Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will Demko Start Tonight?

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

In hour one, Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, they look ahead to tonight's Canucks home matchup versus the Jets (3:00), plus they talk the top NHL news of the day with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (28:38).  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.

You're listening to Halford and brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Perch's face, looks, steps up, he's floating the football. It is for Devonthe Smith. He took it away from the defender. You hold good football teams? to 10 points, you should win the football game. I do have an update on his physical status.

He's still a beast. Well, you all know what laughter sounds like. Good morning, Vancouver. 6 o'clock on a Tuesday. It is Halford at his brough with Jamie Dodd, and we are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning.

Good morning. Ad, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal can get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com.

We are in hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling Day recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintak Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step. Big show ahead on a Tuesday.

It's a four-guester here. Guests begin at 6.30. Greg Wasinski from ESPN. Our NHL Insider is going to join the program. Busy night in the National Hockey League tonight with nine games, including the Canucks and Jets at 7 o'clock right here in Rogers Arena.

We'll whip around the league for all the latest news and notes with Greg in about a half-hour's time here on the Halford and Brough show. 7 o'clock, Jim Tooth is going to join the program. Our good buddy from Jets at noon and the Jim Tooth Joe on C.J.O.B. 680 radio in Winnipeg. The Jets are in town, as I mentioned, to play the Canucks tonight. Jets are coming in cold, having struggled through the state of California over their last three games.

They lost to the Kings, the Sharks, and the Ducks, all in regulation. We'll get a state of the Winnipeg Jets with Jim Tooth at 7 o'clock this morning. 7.30, Nathan Rourke is going to join the program. That's right, your BC Lions starting quarterback and finalist for the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award will look back on his team's disappointing loss. Two Saskatchewan in the Western Final on Saturday can also look back on a year in which Nathan played some excellent football and I think importantly became a very outspoken advocate for the Canadian Football League and the love of the game that Nathan Roark has.

We'll talk to him about all that at 7.30. 8.10 this morning. Note the start time. 8.10. Landon Ferraro is going to join the program. Canucks analyst and panelists. Those rhyme. for SportsNet. As mentioned, the Canucks are in action tonight at 7 p.m. In case you're wondering about programming on your favorite and only sports radio station in the city, Canucks Central goes from 4 to 6.

Pre-game show goes from 6 to 7. Batch and Randeep have the call at 7. You can see Landin on the show tonight as well. And then post-game show immediately following the call with Batch and Randive. It's all right here on Sportsnet 650. That is what's happening on the program today. Greg, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that?

What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler, regular, even construction companies, the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca. Just to lay out the first half hour of the program here, Jamie and I are going to run through a bunch of the scores from last night, although there were only four.

of them very interesting. And then we will turn our attention to previewing tonight's game between the Canucks and the Jets. But we'll begin with the Edmonton Oilers. What a performance, sort of, from the Oilers yesterday, who got a big and important comeback win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was a former Blue Jack. Jack Roslovick in OT with the winner. Here's what it sounded like. Oilers beat the Jackets 5'4 in overtime at Rogers Place on Monday night. 40 seconds gone in overtime. And they're going to get McDavid and Drysettle off the a ice here for the Blue Jackets. Orenski for Charlie Coy.

What a say by Skinner, post-to-cost, Ross Lippert, with a game on his stiff. He's got out of the Blue Jacket, the Columbus Native. That's how deep gaming. Ambiton wins in overtime. So as you can hear from the response, pretty fired up for a Monday, night weighing over the Columbus blue jackets. But with good reason, it felt like the Oilers needed that one. Well, they needed it. And they were down in that game.

And they really got shelled by Columbus in the second period in particular. Like, they were just awful in that second period. And I mean, we can talk about Evan Bouchard's Ice Time. And he appeared to maybe get benched for a stretch there. And I think if they hadn't come back, if McDavid hadn't done McDavid things to kind of almost single-handedly engineer the comeback in that third period, the conversation we'd be having today would likely be

is it Pete DeBoer time in Ebbinton. We were getting to that point. I'm glad you brought it up. Well, the thing is, it's a it's a well-used playbook in Ebbinton at this point, right? Make the coaching change. Make the coaching change early in the season. And you know maybe that will get these guys

kind of out of their rut or whatever they're in. And you'll go from there. And especially when there's a coach as talented as Pete DeBore kind of on the sidelines. I think that's where this conversation was going. It could still get there, but look, you win and you're okay if you're Chris Knoblock. But, I mean, when they were down multiple goals in the third period last night, that's where my head was going. The thought of Pete DeBoer inheriting a team with goalie problems is too delicious to pass up.

I mean, I would love to see it. But, hey, this has become one of the biggest talking points of all the Canadian teams in the NHL right now is another slow start. But this one feels different because people are honestly wondering if they have. the wheels in the wagon to pull themselves out of this. Now, they've got Connor McDavid, and by the way, good on Connor McDavid for acknowledging that he was yesterday's limitless AV one to watch, as

anointed by this show, and said now I've got the real pressure to step up and make something happen. He did so by scoring twice in the third period. I don't know if you saw the game tying goal by Jake Wallman in this one, but with a minute left and well short-handed, Wallman sort of whipped the puck in the

general vicinity of the goal line, and it deflected in off Zach Wrenzkin, and very bizarre goal. But you take a win if you're the Oilers. You manage to get a victory, ending a three game skid and maybe taking some of the pressure off for now. But one of the big talking points in the aftermath was this was not pretty and this was not the script that we can really follow on a regular basis. Still some inherent problems with that team. But they managed to get past the jackets last night. Speaking of teams that have struggled as of late and got a big win last night, the New York Rangers won their first game at home all season.

a 6-3 victory over the Nashville Predators on the strength of a pair and goals by our Temi Panarin. This comes after the Rangers lost their first seven home games. They went 06 and 1 in those seven games, scored six goals in those games. Five of them came against one team

the San Jose Sharks and they got shut out five times. So for them to be able to come out with a six-gold performance against a really bad Nashville team. I'll just put that out there. That is a not good hockey team out of Nashville. But I guess good on, good on the New York Rangers

for being able to finally get a win at home and exploding offensively with the six goals. Note on the Predators here. And we'll talk to Wyshinsky about this because Wyshinsky was in New York. He's based out of New York. So he was able to speak to Ryan O'Reilly. Ryan O'Reilly is some of you may know made some pretty wild remarks

last week where he was carving himself up after a loss talking about how he couldn't make a six foot pass to save his life and he's only had one good year in his entire career. Well, Wish got the exclusive interview. you to follow up on those remarks. And Ryan O'Reilly called himself

a crybaby. He said he regretted making those remarks. I bet he did. Yeah. Isn't that worse than just being a crybaby? Make fun of yourself for being the crybaby. The self-aware credit. Or are you owning it? I will note, too, I didn't even realize this was going on, but the predators are now on their way to Stockholm.

They're going to take part in a two. They're going to take part in a two game set against the Pittsburgh Penguins as part of the global series. I also forgot that they're going to playing at Avichi Arena. They named an arena after him. I forgot about that. So they're going to be playing two games against the penguins there. And I got to say, I don't often

get Nashville Predators posts through my feed, but I have had a couple over the last few days, and it's not good. They're saying Barry Trots has set them back decades. I don't know. Well, that's the kind of feeling they're having right now in Nashville. Obviously, it's hyperbole. So we'll talk to Wish about that. It's rough.

He also asked O'Reilly about that and talked about O'Reilly trade rumors as well. That's all coming up at 6.30. We're going to go now to a surprisingly exciting game between the Islanders and the Devils. The Devils are always good for some excitement, but the Islanders have gotten off to a pretty solid start this year. And it was a local guy, Matthew Barzell, scoring 117 in overtime to give the aisles a 3-2 win against New Jersey, the Prudential Center on Monday night. Here's what it sounded like in OT Barzell with the winner. And pulled away from the crease by Drew Ann. Brian Pollock.

That's Bob Barzell saves the day. Tipped it around Jack Hughes. Now he goes to the net. Here's Barzola. Let's go to the pitchforks away. This one belongs to the Islanders. Put those pitchforks away, indeed. Devils lose for the first time on Home Ice.

Good effort by Barzell and the Islanders. And we were talking about this before the show. Another solid performance from former Vancouver Canuck Bo Horvatt. I believe it was Rick Dolores. O'L who said that the Canadian Olympic team was keeping an eye on him. Rick loves his Olympic updates. It has been a very good year for Horvatt, I got to admit. Yeah, it's reminiscent of the start he got off to in his final year here in Vancouver

when he was just absolutely red-hot. He's got 12 goals in 16 games. And I think it was Barzell after the game who had the quote that he's the best shooter in the world right now, which, okay, pump the brakes a little bit there. But I get you're trying to gas up your teammate, fair enough. But we have seen this from Horvatt, right? He really developed that shot into. a weapon. We saw it in the final stages

of his time here in Vancouver. That's continued with the islanders. And when he gets hot, the goals can start coming in bunches. Do we want to have the, what if he was still here or will he be on the Olympic team conversation? Oh, there's so many ways to go. Which well tread Bohorv that conversation do we have to have?

Look, the Olympic thing, it's great. It's not going to happen. It's just so crowded. And then before you even get to Celebrini and Bedard and that, you know, them establishing themselves like they have this year. It was always going to be a really tough uphill battle for Horvatt to make the team. Nice to be considered, I'm sure, but I just don't see who you're going to leave off and how many

guys you'd have to leave off for him to make it. I think the more curious one from the Islanders is if Matthew, yeah, Schaefer. Now, if that feels like a bridge too far as well, for me anyway, his body of work at the NHL level is too small. Yeah. That being said, I think he might be a litmus test, and quite frankly, Badard and Celebrini as well. And I think Logan Thompson, too. if this Olympic selection group puts more emphasis on in-season form than they did for four nations. Because I'm going to be dead honest. I was pretty confident that the four nations roster was the one that they selected prior to the season. Like I don't think anyone made enough of a case for themselves or just simply couldn't tilt the scales enough with their regular season play to change what the mindset for those guys was, well, we know these guys and we trust these guys and we like these guys.

and we don't want to upset the apple card for someone that might have been on a two-month heater. I wonder if that mentality will change going into the Olympics. And here's the thing, I don't know why it would because it's the exact same brain trust. But I feel like they had a couple misses at the Four Nations because they went with

the people they were more comfortable with instead of the people that it maybe played their way on or at least deserved to play their way onto the roster. I think Mark Sheifley could be a really interesting litmus test for that because he wasn't on the Four Nations, but he's off to a great start. Speaking of the Winnipeg Jets team, he's off to a fan.

fantastic start to the season and I just don't know that they want to put him on the team though necessarily but will his performance demand it on Schaefer I think you're right I mean of those three kind of young superstars Schaefer Bedard and Celebrini he feels like the least likely to make the team with with Bard and Celebrini you can always talk yourself into okay we just need that game breaking offensive talent we can hide them in certain situations we can shelter them it's harder to hide a defenseman and if he's not going to be on your power play what are you bringing the guy the defenseman you need to shelter for so then that's just not hockey Canada's MO I know people point to Drew Dowdy I mean he was 20 Shafer's 18 yeah so it's

still it's different even then okay uh here's a guy that we can discuss about his candidacy for making the Olympic team in 2026 Brad Marshawn because Brad Marshawn right now is playing unbelievably well as a matter of fact he extended his goal streak to five games last night late one in Vegas in case you missed it. He also had an assist as the Florida Panthers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 Marshawn's longest goal streak in nearly a decade.

Five consecutive games and last night's was a beauty again for those that missed it. Here's what it sounded like Marshawn scores again as the Panthers beat the Knights 3-2 in Vegas. Forsling up ahead. Marchant's got it along the wall.

Marchant stick handles and he scores a beauty. Brad Marchand with a gorgeous Go! Oh, he is lean and mean and oh, so far between. I have no idea what that means. He is so far between. He's got 18 points in 15 games is what he's got. It's lean and mean right there. Well, I am, he's got 11 goals in 15 games, 18 points in 15 games.

The ageless wonder that is Brad Mushab and don't forget, he is doing this on a team where he is required to do the heavy lifting because they're without the services of Alexander Barkoff and Matthew Kachach. 37 years old he won't turn 30 I think he's in May so he won't be 38 until the Olympics are done not like that matters an awful lot but I got a feeling that

he's one of those guys that's in until either he plays his way off he's injured or he tells them he's not going I don't think any of those things are going to happen so I think that unless something dramatically changes this performance to the start of the year

only sort of solidifies that he's going to be there when they go to Italy in 26th He's the type of player that possibly could have played his way off if he'd have a slow start to the season just because of his age. And frankly, he didn't look that great at the Four Nations. And then he has the Stanley Cup run with Florida and he looks fantastic. But if we were doing a, you know, Team Canada roster debrief the week after the Four Nations, we'd all be saying, I don't think Marshawn's going to be there. He looked too old. Couldn't keep up.

Wasn't really effective. He was one of the, he was one of the less impressive performers. I don't want to say he was bad. But there were with some of the performances that they got and the pace that it was being played at. That's the big thing. And that was the question for me with Mark Stone, too, right? Is, okay, are you going to have to really lean in to the pace and the speed and being able to keep up at that level? But if you're Brad Marchand, you have the playoffs that you did with Florida.

And then you have a phenomenal start to the season. I think that answers any questions about whether he's going to be there. So that was it from last night to action four games in the book. We got nine on tap tonight, including your Vancouver Cadox, who are in action seven o'clock tonight at Rogers Arena. A reminder, you can hear the game right here on SportsNet, 650. Tonight's opponent, the Winnipeg Jets. Off to an okay start to the season. At first blush, the record looks fine.

They're 9, 6, and 0 through 15 games. They're fourth in the Central Division, but they come into Vancouver tonight, not in great form. There are three games into a six-game road trip, which will continue tonight in Vancouver before they go to Seattle and Calgary. And they just finished an extremely rough trip through California, which, by the way, might sort of be a precursor for what, A lot of teams are going to have to deal with when they go through California

because it's not a cakewalk like it was in previous years. They lost 3-0-0 to L.A. They lost 2-1 to San Jose, 4-1 to Anaheim. So if you can do the math on that quickly, that's only two goals scored over the course of three games in California. So the Jets come in tonight having lost three with the offense sputtering a little bit. It's been all Mark Schifleys, you mentioned, and Kyle Connor for them offensively. It's been a two-headed monster in terms of clicking with points.

And in net, in case you're wondering, it was Comrie who played the last game in Anaheim, so I would fully expect it to be a Connor Hellebuck game tonight, and that leads us into some questions, Jamie, for the Vancouver Canucks, including the first one, with Thatcher Demko status. Well, that's the big one, right? Will this be a matchup of two, I'll say, potential Team USA goalies?

Hellebuck's going to be there. Demko wants to be there, and it is the biggest question. Now, I think it's also the easiest of the big questions to answer going into tonight. All signs point to Thatcher, Dempke, playing today, right? Kevin Woodley was on our show yesterday and said he's hearing it wasn't serious. Rick Dollywell goes on his show on Czech TV yesterday. It's not serious. Dempco's been skating. We heard from Adam Foote post game on Sunday that, or pregame maybe even on Sunday, but it looks like there's a good chance he's going to play. So barring some sort of setback

between right now and game time, it looks like Thatcher Dempco will be a net. I know Canucks fans will be doing the thing where they kind of wince in fear every time Thatcher Dempke, has to make some sort of athletic save. And I can't even say, I can't even sit here and say, don't do that, relax. Because we have no idea what's going on with that you're Demko. Nope. This could be absolutely nothing. This could be something concerning until we have more information.

It's really, really hard to judge. We have no idea whether there is any sort of increased injury risk for him right now. And again, I think the answer for tonight is he's going to play. The bigger picture question for me is, okay, so the facts is we understand them here. He woke up on Friday, felt a little sore, and the team said, all right, we don't want to push you. Take today. And you know what? Take these two games over the weekend as well.

Have a weekend, Thatcher. Have a weekend. Should we expect more of this this season? Is preventative maintenance and not just practices missed, but games missed for preventative maintenance going to be a regular or semi-regular occurrence for Thatcher Dempco? Again, we don't know the answer, but if it is, that's a big deal. I think we know the answer. I think the answer is going to be yes. Yeah?

Yeah, they signed Kevin Lankinen with the term and the money that they gave him to be a semi-regular and important contributor in net. It wasn't to play caddy to Thasher Demko. And I think part of it was probably what they're trying to bake into the recipe right now with there are going to be times where Thashers just not going to be available. And he's just going to have to sit out because that is the best way to keep him fresh. There's NBA highlights on the screen here in the 650 studio. And I think about the NBA a lot when it comes to rest and they just have days where guys just don't play and people don't like it and the league gets mocked

for the maintenance days that guys take and load management, however else you want to call it. But the reality is it does work. And it keeps guys fresher over the course of an 80-plus game season. Now, we've got a great opportunity here and the Canucks have a great opportunity here for this plan to work like Chef's Kiss because right now they went through the first half of the plan,

sitting Demko over the course of a weekend, playing Lankin in back-to-backs, and they got three or four points out of it. If Demko comes out tonight and can put forth a really solid performance against the Jets, the Canucks are laughing because they've got proof of concept that this can work, and this is something that they can do, maybe not with regularity,

but enough during the course of an 82 game season where, oh yeah, the guy that we signed, Kevin Lankin, to be the guy that can handle an increased workload at a moment's notice, can do that. Now, you can quibble with Lankinen's play over the weekend. I know I kind of gave him a hard time with the amount of goals that he gave up, but if you're a result-based group and you're less worried about process right now, more worried about the results, the results right now were positive from Saturday and Sunday. If Demko can put forth a good performance tonight based on the fact that he rested all weekend,

as a results-based group, you're even more happy. And the other thing is, I mean, I think we were all, a little, there was two concerns with Thatcher Dempco coming into the season. They were kind of opposite. The one is he'd get hurt right away. You wouldn't have them available. The other concern was he'll be healthy, but the team will play the wheels off him because they're desperate for points.

I think they do deserve a certain degree of credit for saying, okay, hey, yeah, we're desperate for points right now. But the more important thing is your long term health, we want to keep you around as much as possible. So if that's a sign of things to come, as, as concerning as it might be and as stressful as it might be for Canucks fans to kind of always have Thatcher Demko's health just on the back burner simmering as a potential issue. If he's missing days, it is probably the right call to be as cautious and say, we thought they would kind of try to manage, you know, get him to

that 50 game mark-ish by just playing Lankin and a lot. Well, if part of it is we're just going to remove you completely from the lineup for certain games. And that's going to be one of the ways we manage your starts and keep you to reasonable number. All right. It's weird. It's a little, it's a little offbeat for the NHL, but if it gets them to 45 to 50 games, fair enough. That's a perfectly fine outcome. Okay.

Next question, as it pertains, pressing questions for your Vancouver Canucks? Can the Canucks win the special teams battle tonight against the Jets? Yeah, this is, it's going to be very interesting, I think, against Winnipeg. Now, their power play has been just kind of fine, average, clicking at an average rate so far this year. But, of course, last year, they were elite.

And there's still a lot of talent. on that unit led by Shifley and Connor and we know what they can do with the man advantage. I'll also say Winnipeg's penalty kill has been really, really good. So the Canucks power play, if they're going to keep pace, they've got a tough task in front of them. But, you know, when we talk about special teams with the Canucks right now, we're primarily focused on the penalty kill. And we talked about it yesterday, right? The messaging from Adam Foote coming out of the weekend was, well, you know, we're making slight mistakes. But the good news is we're getting reps. We're learning and this is going to pay off

down the road. I guess my question is, when does the payoff start to happen? Like, when is it realistic? I'll tell you. These reps translate to an increased performance, a better rate of production on the penalty kill. I don't think you're going to see a better penalty kill

until the injured guys are back. And that's really it, right? Like, I don't think there's a miraculous turnaround on the penalty kill coming until Blugher and Forbort are back. I remember at the old station, we had Chris Higgins in studio. I handful of times. A good, you know, short-handed penalty-killing guy in his day. And we asked him one time, we're like, is the homework of a good penalty kill the personnel or the strategy and the

blueprint and the deployment? He said, like, everyone has a structure, but everyone has a pretty similar structure in terms of how they want to kill. It does often come down to do you have guys that are good at it. And, and, you know, that's why it's a valuable attribute that people seek out sometimes in free agency. But I think more importantly, you can't just force upon anybody. in your lineup. There are certain guys who are more adept at it. And I think one of the issues right now

is the Canucks are running through guys that don't have those reps that you're talking about. I think it takes a lot longer than 8 or 10 or 12 NHL games. And to be quite honest, sometimes at that point you don't even really necessarily find it.

There's instinct involved with it. There's an attitude. There's a desire. And you already had guys that had kind of made it their bread and butter, one of their signature NHL characteristics, especially with Blugher and especially with Forbort.

You need to get them back, right? I mean, this is a team built almost top to bottom with if everything goes right as its mantra. I think that includes the penalty kill. Like if our penalty killers are healthy, we'll be okay. And they already suffered two big losses, departure-wise, in terms of Joshua and most importantly, Pew Souter.

I don't think you can afford all the body blows that they had on the penalty kill and realistically expect it to be good. They're just going to have to wait until Forbort and Blugher get back. finally the offense Jamie the offense that red hot offense that we're hot can it stay red hot can it even get hotter against Connor hellabuck in the Winnipeg Jets yeah tough test for them and when we talked about it with Woodley yesterday they started to actually generate some high danger chances over the weekend and even the previous couple of games before that as well and look the depth

scoring is going to have to be a theme for this team all season they're going to need that at the same time Drew O'Connor and Kiefer Sherwood can only carry the offense for so long. I think those guys have accounted for like almost a third of the goals the Canucks have scored this year. That's awesome. That's awesome that you've gone for a stretch of the schedule where they've been so productive.

You cannot bank on that continuing for the entire season. And look, you knew it was going to come back to this player, but if we're talking about the offense, staying hot, being more productive, even against a good defensive team like Winnipeg with Connor Hellebuck, it

comes back to Olius Pedersen. You can be the biggest fan of his defensive game in the world and still acknowledge that he needs to get hot offensively at some point. Like that's what star players do. I mean, we're talking about Bull Horvatt is on a really hot shooting streak right now, piling up goals. Mark Schifley. You know, I don't forget even the guys like Nathan McKinnon and Connor McDavid, okay?

We're not putting him in that category. Brad Marshon, 11 goals and 15 games. Exactly. Like really good offensive players have these stretches where they get red hot and can carry their team for a period of this schedule. There's a couple of games a couple weeks ago against Montreal and Edmonton. Patterson had four

points in two games. There was the hope that would be the start. He's followed that up with three points in his last seven. There has to be a moment, a few weeks, a month, where Patterson is red-hot and carrying this offense. Can it start tonight? Okay, so a reminder of the game

is tonight. 7 o'clock at Rogers Arena. You can hear the call right here on Sportsnet 650. Big game between the Jets. the Canucks. We got to go to break. When we come back on the other side, Greg Wischinski, our ESPN NHL Insider is going to join the program. We'll go around the league with some of the big news and notes from last night and then a nine game

set tonight in the National Hockey League. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcast.

6.34 on a Tuesday, Halford, Brough, featuring Jamie Dodd on SportsNet 650. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at Sands. That's trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program, as the music suggests, Greg Wyshinsky from ESPN, is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of Hour 1, Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them in 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go, Greg Wyshinski from ESPN, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning Wish, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. Can't complain. You know, since we last spoke, the New York Jets are now in a full rebuild.

But now they keep winning games. So that's great. That's exactly what you want when you want a tank is to go on a heater. So things are great, as for usual. You know, another New York team that's winning. Finally, at home, no less, the New York Rangers who got their first home win of the season yesterday. Were you there for that one? Because I know you were there in the vicinity because you spoke with Ryan O'Reilly recently

about his remarks following last week's loss. Yeah, I got over and talked to the predators at their morning skate, but I was not at the game last night. But it's funny, you know, I'm doing a piece later this week on the biggest surprise players, both in the positive and because I'm a cynic, the negative. And I was trying to find some Rangers to put on the list because they hadn't been playing all that well.

And when you start to kind of look into the numbers, you see that, oh, yeah, Lafranier was easily on that list about a week and a half ago, but now, you know, he's turned it around, and he had a good game. last night. And, you know, Panarin, his underlying numbers were always pretty strong, but the production wasn't there. Now he's turned it around. Will Cooley, who, you know, was, was christened as the new Chris Kreider before the season and hadn't really played up to snuff as far as the stats go. Like, he's kind of, like, turned it around, too. So they're

definitely, you know, fixing some of the offensive ills that plagued them earlier this season. and in such are starting to inch up the standings in the East. I do want to ask about the O'Reilly conversation because we actually played the audio on the show last week. It was on the same night where Jakob Dobesh from Montreal also got very emotional in his post-game media availability. So it was a big emo night for the NHL. So in case everyone missed it, and I don't have the clip at the ready,

but essentially O'Reilly said following a loss that he was, was playing pathetic. He was turning the puck over everywhere. He couldn't make a six-foot pass to save his life. Then he said, I've only had one good year in my career. What did he have to say about those remarks when he spoke with you, Greg? That last part was heartbreaking was. It really was. Like this guy's a good player, man. He's had some good seasons. He's been like a Selky candidate before. He's had good offensive production. But, you know, when he says that, you're like, oh, this isn't just like spur of the point. This guy has

struggled with the idea that he's only had one good season in the league when he won the cup and the cons might. It's like, it's kind of sad. But I talked to him yesterday. I talked to his teammate Brady Shay about the O'Reilly comments and whether they resonated in

the national locker room. And Brady's like, I think he's just a little too hard on himself. And so I went over to O'Reilly. I'm like, your boy says you're a little too hard on yourself. He's like, yeah, I realize now that I kind of came off as being a crybaby about all this stuff. And, you know, I think O'Reilly's biggest thing

wasn't necessarily that, you know, he was too hard on himself because he does believe that he needs to play better. I think his mistake, as he put it, was by creating what ended up being a viral clip, he kind of put even more attention on what's already a pretty rough situation in Nashville.

And he kind of felt bad. for putting his teammates under an even more intense spotlight than they're already under. But, you know, it's a funny, weird little team. I got to be honest with you. Like, they got whacked again last night by the Rangers. But when you walk into that room, like, after skate, it's a party. Like, they're all very loosey-goosey. They've got some real pieces in there.

It's the complete opposite of the, you know, hockey wake that you'd expect at this point for this team that's gone in the toilet two straight seasons to start off the year. year. They all swear they're not thinking about trades and, you know, the hard discussions with Barry Trots, Stamcoast included. But at some point, you know, if they don't, if they don't have a strong November, and it's not all off to the best start, I think those conversations have to start being had. Yeah, what's the path forward bigger picture wish for Nashville? Not even just, you know, will they start to trade some of these guys if things go south? But I mean, it's hard to see where this goes beyond this season. They have one of the worst records in the league right now. They've

got a whole bunch of guys on the wrong side of 30 locked up for a whole bunch of years to come. And, you know, as you said, this is two straight seasons now. It's hard to kind of write it off as a blip because the plan didn't work last year. It's not working so far this year. What are the next steps for Barry Trots to turn this, as you said, from a, you know, a team that's getting whacked on a regular basis to a team with some sort of a future? Yeah, I mean, their plan when they went on that, that binge of signing those veterans. guys and acquiring those veteran guys was to sort of, you know, strike while the iron was hot. Maybe you get a good combination of vets and young players and make something of it

because it was coming off that playoff appearance that they had where they won like a billion games after going to see you two at the sphere. Remember that? It was only a couple of years ago. And so they wanted to capitalize on that and obviously it hasn't worked. But you're right. They've got a bunch of guys that are on the wrong side of 30, but they do have a next wave of coming up, you know, in particular, Matthew Wood, who's, you know, playing better and, you know, Brady Martin and a few others. Like, they've got some decent young players in the roster. So there is a next wave. It's, it's not a strong wave. It's kind of one of those waves where you worry about your toddler, but you're not going to get knocked down. And, and that's really the problem

is that they're going to be, they've got a nice second wave of players coming. They're not ready quite yet, and there isn't one in the system that you're like, okay, this is going to be anointed as the face of the next phase of the franchise. So I think inevitably, just based on how they've played, they'll probably start selling off some of these guys and then see what they get. I think Stamcoast is obviously the most interesting one, and I had a good conversation with Stephen yesterday about his future and some other stuff. It's pretty clear that that's not on his mind. He told me he hasn't had a conversation with Barry Trotz yet, about his future.

The real intrigue, though, is that when you look at what he's got left on his deal, which is, you know, a substantial, you know, he's got an $8 million hit through 2028, if they're going to get any value for him based on his offensive output right now, like they're going to have to eat half the contract. And so that's really going to be the intrigue if and when they move him is what can they get back for somebody who's at the lowest point of his production in his career. We're speaking to Greg Wachinsky from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Greg, how close are you paying attention to what's going on in St. Louis?

Two wins in their last 11. There was the Cairo Healthy Scratch. There was a lot of consternation from the head coach Jim Montgomery. And then they went out on Saturdays a few days ago when we missed this in our yesterday recap. But a crazy loss against the crack where they gave up the game triangle with 0.5 seconds left. And then they lost in OT. Not good times in St. Louis right now. They're not.

And the thing that's the most disturbing facet of this blue situation right now is they are 30 second in the league in goals against per game. And that is unfathomable for a Jim Montgomery team. It just is. We can talk about the necessity of getting guys like Kyra going and some of the other, you know, misfunction that they have in their lineup. But, you know, the fundamental basis of a Jim Montgomery team is. his defense. And the idea that a Jim Montgomery team would be last in the league in goals against is, like I said, unfathomable. Now, a lot of that has to do with Jordan Bennington and Joel

Holfer, both being terrible so far. But Bennington has been one of the biggest disappointments in the league so far, you know, bottom five and goals save above expected and, you know, obviously more famous for the Puxie stealing than the Puxie stopping at this point. So that's, that's been part of it. But again, that's also a chicken of the egg thing. Like, when's the last time a Jim Montgomery team had bad goaltending? Because the system sets up the goaltenders to succeed. So

there's just, there is just like everything that you could imagine breaking down, breaking down for the blues right now. And it's going to be interesting to see how they can flip things around. The teams that are struggling in the West, I'm concerned. Because like, you know, on the one hand, you know,

you might, it's early. It's still very early. It's early November. There's still time. But on the other hand, like, some of the, some of the things that we've seen happen in the standings don't speak well for teams getting off to bad starts. I mean, like, the mammoths have shown themselves to be legit. Yep. The Cracken have been great. And to the point where I don't think this is an anomaly.

Like, I think that this team under Lane Lambert is going to be one that's going to contend in a way that I didn't expect them to. And then now all of a sudden you have to start worrying about, like, if Chicago is real, and I think the ducks are very real. So the standings are not a friendly place right now for teams that are getting off on the wrong foot in the west. Yeah, and it's getting to that. There's a couple of critical points, obviously.

American Thanksgiving is one of them. And, you know, I think that the turn of the calendar from December to January is another one. And we've talked about some of these teams that are struggling already. We went through St. Louis. We went through Nashville. We talked about Edmonton earlier in the show because they got a big win last night.

And it got me thinking, I do wonder who the first head, coach to walk the plank is going to be this year. Have you spent any time thinking about this yet? Because I got, I guess we already mentioned Nashville, so Andrew Burnett would be on that list. I don't know if Montgomery could talk his way

out of this job, because it seemed like the Blues wanted him so badly. The Kings haven't been great. Jim Hiller, I don't know about that one, John Heinz, because the Wilde haven't been very good. Maybe I'm missing a couple here, which, but feel free to take the conversation whatever way you want to go with coaches on the hot seat. First off, that McDavid

goal was so sick last night. It was great. So good. It's just, it's insane. It's insane what he's able to do. You know, I wish, I wish my country was smart enough to make everything that that guy does appointment, television, the same way that they do, like, Mahomes. But my country, as you guys know, pretty dumb. So as far as coach's hot seat, I honestly haven't given it much thought because I do think that most situations might end up being after the season. anything. I mean, the Brunette situation is tough because, like, they owe him a bunch of money

beyond this season. He signed for multiple seasons. And on top of that, like, isn't the ultimate solution for them if they fire Brunette to put Barry back behind the bench and does he want that? I mean, honestly, like, you know, do you think that team ownership or, you know, the people above Barry are going to be like, let's pay another guy to stand behind the bench on a losing team? No, they're going to say, hey, franchise leading coach. Get your ass back behind the bench. You're not really helping as a GM anyway. So you make yourself useful.

So I think that's part of the math in Nashville. I wonder about Lindy Ruff. I mean, this is, again, a Sabre situation, which is a tough one because of injuries and obviously the Rastas Dahlin situation is something that no one could account for before the season. But this is going to be again, you know, when you look at all the teams that were in that mushy part

of the Atlantic Division over the last few seasons, it seems like everyone except for the Sabres has upward mobility and so what becomes of that and you know the Heinz one's weird I mean like the wilder of 500 team you know is that ultimately

on the coach is the construction of the team I don't know but you know beyond that I don't know if anybody is really on a hot seat we have a lot of new coaches and a lot of teams that are just kind of like within the hunt but but you know it's certainly one

a couple of situations worth watching. Yeah, there's a ton of teams just clumped around that 500 mark right now, Wish. And in the Western conferences, you pointed out, for the teams that aren't in a playoff spot right now, it's complicated by the fact that there's a bunch of teams, as you mentioned, Utah, Seattle, Anaheim's off to an incredibly hot start. And Chicago is in a playoff spot right now. Three wins in a row, six three and one in their last 10. I think they're the most interesting team to me in the kind of can they keep

this up. Are they for real question? What's your verdict on that? Do you think Chicago can legitimately be in the playoff mix, you know, to March, till April in the Western Conference? I don't. I mean, I think, I think, I think the premise of your question to me is that they are the most intriguing because they do seem like they're the most rickety. Like I think you probably like me look at the ducks and say, okay, Quinville plus veterans plus Leo Carlson and guys like that maturing plus Dostal and goal. Like they're on pretty solid footing versus some of these other teams that are that are sprinting out of the gate. And Chicago is kind of the anomalous one because they seem like they're carried by two guys right now.

They're getting insane goaltending from Spencer Knight. I think he's like second or third in the league and goal saved above expected right now. And, you know, I think Jeff Lashill has been a guy who's gotten a real bad rap because he was coaching a bunch of Detroit teams that weren't very good and we're seeing other guys attempt to get something out of those teams and it doesn't always work.

I think he's a real good coach and I thought he was a good fit for what they needed in Chicago. I tend to believe that they're going to fade. I just don't think they've got the depths quite yet. But it's been really inspiring to see Bedard have the season he's having. I do think that last year

there was certainly a conversation about, you know, what is this franchise look like? Is he on the same level of the other phenoms we've seen come through? And, you know, it's not only see him, but obviously Celebrini have the seasons they've had so far to establish that, you know, this is the next generation of players we're going to be talking about, you know,

every single day of our lives is an exciting prospect. So I'm happy they're relevant. If the league's better when Chicago's relevant, I just don't know if they're going to have the legs that some of the other teams in the West have. Well, we've talked a lot about Bedard and Celebrini on this show. and another guy that's entering that conversation, as it often pertains to the Olympic team,

is Matthew Schaefer. We had the conversation earlier. How much have you seen of Schaefer this year? He's insane. What he's been able to do at his age on that Islander's team is mind-blowing. Like every metric you can look at, whether it's the traditional stats, the underlying numbers, he's playing so far beyond his years.

And, you know, because of Quinn and because of Bacar, I think that we've just become conditioned to, to look at these young defensemen coming in and playing the way they play and being so energetic and so invigorating and just it's kind of like the norm now in this league, you know, back in the day when you'd get under Eric Carlson, it's like, you know, a unicorn, but now it's kind of like all these young defensemen seem to come in and make an impact, whether it's Schaefer or Lane Hudson or whomever. He's a special kid.

And on top of that, too, like the one aspect of his game and who he is that I thought would make an immediate impact was just his charisma and his joy for hockey. And, you know, you couldn't find a better match between a player that has that comportment and plays with that kind of enthusiasm and brings it and is great in interviews and says all the things that fans want to hear. And a franchise that was just needing that in the worst way coming off to Lou LaMerello real years where fun died. RIP fun. There's a gravestone outside of the arena that has the name fun on it because Lou killed it. And now Schaefer comes in at the right time right as they

transition to, you know, a new GM and a new, a new, you know, era. And he seems like the perfect fit. Greg, this was great, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do this as always. We really appreciate it. Enjoy all the games tonight. Nine of them tonight. It should be a good night. We'll do this again next week. Exciting times. Thanks, boys. Thanks, buddy. Greg Wischinski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. 7 o'clock hour is on the horizon. Hour 1 is in the books.

Podcast will be available shortly. Jim Tooth is going to join us on the other side from the Jim Tooth show and Jets Lunch, 680 C.J.O.B. Radio in Winnipeg. We'll get a look at tonight's opponent, the Winnipeg Jets. Team we have not spoken a lot about it, at least on this show. I can't imagine you guys just spent a ton of time talking about them either. a good 9 and 6 record, fourth place in their division thus far. But again, with everything else that's been going on in the NHL,

having had a ton of time to talk about them. They are coming in on a three-game losing streak, got their butts handed to him throughout the three games in California. So we'll talk to Jim about all that at 7. 7.30 Nathan Rourke is going to join the program, your BC Lions quarterback, and one of the two finalists for the Canadian Football League's Most Outstanding Player Award.

He'll be joining us at 7.30 to talk about we'll go through that. very, very heartbreaking and disappointing loss for the Lions on Saturday in Saskatchewan. Look back on a year that was otherwise very positive for Nathan. 810, Landon Farrow is going to join the program to preview the Canucks game. And then at 8.30, we're going to do what we learns. Before we go to break, I need to remind you all that this segment of the show was brought to you by JanPro. From showrooms to stockrooms and everything in between, JanPro keeps workplaces tidy, clean, and disinfected for a free quote. This is them online at Janpro.ca.

Hour one is in the books. Hour two is on the horizon. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.