Halford & Brough in the Morning - Yeah, I'm Thinkin' We're Back

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk yesterday's big Canucks shutout win over the Avalanche (6:00), plus they chat the latest NHL news with Sportsnet's David Amber (28:10). 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.

Whoa! Wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a f***ing Canucks? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- You're listening to Halford and Brough. The Brough scandal, the Colorado zone played into the back door, Besser scores! We had a really good video session today on the game plan against Colorado, and I just thought we stuck to our game. Like, one through whatever, 21 guys, I thought we stuck through it. I hate it when the Waffles stick together. Sticking together is what good waffles do. Good morning Vancouver, 6.01 on AO Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody, I love that clip. It is Halford in his breath, it is Sportsnet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Does Toc know how many guys are out there? Nope. Adon, good morning. Good morning. And Lydie, good morning to there? Nope. Hey dog. Good morning. Good morning And lady good morning to you as well

Hello, hello, Alfred and breath 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 our one of the program our one is brought to you by Northstar metal recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler while they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Guest list today begins at 6.30. It is of course a big show. David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, sports net NHL host.

It's going to join us at six 30. He worked last night's Canucks game with Don Granado. New addition to the sports net intermissions. Uh, he will also be working tonight. Sportsnet Wednesday night hockey, but Dard versus McDavid is the Oilers go to Chicago. Uh, we've also got Boston and New York tonight in a rematch from the weekend when JT Miller made his New York Rangers re-debut. That's what I'm calling it, a re-debut. So David's going to join us at 6.30.

Seven o'clock, Frank Ceravalli from Daily Face Off. We missed Frank last week, so we'll get caught up on everything we missed. We'll look at his trade board. Man, his trade board, pretty prescient. I believe seven players on his original Daily Face Off trade board have already been traded. So Frank's really got his finger on the pulse of everything that's going on. Trade wise in the NHL we'll talk to him

at seven o'clock. Eight o'clock, Randeep Janda is going to join the show. So we will talk about last night's win for the Vancouver Canucks, another emphatic victory for the Canucks over the Colorado Avalanche. We'll talk to Randeep about that. I also want wanna start picking his brain. He's going to Europe in a couple of weeks

and he's gonna watch the Real Madrid Man City Champions League clash. I'm jealous. So we'll talk to Randip about all that at eight o'clock. Oh, we got a lot of other stuff to get into as well on the show. Working in reverse real quick on the guest list. Eight o'clock, Randip Janda. Seven o'clock Randy Janda seven o'clock Frank Sarah Valley 630 David Amber 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 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 Last night it was the Thatcher Demko Show.

Demko 25 saves for his 9th career shut. And most importantly, his first shut out of the season, the Canucks yet again, with another impressive victory against the Colorado Avalanche. This time three nothing at Rogers arena on Tuesday night. Yeah. Uh, I don't know where to start, but I think, uh, we'll start with Thatcher Demko who got the shut out.

That's two very good starts in his last three. Uh, he was in there against Dallas. Hmm. So, so, uh, and then he had the start against Nashville that was really good. And we were like, is he back? And then his next star was like, no, he's not back. So even Thatcher Demko said after the game is like,

you got to keep doing it. Right. Um, he also said he's back. Did he say he was back? He didn't say he was back. I think he said, yeah, you got to keep doing it. Right. Um, he also said he's back. Did he say he was back? He didn't say he was back. I think he said, yeah, you got him thinking on back. When will he do that? Three, three straights, good starts is like, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.

Yeah, I'd say that's about right. Or start eight goals. That was, I shouldn't have said that. That was better than the actual draw. He did get a little lucky in the first with three goal posts when the Canucks in front of him were sluggish, but he was brilliant in the second and allowed the Canucks to not only find their footing,

but I suppose keep their footing because that, whatever it seemed like it was five minutes in the Canucks end when Kale McGarra should have had a bunch of goals, but didn't. And Lekkinen, you know, Dubko made a great save off of Leckinen. The Canucks had a one-nothing lead at that point. So, you know, if Colorado scores there and ties it up, who knows how that turns out. McKinnon was doing pretty much whatever he wanted during that stretch of play.

Man, is he impressive. Yeah, I mean, Natchez has so I mean, nature's has so much speed and Macar has so much speed and it's, it's very tough. And, uh, it was Pew suitors line that actually got the assignment against, um, McKinnon. Um, and even though you, you know, you, you go look at their advanced analytics for the game. It was like, were you guys ever in the offensive

zone? I was like, no, but like they ultimately that along with Demko's play and maybe a little luck with the post, like they got the job done. Um, let's move to the backend because as much as that feels like great, thatcher got us shut out. He might be back. All right, let's move on to the new look defense

because the blue line for me, um, was equally as exciting, if not more frankly than Thatcher Demko's play, because I always did have a little bit of faith that Demko would find it again. We'll see if he's able to maintain that. We'll see if he's able to stay healthy, but I thought he would show flashes, but I wasn't so sure if the Canucks could rebuild this blue line and no Quinn Hughes again last night and the Four Nations

is getting closer and closer and Quinn Hughes isn't playing in the NHL. So maybe that's something we can discuss later in the show, but the new look Canucks blue line, it is incredible really what the addition of a couple of guys and frankly the subtraction of a couple of guys can do. Uh, Marcus Pedersen played a lot and he was solid out there, but DPT, Elias Pedersen

was probably the story on the back end. He was an absolute beast. And I think he broke Miles Woods' brain out there. Miles Wood had a tough, tough night last night. And it was in large part because of DPT. I want to play some audio right now, because I do want to focus on what this youngster has brought to the table.

Rick Tauket was asked at length about, is sort of like shiny new toy on the blue line. The first about the character and profile of the player. Here is Rick Tauket on what D. Petey is bringing to the table. Lots to like. He's a bull out there. Strong, good first pass, good shoot to play. There's just a lot to work with. He's a prototypical D that you want on your team. And like we were talking the other day with Gonch, we're in Dallas that game before the game, we were talking how there's lots to work with this guy.

So he's a guy that we're glad we have. Now the most obvious follow up here is like, how quick can we make him a regular defenseman? When can we start giving him more minutes? When can we turn them into a top four guy tap the brakes a little bit? However, Rick talk it did acknowledge that they are already Fast tracking him to a certain degree now Thomas Drance asked a fairly astute question yesterday like Noticing that DPD did not get out there for any defensive zone starts. Like they're trying to shelter him as much as possible.

But Tauket said like, even from the first game that he played with the Canucks to now, they've given him more and more responsibility. And maybe that's the next thing to come for the young defenseman. Here's Rick Tauket on more responsibilities for DPT. Yeah, I think young defensemen, you want to cocoon them a

little bit right you want to make sure you get them in some good situations. I've always felt you know the D are the last line of defense and when you make a mistake you know what is every the spotlights on them so we really wanted to kind of guard them a little bit but now that he's taken small little bites we got to give him more so we we got to look into, like you said, maybe some more D-zone face-offs in our end, things like that. But I think to me, young defensemen, especially early, you got to just give them small little bites. And I think that's really, whether it's my philosophy or Foody's, we're on the same page.

Okay. So obviously the big question is how are we going to handle all these Pettersons? Yeah. By name, I was thinking of just going DPD, EPD, and Marcus Petterson. Or Meaty. No, it's PD, DPD, or either 3PD or MP3. Those are the two that people use. I like Meaty. Can we go with Meaty? MP3. MP3 is not bad. MP3 is good. But I see a lot of people say 3PD as well. 3PD? Just because it rhymes with DPD. But I mean, yeah.

So you got PD, DPD, MP3. Well, uh, here's another question. Marcus. Just Marcus. Why? Go ahead Marcus. Ask your question. Do the Canucks suddenly have a decent blue line?

Doesn't take a lot. Doesn't take a lot. We haven't even seen Mancini and I think the Canucks want to have a practice before they put them into any game action and they're playing pretty well right now. So he might have to wait a little. Willander is still on the way.

Um, the bean pod is on right now. So he's a big part of that. I was watching that. So when healthy, let's take Will Lander out of the equation. When healthy, if Carson Soucy gets traded, and apparently he's on the block, they could go Hughes, Hronach. Yep.

First pair, right? Yep. Or they could go Hughes and Myers, but they could also go on the second pair, MP3, might have to get used to that, Marcus Pedersen with Tyler Myers. And then on the bottom pairing, you've got Forebort, you've got DPT, and you've got Mancini as an option.

Now the, the only, I guess the only hiccup there is like, I think they will want to play Forebort, um, because he's a veteran defenseman, he's a really good penalty killer. I guess the only hiccup there is like, I think they will want to play forward. Sure. Because he's a veteran defenseman. He's a really good penalty killer. He's a left shot. DPT is a left shot. You know, last night they had DPT on the left side and Suzy on the right side.

But Suzy is available for trade according to Elliott Freeman. And I think there should be a market for him, even though he has really struggled badly. I think there will be teams out there that are willing to add Carson Suzy to their lineup, especially ahead of the deadline. Yeah. I think handedness is always, uh, you know, an

important facet of this, but if you look at what you just broke down, let's just say if your top seven defensemen, regardless of hand are Hughes H Ronek, Marcus, Pedersen, Meyers, Forebort, DPT, Mancini, I think the takeaway is, oh my God, it's the makings of a real functional blue line, which has been a problem for this team this year. And it can change in an instant, as you astutely pointed out in the notes, because you only need six guys. It's not like building a forward group, right?

You can turn a defense from, you know, turn that frown upside down. You can turn it from a not good group to a suddenly intriguing group with just a one or two transactions. Well, I was laughing a little bit last night when they were interviewing Brock Besser after the game and Brock Besser got a goal.

It was a very nice goal. And it was started with a nice pass by Hronik up to Dubresque and got it to Besser. And Besser scored and Hronik was very, very good last night and maybe he should be on his own pair, but you know, Besser was saying like, yeah, I think our breakouts are better. And people were like, uh, why is that?

Do you think? You don't say Brock. You know, look, the, the Canucks and, uh, why is that? Do you think? You don't say Brock. You know, um, look, the, the Canucks and, and, and frankly, Susie was a problem. Um, not last night, but this has been a problem from actually he made an awful breakout pass at one point last night, but other guys like Darren A with the puck on a stick, Juleson with the puck

on his stick. It's been tough when you get a guy like Marcus Pedersen out there. You know who Marcus Pedersen kind of reminds me of actually is like, he plays like, like that's Tanev's game. Sure. You know, that's Tanev's game where he makes a

good first pass. He's solid defensively. It's probably not going to get involved too much offensively, but I think he's maybe a little more physical than. I saw Dan, I saw Dan Ham, he was comp, which I didn't hate. Maybe.

Um, yeah, yeah. Like I, I just think he's, he's just, he's just solid. Yeah. You know, you can put them out there in a top four role and you're like, all right, that's good. Which is exactly what this group needed. Yes.

Exactly. Like fits to a T because we said when you have Susie and Myers Myers especially masquerading as a top four grouping, it doesn't work. It weakens the group. They don't have the puck moving ability. They just don't have that solid all around, and all the cliches, nothing flashy gets the job done, but does it at a high level.

That's what Marcus Peterson's brought to the table. I mean, I wouldn't mind when Hughes is healthy, seeing Hughes and Myers together, Peterson and Hronik together, you know, or maybe you have, you know, Forbert has been playing with Hronik, so maybe you keep those guys together. I don't know. I just, it is crazy. I think, and I think the management group deserves

a lot of credit for, first all the drafting of a guy like Elias Pedersen and the acquisition of a guy like Marcus Pedersen, not to mention the acquisition of a guy like Hronik, they had a massive job ahead of them. The development of Quinn Hughes has obviously helped everyone, but you're looking at this group now and you're going like, wait a minute, like this isn't that bad. Now, unfortunately there has been a bit of

robbing of Peter DePay Paul. JT Miller is no longer on this team. And you look up front and you go, do they have a legitimate one C, 2C? And I think the obvious answer right now is no. They have guys playing the roles. Because ideally, Hedl might have 2C potential actually. Hedl might have 2C. Maybe with a, you know, he wasn't going have to see potential actually he don't might have to see maybe maybe with you know

He wasn't gonna get that opportunity in New York Maybe he can maybe he can get that that in Vancouver, but I think ideally he's a 3c But you know, maybe on Vancouver is a 2c, but they definitely don't have a 1c right now Like he'd all is not capable of you know, like they've got McDavid or they've got McKinnon. Well, we've got Phillip Hewlett No disrespect to Heidel. He's a very good player, but you know, that's a high bar and that is where, you know, who should be. And last night, you know, I'm watching that game

and they had a lot of power play time because of, you know, Miles Wood. Yeah. Petey drew one of the penalties. He did. And honestly, that might be his best attribute out there right now, his ability to fall down and draw penalties.

Like that sounds mean, but it's true. And, you know, he, he is not contributing to power play one and, you know, my instinct is like, we'll get them off there. But then I'm like, well, wait a minute. They got to get them going somehow. Are you going to take away power play one and also who's going to replace them because somehow. Are you going to take away power play one and also

who's going to replace them because JT Miller's not there anymore. Are you going to put Pew suitor out there on power play one? He's a shutdown guy now, right? Like it's, they don't, they don't have a lot of great options to, um, replace Elias Pedersen. And I don't want to harp on it too much because

last night was a good, was, it was a good story. I thought, you know, Holglinder played well and I've liked his game recently. Hoaglander Carlson Bluger is a good energy. Yeah, I really liked that. And Hoaglander, you know, when he plays in the bottom six, I think he's a better player. You know, for whatever reason, and Takeda said

this, when he goes up and plays top six, his game changes, I like when he's in the bottom six and knows like, I'm only going to get this amount of time. So I'm going to go out there and I'm going to grind as long as he can not, you know, avoid the, the dumb offensive zone penalties, make some good plays. Great. But you know, there's a reason you're hearing

sats say things like the connects are in the market for an impact for it because right now they don't have enough impact for it. Yeah. And it's, it's obvious at times there is a struggle to score. You know, they did find the back of the net three times, although only two with a goalie in there. And it is interesting that with this forward group,

and I know it's a small sample size, only two games, but how much of an impact Ketel has made, not just on the ice, but in terms of like when Rick Tocket speaks about him, making an impact on how the group looks at the game and maybe re-imagines the way that they attack. I've got a couple clips here. So the first I wanna play is about Hito's ability to hold the puck,

which we've noticed through the first two games. Like he can really dangle. And Tauket seems to like that as a sort of infectious thing for the rest of the group like hey Look at the new guy not deferring every five seconds. Maybe we want to be a little bit more like that Here's Rick talk it on Philip Heidel's ability to carry the puck what helps in practice like you know We haven't really we haven't a full practice with those guys yet here, so I gotta get those guys credit They've had they haven't had a practice with us other than the morning skate

But when you practice and you practice with guys like that, it is contagious. A lot of the games I call it when the guys are on your back and you have the puck, he doesn't get rid of it, he holds it. And that's a big thing for offensive guys when you hold it. So hopefully it is contagious when he's around. But it's not just the puck handling prowess. Rick Taukett is also pretty excited about the speed that Heedle and Drew O'Connor have brought to the lineup.

Here's the coach on how much faster the Canucks look and just quite frankly are with the two new forward additions in the lineup. Well, I don't want to overstate it, but I think Heedle and Drew O'Connor, the speed and their willingness to take the puck in the middle on a rush, like a little breath of fresh air when you see Heedle take that puck, he goes in the middle of the ice and that's when things happen. So to just add in those two guys has helped our rush game and

You can see the yogi were we're smiling because that's the stuff we need right so those two guys for sure and obviously Both petersons back there good first pass transporting the puck so that's where you get the flow going so Yeah, I I have to give them a lot of credit I know it's two games, and it was a big win, and I think we've got to stay even-kill, but I do like the rush part of it, that they're willing to take the puck.

Even at the end, I know people might not say it, but O'Connor gets it standing still. Most guys just throw it out, might ice the puck, and he skates it and gets the empty net. That's a big play play because he can skate. See, I was told that Rick Tuckett was telling them to go glassing out and he didn't want them to make any plays and he'd coached all the offense and he'd coached all the confidence out of them.

So maybe I guess I'll have to do that with Heidel and Drew O'Connor. Yeah, he hasn't had a chance to practice yet. He said it himself. That empty. I was also told that once the D started making good passes and they got some guys that could move the puck in there that everything would change for Elias Pedersen. I mean.

That's what I was told. Low key sarcasm aside. That wasn't low key brother. I think you and I, I think you and I were pretty much aligned the entire time. We never, never turned this on the coach. Yeah. I mean, we questioned a few things. I mean, I went there specifically. I was like, I was like, well, we never, never turned this on the coach. And we had-

I mean, we questioned a few things. I mean, I went there specifically. I was like, why are you passing it back to the points so much? He's like, I'm not done. I don't want them to do that. And rightfully so, cause you can question the coach when the team is playing as poorly as the Canucks have

at times this season. But there were some, I would say borderline, recklessly unfair criticisms of Rick Tauket when he would come out in the aftermath and say exactly what he wanted to see from his group. I have people even texting into the Dunbar Lumber text messaging basket and accusing Rick Tauket of saying one thing to the media post game, but coaching his team in an entirely different way.

I'm like, I don't know where you came up with that theory from. Like he's not going to consciously go out of his way to change the messaging postgame. You know, it's a, you know, it's another theory that they're hiding or they're, they're making him play through that tendonitis because he's clearly hurt based on his skating. You know what else helps your skating? Getting into the gym and getting stronger. Right. There's a reason these guys do these like burst workouts, right? There's like, okay, I got to create more

burst in my stride. You know, you know in the family guy episode where it's like a knockoff of the $6 million man. With Peter. With Peter and they're like, we can build him back or whatever, but I don't want to spend a lot of money. Yeah. And then he comes striding out and I don't know,

he's got like a garbage can for a leg or whatever. Plunger, a plunger for a leg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is what PD stride looks like right now. It does. Like if, you know, I'd actually like, I would love to get like a skating coach on this program to say like Pedersen stride he's never had the prettiest stride. Okay. No, it's never been like

McDavid or you know, like the it's not like Nienermier, right? Like it's never been a pretty stride, but it had burst it had energy to it and You know, do you really think that they're like, no, you don't have tendonitis, we're going to keep you in these games and we're going to bury you, we're going to intentionally bury you and make this signing that we had, we're going to make

you look bad because we don't like you. Like that's the plan. Quinn Hughes hasn't played these last two games. He wants to play, but they're not letting him. Because they're saying like, no, you know, sometimes, you know, you just gotta tell the player like, you're not gonna play tonight, okay? It's like Quinn, Quinn, you know, wants to gut it out.

He wants to play. And we've had to say, no, you're not gonna play, right? So, they're treating Pedersen completely different? Right. I mean, well, the other interesting part of this is that, uh, sat in down, I was listening to the pregame show yesterday and they dug into the metric, I guess, NHL edge, which is the advanced analytics in terms of player tracking that the NHL has, uh, they have tangible data on how much slower Patterson is. But that's giving people, um, that that's giving people ammunition to say he's hurt.

And I'm saying, well, maybe he's not strong enough. Maybe he hasn't been keeping up. And that's, if you're listening to the Gucks. I'm not so worried about the why. Well, I'm worried about the why. The why is the biggest thing. The why is the thing that you can, like, if it's a strength thing, then, you know,

you get them in the gym in the off season and you like, you watch them. And you make sure that he does his exercises, right? Do your exercises, right? Do your leg sets off. But if it's not that, then you've got to figure something out. And if it is that, you're like, okay, well, if we can get them in the gym, maybe we'll keep them and you can be fine next season. And I would say it's a huge bet if you're going

to make that though, because then the no move clause would kick in. Because part of the talk at audio, like if you're the glass half full optimistic radio show, you're talking about, Hey, how great are these two new acquisitions that the coach is speaking so glowingly about them? The glass half empty pessimistic radio show would say it is a bit of a indictment on the current forward group that Philip Heidel and Drew O'Connor are being held up as the guys that you want to

model your game after like fine players for sure but a guy that was a third line center with the Rangers and a guy that was just sort of a middle six forward in Pittsburgh. That O'Connor empty net goal was pretty nice though. I have to. It was. He outskated McCarr. But that's what I'm saying. He made a great move to get out of the zone. But don't you think that it. It's your first few steps like that's impressive. It was for an empty net goal. It was one of the nicer empty net goals I've seen. Yeah, he's fast too. This was in no way meant to denigrate those guys, but is it not a statement on the current forward group

that they joined that Drew O'Connor is being held up, do more Drew O'Connor things, right? That's what I'm saying. And like, I'll do respect to Drew O'Connor, but there's a few of him around, there's a few middle six forwards that are big and strong and willing to go. I wonder if this group collectively had so

much stuff going on mentally both with the on ice stuff and the off ice stuff that they were almost like you know the old paralysis by analysis like overthinking things and trying to make the safe play all the time because it was both the easiest thing to do, the safest thing to do, and they just, everyone was on edge about like, we just don't want to mess anything up or make anything else worse, right? And now talking, saying like, do some of these things where you might make a mistake or we might turn a puck over, but in the offensive zone and with speed, we want to be more attack minded.

Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up on the other side of the break, David Amber, Hockey Night Canada, Sportsnet NHL host. He's gonna join us. We will look ahead to tonight's action. We'll also look back. Uh he was working last night's game, Canucks three nothing win over the Colorado Avalanche uh on the panel with Don Granato. So, we'll talk to David about all that coming up. The Hockey

Talk continues. You're listening to the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 PM weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Music 633 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halpern Brough Sportsnet 650. Halpern and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier

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To the phone lines we go. David Amber joins us now on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, David, how are you? Jason, Mike, I'm doing well. How are you guys? We're good. Just eagerly anticipating this call and getting to break down everything that happened with the Vancouver Canucks last night. Good victory at home. Three, nothing win over the Colorado Avalanche. First shout out of the season for Thatcher Demko.

What were your thoughts on what the Canucks were able to do last night? I thought they got better as the game went on. I was a little bit, you know, I thought they were a little tentative at first, but I thought they played a really impressive game. I mean, they're missing Quinn Hughes, right? How many teams can survive without their best player and someone who's such a catalyst has the puck on their stick more than any player in the league and is putting together an MVP caliber season. I thought they played a really effective purposeful game and it was good to see. And the fact that Jake DeBrusk dropped back from the

score sheet was important. Let's face facts with without JT Miller, they're going to need more scoring by committee. They're going to need more guys to sort of step up and produce and to have DeBrusk be part of it was important. Thatcher Demko just seems like such a wild card for the Canucks right now because we've actually seen him in have two really good starts in his last three, but his overall numbers are still pretty

low and even he admitted after the game, it's like, yeah, it's great to have this and he was pretty low key. He was like, felt good that the guys played in front of me. I got to keep doing it. You got to do it more than once. Is that the biggest wild card for the Canucks in your eyes as well? Yeah, I mean, it has been, right? They had exceptional goalie last,

goal-tenning last year. And Lankton has been very good as we know, and Demko just hasn't been. I mean, that's the bottom line. He hasn't been an elite world-class goalie this year. And maybe that's understandable coming off all the procedures he was coming off of, but that's one of the big differences. It's not that Demko was masking a bunch of mistakes last year, but he certainly was such

a rock in net that Vancouver could rely on. Hey, you know, we're going to get the timely save when we need it. And that just hasn't been the case thus, you know, thus, you know, so far this year. You know, if his numbers can get back up to his career numbers as far as save percentage and goals against Go, Canucks will be in a much better position to make a legitimate playoff run. So you say that about a lot of teams though, right guys? I mean, you talk to most coaches and they say, yeah, I'm only as good as my goal-tending. And it's funny how, you know, Rick Tuckett was the coach of the year last year and deserved all of it.

And Demko was part of the fact that he was able to build up a nice resume with the team. And this year, you know, he's been spotty at best last I checked. It was a while ago. At last I checked. I think Vancouver was 26th in the league and save percentage. I mean, it's hard to win games when you're near the bottom of the league and save percentage.

And I think the Cox have actually done exceptionally well record wise considering some of the, you know, some of the goals that have been led in throughout this season. You know, it's funny, the takeaways that people will have from games are like we came in this morning and we're talking about the new look blue line and the two new Pattersons on defense and Demco. And then you come on and you're like, you know, they played without Quinn Hughes.

I don't even think we mentioned that in the first 30 minutes of the show that Quinn Hughes was out again. We might've mentioned it. We mentioned it. Yeah, yeah. We will. We actually mentioned it as, as a, hey, the Four Nations is coming up.

Yeah. What do you think is going to happen? Do you think, do you think Quinn Hughes is going to go to this? He really wants to go. His agent was on in town with Donnie and Dolly earlier in the week and he said, yeah, you know, Quinn really wants to go. His agent was on in town with Donnie and Dolly earlier in the week and he said, yeah, you know,

Quinn really wants to go and he's probably going to go. But, you know, he's, he's not able to play in the NHL right now. I don't think Canucks fans are going to be thrilled if he goes off to the four nations and gets even more banged up. Yeah, I mean, this is what we're staring down in a lot of different, you know, that was

all the conversation about three weeks ago when Austin Matthews missed I think eight or nine games and it was like, well wait this guy's expecting to play at Four Nations and then he came back and he started playing like Austin Matthews and scoring and the quieted down Mitch Marner, we're not sure the circumstance, he didn't play for the Leafs last night. I was watching the games with Donnie Granado, who was great to watch the games with. What a great, you know, analytical eye and sophisticated eye he has when he watches the games.

It's really cool when you get to watch the games with a coach and they see things you don't necessarily see. And we had a collective gaffe when Sidney Crosby left last night's game. He came back, so I'm not sure, you know, how many of your listeners saw this, but Crosby got sandwiched between two players. He was shaking his left wrist and he looked in considerable pain and he left and I was like, oh my God, that's the worst scenario because for all intents and purposes, what is he playing for this

year? He's playing to play in the four nations because we all know Pittsburgh's not really doing much of anything. Thankfully, he did come back about 10 minutes later. He missed some time, but he did come back and he was there at the end of the game. I didn't hear his postgame comments, but that was a collective gasp as well. When it comes to Quinn Hughes, that's going to be something you guys are going to talk about. I'm sure that's something that Rick Tauke and Patrick Alveen and everyone will be asked about, something that Quinn Hughes will be asked about. You know, I'm not...my opinion is if he's well enough to play there, he's done

everything he can for the Vancouver Canucks and you don't, you don't forbid him from doing that. You allow him, you know, this is important to him. So that would be my take. But I completely understand if he goes to Four Nations and something else happens and it, you know, causes complications with whatever he's suffering through it. He misses more time for Vancouver. I can imagine, you know, that would not sit well with the Vancouver fan base or, or the management group for that matter. So it would certainly present a risk if something is really nagging and bothering them, which

clearly it is because he's missed the last few games. Which blue lining, Pedersen caught your and Don Granado's eyes yesterday more? Was it Marcus Pettersson? Was it Elias Pettersson? Huh. We didn't really, I'll be perfectly honest with you. We were, it was a very busy night for us and we were watching the games,

but those names didn't come up. I can't lie. I'm not going to pretend that we were as focused, laser focused on them. We had 14 games last night. We're doing the intermissions for the Oilers game, the Calgary game, as well as the Canucks game. And we actually had some sort of, poor Don Granado guys, he walks in, it's his first time doing television. You know, he's typically nervous and, you know, there's a lot going on, a lot of moving parts. He's done a ton of serious radio, NHL Network radio and he's fantastic on there, but radio

is a different medium. You can kind of sit back and chill and really dig into stuff. TV, you've got this producer and you're saying, hurry up, wrap it up, wrap it up, wrap it up, go and it's all like 30 seconds, 30 seconds quick. And I, you know, it was a lot. And then we, and then we had this, um, one of the games on sports net last night was also Anaheim versus Dallas. And there was some sort of feed issue from the

States. So they lost ESPN's intermission and we suddenly were sitting in the green room watching the games. They're like, we need you to fill the first intermission of the ducks. Oh my God. What? So we jump up and it's like run into the studio to do that as well.

And I said, Don, I'll be honest with you, the most any analyst has worked this year. That's the seventh intermission you're doing. And he kind of chuckled. So I feel like I wouldn't be able to properly answer that question. We didn't talk about the Pettersons. You know, it's funny though, he worked with Quinn Hughes, by the way, when Quinn Hughes was 15, 16 years old and, and Don Granado was with the national team development program for the

U S and we talked about his high IQ even then and the angles he would take. Um, in, in, he said, look, he was always a smaller guy, a smaller player. So he had to be so much smarter because he couldn't add out muscle guys in the corner and he started telling me about how they they would prepare like if the guy comes in on his backhand into this corner you're gonna you're gonna try and move him this way get him in a vulnerable position and strip him of the puck and he goes now what he's watching him now a lot of those things that he was learning and crafting that this 15 or 16 year old are coming into play and one of the reasons you know he's a Norris winner and a hard caliber player. So it's really cool.

And he said, you know, he's worked with a lot of really amazing defensemen. He rattled off, you know, Warrensky and, you know, all the good young American defensemen, McAvoy, and even said back then, you know, Quinn Hughes was sort of an elite level of his own. So we talked a lot about Quinn Hughes. We didn't talk as much about the two Pettersons,

but, um, you know, how did you guys feel they play? Like, are they sitting in nicely talk as much about the two Pettersons, but how did you guys feel they play? Like are they sitting in nicely? Well, yeah, Marcus Peterson is exactly what they've needed, a steady top four guy, a three or a four, and then Elias Peterson, DPD was, everyone was like, that was a young Alex Edler, or that's a young Matthias Olin out there.

He was just bullying guys out there and Rick Tauke had just called him like a cycle breaker and he just plays physical and he plays with confidence and he plays with aggression and Canucks fans love it. I did want to ask you about some of the other games that occurred last night. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but was that a pretty big win for Tampa over Ottawa? A hundred percent it was. And it's one of these scheduling courts where Ottawa

is into Tampa to play last night and they stay in Tampa and they play again Thursday night, which is pretty crazy. Yeah. All you have to do is take one look at the standings. Ottawa went into that game last night with four points, four points in front of Tampa, who was sitting outside a playoff spot. At Ottawa won that game, there's suddenly six points in front of Tampa.

And that's not, you know, it's hard to make up points as we know with these three point games and everything else. So, you know, it was a, it was a big win. It felt like a bit of a playoff atmosphere. You know, Tampa really, you know, their big boys came out to play and when they get on the power play, we all know what Kucharov and Hagel and Point can do. So it was a big, it was a big game.

And maybe the biggest storyline that's going to come out of that game is Ottawa lost Josh Norris on the weekend and they're calling him week to week. And they lost Shane Pinto last night on a pretty innocuous sort of collision in the corner and he left, you know, with some sort of upper body injury. And if they've lost Pinto and Norris, wow, that's, that's a big part of their offense. They just got David Perron back and thankfully found the score sheets for the first time a couple of nights ago. But Ottawa has been rolling really well right now.

And if Pinto's gone for any significant amount of time, that's a real, real problem for the Ottawa Senators. We're speaking to David Amber, Hockey Night Canada, Sportsnet NHL host here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. We should ask David like very, very intricate questions about, like, what did you think of Drew O'Connor's game? I'm going to preface every question with,

I realize I may be throwing you on the spot right now. However, so last night there's 14 games in the NHL. You know what, actually, I didn't even realize there was that many until I did the rundown of last night. And one that jumped to mind though, like front of mind is what the Detroit Red Wings did on this recently completed. They won every game on this four game road trip started in Edmonton. They won in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Seattle.

And then the sack came out in the aftermath. They now have two seven game winning streaks since Todd McClellan took over as coach. I'm like, I didn't even think they played 14 games yet under Todd McClellan, but they already have to seven game win streaks. They're in a playoff spot. They looked very good. Fire the coach, man, every time.

That's the answer. Fire the coach. How much attention were you guys paying to Detroit? Not even last night, but over the last couple weeks because they've been on fire Full transparency last night not a lot There was just you know we had all seven Canadian teams in action and that takes obviously precedent for us But over the last few weeks a hundred percent I've been watching Detroit And you're right they have had two seven game winning streaks their very first game with Todd McClellan as the coach they played against the Least he didn't do anything. He sort of just wanted to feel it out

He sat there on the bench the least pounded them. I think five two or something. I'm very competitive pardon me Sorry, it's five two. Yeah Yeah, depending like five to it wasn't a very competitive game and and I think he sat back and he sort of said, okay Here's what I'm seeing from these players and the systems. And then he started implementing the systems. They rattled off seven straight wins.

And now, as you said, a second tenured, seven game winning streak. They look really good right now, guys. And they're winning in a lot of dramatic fashion. You know, a lot of the shootout wins and a lot of overtime wins, a lot of come from behind wins. But I think there's a level of confidence there with that team. They're really underperforming before and sometimes it's a new voice and

really, they've kind of become a bit more of a boring team in the sense that they have sort of, you know, close things down, they do this one three one and, you know, they kind of drag into the mud when they have to and then if they have to open up, they do, so it's been really interesting to see if they're gonna end their playoff drought, Ottawa Senators are looking to end their playoff drought, I think they're both at seven years or something like that. So it's been one of those classic stories of you do remove the coach mid-season

and you get that coaching bump, and it's certainly happened with McClellan behind the bench in Detroit. Okay. I'm pretty confident. I'm not going to catch you off guard with this next question. Sportsnet, Wednesday night hockey tonight, big, big, bad, bad, David, Oilers go to Chicago, big game, marquee game go. Yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be fun.

I know how much you saw of McDavid last night. He was in, it was the full McMagic repertoire. Do you see the game winning goal he set up to Connor Brown? Pretty nice. Yeah. I mean, not that many guys in the league can put defenders on their heels like that. And I know it's three on three, but my God, he just so shifty, so quick. He easily could have probably scored the game winner.

Instead, he just dished a little backhand,hand you know sauce pass to Brown for the empty net. He sets up the game time goal another beautiful cross seam pass to dry sidle with two minutes left in the game. He was he was on full display we'll see what we get from the other Connor. Connor Bidart he's been playing much better of late but he's still so in my opinion on such an island by himself on that Chicago team and I really am hopeful that they're going to you know find a way this offseason to insulate him and get him some help and get some guys to play around him because one thing I've noticed with Connor Bedard and we saw this early in Connor McDavid's career too is he doesn't seem to be playing with any joy at all. It just he scored this beautiful goal I think it was last week where

he scored that shot up on Jonas Johansson in the top corner. There was barely any room. Very few guys would even consider taking the shot, let alone trying to score there. And he did. And he didn't seem to even, you know, there was no celebration. There was just no joy for him right now.

I think that's all that's losing is taking its toll on him. And it's been a long season, but again, it's Connor versus Connor. We'll sell it at that. And by the way guys, you know, for diehard hockey fans, it's early for you guys. It'd be at four in the afternoon, but we do have the Bruins and the Rangers. We actually have a true double header. And that's an important game. The Rangers, you know, if you want to go see what JP Miller is all about, um, in the, in the, in the, with the blue shirts, we'll have that for you as well at four o'clock.

And those are two teams right now currently outside, you know, the playoffs situation, trying to work their way back in, which is funny to think about the Rangers and the Bruins, two teams, a lot of people figured would be in the playoffs, have some work to do to make the playoffs, including the Rangers who, you know, they're currently 13th in the Eastern Conference.

So we'll see what kind of bump, if any, they get from this JT Miller trade. And so we have a true doubleheader tonight and it should be a lot of fun. David, what did you think of Niels Hoaglander last night? Did you like his game? It's a tough one, man.

I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you sit there and like have to watch all these games and then just like, you know, have to have an opinion on it. It's hard. So at least you were honest with us and didn't just make some stuff up. Well, yeah, the Pedersen thing I'm going to be,

now you've got to be thinking about it. Am I going to watch him? I mean, listen, I've heard what the experts say and you know, the Marcus Pedersen part of it was a big, big reason that that whole deal went through. And if they sign him long-term and he ends up being this guy, and I've talked to people who also, you know, like Colby Armstrong's on our show tonight they sign them long-term and he ends up being this guy. And I've talked to people who also, you know, like Colby Armstrong's on our show tonight, he saw him in Pittsburgh and he's like, Oh yeah, this guy's a stud.

Like when people have seen them on a day and day basis who know hockey and have really good things to say about them, that means a lot to me. And I think that might be sort of one of those, sometimes you make a deal and it's the hidden gem. And I'll give you the perfect example guys. Remember when Calgary made that big deal with Matthew Kachuk, it was all about Hubert O. versus Kachuk. Well, quietly, Calgary got a first round pick,

but they also got Mackenzie Weger. And Mackenzie Weger has been as impactful, if not more impactful than Hubert O. in many respects. So maybe Marcus Pedersen, we pronounce it Pedersen, right, they're all Pedersen? They're all Pedersen. There's too many Pedersen. A lot of Pedersen.

Be honest with you. Yeah, it's a lot of Pedersen. We got two Phillips too, Philip Peronek and Philip Edel. I know, poor Shorty, my God, that can't be easy. And Ray and everyone else. Couldn't happen to a better guy. So you know what I mean,, that could be that crowning jewel when all is said and done and the dust settles

as much as Heedle is going to be impactful and JT Miller obviously is going to do his thing. You know, what if, what if Pedersen ends up being sort of this marquee guy that they ink for a five, six year deal and he's kind of shores up that top four on the blue line. That's not insignificant. So time will tell the early returns

as you guys are saying is pretty good. So I'm happy to hear that. So it's the Bruins and the Rangers first and then it's Connor versus Connor second. David, enjoy it tonight. It should be a lot of fun. And thanks for doing this. We really appreciate it. A week today guys. I'll be joining you from Montreal as we get ready for Canada, Sweden game one of the four nations face off. Can't wait.

Can't wait either. Thanks man. We appreciate this. Take care guys. Have a good one. David man, we appreciate this. Take care, guys. Have a good one. David Amber, Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Yeah, just throwing random questions at David Amber, but he's a pro, he handles it all. They were very busy last night and understandably so.

I mean, I was tasked with doing the NHL stories from last night and I was looking at them. There's a lot that you wanna tell because there was a lot that happened. And I always, especially this time of year where the wins and losses get magnified in terms of playoff positioning, you wanna break them all down,

be like, hey, keep an eye on this one or hey, keep an eye on that one. But when you realize that 28 teams are in action, you're like, it's a lot. Dustin Wolf got lit up, eh? So there's one there. Like that was, I was gonna lead with that one in terms of the out of town scoreboard.

You're watching Calgary games on a nightly basis now. And Calgary did lose last night. They fell six three to a William Nylander hat trick with the Toronto Maple Leafs coming into Calgary last night. So Calgary, now you look at them, they've lost four of their last six games. If you go back to when the calendar flipped from 2024 to 2025, Calgary is a 500 hockey team. They played 16 games since January 1 and they're eight

and eight in those 16 games. So if you're talking about the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames jockeying for that final playoff spot, well, Calgary's just kind of treading water. They're playing 500 hockey. I kind of think that's what they are closer to. Yeah. However, I don't know what else Craig Conroy has in store for this team. I don't know what direction they go from here. I mean, the Philadelphia trade getting Frost and

Farabee, it's pretty aggressive. I mean, it was. But that's the type of move that the flames would make because those are guys that are, they're not rentals. Like those are guys that they're going to build with. I just meant aggressively, like maybe a deal that they would do out of season. Like it almost felt like a buy.

And if you know, it was. Well, I think it was. I think it was one of those, it serves dual masters. Like it helps you in the immediacy. It gives you a chance to maybe make the playoffs this year, but also Frost and Fairbier guys, you could see being there long term. I thought it was a pretty smart move for the Flames. I was a big fan of it as much as I don't want to see Calgary take that final playoff spot away from the Canucks or anything, but they're going to be one to monitor moving

forward, right? So we've got some time coming up in the seven o'clock hour of this program. We can dive into more of these stories. We'll also go around the league coming up with Frank Saravalli from Daily Face Off. I will focus primarily on trade talks, Vancouver Canucks and otherwise, because Frank's got his big trade board at Daily Face Off and a bunch of the big names are already off of that board. So we'll talk to Frank about that coming up

on the other side. By the way, Frank is already on the record as he thinks Marcus Pedersen is a number five, okay? We're not gonna sit there and go like, really, you think he is he is like let's just wait and see how it all plays out. Okay. Yeah, like grill him I'll kill him come on like he's been on how many shows Oh, you're not a grown for that, but but he's already he's already been grilled grill him again Yeah, I think you should go the morning grill. Yeah Okay, I mean he's obviously not a five. So okay. Hold on. What's that?

Well, let's explain could we can't this kind of kind of like his opinions already out there Hold on. Let's make fun of him for everyone knows though. Let's just explain what's going on. Just a little don't know what's going on right now Frank has said publicly and on the record and multiple times that he thinks newly acquired Vancouver Canucks defenseman Marcus Pederson is a fifth defenseman and a lot of people have taken this a lot of people have taken this as a personal affront that they think Pederson is better than that is and will play higher in the lineup than that and that Frank is erroneous in his analysis. As Jason has pointed out, Frank's been asked about this take, he's been grilled on it, he's defended it. I suppose we can go to him.

Maybe we can joke about it. It's like, hey, what do you think of Marcus Pedersen? But where does it, I just want to know where it comes from. Has he ever been a 5D on a team? Has he always been like a top pair or top four at least? Well, maybe Frank just doesn't like him. It seems so random's a lot of them. I just want to know where they come from. It seems so random. Okay fine, we'll ask them. Thank you. We'll ask them. You're listening to the Alfred and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break I need to tell you about Jan Pro. From conference rooms to kitchenettes and everything in between, Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and

disinfected. For a free quote visit JanPro.ca