Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will Hoglander Be A Healthy Scratch?

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they set up tonight's Canucks road tilt in Boston (6:00), plus they look around the NHL with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (27:41).  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.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d Crosses midfield. He's to the 40. Charger 30. Leg raise 20. Just as he'll 10. He's in. Touchdown, Ravens. I'd lay down my life for my brother, but I would not let him win a football game. Will Smith feeds it back. Ekman now celebrating. Score. Smith to Ekman to celebrating.

And it's in the net. I don't know. And between me and you, I don't care. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0- I don't care. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Alfred and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650, and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddy, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And intern Spencer, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And intern Spencer, good morning to you as well. Good morning, guys.

Pretty sharp this morning, boys. Halford and Brougham of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler.

Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit the Mid-1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. We've got a lot to get into on the program today. Guest list begins at 6.30. Greg Wyshynski will join us from ESPN. We'll go around a busy night in the National Hockey League last night. 11 games on the slate. 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro.

It's a Ferraro Tuesday here on the Halford & Brough Show. We'll talk to Ray about the Vancouver Canucks and an assortment of other teams. The Canucks are in action tonight in Boston against the Bruins, taking on a couple of familiar faces in Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zdorov. We'll talk to you, Ray, about that at 7. And then Landon Ferraro about that at 8 o'clock.

And a reminder, the game tonight, 4 o'clock. Note the start time, 4.30 for the next game in Pittsburgh, which of course is tomorrow night. They go back-to-back. Canucks Bruins, 4 o'clock. Pre-game, post-game, actual game, all right here on Sportsnet 650. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, it's

Landon Ferraro, 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro, 6.30 at Greg Wyshynski. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy

your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

Yesterday, the Vancouver Canucks practiced at Boston University, the home of Dave Tomlinson, the sniper himself. Big news out of practice yesterday. Brock Besser practiced fully with the team, and it is a possibility that he could make his return to the lineup tonight when the Canucks take on the Bruins in Boston. Yeah, Besser also spoke to the media and he was talking about his recovery from the hit from Tanner Jeannot and he was saying, look, it was pretty tough, especially the first

week. He said, I tried to bike a few times and I wasn't reacting super well to that. My head started to hurt. I was getting a little nauseous. So they did take some time off to try and just let me rest and heal up. He said he kept getting treatment on his neck. And when he came back and went through the NHL's concussion protocol, he started to feel better the second time around. So he did miss seven games or he is going to miss seven games assuming he plays tonight in Boston and that is significant um the Canucks did okay without him um there were other big stories that developed while he was out including GT Miller taking an indefinite leave of absence which he is still on um a lot of people wondered, okay, well, how is he going to go back into the lineup

given JT Miller's absence, his usual linemate, and the fact that you've got two lines that are going pretty well right now, especially Pedersen, DeBrusque, and Kiefer Sherwood. Can't break that up. Some people might say, okay, well, Sherwood goes back down to the bottom two lines. That's not how it went. Besser was skating with Bluger and Heinen, which is a combination I never thought I'd see this season. But at this point, you're not going to break up Petey's line. And I don't know if you want to break up Joshua and Garland. It seems like they're finding their game together again.

And Suter is their center. So I guess that's what it's going to be for Besser for a little while. It'll be interesting to see what role he has on the power play. I think they might take Sherwood off the power play. No. Sherwood stays on the power play and Besser's like, you can go in the second unit, Bell. I mean, we laugh, but it is funny.

Like, okay, under any other circumstances, if a regular NHL team had lost a guy that was their co-leading goal scorer, which Besser was, he had six goals through 12 games, and he was 11 points in 12 games. If you take your co-leading goal scorer and a point a game forward out of the lineup, that should theoretically knock you back. But the Canucks have the versatility and depth at forward

to withstand, again, as you mentioned, not just the loss of Besser, but also Miller at the same time. For Besser to come back, I think it'll be a big boost. I'll be very curious to see the BBH line, guys. The BBH line. Besser, Bluger, and Heinen. Well, we'll see how much he even plays tonight.

He was talking about how it's always hard to mimic game shape, but they said they backskated him a few times and pushed him really hard, according to Besser. And so it might take a few games for him to find his skating legs anyway. I'll be curious. I'm really curious, I have to say, about what the future holds for Nils Hoeglander because he's likely to get bumped down right back down to the fourth line

because I think it was Hoeglander who was with Bluger and Heinen. So Besser is essentially replacing Hoaglander who was with Bluger and Heinen. So Besser is essentially replacing Hoaglander's spot. The lines have been all over the place, obviously, in the last few games. So Hoaglander down to the fourth line, and you really wonder when he's going to score again because he is playing in a fourth-line role, which isn't always about scoring, and he doesn't get any

special teams time I don't think anybody's surprised that he's not necessarily out on on the PK but you know there's there's no power play time for him and part of the part of his great story last season of course was scoring all those goals even strength it was the fact that he scored 24 goals despite not getting power play time. But he was playing with more offensive players and he was playing in a more offensive role. And I'm just curious to see where it goes from him

because there is clearly a trust thing going on between him and Rick Tocantin. Well, here's a question for you. Do you see it possibly going towards him being a healthy scratch tonight when the Canucks take on the Bruins in Boston? That has been floated. I'm just, don't shoot the messenger, but it has been put out there

that Talkett could make a statement by keeping that fourth line that he had last game together of Baines, Ratu and Sasson, which we've been incorrectly pronouncing, by the way. Just Sasson, not Sasson. Well, we've been, no one's been saying Sasson, which we've been incorrectly pronouncing, by the way. Just Sasson, not Sasson. Well, we've been, no one's been saying Sasson as a joke.

Oh, that was a joke? We weren't trying to be serious. Who was actually calling it Sasson? I don't know, it's got a fun last name. Vidal Sasson. He should consider going with Sasson. No, it's just Sasson. Good old Sasson. But anyway, to the original point, Baines, Ratu, and Sasson was the fourth line in a win.

I will add as well. Right. And I know theoretically you're not supposed to change a lineup after a win, but you do want to get Besser back in. I mean, I think it would be more of a statement towards Hoaglander than to the rest of the team if he was to get dropped from the lineup. But look, his minutes are so low and his role is so diminished. It wouldn't be that big of a deal in terms of deployment. I think it would be a really big message to keep especially Sasson in the lineup over Hoaglander.

But it has ended like this for Hoaglander before. It's not like it would be the first time he's been a healthy scratch. I mean, let's make it abundantly clear right now. He is not one of Rick Tockett's favorites. And I think it's probably a frustration level that Tockett maybe can't find the right way to coax a consistent performance out of the player.

And I do think that it's almost like you don't really blame Hoaglander because the plays that he's trying to make, you can see what he's trying to do, but it almost seems like every time he errs on the side of trying to do too much and making it too complicated and not making it simple enough. He's taking too many penalties, too. I know his penalty in the last game wasn't necessarily a bad one,

but the ones in the offensive zone, he's taking just a couple careless ones, and you can tell in some ways he's just trying to do stuff. He's trying to play with an edge. He is trying to do stuff. He's trying to play with an edge. He's trying to do stuff. He's trying to play with an edge. He's trying to do stuff. He's trying to play with an edge. He's trying to do stuff. He's trying to make an impact on the game.

But when you're in a fourth line role, don't take offensive zone penalties. Just don't do that. Tonight's opponent from Boston, man, there's a lot of storylines for the Boston Bruins, especially with the Vancouver Canucks coming to town. And I'm not even talking about 2011. That's like way down the list now. That whole thing, that's over. I remember what happened back then.

Yeah, neither do I. I pushed it out of my mind. The Bruins just made a coaching change. Joe Sacco is their new head coach now after firing Monty. And let me tell you, man, I was listening to some clips. We're going to play it later. Tease it up. Tease it up for the listeners.

I was playing some clips from Boston Sports Radio, and I don't think any hockey city smears people that have left town quite like Boston. Maybe us. Maybe us. Maybe us. I was in awe of the way that they did it. But the Boston sports crowd, when someone leaves that town, man, they really don't give them a hug on the way out.

And they don't go, well, good luck to you. Right. Like Vanny Sartini, who we will get to in a moment as well. There wasn't as many good vibes coming out of Boston when Jim Montgomery left. But Montgomery's the thing of the past in Boston because Joe Sacco is the guy in charge now. And since he's come aboard, apparently the plan is to play

the most boring hockey games on the planet. They have won both to his credit, but it's a 1-0 win over Utah. And that was his first game in charge. Younus Korpisalo in net for that shutout. And then a 2-1 win over Detroit in his second game in charge. So if you're doing the math at home, they have scored a grand total of three goals in two games under Joe Sacco. But that's fine.

Both wins. Because they've only allowed one goal in two games. Do you know they've got the worst offense in the NHL nhl not not like not just bottom five or bottom 10 the worst in terms of goals per game just 2.32 goals per game for the boston bruins that's lower than chicago you know it's lower than the predators who are know, made all these moves and lost again last night. You know, it's the Bruins still, to your point though, I guess when they have to, they know how to lock it down.

And that's why they've actually got an overall, well, they're above NHL 500. They're 10, 9, and 3. Do you think that Zdorov is going to make his presence felt tonight? Yes. Is he going to do something loud? It could be a fight. It could be a big hit.

It could be, and this wouldn't be his plan, I hope, it could be a very loud mistake because he's trying to make an impact. He's trying to do something against his old team. Through 22 games, a team leading 46 penalty minutes already for Zdorov, who's done it with an equal mix of being the guy that stands up for his teammates and getting involved in the rough stuff, but also taking a lot of penalties. The story from the early parts of the season was

they never, they took a long time to get their defensive pairing sorted out. They tried a lot of different things because they've got good defensemen. If you look at their roster on paper, it's just figuring out how to play them together that's been a problem. And McAvoy's been a disappointment this year.

But with Zdorov, getting back to him, I do expect him, look, all the pieces are there for him to make some sort of noise tonight, right? Like, they got to the lows of being so bad that they had to fire their head coach. They've come back and had two wins, but the wins have sort of been, we're going to just buckle it down

and be real low-event hockey. When you talk about the first big game of the Sacco era, that's granted only three games long, I mean, this is it. You've got both Lindholm and Zdorov going up against their former team. There is still the backdrop of the Canucks and Bruins

that hangs around, even though none of the original people, save from Brad Marchand, are still in the lineup. And Boston's going to want to come back. This is the second game at home that they're going to have under Sacco now. They're going to want to try and put together, I would think, a little bit more of a comprehensive performance as opposed to we can

squeak out these wins over Utah and Detroit. Well, Canucks fans will be talking about Zdorov and Lindholm, but Bruins fans are going to be talking about DeBrusque and even Heinen because we already said the Bruins don't score goals. You got to worry about

pasta. You got to worry about Brad Marchand who scored the winning goal in their last win over Detroit who after that seriously who who who after that you gotta worry about Justin Brazzo I'm not trying to run down the Bruins but they are last in goals per game and you know Pasternak isn't scoring at the level he was certainly two years ago um and Marchand there's been quite a bit of criticism Marchand's game and people saying well he's getting a little bit old it's not quite the same Brad Marchand as he was. Part of the problem for the Bruins is that they haven't really added scores. It's not like Lindholm's going to go out and get 100 points.

I think he's got three goals. He's our third leading scorer. Yeah, like Halford was joking about Justin Brazot, but he is a guy that the Bruins are looking to for offense. And I don't know how many people in Vancouver have actually heard of Justin Brazow, but he is a guy that the Bruins are looking to for offense. I don't know how many people in Vancouver actually heard of Justin Brazow. I'm sure there's a few listeners that get triggered just by that name. They're like, what did you say? No, Brazow.

Justin Brazow. I know what you're thinking. I just heard his name for the first time right now, and I've never heard of him before. Their top three scorers in Boston are Pasternak, Marchand, and Lindholm. We all know them. We've all heard of them. They're all good hockey players. The next three leading scorers, four, five, and six on the list,

are Justin Brazow, Cole Koepke, and Mason Lorai. So that gives you an idea of where things are at for the Bruins going into tonight's game. Let me try it again. Justin Brazow, fourth on the team in points with nine. Cole Koepke, fifth on the team with eight points, and then Mason Lorre, a defenseman, who is actually their leading defenseman scorer, more points than Charlie McAvoy.

And that guy makes a lot of defensive mistakes. He makes a lot of mistakes. I've watched him. Those are all real people. Yes. Now, listen, we did this with the Islanders, and then the Islanders came into Rogers Arena and dominated the Canucks.

So we're recognizing it now. They're better than the Islanders. I'm not ready to even go there. The Islanders are truly mid. I think Boston was underperforming. And we'll get to the Montgomery story in a minute. So DeBrusque obviously gets a big, warm homecoming tonight, right? But I think they missed DeBrusque.

I know, but I'm saying. They missed DeBrusque. I mean, that I'm saying... They missed DeBrusque. I mean, that was a guy that they just took out of the lineup, and I know they replaced him with Lindholm, but they miss a guy like that on the wings, and they probably miss Heinen, too. Well, when you're talking about a loud game, like you talked about Zdorov, and I agree

with you. I think the potential is there for that. I also think the potential is there for DeBrusque, because what do we know about him? Very streaky scorer. What did he do last game in Ottawa? He started up another one of his streaks. He scored you guys' first multi-goal game as a Vancouver Canuck. He's going to be feeling it tonight.

I got a feeling that you might see a big performance again from DeBrusque, especially since that line played so well. And there's still that new line smell to those three playing together, Sherwood, Pedersen, and DeBrusque because it's only been together for a short time. So I don't know, if you're into like individual player prop betting or something like that, take a look at Jake DeBrusque anytime goal scorer, just throwing it

out there. Okay. We want to hit on one game from last night that will dovetail into a bunch of other conversations that we want to have. I've got a question for you before you even introduce this game. Ask me your question. Which team was it a bigger story for? So we're talking about the New York Rangers and the St. Louis Blues last night, right? Rangers take to the ice with all of these trade rumors swirling after Elliott Friedman's report. The Blues are coming aboard with their new head coach,

Jim Montgomery. I'm going to say the Blues, but only by a smidge because they did have a new head coach. For me, it was the Rangers, though. For me, it was the Rangers. I actually tuned in to say the Blues, but only by a smidge because they did have a new head coach. For me, it was the Rangers, though. For me, it was the Rangers. I actually tuned in to watch the Rangers because after the reports from Elliott Freeman came out and said, you know, Jacob Truba is available,

and we were kind of like, okay. And Chris Kreider is available, and we went, what? And then K. Andre Miller's name started making the rounds later in the afternoon. What's going on? Rangers fans were not happy to hear Chris Kreider's name out there. I can imagine.

Almost universally not happy. But then I started listening and reading and I heard that the Rangers have really been kept in games and kept in the season given their record, which is pretty good, by goaltending.

And not a huge surprise with Shusterkin, but Jonathan Quick also had crazy numbers earlier in the year, although the Edmonton Oilers, I think, put a pretty good dent in those. And then I, so I turned on the game and I watched the third period. I didn't watch the whole thing, but I watched the third period because I saw that the Blues were winning it. And then I looked at the shots and the Blues were badly out shooting the Rangers. And I was like, okay, maybe there's a new coach bump in there for the Blues. But then I started watching. The Rangers gave up breakaways and two on ones. And I know

they were trying to get back into the game at that point, but they looked very loosey goosey defensively. And I'm watching this game, and I'm like, this could be 10-2 for the Blues. So let's play the audio from Peter Laviolette first. This is Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette after he lost 5-2 to the Blues, Jim Montgomery's first game and first win as St. Louis Blues head coach.

And Laviolette made no bones about it after the game. His team's not playing well, and they've got to stop giving up 40 to 50 shots a game. Peter LaViolette after a 5-2 loss to the Blues. Yeah, we're good. We're giving up too much. There's no question. We're not going to win games giving up 40, 50 shots.

It's got to be much tighter with what we're doing. We need more. There's parts of the game I thought were good. There's parts of the game we weren't very good at all. And we give up a goal to start the third period. And then I don't like the response after that. You know, we didn't, that's a time to dig in and go get the next one and bring it back to even.

And we weren't able to do that. So there's the Rangers side of the story. And it was a big deal because that game had two very interesting narratives going into it. The other one was Jim Montgomery in his first game as head coach of the St. Louis Blues now this next audio we're going to tell you has nothing to do with his new life in St. Louis it has to do with his bitter divorce from Boston 98.5 the sports hub in Boston Felger and Maz they just put it out there. Did Jim Montgomery intentionally get fired by the Boston Bruins? Was he Costanza?

Now, the reason I bring this up, this Costanza-esque dynamic, is because everybody knows that the Blues loved Jim Montgomery. And the Blues made no bones about it that the moment Montgomery became available, they were ready to hire him. Felger and Maz took it a step further by saying, this doesn't just happen this season. This goes way back. Listen to the audio.

It's about 90 seconds in length. I am thoroughly impressed by both the conspiracy theory and the passion in which it's delivered. 98.5, the sports hub. Felger and Mavs. Did Monty get himself fired from Boston? St. Louis was waiting for the end of that Maple Leafs series last year.

That if the Bruins lost to the Leafs, Montgomery was going to get fired and St. Louis was going to pick them right up. And St. Louis was rooting for the Leafs against the coin to Ty Anderson. And that St. Louis was ready to pounce on Montgomery after last year. And they've been waiting this year.

And as soon as he gets fired, boom, five-year deal in St. Louis, which is more than they were going to give him here. So now I look at this and I go, Montgomery wasn't here groveling for his job. Montgomery was here saying, go ahead and fire me, you clowns. I got a job in my back pocket

that's better than this one. So go ahead, Cam. He had leverage. Montgomery wasn't desperate to save his job. It might have been just the opposite. He wanted to get fired, which kind of like I look at differently now like yeah go ahead and give the

captain a shove on the bench what do you got to lose you got a job waiting for you and go ahead call out your captain bench your best player sib big keep your goalie in on a seven goal game whatever he did i'm going to i'm going to go down swinging because I got something. It does make you look at all these things differently though. It did to me. Again, benching Pasternak, leaving Swayman out to dry. These other games where he's giving up five, six goals. Let him rot. Ty also reported that the Bruins went to him and gave him three different contract

extensions. They probably weren't all that much money, but he was like, nah, because he probably knew the whole time. Once I'm gone from here, I got a five-year deal waiting for me in St. Louis. So I'm going to show up, half-ass it, wear offensive t-shirts, put onions in the whole time. Once I'm gone from here, I got a five-year deal waiting for me in St. Louis. So I'm going to show up, half-ass it, wear offensive t-shirts, put onions in the drop ceiling. F you guys. You know, when you hear how they put it, I would, like, I don't know if that's true,

but just once in my life, I would like to experience that. I would love to try and get fired. Just because I had a better offer on the other side, how much fun would that be? You couldn't do anything that would jeopardize your actual job offer. You don't want to get intentionally fired, and then your next job, you're like, boy, what you did at your last job, we cannot hire you anymore.

Okay, but that's the thing. All these things, the things that should make you toxic toxic like calling out your stars and benching your captain and laying your goalie rot for seven goals in net you think that would cause some red flags for the the blues but no the blues are like good he got the job done he got to us he got to us so that's what makes you think man do tampering rules not apply to coaches if none of this if bothered the Blues at all. Find me a paper trail. Find me the paper trail. Anyway, this is a fun but awkward way to transition to the big news locally from the day yesterday.

It does involve a coaching change, right? Vanni Sartini yesterday out as manager of the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Whitecaps made the news public a couple hours after we were off the air, and that was before Tom Bogert, formerly of The Athletic, sort of leaked the story out there. Vanny might have actually, not predicted,

but picked up on what the team was lacking, and part of it might have had to do with him. I don't know if he did it intentionally or not, but in the season-ending quotes, and good on J.J. Adams from the province for putting this in his article, Vanny said the next step for this team is, quote, to be good when it's not able for us to be very good.

I think that's the next step. When you can't shoot for the moon, you have to at least try to do the basics and go for the sky instead of falling down. So he diagnosed... What? What does that mean? It means that when Vanny had like a week between matches to prep and put everything together and carefully, you know,

form his starting 11 and have everyone healthy, the Whitecaps were great. But there was way too many instances in the season where there was a lot of matches in a short period. Oh, I see. And they were maybe under. It's like Dran saying Petey needs a B game. When things aren't going well, he needs to find a B game.

Because what happened to the Canucks, or to the Whitecaps, is they went in this extended funk where they couldn't get points. And it cost them. Because they should not have been playing in Portland, even though that should have been a BC place. They shouldn't have been in the eighth place game. They shouldn't have had to play LAFC in the first round. And it happened, unfortunately, because Vanny, at times this season,

couldn't figure out a way to just manufacture some results. Yeah, we'll talk about Vanny Sartini and his departure from the Whitecaps later in the show. Feel free to text in any what we learns into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. We can get to those during what we learned in the final segment. But we got to go for now because Greg W wischinski is coming up next on the alfred abrupt show on sportsnet 650 canucks talk with jamie dodd and thomas drance we'll dive deep into all that's happening with the vancouver canucks listen 12 to 2 p.m on sportsnet 650 or wherever

you get your podcasts 633 on a Tuesday happy Tuesday everybody Halford Ruff Sportsnet 650 I'm so shook 6.33 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford, Ruff, Sportsnet 650. I'm so shook. And not Nick shook from NFL.com. You're shook.

This is different. What do we got here? Is this like an ESPN remix? It's like a metal cover of the ESPN song. A-Dog's rocking out over there. I wish I had long hair right now so I could thrash. I don't like this. No. Go back to the old one.

You don't like the metal? I just liked the other one. I'm just trying to bring the energy up for Wish a little bit. Okay. I respect it. Alfred and Brett for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one. I do like it now. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling.

They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Greg. How are you? What the hell was that? Was that like the guitar hero

version of the ESPN hockey theme? Is this because we hired Pat McAfee and now everything needs to be turned up to 11 and have extra layers of electric guitar behind it? Is this what happened? Guys, I think we just need it to be a little edgier. We're going to do a dubstep one next Tuesday.

See, I wouldn't mind that. Yeah, I mean, you know, there are ways to revamp the theme. I mean, my God, I remember, you know, being in high school and watching like ESPN2 and hearing that theme. And, of course, playing the commiserate NES games with that theme, too. But that one was, I I mean what are we doing yeah let's move on to the hockey talk here um so we were having this discussion yesterday about the Blues win over the Rangers last night for you who was it a bigger story for was it the Blues with their new coach Jim Montgomery playing really well and beating the Rangers in

New York or was it the Rangers who were suddenly in all these rumors regarding Trouba and Chris Kreider and Chris Drury wanting to shake up the core and then having one heck of a stinker at home against the St. Louis Blues? I mean, it's probably more the Blues thing just because of the novelty of having handed a guy the reins of the team for two years after he allegedly proved himself as an interim coach. And then the minute the pretty girl looks at you from across the bar, you're walking away.

You know, it's like, I mean, that's the novelty of that happening. And it's not something that I even recall seeing before is really remarkable. And again, like I mentioned earlier this week, the idea that Jim Montgomery can go to St. Louis and maybe have some success is not outlandish. I mean, the team is going to get healthier. Guys that are underperforming offensively are going to eventually start performing like Pavel Bustavich.

And so he's going to be the beneficiary of some things that Drew Bannister wasn't. And then, you know, if Jim Montgomery does the thing that he's done in other stops, which is to try to fortify the goaltending a bit, that's only going to benefit them, too, because both Hoffer and Bennington have played under-expected this year. Although, don't say that to a Blues fan, they'll start crying about the eye test. So I think it's a good landing spot for him. Clearly he has familiarity with the organization, and he probably feels

more supported there than he was in Boston. As far as the Rangers go, look, I'm a cynic, as you guys know. I'm from New Jersey. They've been trying to trade Trouba since the spring. We know this. That's not a surprise. The idea that Chris Kreider is available to me is much more about trying to kick the rest of the veterans on that team in the rear and get them going

because he has probably the most protected status of any veteran on that team. And if you want to read the TV and say, uh-oh, it's that they didn't necessarily respond last night when that news got out there. So I don't know. I don't quite buy into the Ranger panic like some other people around here in New York do. But obviously they're not hitting their marks, and they feel the need to maybe augment the roster a little bit at this point. What do you think of the conspiracy out of Boston that Jim Montgomery was effectively pulling a

George Costanza and desperately trying to get fired from the Boston Bruins because he knew he had this job with maybe a better and a longer contract with the St. Louis blues in his back pocket. Well, I don't, I don't know about that. I mean,

I think, I think maybe that's a possibility, but I mean, that would take a lot of precognitive ability on the part of Doug Armstrong to understand what Jim Montgomery's situation in Boston was going to end up being. Because honestly, I think, you know, yeah, he was a lame duck coach, but that didn't necessarily mean he was going to get fired a month and a half into the season.

I think we all assume that if things didn't go well for the Bruins, he probably wouldn't be there next year. But to have him fired in season, I don't think is what a lot of us had on our bingo cards. So I don't quite know if it goes that far, but I will say that I know, I think Jim Montgomery knows he has options, right? Like he's not going to hurt for having options when you're,

you know, two years removed from the best regular season in the history of hockey. And so there, there is that aspect of it, but I tend to believe it's more of the Boston problem than a Jim Montgomery thing. They low-balled him on that offer that Don Sweeney keeps talking about. They low-balled him for the very reason that we saw play out, which is that they weren't convinced that he was the right guy for this team,

that maybe they needed a different voice. And if Montgomery was pulling a Costanza, I don't think that he's trying as hard as he did to get this team going. Like, you know, benching Pasternak is something that you do to try to keep your job. It's not because you're trying to get fired. This is a perfect segue into your head coach hot seat index, which is up on ESPN.com right now.

And speaking of lame duck head coaches, let's go to Detroit where it's been a tough season to start for Derek Lalonde. He does not have a contract beyond 2024 or 2025. Who's the interesting name that you've heard in connection with the Red Wings, Greg? That'd be Joelel quenville i had a pretty of somebody who was pretty well sourced in the coaching community tell me that there was a rumor flying around about two weeks ago that connected quenville with the red wings job um but then i had another source equally uh if not more so connected in the coaching community that told me that, you know, it may not necessarily make sense for him to go there. That Quenville at his age and being, I think, within like 250 wins

of Scottie Bowman for the all-time record, really wants to go to a place that's more primed to win now, that could maybe bring home another cup within the next couple of years. I don't think that's right. And then there's also the notion of, you know, Quenville makes a pretty good chunk of change. And, you know, if he's desperate to get back into the NHL, maybe that price tag comes down.

If he's not, that means someone's going to have to pay him. And there was some thought that maybe Detroit isn't the team that's necessarily going to break the bank for a head coach like that. So definitely out in the ether in the NHL circles, as far as Quenville and Detroit, but some people don't believe that's necessarily where it'll end up, but I didn't find anybody who thought that Derek Lalonde was all that safe considering the up and down nature of the Red Wings start. If it's not Detroit, is there any place that does spring to mind as a possibility for Quenville?

No, I'm not off the top of my head. I mean, like a lot of the places, I mean, unless someone's going to like drew banister their coach, I guess, because like a lot of places are, are, you know, on a guy that's in their second year and their first year, um, no place really jumps out at you. I mean, you know, if you're, if you're Quenville and you're like, I want to be close to winning, I don't think it's too outlandish to kind of keep an eye on Edmonton, especially considering who the general manager is there.

But other than that, I don't really have a name that comes to mind as far as like, yeah, that's an obvious landing place for him. Chicago, Quenville's old job. What's going on with Luke Richardson there? Yeah, again, everybody I talk to kind of is probably reacting to what's gone on there for the last few weeks and thinking that he's maybe in more trouble than he actually is. But, you know, the Taylor Hall situation where he made Hall a healthy scratch but didn't communicate that that was a possibility at all leading up to it

really rubbed people the wrong way. It kind of came off as being unprofessional, and it seemed like that was one where people's ears perked up and said, all right, what's really going on in Chicago? And then the ongoing unhappiness of Conor Bedard, who clearly thinks the team should be better in his second season and clearly is very unhappy with his own statistical output. I think some of that is construction versus coaching.

You know, when you've got guys like Tyler Bertuzzi going there and having an absolute dud of a season despite being a big free agent acquisition, it certainly doesn't help the stats of your best player. But, you know, when you have an unhappy young star, when you're doing things that seem a little bit out of hand for a head coach, it's going to garner a lot of attention. And, you know, on top of that, obviously, is the fact that they're in or out the basement of the league in points percentage again.

What do you think about Bedard's season so far and his frustrations? And we were looking at his game log yesterday, and he's got, in his last five games, three shots on goal. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. He's miserable. He's miserable. And he's got, in his last five games, three shots on goal. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. He's miserable. He's miserable, and he's miserable too. They're trying to build him back up by playing him with a couple of more defensive guys,

and I understand the logic there, but they deployed them against Alexander Barkov's line a couple of games ago against Florida, and they got cratered. They got absolutely cratered by that line that, that line in a, in a supposedly best on best type matchup. So, you know, he's, he's not playing his natural position on some nights. He can't get his goal scoring going in fairness, the Blackhawks. Like I think, I think Bedard has to realize that in order to turn a rebuilding team around, which is in some cases like steering an iceberg, you need more than Conor Bedard.

I mean, when we look back at Sid, when we look back at Ovi, Ovi had Backstrom. Ovi eventually had Mike Green. Ovi had Salmon. Then he had John Carlson. Sid had Fleury and Malkin and LeTang. You need more than one guy to really level up Carlson, you know, Sid had Fleury and Malkin and Tang. Like, you need more than one guy to really level up and take a team from stripping it down to the studs to try to get a first overall pick to becoming a contender again.

And when you look at that Blackhawks roster, like, and that pipeline, it's just not there yet for him. So he does need to be a bit more patient than he is, but I understand when you're a competitive guy whose team stinks and you're not scoring, it's going to feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Is that what makes it so hard for these teams? It's really tough these days, it seems, to just add a difference maker, whether it's free agency or trades. Maybe this is just,

it was so difficult during the flat cap era and maybe it's going to get easier now. But, you know, I think about the Blackhawks those many years ago, adding a guy like Marion Hossa and how that helped put them over the top. I know they already had players and they were already a good team,

but I don't know. Maybe I'm misremembering things or I'm not thinking of things that happen today in the NHL, but it just seems really difficult to add those difference makers. It is, but again, the difference on that Blackhawks team wasn't a mercenary Marion Hoson as third team in three years chasing a cup. The difference was that they grew Kane and grew Taves and grew Keith and grew Seabrook and had this incredible core of players around which to build. So you can like try to import as much as you want, but if your foundation isn't sturdy, then there's no point to it. I mean, you know, think of all the teams that have gone on incredible runs, Chicago, Pittsburgh,

Tampa, like all these teams internally were already very, very sturdy and very, very solid built through the draft and through maybe like a couple, maybe a free agent here or there. So when they go out and augment that roster with a Ryan McDonough or a Phil Kessel, like they're building around what's already there. So I think it's extremely hard to go outside the organization and try to build something. If you don't already have a solid base. I mean, to go back to another example, the LA Kings who, you know,

won two cups within the last 15 years, you know, they've, they had Kopitar and Dowdy and all those guys. And then they went out and got Carter and Richards, you know? So it's like, you can make the move and get the veterans, but you need to have your own house in order before you do. We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. One more from the Head Coach Hot Seat Index before we move along here.

And I love it that Mike Sullivan has his own section now. It's like, there's the hot seat, and then there's whatever's going on with Sullivan in Pittsburgh. Planet Sullivan. And you wrote, like, in great detail in one graph about how big a disaster the penguins are this year. And we've already had two coaching moves. Like it would make sense that that would be the third,

if not the first, but it hasn't happened yet. Is there anything new on this front or is the same old stuff from planet Sullivan? It's the same old stuff. It makes no damn sense. Every box you could check for a guy who should be fired has been checked in Pittsburgh. He's not successful. The guy's been

there for more than a decade. They're trending in the wrong direction in every way. Defensively, they're an absolute joke right now. And yet, he's still there, and he's still there probably because in his heart of hearts, Cal Dubas knows that it's probably not

completely Mike Sullivan's fault. And, you know, because ownership apparently is quite fond of the guy. And there is a notion within your organization that they might have the best coach in hockey. And once you have that, like what's firing,

I'm going to do like bring in someone else who's not as good. So again, he gets his own tier because logically nothing makes sense about the situation. And, and also also you know logically nothing makes sense about the direction of the penguins right now so good luck trying to figure out that situation like if they fired him tomorrow does it make a lick of difference for pittsburgh probably not so yeah pay the man his money just keep behind the bench hope for better results next season after you get the first overall pick of the draft. Wish, who is more likely to go out and get a goalie, Colorado or Carolina?

It's got to be Colorado. I mean, that was atrocious last night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. And, you know, I think Carolina knows inherently that the way that they play, the Brendamore system that's making me look like a total idiot for thinking they were going to miss the playoffs, which they're obviously not. I already made a cul-de-sac in a column last week. That system is so sturdy, you could stick a number of guys back there

and they're going to be all right. You could Spencer Martin that for two weeks and maybe be all right with the way that they play in front of them. In Colorado's case, I don't think that they have the same kind of system. I do think that they need goaltending competence, at least to the level of what Darcy Kemper gave them when they won the Cup. And so they don't have that right now. And I think that roster is good enough,

and they've got enough good players on that team where they could have higher aspirations if they had more solidified goaltending. And they just don't have it right now with Anunan and Georgiev, which is not there. Does Gibson make sense for them? I mean, the problem with Gibson is you've got to figure out what he is. Like, is he a good goalie stuck in purgatory for the last four years, or is he in purgatory

because he's not been a good goalie? And if you look at what, you know, their other goaltenders have done over the last couple of years vis-a-vis what Gibson's done, you've had guys outkick their coverage while Gibson's just kind of been mediocre. I know there's always been this notion of rescue John Gibson and maybe he could be a better goalie than he's been. I've not really been someone who wants to invest in that idea, to be honest with you. But who knows? Maybe he just has a stat and then he goes someplace and becomes a good

goalie again. I know it's hard now trying to stay up late and watching the games on the West coast, but how much attention are you paying to what Macklin Celebrini has been doing? Two goals, three points last night in a seven to two win for the Sharks over the Kings. What are you guys talking about? How long have you known me?

Like I'm not one of these East coast guys that's packing it in at 10.30, you know, and then calling it a night. I'm a night owl. I, you know, it's like 1 o'clock in the morning. I'm typing out the lapsed fans guide to Survivor Series. So Celebrini is the first overall pick. You went to the San Jose

Sharks. Just reminding you. He's actually from Vancouver and his dad, Rick Celebrini, works for the Golden State Warriors. They call it the Bay Area. The Bay Area, yeah. You used to live there, actually. Is Alex Burrow still on Vancouver? Because I like that guy.

Yeah, he plays with the Sedins. So here's the thing with Celebrini. When we did the awards watch last month, it was pretty clear that Stankoven was the top pick because he had the stats. Everyone thought Mitch Koff was right there with him. There was

a lot of his support for Lane Hudson in Montreal because of the way he's played and clearly being the best rookie defenseman I don't think there's anybody even in the conversation this year with him. And then, you know, I think if you did it again two weeks later, Dustin Wolfe would be in the conversation. But the biggest takeaway

from that survey of the voters was it's probably going to be Celebrini if he has the sample size. And so the only thing really holding him back from being the very, very, very, very heavy favorite for the Calder right now

is that he missed all that time with injury. That'll obviously change as he plays more games. And I don't think there's another rookie that's been nearly as impressive as Celebrini's been this year for San Jose. Okay, before we let you go, I know we're looking ahead to the Four Nations,

and I know you were mentioning last night that Connor Hellebuck was a 43 saves and a win last night. You said save some of them for February, my dude. So the U.S. isn't going to have any problems in that. Canada, it's different. Are you aware of this movement now where Joey Dacor, who was born in the United States but has not declared a nationality yet, is indeed on the Team Canada radar?

He sounds Canadian. He sounds French-Canadian, right? I mean, he's ours. Yeah, and Jim Neal confirmed this. So, of course, Team Canada assistant GM Jim Neal confirmed this to the hockey news that he is on the radar. Are you, as an American, aware of this? And is the American response now to take Joey Decord

as their third goalie just so Canada can't have him at all? First of all, Joey Decord could easily be just a guy from the neighborhood back in Jersey. Like Joey D down the street. Doesn't totally read French Canadian to me. Secondly, I mean, you know, if your response to us feasting off the legacy of Brett Hull for as long as we did is to steal our seventh or eighth best goalie for your team, by all means. It's a long time coming trade-off, but we'll accept it.

Listen, I think the three goalies for the U.S. are really interesting because I think the Demko injury and the way that Swayman's imploded after missing camp does open up the possibility of who that third guy is going to be. You know it's going to be Hellebuck, and you know it's going to be Ottinger, but I don't think that third spot is quite as nailed down as maybe some of us assumed that it would be. Maybe it's Dustin Wolf, who knows? But it'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

I'm looking forward to going through the rosters. We've already had some good debate about Evan Bouchard and whether or not he should be on Canada. If Cale McCarr is your number one right-shot defenseman, do you really want Evan Bouchard out there potentially making mistakes defensively? Is that sort of stuff that's going to be fun? I'm excited for the tournament.

I think that USA-Canada game is going to be a crossover moment for hockey in the U.S. I think everybody's going to watch it. It's going to be dope. But I'll be honest with you. When the rosters come out next week, and I'll be doing a breakdown, much like everybody else will be, about what was right and what was wrong, I am much more interested in reading the tea leaves about what it means for 2026 than anything about this tournament, because that's going to be the most fascinating.

Just because your name's not on the roster doesn't mean you're out of the running for 26 and just because your name is on the roster doesn't mean that you're concrete on that roster because I think a lot of these guys it's going to be a lot of like show me what you got in this tournament before there's any thought about making the Olympians well Bedard is going to be an interesting name to watch too does he make team Canada just to put him on there and give him the experience of playing in that situation ahead of the Olympics in a couple of years? Celebrini for 26. There's two things about that. One is

let's keep in mind it's an NHL, NHLPA tournament. At the end of the day, it is about selling tickets. And then two, I just want to see a smile on that dumb bastard's face. It's just a miserable season for Conor Bernard. If he gets a chance to skate around with the other Conor and Sid for a while and we get to see a little happiness from this kid,

give him a two-week break from the misery of being a Blackhawk in 2025. Yeah, Jason Dickinson doesn't make those type of passes. The subtle difference between Jason Dickinson and Conor McDavid, yes. I wish. this was great dude thanks for taking the time to do it as always enjoy the rest of the week

we'll do this again next Tuesday anytime Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650

a lot to unpack there Laddie how about Joey Decor team Canada number one I didn't even realize he had

Canadian citizenship I know like his dad I just looked it up he's born in Quebec he can play for Canada

the US and apparently Switzerland I knew the Swiss thing I didn just looked it up, he's born in Quebec. He can play for Canada, the U.S., and apparently Switzerland as well. Yeah, I knew the Swiss thing. I didn't know the Canada part. He does his banking there. Right. What sort of proof do you have? Gold bars. I will say this.

The Swiss are probably third on the power rankings there, all due respect to the program. I don't know what it would say if he vaulted into the team. And we took him. We're like, yes, because you're the number one goalie. Because right now, if you were to ask me, I'd be like, hell yeah. Get him on the team. He's the most informed goalie going.

Oh, my God. Okay, we got to go. Ray Ferraro is going to join us next. We'll talk about some of the Canucks' upcoming opponents. We'll dive a little deeper into the Boston Bruins situation, the Pittsburgh Penguins as well. I want to talk to Ray about Brady Kachuk in Ottawa. Greener stuck up for him yesterday.

Curious to hear Ray's take on the Sens, who actually got a big win last night over the Calgary Flames. And maybe we'll talk to him about the Rangers as well. And, oh yeah, a few questions about the Canucks. You're listening to the Alfred M. Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.