they played five or six times and they beat them every time. Okay, so I just wanted to, yeah, so double check on this, so the games today, but we haven't had a ton of time to dive into some of these other series. Again, neglectful of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Minnesota Wild, that one last night.

What a crazy game that was. I don't know how many of you caught it and saw exactly what happened in the third period and overtime, but the third period featured one of the wildest sequences I think I've seen in video review and coach challenge history. So with roughly, I think it was about a minute 30 to go in the third period, the wild looked like they had won

that game for me anyway. Ryan Hartman scored on Aiden Hill. It was a minute 15 left. So the officials first had to check the replay because when the goal went in, Aiden Hill popped up out of his crouch and made the kicking motion with his foot to say that Ryan Hartman kicked the puck into the net for the Minnesota Wild.

So while they're reviewing whether or not it was a kicking motion, you could see Bruce Cassidy and the Vegas Golden Knights team all huddled behind the bench looking at the monitor. And kind of smirking. So I'm thinking. Looking real comfortable about what's going on here. I'm thinking, oh, Cassidy knows that this is kicked in

and it's gonna get overturned. The referee, and I don't know his name in front of me, but he goes to the microphone and says, nope, it's not a kicking motion. We got a good goal on the ice. So I'm like, oh man, Vegas is screwed. Right away, Vegas challenges for offside on the entry from Gustav Nyquist.

And then when they, I think it was ESPN on the call, I think it was Bob Wichhousen, he dialed it back and lo and behold, there's an offside of the blue line. The initial review for the kicking motion gave Vegas the time not just to look at it, but to be very, very confident, as you said, that this thing was gonna be overturned. So the mood in the building goes from,

oh my God, we've just been scored on with 1.15 left. We're going to lose this game to, oh wow, we're going overtime. And then of course it was Brett Howden in overtime to win it for the Vegas Golden Knights. Okay. Lots to get through on the show. So we got to get going. Frank Saravalli is going to join us next. We'll talk about Talk It and we'll also talk about Philly. Frank's a Philly guy, so we'll ask him for his predictions on whether or not Tauke will end up taking the flyers job. Michael Dagostino is going to join us at 7.30, talk about the Whitecaps game tonight against Miami. Can they put Messi and Inter Miami away in that tournament or reach the finals? We've got some new 32 thoughts audio from Elliott

Freeman on the Tauke situation. And then at eight o'clock we'll talk with Sat and we'll just talk about what the Canucks are going to do over the next little while. Get your what we learns into the Dunbar Lumbertex Line 650, 650. Frank's coming up next on the Halford & Breff show on Sportsnet 650.