Chapter 1: What happened in the Vancouver Canucks game last night?
You're listening to Halford and Brough. Patrick, do you have a culture problem that needs to be fixed? A culture problem on our team?
No.
Yeah. Down low. Throws it in front and they score! And Matt Savoy, nearly again from the same spot, makes it three for three. A first period hat trick. Stop pummeling me! It's really painful! Ladies and gentlemen, The Weekend.
Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford. It is Braff. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.
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Chapter 2: Why was General Manager Patrik Alvin fired?
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It is time now for our morning guest list. It's the Duik Morning Drive brought to you by the Duik Auto Group. And it's going to be shorter than usual because we've got a lot of stuff to get into and some potentially huge news as it pertains to your Vancouver Canucks. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza is going to join the program. Bruff mentioned. Ask us anything Friday.
$100 gift card to AJ's for the best AUA. You know how to get them in. At 7.30, Asa Raymond is going to join the program. Play-by-play voice of the Whitecaps. Whitecaps are back in action tonight, 7.30 from BC Place. And then, when we talk to Rick Dollywall at 8 a.m. this morning, we're going to have a lot of things to discuss. Intrepid Canucks reporter from Donnie and Dolly on Check TV.
He's going to join us at 8 this morning.
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Chapter 3: What were the reactions to Alvin's dismissal?
We're doing the Bar Inside giveaway. We're doing all our usual Friday stuff, but I'm trying to move this along because we have a lot to get into. So, without further ado... Greg, 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. Before I break this news to the listeners, I will say this is pretty unique, and the circumstances are not what we usually expect, but...
Patrick Alvin is out as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks according to a report out of Swedish media late last night and then early into this morning this is according to Aftonbladet which is a Swedish news outlet I read it every morning it's
my favorite swedish news outlet one of my favorite scandinavian tabloids do you have the new after blooded and there it is we're still doing accents alvin is set to be dismissed by the vancouver canucks there is a not a ton of clarity right now whether this news has been delivered to patrick alvin whether patrick alvin traveled with the team yesterday to edmonton for the team's final game of the regular season which they got shelled and we'll get into that later
According to the province's Patrick Johnson, both Alvin and Rutherford have been contacted for comment. Neither have replied as of yet. All we know right now is that a prominent Swedish news outlet, Aftonbladet, is reporting that Patrick Alvin is out as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks.
I don't want to read too much into a potential translation of a Swedish newspaper, but... Here's how it's translated. On Thursday evening, the owners agreed to relieve Alvin of his duties. Is there anything to that? The owners agreed to relieve Alvin of his duties?
We gotta be careful with it. We do have to be careful. We have to be careful with it. It's a Google Translate.
I think that... We've heard a lot about potential power struggles behind the scenes in Vancouver and maybe a lack of agreement on the way forward. And, you know, I... I just wonder what else is going to break today. Sure. What else is going to happen today?
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Chapter 4: How does the Canucks' management structure impact team performance?
Now, the players, I imagine, are going to do their avails. Well, who knows now? Yeah, and get the hell out. Well, they're going to have to because, I mean... You know, they usually just do it after their last game of the season and they meet the media, they clean out their lockers.
If this does happen today, you're putting the players in an obviously tough situation where they're going to be forced to comment on either the dismissal of their general manager or... The reported dismissal of their general manager. Again, the Canucks have not confirmed this news as of yet, which is why we're handling it in the way that we're handling it. Now, I will say this.
If you want to start connecting the dots and making fair assumptions or not, mid-March, Nick Kiprios put forth a report on Sportsnet.ca that he had been told that Patrick Alvin was telling individuals, telling people, maybe leaking to sources, that that he was not going to return as general manager and he was going to be fired from his post.
You could then say that maybe there's a line to be drawn between Kiprio's report and then the news that the first prominent outlet to report Alvin's dismissal was a Swedish news outlet. Alvin, of course, being the first ever Swedish general manager in NHL history.
Again, draw your own conclusions, draw lines between whatever you want, but there definitely seems to be at least a correlation there that's worth exploring.
There were rumors starting at the beginning of the season, and I remember Patrick Johnston writing this, that if things went a little sideways, Patrick Alvin was going to be the fall guy. And I do think that maybe not now is the time to have this conversation, but if Alvin is the guy that wears it, I don't know how fair that is.
That's a very good point. I think we can discuss it right now if this does happen. Look, we're going to work on the assumption that this is news and this is happening.
Okay, here's a text into the Dunbar Lumber text line, and it's a little harsh, but I kind of agree with it in theory. Unsigned text. Must be nice for Jim Rutherford. He gets to make all the decisions, and when they stink, he gets to fire the secretary.
Well, there's that element of it. Look. We talked about this yesterday on the show. We've talked about it repeatedly since it happened. And while there wasn't a singular kiss of death for Alvin's role and his diminished role in Vancouver, I think it came...
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Alvin's firing for the team's future?
It was not Patrick Alvin orchestrating the biggest trade, not just of the season, but one of the biggest trades in franchise history.
Because even if you think it's unfair that Alvin would wear this, and maybe it is, Another way to look at it is potentially that Jim Rutherford has been tasked with finding Jim Rutherford's successor, and Jim Rutherford doesn't believe that Patrick Alvin is that guy. You know? No, no, no.
Because some people will look at this and be like, this is a punishment for Patrick Alvin for what has happened, right? Yeah. But maybe it's more about like, okay... We're going to need a successor for Jim Rutherford. We're going to need someone going forward, and we just don't believe he's the right guy.
We don't believe he has the stuff, so let's get going on the search for the successor right away.
I think there's a lot of layers to it, and I think there's a lot of different reasons why this might have happened.
So it's not Rutherford trying to find another fall guy now?
Well, I need to find another fall guy. OK, you know what? I'm being facetious. I don't think it's even that facetious is that within this structure and within this organization, if you always have a president of hockey ops and then a general manager serving underneath that dynamic always exists. But surely he must be looking for another successor.
But if it's going to continue the way that it continues, it's always going to exist. Like, is that fair to say? Anytime you hire the guy that's underneath you and you don't give full autonomy, there's always going to be that element of one. Who's really calling the shots? And two, if this goes badly, who's the fall guy? Because in this instance, I tell you who the fall guy was.
It's Patrick Alvin. Now, this is not to say that Alvin did a wonderful job as general manager and was unjustly fired. And that's probably what clouds the analysis a little bit. I don't think anyone is here saying that Alvin knocked this job out of the park or he had a scintillating stint as the first Swedish general manager in the NHL. There were a lot of issues along the way.
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Chapter 6: What role does accountability play in the Canucks' management?
And I'm not talking about just public speaking. I'm talking about the way that messaging was framed. the timing of certain messages, how things were relayed to the public and the media.
And, and this goes upstairs to Rutherford as well, a general lack of accountability from the guys in charge, because we're going to play some Elliot Friedman audio afterwards, where he relays this notion that the entire Canucks organization from ownership to the front office is still almost dumbfounded at the way that everything crumbled underneath them.
And it often seems like they were always looking for reasons why. And you heard Jim Rutherford talk about the Pedersen and Miller rift. And you heard Jim Rutherford talk about that. Well, one of the biggest issues with keeping Quinn Hughes is he always wanted to play with his brothers. And it was always something that was outside of the organization's control. Always.
And that lack of accountability is, oftentimes was the prominent message from the president of hockey ups and Alvin did it as well.
The general manager, we played that clip from your question at the press or after the queen Hughes trade, where you asked if they had a culture problem and his answer was, and I know he was caught off guard, but his answer was on our team, a culture problem on our team.
No, in the concessions.
And I know you might have been caught off guard. Not you, but the royal you might have been caught off guard. But you got to be kidding me at that point. At that point, you've had a rift between the two of the biggest stars on your team that led to one of them getting traded. Your head coach had left and your star defenseman and captain had just been traded.
You should be prepared to answer the question of whether or not you have a problem in the room and a culture problem.
Okay, let's get to that Elliott Friedman audio. And by the way, the Canucks lost badly in Edmonton last night. Oh, yeah. What was it, 6-1? And by the way, this is symmetry. With that five-goal loss to the Oilers last night, the Canucks officially finished the season with a minus 100-goal differential.
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Chapter 7: How can the Canucks rebuild effectively after Alvin's departure?
Yeah. And he just slid in the empty netter to get there and like it was, you know, that happened in Edmonton too.
I respect a nice clean number.
Minus 100. Minus 100. I think the next team was maybe Chicago at like minus 60 something. I mean, the Canucks were dead last in the NHL by a mile. By a mile. And... You know, I don't really have anything to say that hasn't been said already, but I guess now that it is officially done, my only conclusion is that there needs to be significant change. This is an inflection point for the Canucks.
And just saying, well, we'll get a new general manager or, well, we're rebuilding is That isn't going to cut it. It might cut it for you. It's not going to cut it for me.
Me neither.
If the philosophy of the organization doesn't change, if the way they handle themselves on an everyday basis doesn't change, if the way they identify and evaluate talent and character doesn't change, then the rebuild is not going to work. I just don't know how much more of a wake-up call an ownership group would need. This team has failed so spectacularly over the last couple of years.
So spectacularly. So many chickens have come home to roost. I mean, have you been to Rogers Arena? It is inundated. With roosting chickens. God, they're all roosting. There's a real smell there. I think that might sell a few tickets, personally. If I showed up and there was a chicken on my seat and I got to hang out with said chicken the whole game. You thought it was roasting.
Maybe get a few eggs out of the deal.
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Chapter 8: What are the next steps for the Vancouver Canucks organization?
You thought it was roasting chickens.
It's roosting, which means it's resting. No, no, no. I'm fine with a live chicken. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you'd be like, this chicken was because you traded away too many draft picks. And that chicken over there was because you ignored the importance of leadership and culture. That chicken over there was because you did not, you wasted too much cap space. Yeah.
And they're just like, they're all coming home to roost. That's with the ostrich. So. That was Ekman Larson.
In the most recent 32 Thoughts, which I believe is either dropping or has dropped early this morning. Elliott Freeman had a lengthy analysis on what you're talking about, that everything's coming home to roost for the Vancouver Canucks. but that the team is still very much mired in thinking about the past instead of turning the page, making the decisions and going to the future.
It was a very long clip. I play a bit of a longer version. I'll leave some of the preamble in. Okay, sure. Why not? Why not at this point? We're going the first hour completely uninterrupted Canucks anyway. So this is Freed on the Canucks talking about how they need organizationally to make the decisions and turn the page. Elliot Friedman for the most recent 32 thoughts.
I think the biggest thing that the Canucks have to do is make their decisions and then turn the page. I don't know if there's a market in the league that looks to the past more than Vancouver does or debates the past more than Vancouver does. I think they have to make that a focal point. We're turning the page and we're not talking about the history ever again.
Now saying that, Kyle, I think that the way the last two seasons unraveled after that playoff berth and great series with the Oilers has been an earthquake inside the organization. And like I've said several times this year, I don't think they really understand how they got here from there. And I don't think they've ever felt they got the best possible answers to it.
And I think they're still in disbelief that here's where we are. That two years after that series, they were in 32nd in the league. And one of the reasons I think there's still some uncertainty over what may happen here is because I don't think they're satisfied or can completely comprehend how we got here.
Like, I just think it's been a lot of disbelief culminating in the Hughes trade and it's sort of, I think they've had a difficult time figuring out, you know, now they've accepted their rebuilding. Right. But I think there's other parts about the path that
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