Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Third Period From Hell

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss yesterday's 3rd period meltdown by the 'Nucks that resulted in a 5-2 loss to the Blackhawks (3:00), plus the boys look at other big stories from around the NHL, including record-setting nights for Celebrini and Ovechkin (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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-na. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Kravity-in with a one-timer got a shot. It was blocked by Myers. Bertuzzi gets the rebound and scores. Tyler Bertuzzi completes his hat-trick. How is that? We had a great 40, but then obviously fell apart there. A puck that is in a score, and it's 900 goals for Alexander O'Exton.

I shot it with that and I got it. I swear that. That's why you asked me, 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford, it is brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adol, good morning to you. Good morning. And Lattie, good morning to you. as well. Hello, hello. Halford in Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks.

Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech Footwear,

and orthotics working together with you and step. Got a big show ahead on a Thursday. First hour is all uninterrupted Halbro as we take you through last night's Canucks Games. Game, sorry, everything going to happen in the National Hockey League and everything else that we can jam into the first hour. Our first guest is at 7 o'clock this morning. Adnan Verk is going to join the program.

Our MLB Network Insider, we'll put a wrap on the baseball season and look back on that heartbreaking world series. I also look ahead to free agency, who's opting in, who's opting out, all that and more with Adnan and Vercr at 7 a.m. Did you know that the Blue Jays got as close as you could possibly get to winning the World Series? You could not physically get any closer to winning the World Series than the Blue Jays got. We may revisit it. Did you watch the Jomboy video I sent along?

I did not. I'm not ready to do that yet. A 20-minute opus from Game 7 of the World Series. I highly recommend everyone watch it. It's very good. I'm good, thanks. Okay. 730, Brady Henderson, ESPN Seahawks inside of the Seahawks.

The red hot Seahawks are back at home this Sunday in a battle against division foe Arizona. Seattle, a six and a half point home favorite against the cards at Lumen. We'll talk to Brady about all that at 730. Get a scouting report on the new guy, Rashid Shahid, the new wide receiver who was introduced to the media yesterday. Brady Henderson's going to join us at 7.30 for some Seahawks talk. 8 o'clock. Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk right here on SportsNet 650. Canucks opened their four-game homestand last night

with a five-two loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at Rogers Arena. Weird game, but a nice homecoming for Connor Bedard. We'll get into all that and more with the Drancer at 8 a.m. Did you watch crossover with Drancer Dodd, Donnie, and Dolly? Who suggested that Adam Foote should be getting Jack Adams consideration? I think it was a poll question on Donnie and Dolly. That is, I mean, wow. If you haven't seen the clip,

Drance essentially shamed Donny and Dolly into admitting that maybe like the question wasn't the smartest question. Maybe they got a little carried away. 100% of the umbrage should be it. Donnie and Dolly and the question. Because when you say this, have this conversation. I don't want to throw shade at foot. It's not his fault. He didn't ask to be in this conversation.

But it is a ludicrous idea. There's seven and eight. seven and eight well they were seven and seven at the time they were six and seven at one point anyway we got a lot to get into on the program 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 is it you miss that

what happened what happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance It's making safety simpler by giving construction companies of us and tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.com. As you heard in the intro, it was Tyler Bertuzi with the hat trick. All of it in the third period. And the Blackhawks defeated the Chicago or Blackhawks defeat the Vancouver Canucks 5'2 at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night.

Yeah, it was an interesting game. Entertaining at times. Connor Garland returned to the Canucks lineup and it sure looked early on like he gave them. a boost, starting on line with Elias Pedersen. What a freaking boost. That was coming, starting on a line with Elias Pedersen and Evander Cain, the Canucks actually

looked like they opened the scoring. On their 27th shot of the night, and we weren't even halfway through the game. I know, Halford, you were doing double takes when you looked at the shot clock. This Vancouver Canucks team has all those shots.

At least five times in the second period. My head whipped around. I'm like, is that right? It was right. But Chicago challenged for goalie interference by Drew O'Connor, and they won the challenge. So it was still scoreless in the second, and the Canucks, you know what? They didn't even get credit for the shot. So they're down to 26 again. Still a very impressive number of shots on Spencer Knight at that point in the game.

And by the end of the second period, they were out shooting Chicago 35 to 20. Eight of those 35 shots were by Evander Kane, and yet no goals. for either team. For the Canucks, it was actually a franchise record. A franchise record for most shots without a goal through two periods. And wouldn't you know it, the Blackhawks would open the scoring in the third when Tyler Boutuzzi used to skate to direct a centering past Lankan, who was back in goal after two straight starts by Demko.

A few minutes later with Tyler Myers, he had a tough night in the penalty box after, I would say an iffy interference call, but, you know, a shorty said on the broadcast, you know, the Blackhawks were due to get a power play because they hadn't had one yet. Bertuzi scored, again, off a fantastic pass by Connor Bedard, who looked a lot better out there than the last time he played in Vancouver, a lot happier, too. It was yet another power play goal surrendered by the Canucks, who really struggled short-handed this season. Blugher and Forward, still out injury, still out injured.

Pew Shooter's not coming back. Dakota Joshua's not coming back. You know, it wasn't two nothing for long because Ilya McAyev would score less than a minute later. The Canucks, who'd put 35 shots on goal through two periods, we're now trailing 3-0 in the third period. And not too long after that, Bertuzzi completed the hat trick, and it was 4-0.

Not a great third period, not a great third period at all. Atu Ratu did break Spencer Knight's shutout with three minutes left, and we'll take credit for that one because he was the one to watch. Evander Kane added another one for the Canucks on his tenth shot of the game, but it was too little too late. Connor Bedard scored into the empty net to cap off a solid night for him and his team in his hometown. So the third period is where everything went wrong.

for the Vancouver Canucks after two pretty promising period. So what went wrong in that third period? For this, we turn it over to the head coach, Adam Foote, who, as per usual, was trying to protect his guys and put a somewhat positive spin on what was a, at the end, somewhat negative night. He said that it had to do with a lot of overpressing and maybe some mental fatigue. Here's Adam Foote now on what went wrong for his team in a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.

You know, the first goal was just more, there was a mistake on the goal. And I think the next couple, maybe, I don't know if it's mental fatigue and then you allow maybe frustration to come in and you overpress. We've all been there as players where, you know, where you help a buddy out too quick, or you lose a little trust, whatever it is. I'm not telling it was one thing, but you're, you're probably right about, you know, you try to do too much or help or overpress at times. and that could happen in a game where you could easily be up

three or four roles in the first two periods, get one called back, and then you're coming off a trip where you have fatigue, and then all of a sudden you might be mentally a little bit frustrated, maybe, and that could be the outcome, right? So the head coach played all the hits in the post-game media availability. Talked about, and I've heard this one a few times this year, the Canucks could have been up three or four nothing in the first period. And not to say that any of this isn't true, by the way,

But we're starting to get the blueprint, the game plan, if you will, for how Adam Foote is going to address the losses, which there are more of them than wins this season. So there's that. He's mentioned mental fatigue and the compacted schedule and the amount of minutes of guys are playing, along with the injuries on a number of times. And when something goes wrong,

it's never not for a lack of trying or trying to do the right thing. Yeah, the mistake on that first goal, I believe he was talking about Tyler Myers, chasing out. Linus Carlson looked like he kind of stumbled a lot. little bit and got beaten by a black hawks player and Tyler Myers in the words of Adam foot went to help a buddy out yeah but he got out of a position and all of a sudden there were like two blackhawks all alone in front of the net or at least two blackhawks with

nobody checking them you know I Quinn Hughes wasn't in great position there either but a few people have texted in about Tyler Myers West End Mike we need to start talking about Myers, his play led to at least four goals against last night. Where's the load management we were promised? Yeah, he's struggling. Tyler Myers is having a tough go right now. And I don't know if he does get taken out of the lineup for a rest. I doubt it.

But it's a problem right now. And then so there were two whipping boys last night. I tell you that, sometimes I log into the Dunbar Lumber Text line. during the game, just to see what the fan reaction is, just to see what the guys do in the post game are dealing with. And it was Tyler Myers, and it was a guy that gets talked about a lot on this show,

Ilius Pedersen. Pierre-Livier-Joseph. Oh, okay. Pedersen once again had little interest in shooting last night. And I know in isolation on a play-to-play basis, you can usually defend his decision to pass. You know, it was, was it in the first or second period.

He had a potential breakaway opportunity. Evander Cain did not get the puck to him very quickly and he didn't have a lot of speed when he took the pass and he ended up trying to pass it back to Evander Cain. The drop pass to

Van der Cain was with 451 left in the first period. In the first period. I felt like it almost set a tone. Yeah. And there were some screenshots going around social media last night which shows him you know, like getting the puck and immediately looking for a pass, not moving his feet or anything like that. Not that you can see moving the feet on screenshots. That's very difficult.

Look, it's feeder and cement. Yeah, it's a still image. It's not moving the feet. But another one later in the game, when he made a nice play on the PK to create a turnover and then immediately he looks for Connor Garland. And listen, on both those plays, I think you can defend in isolation his decision to pass

the puck because he might have been caught. And with the way he's skating right now, he's not all that hard to catch. And he knows it. But look, there's a clear trend and it's getting pretty exhausting to watch. I looked at some stats yesterday. This is a guy that put 257 shots on goal a few seasons ago. He'll be lucky to get half that this season. So we're talking about a guy that used to love to shoot. He would put himself in position to shoot. He had a more, I don't know, energetic stride. And he was able to, you know, get some separation between it.

Now it feels like every time he gets the puck, he's like, they're closing in on me. They're closing in on me. I have no speed. I'm trying to, it's like having one of those dreams where he can't, you know, he can't run or whatever. Like, it seems like that's the way he's. he's playing. So obviously he's going to be looking to pass. It's hard to watch. It's frustrating to watch. And, you know, I do feel bad for him, but I also feel bad for the Canucks because this is a tough situation that they're in. And, you know, I know a lot of

people are like, well, you know, maybe you just have him as, he's just an overpaid second line center. And I think, okay, but what does that do to the camaraderie of the group? Right now he's on pace for 126 shots this season. I did the math, did the quick math, 126, which is wild. Yeah, so 257, and that was the year that he had over 100 points. The peak of his powers.

And his shoot, like, and he gets, the other thing too, right, that people sometimes don't think about is he's getting gifted everything. He's getting, he's always out on the power play, obviously. And then he's got Garland up

with him. So he gets gifted the best play driver up front. Like, you know, no one's, no one in the organization dares to say anything, you know, negative about him. Adam Foote has been going out of his way to praise his defensive game. Yep. And his defensive game is like he's blocking a ton of shots. That's, that's, you know, it's good.

But it's also like, you got to score, man. Yeah. You know, you got to, you got to contribute to this thing offensively. And it's like the idea that, oh, you're just a self. player. Do you know what a Selky player does? It's a two-way player. Pedy's a one-way player right now. I was joking the other day. He was like, are you reinventing yourself as Ryan Johnson as a guy that like blocks a lot of shots and doesn't put up any points? Like what if, I mean, where would his point total be if he, if he was actually

treated like a second line center that people say, oh, you know, maybe he's just a second line center? Okay, so he's not on PP1 and he doesn't get like any time there's a struggle there. He doesn't get, you know, Connor Garvey. and put on his line to supercharge things. Yeah. And it's an issue because the team just doesn't have, especially on the offensive side of things, they just don't have the talent, the ability,

the innate goal scoring touch to put pucks in the net with regularity. They can do it in fits and spurts. We've seen it in individual games like the one in Nashville where they were able to put four up on the board. But last night through the first two periods, yes, a lot of that was very good goaltending from Spencer night, by the way, point out.

They, to a certain degree, the Canucks did get goalied last night. He was fantastic. But at the same time, you could make the argument that there was a lack of composure and finish on some of those chances that maybe other teams that had higher end goal scores or guys that were more willing to be more daring with their chances would finish. Now, you can quibble with that back and forth. You could say, hey, when a goalie's on a heater, a goalie's on a heater and nobody's going to score.

But what's happening to the team right now is very reflective of what happens to average teams in the National Hockey League is that they don't find ways to win games that are hanging in the balance with regularity. They might win the odd one but they don't with them with regularity. Let's put it this way. Adam Foote's right that the Canucks should have had a lead through 40 minutes last night. Is that fair to say? No one would

argue with that. They all played Chicago. They have more scoring chances. They even put one in the net that was chalked off due to VAR. I'm using all the soccer terminology now. But they should have been up in that game. But they weren't. Now, that's a situation and a making of their own doing. And then in the third period, in a game that was still hanging in the balance,

they had a clunker. They made a bunch of mistakes. And they made mistakes at a time where they couldn't afford to. It wasn't like they had the luxury of, well, we can leave Tyler Bertuzzi unattended at the side of the net because we're up three nothing. Not that they would think that way, but you can allow for some mistakes. Did you see what, so Ben Pope is a right? writer for the Chicago Sun-Times that covers the Blackhawks.

And when Lucas Reichel got that breakaway and missed, he goes, Lucas Reichel gets behind the Blackhawks defense and Knight denies him on the breakaway. It's still Lucas, that's for sure. Yeah. And then I looked at the replies. It was like, we've seen that way too many times before. I mean, right. Okay, so last thing was a great snapshot.

The Canucks second line center was a guy. that couldn't get a gig in Chicago. They gave him away for a fourth because they didn't have a spot for him and then he shuffles off to Vancouver and he's playing 16, 17 minutes a night as a 2C. I thought Elise Patterson was the Canucks

Second Line Center? I don't know who's who right now. Can I just say how funny that would be that people are resigning themselves to that fact is no, okay what? So now we need to go out and get a 1C the one thing that's harder to do than get a 2C in the NHL,

you have to go out and get a 1C? Like, come on, like what is that? Let's give me a break. Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, it's, that's why... Like, they live and die by PETA here. I mean, it's just you got to face the facts. You're not going to go out and trade for a 1C unless you're trading Quinn Hughes.

Like, that's it. Like, that's the only guy that would get you a 1C on the team. Let's also face the facts. I don't even think that would get, I don't even think it would get you a one C. How would you pull that? I don't know. I'm just saying Hughes is the only guy that has the caliber of, you know, the talent level to do that. I know it's our cottage industry to focus on EP 40, but quite frankly, at this point, like...

Yeah, he's got to throw your hands, I know. I would love to look at some other parts of this thing because, Because right now... Look at some of the decks on the titan... Or the deck chairs on the Titanic? Well, it's more than that. I mean, like, okay, here's one. What's going on with Lankinen, everybody?

He's started six games this year, and four of the six, he's given up four goals or more. You're not winning hockey games if you're starting net minors giving up four plus with that kind of regularity. Go check out St. Louis, and we'll do it on the other side because we'll go through some of the NHL stories.

I thought this was the best goalie tandem in the NHL. Right? That's the thing. Hey, remember the month? But if everything goes exactly how we need it to go, things will be all right. So there's nothing baked into the equation for Lankin and all of a sudden, like, not being able to get them a win. And you want to talk about the defense right now, a lot of people into the Dunbar Lumber text message in Basket. And I wouldn't say as many that are complaining about Pedersen, but there's a lot of complaints about 43 and about Quinn Hughes right now and where his game is at.

Defensively, it's not terrific. Defensively, I think he looks a little loose in his own end. but maybe he's, I don't know, maybe there's some fatigue there, physical fatigue. Mental or physical, who knows? How about both? You know, I imagine the mental load of being captain of this Canucks team while also wondering about your future. And he can say like, oh, I'm, you know, I'm focused on the Canucks right now.

Uh-huh, okay. You know, like, I'm sure you're not thinking about your future at all. What human being thinks about his future? I live day to day. That never causes anxiety. anyone, right? Thinking about the future? That, you know?

Okay, so what I, what I think is... I live day today, myself. What I think, but I know you do, but you're unusual. What I think is going to be frustrating in the coming months for ardent followers and fans of this team is that this is kind of exactly what they are designed to be. This is what an average team looks like. Because we said this after they beat Nashville with two seconds left in overtime. We're like, that's a win.

They were able to scratch and clawing. one out, they won two of three on the road. They come back and there's another loss. Go look at their last I think it's last six games with amazing amazing accuracy. They've interchanged wins and losses.

They've gone win loss, win loss, win loss. And you could say good performance, bad performance, gutty performance, disappointing performance. This is what an average hockey team looks like. They've got talent enough to scratch and claw and get some points out of teams when they need them and they're going to fight to keep their heads above water. And when Demko's playing, he'll keep them in a lot of games.

But this is what they're, they were designed to be at full health. They were designed to be above average. Not great. Maybe good, but definitely above average. If they are 100% healthy and everything goes their way. Now, unfortunately, you could almost scratch that last part off the list. Everything goes their way because Heedle's not here. And I'm not sure he's coming back.

Wasn't Pettersen part of that? Like Pedersen having a huge bounce back. Was everything going there? Pedersen, huge bounce back. Heidel playing 2C. And Demko and Lankenen being the best goalie ten in the league. I think we're the big three for reasons for optimism at the beginning of the year. And I mean, what's happened?

What about a new system from the head coach? Yeah. And improve vibes. Yeah. Right? Good vibes across the board. It doesn't look like the vibes are great right now. Looks like they're average.

the rest of the team. It's an average hockey team. So when... Hughes looks just exhausted. But people are... Yeah, he does. But you know what? I try not to...

I try not to read too much into the post-game thing. Like, he's always looked tired. He's always looked like a college kid that's, you know, been dragged out of bed. Well, that's why I said more than usual. He looks more tired than he normally does. And he's also just, like, played half the game. So I don't expect him to, like, bounce down the hallway to go talk to the reporters. but yeah, he, you know, he doesn't look, he doesn't look happy, does he?

Yeah. The point I'm really trying to make here is that, you know, we can't keep doing this every single post game where we come in in the morning and after a win, we're like, well, maybe. And then after a loss, we're like, no, I don't think so. But that feels exactly what this team is built for because they are going to alternate wins and losses for a long time this year. I don't know.

I would sooner bet on them, I would sooner bet on, like, the house of cards falling than them going on a heater. But here's what's going to happen. And I actually would, if there's three scenarios, right? Like one, one is a heater. The other one is treading water. And the third is the House of Cards falls apart at some point. I'm going with the ladder.

You're going with the treading water? Yeah, because you know what's going to happen now, right? Blugher's going to come back in and Forward's going to come back in. It's going to clean up the penalty kill a little bit. And maybe they'll start leaning on Demco a little bit more than they have. Because right now it's pretty clear that Demko gives you the best chance to win. And then you got- So no one, none of us are choosing heater.

No one's, they're not, I mean, and you know what? If they go on a heater, it'll probably follow it up by a series of games where they don't get the result that they need. It's just how they're built to be. And it's frustrating. And I get it. And I know that we had the apathy conversation earlier, but it's front and center now because once again, the Canucks are, you know, the front forward team in the market.

White Caps, I mean, we're talking about the White Caves, and we'll talk about them on the other side of the break. They still don't play until the 22nd, right? So it's going to be a lot of Canucks coming at you over the next little bit. And I got a feeling that this is how it's going to be. One step forward, one step back, win loss, win loss, win loss. Canucks are like, get to the Grey Cup, lions. Seriously? Get to the Grey Cup.

Saturday's game is huge, baby. For the Canucks. Yeah. All right. We've got to go to break. When we come back, we'll dive into the rest of the NHL story from last night. Milestone Night in the National Hockey League and a lot of interesting stories there. We can also talk about the aforementioned Vancouver Whitecaps, who reportedly are on the verge of having sold 50,000 tickets for their MLS Cup Western Conference semifinal.

We are a soccer town now. Against LAFC. We'll talk about that coming up next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. Thursday. It's a thrash Thursday here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650.

Alfred and Brub in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com. That was actually new Brian Adams. Oh. Yeah, he's changed his tune a little bit. A little heavier than the previous Brian Adams. He's going for a new genre. But he's good at it. I kind of like it. He's pivoted nicely. If you're watching on the stream, by the way, the M on Mike's hat stands for metal. It's true. Metal. Period. There's no other music, just metal.

We are in hour one of the program, the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Speaking of metal, hour one of this program is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Hey, dog, thanks for posting another Elias Pedersen video. It's a good video. It's a very good video. I look forward to the responses. You don't. That's great. You don't.

It's your one. And you do wield this power over us quite effectively. It's your one way of ruin our d'ar days. Is that A-Dog will go out of his way. Well, that's why I don't tag you guys anymore. To find the one clip where we talk about Pedersen. And guess what? More often than not, it's critical.

And then he'll put it on the internet. And then the response is always the same thing. Do these guys talk about anything else other than Pedersen, which is a fair response? Because if you see just our Twitter feed and our social media accounts, that's all that really goes up there. The key is to not provide any context whatsoever. We provide three hours of content every day

on a variety of subjects. But almost, you know, weekly there's a video. And then we lose our loyal listeners. Like, poor Josephine out there, she hates the show now. It hates us. Can't stand the show. Hates me. Yeah, she likes me.

She can't stand the show. Yeah. And we lose listeners. Are the Pedersen defenders getting chipped away, though? Yes. Like, are they starting to be like, hey. I don't know. I don't know.

No, they are. They absolutely are. How do you know? Because I see far less people defending them on social media than a year ago even. But those are the fair weather, Pedersen. Well, yeah, you'll always have. Hardcore or locked in. They're locked and loaded.

I mean, there's that church of Patterson account. Like, there's those guys. It'll just live and die by Petey, you know? Like, they'll go down with the ship. But I think they're fewer than they used to be. And in a way, that kind of loyalty is commendable. Yeah, I respect it. You know, I don't know how you're able to be that loyal to anything.

Let alone, like, I mean, last night, and it was very typical because every instance where Pedersen's in the spotlight becomes a referendum, right? And you can see the clear divides in the PD wars. It's like on the drop pass to Kane, you've got the section of people being like, he should shoot there when he's basically on a breakway. It feels like a good time to shoot. And other people are like, but the pass from Kane was too late. And it was a cerebral play to try and hit the train. trailer and he's being on sell it and all these things and then it just goes on and on and on it was nice when the two most polaroizing players in vancouver hooked up on a play where they each could

garner some some criticism it's like that meme with the handshakes yeah it's like together we will drive this market insane you know what let's look at some of the other teams around the national hockey league because there was only five games last night but a number of very important and intriguing stories coming from those other four games not involving the canucks and the Blackhawks. Let's turn our attention to the Washington Capitals. And a monumental goal for Alex Ovechkin, scoring is

900th in the NHL, the first and only player to ever score 900 in the NHL in a 6-1 drubbing of the St. Louis Blues. Let's hear what it sounded like. Ovi, number 900. Bennington waiting back behind his goal, wants to play it himself.

Lost it there to Ovechkin. Quick relay comes to the point. Shickrin fires. Just miss. Ovechkin turns, he scores! The grade eight is the one and only at 900. So you would think that scoring your 900th NHL goal would be the biggest takeaway for the game, but the St. Louis Blues decided to play the main character themselves. First, in the aftermath of Alex Ovechkin,

scoring that goal, shout out to the intrepid TNT cameraman who decided to keep the camera focused on Jordan Binnington because what he was able to pick up on camera was Jordan Binnington grabbing Ovechkin's 900th goal puck and stuffing it in his pants

in an attempt to keep Alexander Ovechkin from getting his 900th goal puck. The camera guy's like, he's about to do something stupid as he zooms in. Now, hey, he scored it on him. He's allowed to keep that puck, I think.

Yeah, the linesman went over and kind of get, you know, when a parent catches a kid like running around with a knife in the kitchen or something like give me the knife that he kind of did that with Bennington and Bennington slowly kind of slumped his head and took the puck out of his pants and he's like oh this thing okay fine small petty man and I don't know

I don't know what he was thinking some people did find it humorous because I think at the end of the day he was always going to get the puck back it's not like Bennington was actually going to be able to steal it but I don't know if Bennington was thinking that I think in the moment Bennington was like I'll show him All he did was make the lines person's job more difficult. That was literally all he accomplished. I'm a little more concerned that team Canada goalie, Jordan Binnington, now has a save percentage of 8.59.

So in that game, he got pulled for, I think, the fifth or sixth time this season. Jim Montgomery has done this thing where he's taken out Hofer and Bennington with regularity. Hofer. Neither of them have been good, but the coaches had a really quick one. hook on them. So a few questions, first of all, Binnington. One, where does he rank on the list of guys that you've been forced to cheer for against your will and kind of regretted in the after-out because he's high on my list right now? Because you got to remember at the Four Nations face off, especially in that gold medal game, everyone was on board, at least temporarily

with Jordan Bittington, right? I don't want to say he was at national hero status, but he was close and we all said the same thing, well, we might not have liked him going in and we might have had our questions, but we all, we all did it, right? He's a big game goalie. We all tipped our hat to Jordan Bennington because he did it for Canada. And now I regret all of it because he's that, not me. That blues and caps game though? I, I ardently refused throughout the whole process. You're lying. We all came in in the game after they beat the US and we're all like, good job, Bennington. You did it too. No. Don't be a liar. Don't be a lie dog. No, I was, uh, I was playing long. But if this continues, can you even have on

the team? No. No. That game yesterday was a statement for Logan Thompson. Can you tell me what's going on, please, with Logan Thompson? Logan Thompson wants that job, and he look at the numbers, he probably deserves that Team Canada job. The Capitals have a very important divisional matchup coming

up today against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Everyone in the organization thought that was the game Logan Thompson was going to get. They gave him the game against Jordan Bennington head to head. And he demolished. 938 6%. And he demolished him. Now tell me.

the other part of the story. What's going on with Hockey Canada? Well, who's on the Hockey Canada staff? Pete DeBore. Oh, do they have a history? Who hates Logan Thompson? Pete DeBore. Oh, my. There's going to... No, I'm seriously, guys... Are you suggesting that Peter DeBarr has an issue with a goalie? There's going to be a serious push by Logan Thompson to make it look as brutal as possible

that they do not take him on this team Canada roster. And they do not want to take him on this team Canada roster. I'm with Brough. Biddington's borderline on playable. He's already C-Loss. Well, the thing is, like, if you're if you're making the You take three goalies, right? Yep. But the third one, you're like, this guy isn't playing, right? Yeah, he's just there to collect the pins. Something's gone wrong if this guy gets the end.

Yeah, there's essentially, you bring two guys if one of them doesn't really have it. Like, who was it in 2010? Was it, was it Luongo and Burdard? Breder. Breder started, Luongo finished. Yeah, exactly, right? So sometimes you bring over two goalies that, like, at the Four Nations, Montabot was never going to play.

They were just like, here's a young guy. Maybe we'll give him a good experience and, you know, whatever. And he wasn't going to play. Who was the second goal? Aden Hill? And he never really got a sniff. Nope. Because Bennington was playing well enough.

And it was a shorter tournament. Yeah. Like Four Nations is a short tournament. The Olympics, you have games against, like, Latvia or whatever, you know, and sometimes you want to put your backup in there. But can you, like, if Bennington's number, are dreadful of the time of the decision and he's still not playing well.

He hasn't put any games together. Like, what's the point in even having him on the roster? There's no point. It would actually be more of a distraction, I would think, especially if you don't think he's the guy. So it's going to be a really interesting situation to keep an eye on because St. Louis is an abject tire fire right now. I don't know how many people have been paying attention

and I know a lot of people, the only time they watched St. Louis this year was when they came into Vancouver after Canadian Thanksgiving and kind of thoroughly outplayed the Canucks. Yeah, the Connucks also played them recently in St. Louis. Yeah, so maybe you've seen them twice now. Other than those games, St. Louis has been awful this year. So they lost 6'1 last night.

We're still pretty early in the season, and I know the Blues are off to a really bad start, but I managed to procure some audio from the Captain Braden Shen and the head coach Jim Montgomery. Listen to how scathing these remarks are this early in the season. And you tell me if everything is okay in St. Louis. We'll start with the Braden-Shen remarks.

Here's Shen following a 6-1 loss to the Capitals on Wednesday night. We don't compete in battle in this league, and you're going to get your butts kicked most nights. And it's happened way too many nights over and over again, and until we, you know, show up to the rank and compete for one another and for your teammate. then we'll start getting results Monty had talked about you guys for building something.

How do you let us set back like tonight not derail that? Well, at the end of the day that's what is disappointing of loss you can have after finally getting a win. So we don't compete and that's maybe as disappointing a loss as you can have after a win.

That's the captain talking. They went to Montgomery Post game and I wish we had the video because he looked like he was going to murder someone. He was pissed. And I don't know if you remember Montgomery at the end of his tenure in Boston. But you remember he was like yelling at

Marshawn on the bench and calling out Posterna. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. He just kind of was like, I'm just going to. He lost the plot. He got really angry and didn't hold back. Here's Monty after last night's 6-1 loss to the capitals. From the drop of the puck. We got the puck

10 feet before the red line in the first five seconds of the game and we iced it. We weren't ready to play. We weren't ready to start on time. and we got worse after the first period. Well, this is unacceptable tonight. It's that simple.

We have to dig in and start in tomorrow morning when we wake up, have a good skate tomorrow and get ready to play Sabres tomorrow night and show up for our fans, our city, and our owners. He's pulling out that we got to play for our owners. Oof, that's not good for our owners. They're 14 games in the season. They're 14 games in. I like bringing these up from time to time

because it can be glass half empty here with how the connects are playing. So I like to look around and be like, you know who's worse? The blues, they're much worse. So there's one there. And if you want to really turn this thing around and talk about glass half full locally here in Vancouver, let's talk about those Vancouver white caps, Jason.

Yeah, I mean, I think when they drew LAAFC that there was always going to be a lot of interest locally. for Sun and maybe you can tell the listeners about I mean I know a lot of people are excited about the White Caps too but I think the opponent like it happened

when the White Caps drew Inter Miami and Messi was coming to town that helps sell tickets too I'm sure Sun is helping sell tickets as well maybe just tell the listeners who might not know about this guy what he's all about

so it's interesting because Heung Minson is a 33-year-old striker who played for Tottenham in the Premier League forever and is regarded as the greatest Korean footballer of all time and one of if not the greatest Asian footballers of all time. No Asian player has scored more in the Premier League or Champions League. He's iconic, iconic in Korea, not just as a sportsman, but as a celebrity. He's in that pantheon of like one of the most recognizable people. regardless of what he does.

He is a uniquely talented player, but also he came over right around the same time that Mueller came to Vancouver, and it was interesting because L-AFC had kind of suggested that they were interested in Mueller, and when that wasn't going to happen, they pivoted quickly and got as big, if not as big of a story,

if not bigger than Mueller. I mean, Son has got a lot of things in common with Mueller as well because he's regarded as a, selfless, hardworking, gregarious guy who's been a beloved teammate who came to L.A.F.C. And different vibes because you don't really need to sell anything in L.A., right? I mean, I know L.A.F.C. is not as big as the Dodgers and the Lakers and everything else. But it's still a pretty iconic brand within the league. And it's a big market. But there's a big Korean population in L.A. And that must have been.

And Sond has been out in everything, right? Thrown out first pitches at the Dodgers game, going to Rams games. and dapping up Pooka Nakua, doing all this stuff. And there's some very similar vibes between the two, because on the pitch, they've also been excellent. Like, for as good as Mueller has been for Vancouver, you could make the argument that the sun has been just as good for L.AFC. And they went from being a sort of fourth, fifth place team in the West

to now, I would say the two top teams in MLS are the white caps and LIFC. So sometimes it's interesting to just like take a, snapshot of something because right now we're looking at a scenario where it's likely that the white caps will sell out BC Place twice this year. Yep. Yeah. Like the crazy. Not the lower deck. I'm not talking about the lower deck. I'm talking about a full on BC Place sellout. Yeah, which is like Taylor Swift style. Yeah. Yeah. I mean when I started going to Lions games in the early 80s, that place would be full. I'm sure Rick and Donnie are always talking about those days.

But my first ever Lions game in the mid-80s was a sellout. Roy DeWalt. And it was, and then, you know, the average crowds went down to 40,000 and 30,000, 20,000. And now we've kind of settled where like a good crowd is selling out the lower deck, right? Yep. The bottom deck.

And it's maybe, you know, somewhere between 25,000. Sometimes they open the opera deck and you get 30,000 in there. For the white caps, you know, this is amazing. Uncharted territory for the organization. This is absolutely amazing. We went into this season with, God, what expectations did we go into this season with? Like there was going to be a new manager in Yesper Sorensen. Thomas Mueller wasn't a factor in our thinking.

Wasn't even a thought. Wasn't even a thought. And then, like, what, they just kind of started out really well, right? It was like, wow, this team looks good, both in MLS League, but also the Concaf Tournament, right? Yeah, Conccaf, Champions Cup. When, before the season started, the biggest story was that Sartini was out and this unknown Danish guy was in.

Yeah, who, like, never been outside of Denmark to do anything. And so, so, and it was funny because we had Dax McCarty on from Apple's MLS 360 programming. And he's, and I kind of made the joke. I was like, you had the white caps in your preseason predictions finishing 11th in the West. And that was one of the more optimistic ones. Right. Like a lot of them had 14th, 15th.

They thought that losing Sartini and then, remember the big loss over the summer was losing Stuart Armstrong. Remember he came aboard? Yeah, that guy. He never did anything. Well, they had that one game in Portland when they won 5-0 and he was great with golf. They connected.

Everyone was like, this could be the future. And then he was gone. Oh, yeah, right. We were like a Scottish team. Yeah. renowned Scottish football right here in Vancouver so anyway

fast forward to now and what this season has brought the white caps to I mean and again part of this is the evolution of MLS in that you've got big European star players

coming over but unlike previous iterations of MLS where they came over for a glorified vacation and they kind of just like 30 pounds overweight just consider what's going on Leonel Messi's probably going to win MLS MVP and he's playing very, very, very well for Inter Miami. Mueller has turned the white caps into something that I don't think they ever thought they could be in terms of a ceiling, both on the pitch and off it.

And he's fully invested in this thing, fully invested. He was at the Vancouver Rise playoff match against Ottawa at Swan Guard the other day, right? Good for him. Yeah, but he's out there and embracing all of it. son in LA when he came over there were countless teams big high profile teams around the globe

that wanted his services and he chose MLS and now you've got this great situation where two of the biggest stars over the last decade in global football are MLS and are going to face each other

at B.C. places like we got very fortunate on this one. Can I also add one more factor? Yes. That if you hadn't heard maybe you missed our show yesterday MLS commissioner Don Garber is going to hold a press conference tomorrow in Vancouver talking about the need for the white caps

to have a better stadium situation Good old Don's timing, I'll tell you he knows when to strike when the iron's hot this is the time to do it yeah so he's going to be talking to politicians and local folks in the business community and I don't know what he's going to be pitching I don't know if he

You know our discussion yesterday Was about BC place and whether or not There could be a deal With BC place that would make the white caps More sustainable in Vancouver You can hear that word a lot Sustainable yeah That's kind of like

The word that they use It's like a nice word It's like well right now their stadium situation isn't sustainable Yeah They're on a bit of a PDO heater That's right It's a way to tap dance around like This sucks.

You just say it's not sustainable. So many questions. So do they need to build a new stadium or is there a deal that they could make with BC Place, which would allow the white caps to generate more revenue, either through food and beverage or parking? But then you also say, like, is BC Place willing to do that? And if they're willing to do that for the white caps, I'm sure the BC lines would be like, hey, we'd love some food and beverage too.

That'd be nice. from a from a like a business perspective that's one thing right like the white caps have their issues and they're not a big market team like I would say inter Miami and LAFCR but from a

operational perspective I don't think we're a small market either man we're but we're bigger than like Columbus we're bigger than I was just going to finish their top 10 in attendance yeah and this is going to be the second time that they put 50,000 people in an MLS game which regardless of market and venue is massive

and I think Garber is starting to understand that this is a market that at times has been forgotten by the league without question. They've gotten the bums rush a few times because having Canadian teams in a decidedly MLS league or decidedly American League can be an issue. But you've said this a lot and I've hoped for it a lot but this market has the potential

to be an outstanding soccer market but there's also a vacancy for a team to take up the minds of the sporting enthusiasts in this city that's not the Vancouver Canucks. It is there. I know there's some people listening right now that grew up playing hockey and only want to focus on hockey

it'll be died hard Canucks fans till the end. And that's great. And I've, you know, that's been this market for a long time. But you cannot tell me with the growth and diversity of the city, good, bad or otherwise, depending on how you view it, but that there isn't room for someone else to be a major player sports-wise. Yeah, and we're not talking about replacing the Canucks. It doesn't have to be that.

You know, look at Toronto. And Toronto is bigger than Vancouver, but they're passionate about the Leafs. They're passionate about the Blue Jays. They're passionate about the Raptors. You don't have to trade one for the other. You don't have to trade one for the other, but there is room for another team. And this isn't to disrespect what the white caps have done already, already, what the BC Lions are doing

but like right now in this city it's Vancouver Canucks 90% of the attention. Yep. Everything else 10%. And there is room for a team

to grow more. What do we got on the other side? Hadnan Berg's going to join us at 7 o'clock for some baseball talk. Brady Henderson at 7.30 for some Seahawks talk and then those that want to talk more about the Canucks 5-2 lost to the Blackhawks last night. Do not worry. Thomas Drance, the Drancer from the Athletic Vancouver

and Canucks Talk is going to join us at 8. By the way, speaking of 8 o'clock, that's when we're going to be giving away ACDC tickets. 8 a.m. caller number 5, 604-280-0-650. That number again, 604-280650. The concert isn't until August of 2026, but we're giving away tickets every day this week here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. So our one is in the books.

Two more hours to go. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.