Halford & Brough in the Morning - What Can We Expect From Today's Canucks End-Of-Season Media Day?

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they discuss what to expect from today's end-of-season media day for the Canucks, as 'Nucks beat writer Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich (27:21) joins the show.  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- Nguyen? Nguyen. Nguyen. Oh, no. Oh, my god. The whole Vietnamese community just got a really good laugh out of you. Barnes Man, you country rude. Nguyen. I don't even think you said it that clean. What did you say it again? Nguyen. Nguyen. Nguyen. Nguyen.

Nguyen. You read it so that none of the letters were silenced. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. It's 7 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. It's Halford at his brow, 50 Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Andy, good morning to you. Really? No sports clips? Nothing? No highlights? No clips of the evening before that we're gonna talk about today.

No teams that got a big win or a adog would call it. And the guy... And Greg, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halferd and Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Jason Homonuck at Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason.Mortgage.

Bit of a unique show today on a Friday, a sweet, sweet Friday, a good Friday if you then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason.mortgage. Bit of a unique show today on a Friday, a sweet, sweet Friday, a good Friday, if you will. It's just a two hour show today. It's a holiday. Of course, Halford and Brough Sportsnet 650. I love doing this. Text in right now. If you're listening on a holiday, you're going to work, you're walking the dog, you're keeping your regular hours. Text in, let us know that you're with us. Ride or die. Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650. 650. We are here till nine o'clock. Shorter show, smaller guest list. Guest list today begins at 730. With the Moj, Bob Marjanovic is going

to join us. So at 10 o'clock this morning, the Canucks will begin their end of year media availabilities. That's the sort of official start to what promises to be a very critical offseason in Vancouver. We'll talk to Moj about all that. Maybe we'll throw Moj on the spot because the NFL draft is now just six, six days away. Give us your top 10 picks. That's right. Quickly. Who's the top offensive lineman in the draft?

That's going to happen on Thursday. So we'll talk to Moj about all that at 730 this morning. Eight o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join us. The best darn Canucks insider in the city. He's going to join us on media availability day. We'll talk to Dolly about the latest on the Tom Willander front and of course, the future of Canucks head coach, Rick Tocket. A reminder, we're still doing ask us anything Fridays. We're not going to speak to AJ today. They are comfortably down in Florida,

but we will still be giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best Ask Us Anything. All you gotta do is send an AUA, make it snappy, hashtag AUA with a pizza emoji. Dumbartlumbertextline is 650-650. The best Ask Us Anything will get a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, the best pizza place in the world.

That is what's happening on the program today. 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 busy. We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

You missed that? You missed that? What happened? Let's dive right into what happened in the National Hockey League last night. The season ended. That's it. It's all over. None of the games had any consequence or significance whatsoever because all the playoff

spots were already decided. There were a bunch of blowouts last night. There were some really bad games. The Kings did not put in a good effort against the Calgary Flames in a rescheduled game. The Flames just went down there and I mean, I think they were up five nothing in the second period. The Kings got, got one. Yeah.

Do you know what happened on that one goal? Laddie was talking about this earlier. The Kings goal from last night. Yes. Taylor Ward, the former, uh, Penticton V scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game and then barely celebrated. Poor Taylor. Oh, because he didn't, he didn't want to make a.

Yeah, he made a five one. Five nothing. He because he didn't want to make a Five nothing yeah, yeah, that's a tough situation. It'd be funnier if he did celebrate went off He's doing a stomach slide now high-five it everyone did you see Jessica elbow was at the game I just saw it on screen right now, but I didn't know was that game Do you think she was like this is the best they can do this is awful makeup game where the Kings aren't even trying I'm never coming back to a hockey game again. I will pass along a couple finalities though worth mentioning Congratulations to Tampa Bay Lightning right winger Nikita Kucherov who captured his third career and second Consecutive Art Ross trophy as the league scoring champion that puts him is a pretty hallowed ground of Art Ross trophy as the league scoring champion. That puts him as a pretty hallowed ground.

There's only a handful of guys, almost all of them in the Hall of Fame, and the ones that aren't are going to the Hall of Fame to win the scoring title three times. You're talking about Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Mary Lemieux, Phil Esposito, Yarmer Jagger, Connor McDavid, who's on his way to the Hall of Fame, Stan Makita, Bobby Hall, and Gila Fleur,

and now of course Nikita Kucherov. So shout out to him and I suppose, shout out to Leon Dreisaitl for winning his first ever Maurice Rocket-Rachard trophy as the NHL's leading goal score. Leading goal scorer this year only got 52. Little low, little low for my tastes. Everyone was talking about how low safe percentage

was this year. All they must was 52. Yeah, I guess the goal scoring's more spread out now, right? Cause you have like third and fourth liners like putting up 20 goals. But still kudos to dry saddle. He beat William Nylander for the rocket Richard, the first of his career after finishing second a couple of times. Do you want to jump straight in to the Canucks preview stuff?

Or do you want to talk about a couple of these other stories? There's a kind of an interesting one out of Chicago regarding Connor Badaard. And there's a couple of updates going into the playoffs. But I'll throw it over to you, Jason, or do you wanna get right into the Canucks stuff now? I mean, now that you've thrown out the Bidard story, what is the Bidard story? Let's do the Bidard story,

because this guy actually was funny. I subscribe to the Chicago Sun-Times, so in my email, in basket. You subscribe to the Chicago Sun-Times? I'm trying to get away from it. I don't know how to unsubscribe. You don't pay money for reasons. Alfred, subscribe to every newspaper in the state.

I do, I give a dollar a dollar amount to every newspaper to keep journalism alive. Anyway. Okay, so what's the deal? So usually the Chicago Sun-Times will forward like important civic news or whatever. But today the Chicago Sun-Times had a email come through and one of their lead stories was how Connor Bedard

recommitted and showed his love for the Blackhawks. I'm like, what is this all about? So I guess yesterday at Chicago Blackhawks media availability and Locker clean out day, but Art was asked specifically about a couple of things. Like one of them was like, why does it always seem like you hate being here? It wasn't that it wasn't worded quite that way, quite that way. But they flew in Jim Matheson to ask the question. Yeah, like what's going on here?

Why are you so pissy? And he did answer the question to his credit. The question was really a two-parter. It was one, why are there so many visual moments seemingly caught on camera where you look either like upset or frustrated or despondent? We've seen them, right? Sure, sure.

And then the other one was like, do you want to address the rumors that you're not happy here? Because those are out there, right? So this is about a minute 15 of audio from Connor, but kind of a dressing at all about his future in Chicago, his love for the city and all of these rumblings under the surface

that he might not be happy in the Windy City. Here's Connor from yesterday. No, I think. You know, unless you're in the Windy City. Here's Connor Bedard from yesterday. No, I think, you know, unless you're in the room and around, you know, all of us, I think, you know, I'm a pretty mild mannered guy and you know, if I look a little sad on the bench or something, maybe people can take it out of context. But, um, you know, I've said it so many times that, you know,

I love love being here in the city of the people, even before I got drafted, I was embraced like, um, you know, one've said it so many times that I love being here and the city, the people. Even before I got drafted, I was embraced, like one of their own. So it's a special sports town. We've got a lot of great players coming up, great people. You know, I think anything can get sad in me. I mean, I don't really look at that. I don't really see a whole lot of that unless someone shows me. But I just think, you know, I that unless someone shows me. But I just

think people that know me know that I love to be here and really trust the direction we're going. And hey, if you get the first overall pick, you're probably not winning the cup in the next two years. So it's an understanding of where you're at. And we're going out there to win every game. but at the end, we're in a process of growing and learning and that's an exciting time. When you lose, it makes winning a lot sweeter once you get there, so we're excited for that. You know what the problem is? He has a resting sad face.

Yeah. I was going to say that actually. I was thinking of my dog Pedro as kind of like. He's really cute, but sometimes you'll be looking at him, and you're like, why are you so sad, buddy? Dogs, how they look up at you, they're like, ooh. I love when dogs sigh, because the first thing I think of is, what do you have to be sad about? Pedro has a lot of, there's a lot of sighing.

Maybe Badaar just has that in him. He's just a dog that's just going to sit there. that's got that dog in there sad dog. But sad dog. Yeah. Yeah, but actually he's like quite Comfortable. Yeah, I don't know Anyway, I didn't like that. He said that he loved being in Chicago and he wanted to be there long term I thought that was an opportunity to widen the rift between He said that he started vibrating because there was a little bracelet on there shocking him. So that reminded him to say it. Um, the Blackhawks, it's funny because no one expected them to be, um, good this year or anything.

And they delivered. And San Jose was considerably worse than Chicago, if you look at how many points they had and their goal differential, which was over minus 100 in San Jose. And yet I would still put Chicago in the group of most disappointing teams because, and maybe we'll do this with San Jose next season, just because of the vibes, I think, and maybe it was just Bedard's Pedro face.

Could have been. Like he just always looked upset and and he wanted to be somewhere else. Yep. Like Vancouver is hometown. Right, possibly. I mean, who's to say? Who's to infer? It's like trying to read a dog's face. It's impossible. But they're not the most disappointing team and this would actually be a good time because we're going to be talking about the playoff team soon.

Sure. Because you know, the playoffs start on Saturday. So let's give out the Halford and Brough most disappointing team award. Okay. It's a tough one this year. A lot of candidates. I mean, the candidates include your hometown

Canucks, the New York Rangers, a complete disaster, dysfunctional, lots of stuff going on off the ice and you have to wonder how that affected on the ice. The Nashville Predators, who we talked a lot about early in the season, or especially last off season, because they made so many additions, they stunk this year.

To the point where we just stopped talking about them. We were just ignoring them. They stunk early and they were done. They were, but they stunk the whole season. Yep. They might've had a little bit of a run at some point. I think they did really well against the Canucks. Uh, yeah, that's true.

Oh, so did the Buffalo Sabres. But the Buffalo Sabres were very disappointing yet again, as were the Detroit Red Wings, I would say. The Detroit Red Wings had a time when they were in the playoffs, but they fell out. So, you know, Ottawa wins that race of the big three trying to get back into the playoff race because, or the playoffs.

Ottawa gets in, Buffalo played well in meaningless games down the stretch and Detroit just seems, Detroit, you know what Detroit needs? They need a real star. Like they need a real star. They've got some good players. Don't get me wrong.

They've got some good players, but they need a real stud. They should have drafted Quinn Hughes, I'm thinking, when they had that opportunity. He's a bona fide star. And then I guess I would throw in the Bruins. Not that I don't think anyone had these huge expectations for the Bruins, not that I don't think anyone had these huge expectations for the Bruins, but they went out and spent some considerable

free agent capital in getting Lindholm and Zdorov and they ended up well out of the playoffs with a horrible goal differential and they traded Brad Marchand. So it was like the end of an era in Boston. Who would you give it to if you had to? The New York Rangers. The abs, you know what?

To the point where I respected all the candidates and the efforts they put forth to be the most disappointing team in the NHL. But the one thing that stands out for me above all the rest is that the Rangers went from being the best team in the regular season. They were the president's trophy winners last year. They had 55 wins and 114 points, and they were within a couple of wins of going to the Stanley Cup final to that.

I understand some other teams got to the playoffs last year and then fell out, most specifically the Vancouver Canucks and the National Predators. So there's an inherent disappointment there. But to go from where the Rangers were to where they ended up this year with, you know, the very tumultuous tearing apart of their core and the very questionable tactics used to get guys like Barkley Goodrow and Jacob Truba out. This latest scandal involving our Temi Panarin, that to me is the most dysfunctional and thereby. Put them over the top. Thereby most disappointing team for sure. Uh, okay. The Canucks are going to be having their media avails this morning.

Um, I'm expecting that it's just going to be the players. I don't know when the brass and the coaching staff, well, head coach Rick Tauke, if he's still the head coach, will talk. I imagine that they wanna get some finality, the brass on the Tauke situation before they hold a press conference.

They could do us a favor and do it in the next hour and 45 minutes. Be nice. Announce the extension. That'd be fun. Three players I'm looking forward to hearing from today, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pedersen, and Thatcher Demko. I don't know how much more Besser can say. He's kind of said it all.

I'm with you on that. He's like, I mean, the media talked to him a lot before the final game and after the final game. So we kind of got all we need out of Brock Besser, but Quinn Hughes, I mean, maybe he gets the Bedard-like question, like, are you happy, I mean, maybe he gets the bedard-like question, like, are you happy here? Yeah, that's fair. You know, not because he always looks sad or anything,

but just because I'm sure he was very frustrated with how this season went and he's got a big decision to make in a couple of years. You know, maybe sooner to be perfectly honest with you because the Canucks, not this off season, but next off season can sign them to an extension and it's going to be like in Edmonton this year, if McDavid doesn't sign an extension

right on July 1st, people are like, what's going to, what's happening? Right? Like we went through it with Sid. Sid didn't sign it right on July 1st. Yeah, he pulled it all the way to August I think. I can't remember when he ultimately did it, but you know, the question marks were there and if

Quinn Hughes next July 1st doesn't sign it, people will be wondering. So we're already into the speculation with Quinn Hughes. Elias Patterson, I don't think I need to say any more about why I want to hear from him. And I'm sure a lot of listeners want to hear from him. And then Thatcher Demko, where is he in this injury recovery?

Vancouver. Because I feel like he's still in recovery from that injury. You know, like he might've had other injuries this season, but do they all tie from the original injury? You know, he has suggested that, you know, you, you start working on one area and then another area, maybe gets too much strain or you

ignored or something like that. You got to move differently. So where is he and how optimistic is he that he's going to be able to return to Vancouver and be a top flight goalie? Because we, we saw signs of it this season, but he just didn't play enough. No, not even close.

At a high level. Not even close to enough for anybody he's liking, including his. And you could tell that being out, as long as it did, war on him. Yeah. Like, I mean, again, remember when we talked about it, almost half jokingly,

but like that Hail Mary that they threw up, where they had, I think it was probably about 10 games left in the season, and they needed to win a whole bunch of them. And Demko came roaring back in and put up some good performances. And then ultimately was shut down after, you know, elimination was pretty much obvious. Demko, I'm with you on the three that you want to hear from the most, you know,

it working in reverse on a Demko. I think you laid that out really well. Pedersen kind of goes without saying Hughes. I think he will be asked a lot of questions about how happy he is because I noticed that more than a few media members made mention of the fact that after that final game 82 loss to Vegas, Hughes spoke and he was just sort of exasperated, tired and disappointed because I think the finality of it really hit and he knew that, all right, that's it.

There's no more hockey now. Like even in even though the chase was over, he was still playing 30 minutes a night and still going out there and trying to, you know, do things, I guess, still trying to break Alex Edler's record for most points in the franchise by defensemen. And I think the inevitable follow up would be like, OK, now you've had 48 hours to sit and take a deep breath and decompress, how are you feeling about

all this? Because there's no point in looking back anymore. It's about looking forward and everyone's looking forward as it pertains to his contract situation. There's no point in looking back, but I'm sure he is. Think about the season that he had because not only was there all sorts of, I'm going to call it

nonsense in Vancouver with a few of his teammates that he was right in the thick of as the captain trying to fix his situation. Let's also remember that he missed the Four Nations. And that was some of the best hockey we've seen in a long, long time. Would have been his playoffs because he didn't get to go to the other ones. And he could have made a difference for the Americans. Yeah, big time. If he was playing, they could have won easily. I mean, they already could have won.

So, a season of disappointment for Quinn Hughes, and it's always dangerous when you've got a highly competitive guy like Quinn Hughes that wants to play on the biggest stage and your team isn't playing on that stage. Do you want to go down this road a little bit further? I mean, that's why it was so important for Ottawa to make the playoffs, right? And I bet all of Sens fans are not only hoping

that Brady Kichak is going to be successful in this series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he has fun, like he enjoys himself. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like in that maybe he develops even more of a poll to be an Ottawa Senator. Like even if they don't win, it's like,

oh, I gotta come back next year. We gotta get over the hump here in Ottawa. They made a step. That's what we want with Quinn Hughes. We want him to feel that pull of like, oh, we got something here. I don't want to leave this. I don't want to leave this.

Like this is, this is something real here. We got a chance here. I like the way things are going. I'm not going to bail because frankly, it got to the point, it was so bad this season that I remember thinking it and I remember seeing a bunch of people texting into the point, it was so bad this season that I remember thinking it and I remember seeing a bunch of people texting into the show about it and they basically said, I wouldn't even blame

Quinn Hughes if he left. Like I wouldn't even be mad. I wouldn't even be mad. Yeah. If Quinn Hughes left. So just to circle back to that Four Nations thing, I was thinking about this the other day and it's like, you look at the guys that showed up and played

through injury at Four Nations and I think the guys that showed up and Played through injury at four nations And I think the guys that most are focused on the Kachak brothers right because both of them exited the four nations With varying degrees of severity on their injuries, but Matthew Kachak missed all the games post four nations Brady Kachak missed a handful, but still managed to play in some for the sands right Hughes missed that tournament In large part because he wanted to be healthy for the Canucks. Right. Like he put he put club over country to use the old European footballing analogy. Right. And oftentimes guys do the inverse.

They put country over club. That probably stings a little bit, seeing that there were other teams in the National Hockey League that were like, you know, go to four nations. Now, it's obviously different because the Kachaks didn't go into the tournament. Hurt. They got hurt there. But there was always that risk playing in it. Yeah. We're getting injured, right? Florida and Ottawa both found a way to get into the postseason. And Hughes in the inverse didn't go to that tournament, came back.

And the club just couldn't put it together for him. Like, that's going to I mean, again, if you're looking at it in retrospect, it probably stings that in a year where a lot didn't go right, there was this one thing, this one entity that he could have been a part of and wasn't, and it all ended up being- For naught. Great sacrifice.

Great sacrifice as a captain, don't get me wrong. Never question anything about the emotional toll that that took, but also making a good decision for your club. But when you look back on it, it's just another thing you kind of add to the disappointment list. Yeah, I should have just played hurt there. Right, and what was the worst that was gonna happen? We weren't gonna make the playoffs?

Roman in Calgary texts in, ask us anything Friday. What are the chances? Pedersen holds his end of season presser from Sweden over Zoom. Now that would be a power move. Well, that's going to come up too today. You know, what's your plan, Petey? Are you going to stay in Vancouver? What's your plan?

Are you guys going to get on the same page? You know, what happened? What happened to you? What's going on, man? Cause remember it was at this time last season where he brought up the tendonitis in his knee. And we all know some people latched onto that and others, others kind of, oh my God, you're getting, it sounds like an excuse to me.

Are we going to have, you know, are we going to have a similar storyline coming out of this press conference with Pedersen? Because things have been pretty quiet for Petey in the last little while because he hadn't been playing and I haven't even been talking about him. Well, now he's going to be front and center.

Um, and I'm sure he's getting some pretty tough questions. There's no way they don't put him up there, right? No, no, no. He's got to go. He's got to go. Yeah. I think he was at the ceremony for the

jerseys off their backs. Yeah, he was. He was wearing a tuque. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. John and Wes K asks, am I allowed to still be a

bit pissed off with JT and Petey for being so selfish this year? If they only put the fans in franchise first, I can't help but wonder where we would be today. This year sucked. You can be pissed at them for as long as you like. I think it's justifiable. Yeah.

If you want to go back and look at that part of the season where remember Besser got knocked out with a concussion from the tenors, you know, hit and then Miller took his 10 game leave and then her own, it got hurt and was out a couple of months. That stretch right there really threw the team off kilter and they never were able to really find their footing after that, because there was some bright spots at the early parts of the season where they ripped off some wins that and then I'm talking about the biggest of all of those.

Like you can't really help Brock Besser getting knocked out with a concussion. That's an injury. You can't really help Philip Horonick getting injured. That's an injury. Some would suggest that, you know, this rift, which ultimately, and you have to say I played a role in a 10 game absence from one of your star players, like that didn't help in a year.

Where you missed the playoffs by about four to six points. And how many games do we hear talk it saying, our key players have to step up. Too many. Our guys have to, our guys have to step up and it can't just be Quinn. Juan from Comox within Ask Us Anything,

if you had the power to go back in time and save one athlete's career from being derailed by injuries, who would you choose? I'm listening, Happy Easter. Happy Easter to you as well, Juan. Bobby Orr for me because I never got to see him play. I was born in 76. I think he his career kind of ended around there.

So I never I never got to see Bobby Orr play. I don't know how many more years he would have played if he didn't have the bad knees. But that's the one that's one player I just missed seeing, and I really would have liked to see. So, mine isn't a player that we missed seeing because he played, but the one I always think about is Lindros, is that if, because we got like a two year,

three year snapshot of how dominant he could be when everything was right. And he was like the best player in the league for those two or three years. And he was, he was, he was new, like a player like the best player in the league for those two or three years and he was He was he was new like a player like that was is it was different And there's no I don't think I've ever seen anyone that big and that fast before he was big kid Hot can I go off the board my you can go off the board Dan Blackburn the goalie?

I love that you former 10th overall pick He only played like a season and a half and then he destroyed something in his shoulder He couldn't use his blocker hand anymore. That was it. He was done is super off the board. I respect it I respect he could have been he honestly could have been one of the best. What about Rick DiPietro? We had a lengthy career, but he but he never got the the Heights for a multitude of really. Yeah He got heard the all-star game that was his big one also got hurt because of Brent Johnson Yeah, that's true. This to the face. Yeah, a That was his big one. He also got hurt because of Brent Johnson. Yeah, that's true.

Pissed to the face. Yeah. A lot of people texting in Bo Jackson. That's kind of an obvious one. But for sure, Bo Jackson, to see what he could have done. I mean, the guy was one of the greatest athletes of all time. He was the greatest athlete of all time. Another great athlete, Moj, is going

to join us next on the Alfred and Bruff Show on Sportsnet. Both have a singular name. That's important. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info,

and even the post-game show. Listen four to six p.m. weekdays, and on demand through your favorite podcast app. It's the Moj. I did not eat four burgers. and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Yes, it's the Moch. Halperd's fine, but you know, he's just grumpy all the time. Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, it's the Moch. Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch,

it's the Moch. Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at Jason Dot Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason Dot Mortgage. It is a Friday. It is 7 30. That means we are joined now, a presentation of the Clayton Public House. Bob the Moj Marjanovic here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What up Moj? Still recovering from my embarrassing blow up by Finn on Monday night. Oh my God, what happened?

End of the game, Bowlesville, Rogers arenas were walking to the holding area that they have for the Canucks dressing room. And Finn's walking by me. And I've known Finn since he was Looney Bird, okay? We're talking 35 years. He was way back. And I just give him a little nudge, right?

And he gives me a nudge back. Somehow when he gave me a nudge back, I somehow managed to lose my balance and I hit the deck. I got blown up by Finn. I smell lawsuit. Totally, his employers have deep pockets, Moj. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. That was, I mean, could you prove that there was malice?

Oh man, we were howling so much afterwards. Like he felt so bad. He goes, are you okay? I go, no, I just, I just tripped over my own feet is what I did. Wait, Finn spoke to you? It was, it wasn't even, it was just a nudge, right? Like literally it was a nudge. Um, and I landed in a plank.

I thought I'd be like, you know, busted up or whatever. Like, you know, broke my kneecap. No, it was all right. I just landed in a plank and popped back up and he was just, he was like, are you okay? And I'm like, no, no, man, I'm fine. I was too busy laughing at myself. Well, yeah.

So that's the type of week it's been for me. And then I got sick. So now I'm kind of battling a flu bug. So yeah, it's been a real slice this week. Are you going to go to the, uh, the, the presser today with the players? Um, him and, and on, I got to see how I feel here in the next little while,

because like I said, I just, I've got some sort of bug that I picked up in the last there. So I picked it up actually at the game. I started getting the chills at the game the other night against Vegas and it just went downhill from there. So I might, I might not participate today. I got the chills too, from the excitement. Still coming down from the chills as a matter of fact.

Uh, Moj, what do you think is going to happen with Tauke? Well, first off, I think he's going to take a little while and decompress. And always leaving, he's getting out of town, I think on Saturday or whatever. So Saturday or Sunday. So he's going to be out of town for a bit. Um, I think he's just going to take a while to decompress. And then I think he is going to look at the situation. A lot of people are talking about the contract and he obviously has the same agent as Craig Beruber and Steve Mountain. And Beruber got a four by four in Toronto. So you might look

at that as a guideline. I know that the connect kind of started low, but their latest offer kind of did come up. But to me, it's probably not just money, it's also alignment. He wants to make sure that the organization aligns with him in terms of what he wants to do moving forward in terms of building this hockey club. You know, I think with management, he's got a great relationship with Rutherford and Elvain.

So I think that shouldn't be an issue, but again, there are other factors that come into play here, as we would say. So I think that's one thing he's going to be looking at in terms of what he wants to do moving forward. So you don't think he's going to make a decision anytime soon because you know, from what I'd heard, the Canucks wanted to get this

thing wrapped up by, I don't know, today. So they can go into the end of season presser and be like, Hey, here's our coach. Cause we got a lot of things to do here. Yeah. Uh, just the feeling that I get, um, I think this is going to take maybe a few more days than that.

It, you know, I don't think this will just be something that they're going to decide here in the next, or he's going to decide in the next 24 to 40 hours. You've got to give yourself some time just to step back and get away from the emotion at the end of the season and just kind of think about this with a clear head. So I don't see it happening. And I could be wrong. I could be 100% wrong, but I just don't see it happening immediately. When you talk about alignment, what are some of the issues that you think he's hemming

and hawing about? Well, first off, I think not having a practice facility is a huge negative. You know people think well it's just a practice facility, they can practice at UBC. It's not that, it's the other issues that are surrounding that practice facility. So when you're practicing at UBC you don't have a dedicated video room, you don't have a dedicated meeting room, you don't have what you have at Rogers Arena in terms of additional items that help this team move forward. So that's one thing I think that he will probably want to know about because clearly when you don't have

those facilities readily available to you, it's detrimental to the development of your players. So I think that's one thing he wants to find out. Are we going to have a practice facility or what to the development of your players. So I think that's one thing he wants to find out. Are we going to have a practice facility or what? They're the only team in the National Hockey League other than Calgary. And Calgary, of course, has one in the works that

doesn't have a dedicated practice facility. So yeah, okay, they go practice at UBC, but if you want to have a meeting and show video and go over stuff, that's not available at UBC, right? So that's one thing I think that's going to come into play, um, with pockets decision moving forward. Do you think he's happy with his overall coaching staff? I think they're going to make some changes.

Um, I think they're, I think they really missed Mike Yo, a veteran type coach. I think they're probably going to add an additional coach. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if they do. Um, I think anytime you have a season like this, you have to reflect back not only your players and see what happened with them, but you also have to reflect on yourself and you have to examine yourself as a staff. And I think that's one of the things that Rick Tauke and his group will probably look at. And I think one of the things they will do is add a veteran coach should give them a little bit more of that experience, so to speak. You think it's an X is an O's guy, maybe a power play guy?

As you know, the power play, if you look at the, the, the actual percentage, like I think they finished at 23%. But I don't think anyone watched that power play this season and was like, no problems there. And also just the idea of creating more offense. Maybe there's a guy that has some ideas because I remember Rick Tuckett saying like, we're emptying the tank here in terms of ideas and creativity.

And I just wonder if he's like, man, does anyone have any answers and can we hire that person? That's a possibility. To me me it goes back to what I mentioned earlier. I mean what did you have last year that you didn't have this year right? And that's an experienced coach who's had experience in NHL as a head coach right? I think it might be perhaps more of that and I'm using a baseball analogy here but that bench coach, that guy that you can rely on that's been around that, you know, you can, you can talk to them about certain situations and Hey, if he's an ex, he knows

guy who knows that around a power play. Well, now you've hit, you know, now you've hit a home run. So, um, you might have a point in, you know, bringing in somebody's bringing somebody on board that is, uh, an ex is an old guy when it comes to the park, like when it comes to special teams, I think they're pretty happy with what they did. Oh, the PK was great. The PK this year. Yeah. Right.

So I think that's okay. So yeah, but obviously power play, maybe as you mentioned, somebody who can figure out how to get a little bit more offensive with this team as well. What do you think Quinn Hughes is thinking right now? We were looking back at it as season and obviously the Canucks were disappointed. He had to deal with all sorts of turmoil throughout the season.

And then also he was forced to miss the Four Nations by injury. And, you know, so you're looking back, he's like, it wasn't a great season for me. Well, the thing is with a guy like Quinn Hughes, as the captain and just as a competitive player, he carries so much of this, right? If for him, it's not a situation where he can just go home and turn it off.

Right? I mean, it's no, he's a guy that has so much invested, um, that carries so much of this away, the field, the responsibility of a captain. So I mean, he looks back at this this season I'm pretty sure if you'd ask him he doesn't want to go through anything like this again because when you talk about drama for me and I know I'm ex talked about this as well and I'm ex been around a little longer than I have when you look at seasons and drama for the Canucks the only one that really kind of comes back is that you know year

that they had Mike Keenan here with Brian Burke, because I mean, this team went through so much this year and all of that has to weigh on Quinn Hughes. I think he just wants to come back next year and have a group that just focuses on playing hockey. Moj, I know you're under the weather. You're playing sick here and we appreciate it. So I'll just ask you one, ask us something. I got to do this because we've had two different people Text in about this first you have seen the viral video from West Colona for the golf course fight. Oh my gosh

Okay, shorty and Ray were talking about that on the broadcast talking about that was hilarious Yes, please do First off your plan whatever three Eagles you're paying 55 bucks on a Monday night You're not playing Morgan Creek We're paying a buck fifty on a Sunday afternoon. That's all right. That's valid. That's very valid You know give me a break in terms of these guys thinking they're on the PGA tour And you know, they're so pissed off that they're hitting into these people now that being said Don't hit into somebody

You you better be prepared to answer the bell. Unfortunately, the the heavy set guyset guy got a shirt ripped off didn't answer the bell at all but it's just to me it's just stupid how about this one hey can we play through yes take it down or not you guys or play through oh my I'm just thinking to myself how stupid was everybody involved the best in that whole video is the girl I guess, like the guy, Justin, why don't you try to decelerate this or whatever. Then guys, can we play through? Seriously people, like I said, you're not paying 200 bucks or 175 bucks at a premier course. You're paying whatever, 50 bucks, you're playing Twilight and whatever, two Eagles or three Eagles or whatever it is in colonic.

Give me a break. Two Eagles, two Eagles. And Moj, I think you were bang on on all those. Thanks for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Feel better, okay? Thanks guys, have a great weekend. Yeah, you too, thanks bud.

That's Bob the Mojmire Johnovich, a presentation of the Clayton Public House here on the Haliford and Brough show on sports net 650 It's the viral video that unites us all there's not a single person that hasn't seen that yet Adog did you hear the big news that? there's gonna be a new team playing in downtown Vancouver because the heart of downtown the PWHL is apparently coming to Vancouver and they're going to play, like you say, downtown. Right downtown.

At the Pacific Coliseum. Heck yeah. Skip it a jump from Harbor Center. So if you're very confused about this, ADOG last week or earlier this week suggested that the Pacific Coliseum was in downtown and we were talking about a practice facility. Yes.

Where the Canucks might have one. He's like, well, what about downtown and the Pacific Coliseum? I'm like, that's not downtown brother. I don't know how long you've been here. And he was defiant about it too, which I really respected. Yeah. Yeah.

Like it's in Vancouver, but it's not downtown. Downtown adjacent. It's, it's not. Okay. Okay. I love it so much. Yeah. What do you guys think about this news? I'm not surprised by it because when the PWHL

tour came through Vancouver, there was almost 20,000 people at Roger's Arena. It sounds like there's going to be a team in Vancouver and Seattle. I don't think we should expect sell outs every night. I think average crowds, you can maybe expect kind of like Vancouver Giants crowds when they were at the Coliseum, seven, 8,000, but I think it's terrific for women's hockey.

And I bet it's going to be supported here because I think in Vancouver, we've got, there seems to be a market for women's sports based be, I bet it's going to be supported here because I think in Vancouver, we've got, there seems to be a market for women's sports based on, you know, we saw 14,000 people. For Vancouver Rise. At the Vancouver Rise game. And, you know, I didn't go to the PWHL game, but I just, I heard that the vibe there and the

atmosphere was really, really good and really, really encouraging. And I'll be really curious to see how this league does because listen, you can admit it doesn't have the market that men's sport has, but we've seen women's sport getting more of a high profile all around the world really. And I do like the fact that this league

is owned by a single entity. Right. It's a, it's a rich guy. I think he owns the part of the Dodgers, part of Chelsea, like this guy's got a lot of money. Um, so when you have a league that's run by a single entity, there's more stability and you would assume that the owner can kind of

sustain some losses in the beginning, because there are probably going to be losses, right? You build up the revenue, you build up season ticket bases in various cities, and what you don't have is, you don't have any cowboys that come in and say, yeah, here's a few million, I want a team. Not actual cowboys. And then, no, but like business cowboys that come in and say, yeah, here's a few million, I want a team. Not actual cowboys. And then, no, like business cowboys that come in,

yeah, here's whatever you want. And then they start running the team and they're like, well, wait a minute, this is harder than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a lot of fun. Oh, I'm losing a lot of money, I'm folding the franchise. Like that is terrible for a new league to have that. Right. And you don't have that at the PWHL.

Because this is, it's an important moment for the league because Vancouver's going to be its first ever expansion team, right? They've got pretty good footing. What is it? Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, New York, Minnesota. So that's your original six. And then anytime you expand, there's always a risk involved regardless of the league. Is that you're going back to zero,

like you're starting from scratch. It's been reported. The additional travel costs too of adding Vancouver and Seattle. All of it, right? I mean, and you've seen leagues in the past that have expanded too much too quick. And then there's some that haven't taken advantage

of the groundswell and have dragged their feet on it. Like part of this is the PWHL has played to big numbers in certain places, including Vancouver. That game they had here was the fourth largest attended game in league history on the takeover tour. So there is a sense of let's act now, like let's make sure we take advantage of the momentum. That being said, the first expansion team, it's a big moment, right? You could have easily and comfortably stuck with six and let things matriculate and build

and everything else. Or add more teams in the geographic area. This team, according to some reports, may begin play as early as next season, so a very quick turnaround. It is sort of turnkey to the fact that they've got a arena ready to go and they have experience playing in the market. So there's a proof of concept there. And it adds to, let's be honest, a sports ecosystem here.

We can always use more. I've said that like a lot in that, you know, given that 95% of our coverage is dedicated to the Canucks, I don't think it's a bad thing that the entire industry spreads its wings and tries to cover more things, more avenues, more sports, more professional franchises, all of it. All of it's a good thing. Uh, so this weekend, in case you were wondering about the playoff schedule, there's going to be

five games this weekend. Uh, it's going to start Saturday, three o'clock our time. So you can start watching the afternoon blues at Jets. So I'm sure Winnipeg is going to have a great atmosphere for that. Lot of expectation for the Jets this season.

Very, very, this is their most important playoff season since they went to the conference finals against Vegas and lost. Um, you know, they've had some good teams in the last little while, but they haven't been able to go very far. So, you know, first round matchup with the Blues, the Jets should be able to dispatch the

Blues, but you know, the Blues did get hot at the end of the season and made it into the playoffs. Um, the other game on Saturday, 530 start, our time, Colorado at Dallas in what could easily be, you know, if the playoffs were formatted a different way, a Western Conference final. Yeah. This is kind of akin to Tampa Bay versus

Florida in the East. A lot of good storylines here, including is Landiscaut going to play for the Colorado Avalanche. Ranted in for the Dallas Stars playing against his former team in the first round. I think the hockey is going to be terrific, but if you're the Dallas Stars, you're a little worried about how you're playing going

into these playoffs. So very interesting that the Dallas Stars lost seven consecutive games down the stretch, including that historic collapse. Some will call it a comeback, especially Can the stretch, including that historic collapse. Some will call it a comeback, especially Canucks fans, but that historic collapse against Vancouver a few games ago, seven straight losses. So I threw it out on Twitter the other day and I said,

is there a team in recent memory that went into the playoffs in this kind of funk? Seven losses, two of them were in overtime, but seven losses consecutively. And someone pointed out that back in 2022, there was a team that lost six of seven down the stretch. That was the Colorado Avalanche who went on to win Stanley Cup that year.

So I went and checked in, the listener was exactly right. That's exactly what they did. Interestingly. And an incredibly dominant run too by the Aves. So it does kind of make you wonder like how much stock do you put into an end of year losing streak when the team, I mean, Dallas had nothing to play for. What's up with Robertson though?

He's got a knee brace, he left the ice. That doesn't sound good. No, that's not great. And the Landiscock thing, I have read reports out of Colorado that what they might do is hold them out for games one and two of this series and bring him back when the series returns to Colorado. Yeah, I can see that. And get a pop when he comes back onto the ice. Now, I don't know if they'll actually do that, right? It's not pro wrestling. Like you're not doing that, you know, you don't want to... Well, I don't even know if he'll play.

You know, like is he is he gonna be at the level? I know he played well down in the AHL, but this is the first round of the playoffs. Some of the most intense hockey you'll see. It definitely sounds like they're trying to buy him time to keep skating your bag off and keep trying to get your legs. And I know he played those games with the Colorado Eagles and the American league and everything, but I'm with you. It feels like a huge ask of a guy that hasn't played in three years. So that's two games on Saturday. Sunday there's three games and it starts at noon hour time. It's the Devils and the hurricanes.

I know a lot of people are calling this the one series that's forgettable for the first round. There's one series you have to sacrifice. Yeah. In the first round. I always find this. This will be the one that goes to game seven with double overtime.

It's going to be complete mayhem. The hockey will be terrific. And we're like, ah, I gotta watch the series, I guess. Four o'clock Sunday, our time, Ottawa at Toronto. It's the battle of Ontario. I think if I can only watch one game this weekend, that would be the game that I watch. You know, hopefully the Toronto fans create some

sort of atmosphere at Scotiabank Arena. And I hope Brady Kachuck gets into this one real quick. The Leafs had for them a very quiet season. They quietly went about their business and they won the division. And this is why Craig Borube was hired as a head coach for the playoffs and to try and teach the Leafs how to play the type of hockey you need to play to win in the playoffs and to try and teach the Leafs how to play the type of hockey you need to play

to win in the playoffs. A lot of attention is going to be on Mitch Marner. Is he going to be able to come up in the big moments? He had some big moments for Canada at the four nations, made some really big plays in that final against the Americans. So there's a lot of, although it's been a quiet season for Toronto, there's still a lot at stake.

And, you know, if they go down in this series or Ottawa steals one in Toronto and they go back to Ottawa, I know there's still going to be a lot of Leafs fans in the building, but there's going to be suddenly a lot of attention on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Finally, on Sunday, the fifth and final game of the weekend, it is Minnesota at the Vegas

Golden Knights and I'm not. Bye-bye Minnesota. I'm not great at, I'm not great at predictions, but if I were to pick one series that's could be a sweep, this would be the one. Yep. Minnesota are the devils of the West and that they're the kind of the fraudulent participant,

I think. What injuries do they have though? Like, oh, no, they're not injured anymore. They're not, but they got off to an 18. Like the devils, I think about Jack Hughes not being there. Yeah, and Dougie Hamilton. But 18, the Wilde got off to an 18, four and four start and then just played 500 hockey since then.

I mean, they're not that great. I know that they're a different team with Kaprizov and Erickson-Eck in the lineup, but even when they were putting those must-win situations down the stretch, it wasn't super convincing, right? It's not like they went out there. I mean, the game where they did the Marc-Andre-Flurry overtime tribute, they had to scratch and claw

to get a much needed win, or the Anaheim Ducks, who had basically punted on their season at that point. So, I mean, I'm 100% with you on that. That, to me, that series is one that could be over real fast and real quick, and that's fine, because I'm not really interested in seeing Minnesota go anywhere anyway. Fleury's gonna save the day.

He's gonna come in the series, and he's got the playoff experience. It would be really nice if he got a sniff, but if he gets a sniff, you know things are going pretty bad for the Minnesota Wild. I also wanna say as we close out this hour of the show, the Leafs Senators series, if it goes the distance, it'll go till Saturday, May 3rd.

So until Saturday, May 3rd, or if the season or the series ends before, I am the biggest Ottawa Senators fan on the planet. I am studying up. I'm learning about guys I didn't know about. I want to be 100% behind Ottawa, because I think the most hilarious thing that could happen in this first round is the Leafs go out again in the first round,

which is a tried and old narrative, but they go out in a new and exciting way, which is losing to the Ottawa senators and Brady Kichuck. That to me would be the best situation for this first round. You know where your Adam got at Jersey all week long? My Matthew Highmore Jersey, my Travis Hammanek Jersey.

I got them all. Uh, Montreal and Washington is on Monday. Oilers Kings is on Monday and we have to wait until Tuesday for the first game of the Battle of Florida between Florida and Tampa Bay. Rick Dollywell is going to join us next with some updates on Tom Willander and Rick Tauket. You're listening to the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.