Halford & Brough in the Morning - What Could The Canucks' Opening Night Lineup Look Like?

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Canucks radio commentator Brendan Batchelor (1:08) about what to expect from the Canucks roster construction this coming season, plus they chat with BC Lions head coach Buck Pierce (24:08) following a tough loss over the weekend. 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.

It's his friend and Bachelor, Bachelor, Bachelor, Life from Rogers Arena, Collin' Canucks Games. It is Brendan Bachelor, Bachelor, Bachelor. 7.02 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody, Halford, Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Halvin and breath of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. BC's first and trusted choice for dead help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com.

We are now in hour two of the program, as the music suggests. Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two of this program is bradded by Jason hominock at Jason. 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 them online at jason. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in Step. To the Power West Industries hotline, we go. Brendan Batchler joins us now, the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

Morning and Batch, how are you? Doing well. How are you guys? Good to talk to you. You too. How was it out at the Milf yesterday? Yeah, it was good. You know, the vibes at the Jake Milford are always pretty good with, you know, guys trickling back into town.

you know, it's for a great cause. And yeah, they have to do a little bit of media and talk to us. But otherwise, it seemed like everybody was ready for a good day. And it looks like it went off well yesterday. So all in all a good day for those guys. And interesting to hear from some of them for the first time as well. Yeah, including Elias Pedersen. And obviously what he had to say yesterday made the biggest headlines for a multitude of reasons.

But it's funny because there's so much that's hinging on his ability to, to bounce back this year, that anything that he's going to say or do is going to be scrutinized, you know, fairly or not. And he threw out the, you know, there's your headline for the day when he talked about putting on some weight. And I think he kind of said it derisively and later said he was joking. But there is something to it because the fact that even the golf tournament and acknowledging that he's, you know, put on some weight and decided to get stronger is such a cry from

what happened last year going into camp that people are looking into it. And with that hope of positivity, like, yeah, this could be a good thing moving forward because, quite frankly, he and the rest of the team needed after what was a very, very disappointing 2024 campaign. Yeah, absolutely. And I will say, you know, I don't think he's just saying that either. He looks bigger. He looks stronger.

You know, his shoulders look broader. So it's clear that he has put a lot of work in in the off season. And I think the big question for everybody is going to be, how does that translate to the ice. You know, is he able to find that jump in his step from, you know, a couple seasons ago and get back to being the kind of player that they need him to be? Certainly, that's the hope. And, you know, ultimately we'll start judging that once we get to see them on the ice at training camp next week. But, you know, it's a good place to start from, at least, right? Because, you know, there were the concerns in terms of his fitness coming back last off season and, you know, whether you believe

that the knee was a key factor in that or whether it wasn't, you know, that's ancient history now. So to be starting off by having had a good summer, by coming in stronger, and at least putting himself in the best situation possible to have a bounce back season, that's a much better way to go into the year than the way things went last year. So hopefully that means that, you know, he can turn his game around and find some confidence and find some chemistry with whoever he's going to play with and start the season well and sort of carry on from there, but ultimately all of that part of it remains to be seen once they hit the ice. Who do you think you will play with?

Yeah, so this is interesting. I think I know who the top six are probably going to be, but I can't really decide in what order to put them in, because there's one school of thought that says, okay, if you put Evander Cain and Connor Garland on a line and you let them forecheck and crash and bang and create offense that that might be a good fit but you know historically garland and petterson haven't been the best fit together so if you put philip heedal in the middle of that line that might make sense but then you're left with you know a line

of jake de brusk leis peterson and brock besser which you know might sound good on paper they're all skilled players they're all capable of producing but i worry about the speed of that line a little bit or lack thereof. So, you know, if I was drawing up the lines, I might go, you know, a Vander Kaine with Pedersen and Besser, although that's not necessarily a line that would burn either.

And then, you know, have, have Debrusk on the other line with Heedlittal and Garland. But it's going to be interesting to see. I think Neal's Hoaglander could have an argument to break into that top six as well if he has a strong training camp. And ultimately, we don't really know what Adam Foote's mindset,

about line combinations is going to be as opposed to Rick Talkett, so it could be completely different than that. But if I was drawing the lineup card, the six guys that I mentioned would be in the top six, but I don't think it's obvious who's going to have chemistry with who

or if, you know, there are no obvious combinations of the top of the lineup for me. Yeah. I was just thinking back, well, we just said we've been so focused on the top six that we haven't really even thought about the bottom six. but the bottom six is important and you know a couple of years ago they had that

third line with Garland and usually it was Bluger and Dakota Joshua well then they're not going to have that anymore because Dakota Joshua is not on the team anymore and I think you need Garland in the top six and he probably deserves to be what do you think about the the bottom six and should we be paying a little bit more attention to that. Yeah, well, I think the bottom six is interesting because that's where the roster battles are going to be in training camp.

So, you know, you look at like a Neal's Hoaglander probably ends up on the third line maybe with a key for Sherwood and depending on how they try to set things up, could be Atu Raju, could be Teddy Blugher, but you know, if they make a move to bring in a center before the start of the season, that could play out there as well.

And then, you know, as we sort of go through this exercise on the fourth line, you'd have the other one of Blue Goror Ratu, Drew O'Connor, and then what I see is the open spot on the roster, on the wing on the fourth line, which is what, you know, Archie Baines, Linus Carlson, and that group of guys from Abbotsford that performed so well in the playoffs last year, that's the spot that they're going to be competing for. And, you know, ultimately, you know, you'd like it to be a meritocracy and say, you know, whoever plays the best in camp gets that spot. So there are also. things to think about like Carlson

needs waivers to go down. Baines needs waivers to go down. Neil's Oman needs waivers to go down. So, you know, that maybe leaves a guy like Jonathan Leckermackie out in the cold in terms of making the NHL roster to begin the season. He might

have to go back down to Abbotsford and continue to apply his trade there. Max Sasson is another guy who had good spurts at the NHL level last year, but he doesn't need waivers this season either. So, you know, know, he would have to beat out all the rest of those guys to really earn a spot on the roster and make them consider exposing someone else to waivers.

So, you know, it's other than that one spot on the fourth line, you kind of can already see the outline of the way this forward group is going to look, you know, with maybe an exception here or there, someone has a good camp and earns a spot higher up the lineup than you might have expected. Someone else gets hurt in camp and that opens up an opportunity for one of those AHL guys to break through. But, you know, yeah, when this Canucks team in the past decade has been at its best, it's had a third line that, you know, could either play matchup minutes and shut down minutes or was a driving force in terms of driving play. And, you know, that's going to

be a key part of the lineup this season. And there aren't the obvious candidates to drive a line that way like there were when Joshua and Garland were playing together there. But that said, I don't think any of us would have predicted going into that season two years ago that Dakota Joshua would have had that strong of a year because Rick Tocke called him out for being out of shape in training camp. And there was a day that he was moved to the AHL group. But so, you know, I think what the conducts will be hoping for and what it makes sense to hope for is breakout candidates from that group in Abbotsford that had such a strong year

last year. So can Linus Carlson come up and really solidify his spot as an NHL player, day in and day out. Can R. Steve Baines come up to the NHL level and use some of that playmaking and creativity that he has, but have it translate at the NHL level and maybe produce a little bit in a bottom six

role? Those are some of the big questions that I think are going to define how effective the Canucks are, not necessarily at the top of their lineup, but some of those bottom six minutes make a big difference too, and ultimately that, to me, that fourth line winger spot is going to be the most interesting

battle to watch at camp. I'm worried that this team is going to have trouble scoring. Am I right to be worried, wrong to be worried, and if I'm right, what can the new coaching staff do about it? Yeah, I think that's a great point because we kind of think we have an idea of how this team is going to defend, right? Adam Foote was the defensive coach here over the last few years. They were, for the most part, a very good defensive team.

especially, you know, last year after they brought in Marcus Pedersen and Elias Pedersen stepped up at the NHL level, you know, assuming that Adam Foote had a big hand in the style they played defensively under Rick Talkett, we know how they're going to be able to play. But the issue with this team, dating back to ultimately when they went out of the playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers, has been goal scoring. So, you know, you've got some different voices on that coaching staff now. I'm going to be really interested to see

how they try to generate offense and how effective it is because on paper you could say this team struggled to score last year and they've subtracted Pew Souter and Dakota Joshua and added a van der Kaine but other than that it's basically the same forward group so you're looking at the same guys

that many of them had down years last year or didn't produce to the level that they had the year before you're relying on those guys to carry the mail and produce. And, you know, I think certainly, I don't know if it's fair to be worried about it yet because we have to wait and see how things play out at training camp. But, you know, it is rightly so, I think, the biggest area of focus for this team going into the season because they've solidified their goaltending, assuming Demko can be healthy. You know what? Even if he's not healthy, we know what Kevin Lankin is capable of. We saw it last year. So you're not terribly concerned about the goaltending. As I said, with, you know, the, the changes they've made on the blue line with the addition of Marcus Pedersen in particular. I think we know how they're going to defend. You know, obviously, Quinn Hughes is going to be Queen Hughes, so you know what you're going to get from your defensive group, but it's your forward group. And, you know, again, I think every conversation with this team going into this year circles back around to Alias Patterson.

Can he produce like a first line center? Can his line drive play? Will Evander Kane come in and be a help in terms of generating more offense? These are the biggest questions for this team this year because I don't think we're concerned about them defensively or in the crease at all, but you can't win every game one-nothing or two-ones so you need to be able to score some goals and ultimately I think that's what they're going to be judged by

and how successful they are this season is going to come down to their ability to produce offense or not. Yeah, it's not really a 2-1 or 3-2 league anymore. It's a lot more high-scoring, so you've got to be able to find a way to score I wonder if there's a little more from the back end that they could unleash. One of the things I'll be curious about at training camp is if Hughes and Heronick are together

because you might be able to put Hughes with someone else. Maybe you start them with Willander, I don't know, and then ask Heronik to do a little more offensively jumping up in the rush. Maybe you pair them with a guy like Marcus Pedersen. Yeah, you know, that certainly, possible. We saw Hughes play with Myers at stretches last year

as well and you could try and get Pedersen and Heronick going and I think you know in terms of trying to drive offense and drive transition play in particular from the back end that would make a lot of sense because Philip Heronick kind of has to be the safety valve when he's out there with Quinn Hughes

but we know that he's capable of more offensively so you get him on his own pairing with a guy like Marcus Pedersen who can be his safety valve then he has the opportunity to get up into the play and try and create and try and produce it and you know again with his shot from the point and his puck moving ability we know that he can be an asset offensively to a greater degree than he has been in the past so you know that's another thing that'll be interesting because

you know as much as Adam foot's still there and he's the head coach he's not running the defensive end of the bench anymore so there could be some different deployment choices there and that'll be fascinating to sort of work through early in the season. But you know, you're right, I think, in terms of trying to unlock more from Heronic, but at the same time, you know, if you're, if we're talking about Quinn Hughes and Philip Heronic as being accused, uh, keys to generate more offense, as much as I think they will play a factor there, then, you know, we're not talking enough about the forward group because ultimately it's the guys driving things up front that need to produce the most that will have to produce the most if this team wants to have success and um you know again like

every conversation with this team circles back to if alias peterson can be alias peterson they're fine if he's not then you start to worry and you know not to keep pressure on the guy because certainly he has enough of it going into this season but you know with the the way the roster's made up with you know the fact that the organization hasn't uh you know gone out and acquired a centerman as of yet due to a variety of factors, not least of which being that no one seems to have acquired anyone this offseason with the way free agency played out and everything like that. You know, it's, it just puts that much more pressure on Pedersen to be the guy that they need him to be and they paid him to be. And, you know, that, that to me is the biggest factor in terms

of how this team will look offensively. What are you expecting from Besser? And I guess a lot of it depends on what we see from You know who because, you know, it's, it's, you know, Besser, I mean, last season, you know, I don't feel too sorry for professional athletes that are making millions of dollars to play hockey. But it was a, it was a challenging year for Besser because there was a lot of uncertainty about his future and, you know, there were some that felt he was a little bit disrespected by the organization. And then J.T. Miller, a guy that he had been paired with for years and had a lot of success with, was traded away. And he just felt like, well, I don't know how he felt, but watching him, it looked like he was just kind of, he didn't have purpose out there. He wasn't playing with purpose. And I'm just really hoping that whatever Pedersen and Besser had, it's a few years ago.

that's a long time ago now, had they can rekindle that. I know Pedersen was very happy that Besser re-signed, so hopefully they can find something. Do you think they can? Yeah, it's going to be interesting. Either that or with Philippeel, right? And I guess it depends how they deploy the top six.

But, you know, talking to Besser yesterday at the Milford, it was clear that he just wants to focus on hockey this year. And he's been pretty honest that last year things did get to him in terms of, the upheaval around the team, the speculation about him being traded before the deadline, you know, the speculation afterwards about whether he was going to come back. He even joked that he went to Europe in the summer, but he did it before Free Agency Day.

And he's like, I don't recommend for anyone else going through that. Don't do that because I was distracted and stressed the whole time when I should have just been enjoying my trip. So, you know, these things do affect him. But now all of that is off the table, right? Miller's not here anymore and yes he had a tremendous amount of chemistry with Miller but Miller was also at the center of the big off-ice drama last year so as a team they want to move on from that and Besser gets to move on from all the speculation around his future now he knows he's a Vancouver Canaki signed long term he's got that deal done he can just

focus on playing hockey and hopefully for his sake and for the team's sake that means that he can get back to being more of the offensive producer that he was two years ago when he had that 40-goal season. Ultimately, yeah, you know, him and Pedersen trying to generate chemistry, I think will be really interesting. And you're right,

a lot of that, you know, will depend on how Pedersen performs. But, you know, I think they're capable of it. I also think the power play for all these guys is going to be such a huge factor. And, you know, there's a good chance that Besser, who's played a lot of net front with J.T. Miller around, might get it back up into more of a,

a shooting spot on the flank and you know we saw him score a lot of goals from that spot especially early in his career when he was breaking in as a rookie so um you know if he gets more shooting opportunities on the power play rather than being the net front guy that might help him produce a little bit too and you know ultimately it's all of these guys saying you know things didn't go the way we wanted last year we had a down year and it's going to be up to them to carry the mail now and and we'll see how they go uh in terms of whether they're able to but you know whether it's Pedersen or Heedal, I think, you know, there's going to be a lot on Besser to produce offensively, regardless of what line he's on. And, you know, even though the contract distractions

gone, the Miller distractions gone, he's here long term, you know, there will still be pressure on him to produce and there will still be focus on him, as there always is in this market if he doesn't. Where do you see Besser on the power play? I know you kind of mention it there, but everyone's position maybe because, you know, does he take over that left flank position that J.T. Miller has?

And if it's not better, who is it? Yeah, that's, I would like to see him in that left flank spot just because I think he can get his shot away more effectively from there. You know, I think Evander Kane potentially could come up and either play the bumper or net front.

You know, that bumper spot has been kind of tricky for them to replace basically ever since Bo Horvatt left. That was kind of, you know, where he set up shop there. And, you know, I don't know if there's been an obvious replacement ever since. So, you know, first of all, the way the power play tries to generate offense is going to be interesting because I think it was at one point last year, Rick Tocke called the mechanical in the way that they were trying to do it. And there wasn't a lot of fluidity or creativity there.

So as a unit, they need to be better and find more ways to, you know, generate offense. and, you know, I can't even begin to remember how many times Rick Tocke banged the drum about just needing to attack the net and create more chaos around the crease, even on the power play. So we'll see if that's the way they try to do it. If Adam Foote takes a different approach, you know, or whoever ends up coaching the power play takes a different approach in terms of how they want to create those opportunities. But, yeah, I'd like to see Besser in more of a shooting spot because he's got that great

shot and you know you've got a guy like evander cane that i think would be more effective down low and at the net front so that's sort of the outline of how i'm trying to draw things out but ultimately that'll get filled in fully uh through training camp and then we'll watch and see if they can get back to being you know a top five power play in the league because i think they've got the pieces there and are capable of doing that it's just can they find the confidence and find the fluidity to make sure that they can produce at that level. Batch, we're back, baby. We're back, let's go.

We're talking connox. We're talking line combinations. England's got a game against Serbia today. Not feeling the vibes from them, but, you know, Manchester. We're not going to talk about Manchester. No, we won't talk about them. We are not. Sorry about that.

Okay. Yeah, sorry for everything that you're going through with that. Hopefully the Canucks will be better. Great, great chatting with you. I'm sure we'll chat lots this season batch. Yeah, we will. Have a good one. Thanks, pal.

Thanks, buddy. Brendan Batchelor, Play-by-Play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Okay, we've hit the midway point of the show. There's still a lot to get into on a Tuesday edition of the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Coming up on the other side of the break, the head coach of the BC Lions, Buck Pierce is going to join the program. We'll talk to Buck about what happened in Ottawa on Friday. And then the rematch this Friday at BC Play.

against those same red blacks. 8 o'clock Matt Verde-Ram is going to join us. NFL staff writer for Sports Illustrated is going to join the program. We'll look back on Monday night football and the show, J.J. McCarthy, and the Vikings put forth in the fourth quarter. We'll also look ahead to Thursday night football.

It's now just two days away. Really good one on tap between the commanders and the Packers. And I will remind you, before we go to break, speaking of Buck Pierce and those BC Lions, it's another season of hard hits, heated rivalries and nonstop entertainment. For tickets, visit BCLions.com and get ready to roar as one. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.

731 on a Tuesday, happy Tuesday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet at 650. Halford in Brough of the morning is brought to 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 now in hour two of the program. We're at the midway point of the show. BC Lions head coach, Buck Pierce, is going to join us in just a moment here.

Our two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominock at Jason Dow 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. To the Power West Industries hotline, we go, the head coach of the BC Lions. Buck Pierce joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Buck. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Good morning. Thanks for taking the time to do this as always.

We appreciate it. It's been a few days now. You've had plenty of hours to sit and let the loss in Ottawa marinate and sink in. What are some of your thoughts on what happened in Ottawa on Friday? Yeah, well, you know, it's never one thing. You know, I think, you know, obviously we didn't play nearly clean enough football, you know, to be able to overcome, you know, multiple penalties at critical times.

It's tough in the league, you know, especially on the road against a good team like Ottawa. And then you look at just the tail of two halves. You know, defensively in the first half, they did a great job. They shutting down their offense, you know, making them punt. You know, we were able to get some momentum on offense and, you know, go into halftime with the lead and then, you know, make some plays in the second half and then just not be able to, you know, close the game out. You know, so that's the disappointing part is, you know,

we've lost too many close games this year, you know, that have came down to our own mistakes. How do you address the penalty issue? Yeah, you know, internally. You know, the matter of fact is it's, it's, you know, if you're going to take penalties that are going to hurt the team, you won't play. And, you know, that's the message going forward. You know, the guy's got to be accountable to each other and understand where we are as a football team.

You're a pretty soft-spoken guy when you talk to us. How have you been speaking to the team? after some of these losses, and also with, like, the penalty issues. I mean, it must be very frustrating as a coaching staff. Yeah, you know, I think it's, you have to look at it in its entirety. You know, why are those penalties occurring? You know, who are taking the penalties and at what times are these penalties, you know, taking place?

And the majority of them, you know, after after the, after the, what's, penalties are just unacceptable and you're putting your team, your teammates in a bad spot, you know, and you're not allowing us, you know, to be successful. So, yeah, you know, I'm usually a pretty even-keel guy, but, you know, we're definitely addressing it. We're speaking to BC Lions head coach Buck Pierce here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Buck, we played some audio from

Micahaway yesterday in the aftermath of the loss and he talked about the same mistakes happening over and over again and costing you guys wins, given that the offense is putting up pretty much 30 points every single game, or at least over the last five. When it comes to correcting mistakes, at what point do you as a coaching staff kind of turn the page from, we're learning and we're going to correct the mistakes to, okay, you guys have had enough chances to correct these mistakes. Now we're going to start making bigger moves, like either personnel moves or coaching moves. Yeah, you know, you look at everything all the time. You know, I'm always evaluating everything. I'm going around.

and, you know, we're bowling around the organization and the team and how to improve. So, you know, you look at everything, you look at how, you know, how we can teach it better, how we can put our players in better position, you know, so they can make plays and play faster. But, you know, I think there's a number of ways to do that. Obviously, you know, you've got to look at, you know, are the mistakes happening over and over again, you know, by the same. player or you know why are these mistakes happening within this you know certain coverage package you know play scheme offensively and you got to look look hard at that you know and I really think it comes down to you know the accountability factor as well you know you've got to be able to

this is you know professional football and you've got to be able to perform at a high level all the time and if we're not doing that then we got to look at in other directions. Well, on the subject of other directions, there are a couple new faces that are going to be in and around the team this week. It announced today the addition of two Americans to the roster, defensive lineman Bradley and A

and offensive lineman Brandon Yates. What can you tell us what the two guys that you guys have added? Yeah, you know, so this time during the season we're able to expand our practice roster spots and bring some guys in and get some looks at, you know, guys that we really liked, whether they've been on our egg list

or, you know, just, You know, I have the opportunity to get them up right now to look at them in person. So, yeah, both very physical, you know, like the way they play. We think that they suit this league as well. You look at, you know, offensively, you know, getting a guy that has had some power, play inside, you know, potentially play some outside as well if needed. And then, you know, a great pass rusher. There brings a ton of power off the edge.

I want to talk about Nathan Rourke and with the defensive issues and the penalty issues he's kind of been a little bit forgotten over the last few games but he's going to be in the running for most outstanding Canadian and he's putting up good numbers

he's doing his job what's his frustration level right now with the team because he's doing his job but the wins aren't coming Yeah, you know, I think, you know, it's frustrating, obviously, you know, you want to be able to close games out, you want to be able to finish the right way. I think, you know, when you look at it overall, it's, you know, some self-inflicted things. Offensively, and as a quarterback, you just have to focus on doing your job and, you know, making sure that you're putting the offensive team in the best position to win, you know, and that's all you can do. That's all you can do.

You know, he does a great job of, you know, leading by example, and his voice in the locker room is extremely, you know, heavy, you know, people listen to him when he speaks. And, you know, I think, I think, you know, with Nathan, you know, he's obviously, you know, wanting the wins to come, but he's going to stick to his process and we're going to do our best to put him in position, you know, to help us win. And that's what he does every week.

The Lions are back in action this Friday. It's a rematch against the Red Blacks a chance for some revenge against Ottawa. It's a Friday night game of BC plays. Buck, thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Best luck this weekend against Ottawa. Hey, thanks, guys. Thank you, Buck Pierce, head coach of the BC Lions here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.

Let's dive back into some of this Canucks audio. We have a bunch of it from yesterday. We only really got to two clips. both of them kind of focused on the center position. We played Elliot Freeman talking about the Connect solution or lack thereof at the 2C spot. Then we had a clip from SAT talking about how much the organization values Atu Ratu as a young center prospect and maybe was loath to give him up in a trade this summer. I do want to focus on the goaltending a little bit here.

This is from, yeah, Laddie, you can even weigh in on this one. This is from Lanks, our good buddy Lanks, Kevin Lankin and yesterday, one of the guys that was made available at the media during the Jake Milford tournament. I really like listening to him speak. He is... He's thoughtful? Yeah, and he's... He gives good answers.

And you can tell that he's excited for the season. He should listen to more gold. He likes a situation. Nah, most of them are weirdos. Yeah, and they interrupt. I thought he was done. So Lankin is going to be, like a lot of other guys on this team, that we don't talk about enough,

but we need to understand. going to be super important to the successor failure of this team. This is a goalie tandem. Maybe there'll be a 1A, 1B scenario, but with everything we know about Dempco's health history and the amount of money that they're paying Lankinen,

he's going to be playing a lot this year. Do you know in the first month, in October alone, there are two sets of three games and four nights? I go back to two seasons ago when the Canucks got off to that great start that ended with a playoff appearance in which Staturedemko

was injured 4. Demko played a ton. We talked about it a lot that season. A lot. We kept looking at the amount of times they were running out, Demko, and we were like, hey, we get it. You got Rick Tocke at his first year, full-time head coach behind the bench.

The team wants to win games. They want to prove that they're a legit contender. They want to make the playoffs. They want to win the division. They want to get a good playoffs. All these regular season games matter. So Demko's going to get run out there and play. What happened? Demko got hurt. Then he spent all of last season in and out, you know, trying to figure out

his injury and his health status. So if you learn from your mistakes and things that have gone wrong in the past, one of them is you're going to need to take a more cautious approach while also trying to remain competitive because they want to get back in the playoffs. What do you do? You bring a goalie tandem into the mix where you're pretty confident in your 1A and your 1B. Here's Kevin Lankenen on working together with Demko this offseason and maybe how it translates to the regular season. 100%. That's what we've been doing here. already for three, four weeks now.

I feel like it's a good chemistry where obviously know each other better than we did last year and we know kind of the strength of each goal as an individual and there's something we can learn from each other. So I see it's a really good upside for the team and most importantly for the both of us as well.

I wonder how much this coaching staff is going to lean on this goaltending tandem to not only you know, play solid but plays spectacular because one of the ways that you can help the offense is to tell your defensemen get up in the play a little more. Sure.

Take a few chances. Yeah. Right? The risk is odd man. Russia's going back the other way. You got to remember last year at the start of the year, it became very apparent, very quickly, that Seelops was going to be a problem.

Yeah. He was the starter in games. He was the opening night starter. That's great. And he allowed six goals. Yeah. And it just got into a tailspin from there. If you want to talk about a heavy workload at the beginning of the year,

look at the amount that Lankton played last season over the course of October in the first two weeks in November. It was a lot. It was on par with two years ago where Demko played nine of the first 12, and DeSmith was sitting there for a large chunk of it. And that is because in both those instances, DeSmith two years ago in C-Lavs last year, the coaching staff didn't have a ton of faith

in the guy that wasn't the number one. This is a totally different. He started out pretty well that year, right? But then he had that really rough. Was it in Minnesota? Yeah, the 10 goal performance. Yeah, that was a tough one. That was a tough one.

You don't ever want to let in 10. DeSmith. I think he only let in nine. One of them might have been an empty netter. Dismith? I don't think DeSmith, and this is me looking at it retroactively. I don't think he ever really had the full faith of Talk it and maybe the rest of the coaching staff.

as well, that he could be anything more than a spot starter backup. You know, like a full-fledged backup? For sure. Yep. And part of the reason that I think they liked him in that role is that he's, you know, it is a hard thing to do. I mean, I haven't played, I never backed up as a goalie. I was always the starter.

But for those other losers out there that had to back up, it is a certain skill set to be able to jump in and play once every, I don't know, six or seven games. You sit for, you sit for 10 to 12 days without any game. actually ain't going to jump in. Like, Seelovs couldn't do it. Yeah. I think that was one of the problems.

Seelves, you can tell as a guy that when you run him out every second game, he's a better goalie than when he sits and watches for five or six games. You need to have a certain mindset if you're in that role, right? It's all about your habits and practice and keeping up and making sure you're game ready. And I think any parent would know that one kid that you're okay kind of leaving by themselves. You know they're going to get the work done or whatever. And there's another kid that you know, it's definitely not going to get the work done.

How did you find the iPad? I hit that thing. So if you're a kid that gets the work done by themselves and can, hold themselves accountable, that's a great position to be in. It's a great way to make your name as a goaltender, but it's an extremely difficult task. It's a very good analogy, by the way. Is there any chance that

they just go alternating starts for these guys? I could see it. I could see it. Why not? Who's the team that was doing it last season that was alternating starts? I have no idea. Remember there was one team that was like aggressively, like they were just like set on it.

Was it Minnesota? No. In any rate, it doesn't matter. Was it the Washington Capitals with Thompson and Lingren? Because they did it for a while at the start before Thompson eventually began. Itzberg did it with Nadelcovich and Jari for a little bit. But that was just because both of them were just like, go out of it. Yuck.

All right, go back to the other guy. I forgot he's terrible too. Oh, God. The guy lost the net every day. And then they sent Jari down. No, I just wonder if they'll do that because. It could be the easiest way to do it. It might just be for consistency's sake.

Just do it that way. and then you have some reliability. You know, like, then the guys know what to expect and how to prepare. Because the one thing that I hope and probably expect from Demko is that he's going to be just fine with the reduced workload.

Like, I think, you know, especially now that he's signed his contract extension, like he's not going into this year going, oh, I got to play well, I got to give as many starts as I can because I'm a pending on restrictive free agent. he's going to be comfortable with making the proper amount of starts for

not only his play but also his health yeah that being said you know that he wants to be the guy you know that I mean Demco if there's one thing that I've learned in you know very from afar covering Demko but hearing all the stuff from people that are in the room and anecdotally and people that have been around him

hyper competitive can be very particular when it comes to the nuances of his game and when he's playing and when he's... Because he wants to be out in the ice all the time. That's part of the reason he got hurt was he was like hyper-competitive training. I think part of the reason... That was partly his trainer, though,

like his goalie coach was also a hard-charging guy that wanted to be out on the ice spot. But again, from the people that I spoke with, like, Demko really embraced that because of the heights that he got to. Sure. Where he wanted to, like, in the Vezna conversation. But when you are six, five, what is he, 6-4, 6-5, that kind of frame,

working that hard is going to take its toll after a while. And I think that's what we saw the last couple of years happen. You do need to recalibrate mentally when you're not the guy. Because for a long time, Demko's been one of the core guys along with... But he's still a very important player. It's not like he's a backup. It's just different when you don't play every night. Or you're not playing two-thirds of the games.

Remember, Demko was one of the guys that was like on the posters with Petey and Hughes and Miller when he was here as one of the, the fundamental core pieces. Don't you think he still is? Sure, but he's not going to be counted upon as much. Because now there's another guy that's making not quite the money but close and is not quite as good of a goalie but close. It's hard to, like, just put it this way.

It's hard to be a core guy if everyone else is playing 82 and you're playing 41. That's fair. You know? Yeah, it is. You can't, you may be, you're like, well, I'm still a big part of the team and you are, but you're not a 60 game kind of guy, right? You know the best part of this conversation about their roles and goalies in general

is we can get two weeks into the season and it all goes out the window. If Demko's on fire and Lankinen can't stop a beach ball, guess they're going to be going with for two out of three. I was thinking that too. By the way, we've got great listeners here. A lot of people have texted in that it was the Boston Bruins with Allmark and Swamen.

But that was a few years. That were alternating. Yeah. Well, yeah, it is because Allmark's not there anymore. But that's, and the interesting thing there is that Boston felt the need that they had to go in one direction or another. And I think part of it was like, I think Swainman ultimately pushed to be like, I want this all to myself. But they had such a great situation with Swamen and Allmark. It was perfect. Neither guy got overworked.

They loved playing with one another. I remember the big, the hugs with the sellies and everything. They liked it. Yeah. It became an issue in the playoffs. because the coaching staff always felt like you had to pick a guy. The nice thing about the connecks is they don't even have to worry about that right now.

Who cares who the goal is going to be in the playoffs? It's also tough for the goalie to trying to explain them like, yeah, you're going to be a tandem here. You're going to finish the year with 39 games. Like, ugh. It doesn't sit well for a goalie that has, you know, grander visions of their career. Do you think having the contract certainty

for both of them, though, will put them at ease a little bit more? Yeah, I think so. Lankin's probably in a much better, you know, mind state than he was coming into last season or he kind of threw into the fire last year this year he's he's talked about he's had time to prepare and they absolutely

and they absolutely overplayed Lankan unless 100% they had to absolutely what other choice did they have to it was the right decision to do it yeah so it may be the last couple years have shown that neither of these guys and there's proof of concept neither of you is meant to carry a gigantic workload but together

you could have a sort of swam in old mark 2.0 on the West Coast where if you buy into it even just for one year. Just buy into it for this season and see what happens. You guys will benefit the both of you by not having this massive workload. And let's not forget, I think Lankinen's going to the Olympics. That's pretty much a guarantee.

I don't think Demko is going to, but he's got an opportunity to at least be knocking on the door. By the way, you know, the Dustin Wolf's story this morning, he signed a massive contract extension. I think it's 52.5 million all told in Calgary. he was at the NHLPA's media thing in Vegas and he was talking about how choked he was about not getting invited to the U.S. camp Yeah, the Americans have so many candidates. You know, so like never mind Demko.

Like there's a guy, a hot shot young goalie in the division in Calgary who's also not there and looking to knock the door down for Team USA as well. He's selling Mr. Burns there. There's a hot shot young goalie. Young Whippersnapper. Stop the puck, not once, not twice, but thrice.

We got time for a little bit more audio here. That was a good one. We got time for a little bit more audio here. You know what? Can we play the Tyler Myers on Evander Cain? I wanted to get to this. We kind of forgot about it. So there's not a ton of players on the Canucks

that have experience playing with Evander Cain. A lot of them have experience playing against them. But Tyler Myers, given he's one of the more veteran guys in the entire NHL right now, here's Tyler Myers on his experience with Evander Cain and what he expects Cain to bring to the team in his first year as a Connack. Tyler Myers from the Miltz yesterday.

Yeah, I think Cainter's going to to help us a lot. You know, he brings a lot to a group, you know, big power forward, you know, the times that I've had with him when we were younger, playing against him, you know, wasn't that fun. And, you know, playing with him at World Juniors, things like World Juniors and Worlds, I know what he can bring. And, you know, I think he's exactly some of the things that we were lacking a little bit of. And, you know, I think he's going to step in and be grateful. So a couple things here. One, when we talk about the health of the goalies,

we can take the health conversation. It pivots straight into Cain. His last full year where he actually played in the regular season, he did appear in 77 games. That was almost a career high for him, right? I mean, you're talking about a guy that has missed a lot of time over a lot of different seasons with a long list of ailments. And part of it has to do with the fact that he,

plays the style that he plays. It's very physically taxing. The other part of it is the age, right? He's not a young man anymore. He's just turned 34 years old in August. Now, that being said, the part where Myers talked about, I think he brings some of the things that we maybe lacked last year. I talked about this last week. It would be nice for this team if instead of talking about what they're going to do in retribution for being on the wrong end of a cheap or dirty hit or getting roughed up, if they were on the front foot and they were the ones

putting the other team to answer those questions. Does everyone understand what I mean here? For sure. Instead of always having to be the team to explain why there was no retribution or being forced to answer the bell, be the instigator, be the aggressor, be the one that's going out there

and causing the disturbance that forces another team to answer. Kane's going out there, hits a guy like, who's with me? Just you, Evander. It's all you. Go get them, though. It is going to be an interesting thing, though, because a lot of times,

and we've always talked about it. Oh, the Canucks don't have a deterrent in their lineup. The Canucks don't have that guy that's going to answer the bell. The Canucks don't have the guy that's going to, you know, stand up when someone roughs up Hughes or something. Forget all that stuff. Be the team that does that stuff. Find the equivalent of Hughes on the other team and run them into the endboards.

And see what happens. It does change your, it changes your DNA and your identity as a team. when you're the one on the front foot and you're the one causing chaos. By the way, a few people have texted in that the Carolina Hurricanes also alternated goalies.

They had like four guys. Yeah, but down the stretch it was Anderson, Kachetkoff, like, consistently. They just flipped on off on off. And then I think in the playoffs, they went to Anderson. And if they didn't have either of those two guys down the stretch, I think it was an ECHL goalie that they were bringing up. Again, they're kind of forced into that situation. Well, wasn't Spencer,

Spencer Martin was with them too, right? He was, and then, I don't know if he got hurt, or there was something where they had to call up a guy from the ECHL. Anyway, other teams have done it, and I'll be curious to see, I mean, it might make it easier for everyone or just to be like, is this an odd game or an even game? Yep.

You know, like, you're the odd and you're the even. Worry about the playoffs if you get there. Like, that is, that's a tomorrow problem. It's a good problem to have there. It's a good problem to have. Maybe you rotate goalies in the playoffs, but it doesn't even matter right now, because you just need to get there.

We need to get to the third and final hour of the program. We're up against it for time. We've got to go to break when we come back. Some NFL talk on the horizon. Matt Verde-R-R-M is going to join the program. NFL writer for Sports Illustrated. We'll look back on Monday Night Football. We'll look back on all the big stories from week one.

And we can look ahead to week two because we got a good one on tap. Thursday night football. We got the commanders and we got the Packers. Both teams off to 1-0 starts. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.