Halford & Brough in the Morning - Don't Offend The Robots

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they discuss the latest around the Sabres, who get set to host the Canucks tonight, as WGR Buffalo's Paul Hamilton (26:39) joins the show.  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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Sortive coming right up the middle. Across Sauton. Dropped off to Van Riemstein. Center to McFeyn. They score. And it's a hat-trick.

Justin Sordiff. Three-go. Bounce past to Draymont, back to Curry, a relocation three is on the way, it's around it. Good, it popped them, and popped in. I kind of live by saying, if you ain't got no haters, you ain't popping. So hate away. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

It is Halford, it is Broughton, it is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adol, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two, much lower payments, and three, financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid.

Visit the Mid-17-Powel Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, Make 2020. your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. Lots to get into on the program today. We begin with the Duick Morning Drive. It's our guest list for the day, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 630. Paul Hamilton, WGR 550 Sports Radio, and Buffalo is going to join us.

The last time we spoke to Paul, it was December 9th. The Sabres were dead last in the Eastern Conference, and Kevin Adams was their general manager. When we speak to Paul today, the Sabres will have jumped six spots in the standings and just three points back of a playoff spot. Hotest team in the NHL. We'll talk to Paul at 6.30

about a remarkable last month for the once lowly Buffalo Sabres, our sad club brethren. 7 o'clock, Greg Wschinsky's going to join the program. Our NHL insider from ESPN, busy night in the NHL tonight, 10 games on the slate. Greg's going to join us at 7 to talk about everything going on.

In the league, 730, Chris Peters, content manager for Flohockey, are show's resident prospect expert, I would say. It's going to join us after the world juniors ended yesterday. Sweden captures gold, Czechia claims silver. Canada wins bronze. We'll recap the tourney and ask about some of the big draft eligible prospects like Gavin McKenna. And Ivar Stenberg, Andy, your favorite, Ivar Stenberg.

We'll talk to Chris about all that at 7.38. Did he start up that fish restaurant, Ivers? He did, as a matter of fact. There aren't many Ivers left. He's by far the most successful Ivar, I know. Except for the fish stick magnate. Ivar. Wasn't there an 86 or Ivar?

Ivor. Ivor Evans. Yeah, yeah, Gene Flash. Right. Yeah. Good recall. Thank you. That's pretty impressive. He is neither related nor spells his name the same as Ivar Stenver.

Right, right, right. 810, Landon, Ferraro is going to join the program. Canucks analyst here on SportsNet. Canucks has mentioned to her in Buffalo tonight. It's a 4 o'clock start, pregame, postgame, and the actual game. all right here on SportsNet 650. First and a six-game road swing for the Canucks. Landon joins us at 8-10 to talk about all that.

Busy show, big guest lists, lots to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I will be. We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? Miss that? You miss that? What happened? Let's jump right into it. We will begin with what I was just talking about from the world juniors. Tournament done, Sweden wins. Casper Eustovarro, one of my favorite names,

and Victor Ecclin scored in the first period. And then Ivar Stenberg, the potential first overall pick in the upcoming NHL entry draft, capped off the scoring. The future Vancouver Canucks. Capped off the scoring with an empty netter to win it. Congratulations to Sweden, who won just its third ever world junior hockey title. In the first ever all-European final since 2016, they beat Czechia four. or two to capture gold. And Sweden, very deserving of the gold. They've kind of had tough luck at

this tournament in that they've often played well in the round robin or the group stage, whatever you want to call it. And then it gets to the metal stage and they're like, ah, we can't win. So they finally got over the hump. Although I guess they didn't have to beat Canada or the United States in the gold medal final. They beat the United States along the way, though. Canada finishes with bronze, the game lacked intensity and, you know, good for Canada for getting the win and getting the bronze. It was not played quite the same level of intensity as the other games, which is understandable, given that only the bronze medal was on the line. And, you know, I heard some people on the station yesterday saying like, you know, it's still cool to win a bronze medal.

Yeah, it's cool, but it's not great. You know what's cooler? Winning gold. Yeah, exactly. Or even silver, because those are better. Yeah. Do you win silver? A big question here to start off.

No, you lose silver. No, no, no. You win silver. You lose silver. You lose gold. No, you win silver by winning in the semifinals. That's what you win. You win at least silver when you go there.

But, okay. You win silver by losing gold You're a loser if you win silver Is that what you're saying? Well, you are, you've lost the game Yeah, I'm saying You didn't win a silver medal in that moment Because you lost

Yeah, it's not like an individual competition Where you win silver. You've still won silver, though You get a silver medal Okay, whatever, this is stupid Adogs, this is what you do to the show So the Canada's story ends with a bronze

Gavin McKenna piled up some points yesterday and you know you look at the total points that he had in the tournament and you'd be like wow this guy's this guy's incredible you must have really shown out not really though Braden Coots scored against Finland and then he got you got traded you got traded by Seattle to where was it

Dollywell was all over Prince Albert Prince Albert A hot spot of Prince Albert In a can? Yes Okay So Coots is going to have to go in try and win first of all at WHL championship

and then hopefully a Memorial Cup and then we'll see what happens with Braden Coots next year. He was not at the end of the day one of the guys that Dale Hunter leaned on in this tournament. He's only 18 still and they often stay this is a 19 year old's tournament except for the odd phenom here and there.

I imagine he's going to play in this tournament again next season. If he is in the H.L and that, I don't even know where that rule is. I don't know if it's been stamped and it's official yet, but if each NHL team is allowed to have one 19-year-old CHL player play in the HL, it's just a little bit confusing there, then I imagine that's where he's going to be and I imagine that the Canucks would release him to play in the world juniors.

Yeah, maybe get another kick at the can. You would hope, right? I mean, if he was in that position, you'd like to see him go back and try and make a bigger mark on the ceremony. But here's the thing. I don't exactly know what it would mean other than a boost of confidence for the player.

Like we've seen former Connucks prospect. What a freaking boost. Thank you. Seeing former Canucks prospects, current Canucks prospects, go to this tournament and dominate. Mackey is probably the most notable one. And there's not often a correlation between starring or dominating in this tournament.

I think it's playing in high-pressure situations. I think it's great training. I think it would be better training than going up and playing, you know, another H-A-H-L game. There's nothing again at H-L games. I might even push back against that because the American Hockey League's probably a more fertile training ground. But the experience of playing in that type of environment where you've got to deal with

things like the media. Look at, look at, look at the old pickle that Zame Perak got him, got himself in. Just because he, he said some stuff that you probably truly believed his, his, I don't know if everything he said was truthful. Okay, well, let's do that story. Let's do that story. The part where he said his flames teammates had actually told him to keep his answers short, I was reading an article by Eric Francis on Sportsnet.com.

and I think it was McKenzie Weeger said, like, we wouldn't have told him to say that. But then McKenzie Weger also said that they talked to Zane Perak about his remarks that he made at the World Juniors. Let's lay this out because it's a bit confusing. So Perak had a really good tournament scoring-wise. As a matter of fact, he broke the Canadian record for points by a defenseman with 13, surpassing Alex Petrangelo, who had the previous record back in 2010. The other thing Zane Perak did during this tournament was tell reporters that, Yeah, you've got the second reply, right?

Oh, you've got everything. Look at you. Let's just let the young man speak for himself, which apparently he's not allowed to do in Calgary. Here is Zane Perak talking during the tournament about showing some personality while playing for Canada at the World Juniors. To show your personality, was it by watching other athletes doing the same thing? I think it's more watching NHL guys be robots and not having any personality.

so, you know, I think you need some personality and it's kind of the best way to grow the game and, you know, I don't want to come in here and be a robot. I mean, you know, when I'm in Calgary, I definitely have a lot of guys that are telling me to give really simple answers, but, you know, here I could kind of do what I want.

So on Monday, McKenzie Weeger, who may or may not be a robot, told reporters in Calgary that he had spoken at length to parac about his remarks, via text message and he says he does think the preck feels bad about what he said and that's okay that meant that the conversation went

back to Zane Preck here's what he said yesterday about the remarks he made during the tournament like the other day when you talked about why you're who you are in front of the media did you learn about that and did you hear from the team about those comments

nothing yet I mean I think some things got spun out of proportion and you know my words probably worded things wrongly, but obviously it wasn't my intent in the words I said. And, you know, I sincerely apologize to, you know, the Flames organization and my teammates, you know, at the end of the day, that's, you know, not acceptable and that can't happen. The robot's got to him.

The important thing, of course, is that Zane Prack learned the number one lesson from all NHL players. When you say something and you say something bad, blame the media for spinning your words and twisting what you said. Congratulations. Everyone learned a valuable lesson here. He's not wrong though. The NHL players are robots. He was just speaking the truth.

Yeah. And then the robots shut them down. Yeah. Which is what the robots are programmed. It's the why are you booing me? I'm right. But some of them, some of them say that, like, some of them are robots because they've learned to be robots.

Yeah. Right? And it's just the, so here's the thing that Weeger said, right? I kind of knew that it wasn't a personal shot at the guys. because I know in here that we don't say that to him anyway of the advice to keep answers short. I think that might have been one of the main problems. Yeah, he's like, why are you, yeah, why are you putting this on us in Calgary?

Like, I, as far as Weaker was concerned, he's like, we're not telling him. Yeah, we're not telling him anything. Yeah, say whatever you want. Maybe he didn't mean the players. Maybe he meant like the media guys, like the, you know, the trainers and like, don't. Maybe, maybe the PR guys. When I heard it, that's what I assumed. I didn't think he was talking about his teammates.

Weeger said, I think he was just under the spotlight. His words just kind of tripped up on him a little bit. I don't take it personally. And then a couple of the other guys on the flame said, like, yeah, you're at the World Junior. Sometimes you're like, I think it was Codry said. Everybody's on their high horse of the world juniors. Everybody's excited, fired up.

It's the best players for your age group. You can tend to excite you and overly stimulate you. So maybe Zane Prech just had too much screen time or something like that. That's it. No more YouTube for you. If I now, as a media guy that loves to twist words, my headline would have been, Cadry says, over-stimulated, Perak needs to, quote-unquote, get off his high horse. Right.

That's a story. And that's how you spin the story. That's how you spin it, yeah. Okay, let's talk about the Vancouver. A lot of problems in that Calgary room, I've heard. They need to trade some of those guys. Maybe Zane Perak, get them off that high horse. Let's turn our attention to the Vancouver Canucks now.

Walking around on that high horse and all the robots are getting upset. Okay, the Canucks, they're in Buffalo. And they practiced yesterday. We'll see if that line of Petey with DeBrusk and Carlson can build off their strong game against the Bruins. You know, I think it just goes to show that we're looking for anything good. And the Linus Carlson story has been good. And that line was very good. At the end of the day, they scored one goal.

Yeah. Right? Like they dominated on the natural statric scoreboard in terms of coursey. and they played very well. But, like, let's everyone just calm down a little bit. Or not. I mean, it's been such a rough season. Feel free to enjoy that line.

You know, it was just a little while ago that DeBrusk was a healthy scratch. I'm curious to see how the power play evolves without Quinn Hughes. And I think we're still seeing that. They've also got some guys like Garland and Rossi that are injured now. Pedersen, you know, we talked yesterday about Tom Vellander

quarterbacking the power play. I don't think he is. Like, I don't, he's out there. Yeah. But I think, I would say, having watched that unit with Pedersen on it, I think Pedersen's running it. He's running it off the right half wall. And a couple of young D men are getting a chance to show their stuff

on the power play, but I do think, and I think it's the right decision. to have it run through Pedersen on that right half wall. The top unit against Boston was Pedersen and Willander. He was the only defenseman out there. And then Debrusk Sherwood, who hasn't matured yet, and Besser, who could really use a goal, rounded out that top unit.

The second unit, and remember Garland and Rossi are injured, was Boojum and Horonix, so two D-Men with Kane Carlson, and Drew O'Connor is now on the, power play and deservedly so. So that's just a couple of things to watch for tonight in Buffalo. I always like to go into these games with something specific to watch for if it's not, you know, like, hey, let's try and win this game, right? Like those are the things that you want to watch.

You know, I'm excited to watch Linus Carlson and I hope he can keep it going. And I am apprehensive to watch Brock Besser because like he is in a hole right. now and I guess he'll still be on a line with Max Sasson and and Kane Evander Kane so that that power play

time when he's out there with Pedersen to Bruskin, Sherwood might be his best chance to get off the Shide. Yeah and before we get into the opponents that the Canucks are going to play on this six game road trip I do want to mention that this morning Czechia and Latvia announced their

Olympic rosters. Congratulations to Philip Horonik and David Kompf. Both of them were named to the Czechia Olympic rosters, so they'll be heading over to Italy and February to represent their country in the hopes of winning a medal, maybe following in the footsteps of their junior program, which is racking up medals left and right.

Lavia did name Teddy Bluger to its team, which I guess is kind of a given, although he hasn't played at all. I mean, he's played, what, two games this year, I think? So I guess you put him on the team, and if he can't make it due to injury, they'll have a replacement, if he can play, if he's healthy enough to play.

So three Canucks today celebrating their Olympic announcements with Blue were going for Lavia and Hronick and David Kamp going for Chekia. Trey, the Gulf Island Farrier Worker, texts into the Dunbar-Lumber text line, and this is a bit of a lull right now in terms of Canucks news. So let's dig into this a tiny bit. He says, some hockey fans can be so dumb.

If hockey players are robots, we complain they have no personality. As soon as anyone says anything with personality, they have to apologize because some dumb fans complain. We can't have it both ways. Trey, stay with me for a sec here because I understand your sentiment, but I disagree with it. Okay? As soon as anyone says anything with personality, you write,

they have to apologize because some dumb fans complain. They don't have to apologize. It's true. Zane Perk didn't have to apologize. They don't. And now maybe they feel, that they have to apologize not because the dumb fans complain. It's because their teammates are upset.

But the players or anyone that says anything interesting or meaningful that might ruffle some feathers, the people that are comfortable doing that, they don't apologize. They stand by what they say. Or they engage in a conversation about it. They don't immediately shut it down by apologizing for it, right? That's what the NHL is lacking.

It's not the fan's fault. It's not the media's fault. It's maybe the team dynamics and the team culture of hockey that you don't stand out. That might be a thing. I don't think it has anything to do with the fans or the media. You know, a guy like Brad Marchand will say interesting things, and it'll just be like, yeah. and you guys if you guys want to fight about it online go for it i'm going to go play hockey right

you can't you know if you want to if you want to be someone who's outspoken or says things that you know not everyone is going to agree with then you just have to accept that not everyone's going to agree with them and be like i'm okay with that so there's a really interesting article from Time magazine 12 years ago called the sorry Was it still in your bathroom or something? It was in my dentist office He hasn't updated things in a while.

It's called the sorry state of apology culture. I was reading about apology culture a while ago. I remember this came up because there's this and this is 12 years ago so it gives me an idea of how long this is going on but it was talking about celebrities who were dialing back or just flat out offering these

very empty hollow apologies for things they didn't really necessarily need to apologize for, but they felt they needed to address and the easiest and quite honestly, most simple way to do it was to just apologize. They essentially said that no one wants to suffer the potential consequences

of having an opinion that might not be popular and that's what it was. Everyone wants their opinions to be like congratulations for sharing that. That is incredible. They want the likes. And part of having the, and some of this does have to do with cancel culture, which depending on what your idea and understanding of that is does exist in some form. Some people think that having an unpopular opinion or an opinion

that is disagreed with might get them in trouble or deserves an apology. And it takes away from apologizing for something. Like the act of apologizing should be true. It should be contrite. You should be I'm genuinely sorry. An apology shouldn't be. I'm sorry that my words that I still believe made you feel that way. The worst one is, I'm sorry if I offended anybody. Yeah. My intention wasn't to offend anybody. Of course your attention wasn't to offend anybody.

We know that. If you wanted to offend somebody, then you could say, yeah, I apologize. I knew I went out and offended someone. Yeah. You know, I'm sorry all you fatties were upset. Right. You know, that's offensive. That is.

Right. You're not supposed to body shame. The fats. I know. So with this correct thing, I kind of rolled my eyes this morning. Because I'm like, now he's doing the thing that he's actually. speaking out against, which is doing the most obvious robotic answer, which is, I'm going to apologize to nobody in particular for nothing I did wrong. But I'm just going to say I'm sorry

because that'll put an end to this chapter. You know the worst thing about the, or the, the next step in this apology culture, AI. Right. Because before you used to have to work with like a PR company to work on your apology. Now you use Chet GPT. I was reading this, uh, article the other day and it was about cheating um in colleges and universities and might as well have been in high school because there's a lot of AI cheating going on believe it or not people just throw their assignments into into AI and they're like finish it for me right and anyway good learning there um and uh there was this story about this one uh I think it was a professor that found that everyone cheated on this assignment and then

And the apology to this professor was then created by AI. So she got like the same apology. Oh, man. Everything is AI. I mean, that's a little funny. I mean, it is funny. Yeah, it is funny. I apologize for finding that funny.

Yeah. But it is very funny. Yeah. Have we had any, like, do we, have you ever used any, like, dynamics at home where you're just like, you know what? I'm just going to, I'm just going to throw this into AI. I've never used it. never used. Yeah, I haven't either. I've never used chat, GPT. I've never used any AI. No. Too much of a control freak. Not really. Every time that I see the...

It isn't pretty, look, like, is a problematic technology, but it is pretty, like, incredible as well. It feels like a cut corner operation. Well, yeah. Yeah. But I don't, like, what... But if you use it properly, it's just the next step of search engines, basically. You just can't trust everything that comes out of it, and you've still got to dig into it, and you have to to have a skeptical mind when you use it. Well, it's like the Google search engine AI summary. Like, that's impressed me a few times, even though it's often wrong. It's like on occasion when it is right, I'm like, wow, it actually summarized things

really quickly for me and gave me the info I needed without having to like click a million or 20% of the time. But then sometimes you'll be like, wait a minute, that's not right. Yeah, no, exactly. So like that's the thing. Like when it works, you're like, hey, this is great. Unfortunately, it doesn't work most of the time. Before we go to break, I know we played it in the intro, but I want to give a shout out to

Delta Hockey Academy's very own. Justin Sordiff, former Vancouver Giant, five points last night. Hat trick, two assist, Capitals 7-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks, a game in which I checked the box score. Mikhail Granlin went minus five last night. So lots of big statistical moments last night, but let's hear it for the Delta Hockey Academy's Justin Sort of Hat-trick goal here, five-point night for the Washington Capitol's 7-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks.

Both Sort of and McMichael with three-point night, sort of flying into the offensive zone. Van Riemsack. Mick Michael Cross Ice, one touch. It's the hat trick for Justin Sordham. Coming up on the other side of the break, we are going to speak to Paul Hamilton from WGR 550 Sports Radio in Buffalo. Paul joined us about a month ago when the Sabres were in dead last in the Eastern Conference.

And they had an entirely different GM. Kevin Adams, remember him? Yeah, now the Sabres have won 10 of their last 11. And Yarmot Kickline is the GM. Much has changed in Buffalo. We'll talk to Paul about it. Coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance.

We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 632 on a Tuesday Happy Tuesday, everybody Halford Bruff SportsNet 650 It's too early for this It's a little early for this I always played in the 6 o'clock hour

You have to And we say it every time You are listening to the Halford and Brough show On SportsNet 650 Halford and Brough of the morning Isbrought to by Sands and Associates Only a license insolvency trust can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how visit them online

at sands dash trustee.com. It's like they're screaming for help. It is. There's a screeching. It's uncomfortable. It's like the Homer's scream. Kind of. Yeah.

We did that bit already. I think someone dubbed it over top. Anyway, we are still in Hour One of the program. Paul Hamilton from WGR 550 Sports Radio on Buffalo. It's going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one of this program is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest. prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines, we go. Paul Hamilton from Buffalo joins us now on the Halford and Breft Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Paul. How are you? Hey, guys. Yesterday, the Canucks were, of course, practicing in Buffalo is in the hallway hanging out with Tyler Myers. I mentioned to him, like, what was the yesterday that we were in Vegas and you won the Calder Trophy? Ryan Miller was there and he was up for an old. award that was yesterday right that it just to me it doesn't seem like all this time has passed uh

i was there when he got drafted i was there when he got drafted and he shows up for training camp and he grew like five inches between the day he got drafted and training camp and here he's standing there and he's just laughing as i'm going on and uh i can't believe all that time's passed well okay this is a fitting segue for what i wanted to ask you because it wasn't that long ago that we were talking to you. It was December 9th. I went back and looked at the show notes. And at that time, we brought you on the show.

The Sabres were dead last in the Eastern Conference. Kevin Adams was still the general manager. And things looked bleak. We had you on and you were, I would say, rightly critical of where the team was at in its current state. Much has changed since then, Paul. Much, much has changed. It wasn't that long ago that we were talking about the Sabers in one way, shape,

inform. Tell us about what's gone on over the last month with the Buffalo Sabres. Well, in my estimation, amateur hour is over. I mean, Yarmal Kekalainen has taken over his general manager. Now, for fans that don't know, he was hired in May as a senior advisor for the Sabers.

So he when he came in to be general manager, he knew what he was looking at. He had been around everybody, the coaches, the hockey department, the players. So he knew what he was getting into when he wound up getting the job and he's a no nonsense man as you guys know i mean he's going to tell you to

it straight whether you're a player whether you're a coach whether you're in the hockey department whether you're in the media whatever it is you know he's not going to sugarcoat it and he seems like a no nonsense guy and quite honestly it just seems like as you go around the locker room and talk to players maybe just doing our everyday business that we do whether it's at practice or games, it seems like a big cloud has been lifted off this organization, a cloud that's been there probably long before Kevin Adams showed up. But it just seems different. And then, you know, when we talked, and a lot of, I mean, you know how it is. Because I was saying things here, the same thing I was saying to you. And now people want to sit there and say, well, you were wrong.

It's like, well, actually, no, I wasn't wrong. the time when we were speaking, there was no indication whatsoever that the Buffalo Sabres could win more than two games in a row because here we are in December and they hadn't won more than two games in a row. And you're not going to make a playoff runner or anything like that. And I said, I think I probably said to you because I said it every place else that if this team even has an inkling of getting back in the playoffs, they're going to have to win 10 straight games and you know it's just just to just to get into the conversation I was wrong by nine straight games they were in a playoff spot I said 10 it took nine straight wins for them

to jump into that playoff spot so there was just nothing that would have told us from the last 14 years that this team was capable of going on a 10 game winning streak and that's exactly what they've done. And the reason why is they decided that they were going to start listening to their coach and playing the way their coach has been begging them to play for a year and a half now, as we were seeing the midway point of his second season back here as coach. And they would play that way from time to time. And when they did, they usually won. But this is a hard-headed group. They want to do it their way. And it just seemed like all of a sudden light went off that, you know what, if we stop turning the puck

over and we start playing well at both ends of the ice and we win the battles in the offensive zone on the forecheck and we go to the net and get three guys to the net, we might win some hockey games. And that's exactly what they've done. Starting in Seattle when they were out West Vancouver also was one of the games, they hadn't played a bad third period the whole time. And almost every time, and I take the Seattle game as an example, they took a two-to-one lead in the middle of the second period, and they defended that league for a lead for a period in half.

That is new for them. They don't defend leads. They blow leads. They give away leads in the last minute. They give away three goal leads. That was their M.O. But all of a sudden, now the goal-tend, the goal-tend. vendors aren't facing two-on-ones and three-on-ones and breakaways.

And when they did have to make a big save, Alex Lyon, for the most part, Alex Lyon played seven in those games. Occo Peca-Lukin and played three. Lion is now injured. So Luchin is getting the work now. But they were fantastic. When they had to make the big save, they did, both of them. So that was a difference, too, that, you know,

it was almost like the team was working together. if player A made a mistake player B was there to help out and it was just it was like well yeah that's what Lindy Ruff has been trying to get through to you guys now for I don't know how long and Don Granato before him

same thing when they play the way Don Granato was asking them to play they usually won but it wasn't that often so Paul help me connect the dots a little bit here because you know you say they started to listen to their coach like why and where

does Yarmo come in to this? Did he have words with them? You just don't often see a new GM bump. You can see a new coach bump because the coach might change the tactics or everyone's going to be playing for the coach. I mean, I suppose that could be true for the GM. Is everyone now playing to prove something to Yarmal Kekelainen? What did he say to the group? basically what he told us and it was the first thing the first thing he did was thank to Pagula the second thing he did was say this that the problem with his team he goes

it's not a problem with talent he goes there's talent here but he says I look at talent maybe a little differently than others do he said talent is on the ice yes he goes it's also in your heart he goes it's willing to do the extra things to win hockey games And he goes, this team, too much goes on the ice and are the better team, and they get outworked. And he goes, that is inexcusable, and that stops now.

He goes, that will not be tolerated, that will not be put up with. He goes, it happens too much around here, and it stops. And he told the players the exact same thing. And I can't tell you how many times, well, I'll say the last 14 years, different players along the way, say, we got out work tonight. We got to stop. We got to correct that. That's inexcusable.

And I would hear it over and over again. We got out work tonight. And then the odd game they'd win. It's like, well, yeah, we went out there and we worked hard and we won the battles. And yeah, I know. I was here. I was watching it. Why aren't you doing it more?

And now, and that's why it was kind of funny. You know, they did lose in Columbus 5 to 1 to lose their 10 game winning streak. And, of course, they play the Canucks today. And, of course, you would have thought on my social media feeds that they had lost 10 in a row. The fans are going wild. Well, they don't want to be fooled again, I'm sure. Right.

Because the Sabres have had moments like this. I remember a few years ago they got off to a really good starter. They had a run where they were getting the results and then they just fell back to their old ways and it was dysfunction again. Yeah. They won 10 in a row. then they lost a bunch in the row, and that's what I keep telling people. I couldn't care less about last Saturday's loss as far as in the big picture.

It doesn't matter. And what I heard in the locker room showed me some maturity that I haven't seen in a while. After that game, they all had turned the page to move on to this game on Tuesday. What they're looking at is they weren't going to win 50 games in a row. Season's going to be half over after tonight. They know that. We know that. How do you respond to that loss?

You didn't play well. The turnovers came back, trep back into your game. You didn't play well. Well, what do you do tonight? That's where I think it's important. Not what happened there. That's going to happen. You know what?

It's going to happen again this year. But you can't now go on a four-game losing streak or a five-game losing streak or whatever and ruin everything you did in the past 10 games. You've got to respond. And that's all they talked about in the locker room. It's like, this happened. It sucks that it happened.

But now we have to learn from it. We have to come out on Tuesday. We have to play the way we're capable of playing and turn it back around again and win a hockey game. So that's their mentality. And I'll tell you by 10 o'clock tonight if they're able to execute it. Well, yeah, I certainly know what it feels like to not be able to trust to the response of the local hockey team

and you never really know what you're going to get. I do want to ask you about a couple of players, Alex Tuck and Bowen Byram. The futures kind of looked uncertain for them in Buffalo. Has this changed anything? Part of what we've seen is the emergence of Bo Byram. I don't remember for sure. He was having a horrible year.

it didn't matter what pair he was on he was turning the puck over constantly and I just kept saying to myself what is wrong with him this is not Bo Byram I thought they should have resigned him and they did for two years I thought that was a good contract for him and I couldn't figure out why is it turnover after turnover what is wrong with this kid and the light went off I don't know why he doesn't know why we sat down and did a pregame interview together and he said sometimes you just got to simplify it and get everything out of your head and go out and play hockey. He goes and that's basically what he did. Now he's been phenomenal at both ends of the ice. There have been games that Lindy Rupp plays in 27 minutes and it's like night and day now you're you're seeing the production. He's up almost as double figure goals so you're seeing him jump up

offensively and do that but he's been lights out defensively too. The turnovers are gone. I mean he's not turning the puck over on consecutive play plays, you're not even to a game. And, you know, not just him, but the whole defensive core, all six guys, have all of a sudden stop the turnovers. But that has helped Bo Byram become Bo Byram again. Alex Tuck was the other one I think you talked about.

Yeah, depending on a restrictive free agent, I believe. Yeah. And Yarmoy, Kekalayan, immediately got in touch with the agents. Now, as Alex told us, he goes, he was pretty sure. Yarmal was in on some of the talks anyway, even when Kevin Adams was still around. So it wasn't like he was foreign to him what was going on. But he said at his opening press conference that he, like Kevin Adams, wants Alex tuck back and he will be talking to his agents and getting things regoing again as soon as

he could. And that happened almost immediately. They did a feature the Sabres did on Keckin. He was walking down the hallway with their VP of PR. and she was telling him, well, it's out there and social media you're going to be talking to Alex's age. He looks at it. He goes, I already did. That happened until like two days ago.

You know, so, you know, he was already on that. So it's almost like that maybe is going to be refreshed and have a new perspective on what he needs to do to get him signed and a number that both player and team can live with. It's been in quite a month for the Buffalo Sabres. Obviously, winners of 10 of their last 11. Canucks will get to see him tonight. A reminder, it's a 4 o'clock puck drop bar time.

You can hear it right here on Sportsnet 650. Paul, thank you very much for doing this yet again. It's great to get the bookends of what a 10-game winning streak looks like locally. Enjoy the game tonight. It should be a lot of fun. We'll do this again. We'll have you back in a month when they've lost 10 in a row. Yeah, right.

Put in your calendar. Thanks, Paul. See, Paul. You sound like a Buffalo fan. Kind of am. Paul Hamilton from WGR 550 Radio in Buffalo here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. Okay, here's a very difficult question for you, Halford. I love difficult questions.

Who is the best team the Canucks are going to play on this road trip? Okay, so they got Buffalo, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and then down to Columbus, right? That's the trip. It's a tough question. So traditionally... They're so mid all of them. Yeah, traditionally the answer would be Toronto. Traditionally, but these are not traditional times,

especially in the big smoke, because Toronto is... Toronto is a forgettable team, I would say, right now. You know they're there. You know what they represent, historically, but none of that matches up. They don't live up to the hype and the anticipation because they're just a very average hockey team. I actually can't remember the last time the Leafs were less interesting

than they are right now, and that goes back to when they were bad and had to bring in Mike Babcock like they would make these crazy decisions and then it would blow up in their face

they're right now they're like a cigar with like two puffs left on it uh yes you know what I mean like they're just gonna fling it away soon almost done it just seems like it's it's almost done

so the statistical answer to your question is Detroit because Detroit is the fourth place team in the entire national hockey league okay with 25 wins and 54 points Are you sold on the Red Wants? No, but... They've got a negative goal differential.

They sure do. They're the only team in the top five with a negative goal differential. That's crazy. Yeah. I mean... Did they lose one game by like 20 or something like that? Maybe two games by 10? But the point remains, they're probably...

Well, they're not probably. They're the best team in terms of record that the Connucks are going to play. I think the best team the connects are going to play might be Montreal. Hmm. Yeah, because they've had such an up and down season. They really struggled with goaltending for a while. Yes. You know who else is really struggling with goaltending and getting very frustrated with?

The Ottawa Senators. Right. Linus Hallmark is away. They're having problems. I think they've got the lowest team save percentage in the NHL. Because overall, I think they're, if you look at their underlying numbers, actually a very good defensive team. They have a plus two goal differential despite the terrible goal.

I think it might be, I think of the, of the, if they get goaltending, which is a cop-out because the goaltending is part of your team but if they get the goal-tending I think the auto centers are the best team even if they get average

goaltending I just want to put this out there and there's I'm going on nothing other than gut on this one I bet the Vancouver Canucks have a successful road trip where they win four of these games

why do you say that well one they're the best road team in their division and that's not me that's not even spin if you look at the best team in the Pacific Division in terms of road victories

it is your Vancouver Canucks The second part of that is that they are They're grotesque at home They are awful at home But they are a very efficient team on the road I don't know if it's because They are taken lightly when they go into someone else's barn Or that's not a big circle the calendar date

For the opponents They've had a couple wins there where the goaltending helped them out, Lankinen in Boston for example? Or I think there's been some times where they've gone in and faced the opponent's backup goalie for example. So there might be some... They've also had some good efforts on the road.

And they've had some good work. I don't know why and I prove me wrong children, but I got this weird feeling. And you know what I think I have it? Because I think I'm starting to really pay attention to the, like, I get everything wrong kind of analysis.

Like just when you think. Yeah, just when you think that you're like, well, this team is cooked. They're no good. They can't win. They got one of the worst home records we've ever seen. They're not talented and everything. This is when, and you're clamoring for trades and a rebuild and everyone's, the angst is growing. This is when they muddle their way into a streak where they end this trip and they're probably four points out of a playoff spot. Well, outside of Colorado and I would say maybe Carolina, you never know what to expect from any of these teams. in the NHL.

So most of the time it's going to go back to it's going to revert to the mean. So if like Buffalo going on this 10 game

winning streak is incredible just because everyone again outside of a couple of teams is so mid. Is there a

horrendous team in the NHL? I don't think there is. Again, by the standings it would be the Jets. Yeah, but they're not a horrendous team. They were the president's trophy winners last year

and they still employ the reigning league MVP. The Canucks are not a good team, but they're not horrendous in terms of, like think of, I don't know, San Jose a couple of years ago or Chicago a few years ago, although I think Chicago might have that potential to be horrendous if Bedard isn't back soon. But, you know, Colorado,

before they became a good team was a horrendous team. There's no team like that. No, there's not. I mean, if you want to look at this season, and we got Greg Woshensky coming up on the show on the other side of the break, and we might be throwing on the spot a little bit to ask about a big picture question like this,

but this is a very odd year. The NHL's been a parody-driven league for a while. Wasn't this predictable, though, based on the off-season? Remember the off-season? Nobody's selling. Nobody did anything. Nobody did anything. Nobody did anything.

No, no, nobody's selling because they all want to win. And that's why the Canucks couldn't get a center. Yeah. Because there was no, and that's why a lot of teams haven't been able to get a center. Because everyone thinks they're, you know, Chicago and San Jose, they're like, come on, we got to start winning. We got to, we got to do some stuff here. The only team that might have been a seller and never really was is Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh, yeah. Right? That's the team everyone wondered about. But, like, they're in the playoff picture now. Yeah, they're a top 15 team. But they haven't sold anyone, unless I'm mistaken. Did they sell anyone? Like, the rust is still there, right?

I mean, they sold jarring, but that was about it. But that's it. Remember there was the talk about Eric Carlson maybe being traded? He's still there. That didn't happen. Yeah, it's just such a weird league because the top three teams, not by a considerable margin, but you could, I'd say a fair one, the top three teams in the NHL are calling,

Dallas, and Minnesota. They're all in the same division. So that means when you look around the rest of the league, you can really genuinely talk yourself into being in the mix. So when Adam Foote says and talks about playoffs, part of the fact that he's doing is like he just looks at the standings. And in a division where we pointed this out yesterday, a Pacific division where nobody has a positive goal differential.

none of the teams none of the teams in the Pacific Division now that we're at the 41 game mark we're a midway point in the season I challenge anyone that covers the Pacific Division team to write an article saying that they're happy with how the first half of the season went

who would do it no Vegas no Edmonton the oiler's coach the other day saying like yeah our offense is fine defensively we have got a long way to go go down the list Los Angeles their road record our home record is almost as bad as the Vancouver

We got a win last night, though. They did. Over Minnesota. Yeah. Anaheim, with how they started, I would say that they're disappointed where they're at at the 41 game mark. Maybe Seattle. Maybe Seattle.

But even there, and I was looking at last night, so the Cracken got a point. They got a win last night. They've got an eight-game point street going. If you look at Seattle's season, it was a really solid start to the year, followed by an absolute cratering where they lost 10 of 11, and nine of those losses were in regulation so they didn't even get a point out of it and now they've climbed their way out of it again so I would say at the very most you're saying we've had a average to above average first half of the year it's ridiculous that the Canucks aren't there at least 10 points behind first place

should be dead there nine points back of Vegas I'm not saying they're going to catch them no they're not but it's just so the conversation shouldn't be about catching no be that you haven't dropped that far out of the race yeah right and a lot of people are hanging around Okay, hour one of this program in the books. Got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up, as I mentioned, Greg Wasinski's going to join the program at 7. Chris Peters from Flohockey, our resident prospect expert, is going to join us to put a bow on the World Junior Hockey Championships.

And I will remind you that this segment of the show was brought to you by JanPro. From showrooms to stock rooms and everything in between JanPro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected for a free quote. Visit them online at Janpro.com. you're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.