Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Stanley Cup Vibe Check

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk the Oilers tying things up in their WCF series versus the stars (6:00), plus they try and break down Drance's odd Simon & Garfunkel take in relation to Hughes & Hronek (27:00).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d He gets to the rink and he has to meet with the Edmonton meat. That's what I call the media. There's a raw dad and dom. What are some of the keys to stopping it? Playing hard. Thanks, guys. Why are you so pissy? Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Thursday.

Happy Thursday, everybody. It's Halford and his brother at Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brother of the Morning is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Acc of accurate dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today by visiting your nearest Dilawri accurate dealer today. We are in our one of the program. Our 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 Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five star Google reviews. So what are you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. The guest

list today begins at 7 o'clock, which means you get an entire hour of uninterrupted half-room brough from 6 to 7. Adnan Virk from MLB Network is going to join us at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Adam Stanley's going to join us. I forgot it's a Canadian Open this week. Canadian Open Week golf analyst from Sportsnet, Adam Stanley,

is going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk right here on Sportsnet 650. He's going to join us on the heels of a wild take which caught the internet by storm yesterday i'm not sure he did enough research on the career arcs of simon and or garfunkel but he tried and then he cooked up a take in the in the drance lab yesterday threw it out there and got ethered on the internet. And rightfully so.

I don't know. We'll get into it later. It all had to do with Hughes and Hronik. And apparently Hughes is Paul Simon and Hronik is Garfunkel. Yep. And you would think if you heard that, you'd be like, oh, that's kind of disrespectful to Heronic. No. No.

This is the opposite. I'm still trying to really process exactly what he was thinking. I've heard it like six times. I don't want to start beef with Drance at 6.03 in the morning. He's probably not even up. He's listening to the dulcet tones of Art Garfunkel somewhere, I would imagine. His solo stuff. Yeah.

I love his solo work. Some of my favorite. Anyway, we'll get into all that later. Drance is going to join us at 8. Adam Stanley at 7.30. Adnan Virk at 7. We have one big game 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 No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The back and forth,

topsy-turvy, dare I say zig-zagging Western Conference Final took another zag yesterday as the Edmonton Oilers rallied with 5-5 unanswered goals to defeat the Dallas Stars 5-2 in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final at Rogers Place on Wednesday. Now, I had a hard time

trying to pick what goal we should play to accentuate this Oilers comeback, but we're going to go with the shorty and eventual game-winning goal, Matthias Janmark, down a man. Not the leader of Janpro, as Laddie tried to shoehorn in there earlier. Here's Matthias Janmark with a shorty, eventual game-winning goal last night to pace the Edmonton Oilers to a win over the Dallas Stars. The Dallas Stars, Harley will shoot that.

Locked in front. Grounds for five. Pass for three on one. Nurse jumping. In front. Score! Short-handed. Matisse.

The end work. So there are a few stories from last night's game, and Edmonton's PK was one of them, and it's been a story all playoffs in fact special teams for the Oilers has been a big story for them a lot of people thought okay well if we're going to talk about special teams with the Edmonton Oilers the entire playoffs we're going to be talking about their power play and whether or not they're going to get the calls whether or not they're you know going to score, whether or not they're, you know,

going to score on the power play in the playoffs. The things are different. Well, yeah, that was a story against the LA Kings and it was a story against the Vancouver Canucks to a certain extent, but their PK has perhaps been a bigger story than their power play. They just look incredibly good on the PK right now. I don't know how many in a row they've killed, 22 or something along those lines. They set a franchise record by allowing zero powerplay goals in eight straight playoff games.

So dating back to the Vancouver series, obviously. And I guess that is credit to an Oilers team that a lot of people didn't think was all that good defensively and we have seen some defensive issues from the Oilers at times at five on five in these playoffs but credit to the Oilers because their their PK has been one of their main strengths in these playoffs and Dallas's we all know Vancouver's power play had trouble even just getting set up against the Edmonton Oilers. And we thought that was mostly on the Canucks. And, you know, it's not like you're going to say none of it was on the Canucks. A lot of it was on the Canucks.

The Dallas Stars power play is having trouble against the Oilers as well. The other big story from last night was that Edmonton coach Chris Knobloch, he took some risks. He made three lineup changes. Defenseman Philip Broberg drew into the lineup along with Ryan McLeod and Corey Perry, Vincent Desjardins, Warren Fogle, one of my favorite names, and Sam Carrick were sitting last night and Ryan McLeod scored the first goal for the Edmonton Oilers to make it two to one for Dallas because Dallas, like Edmonton the night or the game before, had totally controlled the first period and

then it flipped in the second period and it started with Ryan McLeod's goal, which just so happened to be assisted by Corey Perry and Darnell Nurse. Yeah, he was a big story yesterday. And a little bit of sweet revenge, I suppose, for Darnell Nurse, who was hearing it from the media pregame. I believe Connor Brown said everyone and their dog was all over Darnell Nurse. The meat. Yeah, not the media, the meat, which we can get into later as well. We'll get into the meat later.

So, okay, some takeaways here. You threw a lot out there. One, Darnall Nurse also had a playoff high 12 hits yesterday. Chris Knobloch called it Nurse's best game of the playoffs, and all the teammates felt very good for Darnall Nurse, so that's great. There's a couple things here, unfortunately, that i didn't want to give the oilers credit for that i'm begrudgingly going to have to now the first one is the aforementioned penalty kill because in the series against vancouver after it was all done i was listening to the postgame show on that fateful

monday night when the canucks lost to the oilers in game seven and Brett Festerling who we had on the show came in on Monday night and said he thought that the Oilers PK was the MVP of that second round series and I reiterated that on our show the next morning and actually got some push back into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket a lot of people were like come on like of all the things that were MVPs in that series that was it I think a lot of people were upset because they felt like it was the Canucks uh lack of ability on the power play as opposed to a really good penalty kill Brett came on the show reiterated what he said it was very obvious that the former NHLer had far more insight than all of us combined because that penalty kill has been really good and to do what they've done in the postseason over the course of,

and we're not just talking about an opening round series. Like they did this at the tail end of a second round where, remember, they had no margin for error because they were down 3-2 to the Canucks. So to lock it down there and then continue that into this second round against the Stars, it's a very impressive thing. So that's one. You know when a power play gets going and it's just feeling it? And it just feels like every time they're out on the ice,

they're going to at the very least get some great chances, if not score. Edmonton's power play sometimes. Yeah, Edmonton's power play quite often, actually. PKs can have that too. You're going to have that feeling like you're getting over the boards, and it's fun because you're frustrating the other team's best players. Yeah. And I think the Oilers started to get that vibe against the Canucks.

I don't know how their PK was against the Kings. I know their power play was very good, but I think they got it. It was 100% against the Kings. Was it? Yeah. Right. That's incredible. Yeah.

It's really incredible. And so maybe they carried that into the series with the Canucks and just like the Canucks. I mean, we were, we were focused a hundred percent on the Canucks. I'm like, how are what the zone entries? Like, what is going on? You're giving it to guys that are standing still. And, but like, once you start to get some, um, chemistry on the PK, it became, it becomes almost enjoyable to go out there and frustrate the other team. And what it does is it actually creates momentum for your team, because especially for the Oilers, because correct me if I'm wrong here, but McDavid doesn't penalty kill. And I don't if Dreisaitl does, but I don't think he does.

So most of the time, if you kill those penalties off, I don't think they do, so you don't have to check it, but if you kill those penalties off, then McDavid and Dreisaitl are going to head over the boards right after that penalty's over. Yeah. And you're going to get momentum that way. And you also get momentum if you, you know, score shorthanded like Matthias Janmark did

against the Dallas Stars. And that just held up as the winner. So that was the biggest goal of the game. Okay. So the one thing that I was begrudgingly ready to give the Oilers credit for was the penalty kill. The other one, this one hurts because I had a nice tidy narrative I

wanted to work out here and it didn't work out uh Chris Knobloch has done a really really really good job behind the bench for them uh I thought especially in the Vancouver series that maybe his lack of two things lack of coaching experience and then the lack of having to deal with adversity may play into the Canucks favor but I mean he made maybe the biggest decision of the playoffs and that series with the Calvin Pickard move because I mean when they when we heard in that series that they were going to Pickard I was like this is the worst possible thing that can happen to the Canucks right now I wanted Stuart Skinner to stay in I want Stuart Skinner to fight through all of his problems on the ice, in the goal, while the Canucks were shooting on him.

Because through the first half of that series, he was one of the biggest reasons that the Canucks were able to counterpunch as effectively as they were, and were able to rattle the Oilers as effectively as they did. So Knobloch made the decision. He made two big decisions in that series, actually. He made the decision to go to Pickard. And then with their backs up against the wall,

he made the decision to go back to Skinner, right? When it was 3-2. So I give him a lot of credit. That was almost a bigger decision than going to Skinner in the first place. 100%. Or going to Pickard in the first place. 100%. Because it was like, well, now we're trusting the guy

that needs to put it together here. And I think it was, honestly, if you look back on it in retrospect and having some time to digest the move, it was very clearly a move to the guys in front of Skinner, I think, as opposed to the goalie himself. Because he didn't have to do that much, Stuart Skinner, that is, in Game 6 and Game 7 against Vancouver. Unfortunately, he did not.

Yeah, they gave up no shots. Unfortunately, he did not. Right? The shots at one point in Game 7 were 22-4 in favor of Edmonton. They played better in front of them. And they've carried that over at times into this Dallas series.

And then you mentioned the changes last night. Knobloch, again, you give them a lot of credit. Three lineup changes. That's a lot of changes. Especially when the series is not forced to. When it's not injuries. When you're actually making a decision to bring guys in and sit guys as

healthy scratches. No suspensions. No injuries. You're not down or you're not facing elimination yet. It was 2-1 in the series. And they worked. All of it worked. I know a lot of the meat from Edmonton. That's the media. The meat from Edmonton. We're praising media, the meat from Edmonton,

were praising the Broberg insertion into the lineup. They thought he did a nice job moving the puck on the blue line. So, again. It didn't start out well, though, did it? No, they were terrible to start, which is, that's the zigging and the zagging part of this whole thing. They gave up a goal 58 seconds in, and then they were down 2-0 six minutes into the game. It was the inverse of the previous game, where Edmonton got off to a hot start and then Dallas came back.

This time Dallas got off to the hot start and then Edmonton came back. Tony, the electrician, texts in and says the biggest impact to that game was Tanev leaving. Yeah, that's a problem. I don't know if it was the biggest impact to that game, but it could be a big impact going forward. So it looks like he blocked a shot, right? And he blocked with his right right? And it's...

He blocked with his right foot and he left and didn't return. His right foot must have fallen off if Tanev left the game. All right. The first thing that popped to mind was the Chris Tanev Memorial walking boot, which he wore pretty much

for the duration of his career in Vancouver. And then we made the joke that whenever he was healthy and done with it, he would just pass it on to the next injured player. It was like a bronze boot. Made it very hard to get on and off, but the symbolism behind it was important. But if they don't have to, the numbers on Tanev, in terms of him playing in a shutdown role,

in the first round was matched up often against Jack Eichel. And then the second round, he saw a lot of the Nathan McKinnon line and did a pretty good job on them. They said, he's really like, I hate, I always use this, the, the,

the rug that tied the room together, the Lebowski factor. He was the Lebowski factor for that blue line because he balanced it out, made them better, obviously defensively, but also gave them better pairings, which is why they were so effective in the first two rounds. So if Tanev loses,

Tanev's gone for any length of time. Dallas is in serious trouble here because while they have home ice now. Yeah. Who do you think? Actually, that's a good question. Who do you think is the favorite right now? Edmonton. Yeah.

I kind of agree here. See, going into this, I had a different outlook than you. I think you, and part of this was you wanting it. You wanted Dallas to blow the doors off of Edmonton, right? Yes, yes. Because you wanted it to be like, ah, if the Canucks had gotten past Edmonton in Game 7, they would have been all tired and beat up, and they would have run up against a juggernaut Stars team that was destined for the Stanley Cup.

So at the end of the day, it didn't really matter that they lost Game 7. My line of thinking for going into this series was, Edmonton just got over a lot of mental and emotional hurdles in the Canucks series. And they were well-suited to go up against a Dallas team that, again, had a very impressive resume going into the Western Conference Final. You take care of the defending Stanley Cup champs in round one. You take care of another Stanley Cup champion recently in Colorado in the second. But the Oilers had, I thought the Oilers had a lot of momentum coming out of that Vancouver series.

They overcame the Stuart Skinner implosion. They fought down twice from being like that elimination game, right? They were down 3-2 in that series and they fought twice. They won on the road in game seven. Is momentum the right way to put it, though, or just confidence? I think it was confidence. I mean, I don't know. Momentum, I don't...

You said momentum. Yeah, and momentum, I'm with you because I don't think momentum really exists from game to game. I do think that the vibes were high and the things had gone their way and they were feeling good about themselves. You bring up vibes every day.

Vibes are important, man. If you got bad vibes, it just won't work. Actually, Halford's vibe check, daily vibe check is an important factor. It is. It is important, though. Like the Oilers PK vibe check is very high right now. They're like, good, we get to kill a penalty. Now, the game tonight that we're going to see between the Rangers and the Panthers,

I did a vibe check on the Rangers following the two games in Florida, and the vibes are low because they are all completely cognizant of the fact that they're playing defense all game. Do vibe checks go game to game? Vibe checks are throughout the playoffs. Okay. You have a vibe. Now, it can go up and down, not unlike momentum.

Right. But sometimes when the good times are rolling everything clicks. So the vibes will transfer from game to game. Look, Knoblox coaching changes last night could have totally gone But can't vibes give momentum to a team? Therefore the momentum also. Momentum doesn't

Momentum's a game to game. A-Dog is suggesting that there's a positive correlation between vibes and momentum. Vibes create momentum. Therefore, momentum must transfer game to game if vibes do. Vibes are just vibes. You just feel good about yourself.

It doesn't translate to anything. There's some holes in your logic here. I think there's some holes in your logic, Halford. No. Just trust me on this one. No. Sources. Sources.

Trust me. Halford, just trust me. You know what? Just trust me on the vibe check. Absolutely not. I've done a lot of research into this, and I got a couple patents pending on the vibe check, so just trust me. Hal Hofford says trust me. You know what? Just trust me on the vibe check. Absolutely not. I've done a lot of research into this, and I got a couple patents pending on the vibe check, so just trust me on this.

It'll be interesting to see if Tanev is back for the Dallas Stars. That's a bad vibe. Yeah. Losing Tanev is a bad vibe. Well, everyone made the same joke last night, but it's worth repeating. You know it's serious if Tanev can't return to the game. Mm-hmm.

Right? Like, he is, you know, and I know there's, you know it's serious if Tanev can't return to the game, right? Like, he is, you know, and there was, I know there's, you know, Miro Heiskanen is obviously a very good defenseman, but there are some people that thought that the Stars' blue line beyond Heiskanen and beyond Tanev was a little, eh. You know?

He tied the whole thing together. They had decent pieces. Like, people like Carly. Suter's pretty over the hill. Suter's over the whole thing together. They had decent pieces. People liked Harley. Suter's pretty over the hill. Suter's over the hill, yeah. Issa Lindell kind of is what he is. Tanev came in and just made everything work, which is kind of what he does.

He's not flashy, as we all know. He's not a super high-profile, jumps-off-the-screen kind of guy, but he allows everyone else, one, to do their thing, because you've got the safety, trusty, reliable rear guard back there. But it's also he goes out of business in a quiet nature and plays through everything. Like he's one of those ones you can count on. He's always going to be there until he potentially breaks his foot in game four of the Western Conference final.

We got a bunch of texts in. Dan from North Van texts in. Part of the reason I'm rooting against the Oilers is because it's Edmonton, but also because of how much I dislike Dreisaitl. I used to like the guy, but these playoffs have changed my outlook. What a pissy diver

he is. That's from Dan from North Van. Why are you so pissy? It is kind of funny that Rick Tockcket must have obviously been on to something when he started talking about embellishing because embellishing has been one of the stories of the playoffs has it not oh yeah i mean it's it's the head snapping yeah right i mean that's what that's what talk it was specifically focused on. Remember, going into the Edmonton series,

he wanted to have that out there. And it was... It didn't... Like, I didn't find the embellishment in that series to, like, be a huge talking point. I found the missed calls to be more of a talking point when we got to officiating. I think it was in Nashville.

Nashville was, for sure. And he was thinking, yeah, Forsberg, the faker. And I think he was just kind of setting the table for, all right, well, I don't want the Oilers to get a lot of power plays because it's the Oilers' power play. So maybe he was thinking and he was using some of the goodwill that he generated with officials. And at the end of the day, I mean, it's not like the Oilers were on the power play a whole lot. Well, that's what I was saying.

The disparity wasn't as great as it was in the first round. The first round was heavily slanted towards Nashville. And Nashville got a lot of power play opportunities in that opening round. Your stupid soccer sport is creeping into hockey now. Yeah, I know. It's bad. And actually, it's funny. You know what?

It's funny because... Before, back in the day, the game would police itself. I know. And if you were out there faking, you'd get a punch in the face. Now you've brought up an interesting point. This is good. Because soccer has done, I would say, a decent... They've tried to combat embellishing.

They've still got a long way to go yeah they do um through two things one var and then two um very quick to the pocketbook for simulation for yellow cards right now the nhl has gone down the road before of trying to out embellishing and diving remember the rather infamous divers list that they put out a few years ago where they were going to make the punishments publicly available but it just seems like it never really took off as this i think that they thought the public shaming was going to deter guys from doing it but it really hasn't if anything i think more players have caught on to the fact of let's be honest there's incredible value in trying to draw

penalties yeah i mean that's what it is at the end of the day you could say it's um you know it sullies the the sport and simulation and play acting is beneath the warriors that are out on the ice but the reality of it is is if you can and there's a reality of it i just hope it doesn't get to the point where it does that that it does in soccer, where the referees are almost like in on it. You know what I mean? Like they just play along with it. You can, you can feel a foul in soccer and the guy just goes down so easily.

And in some ways there's not even a complaint. It's just the way things are done. Like it depends where the foul occurs on the pitch, you know, what the situation is. And I hope that doesn't happen in hockey. Keith and Langley, you guys are hilarious. Dallas wins and the Oilers are finished. Oilers win and the Stars are finished. Keith and Langley, that's completely wrong.

All we said yesterday was this is a huge game for the Oilers. And we said this was their biggest game since 2006 in the Stanley Cup final against the Carolina Hurricanes. And we said, yeah, the game seven against Vancouver was big. But, you know, this is the conference finals. And the Oilers went to the conference finals a few years ago and got swept by the Avs. So I don't think you thought maybe outside of game one, that was a big game. That was, all we said was the Oilers better show up in game four or they're probably finished.

And they did show up. They did show up. And, you know, I think it actually bothered me watching it because I'm like, damn it, the Oilers are showing some backbone here. Because they had a terrible start, but they hung in there, they pulled themselves together, and it was basically the reverse of Game 3. You know, when you're killing penalties and scoring shorthanded, and you're shaking off bad starts, and you're staying in it. And they took that game over from the Dallas Stars. And we're certainly not suggesting that Dallas is finished in this. We're just wondering if the Oilers now, especially with Kristanov being, I don't know, we don't know if he's going to play for game five or

the rest of the series. All of a sudden now, I'm not saying Dallas is finished, but if we had to pick someone, if we had to pick someone, right now I think I'd pick the Oilers because overall, I think the Oilers have been the better team in these playoffs. They could have easily been up 3-0, but they kind of had these momentum, not momentum, they just had these lags. You know, there's the 10 minutes in the second period of Game 3 where they just kind of fell apart.

They overcame their bad start yesterday. And I don't like it, but it is what it is. And I think the Oilers are the favorites in this series. I'm also trying to manifest the Stanley Cup Final that I want. You've got to remember this, right? That's the key. Again, Edmonton new york stanley cup final everything else is going to be a distant second in terms of uh intrigue and drama and storylines and narrative okay we got a lot more to get to on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 what's up like

this text embellishment is a looming specter in real time. That's just the reality of the situation. That is the reality of the situation. Embellishment is a looming specter in real time. You got all of my favorite things. Not all of them. It's Alfred GPT. You got to make that a t-shirt. We got another half hour of just.

It should have started with like look. Embellishment is a looming specter in real time. We should make sure. There's another half hour of uninterrupted Halford & Brough coming up. 7 o'clock, it's Adnan Virk. We've got Thomas Drance at 8 o'clock. And we've got Adam Stanley for a little golf talk at 7.30. Stick around for the next segment.

We're getting into Simon & Garfunkel and Drance's take. And we're just going to try and unpack it because yikes. You're listening to the Halford and Brough 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 postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.32 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody.

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Here we go. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. So to recap, we've already spent an extensive amount of time Talking about Edmonton, Dallas Game 4 of their Western Conference Final yesterday Oilers win 5-2, 5 unanswered goals for the Edmonton Oilers in that one Series now tied 2-2 So both of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals

Will go at least 6 games Both of them now are best of threes. The Stars and the Rangers have home ice advantage in that best of three. Yet I would argue right now those two teams are not the favorites to come out of the East and West right now. If I had to pick a favorite right now, I'd say I like Edmonton in the West. I like Florida in the East. I don't want Florida in the East say i like edmonton in the west i like florida in the east i don't want florida in the east florida edmonton final you know what here's the thing though i will say

i think even though we wanted oilers rangers for entertainment factor i think florida has a better chance to beat the others than the rangers do i think um the possibility of hijinks with matthew kachuk going up against Connor McDavid is high. I think there'll be something there. I don't know what. I don't know what that crazy Kachuk has in his sleeve. But the number one goal has to be to stop any parade in Edmonton. Right.

I just want to reiterate, guys, that the Oilers are six wins away from winning the Stanley Cup. And first of all, I will blame Boston Pizza if that happens. And second of all, the jealousy will be off the charts if I have to watch a parade in Edmonton. Well, you don't have to watch the parade, of course. I'll see it somehow. No, I can't. Just go into a hole. Very tough to avoid.

It'll be very tough. Very tough. The scenes. What percentage of people in Edmonton would be at that parade? 100. 100, yeah. Everyone in Edmonton. Yeah.

Everybody. Except for the one guy who's robbing all the houses when everyone's at the parade. Like, it'll be. Edmonton cat burglar. It'll be, it'll be insane. Oh, Wes Edmonton will be off the hook. Okay. It'll be insane the celebration that happens.

And I've always said, you know, since this drought has continued on from 1993, it gets more and more. That's what bugs me so much about the commercial. Like the longer the drought goes, the less willing I am to cheer for another Canadian team because they are going to get a celebration that will be unmatched really in Canadian history in terms of celebrations after Stanley Cups. This is why I'm allowing the risk of the Edmonton Oilers getting close.

I want them to go to the Stanley Cup final. I'm on record. I would like them very much to go to the Stanley Cup final. But then to lose. Yeah. But they have to lose. That's the key. That's the ultimate pain.

The heartbreak. Right. Maybe a game seven at home. You're thinking. Yeah, you're thinking, like, this is going to be such a party. And then, nope, it's not. Now, that being said, Dallas could very easily. Dallas has home ice in the final three games of the series.

I'm by no means writing Dallas off. But, again, I came into this series thinking that Edmonton was going to win. I came into this series thinking that that Vancouver series was more profound than I think. A lot of us were so hyper-focused on what the Canucks were doing. And fair enough. I mean, this was such a unique experience in a lot of ways for a lot of people that have been following the team for the last decade.

Getting to the second round of the playoffs and going to Game 7, that was unheard of for a lot of people. I like this text from Gil into the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650-650. Can we have a parade if they lose? Yeah, I can do that. Can you imagine the ultimate Vancouver thing to do? Scott Road just bumping. We haven't had a Stanley Cup parade, but we've had another team lost parade.

I'd be down with a hater parade. A hater parade. A hater parade would be amazing. That would be incredible. What would that parade look like? It's called a haterade incredible What would that parade look like It's called a haterade What would the parade look like though Sad

No it would be happy It would be sad that someone would be doing it That's the ultimate sad part No no no Basking in the glow of someone losing to the point Where you were celebrating it Like openly Overall it would be sad and pathetic, but we'd be having a lot of fun.

Would there be like a bunch of caskets and pallbearers and the caskets have Oilers draped on them? You would have to go so over the top, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dancing to like rumba music or something. You'd have to have that music where the guys are dancing with the coffin. Well, I'm just wondering what would people wear? What would people wear? Would you wear the jerseys of the team that beat the Oilers?

No, I don't really want to do that. I don't want to wear Dallas Stars jerseys, or I don't want to wear Panthers or Rangers jerseys. What would the parade look like? You'd have to dress up in all black funeral garb, yet celebrate as if you were loving life. It wouldn't be dour. It'd be awake.

Yeah, but it would be a very festive, exciting one. There'd be dancing. There'd be an excessive amount of dancing. Okay, maybe you don't, but you know all the celebrations at the end of Return of the Jedi where they go from city to city after the Death Star gets blown up? That's what it would have to be like. Anybody that's watched Star Wars

right now will know what I'm talking about. Return of the Jedi? They go city to city? Planet to planet, rather. When the Death Star blows up, they do these panorama shots, planet to planet,'m talking about. Return of the Jedi. Yeah. They go city to city? When the Death Star blows up, they do these panorama shots, planet to planet, of all these great celebrations of the Death Star blowing up and people jumping up and down and dancing.

You know, you got the Ewoks with the jump, jump. Why do you always bring Star Wars? I respect it. That's what I have to be like. The worst part is I understand where he's coming from. There's at least one guy listening right now who knows what I'm talking about.

So we're going to go from an A-Dog reference to Star Wars to, I think this might be even worse, a Thomas Drance reference to music. Yeah, this was quite the take. And, okay, so here's what they were discussing. And I think it was Jamie, Drance, and then it was Donnie and Dolly, right? The four of them were all talking and Everyone Has been wondering about you know should the

Canucks sign Heronic Or should they trade him And if they do sign Him Should he be on his own pair Because if he's going to get this big Money Don't we want to see him drive his own defensive

pair as opposed to caddying for Quinn Hughes paid like an alpha you're going to get your own pairing you're the alpha of the pairing yeah and then Drancer because he's Drancer came up with this do we really need to see Heronic drive his own pair i'm like i like his work with quinn hughes just fine yeah you know if you're gonna if i don't invest that much without garfunkel i want to hear i want to hear simon and garfunkel hold on hold on simon had some great solo albums though the concern is that heronic's more art garfunkel hughes or that's fine answer and that hughes is that's fine sir and that hughes is paul simon you know what you you say paul simon had some great solo albums i don't

listen to them they're not i don't i don't regularly put them on they weren't featured in the graduate like i don't know i can't even name you a song i like i don't care i want sound of silence baby i'm just saying if you're going to invest up to eight million in a defenseman you better be confident that they don't need to be stapled to Quinn Hughes like you'd like to at least have options even if that's your number one choice for where to play hey if you elevate Quinn Hughes I'll pay for that that sounds great give me more of that did you notice that he was Like speaking of the sound of silence After he said I want the sound of silence baby

He got the sound of silence Everyone was like What the hell are you talking about He suggested that Paul Simon didn't have any Good songs Good solo songs Did he get Simon and Garfunkel mixed up

Did he think Garfunkel was Simon? It's a weird take. I mean, if he said Garfunkel, I'd get it because he obviously had the lesser of the two solo careers, but still successful. According to some. But Simon went on to obviously have this incredible solo career and like with countless

hits. He had no time for that. Yeah. And again, I'm not trying to start a war with Drance, although I might be doing it anyway. We're going to have him on at 8 o'clock. He'll have a chance to defend himself today. Oh, yeah, and you know he's going to be prepared for it,

and I honestly don't even know if I have the energy for it, but I was genuinely perplexed by this take. Does Drance really think Garfunkel kind of like made Paul Simon or added that much to Paul Simon? Paul Simon wrote all the music. Isn't it generally understood? Now correct me if I'm wrong because I know there's music experts

listening to this. And isn't it generally understood that Paul Simon did just fine without Garfunkel There's people in our text inbox arguing he did better I checked that That's not true I mean Simon and Garfunkel sold over

100 million records Paul Simon's around 30 million but still like Incredible solo career though I will admit Garfunkel's vocals In Bridge Over Troubled Water Were angelic And yes that song by the way, has a terrific bridge, which is funny because it's called Bridge Over Troubled Water,

and maybe that bridge in the song is a bridge over troubled water. Well, you've got to have a good bridge in the song. The troubled water is the verse in the chorus. So that's terrific. But has Drance not – so Jamie, the smart one of the group, um, and I love hosting with Jamie Dodd. He's just like,

we just get each other. Sorry. Um, he's like, have you not listened to Graceland? And, and Drance was like, no,

he's just through Graceland out there. Like it was just, it was just, it was just nothing to him. What about me and Julio down by the schoolyard? Like, what about that? Like, I can't believe we're having this conversation on the air, but I was just, I was genuinely perplexed. What are people saying in the inbox?

Uh, well, obviously move on. Yeah. Yeah. You guys are really belaboring this Garfunkel. This doesn't have to do anything to do with the Canucks. Obviously, I think there was a little bit of misremembering or maybe not necessarily knowing how the famous folk duo rose through the ranks of the music industry, then had an incredible amount of success,

then broke up because they hated each other. Yeah, they had an incredible amount of success, then broke up because they hated each other. Yeah, they had fights. Right. So I don't... You know what they were fighting over? Do you know? I don't.

They fought over... Because Art Garfunkel... Art Garfunkel went into acting, didn't he? He went into acting, and Paul Simon went into acting, too. And there was a movie called Catch-22, which I imagine was based on the novel. Okay. And Paul Simon's part got written out of the movie. Oh.

And then Art Garfunkel got offered another role, I think. And Paul Simon, I don't know if there was, I mean, there was accusations that Paul Simon was jealous of this. And then Art Garfunkel later called, made fun of Paul Simon's stature. He And then Art Garfunkel later called, made fun of Paul Simon's stature.

He's not, not the tallest guy and said that he had a Napoleon complex. And now that, I don't know, Quinn Hughes, not the largest stature. He is definitely the Paul Simon of the group. Yeah, I mean. But if you're, if you're calling, here's the thing though.

If you're calling Philip Hron the thing though, if you're calling Philip Hronik the Art Garfunkel of that pair, to me, that's an insult to Philip Hronik. Yes. And that would make me nervous to pay Philip Hronik a lot of money because I don't think Art Garfunkel could drive his own pair. So if you want to stick with the original analogy, I think you've got the execution right, if that makes sense. Mike, Mike, the urologist from Brockville says, Oh my gosh,

I was aghast at Drance's take on Paul Simon of all the bad takes he's had. It was the absolute worst. Like he, again, I, I'm going to belabor this Because we're going to talk to Drance later Is it not the consensus And almost a punchline That Art Garfunkel's career kind of languished

After he left Paul Simon It's like Sonny without Cher Ringo Without the rest of the Beatles It's a Simpsons quote That's what it is. Like Garfunkel on his own. I think he had a couple hit singles. But generally speaking, Paul Simon vastly eclipsed his career as a solo artist.

You know what, though? I was happy that Drancer made the point because yesterday when the sun came out, beautiful afternoon, and I'm driving around around Vancouver and I'm pumping Graceland because Drancer reminded me of it I'm like that is a great album and I was driving around uh have you heard the song Under African Skies no well maybe oh you know it I mean I'm sure it's a duet with Linda Rodstad which just goes to show you that Paul Simon, maybe Quinn Hughes, maybe there's a Linda Rodstad out there. I like to work with Barney Gumbelmore. Okay.

At any rate, I was pumping under African skies, Graceland. My mustache was blowing in the wind. It was an incredible day, and I had a drance to thank for that horrible take that reminded me of all the great solo stuff that Paul Simon did. I feel like you're just about on the verge of a Linda Ronstadt, Chris Tanev analogy that we need to work out somehow. She could block shots. See? She's walking around in a walking boot. The reason that this conversation happened yesterday was because of the Philip Peronik contract situation.

And it's funny because there's a lot of relitigation now going all the way back to when he was traded from Detroit. That this was the reason that Detroit was willing to part with him in the first place. Not the Simon and Garfunkel analogy that came purely out of Vancouver. Detroit was like, I don't know what you guys are doing out there, smoking your doobies, but you guys are all way out of whack. This was the issue, really. It wasn't that the Red Wings and Steve Eisenman didn't think Hronik was a good defenseman. They did.

It's not like they didn't think he could be useful for their plight to break this playoff drought and get into the postseason. They did. It was that looking a couple years down the road, you were going to hit this fork, which was, do you pay the man his money, or do you move on because he might not be worth what he's going to get?

There's not a lot of instances in the NHL of this where a guy deserves a certain level of money and you know it because of the market value and you're just not ready to pay it. But Hronik absolutely fits that category. I think Stevie Y knew that his team wasn't ready. Yep. Or that's what he thought.

Maybe they would have made the playoffs if Hronik was on the team last year, though. That's not a hot take. They're pretty close to making the playoffs. And they lost a really good defenseman from their group. But I think the story here is a jarring hot take. You're saying that Steve Iserman cost them a playoff spot this season by trading her on this season. But he might have been right about the overall team. And I think he got he got a good young defenseman with the draft pick.

Axel Sandin Pelican. Yeah. But now you're looking at a guy. Axel Sandin Pelican, which I call. Yeah, Iel Sandin Pelican. Yeah, but now you're looking at a guy that... Axel Sandin Pelican, which I call him. Yeah, I was going to say Pelican. But now you're looking at a guy in our own who didn't fit the timeline of the Red Wings and now just straight up might not fit, not necessarily the timeline so much, but just doesn't fit the cap that Vancouver's got a lot of because he's got the framework of a

guy that could make, especially with the cap going up. I mean, it's been well-established, $7 million, $8 million annually. But within Vancouver's structure, there's a few obvious things out there. One is you don't want him making more than Hughes, right? Two, you're still not sure about a variety of things, right? You're not sure if he can handle the load of carrying his own pair uh i still am really unclear what haronic was like real one what haronic was it was it first half haronic or second

half haronic because there's two different guys i don't know how injured he was right we went down that road at the end of your presser and we did not get a lot of answers despite j-pat's best effort he tried but there were there were rumors uh about haronic having an elbow issue for for a long time there were also rumblings when i did the sort of research of his time in detroit of a guy that would traditionally get off to a hot start and look great through the first half of the season then tail off in the second half like you'd seen the splits on him that maybe he was a guy that and there's guys like this in the nhl that fare better in october november and december than they do in january february and march right

so there's a lot that goes into it it's going to be i think it's going to hold up a lot of obviously what the canucks want or are going to do this summer because it's the biggest decision that's going to affect everything else right like? Like, I've seen people writing in about a potential Joshua contract or the old, can we bring back Zdorov? And all of it is kind of contingent on what you're going to do with Hronik or Garfunkel in this instance. The Dunbar-Lumber text line is absolutely hilarious right now. Chris texts in, sorry boys, Simon and Garfunkel was my parents' music

and I'm 52. Another text, I think Jalen Chatfield is more of a Linda Ronstad. Another one, did you just use a duet with Linda Ronstad as an example of the success Paul Simon's solo career seems a contradiction? No. Mr. Plow is a loser and I think he is a boozer. So you better make that call to the plow pit. No. Her finest work, though.

The idea. The Spanish version? Yeah. The idea is that Paul Simon can have success with anyone. Some people find this conversation very jarring, and I just don't know what to say to them right now. This is off-season half and brough, so you just got to kind of get used to it and go with anyone. Some people find this conversation very jarring, and I just don't know what to say to them right now. Like, this is off-season half from rough, so you just got to kind of get used to it and go with it.

No, but you bring up the important part. Maybe Cole McWard is a Linda Ronstadt. That's right. There's a lot of Linda Ronstadts out there, apparently. Some of them languishing in the American Hockey League. But the idea here with regards to a duet. I love to work with Aaron Neville. Right.

I don't know how we can work Aaron Neville into this. We're already stretching the boundaries of this analogy. We've already pulled a lot of content out. We are like a bird on a wire here. Focus. Okay. It's a duo, right? It's a duo right it's a pairing and the idea at its core is that the successful one the talent the real bright blossoming one here is simon or hughes in this instance yeah and that whoever they're going to get paired with in the future they're probably going to thrive

that's the whole that's the genesis of the analogy and the argument. Hughes is the Beatles. Hronik is Ringo Starr. No, Hughes is Paul Simon. No, what I'm saying, if you want to do it actually right, Hughes is the Beatles. Why are you making another analogy? This analogy is fine. Hughes is the Beatles.

Hronik is Ringo Starr, and if Hronik were to go off on his own, Ringo Starr by himself, not very successful. Well, of course, he's a drummer. Yeah, exactly. What's he going to drum his way to solo success? He tried to have a solo career, too, and it was very short-lived. The Whitecaps played last night.

This has to do with Simon and Garth. Like a bridge over troubled waters, they beat Sporting Kansas City 2-1 in Sporting KC. I'll just say very quickly, it was a much-needed victory for the team. Sporting KC is awful. They are the second-worst team in MLS. They're the worst team in the Western Conference.

So the fact that the Whitecaps won was good. I don't know if you watched any of the match. The way the Whitecaps won was largely taking advantage of a team that made horrific mistakes. And they almost kind of slipped on the banana peel at the end. They allowed a late goal. But Ryan Gould scored twice. I do not want to see Vanni Sartini get sacked. And I know that we had Axel Schuster come on the show,

and he emphatically shot down any idea that the gaffer could be on his way out the door. The Whitecaps are back in action on Saturday against another sort of mid-team in Colorado, and it'll be an opportunity for Vandy to get two wins on the trot. Is that game at home? It is at home. It is at BC Place. It'd be nice if they got a win at BC Place.

I got a feeling that the attendance might drop from last Saturday. Call me crazy, but I don't think that 51,000 people are going to be in attendance for Saturday's match against Colorado. I'll be there, just like I was last Saturday, but I'm not sure that the other 50,000 or whatever the math, I can't do math in real time.

37%. Thank you. Coming up on the... Before we go, this text is good. I'm hoping Hronik is George Harrison, the quiet one who turns out the hits. That's what we should be hoping for.

Heronic is George Harrison if they separate them. That's what you want. We are going to talk about it. Here's another text. This show sucks. All right. I hear that. I hear that, sister.

I got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Adnan Virk's coming up for a little MLB talk, followed by Adam Stanley. Canadian Open gets underway today. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.