Halford & Brough in the Morning - Are The Sabres For Real?

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest baseball news with MLB Network's Adnan Virk (1:37), plus the boys chat last night's Game One Habs loss to the Sabres with Sportsnet Montreal's Eric Engels (25:40).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It's time to chat with Adnan. It's Adnan Furkees on the show. We're going to talk some baseball and take a trip to the silver screen. That's right, it's time for Adnan. Yes, Adnan Furkees joins us now. We'll head out to the ball game and talk about all the films he's seen. 703 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody.

Halford Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We're now in our two of the program. Adnan Virk from MLB Network is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two is brought to by Jason Homunock at Jason. If you love giving the banks more your money, then don't let Jason shop,

around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Dom Mortgage. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studios. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Guests on Sportsnet 650 calling on the ABLE Auctions hotline. Email sales at ABLEE auctions.com.com.com. To get your business assets sold and your building cleared. Let's go now to the Able Auctions hotline. Our next guest is a presentation of Angry Otter. It's Adnan Verk from MLB Network here on the Halfenden Brough Show on Sports. net 650. Good morning, Adnan. How are you? Good morning, Mike, Jason.

Always a pleasure. Let me take you back to this past Monday. I was playing tennis and then I got the call in. I had to fill it on the NHL network. It said, no problem. What a great day to work hockey because I got to see the Steve Simmons Exchange with Chica and Keith Kelly, which I'm still laughing about it. It made me think of this is the most entertaining moment. I'm seeing the media

members since my man, Jason Brough, went after Frank Cerro Valley. Let's continue. Rarified air of back and forth right there. I take issue with the went after Frank Cerropelle. Went at. Took him to task, brough. Yeah.

Took him to task. I want to, you know what? I do want to go right to the baseball here because Dan Shulman had a tweet yesterday and it kind of kicked off a firestorm of analysis, which he pointed out astutely, I might add, that in the entire American league, there is a grand total of two teams playing above 500. And they're both in the same division. What is going on in the AL that there's this much meat?

mediocrity at, man. Yeah, and mediocrity is a perfect word, Mike. You know, for years you've complained about in hockey because this loser point, now everyone is in the playoff race until the final week of the season. You go, well, who's actually good and who's actually bad? And you say, well, they love the parody. It's not parody, it's mediocrity.

And that's exactly what's happening right now in the American League. You're bang on. There's two good teams. That's it. The Yankees look great, like a legit juggernail. They are awesome. They score a ton of runs, and their pitching is outstanding. They have the most ballast attack. They're number one in terms of home run differential.

this is what the sport is built on now, right? Home runs, don't give up home runs. Yankees are better at that than anybody else in baseball. And the raise are incredible. What a surprise. They're doing with pitching. Again, 12 straight games, they've allowed three runs or less. It's a classic raise approach.

Don't give up too many of runs. Scratch out some runs. Aranda's been great. Obviously, Yonnie Diaz is a good hitter. He's still got Junior Kim and Arrow, Chandler Simpson. So those are the four guys really carrying that offense. But you're right.

After that, you go, are you kidding? It's your team, like the A's team, like the A's. They're battling for the top spot in the ALX? Yeah. Are you kidding me? I was looking at Luis Ciberino splits, by the way. Think of that when people say, oh, it's so nice to be at home, right, after a road trip?

No way. Ciberino's like, I cannot wait to get out of Sacramento. On the road, he has a 3.2 ERA. At home, six and a half. Six and a half is going to go, God. Please, get a 12-game road trip so I can pitch better. And yet the A's that they're in the mix because they've got great hitters, like Nick Hurts, Ciltern went deep yesterday,

and we know how good their talent is like Jacob Wilson. So A's right now are in first place in the West, and they're a 500 team. The Guardians are in first place in the Central, and they're a 500 teams. All of what this means to the Blue Jays is, who cares your five games under 500? I know it's way too early to start talking about playoffs,

but the Blue Jays right now, as it stands, one and a half games, I have a wild card spot. I enjoy how Houston is eight games below 500. They got a minus 37 run differential, and they're like, don't worry, we're only three games back of a white card spot. Have you ever seen a season like this? Never.

There's always been times in the past day. like, you know, you go over the season, okay, a couple of good teams, a couple bad teams. But no, to have two division leaders of 500, it's ridiculous. And so you say to yourself, okay, what does this mean? That is the National League that much better? And you look over there, and it's not like there's 10 teams above 500 there, right? The pod trays are great. Okay, Cardinals, Braves, obviously, Dodgers, Brewers, Ted's Brewer, or it's above 500.

Those are good stories. You know, Cincinnati's three games above 500. They're not a juggernaut. And after that, all those teams are under 500. So, yeah, it's just a whole lot of mediocrity. I've never seen it like this before. And just like in this past hockey season, it was a log gym until after the Olympic break

and then teams started to separate themselves, right? The blue jackets wilted down the stretch of the islanders did as well. I'm hoping that's the case. I'm hoping for baseball. Once we get to Victoria Day, Memorial Day here in the States, teams go, okay, let's separate the pretenders and the contenders. Because otherwise, it's a weird season to watch

because you never know who's a good team and who is it. You just flip a coin. The Red Sox just went into Detroit and swept the tigers. I mean, could Boston get get the, we loved Alex Cora, but he got fired and we got the bump anyway. Exactly. I'm cheering

against the Red Sox person because of my friendship with Alex Cora, but you're right. I looked at the numbers yesterday and here's the thing, considering all the doom and gloom, there are only two games back of their pace last year at their 37 games. That to me was eye opening. I go, wow, you would have thought last year's team was such a great success story, 89 wins made the playoffs

as Coran the Red Sox lost to Boone and the Yankees and you go, wow, this year's been a much different. Not that much different. Two games. worse. And now they are playing better. And the biggest shock of this past week in baseball was Brian Beow, who has an era north of nine. He's been one of the worst pitchers in baseball. No question about it. Him and Miles Michaelis. I watched him two nights ago seven innings out of the bullpen. He was flawless. I couldn't believe it. I said, wow, this is what baseball is. This is why

I don't gamble. You can't bet on these things. And what they did was, they said, no longer let's use him as a starter. Let's give him an opener. I didn't think this would make that big a difference. But okay, fine. One of the guy will get the first three outs of the game. then you come in the second and Bayo looked like Sa Young. So he was tremendous. And Sunny Gray last time was tremendous. Five innings did not give up a run. Offense scored enough. They win four nothing. So it really begins

and ends of the starting pitching, Jay. Ultimately, that's what Boston was built on. That's what they thought their strength would be. And the last few days, they've had two great performances and they're right back in it. Can you walk me, I've been trying to pay attention to everything that's been going on, but can you walk me through exactly what happened in that, you know, the series of

Brough was just talking about between Detroit and Boston with Framber Valde. and the tipping of pitches and AJ Hinch got involved and he gotten hot water for it and I know Trevor's story and as I understand it it was just classified to me as a 24 hours of chaos in Detroit. What exactly went down?

Yeah, my favorite part of it was that Framber Valdez who as soon as Terrick Scoble has been out with loose bodies by the way, it's always, we're going to get a better term to that. As soon as they're loose bodies and is out, like oh God, that sounds like loose vowels. That doesn't sound good to me. So he's out for two to three months.

He goes, well, don't worry. They got nice. Framer Valba, if they sign, he's just a 40 million a year, he can meet the race. And then he goes out there and gets absolutely shelved. Aside from one start, he had one bad start. He had 1.74 ERA. So he's been nails. And then all of a sudden, in that start against the Red Sox, three runs he allows.

And this is classic frame of Valdez. Once the game has gotten away from him, and I'm shocked he's still in the game, by the way, James, just letting him wear it. He just throws it Trevor's story. Both bench is empty, no punches thrown. Also, Mattick, he reversed by a lot of three home runs. but after a result, all the ball got away. Are you kidding?

You're the same guy that threw your catcher on purpose. Like, there's one guy that you would never believe. Like, huh, who's the kind of guy that was throwing somebody if he was having a bad day? Absolutely for him of all this. And once you throw in a guy intentionally, automatic suspension. So not only he throws a story, stories, like, come on, dude. That's five games he's gone now. Maybe that gets reduced, but probably not.

You want to at least miss one start. So, yeah, it was a bit of a mess there. I totally get it from the Red Sox perspective. I don't know what Hinch is saying. I'm like, come on, dude. Like, let's be honest. We know what Framber ball this is all about. Yes, he's a great pitcher, but he's also material and temperamentally.

Absolutely, absolutely threw it Trevor's story. So they cleaned it up. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but it was definitely a mess there for Framber and the Tigers. How many people have noticed that Mike Trout is playing pretty good ball this season? And, of course, when Mike Trout starts playing pretty good ball, people are like, maybe the Angels could trade this guy and he could play more than three playoff games in his career. That is always the best part. What struts back?

He's back. Where should he go now? And the thing is, everything you always hear coming at an angel's campus, he doesn't want to go anywhere. I'm like, how could you not want to go anywhere? No, I get it. Los Angeles is paradise. I get it. It's sunny and beautiful every day.

He doesn't have to deal with any pressure. He likes living in Orange County. This is a guy who just wants to hunt, fish, follow the Philadelphia Eagles and play baseball. So I get it. Those all four are being accomplished while playing there. But, bro, at some point, don't you want to win, don't you want to be part of a winner? And you think about the impact he'd make, especially, growing up in Millville, New Jersey,

grew up as a Phillies fan. The Phillies are back now. They've won eight of nine games. Donnie baseball has turned things around. Imagine Trout, Philly, how energized you think he'd be by being in a playoff race. And you're right, Jay, the numbers are indisputable. He's seventh right now in OPS, the American League.

I'm like, wow, this is not just a hot star. He's hit a couple home runs. No, Trump's back. And I remember last year saying, yes, he's a free-time MVP, but he'll never be an all-star again. He'll hit 2.30. He might hit you 30 home runs,

but he's going to strike at 180 times, and most importantly, he won't stay healthy. And then last year he played 130 games and he was good. And then I'm like, oh my God, he's back to being great. So yeah, I like everybody else, I'm with you. I'm glad that Trout's back. I think he's great for the game. He's a future Hall of Famer. But more importantly,

where's you going to go? Because the last time I checked, the Angels are still a last place team. Eight games under 500, four games back in the West. Yeah, but in the AAL, there are like, what, two games back of the wild card? The right in this thing, maybe. We're speaking at Ann Annberg from MLB Network here on the Halford & Brough

show on Sportsnet 650. I did want to book in this with a little bit more Jay's talk before we let you go. You mentioned that in light of where the American League is at, and it's still very early on the season. There's no reason to hit the panic button in Toronto, but there's always reason to dissect what isn't going well. If there is one major thing to point to, what's the one major thing that's holding the Jay's back

and it has maybe including this four-game slide that they're on where they had no offense next to no offense whatsoever in that sweep against Tampa Bay? Yeah, that's what it is, Mike. It's just the bat to ball skills, right? Last year, the whole story was nobody strikes sell fewer times in the Blue Jays and they're the best at putting the ball in play. And they're particularly good with two strikes on them.

And this year you go, no, they're not doing any of that. Like, these guys don't get hits, period. And you go up and down that offense and there's concerns all over the place. Now, Okamoto, who the first, literally few games of the year in March, like, oh, my God, it's because a stud. Then he couldn't hit an off speed bitch. He was like Serrano in Major League. Then he went on this home run explosion. Oh, my God, he's their best hitter.

So that's what's become. So Okamoto right now is a 493 slug. They don't have one guy slugging more than him. I did not think he would be their slugger. He was anticipated to be 18 to 25 home runs and said he's leading the team of power. Vlad right now, 403 on base, which is tremendous. He's a 415 slug. He is not doing anything in terms of hitting the ball of authority.

Dalton Varsie to think of as a slugger. Again, a 400 slug and a 400 slug and he's a 390 slug. And man, it's 4.05. So the biggest thing is these guys don't have any pop right now in their lineup. And catching wise, it's balanced well and a high-dem. And obviously, those guys are there for their defense. Always expect him to do anything major. So they need to get going.

And one of those guys, of course, is back now is George, Springer. He went 0 for four, struck out. He's hitting 189, 324 Sala. He's really been disappointing. So I know it's hold the fork. Wait till Kurt comes back. Wait till Barger comes back. But Springer and Varsha, I'm looking at specifically need to get going. And I'd love to see Vlad, he started hitting some home runs. Springer's the one, too, because last year, so much of the regular season success was predicated on the year that he had, where you could have made the argument that he was their MVP during the regular season. And I knew that a falloff was going to be inevitable at his age. But yeah, you mentioned, like, all of the numbers are so far down. you hope that he'll rebound and give you something, but you also kind of have to wonder if this is starting the beginning of the inevitable decline

because he is up there in age. No question, Mike. When you're 35, 36 in the final year of your contract, you can say, okay, maybe he has one last push to go get that contract or with last year that true last gasp, last the Mohicans. Hey, I can still be a great player, but I'm probably not going to be for much longer. So you're right. The regression to me was expected, but not distrastic.

Adnan, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it as always. we appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Thursday. Thanks, boys. Flyers must win tonight. How about Andy Cole going to see Morrill Combat this weekend? Good luck to him. Good luck to you, indeed.

Okay, first, Adnan, Verk on Sportsnet 650, brought you by Angry Outer Licker. Angry Outer Licker has the bases covered with a game day lineup of beer, wine, spirits, and a great selection of non-alcoholic favorites. Visit them online atangriotorlicker.c for more. Two, what are you doing this weekend? Oh, I told Adnan, I was going to go see Mortal Kombat.

Oh. The second one. What's the Christopher Nolan? Because it just looks fun. I mean, I'm sure it'll be stupid, but I, you know, it's one of those movies. It's A-Dog. He'll go watch any movie. Yeah.

It just looks like a lot of fun. Follow-up question on the movie tip. Someone sent this to me the other day. Christopher Nolan's got the Odyssey coming out. This is, I'm, they got a special camera. They built their own IMAX camera. This is the first film completely shot an IMAX. I know a lot of people thought it was Oppenheimer.

I want to say that Opaheimmer was like, 80, 20, there was 20% of the sequences in Oppenheimer that weren't. The reason being is, without getting too technical, IMAX cameras are freaking huge, and they're so noisy, that is impossible to shoot close-ups with actors, because you can't hear... The noise in the background. Yeah, because you can't hear the actor's dialogue, yeah, because the film is so thick, and that you can't hear the actor's dialogue over the camera,

because it's just like, ah-oh, so what they did is they built a special... How does it go? Okay, gotcha. Just like that. So what they did is they built a special IMAX camera inside a giant box that weighs like 400 pounds just for the Odyssey. So the entire movie is filmed in IMAX, even like the close-up shots, which has never been done before.

So yeah, it's kind of cool. The movie seems interesting. Oh, I mean, it's Christopher Nolan. I'm sure it'll be good. I mean, I know some people were ripping the last trailer because I guess there's like, they use modern dialogue in it, which some people don't like. Right. It says bro. It doesn't say bro. Right, because it's the Odyssey. He says, I

miss my dad or something like that. Like, they wouldn't say, he'd say father. Like that kind of, like nitpicking. Although you'd like this, Matt Damon does say let's go. Let's go! No, I'm not kidding. He actually does. In the Odyssey?

Yeah. He's wearing a Red Sox hat. Helper's just been quoting literature in this entire time. By Homer? I'm not making this up. He actually says, let's go. And he was like the troops

is like march into battle. The ancient Greeks were always be like, let's go. Let's go. I got tickets to the Red Sox like those classic Greeks did. Okay. A lot of people have weighed in

on the conversation we had in the first hour of the program where, I kind of went askew. I pivoted off last night's Anaheim Ducks, Vegas Golden Knights playoff game to talk about Mason McTavish. Yeah. I don't really want to make this about McTavish.

I think, and I think a lot of people understood what I was talking about was McTavish was, he got health bombed, as the kids say last night. Speaking of recent vernacular, he was healthy, scratched late too. And the Ducks won. And the Ducks won.

And it kind of got buried in the post game recaps. But a lot of people pointed out like, this guy is so far down the pecking order with Joel Quenville, you really got to start to wonder what his future is going to look like in Anaheim. And I said, I just really hope, I really, really hope that the Vancouver Canucks don't do that thing they've always done, where they chase other people's failed draft picks

in an effort to sort of replenish the lack of picks that they've had during Metauch's draft or another draft years. You know, the age gap chasing that they've done. Not even if it means a piece of, Petey trade? Honestly. Honestly. Why not?

PD for McTavish straight up? Well, I don't know what the trade would look like, but I'm just saying in like that style of trade like yeah, maybe McTavish doesn't work, but you get that huge contract off your books. Do you know what's sad? Someone texted that into the inbox and I was like, and they said, would you do that? And I was like, I immediately looked for the buyout of Mason McTavish. And because he is young.

It's a one-third bio. Yeah, it's not that punitive. It's not that. But, like, that's where I'm at with Pedersen. Yeah, me too. I'm kind of like, if they could just remove this contract from the books, I don't need anything back. Just get them off the books.

Because apparently, where I'm at, apparently ownership, I mean, the big, one of the big hang-ups is that ownership won't retain, right? And I understand that thinking. He's still got a bunch of years left on his deal. the conducts are going to go through this rebuild where the expectations aren't high do you really want to be retaining salary on the contract for the next what six years?

Yeah and that's a massive amount of money too. And it's probably going to be like maybe $3 million. Although the cap does go up next year. I know, but you still don't want it. I know. You still don't want it, right? Because hopefully when the connect

get out of this rebate, every dollar counts. Right? And it's also like, man, like what just happened here? I think like philosophically and just for the betterment of the organization

I would prefer that they find a clean break with Patterson like Jason was saying I don't want to see his name when I go to puckpedia and I don't want but like

okay we're gonna trade but so McTavish like that kind of a deal makes sense then no I don't want anything back I don't like McTavish might you might have to take a bad contract

you might have to take a bad contract you gotta take something back. You don't. You could dump them. I'd be okay with McTavish in that, in that as I mean, again, you'd be like... Conceptually, I don't like it, but I understand the player they might have something there that's here's a thing. I just think the downside risk

is less. But how do you dump PDE though? I'm confused by this. Nobody's didn't do that. Someone will give you a couple of... He'll take on the full contract of Elias Pedersen? Yeah. The Elias Pederson on the Canucks? Yeah, that seems unlikely to me. I mean, I love it if you were correct. I just don't think anyone would do that.

Or, uh, fourth. I don't know. I don't think that. I'd rather take Mason McAvish back and see what he can do. Yeah. I mean, I'm not, I'm not bullish, but like I You understand what I'm saying, though, conceptually. I, what are you saying? About bringing in someone else's. I do understand, but, but, but I also

feel like this, this is a, this, this winkle with I feel like if it gets rid of Pedersen, then I'm, I'm, on board with it. I don't want 23. I don't want Pedersen around this rebuilt. It's played three. It's played three. I would rather Mason McTavish beyond the team. I mean, just as a fan, I can't do, I can't, I can't.

The big three. I can't do it anymore. The big three that are scaring me that might end up as Canucks are McTavish, Lafranier, and Shane Wright. Those are the big... Shane Wright is probably the least intriguing. Those are the big three that scare me.

I'm still intrigued a little bit like by Lafranier, the frenier, just because of his... Lafranier. Lafrenier. Lafranier. Lafranier. There you go. I'm still intrigued a little bit

Blayler Frenier just because of his projected skill set that's just never been established for some reason. I know, I know. I know. I realize there's obviously that huge possibility that he's a complete bust. I'm just saying like there's something tantalizing there.

I'm going to call them the hidden fee three. That's where they get you. It's with the hidden fees. You never know until you get them in your plan. Oh, he can't skate. But would you be okay if the Canucks got one of these guys for a song, like, it was almost like a contract dump. I mean, Lafranier is he got paid, like Mason McTavish got paid, long-term deal.

They made a bet. The bet hasn't worked out. None of it comes for free, though, right? You have to take on their contract and what it means and all that. And I know next year, maybe the year after, the money's not going to matter for the Canucks, but eventually the dollars matter. And also, I think you're also... Are you so sure that those guys are just, like, not going to be players?

they're done. I'm not so sure, but I'm 100% sure I don't want to see them go down this road again. Like, for example, I would prefer that

those opportunities for minutes and everything on a team that's going to stink anyway goes towards a younger player who's on an entry level. They're going to have enough young players. They're going to have enough young players. Then bring in some cheaper,

older veterans. I mean, Mason McTavich and Laffer an year have a much better chance of being good Canucks down the line than a guy like Jonathan Lekar Mackie does, in my opinion. Yep. And I'm not going to argue that one with you.

Right. Well, like... A friend here still got 24 goals last year, by the way. Yeah. And he got 28 two years prior to that. So it's like, it's not putting up points. Like, he's, he's just not playing to his projected standards, but he's still like a solid player. Him and McTavish are different stories. Because I would say you would have to pay to get LePrenier out of New York right now. Like, I don't think they're ready to give him away. The reason I brought up McTavish is he got healthy, scratched, and

game two of the second round after being a total non-factor for this team. Yeah. There's a difference there for sure. But again, conceptional, I'm just talking about taking on the island of misfit toys or someone else's failed picks. I'm okay with it if it's super cheap. And isn't this the time to do it when they're rebuilding and there's no risk to it? Like, who cares?

I mean, as long as you've gone in and checked on their character and whether or not they're going be on board with the second chance. Ramone writes in if Andy Cole wants LaFrenier you know it would just fail miserably. Addoch is on a roll right now. Adog, you weren't in the booth

but I said, you know, we were talking glowingly about Zach Benson. Hell yeah, my boy. And you were saying that, you know, I mean, you got annoying about Zach Benson. I mean, God. And you were kind of annoying after. It was like, I wonder if we had Zach Benson. I was like, enough. He's tiny.

but he's turned into a pretty well well oh my god it's a fly no you're looking at there's a fly in the booth i thought it was a bee i was about to have a panic attack on the air the beam at my bottom is the most obvious fly ever he does so were you aware of zach benson's carney history no i was not not our prime minister carney like the carnival yeah yeah i this is the greatest i wish i had known a little bit more about this earlier would have dove into a little deeper but zach benson's family now i don't know if they still run the outfit, but they previously ran. It was like an amusement parts and equipment rental company.

Yeah, yeah. I think there's stories about him traveling around. Yeah. He would go to hockey camps in the various cities that the carnival would travel. Oh, really? Yeah. That was awesome. Yeah, yeah.

And he ran the mini donut stand. They said that was his one. He loved the mini donut. Where are you staying? And the tilt a whirl over there. The house of mirrors. It's very confusing in the mornings. Okay.

wake up in the morning. Crash. All right. We got to go to break. When we come back, we're going to go to Montreal. Actually, I guess Buffalo, because Eric Engels is in Buffalo for the series. Montreal Buffalo game one in the books yesterday. What do the HABs need to do to turn this thing around?

What does Cole Cofield need to do to get on track? Eric Engels is going to join us on the other side. Before we go to break, though, I do need to tell you about Jan Pro. If your workplace is cleaning is inconsistent, it's time for a better standard. Trust JanPro for reliable cleaning. Start clean, stay clean. Visit them online at janpro.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Montreal. 7.33 on 8 thrash Thursday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sports Night 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Goddette, if you do, reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours,

and they'll get back to you within 20 minutes. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. Still an hour two of the program at the midway point of the show. Eric Engels is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two is brought to by Jason Hamanuk at Jason.morgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, and don't let Jason shop around and find the perfect mortgage for you, visit them online at jason.

dot mortgage. To the able Auctions hotline, we go, our next guest. Montreal Canadians beat reporter for SportsNet. Eric Engels here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Eric, how are you? All right. Sounds good. A little quiet, but that's okay. We'll last him. Yeah, I know, I got that.

Although, no dial tone this time, which was nice. I like getting the dial tone. I do like the dial tone. It's confirmation that A-Dog and Lattie are giving us dual thumbs up, which can only mean one thing. There's a 20% chance this will work. Let's go now to the ABLE Auctions hotline. Eric Engels joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

We'll try it again. Good morning, Eric. How are you? What's up, fellas? I'm good. How are you? We're good as well. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

So, game one in the books. Did you have a singular big takeaway or lesson learned for the HABs in this one? There was a lot of backstory coming into it. Obviously, long series against Tampa Bay, incredibly close series. Buffalo had a little bit more rest. Obviously, the production of some guys and some guys not having a lot of your big takeaway from game one yesterday, Eric. I don't know if we'd call it a lesson because I think we knew and the Canadian certainly

did because Nick Suzuki said we figured it out probably a couple days ago that you can't give those guys rush opportunities. And the Canadians were so good at limiting that. They gave up eight rush opportunities in the first two periods that found themselves down 401. A couple of those are power play goals. But that's how dangerous and fast and skilled this Sabres team is. They deserve their credit. they made the best of their chances.

They were held to 16 shots. I think the Canadians had very good stretches in that game. It was a weird game for me. It didn't have the same kind of playoff feel as what we just experienced on the last series. But now that both

teams are acquainted with each other since this was their first game against each other since January, I think it only gets better from here. What's going on with Cole Caulfield? He's being marked in a way he's never been mark before, right? Like, you think about his entry to the NHL.

It started in the 2020 run, run to the Stanley Cup final, and he was great. You know, he scored four goals. He had eight assists, 12 points over a 20-game stretch where he looked somewhat unstoppable for a kid his age. But now, you know, he's circled and red and highlighted. I thought, you know, he didn't get blown up in Tampa. He played a really good defensive game. He had no space on the ice to really do anything.

And he was able to avoid getting blown up, which he's been able to do for most of his career. Last night he took two big hits, and this might sound counterintuitive, but I actually think that was good for him. I think it could make him realize to what extent he can handle that and still get the opportunities that were there for him. you know, he was so used to being as marked against Tampa that a couple of times when he was in space,

he gave up the puck yesterday. I think you look at Suzuki, Caulfield, Tzakoski altogether. They had the puck on their six a lot more in game one than they probably had throughout the entire seven-game series against the lightning. Now, I think that's a big reason why they didn't connect as much as they wanted to. But to get those feels and those touches, I think that'll help them from game two onwards. So, look, I expect the favors to play better and not give them as much time and space. But it's clear to me they're going to have some opportunities here that they didn't have a game to Tampa. And I think with players that good, especially Cofield, do you expect they're going to break through eventually?

You know, the old adage styles make series. And we saw two particular styles going up in the first round. And, I mean, it was an amazing series. Easily the best series I thought of the first round, Tampa Bay and Montreal. And then you get to this one. And you're right, it was a totally different feel. Nick Suzuki, the quote was, I felt like we had the puck the whole time. I think Marty St. Louis said that our top line hasn't had this kind of space in two weeks,

alluding to how tight things were in the Tampa Bay Series. Did you notice that as well, that in terms of the styles, there was just a lot more time and space for the HABs out there than they got at any point during the Tampa Bay Series? Yes, but I would also caution people that, like, even the Sabres thought that the Canadians would open things up and give them a lot more chances to rush and do the things they like to do. And like, while that was true early on, it became far less true as they adjusted.

And I just don't see the Canadians opening it up the way the Sabres want. And I think the Sabres themselves will do a much better job of taking some time and space away from Suzuki, Koffield, Slavkovsky. The one area where, because of their style, I'm not sure they will do that as much, is on Suzuki carrying the puck through the neutral zone.

Like against Tampa, against Sorrelli and Hazel, he just wasn't given any time to carry the puck and create offense that way. And Buffalo's not built that way. They're built with four unbelievable defensemen in their top four that, you know, later off the ice, you're seeing more of a hard kind of style to play against.

But I think those guys, I think the foundation of Kofield Suzuki and Slap Kofsky is Suzuki's ability to carry the puck. And I think he's going to have more opportunity to do that in this series than the last one. What did you think of the performance from Zach Benson last night? I mean, he's a great player. He's a playoff player. Like, there's nothing else to like. He gets a gift on the first goal. Like, let's not pretend.

Like, he made the ultimate play. Wayne Hudson, who almost never loses his footing. He dances all over the ice, tripped over himself and into the ball. boards and gave up the puck for a three-on-one. You know, like, okay, that was good. Like, Zach Benson is good. He made a nice play, but this wasn't, like, Zach Benson terrorizing the Canadians the way he did the Bruins, you know?

So I think he's a really good player. I think this Buffalo team is filled with really good players. So, you know, McLeod was flying last night. H. Thompson, who I know has been marked, like, did the top guys get marked in the playoffs? I thought played a really good game. You know, Rasmus Baleen played a really good game with the exception of taking a totally needless and terrible penalty

that let the Canadians on to the board in a first period that would have been kind of devastating for the Canadians had they not gotten on the board. There's just a bunch of guys, and it can be different guys every night on both these teams that step up, and that's kind of the fun of this series. I think it's only going to get better. Eric, what has the Canadian's overall experience been with Kirby Doc?

we were talking earlier about the Vancouver Canucks and maybe them going out and getting a player like Mason McTavish or Shane Wright or Alex LaFranier, guys that were high picks in the draft that maybe haven't launched with their team. The Habs paid a pretty big price to get Kirby Doc out of Chicago. He scored a nice goal last night, but I know it hasn't been all roses for Kirby Doc in Montreal.

No, it's been really hard, right? Like you suffer an ACL MCL tear and then follow that up with an ACL tear in the same as acne a year later. I mean, it's just there's one disaster after another, a guy who every time he kind of gathered some positive momentum, something seriously terrible happened to him. There was some maturity issues there too. He had to find his way to becoming a true professional and understanding what it takes on a day-to-day basis to live up to some really high potential that he had when he was drafted.

And it started off in Chicago, too. Like, he was unbelievable in the world juniors. He ends up breaking his wrist, having a hard time coming back from that and, like, jumping into the NHL with all these expectations. And, you know, it's just in that kind of ride for Kirby, a really rough one. But, you know, underneath it all, that will test you. and adversity will make you stronger. And I think the way the character with which he's kind of bounced back from all of it

to have some big performances in these playoffs, which started with him giving away, you know, an icing in Game 2, the Lightning and overtime and then not getting his man and the goal getting scored and everybody saying he should sit and he comes back the next game and scores a huge goal and gets an assist and helps them win. You know, that speaks to the character of the player. He's talented.

He's physical. He's kind of made for playoffs. He showed that in the bubble in his first playoffs with Chicago where he was honestly the best player on the ice in a series against Edmonton. You know, I think it's just been a long story of waiting for really high potential to be realized. And it's still there. You know, he's 25 years old. It's still there for him. So great goal last night.

Hell of a second effort. And if he can continue doing that, he's been driving a line that's been pretty important. for the Canadian success so far. Before we let you go, I know that you can't really hang it on Jakob Dobish last night, but not a ton of shots on goal. Your thoughts on his performance in game one? Yeah,

no chance on the first two, the third he'd like to have back. The fourth is just you know, Bowen Byron is walking down Main Street with a lot of time to pick his spot in a screen set by Josh Stone in front, so not hanging out on Dolbis. But Dobish would tell you 16 shots and four of them went in on

the first 10. he's not going to put that up to the standard that he holds himself to. And I expect they'll be better. And I'm sure he will be. The Canadians need him to be. But Alice Lyon was really good across from him. There's a battle going on between those two guys in terms of what they've done already in these playoffs. And I can't wait to continue watching that as well as the series.

I'm saying that I'm repeating it, but I think it's really going to get a lot better from this point forward. Yeah. Do you think the Sabre speed maybe took them not by surprise, but when you play a team that attacks like that, I mean, I just thought on the third goal, Alex Carrier was backing up and backing up and backing up. And I don't think that Doeish had much of a chance on that. And like sometimes when you come up against a fast team,

your gap control suffers a little bit because you could just get a little bit tentative. Yeah. I think that is the one that Dobish should have back. Yes, Kerry did back up too much. I don't think it was giving the Sabre speed too much respect, especially with the back pressure, the Canadians had on the play. I think it's just a misreed and bad gap control. And, like, Alts Carey has been excellent in these playoffs, but he'd like to have that play back too.

You're right. The Sabre speed is a factor, and Marty St. Louis talked about it. You know, you get into a 50-50 battle for a puck. You can lose that battle, you can't be on the wrong side of that puck. You know, like, therapy is so active, they're so aggressive. I think the Canadians believe they can use that against them a lot too.

And Doc School is a perfect example of it, right? You've got five guys rushing up the ice and the puck's all of a sudden going the other way. That's why that goal was produced. And I think the Canadians believe that's where they hold an advantage here because they track back so well and because they typically remain on the right side of the puck. So again, it comes back to the point.

I can earlier. The Sabres think the Canadians will open it up because they're fast and they're skilled and they're like the Sabres. But the Sabres, the Canadians beat the Lightning playing a really incredible defensive style of game. And I think they have the confidence that that will prevail in a playoff series.

They have to win game too. You know, to go back to Montreal without that pressure to win two games there would be a lot to handle against a team that's evenly matched and a team that can outscore them. You know, like they're one of the few teams in the league that could outscore the Canadians. So they better watch out, you know,

and they better really clamp down defensively. Well, still very early in the series. Still lots to look forward to game two Friday tomorrow in Buffalo. And then another no Saturday without hockey in Montreal. Game six. You know what? I looked at that yesterday. I was like, there better be a Saturday.

Cole Coughfield must be like, there's a Saturday. game, right? Because I need Saturdays. Eric, thanks for taking the time to do this and maybe we'll catch up again with you during this series. Always love being on with you guys. Be well. Thanks, Eric. Appreciate it.

That's Eric Engels from SportsNet here on the Halford & Breff Show on SportsNet 650. Grab some texts from the Dunbar Lumber text message in Basket. While you do that, I'll do the smart decision brought to you by Crow, near and dear to my heart, sports documentaries. So you know that untold series on

Netflix? Untold from the UK, the United Kingdom, for those that don't know what the acronym means. They've got one coming out in a week. Great decision. They're doing one on Jamie Vardy. Yeah, I've seen that advertised on my Netflix. For those that don't know

about Jamie Vardy, one of the more unbelievable and unique stories in professional footballing and maybe just professional sports, period. Jamie Vardy in his early 20, was going nowhere professionally.

He was working part-time in a factory. He was playing non-league football for clubs like Cheltenham and Stockport. And, you know, I think one of them was like North Brentwood or something like that. Fleetwood Town. Fleetwood Town was one of them. In Surrey. Yeah. That was the non-league.

A nice rank there. Did not make his Premier League debut until the age of 27 and then went on to become one of the most prolific strikers in Premier League history, a legend at Lester got capped by England. Now, here's the interesting thing. Part of the reason that Jamie Vardy took so long to become this full-fledged thriving professionals because Jamie Vardy liked a party. He liked to have a good time. In the early days of his Lester career, he would routinely show up in morning training,

still inebriated from the night before. Loved a pint, loved his darts. and I'm not talking about throwing him at the board. I'm talking about smoking him in the alley. Yeah. And his hero was Gaza. Even during his playing career, and still up to this day,

his training regimen included never going to the gym, didn't work out in the gym. Nice. Copious amounts of Red Bull. I think he still drinks a Red Bull or two on the way to training every day. And incessant tobacco and nicotine use. So did he turn it around or is the lesson is that you can make it? with this training regimen.

I think the documentary, one of the lines was, if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't do it the same. And I think it was like, you know, understanding that with the benefit of age and the wisdom that comes with it, that maybe it didn't need to be as hard party. But you brought up a great point.

His idol was gazzed? Was this idol really gaza? I was just guessing. No, but like there was that idea of the footballer in his generation. that you know the games really change really a lot of them have we talking about this in the NHL all the time right the hard partying guys of the 90s that you know it was like

if you got an injury after a game it's just four or five beers will take care of it right and the way that that generation has been phased out Vardy was sort of the last one of those types and you know is still carrying on with his career now but with Cremonezzi yeah in Italy he he is a freak of nature is part of it but it's a great decision to profile a guy like this because he is, one,

a huge success story, but two, the last of a dying breed, really, I think, and it'll be curious to see how he talks about his life and times in this documentary. Anyway, there's your smart decision brought to by Crow. You're trusting accounting and tax advisors for over 55 years. Crow, smart

decisions lasting value, learn more at crow mackai.ca.ca. So a couple of textors have texted in wondering about the GM search and not the questions that the Canucks would ask the candidates, but what questions the candidates would ask the Canucks?

Oh. And I have thought about this too. Okay. For example, Rick from Colonna texts in and he says, do you think any of the candidates were just like, what happened with Pedersen and Miller? And another, um,

a unsigned text, how many of these candidates heard the Canucks vision and said, no thanks? fair question. Well, we don't know what the Canucks vision is, right? Yeah. I mean, I would assume that the candidates were asked for their vision. Sure.

On the Vancouver Canucks, not the Canucks vision. Now, I know there's a bunch of like rumor and speculation. I don't know how fair it is that, you know, the candidates that have said, this is going to take a long time. You guys have nothing. The Canucks have been like, well, you're not hired, right? and the opposite would be true. I don't know if those rumors have

sure any truth, but I'm not surprised they came out, right? Just because it is the Vancouver Canucks and there have been some things that the Canucks have been accused of and one of them is impatience. Yes. But if you were, if you were a GM candidate and you wanted the job, really wanted the job,

and it came to the point of the interview, you know, those interviews like, do you have any questions for us? Yeah. What would be your number one question? If I wanted the job? Or if I really wanted to know. Those are two different things.

If you wanted the job, you'd be like, is everyone this handsome? Yeah. How did you get so competent, sir? Those would be good questions. I think if I genuinely wanted the job, but I wanted to know exactly what I was getting into. Yeah, forget all that.

Just like, what would you be curious about? I'd be like, hey, can you give me a tour of your job? practice facility. Hello. Hello. I would say, are you going to rebuild properly? Yeah. I think I... Are you going to actually do a real rebuild? It would be a lot. Or are you going to do one of those things?

Or, yeah, are you... I wouldn't ask a question like that. Are you going to expedite this rebuild? Do you want to know how? Or wouldn't you just say like, uh, you want to know how? I've got these magic beans over here. Um, the, uh, yeah, I mean, I think you'd, you'd say like, what are your expectations for, for the rebuild? When would you, when would you, you, you, um, you'd be, the, you, When would you expect to be competitive again? What are my deliverables?

Wouldn't you also want to ask, like, what happened to Pederson? Yep. Because that would be, that's going to be. Get thrown out, Uncle Phil style. Well, that's going to be one of your jobs, like, right away. There's a few jobs, there's a few things that are going to hit you right away. One's going to be the draft. One's going to be the coaching decision with Adam Foote.

And the other one's going to be like, what do we do with this guy? Yeah. Yeah, the question for Petter, it's a two-part question. What happened to Pedersen and what do you want me to do with them if you're the incoming GM? And those are both viable and difficult questions. It's a viable to ask and it's difficult to answer. And I don't know. I guess if you were a GM coming in, you'd want to have answers to all these hypotheticals.

And one of them, anyone that actually wants the job would have to have some idea of like, well, here's what I think I would do with the Pedersen situation. Yeah, yeah. You know, you can't just be like, you know, you tell me your ideas. You know, you'd have to have a pretty clear plan. Yeah, but, but, but the reason why I'd want to know is because I would go into that situation and be like, I'm flummoxed. Like I don't, what, what do you guys think? You should be flummox.

You should be, we need to get rid of them. That should be the answer. Okay. You need to move on. And then, well, the other thing would be like, what is your stance on peterson? if I come up with a trade that includes retaining salary, are you going to nix it? I mean, I don't even know if you go into those details.

But if so, if, you know, it's easy for us to say, well, I trade, I trade Pedersen. And we would, right? Yeah. But I still don't know exactly what happened. No. And I think none of us do. Maybe we never will.

Okay, by the way, if you want to weigh in on this conversation, what questions would you have? Say you're going to the interview process. Text them in. Dunbar, Lumber. text message in basket is 650. 650. Coming up on the other side of the break, Thomas Drance is going to join the program.

We'll talk to him about everything that's going on with the draft, the GM search, and Jim Rutherford stepping down as the president of hockey cups. There's a lot going on, a lot of talk to be had. Thomas Drance is going to join us on the other side. And it's the final hour of the program. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.