Halford & Brough in the Morning - Drancer Talks Canucks + What We Learned

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason preview tonight's Canucks matchup at Seattle with Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance (2:25), 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.

And what we just have to call Thomas Drance Erotica. Thomas Drance Erotica. Corsi. Thomas Drance Erotica. Expect the goals. Thomas Drance Erotica. Dog model. Thomas Grant's Erotica.

Red Russian. Thomas Grant's Erotica. PDO. Thomas Grant's Erotica. 802 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Happy New Year, everybody. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour three of the program. Thomas Drance is going to join us in just a moment to kick off hour three. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound.

Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, our feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, the answer to the question, who did the Seattle Seahawks beat for that lone, single, solitary playoff win? Only one over the last eight seasons.

The answer, we found it at the break. 2019 Philadelphia Eagles in the first round of the playoffs. Right. That was the year we went to Philly, right? That's right. We saw the first game when they beat the Eagles in Philly 17-9. Right. That was the year we went to Philly, right? That's right. Yeah. We saw the first game when they beat the Eagles in Philly 17-9. Right. Then they beat them in the playoffs again 17-9.

Okay. Yeah. And then they went to Green Bay and lost to the Packers. Yeah. I don't remember. So it's funny. A couple people texted in. They were trying to guess.

And I was like, no, it's the year that they beat Philly. And then they're like, who did they play in the second round? I'm like, I don't even remember that. And that Green Bay game does not register with me at all. I kind of remember they fell behind huge. They were down like 21-3 at halftime, and then they rallied to make it close. But the final score really made it seem closer than it was. Anyway, there you go.

The one playoff victory for the Seattle Seahawks in the last eight seasons. 2019 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Okay, to the phone lines we go. Thomas Drance joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Drancer? Happy New Year. Gentlemen, happy New Year to you both. I happen to remember that Philly trip, or I remember forgetting parts of that

Philly trip with the two of you. Back when traveling to cover the Canucks involved like 10 media members from Vancouver at a bar in Philadelphia. We left the game at halftime because it was too cold. It was not our toughest moment of our lives, but it was, you know, it was Murph who suggested it.

He said, should we just leave? And we were all like, thank God someone said it. It was us two, Murph and Drance. We were playing pop a shot at some bar, just shooting hoops the whole time, knocking back beers. It was a good day actually in Philadelphia. I had a lot of fun. I miss those times. Yeah. Uh, Drancer, what do you, what do you, what are you looking at tonight? Uh, as the Canucks face off against the Kraken, is it the revenge factor or is it just trying to pull this team together? Yeah. Just try to hold on. I mean, look, the truth is, is that before Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson left the lineup after Christmas, the Canucks had played pretty poor hockey for about a month and had mostly gotten away with it. And then without Quinn Hughes in the lineup against Calgary on, I guess, New Year's Eve, I mean, the Canucks were hanging on. Like, they were hanging on by their fingernails. The truth is that, like, McKenzie Wieger dictated the entire game at 5-on-5.

The JT Miller line kind of won their matchup, and everything else was really tough. You know, like, if Igor Sharangovich had an ounce of finish, that game would have been put to bed much earlier. And if you didn't think that the Canucks were just hanging on, the Flames really left no doubt about it once Brock Besser got the game-tying goal in the third period, and the Flames just, what, put together six or seven consecutive heavy shifts.

All the Canucks could do was ice the puck, and then they retook the lead. And it was just like, okay, the Flames are throwing a five-on- it was just like okay like the the flames are throwing a five on five fastball right now that the Canucks can't catch up to at all at all and that's Calgary right like that's a pretty mediocre five on five team now the Kraken are also a pretty mediocre five on five team but without Hughes in the lineup um the Canucks are bad like the Canucks are a bad five-on-5 team.

Think about it this way. They won the special teams battle in Calgary. Their first line controlled play, right? And they got a pretty good goaltending performance out of Kevin Lankanen, especially given, you know, the amount of breakaways, for example, that the Flames were able to get and generate. And they still lost in regulation, right?

Like that's a lot of things that went their way and they still lost in regulation, right? Like, that's a lot of things that went their way, and they still lost. So, yeah, I mean, I'm worried about what this Canucks team looks like without Quinn Hughes. I don't know that they have actual, like, answers internally. I don't think it's a matter of, like, we've got to show up and focus and compete here, because I think they did that on New Year's Eve.

Like, to their credit, I thought they battled pretty hard. That's not at issue, right? Like, this is not that. This is a limited team that can't move the puck well enough and that probably doesn't have answers in the absence of, you know, their entire top pair

and their second-line center. Well, you know, and the other thing that you and I were talking about on Tuesday's show was about the goaltending and how, you know, it might be one of those things where your choice on a night-to-night basis is really about

who's going to give you the best opportunity to win. And that was another thing I noticed on New Year's Eve. It was like the goaltending couldn't bail him out of that one. You're not going to get goaltending bailing you out of anything when you can only muster one goal of offense. I know Lankanen is probably the superior of the two choices right now just in light of the fact that Demko didn't play great against Seattle. So he's got an opportunity now to have that revenge game that we were talking about,

but it's not going to matter for anything if they can't find a way to put more pucks in the back of the net. Yeah, I mean, they felt like they had three or four scoring chances all game against the Flames max and gave up probably 12 12 12 to 15 somewhere in that range um it's a tough way to live it's a tough way to live and you know this is what the non-Hughes minutes have looked like all season um and and it's actually been getting worse I'd say like really since Miller's leave, since Miller took his leave in the 18th or the 19th of November, this has been coming. There have been a lot of those games where Hughes and company

are able to pull it out, the Buffalo game, the Detroit game, often against pretty middling opponents. And that sort of disguised, I think, that like run of results, especially on that road trip, I think disguised how flawed Vancouver's five-on-five game was, right? Like these non-Hughes minutes have been a problem all year, but they've become a disaster really over the last month and change. And now it's all non-hughes minutes and like i

don't know i i honestly i honestly think right now that this team with the way their five on five form is trending is like very much one of the four or five like this is very much like um you should be looking at these connects games on the schedule so long as Hughes-Pettersson and Hronik are out and thinking about this team as being very much in the company of an Anaheim or a San Jose in terms of what you expect from them night to night. That's kind of where I think they're at. One of the great things about last season was being able to talk about the games individually and get excited for games,

talk about matchups, because we had lost that for a while, especially in the latter half of seasons when it was over, and you're kind of like, yeah, the Canucks played last night. Who cares? What are we doing big picture? I found myself in the last little while thinking more big picture things about the Canucks, and I don't like it. I loved it last season when it was like, okay, we're going to preview a playoff series,

or how do these teams match up? It felt like old times again. Now it's feeling like, well, old times, but the bad type of old times. I'm just wondering about you personally. Have you found yourself thinking more big picture now, big moves that they have to make, or just, God, where is this team going? As opposed to last season where the big picture was still in mind, but it was nice to be able to dig into games. I don't think so. I don't think so.

My estimation of this team in the big picture hasn't really shifted. But frankly, it didn't shift that much last year either. So much as I was just impressed with how they were able to kind of pull off a team that really did get better over the course of the year and kind of emerged as, you know, a fringe contender, right? One of those teams, you know not not the inner circle five or six or seven that i'm gonna say have a chance to win the cup at the outset of the playoffs but you know one of those teams where hey a couple things break their right they break their way

they get a really good goaltending performance they run a little hot uh they can make some noise you know i think they did get to that level uh last season and and i think they're still at that level. They're just hopelessly compromised right now. And so I don't, I'm trying to, I'm trying to view this in that way, right? Like there was the first 16 games of this year. I think there were signs of a team that could be pretty meaningful down the stretch that like mattered in NHL terms that had a Norris caliber player, one of the six or seven most impactful skaters on the planet, and certainly one of the two most impactful defenders on the planet. And he was playing at such a level that this team was going to have a shot if they could

fix a couple of things. And, you know, the things that they needed to fix were ability to move the puck a little bit better on the second and third pair. Well, OK, that's a that's like a Jim Rutherford special, right? Like that's that's the Justin Schultz trade. Like we've seen Rutherford teams make that deal in the past. Right. So, you know, I don't think we should abandon that because they then lose Miller for 10 games and by the time he's back Heronix out and now we're talking about the team having no Pedersen or Hughes as well as Heronix and it's just such a mess now right but but a mess for like hockey reasons I don't mean a mess because of

something Brad Richardson said on a podcast about the Pedersen and Miller's relationship two years ago that caused us to have to relitigate this topic for the 19th time. I'm talking about just hockey-wise, this team doesn't have it in the absence of their top pair and Pedersen, and we know this. And so we'll see how much longer both of these players miss we hope that they begin to get reinforcements as soon as tomorrow against nashville but you've got this seattle game this national game this montreal game and it's like man if you can come out of

those three games with two or three points right and then you start to get bodies back we'll have a much better sense of what this team is uh after this eastern conference road trip where the competition amps up a bit um you know this this next seven or eight games i think could be really determinative in terms of are we going to be talking about a playoff race down the stretch right because i think that's kind of where we're headed if the canucks continue to fritter away their margin of error and not fritter away like carelessly, but fritter it away because as a limited group right now. And then and then it comes down to what they can do to sort of tweak and change and get themselves back to the level that they were in the first month and a half raise the baseline, especially if they're puck moving on the back end to the point where their true talent level matters,

where they have a shot to sort of show it, especially if Demko can get healthy and if Miller can find his game a bit and on and on about the things that could break this team's way. If Hronik comes back and he's able to shoot and looking actually well, as opposed to what you sometimes get from those players who decline to have surgery and try to rehab in season

and come back and don't quite look like themselves, and on and on, right? If they get some of those breaks, I still think they can be in that mix as a team. Hey, look, we're not looking at them as one of the best teams in the West, but we're looking at them as one of those teams in the next tier that has a shot if some things go their way. So little has gone their way that i think it's it's hard for us to see clearly what this team is which i still think is like a you know something like the eighth to tenth best team in the sport

yeah do you still expect them to make the playoffs like if you're looking at the teams that they're fighting with it's calgary st louis utah and seattle for that final playoff spot i can't help but think if they get their players back sooner rather than later and they get healthy they should still make the playoffs now what they do once they get to the playoffs that's kind of let's not talk about that right now but do you still expect them to make the playoffs yeah but but but more narrowly than i did right i mean i do think they make they to make the playoffs yeah but but but more narrowly than i did right i mean i do think they make they'll make the playoffs but especially because utah's kind of hit like a holiday divot utah's the team that i think has has the sort of speed where it's like oh no

right like we've found ourselves in a playoff race with a team that's reeled off like the sixth best point percentage in the league for three months. You know, and that to me is the risk that the Colorado figures it out. Well, which they will. And then Utah actually starts to deliver on some of their promise and get some of their defensemen back and get some solid goaltending. And it's like, oh man, Utah's this dark horse, this real dark horse team. To me, that's the story that causes the Canucks to miss. And it looked like it was panning out for a bit in mid-December,

that Utah part of it, but they've stumbled their last three or four games. So, you know, we'll see. I think the Canucks can outlast both of Utah and Calgary, which are really the two teams in that mix. Not St. Louis, not really the Kraken that I'm taking seriously as aspirants. But yeah, I think they should be able to outlast them, given the talent level of this roster, provided that they don't have another run of cataclysmic injuries.

But, you know, I do think, for example, if they don't get Pedersen back against Nashville, if we don't see Hughes until they play in Washington next week, for example, and they win one of their next three, well, look, we're going to be talking about a team that's got work to do, like real work to do. And at the very least, the like, are they above the playoff bar? Are they not? Storyline is going to permeate through the Four nations tournament if the next week unfolds like that and and then yeah i mean

it's at least going to be something we're monitoring and talking about i think uh over the course of the next month unless you know they can really get to work here in hughes's absence uh and and sort of nip that storyline in the butt, as it were. Does it feel like the Brock Besser story has almost been overshadowed by everything else that's been happening with this team? I mean, this is a massive decision that the Canucks have to make with Besser, whether to sign him, keep him,

or trade him before the trade deadline. What factors do you think they're weighing right now with Besser? Well, I mean, it's good that he's played better the last, what, week, I'd say? Like the last week to 10 days. He's kind of played better hockey, which is good. I think when he first came back from the Genoa hit, the injury that he sustained as a result of the Genoa hit, he looked like we sometimes see skilled players and finishers look

when they return from brain injuries, which is not themselves. But I think he's looked more like himself recently. I think you've seen some of the hand-eye stuff get better and become more devastating. I think you've seen the hockey IQ play. I think you've seen how important it is. Like, he's this team's best winger, in my opinion. And I don't think it's, like, I don't think that's,

is that controversial? Like, I think he's the team's best winger. So the, you know So the balance of things that they have to consider here is you certainly have to be mindful of term, especially given the foot speed issue, right? The fact that Besser's not a burner and that probably doesn't get better with age. And does that impact his ability to play a matchup role? And how much term are you willing to commit if you're afraid of that or if you're nervous about that or if that's something that you consider and you know for I mean there is a template of what Rutherford players tend to look like and

you know you tend to have to be kind of big fast or elite right like that's kind of the big fast or elite are you one of those three things? And Besser's been elite, you know, certainly was last season, has been for stretches this season. But, you know, there is like a stylistic, there's a stylistic component to this that I sort of wonder about, which is if the team is worried that he won't be fast enough to be elite for long, right? How mindful do they have to be about term term how much does that impact what they're weighing and then of course there's the you know fact that this group has been pretty reluctant generally speaking to lose players on expiring deals for nothing uh unless it's last season and those players are players that they think can help

them with a cup um you know do we get to a point this season where the where the management decides that they don't think this group's it right and does that impact sort of uh not just not just bessers their decision on besser but bessers timeline does that change sort of the pressure points uh in those talks does that eliminate the window where it's like let's keep him let's go into the playoffs and we'll deal with this like we did with Dakota Joshua and Tyler Myers and Elias Lindholm and company last summer that's sort of the the two factors that I'm most curious to watch play out here but yeah I mean I don't think this team gets better without Brock Besser I think they need this guy and I think they probably need this guy to be protective of the short-term window that they've kind of carved out and doubled

down on with a variety of their actions over the last 24 months. Drancer, I've been on vacation for the last two weeks, so I know you probably already touched on this, maybe with Halford even, but what was the one thing that stood out for you from Patrick Alvin's interview with IMAC? Just the frankness. I thought the frankness with which Alvin very clearly wanted to send a message to the group, right? And I thought it was helpful because from my perspective anyway, I've talked a lot about

there being internal concern about this team's ability to play the right way night to night, right? Quote unquote, the right way. That's not my words. That's internally. There's been frustration that this group's not been focused or committed enough to coming out and playing the right way every evening.

And I like when that stuff's just out in the open, that that's just expressed explicitly by club leadership, in part because it takes some heat off me repeating it all the time but also because i i just think it's so evidently true and it felt to me like the team very well aware of where they sit and the challenges in the short term felt the need to send a bit of a message about how we need to compete and how we need to perform and how we need to prepare um to the to the room and i thought they got a response right like that team came out fighting on new year's eve without question they played with like you know some some

piss and vinegar and they they're they're gonna need to play like that like they're gonna need to play like that even just to keep their head above water uh between now and the and then game in montreal on monday night right like that's that's it so i thought it was a message sent and a message received and that was kind of what stood out the most to me i think the you know individual tidbits on challenging individual players or or whatever um you know that stuff I mean, you can take or you can leave, but the overall message of dissatisfaction with sort of the performance level and the consistent focus, I thought that was by far what was most notable and most intentional. I don't think that was careless or like Alvin wasn't mincing words there. That was targeted, specific. That was the goal on that

note and I know you and I like we were I was reading the quotes aloud on the air and we were analyzing them and then getting the feedback from listeners and a lot of them said you know good on you Patrick way to put these guys feet to the fire and hold them to task and then I noticed like later on in the day and we mentioned the article from david quadrelli at uh canucks army as well they sort of started to become well hold on a sec like it's great that you're lobbing criticisms and you know shots fired at your players but what about the role that you and the front office have played in all this i'm curious to get your feedback on that yeah i mean like i love the quadrelli column. I just think the, my view of it anyway is that the organization, you know, like we knew that their lack of secondary puck moving was going to be somewhat limiting this summer.

And I think the organization knew it too, right? Like there wasn't a puck mover on the market that they viewed as a potential needle mover, that they viewed that way. And so they doubled down on size, but I think there was always some sense that this might be something that they'll have to amend or change, right? That something that might demand adjustment, whether whether tactical adjustment or personnel adjustment as they went. So because this was. Because that that part of the criticism, right, the blue line. Quality in particular, because I think this organization was pretty, pretty. Open eyed about the fact that this size experiment was just that, an experiment, something that they were willing to try given how effective their size advantage proved down the stretch last season, but wasn't something that they were necessarily committed to. And then the efficiency with which this management group has generally been able to find efficient contributors in free agency and on the open market.

And they did it. They did it again for the most part. Guys like Kiefer Sherwood and Kevin Lankanen have obviously been huge contributors, even if they didn't hit like five singles the way they did last summer. They kind of hit two singles. And then, you know, there's some Dan Heinen signings where it's like, hmm, yeah, I guess. But nonetheless, I guess

where I'm sort of cool on it is cool or where I disagree with Quadrelli, I suppose, or the general thesis that he put forward is like if I'm criticizing this management group's overall approach it remains founded in the idea of um of the idea of they pursued sort of a narrow path to try and

compete around this core group right they were so all in on this core group but by which i mean sort of miller petterson hughes um right? That four group, that group of four. And they've done pretty well to bring in like Hronik, whose absence has only made his impact seem larger, right? And DeBrusque, who's been really good in free agency to kind of supplement that group. Obviously, the other signings, we can go over them. You know, I think that work like has mostly been really strong right they've gotten

further faster in terms of their win now goal than i would have expected them to when they first started making those deals in in what the the 2023 trade deadline so the problem i think for me anyway remains that like the bet they placed has so much margin for error. It's so dependent on players like Quinn Hughes taking the step that he has. And when you then get the Demko injury, and when you then get Elias Pettersson's game kind of flatlining for a 10-month period, and when you get JT Miller, you know, doing his one elite season, one non-elite season sort of act, right? A bit which he's remarkably committed to

and which we're seeing unfold yet again, right? It's just like, okay, well, now it's the Quinn Hughes show. His star has eclipsed that of the rest of the core to such an extent that, you know, we see what this team looks like when he's out of the lineup. And to me, that just sort of shows again, or at least hints at more strongly, the suspect bet that I felt this management group made in and around the time when they first hired Rick Tockett.

Everything went well for them last season, so it looked one way. Everything's gone badly for them this season, so it's looked another another way and I just kind of look past it and think big picture whether it's all going well or whether it's all going poorly this team just needs a lot of things to go their way for the path that they've selected to work so to me that's sort of the criticism of management that lingers more powerfully in my mind something i think about occupies more mind share for me as opposed to like well they really should have gone out and signed one more four or five puck mover which like yeah sure it would help right now but you know it's not like a huge difference between christian will and in that player right

um so it's just not something that like, I don't know. I think the, the truth is, is that I think management's done a pretty good job in, in assembling this roster, even if the blue line, you know,

isn't exactly to my taste. This was great, man. Thanks for doing it. We appreciate it. Have a good show today. We'll do this again next week. Cheers boys.

Bye. Thomas Trance from the athletic Vancouver here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. One final segment to come. It's what we learn time. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks.

Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd 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. It's what we learn time. On the show. 835 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly,

knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are on hour three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today.

It's time to do our What We Learns. I have one because I am a good worker person. Jason has one because he is an equally good worker person. The dogs failed us miserably. And I'm including Zach now as a dog. Zach dog. He's an honorary dog. The Z dog as they call him. I just made that up right now. Nobody calls him that.

Anyway, why don't you start? What we learned. Jason Brough. I think I know where you're going with this but I'm going to cede the microphone to you so you can tell us. I learned that I watched a pretty good college football game yesterday between Texas and Arizona State. Two teams that I have no

emotional connection to, and yet I found myself watching very closely at the end of the game. It looked like Texas had it late in regulation time into the fourth quarter. They were up 16 on Arizona State. The Sun Devils scored two touchdowns and had the two-point conversion on both of them to force overtime. But not before Texas had a chance for a game-winning field goal. And what was his name? Burt Auburn? You always want to put the game on the foot of Burt Auburn.

Burt hit the post. He looks like he's got crusty the clown hair. He does, yeah, yeah, yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah, he does. He's got crusty the clown hair. He does, yeah. Really? Yeah. Oh, goodness. And then it looked like Arizona State was going to win this game. Texas was, they had fourth and 13 to try and tie the game.

And they, somehow Arizona State let a guy beat them badly in coverage. Yeah, I don't know what happened there uh at any rate yada yada yada texas eventually won the game because um once they started scoring error on arizona state in overtime they couldn't stop and then the game ended on an interception it was a wild college football game and i think one of the reasons it stood out to me was that it was like the only good college football game. Has there been another one in terms of the play? I know the Huskies played a really entertaining one, but that was kind of like a Sun Bowl or something like that. It wasn't a college football playoff.

Yeah, it wasn't a playoff. No, it's been terrible. And, of course, there was the absolute tragedy in New Orleans that forced the Sugar Bowl to be played today. I mean, I'm not going to compare that to what's going on in college football, but the actual games have been terrible, except for this Texas-Arizona State game. It's been a real disappointment because I think a lot of people

were excited about this expanded field and what it would mean and would it give an opportunity outside of the traditional powers and specifically the SEC for some of these schools to show up. So it started with a dud. Remember Indiana and Curtis Rourke taking on Notre Dame, and that game wasn't particularly close. The final score was 27-17, but it never felt like it was really a game. It felt like Indiana was always second best in that game right from the start.

Then SMU got blown out by Penn State. The seating was so stupid. Ohio State blew out Tennessee, and. Ohio State blew out Tennessee. And then Ohio State blew out Oregon. Yeah. Oregon must be sitting there going like, listen, Oregon is responsible for themselves. And they were dreadful against Ohio State.

They're probably sitting there going like, wait a minute, we went undefeated with a tough schedule. We got the number one seed, and we get Ohio State? The only reason they got Ohio State is because Michigan went into Ohio State and beat Ohio State. It's like, it's almost like the seeding. Yeah, but the seeding's one thing. Like, they're in the quarterfinals now.

Like, the first round, I could say, okay. No, I know, but to get Ohio State in your first game while Penn State, what's Penn State's route been? They just beat Boise State yesterday. And didn't they get? And SMU. Yeah, they got SMU. So the two schools that had good records with questionable competition.

My issue so much isn't with the seeding. It's that there's been one good game so far. One. But that's partly to do with the seating, I think. But yesterday shouldn't have been 40. Oregon's the number one team in the country. Yeah. You can't be losing by 20 points regardless of the seats.

They were down like 100 to nothing in the first half. It was ridiculous. It was crazy. Can you imagine spending all that money to go to the Rose Bowl? I mean, I'm sure all those Oregon fans had a good time, and I'm sure a lot of them were able to drive to the Rose Bowl, but it's still like you show up, and

it's over in the first quarter. Like, oh, this is awesome. So they played four first-round games. They've got a real reputation for choking now. They played four first-round games of this college football expanded playoff, and they played three of the four quarterfinals. So seven games have been played, and six of them have not been competitive. One has been worth watching, which puts a ton of pressure on tonight's game

between Georgia and Notre Dame, because you could conceivably go the first two rounds of an expanded college football playoff with one game that was worth watching. That's an indictment to all of it. So in all seriousness, just to spend a few minutes talking about the tragedy in New Orleans, the terrorist attack. First of all, New Orleans got the Super Bowl this year.

The responsibility of hosting these events is so massive. And I just think about the World Cup coming to Vancouver and I hope that everyone, I know we've gone through this with the Olympics before. We've had these big events. I think Taylor Swift was a big challenge for the police and the security. But it just shows you the responsibility that you have as a hosting city when you have these sorts of events. And I don't know if there's anything that New Orleans police could have done about this or, you know, higher security things. But, you know, I don't know.

It just makes it an uneasy situation. And I know with the Taylor Swift thing, like they treated that differently than a normal concert like there was like you know boundaries were set up and you got to make sure that there are no areas where it seems crazy to say this but you can't have streets where there are a lot of people congregating that has vehicle access to it yeah when you have that many people but is. But is New Orleans the same without that? Well, I mean, consider it. Like, you're talking about New Orleans, New Year's Eve, and then the Sugar Bowl.

Like, there is a massive, massive congregation of people. Right? I mean, when we went to, and you don't really understand the scope of it until you're in it. I always remember when we went to the Winter Classic at the Big House in Michigan, when we walked out afterwards, because that was 100,000 plus people people i don't think you really truly understand how big

of a crowd that is how many people that is and how chaotic it can be when there's that many people congregating in a fairly small space it's it's when they say sea of humanity that's literally what it is like you look and you can't see in the distance anything other than the heads of other people. It is, and it's daunting to try and corral it, to keep it under control because it can get out of, I mean, there's a lot that goes into it when there's the huge, massive congregations of people. Do you remember the feeling of responsibility though

when we did have the Winter Olympics? Yeah. Not just for the security, just for everything to go right. For everything. Now, Newleans is used to hosting big games they've had super bowls before they've had i know the sugar bowl and that sort of thing so they're a tourist destination uh but it just it just goes to show um that you just have to be so careful with everything that you do and and in some cases probably there are some situations that you just can't do anything about I'm not gonna do our usual

segment so why don't you go next sure what I learned is that one of the most iconic and historic records in National Football League history will stay intact for another season. The Philadelphia Eagles have announced that Saquon Barkley will likely not play in Sunday's regular season finale against the New York Giants. That means that Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards set over 40 years ago will remain intact for yet another season.

There's been a big, big talking point this year because Dickerson has been very outspoken that he wasn't like rooting for Saquon Barkley to break his record. In fact, it was the exact opposite. He wants his record to stand. He doesn't think it's fair that he did his in a 16 game regular season when Saquon would have had a 17th game to break the record. Barkley needed 101 rushing yards

in the finale. So he ended up playing 16 games and getting 2,005 yards. Which is incredible! Only the 9th player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. So that in itself is an OJ. Your favorite was OJ.

One of the best to run. One of the best. Anyway, I bring this up because there was an added wrinkle in that it wasn't just the ability to break the record. The Eagles are playing the New York Giants in the regular season finale. And of course, everyone knows the story is that the Giants decided not to keep Saquon this season, let him go. And he went and signed with the Eagles and had this MVP caliber performance where he rushed for over 2,000 yards. So they asked him, do you want to play in the finale?

But they didn't leave the decision up to him. They just wanted his input. Nick Sirianni said he got input from all these different people. And Saquon originally said no. Then he slept on it and said, you know, it might be cool to go for it. And so his family and his dad

were really pushing for it. But Sirianni's made the decision that he's not going to play. So the record remains intact. Unless there's like a, you know, 12th hour midnight decision on saturday night you know you're you're telling a really good story here it's a it's an interesting sports story and yet my mind is who is the best player to wear goggles oh that's a good one dickerson eric dickerson's right but kareem wore goggles k, oof. Kareem's, in terms of just

best athletes at their individual sport, Kareem had to be the best goggled. Kareem's at a higher level in basketball than Dickerson was in football. And that's a high bar

because Dickerson's a Hall of Famer. Has any hockey player ever worn goggles? Yeah, they used to wear them back in the day. I think Al Arbor wore them.

Yeah, he might have worn them. Yeah, but I think he just wore regular glasses. What about golfers? Do any golfers ever wear goggles? No, they'd just be able to wear glasses. Like the goggles were...

Tom Kite? Did Tom Kite wear glasses? Tom Kite wore glasses. Yeah, not goggles. We're going to count. We'll count eyewear. Let's open it up to eyewear, okay? Chris Sabo comes to mind.

Chris Sabo, but that's because they were just the weirdest goggles. Yeah, yeah. We were playing it when I was at Langara playing it we were in the nationals for soccer and this team from newfoundland came out and there was a guy wearing the huge sport goggles and you never see this although edgar davids did wear glasses when he played at one time and all i remember is this guy on our sideline about halfway through the game we're up four nil and he's like hey check it out they're about to sub in Chris Sabo. And then this guy comes on the field. And I'm like, oh, my God.

And that guy was Sabo for the rest of the tournament. It's like, hey, Sabo. We'd see him walking around and everything. So, you know how you're talking. You can have a sports conversation with someone. Yep. And these are the types of moments where you know someone knows sports. Yep.

When you can have a conversation with someone and they can, like ADOG is not part of this conversation, right? No. But if you can have a conversation with someone of who wore, who was the best player to ever wear goggles in sports history, and they're like, I think Horace Grant did it pretty well. Yep, Horace Grant had good goggles. I'm like, I think Horace Grant did it pretty well. Horace Grant had good goggles. I'm like, I know you watch sports.

There should be testing questions to really test your sports knowledge. And that would be a great one. If you could contribute, if you could just name players that wore goggles, all of a sudden you're like, I feel a kinship with you.

I feel we've both wasted a lot of our lives watching sports. Knowing that Morris Grant color coordinated his goggles to his jerseys. And listen, if you're listening right now and you're like, man, I can't contribute to this conversation, you should be proud of yourself that you cannot contribute to this conversation. This is like a bragging thing i don't think no it's not i don't think it's bragging i think it's just knowing you know the sad realization that you know you have a conversation with meet someone there's lots of

these conversations around the holidays right you probably had them with i don't know family members or you know people you just meet and you start talking about sports and you're kind of like oh this guy kind of knows what he's talking about. But then he or she will say something that'll just like, and you're like, okay, this conversation is over. You obviously don't follow it that closely. But if you could sit down there and be like, you know who wears goggles really well?

And then they were to add to that, I think that's a friendship starter. Yeah, it is. I had one of those conversations in the inverse though. Guy me over the holidays we were out at a lunch and he said uh you know i don't want to i don't want to bother you with all of this sports talk and pick your brain because you you do it for a living and maybe you don't necessarily want to talk about this outside of work and i was like brother i have very few interests i'm like i don't have a lot else to talk about to to be that honest. I'm like, I like talking about sports.

When I'm not talking about them, I'm thinking about them. When I'm not thinking about them, I'm watching them. I'm like, it's not like I can entertain you with a lot of other conversations. Let's put it that way. So we talked about sports for a while. Kurt Rambis. Kurt Rambis had, they were more glasses than goggles. They were what I-

Those were horn-rimmed glasses. But those were sport glasses. They were designed to play sports in. They weren't his everyday specs. You know what I mean? Were they not? No. He had different ones.

Did he? Were they horn-rimmed, though? They had a similar look, but I remember I was reading something about it one time. This is the in-depth knowledge that I have. They were sports-specific. Do guys just wear contacts now? I don't know. I haven't seen anyone wear them outside of protective must just just protective contacts right yeah but

there's protective goggles like if you've got a corneal injury or something right I got a question related to that yeah and you guys who is Kurt Rambis what are sports goggles uh could you think of a hockey player that wore the nasal strip predominantly as, was it Peter Bondra? Was it the Washington Capitals guy? Was that the guy? The Breathe Right? Yeah.

Oh, those things were hot for like five minutes. Remember that? I was just trying to think of a hockey comparable. I wear them at night sometimes, actually. I wear them all the time. They're good for breathing. Was there another hockey player that did that besides him, or was it just him? I mean, good on you.

I don't even remember Peter Bondra. Are you trying to one-up our goggles conversation? You're like, I know nasal strips. They work. I was just trying to think of a hockey comparable. It is Bond, right? Washington Caps? I don't remember Peter Bond wearing a breathe right at all.

I do remember Canucks head coach Rick Talkett wore them, though. There's a picture of him in that Jofa bucket with the nasal strip. Oh, really? Peter Bond, if you just Google him, pretty much every picture he has bucket with the nasal strip that people can breathe, right? Peter Bondreff. You just Google him. Pretty much every picture he has just a white nasal strip. And I know it was because he said... You're trying to one-up

our conversation here. He said it was to help him breathe on the ice because he got his nose stuffed up a lot so he did it to help him breathe. And I was like, is there another hockey player

that ever did that or another athlete that ever did that, let's just say. I'm proud of you, Andy. I didn't know that. This is good. I learned something. It's just a weird thing

that I can't think of another hockey player that's ever done that. I wonder how rich the guy... And he was also really good, right? So it obviously worked. I wonder how rich the guy who invented nasal strips is right now. Probably not very well. Because those things are expensive. They are. The breathe rates?

Yeah. You can get the... It's like a dollar strip pretty much. Yeah, it's crazy. I know. It's crazy. I need someone who's... It's like the patent of that. I need someone to... We need a 30 for 30 on the rise and then fall of breathe rights because everyone used to wear them playing sports. They were all over the place. Every NFL linebacker had one.

It could be the 30 for 30, the rise and fall of breathe rights. What happened? Hoffman's like, where's my nasal strips documentary? Yeah. Can we improve breathing? You can tell he's addicted to sports documentaries when he's requesting a nasal strips documentary. I think that would be a good one.

Everyone had breathe rights. He's right. They were really hot at one point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, I remember everyone used to have Livestrong stuff. Everybody had Livestrong stuff. Yeah, and then eventually people were like, what if I just opened my mouth to breathe?

Did we figure out breathing? All right. We got like a minute. Well, there aren't many what we learned no that's fine i think a lot of people but let's print out the submissions anyway we're doing it with one minute to go what we learned human this is what we do with trance too what we learned human audition is brought to you by aj's pizza on east broadway try aj's traditional new york pizza or sink into their famous Detroit style. Only at AJ's Pizza.

Order online at AJ's.pizza. What we learned from Roman in Calgary, I've learned that Brough is having a rough year so far. Cheers, boys. Yeah, I think that's just with, like, I come back to the show and we're still talking about the same stuff. Yeah, but in a different vein. We had new audio. Played the Brad Richardson audio. Yeah. That's good. the same stuff yeah but drama in a different vein we had new audio play the brad richardson audio yeah that's good there's certain new elements to it i don't like these people that are like you

guys just talk about the same old stuff we talk about the same old stuff but we talk about it in a new exciting way every time uh woodrow the eligible bachelor hashtag wwo what we learned with quinn hughes out week to, this is the perfect opportunity for the Canucks to launch the Quinn Hughes Book Club. It is. He told Rick Tocca. Oh yeah, it's good reading time. He told Rick Tocca that he was getting really bored. My idea never came to fruition. I was really hoping

this would become a thing and it never... Hughes is getting bored? Yeah. Oh really? Yeah, because he's not practicing. I don't like reading anymore. No, he likes hockey. He's like me with sports. It's like when you're not thinking about hockey, want to be playing it anyway uh they missed a huge marketing opportunity right i said with this i know the queen used book club was like it was incredible yeah you could like link up with the vancouver public library he could sit there and do like book readings to children yeah quinn could come and yeah talk about the books he's like you

didn't read it did you he's like no jt miller's like, you didn't read it, did you? He's like, no. JT Miller's like, I'll do a book club. I made a throwaway comment once that I read books and you guys kind of went crazy with it. I've read three books. All right. That's a good way to end it. JT gives his submissions like, this is all rock and sock and videos.

These aren't books. Yeah. It's a Joe Rogan podcast, isn't it? Just a link to his latest episode. All right. We got to get out of here. That's enough Joe Rogan podcast, isn't it? Just a link to his latest episode. Just a podcast. All right, we got to get out of here. That's enough. Everyone stop.

We will be back tomorrow. Final show of the week, but our second show of 2025. Happy New Year once again, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for listening and thanks for submitting your What We Learned. Sorry if we didn't get to it today. We'll try again tomorrow. Signing off, I have been Mike Halford.

He's been Jason Brough. He's been Adog. He's been regular Zach. This has been the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.