Halford & Brough in the Morning - Asking For Change Is Not A Kneejerk Reaction

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

In hour three, Mike & Jason respond to listener texts about the Canucks (3:00), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). 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 Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in our three of the program. Our three is brought to by Campbell & Pound, real estate appraisers.

Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Dashpound.com. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, Make 2026, your year, to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. I would like to just further address

my want for the Seahawks, Rams trilogy and the NFC. I understand. This is what happens when you have immediate regret over some of the comments. I don't regret it. I still want it. I just understand the risk that's involved with it. I'm a risk taker, Jason. I live on the edge. I don't know if you know that about me. You don't at all.

You're the least risky guy. I know. You know this about me, but I'm a pretty risky guy. I've never seen you take a chance in your life. You don't have a single investment. I just, part of it is I've got a good buddy of mine who's a Rams fan. We've talked about like, they're the two best teams in the NFC. It would be awesome if they were able to clash again. But I am fully cognizant of the fact that that's the toughest opponent for Seattle of the remaining four. Like I think Chicago coming to Seattle, I would not be worried about that.

Now, that's probably going to happen and the Bears are going to win. If Chicago was to advance, they would be the House Money team, which is dangerous, but they would also have the lowest expectations. Yeah. Like the Rams are bono, they're a bona fide good team without question. I don't think I'm like reinventing the analysis wheel here by saying. Stafford is a Super Bowl winner. I don't know what to think of this weekend, by the way, because we said this on money.

Sunday show. The Niners are the best coach team in the National Football League. I think Shanahan deserves coach in the year. I think Mike McDonald is a pretty darn a good coach. Do they do finalists like Jack Adams? The three finalists, I think McDonald should be a finalist. I think Shannon should win it.

But I watched what they did in Philadelphia. Without playing great football, Shanahan orchestrated a win there. Yep. Like a gadget play to get that big score coming out of halftime where they were down three, being able to get what they could out of an offense that was without Ricky Pearson, without George Kittle.

Pretty damn impressive. That said, it's a tall order what they've got to do now. Short week, you saw Shanahan complain about that, banged up on offense, just got trounce. And I'm having a hard time figuring out if that was a good or a bad thing. I still don't think it's a great thing for the Seahawks, Although you saw the clip yesterday, the quote from Mike McDonald.

He's got a few tricks in his bag that he didn't have to use against the Niners last time out. That was a funny quote. He's like, I had some things in the game plan that I didn't use. Nice. It was like, we went to the bar last night and I didn't use all my pickup lines. So we can go again tonight. I got some good ones. You got to come on the chamber, just waiting for them?

All right, what are we doing here, A dog? We got Alex. No, Alex. Alex Adams was supposed to be joining the president. program. He, of course, Ottawa Senators beatwriter for Sportsnet.com. In advance, the tonight's game, a reminder, it is the Canucks. It is the Senators 4 o'clock from Ottawa. The Canucks continue on this road trip, which, speaking of Halford Hot takes, I will remind you, I thought they were going to win 4-6 on this road trip.

4-6 is what I called. And they lost 5-3 in Buffalo, 5-1 in Detroit, 5-0 in Toronto, and 6-3 in Montreal. You see how they're getting better, though, right? I can see how we're getting closer and closer. Tonight in Ottawa, Thursday in Columbus, and then get this, because I think this is very interesting. The Canucks will return home after that game in Columbus on Thursday,

and starting Saturday versus the Oilers, we'll play eight straight at home. I've been talking about these for a while. They have two massive homestands in the back half of the schedule. Yeah. I don't know what it looks like. The first one is littered with really good opponents. There's some marquee games on there.

So I can understand the paying fan, at least being happy that they're going to get to see some great teams coming through town. Yeah. Players. Great players are coming, for sure. Edmonton, you know, Celebrini is going to come through January 27th.

That's a must watch right now. That's a Tuesday. And then the homestan actually ends January 31st, with a home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. How is it going to look bad if the Canucks don't? I mean, it's such a weird, it's such a weird time to be in because you zoom out and you do want the losses. Yes. But then as we discussed yesterday, it's still hard to watch the veterans struggle out there.

Yeah. It's because you know that they are impediments to number one moving on and also improving. Yeah. Like if Brock Besser isn't scoring, what would you say you do here? Nothing. Is he minus 25 now? He was 20 minus 23 going into last night's game. I think he was minus two last night.

It's a problem. We can't look. That earlier conversation that we had, And if you missed it, download hour two of the podcast. It should be available shortly about the asset management and what to do with all of these veteran players that have term and money. And I think maybe most importantly, no trade clauses attached to their contracts. What do you do?

What's the philosophy there? I think it was a really interesting thought exercise. And again, it's sports talk radio. It's early in the morning. A lot of you are probably grumpy and cranking. You're like, trade them all. Get rid of them all. And while that's a knee-jerk reaction,

I do think there's some merit to it. In terms of resetting, not setting, but resetting the culture and resetting the bar and resetting what expectations should look like. Yeah. I do think that acting as you, like you put it out there, swiftly and not letting it linger,

there is merit to it. It's not just an emotional response. It's saying, hey, you know what? This went poorly. And we're not going to let it go poorly with this cast of characters anymore. It's going to be tough times ahead,

but there's going to be different guys that are going to be playing the roles of, you know, who's struggling right now. Can I add one more thing too? Yes. I find it a little triggering when people call it a knee-jerk reaction

to trading these guys because it's, me personally, I've been calling for significant change for a long time now. Sure. Like this isn't, like I just decided to sour on this core. The knee jerk.

You know what I mean? Yeah, but it's not like yesterday. I was like, I don't, I don't know if I believe in these guys. You're fair weather fan. If you don't take it personally, though, like suggesting that Alvin and Rutherford saying that these are knee jerk reactions, it is comical that these guys are forced to trade several contracts that they signed six months ago of the long term variety. Like, if you're going to trade.

Besser, and I would also include Garland in this, even though I think he could be a useful individual in terms of how he plays the game and the way that he approaches it as a mentor for young players. I do think he fits that bill. If you were to move these guys, that's a major 180 and a major about face from a management group that six months ago was like,

we want to anchor these guys down. Give them term, give them money, give them NTCs. We want to keep them around. Yeah. They're going to be important culture carriers for what we're doing here. And then someone asks, what are you doing here? And they're like, we're not sure. We're trying to do a few different things.

And there's still, I mean, that conversation still trudges on in the front office. I'm going to ask you the question that I've asked a few guests. Besser, Pedersen, Demko. What is more unlikely? like all three are back, two are back, one is back, none are back. I think it's likely that all three around because how difficult it's going to be to move them. It's not because they want to keep them around. How would you move any of those contracts right now?

What's your pitch? My pitch would be teams need centers desperately. Okay. And Pedersen, for all, for the size of his contract. Like, I think he's playing fine right now. Okay. I think he's playing fine. Okay.

And that would be my pitch. And I'd be like, it's tough. He's fine. Would you like to play $11.6 million? And I think you could sell upside. Okay. So that's, there's. So that would be my pitch.

And I also do think for the team and for the fan base, moving him would be the most significant in terms of moving on. Now, would there be... But that's not a pitch for... That's a pitch to the fans.

No, it's for the team too. No, no, but I'm talking about the pitch to other teams. No, no, no, but... Okay. Yeah. Like when you're trying to sell him to other teams, because I think it would be a difficult task. right now. With the amount of money...

You ask me who's the easiest. Right. And that's my answer. Okay. So there's one. That would be the one I would be like, I think, I even think you might have to take a contract back. But I actually think you could get a return. Of the three, I think I think you get a return on that. I think Besser would be tough to move. I think Demko's impossible. Demko or Besser, you could tell a story though. I was like, if you got a playmaking center that you need a goal scoring winger for, there's your guy. Yeah, we have one because of scoring goals.

It's as simple as that. Yeah. And then you just say, like, listen, you know, he lost his guy and J.T. Miller and he's been struggling ever since. You know, if you want to go back and look at some of these other rebuilds that have happened, there have been teams that have very quickly and systematically shipped guys out. And part of it, part of it does have to do with the fact that once some of the veteran players see it happening and see what's, going on, they almost put their hand up as either volunteer or maybe even resignation that they also understand where this is going.

And it hasn't hit that point yet because all these guys are still around. In New York, for example, when Jeff Gorton was a general manager there and he sent out the letter, part of the reason that he sent out the letter, and this was something that he wrote right prior to the trade deadline of that season, when the New York Rangers were two points out of a playoff spot. And I remember they interviewed Mark Stahl in the aftermath. and Mark Stahl looked like someone shot his dog. He was heartbroken because this was the team that had

gone to Eastern Conference finals and made deep playoff runs and now a general manager had come in and said this group's time is done. And they were upset. But what it did was it signaled to all those guys that it was done and they meant business, which is

how you kind of get the buy-in from some of your veteran guys who may be a reluctant to waive their no trade. Or maybe be reluctant to take that job in a market they're not totally sold on. When you start to present what the future looks like, it can change minds. And that's another reason why making the moves

can really kickstart things. It's not real until it starts happening, right? There's some funny text coming in right now. I like this one from Not a Chef, Jeff. I don't see Besser volunteering as tribute. He feels more like the just don't make eye contact guy. When you're looking around the room, does he ever, though?

Get down. I mean, if they can't trade some of these veterans or they're loathe to trade them. If they can't see me, they can't trade me. What a conversation needs to be had with these guys, like you can't look, you can't look so damn sad all the time. It's not good.

It's not good for the young players to see. see it and you need to bring energy and positivity every day. Is it hard? It's the NHL. It's not supposed to be easy and you're getting paid a lot of money to do it. But you got to go in there with a good attitude because that's the sort of thing that's really tough during a rebuild. And Jim Rutherford said he believes there are veterans.

on this team right now that are up for that task of going through a tough process and being a professional and coming into the rank every day and just getting to work and being a good team guy and working with working with the young players but don't try and fool yourself into thinking that some that all these guys are going to be like that because that's not how everyone is wired. They also didn't sign up for it. All due respect. I know that you're making a lot of money and you should pretty much do whatever the organization asks. But the landscape has changed pretty fundamentally and pretty significantly since these guys all signed. They signed up for one thing and they got something. Besser could have seen it coming. That's not fair. That's not fair. It is 1,000% fair. That's not fair.

It is 1,000% fair that Besser could have seen this coming. I don't think. J.T. Miller had already been traded. Uh-huh. And everyone knew. everyone knew that Quinn might not be back. Do you think that honestly took them by surprise? Like, wait a minute, Quinn doesn't want to be here? Hey, I guarantee they all knew what he was thinking. I'm talking about the speed in which this thing crumbled. He signed in July.

It's January. A lot has changed since then. He didn't sign up for this. He did not sign up thinking the 2025-20206 season was going to be like commandeering the tank. At any rate. they need to figure out which of their veterans are going to be on board with this and which are their veterans are going to be corrosive to the process of rebuilding.

Yeah. And they're finding it out in real time. And that goes back to the asset management thing. I do wonder if patients will ultimately, and for once finally went out with this group. They're going to be patient with like not rebuilding and. No, no, no. patient with finding out who's going to be good for the group and who's going to be bad. How the hell do they not know that by now, man?

Like you can't say patient with finding out. If you don't know who these guys are by now, what do you mean? You don't know. Who do they not know about? Who are they all like, we're still trying to figure this guy out? Come on, man. The president of hockey ops just did an interview where he said he thinks he has several guys on this roster that fit that mold.

So either he's lying publicly or he genuinely believes it. But I think the guys that you know about are, I think, erroneous. You definitely know that he's a guy that's going to put in the work and be a good teammate. And I think as much as he's struggled, I think Marcus Pedersen is a guy that Jim Rutherford believes in, going all the way back to their Pittsburgh days. I think Tyler Myers is a guy.

that they like as a teammate. And then up front, I think it's tougher then. I think it's tougher then. I think they have an opinion regardless. I don't think they think Brock is the guy because I think they were seriously considering moving on from him. I don't think they think Petey is the guy because of, well, everything they've said.

DeBrusk, I don't know. Does it even matter? And Garland, I think they probably think that he is. a guy that is always going to put in an effort and probably be good for the younger players in terms of at the very least being a role model. I don't know what Garland is like in the room. He seems like an okay guy. And then, but like he's the guy that of all the forwards that I think you could trade the easiest because he doesn't have no trade protection until July 1st.

I think they know exactly what these guys are, Halford. I think it's honestly weird to say that they're trying to figure out these guys' personalities. they know exactly who they are. I think you're trying to figure out everything. I think you're trying to figure out who's worth keeping around. I think you're trying to figure out that sort of, I don't want to call it an overlap, but there's got to be a correlation between the value of a guy

keeping them around and the value that you'd get for a trade, like a Garland, for example. Like I think that when Rutherford says, we've identified some veterans that we think would be good leaders and mentors, I think Garland fits the bill. But I also think that he could net a ton in return It's... Relatively speaking,

with the rest of this group, right? And so that's what I'm talking about figuring out. It's like, is the mentorship worth the investment? Or is it it's the best time to move on, even though he could be one of those guys that could lead the next generation? That's kind of what I'm talking about here.

So when Jim Rutherford and Patrick Galveen do their... You know, Jim talked to IMAQ and Patrick Alvin spoke with Faber, and that was kind of scripted. Like we all know what they were trying to do there. You know, I know some people texted into the show, and I saw it on social media as well. It's like, there, see, they've said, they've said rebuild. It should be clear for the Canucks now or for Canucks fans now. Like they, everyone knows the plan.

but we don't really and I'm not blaming Alvin and Rutherford for this because when he says we've got some veterans that we think that we can ride with the obvious follow-up question is like who name them but they can't no obviously not you know that they can't and that's where the lack of clarity is

because you and I are having this discussion right now. And we kind of disagree on a few things here. Yeah. So, like, that's where there's the uncertainty. You know, you say you've got some veterans that you can believe in, but you're not going to tell us who they are, are you? No.

Okay. Quick reset here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. A reminder, get your what we learns in, hashtag them, WWL. Dunbar Lumber text message in Basket is 650, 650. It's your chance to be on the radio coming up next. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Anything from the NHL last night and the stories that we didn't get into. There's 10 games on the slate tonight, including 4 o'clock puck drop for the Canucks in Ottawa,

a reminder, pre-game, post game and the actual game. You can hear it all right here on SportsNet 650. We will dive into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket on the other side. It'll carry us through the final half hour of the program. I have no idea what happened to Alex Adams out of Ottawa. We were going to get them on the program to talk about what went on in Ottawa over the last four or five days. And then, of course, preview tonight's game. But alas, we move along.

I do need to remind you that this segment of the show was brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal and why nobody has since 1926. Visit Doick GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond and visit them online at theduick Auto Group.com. One final half hour of the program to go. It's what we learns. They're coming up next on the Halford and Brubborn.

show on SportsNet 650. If you don't know who these guys are by now, what do you mean you don't know? Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 PM on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. Now for my favorite part of the show. What's I say?

Talk to the audience. Oh, God. This is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time It's what we learn time On the show On a Tuesday

Happy Tuesday everybody Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650 Halfer Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates Get out of the penalty box of debt And back into the game with a financial fresh start Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com We are an hour three of the program It is what we learn time.

Hour three is brats by Campbell and Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell dashbound.com. Today. Okay. I'm going to read just the first two paragraphs of an article by Rob Rossi,

who covers the Pittsburgh Penguins for the athletic, but is covering a very different story here. There are multiple investigations into a brawl between young hockey players during intermission of an HL game on Saturday. The incident occurred during the Hershey Bears Mites on Ice intermission segment.

Players from the Central Penn Panthers Youth Ice Hockey Club began fighting as Bears and Cleveland Monsters personnel were in the dressing rooms at Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. For those that are unaware, mite hockey players are eight and under. I'll just read one more. The might players, including goalies,

rushed toward one another and traded punches. One player appeared to hit his teammate. No officials attempted to break up the brawl, and the crowd cheered on the youth players. That last sentence is the most important one, I think. What? The crowd cheered on the youth players. No one attempted to stop it, and everybody cheered.

The rest kept saying this was awesome, this was awesome. I thought it was hilarious. It was pretty funny. All of a sudden, people seemed to get pretty upset about it. They were pretty upset. They were pretty upset. They were all buddies. The statement came out from the Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association, which I imagine this team plays under.

They referred to the incident as a stage fight. These weren't different teams from different associations. This wasn't, like, real. they had their gloves on they were just they were roughhousing so I guess I know times are different but like I think I've told this story when I was playing kids hockey

and I was probably I don't know 10 or 11 or 12 we would ask our coach at the end of practices we'd be like can we do a big fight and the coach would often be like if you guys have a hard practice and you guys work hard, you can have some fun at the end and like, you can fight each other. Keyword fun.

I'm going to sit here and crack a beer and you guys are going to fight. And it's going to be great. No. But like, so the parents would show up to pick the kids from practice and there'd be like a line brawl on the ice and the parents. I don't know. It was a different time back then. They were like, that's pretty funny. Yeah.

Right? Like it's, it's like I've, no one got hurt or even close to hurt. Like, I bet the kids were, I bet the kids were laughing. so hard. Right. During that brawl. So, except for the one kid,

they were wailing on. I mean, they were fighting each other. It was hilarious. It was funny. Like, it's hockey. They're all wearing equipment.

They can't punch hard enough to hurt each other. Let's put this in the proper context. This has happened before at a Hershey Bears game involving the mites. Like, it almost was a,

I don't want to call it a right of passage, but teams had done it before where they had a little, minigame and then they like you said at the end they all kind of piled on and had a stage fight. So it's not like it's the first time it's happened. I honestly wondered if this most recent group either saw or knew about this and they're like hey we get to go out on the

big professional ice and we're going to have fun with it. The issue with this one as opposed to the previous one is that this one went viral. Yeah. And a lot of people saw it and thought it was real. They thought it was like a real full blown. People are texting in right now. They said the brawl was showing on CBC News last night. It was a real fight. It wasn't the...

It wasn't a real fight. The statement from the amateur hockey organization specifically said it was a stage fight. They planned it. It was the same association. They went out there and they had a scrimmage and a bunch of the kids probably got together and they were like, let's have a big fight out there. See, this is what I'm saying is that...

Now, if the coaches were on board, I don't know if I would have done that as a coach. Now, this is why I think contact. is important. And this is why I don't want to like start pontificating about journalism and doing your research

and everything. But this is the exact type of clip that people are going to see and without the proper context are going to infer a lot of things. People are going to look at it. They're going to be like,

this is disgusting. Outrageous that these kids would break into a fight beating each other up senselessly. They must. Look at them.

Look at them having so much fun out there. And this is with their eight-year-old punches that could not do anything. Did these same people get really angry about like snowball fights in the wintertime? Yeah, that's exactly. Tackling each other in the snow. Exactly. I don't think, I don't think it's so much that as it is.

They just, they saw something and they reacted to it. And if you spent five minutes looking at the story and understanding exactly what happened, it does put it in an entirely different light. But this is kind of the world that we live in. And here's the thing. everyone's going to forget about this in 24 hours. They're going to move on to something else,

and this will end up being... I don't know. It was over 24 hours ago, and we're talking about it. Okay, 48 hours. But it'll end up being a blip. But I've seen some crazy overreactions to it. And I'm going to be dead honest. I'm going to be dead honest.

When I saw it, I didn't even realize that it was a stage fight at first. I thought the... You're swinging pretty hard out there. I saw out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was just some kids that got ticked off at one another and just started throwing.

Right? It just goes to show. You just read it. into the story and find it a little bit more, and you realize that it's not as bad as you first thought it was. Some people texting in seem to think it was pretty bad. I don't know what to tell. The dynamics of it?

We're reading the story, though. Like, the kids were trying to have fun with it. Maybe you can blame eight-year-old kids for, you know, having a bad idea in the moment. But I bring up the fact that like no one rushed out there to break it up in the fact that everyone kind of knew what was going on, Or at least that was... Like, I'm sure the association isn't happy with it.

Probably not. Right? Like, there's a second time that it happened. No, at the Hershey Bears game, but was it the same association that was involved in it? Yeah, apparently. Oh, really? Yeah.

It's a tough league. We play tough hockey here. They're going to use it as advertising for the upcoming season. Do you want your kid to play tough hockey? Anyway, Mookau. Let's fire up the dot matrix. Humanoid submissions for all we learn, brought to you as always by AJ's P.

on East Broadway. Visit them today, 325 and 327 East Broadway. Two locations to serve you better. 80 plus seats, but they're going quick for Super Bowl. If you want your seat for Super Bowl Sunday, one of the best Super Bowl parties in town, visit them today at AJ's dot pizza. All right.

What's going on? Is the in-basket split on this one? No. Well, I mean, a little bit. A lot of people are texting and saying, like, Yeah, we used to do that at the end of our hockey practices too. Yeah. Or a lot of buckets and gloves comments.

We're in the dressing room where you just keep your helmets and gloves on and you just punch you to that. That was a big thing back in the day. Actually, the dressing room is where I will say like, and I've coached kids that age before is like not in the dressing room. That's when it gets dangerous because kids are, you know, some of them don't have their skates on or whatever. Like that's when you, I've Mount Bruffed in the dressing room before when kids are doing that sort of stuff. stuff. That's when you get skate cuts. Woodrow the eligible bachelor, what we learned, one year of retirement was enough for Rick Bonus. Happy to have bones back in the NHL. He turned 71 later this month. So how much of an

influence do you think Lawrence Kilman had on the hiring of Rick Bonus? Great question. Because this isn't a long-term hire. This is just, this is a temporary thing. I don't think Rick Bonas. Well, I don't know. I guess he could. could be the coach next season, but I think they're going to finish the rest of the season with bonus and then revisit it. I think it's a very interesting hire because bonus, if you'll remember how it ended in Winnipeg, remember we went out with a blaze of glory after they got ousted from the playoffs in sort of embarrassing fashion. He really lit in to everybody. He's at that stage of his career

where I think he's going to be to throw the arm around the guys when they need it but also call the guys to the carpet when they need it. That's bonus. Players love him, but players also understand the reason they love him is he's a very genuine guy.

If something's not going right, like he's not going to dance around it. He's going to be old school and very straight up. Can't not coach with him. Can't do it. That was Mike Singletary. I think that... I was bonus at the end of his tenure in Winnipeg. I think that

Gilman obviously had some influence in this. I don't think it's coincidence that he gets on the job and then a handful of days later. They're making this change to a guy that Gilman knows very well. I was also surprised that they moved on from Eveson because everything that I read and everyone that we talked to on the show

universally praised him for the job he did last year in the wake of the Johnny Goddrow tragedy saying that he did a fantastic job keeping that team together. And you remember they had that late push for the playoffs. I know. They're not, but not. really close to a playoff spot right now. No, they're not.

I just thought I was surprised that he was the first coach gone. Basketball, Phil, what we learned, pretty cool moment in the Raptors game yesterday when Kyle Lowry checked into the game late in his most likely final game in Toronto. The crowd was chanting his name, and he got the game ball.

So, Halford, you are a much bigger Raptors fan than I ever will be. Okay. But Kyle Lowry was a guy that I appreciated the way that guy played. Kyle Lauer is the greatest raptor of all time. Yeah. And they said it last night during the broadcast.

Nobody batted an eye. Maybe some tears, but not batting an eye at the comment. Because he is. He's not the most talented player and not the best player that the Raptors have ever had. But he's the greatest Raptor of all time. And I think everyone understands the differences there, right? Like, he, when he came to Toronto, they weren't so sure it was going to work out. But he made that organization important.

and matter and played with the kind of edge and style that really endeared him to the fan base and he was there for a long time. Obviously they won a championship and that goes a long way to cementing your legacy. But there are certain guys that endear themselves to fan bases and it's not just because of the immense talent that they bring and that was Kyle Lowry in Toronto.

Phil and Bill and Burnaby, another Phil. What we learned, I learned that having a rebuild plan and then staying true to the plan can work in the NHL, even in Montreal, one of the most knowledgeable and rabid hockey markets on the planet. Okay, so I did want to say this because Montreal looked good last night and really entertaining. A lot of talent. But here's the thing.

You know what they reminded me of? The way they play? New Jersey from a couple of years ago. A little Roger Dodger running gun. Yeah, yeah. Razzle-dazzle. Yeah. A little bit.

Like they haven't arrived until they've arrived. You know what will help them? Patrick Line. you'll settle them down but I'm just saying like you you can get to a certain point and it's great but they've got a long way to go

the Montreal Canadians have a long way to go they've still got to figure out another sender behind Nick Suzuki I'm not again I was entertained by them I think what they've done is great and I wish the Canucks would do that but we do have a habit in this market and the media is guilty of it as well

of crowning these rebuild teams before they've actually arrived. Has anyone checked on the Anaheim ducks lately? Sure. Alfred did the other day. That was gross. It wasn't good. Yeah.

Montreal to me, crowning isn't the right phrase here, but if you look at trajectories, and we always say like, you know, it's not always linear. theirs has been very linear you know if you look at the points per season

and how it's the trajectory has been pretty steady and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they've got so much talent eventually they will reach a point where there's going to be a setback because that's an inevitability of a team that needs to get to that next level By the way, speaking of veterans that you keep around galley

that's the type Brendan Gallagher chef kiss yeah he's Perfect. Perfect for it. Right. Exemplary character. The type of guy. Yeah, he's a worker, right? And they've made their bed with... He doesn't sound like it departed. He's a worker.

There's guys that you can keep around. And they've made their choices. There's a couple. Josh Anderson is one of them. And there's been a lot of consternation about Anderson's contract and what he's brought to the table. He went long, long stretches where he couldn't put the puck in the back of the net. It sounded like anybody familiar? But here's the thing. But you can put someone through the wall.

When you watch Montreal play right now, it is an abundance of talent. To the point where if you need to make tweaks and you look at your roster, you're like, we're not on the right trajectory anymore, you can trade guys. You can make deals now because there's so many talented guys. They do have a kind of similar status of a lot of, they've got a lot of small, shifty guys. On the back end, too, Hudson, right? Yeah. You know, it's just

It's all Slav Koski's a big dude up front and Jack Guy's a big guy on the back end but he was not yesterday. They've got a little

a lot of tiny, shifty guys that are fun to watch Caulfield Hudson they've got skill guys damn enough they've got a lot of

guys that can do things that like catch your eye and if it's not going great I bet there's a lot of teams that would be lined up to take

those guys if you want to make that deal the idea is just get a lot of talented guys in the door. Unsigned what we learned I believe coach Verre

Braybel looked like he was ready to play every time they showed him during the game on Sunday. What I learned, you can take Mike Vrable out of the game, but you can't take the game out of Mike Vrable. Yeah, he even got a cut on his face right at the end. Split lip. Yeah. I think one of the guys headbutted him with his face mask. Right. And Frabble was like, you know I'm not a player anymore.

He would be... Milton Williams, that's who did it. After a sack, he celebrated by coming over and smashing his coach in the face with his face mask. If we're putting together the three finalists for the head coach of the year, assuming the NFL does that, which I don't think they do, would it be Vrable, Mike McDonald and Kyle Shanahan? According to Bet GM, Vrable's the favorite. Okay. Mike McDonald's. See, this is weird.

They don't have, in this list of four, they don't have Shanahan. They have Rable, McDonald, Ben Johnson, understandable. Who's a coach of the Broncos? Sean Payton. Right. He's not in there. Liam Cohen, the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars,

because they did go from 13 losses to 13 wins. I've not paid attention to the Broncos at all. I was like, oh yeah, Sean Payton, he's still there. He still there. He still there. He sure did. Yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of good candidates. It's not the, he's not that. I think it's crazy that Shanahan's not in this. And again, this is one sports book, right? I think it goes to show a couple things. One, how many good coaching jobs there are this year? In a very weird way,

there's more competition for NFL coach of the year than NFL MVP. NFL MVP is a two horse race. Drake May or Matt Stafford, but that's it. I think it's Drake May's got to be a... I don't know. But it doesn't matter because there's only two candidates, as opposed to coach of the year where I think you could name five easy.

And you could even stretch it. You know who's not going to win is Pete Carroll. Duval. What we learned from John the Lawyer, I learned that the Wilder 8 and 7 since Hughes joined. I'll have to trust you on that, John the lawyer. Our lawyer wouldn't lie. No.

They're not as dominant with him as I thought they'd be. They've still got, you know, up front, they've certainly got some players, but, you know, they're not as deep as some teams. Can I just say, I didn't think that Quinn Hughes was going to make them dominant when he went there. Part of it was the division. But they had some amazing games right. to start. Yeah.

I was like, oh boy. I thought they'd be fun to watch, and I thought they'd be tantalizing in terms of their ability, especially on the power play. But they play in a division with two teams that quite honestly are better than them. I think Dallas is a better team. And I know Colorado's a better team. Couldn't even have to lease yesterday.

What are you talking about? Yeah, that's true. The ads are slumping. Now, to be fair, John did pull a bit of a lawyer move because the wild have taken a bunch of games to overtime and I think they've only got two or three regulation losses

with Quinn Hughes in the lineup. They've got a lot of loser points out of it. But classic lawyer, classic lawyer move. What we learned, this is from Red Wing Ted, believe it or not, what we learned,

Detroit finally got around to retiring number 91, Sergei Federov. Good to see. He looks like he could still play one of the best Russians to ever play. Yeah, he had an interesting line in his speech, too.

He said, it was a mistake for me to leave. And he said, that's on me. Yeah. Like, finally, some accountability from, I don't know, Sergey Federoff. He played for a bunch of teams. Don't you remember Sergey Federov on the Columbus Blue Jackets? That kind of. Kind of.

It lasts very long. That was a big deal in Columbus when he went there. He had nothing left in the tank, but they were still thrilled to get it. him. And he finished in Washington with young Ovi? Yeah. And I think Alex Semen, I think remember when they had all the Russians there? Yeah. Because that's off too.

I think they were all there at one point. I'll have to double check that one. Also, very poignant moment last night when they brought Vladimir Konstantinoff out on the ice in Detroit. Now here's a crazy thing. This shows our age. There is a story, and I think it was

in the Detroit Free Press. Todd McClellan said that one of his players asked him who's the guy in the wheelchair because he was a super young player and he didn't know the story of Vladi Konstantino and McClellan said he was actually really glad that the player asked because he got to relay this very important story and very important chapter in NHL history but it just goes to show like our generation everyone knows that story everyone knows the Russian 5 everyone knows the Konstantinov tragedy but it was like mid 90s That's a long time ago now.

And there's an entire generation that probably doesn't remember, probably doesn't know. So good on everybody last night. It was a very nice ceremony. A few people texted in, not with what we learns, but they texted in about the Brooks Kepka story of him leaving LiveGolf and coming back to the PGA tour. And the PGA tour essentially opening a window for only specific guys to come back from Live. because they sense maybe they could break live at this point. So Brooks Kepka is coming back and he is going to pay a financial penalty. Now, he made a lot of money from the Saudis, but, you know, there's a five million dollar donation to charity.

But there's also things that, you know, he's not allowed to participate in certain revenue things that I'm not going to bore you with. But some people have estimated the cost could be 50 million or even more than that. But Kepka wants back on the PGA tour and he said, you know, he's kind of an odd guy. I can't get a read on Brooks Kepka. No, neither can I. Because sometimes he seems like he's kind of like, he's kind of, you know, like cocky and arrogant. And then other times he comes back and he throws out the humility card and he's like, you know, I'm going to have to have a lot of conversations with the guys on the tour.

and I'm a little bit nervous about going out there and what the reaction is going to be. And I was like, okay. You know, I think being outside of the spotlight has been tougher a lot of these guys. So the other guys that could come back are... Yeah, so who's next? John Rom.

There might be none of them that come back. John Rom, they've opened a window to come back. Now there would be a financial penalty. And Cameron Smith, who's going to be. game has really fallen off since going to live. And then the other guy who I'm not sure is going to come back is Bryson. Yeah, I've seen his name floated about. Yeah, I'm reading kind of the same thing here.

Kepka, Deschambo, Ram, Smith. So I really like... But Deschambo was apparently in negotiations for an extension. But the question is, like, does Liv double down and go, fine, we'll give even more, like DeCambos in a great spot. Yeah. If you want to just go for money,

then you just go to live and you're just like, you better pay me now because I'm like the only thing keeping this going. I do like that the PGA made it a limited time offer. You know what I like too?

It's like, not everyone. Yeah. Not everyone. They just like, they don't, at some point, sometimes you're just going to be like, I don't really care about like treating everyone equally

because not everyone is equal in terms of value to us. And we could break this tour, but like Taylor Gooch, we're not going to really, you know, you're going to stay over there. Taylor Gooch, or a shirt. Sorry, Mr. I love it. All right.

We got to get out of here for today. That's what the music means, but we will be back tomorrow. Thank you all for listening and thank you all for contributing. We got to say goodbye. Signing off, I have been Mike Alford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A-Dog and he's been Laddie. This has been the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.