Halford & Brough in the Morning - Throwing Chairs In Colorado

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the Abbotsford Canucks moving on to the next round of the AHL playoffs (3:00), plus they chat with Carolina Hurricanes analyst Adam Gold (27:08) about the Canes keeping their season alive with last night's shutout win over the Panthers. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- And SCORE! The Hurricanes take their first lead on the series! Got some Yahoo! Sh- Europe chap chirping happy from behind. Get out of here! What was he doing? Security! I'm fired up! He threw my cherubi! Too many chairs for one room. Tall ones gawking at me. Short ones being very droll. I don't like them. Good morning Vancouver! 6 o'clock on a Tuesday! Happy Tuesday everybody. It is Halford and it is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We're coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Gladdy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates. BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler

pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Big show ahead on a Tuesday. It's another four guest here on the hell for the brush show on sports net 650 at six 30 this morning. We're going to go to Carolina.

We're going to talk to the host of the Cain's corner and the Adam Gold show on 99.9 the fan in Carolina. Adam Gold's gonna join us. Carolina kept its season alive last night with a 3-0 shutout win over Florida in game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final. This was Carolina's first win in the Eastern Conference Final since June 1st 2006. So we know what they need to do. They just need to score first in every game against Florida for the rest of their lives. Yeah. By the way, by the way, that game on June 1st, 2006, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Buffalo Sabres in game seven of the Eastern

conference final. It was their last Eastern conference final win. Do you know who scored the game winning goal for the Carolina Hurricanes? That game? No the head coach Rod Bryndamore that is crazy We're gonna talk to Adam gold about that at 637 o'clock Owen Newkirk is gonna join the program Host of the DL LS sports Dallas Stars podcast game for the Western final goes tonight a reminder You can hear it right here on sports net 650 after Canucks Central Who needs to get going for the Stars are they gonna get a rupee hints back tonight?

We'll try and answer some of those questions with Owen at 7 7 30 We're gonna go to the other side of that game Jean Principe a lovable Oilers rinkside reporter It's gonna join us to break things down from the Edmonton side at 730. Connor Brown is definitely out. Calvin Pickard might back up. The biggest story though, Will Mathias Ekholm come back tonight? We'll talk to Gene about all that at 730. Eight o'clock, here's one for everybody. Brenda Locke, the mayor of Surrey is going to join the program. We'll be speaking to her about last week's announcement that a new arena is going to be built near the city's downtown core seating capacity of

10,000 plans for the arena I believe it's by Surrey City Hall and what they call Surrey City Center This is this show has a long and storied history With Surrey mayor's hopefully it goes better than the last time we interviewed a Surrey mayor in which we lost the phone call I never got it back. What are you talking about that one great? The best interviews were at yep It was I was so that was with Doug McCallum and we never spoke to Doug again after that and you know what? That 60,000 seat stadium and suri never happened hasn't happened yet yet right yet. I'm holding on. Oh you imagine if

Brenda lock is like oh no, we're going to do that. Yeah. We mean also a 10,000 seat arena. First you build the 10,000 seat arena, then you build the 60,000 seat stadium. We're building the 10,000 seat arena inside the 60,000 seat arena. It's an arena in an arena.

It's a micro version of the bigger idea. Okay. I know we're going to have someone text in, ask them about a Canucks practice facility. We only have so much bandwidth with Brenda today. I actually, for real, I'm going to ask about and ask them about a Canucks practice facility. We only have so much bandwidth with Brenda today, okay? I actually, for real, I'm gonna ask about the Lions practice facility though,

because I don't know how much longer the Lions have in that Surrey practice facility. So, Brenda Locke's gonna join us at eight to talk all things arena and practice facility. 730 Gene Principe, 7 o'clock Owen Newkirk, 630 Adam Gold. I do have to remind everyone you heard the ad prior to the Haliford and Brush show starting this morning.

The Sportsnet 650 Jays Care 50 50 is now live. You could win half the jackpot and the other half supports Challenger Baseball, a program that helps kids of all abilities across B.C. thrive through sports. So just a serious note here. Um, I usually play in the Jays care golf tournament, uh, every summer. And they usually do a presentation for

challenger baseball and it is such a good program. My brother coaches challenger baseball. Oh, does he? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, he must know the stories of like, these kids love that.

They do. Um, and they feel like they belong and they make friends. A lot of these kids in these situations, it is, it's tough to make friends. And a lot of the parents come up and they say, the best thing is seeing them first of all, have an activity that they love to go do and

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That's all I got for that portion of the show laddie without further ado. Let's tell everybody what happened Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? 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. We will begin with an afternoon affair in Colorado yesterday. Linus Carlson, playoff hero Linus Carlson scored twice. Artie Silas 32 saves for his fourth shutout of the postseason. The Abbotsford Canucks took care of the hated Colorado Eagles,

five nothing in the decisive game five at blue arena on Monday afternoon. Yester, you heard it right here on Sportsnet 650. I'm telling you man, Linus Carlson might be my new Tyler Mott and Tyler Mott was my new Yannick Hansen. Right. Like this guy, I really like his game. And I don't expect him next season to play a top six role for the Vancouver Canucks, but I would be

surprised if he's not a mainstay in the bottom six because he just keeps getting better. Yep. And two more goals for him yesterday. And so it's great that the Abbotsford Canucks are going to move on. They're going to play Texas in the next. They play Colorado and now they're going to play Texas. They're playing all the central division teams, AHL affiliates.

Yeah, taking care of business too. Um, but one of the conversations I want to have, um, on the show today is about Mancini. And how well he's playing because every time we talk to someone like Brandon Astle, and we will talk about that by the way, little incident he had with the fans, but, um But I think of this as the Canucks defense next season. Okay.

I'm just going to throw this out here. Yeah. Okay. Hughes with Hronik. I like that. So we're not going to trade Hronik. Okay. Marcus Pedersen with Mancini and DPT with Myers.

The old and the young together, the old young pairings, two of them. I like it, Jason. And you've got lefty righty, lefty righty, lefty righty. Will Under could be in the mix too, depending how he looks at training camp, assuming he's not traded. And I wonder if they'll need to sign another veteran who can kill penalties to replace a guy like Foreboard.

who can kill penalties to replace a guy like Fourboard. But just in general, you would look at that Canucks blue line and say, that has real potential. It's a nice little blue line they've got there. So we know what Hughes and Hronek can be. We know what Marcus Pedersen and Tyler Myers are. The wild cards are really Mancini and DPT because as much as we've given them a lot of praise and DPD kind of had a breakout year this year, we hear that he might be like the

one untouchable among the Canucks prospects. They've still got to go out and perform. And if you're asking one of those guys or maybe even both of those guys at times to play top four minutes, it's a big ask. But I do remember when the Nashville Predators used to have a really solid blue line and a so-so forward group.

And it worked to a certain extent for them. Like in 2011, remember the Canucks played the Preds in the playoffs. How can I forget? They had Weber and Suter. And before that, before he came to Vancouver, they also had Dan Hamhus. So they had Weber, Suter and Dan Hamhus. And they had some really good seasons with those three together.

Now the problem for the Preds is that they can never score enough to realistically call themselves a contender. There were years when I was looking back at it yesterday. I'm like, Patrick Hornquist was their leading scorer? They had some pretty hilarious leading scorers. Yeah, with like 51 points. Yep. Remember in 2011, when it was like,

well, if we can shut down Joel Ward, we should be fine. And they nearly didn't. He found his way from behind the goal line and scored with regularity on Roberto Loongo. Yes. He's very good at it. I would have a real temper tantrum when that happened. Just because I went down this rabbit hole too

and I was like, you remember you do the matchups and you're like, how are we going to shut down Martin Erat and David Legwand? That's what those were the match. Those were their best forwards. Wasn't David Legwand their first pick? Yeah, first draft pick, yes. He played there for forever.

He played there for. And he scored 19 goals a year, it's regularity. They also, we all know, really bought into Barry Trott's hockey. That was the Preds back then. And it wasn't ideal from an entertainment standpoint. But you can't play an exciting offensive brand of hockey if you don't have the horses up front. You just can't.

No. Because we saw it. We saw it last season. Quinn Hughes was exciting and that's about it. From the Vancouver Canucks last season. Um, you can try and play offensive hockey if you don't have the horses up front, but more often than not, you'll just end up embarrassing yourself

because you'll, you'll stretch your up embarrassing yourself because you'll stretch your defenseman too much is what happens. And then you just get put in bad positions and there are turnovers and it goes back the other way. And it's not good. We can obviously revisit this conversation later in the summer when the Canucks have made their moves. But I just find it hard to picture a scenario where we're going to look at the roster

after July 1st and think, wow, look at all those amazing forwards. This team is going to score a lot of goals. And I, and I wonder sometimes if you should just, if you have an obvious strength, as opposed to focusing on so much on fixing the weakness, just really lean into your strength. Well, that's how you get a team identity is you understand what you're good at, but more importantly, you understand what you're not good at.

And so you lean into the things that are your strengths and you really try and make that what your team is about and that's what those Predators teams did back then. I know a lot of you right now in listener land, the tens of you listening right now are probably cringing and moaning and making other weird noises about the prospect of reinventing one of the least offensive teams of the last couple of decades and yeah it's got its ceiling for as good as those teams were in the regular season.

And they were good regular season teams back in the day. They really topped out as like, maybe you'll win a round in the playoffs, maybe. But they were perennially a second round eliminated team. Do we also have to take into account that the NHL was a little different back then? It was more defensive than it is now. Right, so I think the idea would be,

you just sort of take them as a blueprint that if you're going to have an identity as a team and you've already got some strengths, that one fits because I think we have a mention was like they were also predicated on really good goaltending back in the day with Pecker and I and I mean, Anders Lindbach to a certain degree as well, but a duo where you could trust that after the solid blue line, you've got a really good line of defense and net. I think that's what the Canucks are envisioning right now. Like they seem, if you

listen enough to the analysts like analysis from media puttits, but also what the brass has said in particular, they seem pretty confident that Demko is going to come back in better health than this year. I don't want to say healthy, but better health than last year, combined with what was one of the better stories of last year and Kevin Lankinen. And if they can find a way and find the right balance and math in terms of who gets to play what, you could see a world where between two very good goalies and a very good blue line, they defend their way to I don't know

98 100 points yeah that's what I was thinking nothing and two nothing games and three one games and yeah you play it you play it close you're not you're not quite Carolina but Carolina doesn't exactly play high event hockey when it's rolling right and they play the most thrilling you wouldn't play that particular high event hockey because they take a lot of shots, but depending on what Their goals there are events. Yeah, but it was funny I mentioned how Taylor Hall broke down the way that they play and they don't shoot to score they shoot as a sort of like build up to

either collecting rebounds and then playing off that or Trying to draw penalties from having so much possession and then they go to work on the power play. So again, this is more along the lines of those conversations where when you talk about the Canucks and you say, now this isn't what I want the team to do and I'm not advocating for this, but this is what I see the team potentially doing based on logic and how they've dictated

and acted in the past. And if you look at what they've got right now, the blue line that you laid out is good. It's a good solid blue line. It's got young guys that would be making the jump into it, which I think is a plus. Because if you look at the really bad teams around the NHL, it's in most cases, like if you, if you're thinking about San Jose or, or, um, you know, Chicago, like everything's bad. You know, the, the goaltending's bad. The blue line, they might have pieces here and there. You know, like in, in Buffalo, they've got some pieces on the blue line.

You've got amazing pieces on the blue line. The goaltending. My first overall picks. The goaltending, not so much. No. Right. It's been a huge problem. We have Paul Hamilton on the show last week and he was talking about goal

tending is constantly let them down. So if the Canucks can go into next season and they've got a above average blue line and they've got above average goal tending, I think they could, could, could, I'm not, I'm not making a prediction, they could still make the playoffs, even if they're forward group, you look at it and you're like, ooh, that's, it's not great.

I think there's room in the National Hockey League for this type of team to make the postseason. Yeah. But I think that's it. And then once you get to the postseason, you're like, well, if everything goes our way, and if everything goes right, maybe we could go on a little bit of a run. And then you still have to answer the question, how do you get past that?

Well, right now we're giving the connects the benefit of the doubt that they could be, you know, like make it to the first round. Maybe even win a round with a strong goal tending and strong defense and a so-so forward group. The thing with the Preds, if we're gonna go back to that example, is they eventually reached a point where the fans were like, this is great and all, but we need something more here.

Yeah, it was like the first 15 years of the franchise's existence. The Canucks have a secret weapon up front, though. What's that now? Elias Pedersen. Why do you always bring him into the conversation every time? No, I'm not. I'm trying not to.

I'm trying not to. I'm not kidding. We're just talking about- I mean theoretically if he was to regain his form then there you go, there's your, I don't know. But okay, that is your 30- There's your Joel Ward. 30 to 40 goals.

There's your Martin E. Rat right there. No, like- But no, like he is that guy theoretically It's funny because he is a wild card. Yeah, the What Nashville ended up doing eventually was trying to add one sort of more highlight real piece And I keep mentioning Martin E Rat because that was who they traded to get Philip Forsberg Who's gone on to become probably the best forward in franchise history? That's one of the most lopsided trades of all time. Right, and they were, so that added a spark of offense,

but they were still at their core, they were still a defense and goaltending first team. It was like, you know when the Maple Leafs tried to add toughness, and they would go out and add Ryan Reeves or whatever, but they're still not a tough team. They're still a bunch of skill guys that got a couple pieces added.

You, I mean, I just think that there's something really interesting here in terms of building an identity and a couple people have pointed out like who better to Coach a defense first team than one of the best defensive defensemen of his era and Adam foot right like this would go along With what you consider to be his personality as a head coach given he coached a blue line last year and everything That part is great. The other part of this is that moving forward to be his personality as a head coach, given he coached the Blue Line last year and everything. That part is great. The other part of this is that moving forward, I think this offseason is going to be very instructive for how maybe the next couple off seasons are going to look. By that, I mean, how many teams are going to be buyers? How many are going to be aggressive

buyers, especially in free agency? The really interesting part with this offseason is not free agency, folks. It's the teams that are left on the outside looking in from free agency and don't fill the needs that they have. How aggressive are they going to be on the trade market with the increased cap and the ability to move more contracts? Because some teams are going to say, well, we're going to try and solve our problems the easy way. We just go buy a player. We don't have to send any assets out the door. We just add them on.

The teams that can't do that are going to have to say, well, now, how are we going to fix ourselves? And it's got to be through trades. That's the other part of the cap going up is it should theoretically loosen up the market to make transactions of that nature. But I always come back to what are the connects going to try to even talk about the connects. Oh, I'm talking about the right like because this offseason, I think what's going to happen now is I'd say the following offseason and maybe the one even following will probably be similar in terms of

teams that have more cap space at their disposal, the cap rising and teams wanting to get more aggressive. I mean, look at some of the teams right now that have been languishing in the dumpster. Like they're gonna wanna make their move forward at some point, right? You can see it on the horizon. How much longer are the Chicago's and the San Jose's of the world

gonna be happy being bottom feeders? Like they're gonna want to start making the move, right? Sean texts in, I started listening 10 minutes late today. Why are we obsessively discussing the boring 2010s era predators? Yawn. Well, that might be your Vancouver Canucks next season, Sean. You should have started listening 10 minutes prior to that when we introduced this theory. Can we play the audio from yesterday, please?

Okay. So yesterday during Abbotsford's five nothing thumping of the Colorado Eagles in Colorado There was a very well I'm sure the time it was disturbing incident to our good buddy Brandon Astle play-by-play voice of the Abbotsford Canucks who appeared on our Show which was like the de facto pregame show because yesterday's game because it was Memorial Day in the States The puck dropped at two o'clock in the afternoon. So during the game, and I believe this is with Abbotsford up to nothing as they would cruise to a comfortable five, nothing win.

Brandon got into it a little bit with some of the Colorado Eagles fans in attendance at Blue Arena, and it happened live on the air. And here's what it sounded like. Oh, oh, oh, what the hell is wrong with you? You're the worst. Got some Yahoo chap chirping happy from behind. Get out of here. What was he doing? Security. Try that again. So it's 2-0 Abbotsford. Puck is dumped in by Glover. Omit behind the net. Yeah you can see Eagles fans are

frustrated. As Colorado know, ICE is the puck under a minute to go in the first period. I'm fired up. He threw my chair at me. Get me right in the back of the leg. Like what was he doing here? Unreal have another beer. 56 seconds to go. Carlson out there with Baines and Mueller. That has never happened to me. I thought he was trying to talk to you on something, but he's yelling at me, saying the net was off Should check that net out now laddie

Unbelievable as a unbelievable as a as a minor Well, it's not minor league. It's junior hockey, but as a junior hockey broadcast yourself. Have you ever Encountered a similar situation. We're like an unruly fan Maybe a guy that's had one too many and wants you to like, can you go to, you know, video replay on that last goal? Well, I don't know what the setup is like in the Colorado, in the blue arena in Colorado. Apparently you're very close to the Colorado Eagles fans. Yeah, there's a couple of rinks that I've broadcasted in

that you're right in the stands, essentially. Okay. You're mingling and mixing up with the fans while you're broadcasting the game. It's very awkward, not the greatest situation. So I feel for Brandon in that situation. But I've never had someone come and attack me, no. I've had the mascot kind of come up to me

and try to look a little funny. Yeah, Jocelyne. Which mascot? It was the Langley Riverman mascot. What's her? Jack the Giant, no that's the giant. That's probably the, is it his name Jack the Giant? It's a guy, no it's a guy no it's a guy like a Rocket hat on like a big a real river man a real river man and he comes up and pokes you so I've had that happen

Yes, well he had a giant head the Langley poker So yeah, I feel for Brandon. That can't believe that happened in Love Land. Like that's that's where the game was. Yep. Love Land, Colorado. Love Love Land. It's Love Land. It's Hate Land now. No, no, no, but it should be about love. You think? Love Land. Why all the hate? They don't call it Hate Land land I'm gonna suggest a terrible name for a place. Yeah, we had to move to hate land Yeah, we expect this I hate land, but I'm gonna suggest that Loveland, Colorado was maybe Maybe enjoying Memorial Day celebrations a lot pre gaming you know well you heard Brandon yep I'm gonna drink another beer

He had the the Will Ferrell when he's talking about his mom in the kitchen making me love. What's he doing? He's doing back there. What's she doing back there? He was and then he you know, I felt bad because he apologized sort of on social media afterwards that he thought he could have handled it better. And I was like, Brandon, you handled it exactly how you should have. That was perfect. So who do you know?

I thought he handled it really well. Kudos to him and the rest of the Abbotsford Canucks. They really did the business down there. I think most people would be like, I'm turning my mic off? Yeah. Yeah. This is going to get nasty. Shorty would have killed the guy.

So Abbotsford advances to the Western Conference. They'd be like, DT, get him. Yeah. Well, then you're escalating the situation even more. So I don't blame Brandon for that. So Abbotsford does advance to the Western Conference finals, as Jason mentioned earlier, for the first time in team history. They will host game one against the hated Texas stars.

Hopefully they don't have an unruly traveling contingent coming in with them because they will be in Abbotsford on Thursday night for game one of the Western Conference final of the Calder Cup playoffs. Very cool for the Abbotsford Canucks. And congratulations to Manny Melhotra and the whole crew. Okay. We're way up against it for time. Uh, we didn't talk a ton about the Carolina Hurricanes staving off elimination in the first segment of the show. That's because we're going to talk to Adam Gold

from Raleigh 99.9, the fan host of the Canes Corner and the Adam Gold show. We'll talk to him next about the Carolina Hurricanes winning an Eastern conference final game for the first time since 2006. You're listening to the Halford and Breff 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 PM on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 6.32 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air.

I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air.

I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air.

I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on the air. I'm going to be on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brub, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Adam Gold, host of the Canes Corner, the Adam Gold Show on 99.9, the fan in Raleigh, North Carolina.

He's gonna join us in just a moment here to talk a little Canes after. They stoved off, Andy, stoved off elimination last night in the Eastern Conference Finals. What an Eastern Conference Final game. He's joining us in the midway point of hour one. Hour one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. The Carolina Hurricanes won their first Eastern Conference final game since June 1st, 2006 last night. Joining us now to talk about that and a whole lot more as mentioned, Adam Gold here on the Hellford and brush show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adam. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm glad the, uh, I'm glad the streak is over. I believe you are equally, if not more glad than Rod Brindemore cause he did not

want to talk about the street game where I listened to his post game media availability yesterday and he's like, thank God we don't have to talk about this anymore. We can move on to the business of trying to get another win on the board. And that is the priority now for the Carolina Hurricanes. What did you see last night that suggests the Canes could do this maybe again and keep their season alive through game five? Yeah, I mean, you can't really think about it and doing it three more times. You just got to do it one more time.

You'd hate to be in a position where it's very simple. You just go out and win a game. And then you get to the next one, you see if you can win another one. But that's where they are and in some ways it kind of frees your mind. Look, they didn't turn it over last night. It was not a mistake-filled first period.. It was not a mistake filled first period. I thought it was a very good first period. Carolina probably was a better team than Florida in the first if slightly. Second period looked like the way they draw it up. Their forecheck

was good. They had a lot of offensive zone time. Took them a while to score a goal, such as Sergei Bobrovsky and honestly the Carolina Hurricanes that don't finish as well as they need to. You know, because they in Florida play very similar games, but Florida is much better, much more clinical when it comes to finishing their opportunities. Um, if Carol, the stake bill game last night, they got really good back-to-back performances from Dimitri Orlov to just one. Um, cause he was the master in, in Brewery, but he did good last night and Logan Stankovic continues to play well, but the Carolina just played their game. Uh, and if they play their game well,

not a chance against anybody. Do you think the four nations tournament gave, um, kind of the, the whole, all the fans of hockey and appreciation of Jacob Slaven. And then we saw more of that last night because that guy, man, he's not your, he's not your traditional number one defenseman. Cause he's not going to pile up like a hundred points, like a Quinn Hughes

would or Kale McCarr, but man, he is solid and he is tough too. Uh, Jacob Slavin was the best player in the game last night. And what's funny to me is that the three stars in the building in Florida didn't even give him one. Like I would have given him all three. So he was I mean played 75% of the penalty per minute. Carolina was killed eight minutes of Florida power play. Slavin was on the ice for six minutes and ten seconds on. He was amazing. The one ship where he knocks Barkov to the ice and then he comes and denies Barkov the goal right in front. That was the ship that Sasha Barkov doesn't even want to think about right now because Slaven was all over it. He was amazing last night. Four blocked shots but I didn't even want to think about right now because Slaven was all over it. He was amazing last night, four block shots,

but I don't know how many passes he broke up, how many plays he broke up. Uh, he was amazing last night. To me, the reason they won the game because he was that good. We're speaking to Adam Gold, host of the Cain's Corner and the Adam Gold show on 99.9 the Fan in Carolina here on the Haliford & Breff show on Sportsnet 650. So let's be real here Adam, the story of this series is still the three-nothing deficit that the Carolina Hurricanes fell into and the way that they fell into it sort of becoming unglued and playing very un-Carolina hockey through those first three games. I'm curious given that you know you host a bunch of shows in and around the games and the postgame show too,

how frustrated were Carolina fans after game three specifically where this team fell behind 0-3, still hadn't won a single game in the Eastern Conference Finals since 0-6 and didn't look anything like the team that had done really well through the regular season? Wow, there's so much there in that question to address. I'm just going to, I'll go to the beginning, the first part of it. The Hurricane fans, like Kane's Twitter is a thing. It's not a good thing. It's a thing. And if this game were in February and Carolina had just won eight in a row and they had a bad game and fell apart in the third period or whenever it is they fell apart, Kane's

Twitter and Kane's fans would have gone nuts. We're never going to do this, we're never going to be that, Rod needs to do this, Rod's got to go there's there is a a cult fire rod Brenda Moore following here we need a new coach he's done all he can all of that so Kane fans were beside themselves at the three nothing deficit. Um, and when they found themselves in this position, it was this team will never do this now I look at the roster and I don't think Carolina is anywhere close as talented as Florida is, um. Not that Carolina is bad. I just think Florida is great. And if you look at the, you know, if you put every player on

the ice and had a draft, you know, you would fill out a roster of Florida player with probably 13 Florida players among the 18 skaters to 5 Carolina. They don't want to hear that because they've had such good regular seasons, but the regular season and the playoffs are different. And I think Carolina needs a certain element that Florida has that they don't. They need toughness and size in the middle of the ice. And that's really not what Carolina has. But I think the fans are never going to be, you're never going to accept when you lose.

You're always going to think, well, we got this far. You know, no fan is ever going to think, well, we got this far. That was great. Sure. Because you shouldn't. But there's a lack of real realistic expectations for what this team is now can they win this game tomorrow yes and if you win that one you play another one and if you take each game individually yeah Carolina can win can win this game and force Florida to

play with some more pressure in a game six on their ice But there was a lot more in that but I'd go on forever So I'll just leave it right there Well, you know you mentioned the talent disparity here and it's interesting because the general manager of the Canes Eric Tulski He did try to address this and a matter of fact He did address this during the season when they made the blockbuster trade for Mika Rendon now It didn't turn out great for Carolina at least with regards to Randon and I know it was Rod Brindam or on your show That you know those comments that Rod made about new random not want to stay in Carolina

They made national news across Canada. I know all the shows on the sports net family We're talking about it Rod was very blunt and very candid about why Randon did want to stay. Was that about style of play? Was that about livability in Carolina? Or was that just, you know, they just happened to find a guy that just didn't want to be there? I think it was two things.

One, look, what Carolina asks you to do, Nikko Randon didn't want to do. So I'm not going to say that it wasn't about the style. It was. But Mikko would have been asked to be a four-checker here too. Just because everybody is asked to do that. Nobody gets to not play the way Carolina plays. Everybody. Carolina plays a certain way. Mikko Rantinen didn't want to play that. Nobody gets to not play the way Carolina plays. Everybody, Carolina plays a certain way. Miko Ranthen didn't want to play that way,

but I think it was more about his girlfriend and maybe him too didn't want to live in Raleigh and that's okay. You know, Dallas is a much more cosmopolitan city than Raleigh, North Carolina is. And that was one of the places he would have liked to have gone. I also think that he was mad because Colorado traded him. He didn't want to leave Colorado this season. He's probably going to end up leaving in the off season because they were never going to meet his asking price. Although he ended up signing in Dallas for basically the same thing as he would have ended up

signing for in Colorado. But it's also about control. This is the first time in his career he was an unrestricted free agent. You should have a say in where you play Yeah, so I think it was a number of things But also in terms of the hockey then it's hard to play the way Carolina plays and still play 23 minutes every night which is what he wants to do and Carolina wasn't it wasn't gonna work out for him that way here. Maybe that's that that was the miscalculation that Eric Tosky made. I will also say, just add this, as good as Rantanen is, and Carolina definitely needs a bona fide, big postseason scorer, although he hasn't scored a lot lately after that five game run where he was uh... it honestly

look like he's an alien it's not necessarily what carolina really needs they needed center who can distribute the park but be big and to be immune to some of these things that happen in the playoffs. They don't have that because Sebastian Otto is their best center

and he's six foot on a good day. That's a tough piece to find. Yep, sure is. Well, they thought they were getting it with Jesper Barry Kokeniemi when they stole him away from Montreal but for me Kokeniemi is no better than a Third Center and I think he's probably not even that Yeah, that has to me that has not worked out that's been that's been a miss Can you expand a bit more on what you're asked

to do when you're a member of the Carolina hurricanes, something that let's say Rantanen didn't find all that appealing. Uh, relentlessly for check and defend. Yeah. I've, Rant'In spent, especially after Four Nations, when, my opinion, and I am never one to call out players for effort, especially with this team because nobody ever jakes it on this team, but Rampin'In did a lot of hanging out at the offensive blue line after four nations.

He was not really interested in playing the way Carolina was playing. And there's no way you're going to pull him out of the lineup based on the player he was. But if it was another player, I think he would have been pulled out of the lineup. He had mentally checked out after four nations. The decision was already made that he wasn't going to stay. And I think the national media jumped on it before it was true. But the decision was made during the Four Nations break that he wasn't going to resign. And then they had to decide whether or not they were going to just ride it out and try to win with him or try to make the best of it going forward.

And I think after four nations, they realized he wasn't going to play. So they decided at that point, we're gonna move him. But they legitimately thought about keeping him and trying to make it work for the rest of the season, not to going to move him. But they legitimately thought about keeping him and trying to make it work for the rest of the season, not to try to convince him to stay, but a player like Rampden, which is something that they have coveted, you know, that might be able to help them win this year.

But the way he was playing after four nations, that was never going to happen. So is there ever a risk that, you know, let's say the Canes don't get over the hump here again and they lose to the Florida Panthers and that's still likely to happen. Is there ever a risk? I'm sorry, I did. Sorry, let's say the Hurricanes don't beat the Panthers.

They don't come back and beat the Panthers. Right. Is there ever a risk that the buy-in that's required to play Rod Brindamore hockey, there's less and less buy in. We've, we've seen coaches that demand a lot from their players. I'm thinking of a guy like Darrell Sutter.

And although he was very successful, he won two Stanley Cups with the LA Kings, even the Kings eventually were like, Hey man, this is too hard. And we don't want to do this every day. But I think that's the biggest risk. Successfully won two Stanley Cups with the LA Kings even the Kings eventually were like hey man. This is too hard and We don't want to do this every day Is there ever a risk that happens in Carolina? Yeah, I would imagine there's a risk Of that happening anywhere. Yeah, I don't I mean but

these players the core players This is what? This is the way they play this is they like it. Okay, I said Jarvis said the other day That I don't care what people say about it. I love playing this way. I I think it's fun. It's you know for for people who don't get it It's like a full-court press in basketball It's fun. I mean you have to be in shape you have to be in physical condition to do it But it's a fun way to play

I get the the way they play is not the reason Carolina doesn't put up goals That's the biggest misconception is that Carolina is, uh, suppresses their own goals by the way they play. Man, they generate tons of chances. They just need some of the players that they've got to finish them at a higher rate. I mean, last night, Andre Smith to go up, made a pass across to Sebastian Oh, and he shot it right back into Bob. I mean, last night, Andrei Smetsnikov made a pass across to Sebastian Otto, and he shot it right back into Bob.

I mean, that's got to be upstairs, right? That's got to be under the bar, as good a player as Otto is. They've got to be better at finishing those chances, because they've had some opportunities in this series. Heck, there's even a moment in game three, which was actually a really good game until the third period, when Carolina gives up the goal to make it 2-1. But then Eric Robinson has an incredible chance in front of Bobrovsky, and he lifts it right off the crossbar. You know, two inches lower, it's a goal and we're tied 2-2.

Who knows how the rest of the game plays out. Carolina's second period in game three was really good. They finally got a goal and they got even. They made a mistake in giving up the goal to make it 2-1, but you could have gotten it right back. They just did. If they can capitalize just a little bit more. And by the way, do you think there's a chance that Carolina won't win the series?

Because you said there's a chance, what if they don't beat Florida? So I'm curious, you must think Carolina's coming back. I just didn't want to be too negative. I just didn't want to be too negative. It's fine. Like I'm not even thinking about it beyond tomorrow. I get to go watch another hockey game. I'm excited about that.

This is the only league now where the comeback is feasible because it has happened a couple of times. I know, I keep it in mind. It used to be like no chance. And now ever since we've seen it a few times, it's like, yeah, you never know. And the Heat Celtics series, I remember a couple of years ago had a had a crazy 3o comeback in his well, but it didn't get completed eventually it fell short Well look at the Stanley Cup finals exact same thing right it just seems like hockey lends itself to it more

And I'm not really sure why but I remember like when the Kings Came back and beat the Sharks 3-0 thing and it was the Flyers beat the it was the rough They're really nothing of the Bruins. Yeah. So it has happened like in the last 20 years and I'm not holding it out. The realm of possibility for this one. Before we let you go, Adam, this has been a really interesting conversation because we're always trying to figure out the Carolina hurricane. So I wanted to ask a big picture one before we let you go.

I believe it's year eight now of the Tom Dunn and era as owner. What are your thoughts on the job that he's done as the owner? And how has he been received locally since taking over as the majority owner of the Carolina Hurricanes? Well, again, there's a lot there Received very well Dundon has always spent To the cap Like there, you know a couple of years at the beginning where he didn't Dundon has always spent to the cap.

A couple of years at the beginning where he didn't, but that was not because he didn't want to. But he has, the Hurricanes are not an internal cap team. They are a salary cap team. So he has not been afraid to spend money on players at all. Biggest misconception nationally is that the hurricanes are cheap. They are not cheap. They will spend money on players.

What they don't do is pay players more than they believe that they are worth. So free agency, you know, there's a free agent tax, whatever, whatever percent, uh, you know, above their valuation, they're not going to do. They also don't believe in trade deadlines. They really don't. Uh, when they acquired Jake Gensel last year, the, uh, the intention was to keep Gensel. Now, I've always said this about owners and we're dealing with the Carolina Panthers in the NFL too. It takes time to learn how to own because there are parts of

the game that you're not used to because when you run a business and you make a billion dollars you don't have to necessarily deal with tons with players, right? You deal with employees which are different than players. Tom didn't know that the general manager had to be under contract a couple of years into it. Don Waddell didn't have a contract. He didn't realize that what why does he have to have a contract? Because it's the rules of the league. That's why. And Dundon has made some miscalculations with what he could do with players in terms of their their contract and the Jake Gensel one is I think was the biggest toughest lesson for him in that Gensel wanted to stay.

He loved it here. He was comfortable playing the way Carolina played. He loved the locker room, got along with everyone. And he came to the team at the beginning of free agency and he said, eight times eight, let's do it. And the Hurricanes wanted to get him for less. Eight million a year for Jake Ensel was already a discount and Tom wanted to throw a coupon on it

and it blew up in his face. Because by the time they got to the point where they were willing to go to eight times eight, it was too late. Tampa had already approached him with nine over seven years. And had they simply gone eight times eight, you know, first of June, right, when you had this long window to get it done because the Hurricanes lost in the second round of the playoffs, Jake Gensel would be wearing number 59 for the Carolina Hurricanes. End of story.

And he'd be a good player. Would he be scoring the same way he is in Tampa? Probably not because the Hurricanes don't also pay Nikita Kucherov, Braden Point, Victor Hedman, and those guys. But Gensel would have been here and maybe they don't even have to go after a Mikiko Rampinin if that's the case. So Tom Dundon is learning some very difficult lessons. Even as he has been a very good owner for this team, he has given the team resources to compete and win. He just needs to learn that last step about how to deal with their contract. He has not done a good job in that regard.

Adam, this was awesome, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this this morning. We really appreciate it. The series is headed back to Carolina, so enjoy Game 5. Maybe we'll do this again if the series goes past Game 5. You have my number. Sounds good. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate this. Thanks, Adam. You got it. Adam Gold out of Carolina,

the host of the Adam Gold Show on 99.9, the fan in Raleigh. Some good insight there. He was dialed in. Yeah, some really good insight there. I did not know that exactly how it went down with Jake Gensel. Did not know exactly how it went down with Miko Ran.

And all I knew was that two guys decided, I didn't want to be in Carolina. Kind of seems like they fumbled it themselves a little bit there. That was a good point he made and, well not a point, just reporting that he said like the players don't mind playing this way. It's kind of like a full court press in basketball, which I remember playing that a bit in high school and because I wasn't in the best shape, I was like, I'm actually not enjoying this as much. 40 minutes of hell, but in Jason's world it I wasn't in the best shape, I was like, I'm actually not enjoying this as much. 40 minutes of hell, but in Jason's world, it was four minutes of hell.

Yeah, exactly. I'm going straight to the bench. Then I'm on the bench. Yeah. But I also imagine it's like, you can imagine the four-check, like if you're playing defense and football, we're blitzing. So we're bringing everyone. In the case of Jarvis, it has kind of been explained that the way that Carolina plays,

and the fact that he's been brought up in that system is a reason he's reached the heights that he's reached. He was a good player. Don't get me right. He's drafted 13th overall, I think. Like he was expected to be an impact player. But remember when the Canada Four Nations roster came out and Seth Jarvis was on it? Yeah. A big reason that he was on it was because they're like, well,

we need someone that's going to play like an animal, a 200, like the classic Twitter for game, but it's going to four check, like is going to be comfortable playing a bottom six role on this all star team and go and do the dirty work. And he's does it every night in Carolina. And Kuzmanko would be like, please don't don't trade me. There are a handful of guys that probably couldn't play there. Kuzmanko might be one of them. You know, and all the random stuff was wild

where he was talking about the effort was so minimal. I mean, again, I don't watch enough Carolina Hurricanes games to know, but to hear him, you know, accuse Miko Rand of hanging out by the blue line, not wanting to play that style. I mean, I get it. Hockey has just gone that way

and it's a natural progression just because the players are so much better skaters now. And they're in better shape. You compare it to hockey, you know, 30, 40 years ago to now, the players are all dialed in and it starts from a youth level. It really does. Like at a youth level, pressure, pressure the puck, pressure the puck all the time. So these kids get to come up and maybe they're not used to quite as intense as the Carolina

Hurricanes for check. But, uh, you know, it's been pointed out a few times. You know, the teams that have made it this far, they for check. Yeah. And sometimes, and sometimes they even, they even dump it in. Occasionally.

Sometimes they dump it in. Occasionally. Sometimes they dump it in. It's crazy, I know. They dump it in so they don't carry everything in. They don't have controlled entries on every entry. He's using sarcasm right now. He's using the sarcasm button. Okay, we gotta go to break. On the other side, it's gonna be all Dallas and Edmonton.

Game four tonight of the Western Conference Final. Owen Newkirk out of Dallas at seven, Jean Principe out of Edmonton at seven 30. You're listening to the Halford and Brush show on sportsnet six 50.