Halford & Brough in the Morning - Elias Pettersson Had Himself A Game

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), including a big Canucks win over the Leafs that saw an impressive performance from Elias Pettersson (6:00), plus they break down Super Bowl LIX with NFL.com's Nick Shook (29:01).  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.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da You are listening to Halford and Bruff. High slot for Vesser with a shot, he scores! It looked like we played very confident, but obviously it would be nice to have Quinn back.

Let's it go, complete AJ Abramow, he's in! Touchdown, Eagles for the second time, the Vince LaGuardia Trophy is headed to Philadelphia. Eagles fly in Super Bowl 59! Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios, the beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Bruff of 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 in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together

with you in step. That's it. The NFL season is now complete. And what some would consider the first half of the NHL season is now complete as well. It was a big weekend in sports. We have a lot of things to get to on the program. We only have two guests on the show today. It's because we knew coming in on a Monday with everything that happened,

you guys wanted to hear uninterrupted Halford and Brough. Well, you get it. Guest list though does begin at 6.30. Nick Shook from NFL.com and is gonna join us, of course, live from New Orleans, where he was there in the aftermath of Super Bowl 59, a 40 to 22 Eagles victory, which quite frankly, even though it was 40 to 22, it wasn't even that close.

It was a blowout right from the get. the Eagles win their second Super Bowl in franchise history second Super Bowl in seven years We can ask Nick how the Eagles were able to harass Patrick Mahomes and do maybe the worst game of his professional career That's coming up at 630. We'll do our Super Bowl recap probably Just then we'll spend the first half hour all due respect to our Super Bowl recap probably just then. We'll spend the first half hour, all due respect to the Super Bowl. It was kind of a dud of a game. So we're gonna push it to 6.30. Relax for those that wanna hear it.

We will talk Super Bowl. It'll just happen at 6.30 with Nick Shook. Our other guest today is Kevin Woodley from nhl.com and Ingo magazine. He's gonna join us at eight o'clock. It's great timing for our regularly scheduled hit with Kev. Great timing for a concerning story. Right.

So we're going to go back to Saturday and talk about Thatcher Demko exiting that game against the Toronto Maple Leafs with an injury. Of course, Kevin Lankan taking over and playing very well in net, but a lot of questions remain about what things will look like in the crease for the Canucks when they return from the Four Nations face-off break. So Kev's gonna join us at 8 o'clock to talk about that. We do have

giveaways this week everybody. Yeah, every day this week. We're gonna be giving away a two-day general admission pass to the HSBC Rugby Sevens. Yeah, the Sevens is back February 21st to 23rd at BC Place. You can get tickets online, online at vancesevens.com. But we're giving away a pair every day this week. All you gotta do is call in at 815 this morning and be caller number appropriately, seven. Caller number seven at 815. Phone number is 604-280-0650.

That number again, 604-280-0650 that number again 604-280-0650 be caller number 7 for the 7s at 850 in this morning and you'll get your tickets okay so working in reverse on a very short guest list Kevin Woodley at 8 o'clock Nick Shook from NFL.com at 630 that's what's happening on the program today laddie let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the game last night what happened I missed all the action because I'm busy your life can be what happened what happened what happened is brought to you by the BC construction safety alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The good for the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. Brock Besser broke a tie late in the third period. And the Canucks held on to beat the Leafs 2-1 on Saturday at Rogers Arena. That was the good, the bad. Thatcher Demko left early, midway through the first period after making a grand total of six saves. He did stop all six. Kevin Lankton came in, made 21 saves for the

victory. So a very, let's just say eventful night and weekend for the Vancouver Canucks, Jason. Yeah, there's a lot to get to, including the news that Quinn Hughes will not be attending the Four Nations tournament, but let's start with that game because the Canucks entered the Four Nations break on a six, one and one run. Let's go. Three points up on the Calgary flames for that

second wild card spot. Elias Pedersen, who we talked a lot about on Friday, had a great game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He might've had the best shift in the last, what, calendar year when he helped open the scoring seven minutes into the first period. I'm sure you've all seen it by now, but let's do

the play-by-play from hockey night in Canada. Here's Chris Cuthbert. Okay. Here's Batch with the call on Elias Pedtersson giving it to Hronik for the goal, but also hopefully we got Batch's call of the hit as well. Pettersson right corner, let a big reverse hit on Benoit and send it loose to Hronik at the line. Now to Forbert left point with a wrist shot in on Wohl. Rebound chance for Duprasque in front as he was falling to the ice and Wall denied him on that chance too.

Elias Pettersson feeds the point for Forber back to Pettersson near side pass to the back door. An unbelievable pass from Elias Pettersson finds Philip Horonick streaking down the right wing and the Canucks lead one to nothing. So you heard Patterson's name a lot and he was involved physically going after the puck and I gotta say that pass to Horonick was made with a lot more confidence than we've seen this season. He saw the opportunity, he pounced on it. And then you could just see his confidence build even more from then. It was more than one good shift for Pedersen. He hit the crossbar, made a few other sharp passes. He also was given the assignment by head coach Rick Tocket to shut down the

Matthews versus, uh, with, uh, Marner line. And he won that matchup at five on five. Yes, it's only one game people will say, but hopefully this is what I hope. I hope we've seen rock bottom 2.0 from Petey. The first was three years ago against Carolina. This year, hopefully it's the San Jose game that was suffered through, that we all suffered through on Thursday, even though the Canucks won.

They did win. So maybe, so it's, so Rock Bottom in San Jose would be Rock Bottom 2.0. Right. Um, like I was, I was reading back to, uh, three years ago when Pedersen went through that. Rock bottom 1.0. Yes. Right. And then, um, you know, part of that was maybe,

uh, the whole team went through a bit of rock bottom that season, Travis Green was fired and then Bruce, there it is, was hired and he had the game in Washington that followed rock bottom in Carolina and he had a couple of goals in that. And then he just kind of took off from that and Bruce Boudreaux after that Washington game was saying, you know, we don't have a lot of natural

scorers on our team. So him scoring or starting to score, hopefully it's not an anomaly and a one-off and he can continue to do this and that'll make it an awful lot easier on us. Um, and then a couple of months later, I'm, I was doing some research and, and Pedersen was saying, you know, I have confidence in what I'm doing now. Confidence, confidence, confidence. Yeah, yeah.

I'm making plays. I'm not feeling stressed. I'm just feeling like myself again, having fun out there. I'm just playing with confidence, which is the big difference. Which brings us back to Friday's show, where we talked about his confidence and whether or not he had the yips and whether you want to call it the yips, if it was like the golf yips or the baseball yips.

Like I think it was a confidence thing. And, um, I think it was really interesting, uh, to hear from, you know, not only the people that were watching it, including head coach Rick Tuckett, who we'll hear from a little bit, but, um, Patrick Johnston in the province wrote after the game, not only did Pederson play a strong, confident game, but his post game demeanor spoke volumes. This was a night and day shift from the deeply unhappy, deeply oppositional figure we'd been dealing

with over the past 12 months. I'm not saying this to get like, oh, pull the poor media, people were mean to, I'm not saying this to get like, oh, pull the poor media people are mean to. I'm just saying like, this was the observations Peej went on to write. The cloud that was hanging over him disappeared on Saturday night. Not only did he do a scrum with the TV cameras

post game, but he also happily spoke with multiple reporters one-on-one, taking at least another five minutes beyond the scrum to answer any and all questions thrown his way in the moment. He also did an interview. What, what the heck? Why not? With NHL Europe after the game where I read a translation of it because it wasn't Swedish, but he was saying that he was happy how he played versus Toronto

and admitted that he'd been overthinking his game a bit too much. And this is another thing that the team as a whole had been energized by the new guys, including fellow Swede Marcus Pedersen and possibly energized by the, frankly, the fact that the JT Miller drama. Well, I was going to say, how did all these new guys manage to come to Vancouver? Oh, right. Oh, I was going to say, how did all these new guys manage to come to Vancouver? Oh, right. Oh, right. Yeah.

So. Now we're saying the quiet part out loud. So Pedersen is on his way to the four nations to play for Sweden and hopefully he's able to build, well, not against Canada, but hopefully he's able to build on that confidence and have a good tournament for Sweden and then return to the Canucks and have a good tournament for Sweden and then return to the Canucks

and have a good stretch drive and into the playoffs. This is what Rick Tauket said about Pedersen and what he wants to see from Pedersen at the Four Nations. I just want him to have fun. I know it's a serious tournament. I mean, everybody wants to win. It's serious. I want him to go represent his country and go have fun with his countrymen. Just have fun. Try stuff and you know, I mean yeah, everybody wants to

win this tournament but it was three, four games, four games. I just want him to go out there and have some fun and come back. Hopefully that tournament, hanging with his buddies and rejuvenate his whole demeanor. Like today, I thought he just was, I don't know, like he had some fun. And I think he's gotta understand that pressure is fun sometimes. Just try stuff.

The most open-ended invite from an NHL coach I've ever heard. Just go and have a good time. I wonder if Taukit would prefer, just based on the play of Pedersen, that maybe the NHL regular losers season would continue instead of going to the four nations face off. Because one of the things about rock bottom 1.0 was that after Pedersen hit it,

he was able to come back from said rock bottom and play in a bunch of NHL games. And that's where he started to rack up the points. And it was almost immediate, right? It was the Carolina game bad, Washington game good. Yeah. Right. Then we had San Jose game in modern times, 2.0 San Jose game bad. And people like you're ruining our draft position. Right.

Yeah. Toronto game very good. Unfortunately, the Canucks don't play another regular season game now until Saturday, February the 22nd because of the Four Nations faceoff. Okay, here's my thoughts on this. I want to believe. I do, I really do. I wanna buy in and I want this to be the turning point. They need this.

Rock bottom 2.0. I would love for this to be it. You know, it's like the George Bush Bush quotes. I fool me three times. We don't get fooled again. Like, I do wonder if we're going to need to see more than the one game turnaround. And I appreciate it.

But I appreciate where you're going. I wonder if we're going to need to see more than one game for better. I think we might be to to keep to to stop kind of doing this part of it, where it's like I was almost joking. I'm like, the poll question, where it's like, I was almost joking. I'm like, the poll question, they should be like, is Petey back, yes or no? And then I'm like, I feel like we've done this poll question before.

That is why the break is fortuitous for some players on the team and maybe not so much for him. I will say this, the biggest difference with this iteration of the rock bottom in a very weird way. It's almost not even Pedersen, but it's all the things around Pedersen.

All these other instances of saying like, is he back? The situation and the environment and the landscape was the same. It's really different now. Do you know what the funniest part of Taukett's post game was when he was asked like, hey, you guys are playing really well, you know, you know what the funniest part of Taka's postgame was when he was asked like, hey, you guys are playing really well, you know, you know, 6-1-1 seems to be a new energy with the team. You're probably frustrated that you've got this two week break and he's like,

I do think this team needs a little bit of a reset. Just get away. I think we just need some guys to get away from hockey. And you know, Taka was like, also me, I need to be at a blackjack table for 10 straight days and just forget about this team. Can we wrap this up? I gotta get to Vegas. Although, no, actually, you know what?

He's gotta go to the Four Nations. He's gotta go, yeah. He's on the bench for Canada. But like, you know what I mean? Like, he was kind of like, yeah, I see. Like, he gave the question, you know, it's respect. He's like, part of me does want to keep it going. Sure.

But I think he knows that there's a lot of guys that just, even like the ones that aren't involved in the four nations, think about the, some of the guys that just came to the team as well, even though they have helped to energize the team, they probably need to figure out their lives a little bit. Sure. Right?

Like. I mean, how many practices have the new, like, Hedl and Pedersen and O'Connor had? Yeah. One or two maybe? I mean, they haven't had a lot of them. They got thrown right into the fire. So.

You know, what'll be interesting though, is how much business gets done over this two week break. I wonder, um, like you're allowed to make trades and, and, and do that stuff, but like, will Messer have any conversations with the Canucks? I mean, if they don't, right? Like I think that speaks volumes. It's a great question because if you go around the National Hockey League right now, you're getting senses from a lot of different markets that the general managers in those

markets are going to use this break to basically get ahead of the trade deadline. I know Danny Breyer has been very vocal about his activity that what he wants to do in Philadelphia. March 7th, less than a month away, that's the trade deadline. Right. The Islanders and Lou Lamarello, I mean, they've been all over social media with like

little whispers coming out here and there about what they might want to do, given that they're at a very strange spot. And keep Brock Nelson again, trade Dobson. Right. And there's, so there's a lot going on out there and you've got to kind of throw whatever the Vancouver Canucks are going to do in that mix as well

because they're one of those teams where they've made a lot of moves thus far. You still get the sense that there's a lot on the table given Brock Besser's very uncertain contract future. And now the Canucks have an additional wrinkle to this entire equation. That of course is the health of Thatcher Demko. And that was the other big story from the weekend aside from

Elias Pettersson's very strong game and the win over the Leafs was Thatcher Demko exiting. Six saves and about ten minutes into the game against Toronto. So the quick play-by- play on it was in the moment, Demko skated over to the bench during a stoppage. And with the cameras picked up sort of the kiss of death for, and when the head coach puts the coaching card over his mouth to cover up his lips, so nobody can lip read what he's saying.

Yeah. Generally not good news. You can see a little tear coming down his eyes. There was also Brock Besser staring on the bench, clearly hearing the back and forth and just kind of like this 10,000 yard stare into space. Oh, that might be the regular look for Brock, but regardless.

So that happens. Then the Hockey Night Canada broadcast later picked up a little bit of a clip from the pregame when Demko was doing his warmup and he was doing post to post movements, right? Just sort of pushing off and everything. And it kind of looked- Crease movement. Crease movement. Thank you. Yeah. It kind of looked like he was shaking out his left leg and there might've been something there. Now, do we have the audio at the ready here? I may as well let Rick Tauket speak for himself here because he addressed a couple of things including the notion that Demko might have tweaked something pregame

Here is Rick Tocket after Thatcher Demko left Saturday's game the 2-1 win over the Leafs With what was not and I repeat not a knee injury. No, he wasn't hurt It was just something happened during the game. I don't think it I don't think it's that serious. I don't know from from early reports I don't think it's that serious, I don't know, from early reports. It's not the knee, so we don't have to have you guys speculate. But I don't know. I don't think it's that serious, but we'll see. So we're going to table most of this conversation until our chat with Kevin Woodley in the third hour, 8 o'clock.

But obviously, even though Taukit said it probably wasn't serious, let's face it, Demko seems like a wild card right now. It's hard to trust that he can get through a full game. Yep. And it's a real shame because it looked like his game was coming around. Laddie, just two minutes, quick thoughts on Demko, what you're seeing from him now, what happened

on Saturday night. Well, it's a bit of a relief to hear that it's probably not the knee because that was the first thing that came to mind when I saw that clip. Unless he's lying. Yeah. It's potential. I don't know.

You want to take him at his word. What do you think laddie? But we had noticed over the last couple of games, even though Demko has been playing fine, there's been nothing about his play that's been concerning. He just looks off still. He looks like he's not as fluid as he normally is, if that's the best way to put it.

Not getting the pushes post to post? Yeah, not getting the strength that we normally see from him and just not on point that he normally is. And you could chalk it up to just maybe he was off the ice for so long and he's still getting it back. But if it is cropping up of another injury or hopefully not the same injury, not a good sign. Not a good moment.

Just real quick, this is the second time that Lankton has been thrown in, sort of apropos of nothing right now. I know that when the back spasms happened, I think Lankton got a bit of a heads up earlier. Demko was saying, my back's bothering me, I might have to come out. But still.

Remember we were joking, like, don't worry guys, it's not a knee injury, he's just got a bad back. Just one of those pesky back injuries. They always don't need their backs. That's never debilitating anybody. Yeah. Okay. So let's table that conversation until we

chat with Kevin Woodley. Um, that was Saturday. So the good, the win, the Pedersen, the bad Thatcher Demko on Sunday. I won't qualify this as good news or bad news, but Quinn Hughes will not be going to the four nations to represent the United States and he'll play with his brother.

Um, and I'm sure that was very difficult for him. And pretty clearly the Canucks did not want him to go. They did say they left it up to him to make the right decision, but you know, we were making the, the parenting comparisons is like, you're a good son and I'm sure you'll make the right decision for the family, for your family. You're the captain of this family.

Don't forget. So I'm sure you'll make the right decision. I am sure, I'm sure they made their point known and their point is if you go to this tournament and your injury gets worse, we are screwed. Uh, we need you to get healthy and energized and rested up for the stretch drive. And, uh, do we have the audio of Rick Tauke on

with Elliott Friedman before the Canucks Leafs game? This is what he had to say about it. It's a big decision. It's hard. You know, he's a USA guy. Gets to play with his brother. He knows the Kachuk brothers. He's good friends with all those guys.

It's a tough, you know, we're going to have to make a decision here soon. But yeah, I do it's it's not an easy decision but you know also he's got to make sure that he's got to take care of himself because you know, We we have important 29 games left for this season and we need a healthy Quinn Hughes if we're gonna go anywhere so I'm personally glad that Hughes made that decision and that he isn't playing because They do need him and he does need to get healthy. But I am disappointed that we won't be able to watch him and be proud of him in the tourney. There was a lot of people that wondered if, you know, if Quinn Hughes plays really well for the

Americans, does that help his heart trophy candidacy? But at the end of the day, it's about your team and you're the captain of the team. And sometimes you do have to make sacrifices for your team and you're the captain of the team and sometimes you do have to make sacrifices for your team and IMAC in an article that's up on sportsnet.ca got some really good quotes from Quinn Hughes' agent, Pat Bresson and he said, Bresson said, look, there's been a lot of turmoil

and Quinn feels responsible as captain for what goes on in the locker room, on the ice and off the ice. On top of that, he's playing 26 or 27 minutes a night for any human being that's demanding. responsible as captain for what goes on in the locker room on the ice and off the ice. On top of that, he's playing 26 or 27 minutes a night for any human being that's demanding. It has been heavy. These first 50 games at this point, he just needs to put more gas back, back in the tank.

Yeah. So I'm, I'm not glad that any of this happened, but I'm glad that he made the right decision here. I'm glad he's not playing. I mean, the tournament, and by the way, that's what this entire week's going to be about. There are no more NHL games for the foreseeable future, because on Wednesday, this tournament gets underway. And this has been a tournament that, in the lead up,

has been hit pretty hard by injury. You look at almost, I think every roster, save maybe the Swedes, has suffered at least one significant injury, taking a pretty prominent player out of the mix. And in the case of Hughes, where it was really touch and go about whether he would go or not, when you were talking about the family analogy,

I think the other thing you could say to him is like, you know, you're the leader of this family, you're the captain of this family, you know, you're the leader of this family, you're the captain of this family, you also play 27 nights, there's 27 minutes a night for this family, and you're gonna continue to do that on the other side. Like, it's not as if they're gonna scale his workload back, given how many games are left in the regular season,

where they are, I mean, it's not the most comfortable playoff position. I know they go into the break three points clear of Calgary with the same amount. 27 games left in the season for both Vancouver and Calgary. So I would classify it as Vancouver having a leg up, maybe a significant leg up in the race, but by no means is it a lock. It's three points over a Calgary team that's done a good job to hang around. So you're going to need Quinn Hughes to come back and play at the very least the level

that he was prior to. And if you have aspirations of not just salvaging the season, but trying to turn it into something where you're like, OK, look out for us in the playoffs, you're going to need him to be at an extremely high level. Because I'll say one thing that was kind of lost in all the other news that was going on with Hughes missing a bunch of games, and Demko getting hurt,

and all these new guys coming in is that I don't know if it's very quietly, but the recipient of the great Elias Pettersson pass against Toronto on the weekend, Philip Horonik has played really well over the last five games. And he's done this without his regular defense partner, Quinn Hughes. He shook off the rust from missing, I believe it was 21 games with the shoulder injury. Admittedly did not look great over the first couple of games, but he has come back. Well, it's hard to return from injuries.

Look at how badly Demko struggled. But he's done a terrific job of coming back. I think he's, he's a pointy game guy during those games where Hughes has been out of the lineup. So all of a sudden. It's crazy that the defense might actually be a strength of this team when everyone's healthy. All of a sudden you're looking at the second half, the quote unquote second half of the season, you're like, wait a sudden. It's crazy that the defense might actually be a strength of this team when everyone's healthy. All of a sudden you're looking at the second half,

the quote unquote second half of the season, you're like, wait a minute, Hughes, he follows Brisson's advice and puts gas in the tank and he's fresh and ready to go. And you've got Hronik playing his best hockey of the season. And then you've got the addition of the steady and consistent and reliable Marcus Pedersen. it's not just that the team has righted the ship, it's that they've righted the ship

with almost like a whole new cast of characters. Like it's a different team. That's the thing about making the trades that they made is it's not just, oh, we've saved the season. We did it with a different look. And that's gonna be really interesting moving forward. Okay, the Super Bowl was yesterday. We did it with a different look and that's going to be really interesting moving forward. Okay. The Superbowl was yesterday.

We barely mentioned it. Ah, yes, the Superbowl. We'll talk about that with Nick Shook coming up next and maybe a little off season talk as well, if we get tired of talking about the Superbowl. Seven o'clock is an open segment. So the entire hour is an open hour. So you can text into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650-650.

If you've got any questions or comments for us, you're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen four to six p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app

Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl 59 40 to 22 is the second Super Bowl win in seven years. What a game, what a season, what a team. The greatest Eagles team in modern history. Eagles fans, savor it and rejoice. 6.33 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Happy Monday to all you Eagles fans out there.

You're listening to the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Bruff of 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 in hour one of the program. Nick Shook from NFL.com, live from New Orleans, is gonna join us in just a moment here to talk all things Super Bowl on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Get to Nick in just a second here.

Our one of this program 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 them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver You know as we were doing the prep for the show we were breaking down What was really a one-sided game almost right from the get yesterday? Let's try anything like maybe

Maybe we were just do a dud of a Super Bowl. Yeah, because the last three You'd be hard-pressed to get more drama Because the last three, you'd be hard pressed to get more drama than the last three. All of them were decided by three points. One went to overtime. The other two went down to the final two minutes of the game. One went down right to the final eight

seconds with a field goal. So maybe just the cyclical nature. Cause remember back in our day, when we were young in the nineties, Super Bowl always stunk. Yeah. The NFC would destroy the AFC. Niners beat the Broncos 55 to 10.

That one was over pretty quick. So maybe this was just what was meant to happen. But to find out more, we're gonna go to our guy on location from the Super Bowl, Nick Struck from NFL.com joins us now on the Halford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Nick, how are you? I'm good, guys.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time to do this. So, Nick, how are you? I'm good, guys. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time to do this. So real quick, I know you did the What We Learn for NFL.com and talking about all the different angles and storylines from this game, but the big one was what the Eagles were able to do to Patrick Mahomes to,

and I didn't realize this until doing the research, make him put up one of the worst games of his professional career. What was it that the Eagles did that made my homes look so ordinary I get home with a base Russia for none don't need a blitz it in blitz all night that's crazy and also complicated the picture you know rely on a lot of covers there cover four shells complicated early and make him not trust as often to buy nor his pre line or his priest and that preets. And that's essentially what happened.

Like they've, they broke his brain by the middle of the second quarter because of the pressure, uh, from that format front that was just doing a fantastic job of getting home without additional rushers. And he lost trust in the line. He lost trust in his eyes. And, um, he, he, he had, like, like he said, he had one of the worst games of his entire career and uh it's you know you look at the cheese he hasn't had this type of game they haven't had this type of game since super bowl 55 and uh that was also a game in which they played a really good

defense and the offensive line wasn't there to you know protect him he had a better game that night than he did last night so tough one for him him. We're all human, of course, but extremely tough one, shocking for him. It was more just like shocking and unpredictable and weird, but you look at it now and nothing changes the legacy or rewrites history, but two of the four largest losses in Patrick Mahomes' career have now come in the Super Bowl. It was the 31 to nine loss to Tampa Bay. He doesn't want Tom Brady around.

Yeah, it's such a, and 31 to 9 loss to Tampa Bay. He doesn't want Tom Brady around. Yeah, it's it's it's it's such a way. And I don't know whether it's just one of those random anomalies or a freak thing, but it definitely changes some of the narrative moving forward, because when you get to the biggest game to have to, you know, thumpings like that, it's definitely something I'm just not sure what yet. Yeah, I mean, it's. It's it's kind of a case by case basis like this. This Eagle defense was incredible like we're going to look back on this team

and review their season and see. I mean, who knows where they go? This could be the start of their own little run here and and really respect how good of a unit they were. The combination of veteran presence, young talent, Vic Fangio, you know, overseeing it all and really making sure that he uses his guys to the best of their abilities

and puts them in the right spots. And sometimes teams like that just show up and we've seen the Chiefs be there every year and they're the constant, everybody else is the variable. But when you run into a team that's just peaking in a settee at the right time, it's just better than you. That's just what happens sometimes. What does this do for Nick Sirianni moving forward?

Probably makes him a little more cocky. I would say that he's probably gonna get a raise. Yeah, I mean, they got plenty of talent. They got some decisions to make in free agency, of course, but I mean, they got a great GM and how he rose. And so it really doesn't matter. Um, it gives them the confidence that it kind of, it kind of makes them unchecked, uh, you know, in Philadelphia, the way Doug Peterson was for awhile. I mean, you gotta imagine this guy almost got fired last year.

Now he's going to Superbowl. They're gonna build a statue, you know, eventually if he wins another one, they'll probably build him a statue So it definitely elevates his stature as a coach said has main character energy and finally had a reason to be the main character last Night. Yeah, cuz the reason I ask it is you mentioned Roseman and the work that this team did and you know someone in the postgame Astutely pointed out like a couple years ago That defense played Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs and got 38 points hung on them and then to change over the roster I think there was only three defensive starters that were in that

game a couple years ago that were in yesterday to change it over that much and to go through what they went through last year which was a disappointing season again I don't want to take anything away from Sirianni because I think he deserves all the flowers and the respect and everything but the way that they were able to build this roster, fine guys in free agency, and everyone talks about Brown and Saquon Barkley and everything, but to kind of reinvent the defense and then to have it come out like that,

it feels like this is almost like a GM Super Bowl as well. Yeah, I mean, that's what won them the game. That's what made them into the Super Bowl contender that they were, is the rebuilt defense. You know, they had no sacks on the homes in that Super Bowl two years ago. Then they came in like floating with sacking history as a team defense. But they were old. You know, they had Lindvall Joseph back then and Domak and Sue. The interior was especially old. You know, you had Redick, you had Graham, but

it just, this is a completely different group now. Redick's gone. You got Josh Sweatt in there. You got even Jayla Cot makes a play. You know, Rettig's gone, you got Josh Sweatt in there, you got even Jaylin Cot makes a play. You know, you got Jaylin Carter, you got Jordan Davis, Zach Bond having a career year and then making a big play in the Super Bowl. Like this is just a testament to rebuilding this defense and making the tough decisions, which is firing your defensive coordinator, firing your offensive coordinator, replacing them with guys that you think can get you to where you need to go. And we saw the ultimate result of that last night.

What about the other side of the ball, which is the Eagles offense versus the Chiefs defense? I mean, the Chiefs did well against Saquon, but everything else wasn't so good. Yeah. I mean, I was pretty surprised to see how often they put, you know, five man fronts out there to, you know, eliminate the Saquon element, you know, the strides of the zone, the wide zones and just kind of cut it down. I mean, they played well defensively against Saquon and limited him. But I mean, Gaelin Hurts won the MVP because he played a clean game and controlled game.

You know, it wasn't a game where he went out three for 400 yards, but he didn't really hurt him. You know, he threw that one pick, didn't end up really mattering. And he made plays in key spots. He handled design runs. He kept drives going. They were dominating time possession like midway through the second quarter. And that has to do a lot to the quarterback, especially when you don't have a safe one. So he spread the ball around, you know, Goddard, Brown, Smith, all made big plays. And, you know, the Chiefs defense, I think, I think it's kind of a cause and effect where their offense was so bad that the defense, you know, was always kind of a step behind and realized that they're going to have to do a lot more than they

anticipated because their offense just had no juice. And before they knew it, they're down 17-0. So where do the Chiefs go from here? What do they need to do this off season to get back to another Superbowl? I would say you figure out what Travis Kelsey is doing first off. You got to figure out your finances because you look at Kelsey, you look at Mahomes, you look at Chris Jones, those are three of your most expensive contracts. Joe Tooney is another one, Joanne Taylor is another one. You need to invest in this offensive line. You need to invest in tackle. The way

that they tried to you know cut a corner as a you know required by the salary cap at tackle last year kind of you know blew up in their face last night. I mean they had to move Joe Tooney over to tackle weeks ago, take away in a league garden make him a decent tackle And you know you saw the result with my own was having pressure to states all the time So they need to address that and kind of figure out Financially where can they save some money so they can redirect some money? I mean, yeah, they got blown out last night, but there's still a very good team there's still the team that nobody names he can beat and

I think that they just need to make a few adjustments and they'll probably be right back here again next year. We're speaking to Nick Schuch from NFL.com here on the Haliford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Nick's joining us live from the Super Bowl in New Orleans. It was funny, Nick, because even though it was Super Bowl weekend and everyone was focused on what was going on in New Orleans,

the news did not stop across the National Football League. So I wanna run through some of these with you before we let you go. What's going on or what isn't going on in New Orleans. The news did not stop across the National Football League. So I wanna run through some of these with you before we let you go. What's going on or what isn't going on now with Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets? Yeah, I mean, it appears they're headed toward a split. It appears Devante Adams has probably gone too. His cap number is way too high

to make it a tenable contract for the Jets. And I think we kind of all saw this coming, right? Like, what's Rodgers gonna do? He's gonna stick around with the New Regine as a bridge quarterback for the Jets. And I think we kind of all saw this coming, right? Like what's Rodgers gonna do? He's gonna stick around with the new regime as a bridge quarterback for a year, maybe. But I think that they want a fresh start with Aaron Glenn and the rest of that new regime there.

And so he's gonna, the thing is, it's kind of hard to figure out where he's gonna go. If you look at his contract, he's gonna count a significant amount of money against the Caps if they trade them in a pre June 1st move same thing with the release so they have to designate it as a post June 1st move he's gonna have to find out you know find somebody that wants him to play and you know Adams I think you know will carry much more value and be easier to move or you know figure that out but you guys

41 years old, Aaron Rodgers is who really wants it? The Ra? You know, does he want to go play in Vegas for a year? Does Devontae want to go back to Vegas with Aaron? You know, it's definitely interesting. I think it's going to power the next few weeks of news now that we're beyond the Superbowl. Who's going to be the first quarterback drafted and which team is going to get them? Because, you know, there's a couple players out there,

Carter and Travis Hunter that might go first and second, so could the Giants be the first team to take a quarterback at the number three spot? Yeah, this is where the draft gets interesting because we all think we know what's going to happen in January, in February, and then we get to March and April and things change, priorities change. The Jaguars take Trayvon Walker over Aiden Hutchinson, for example. Um, and, and I think that, you know, maybe the reviews on some of these quarterbacks aren't as, you know, sparkling as these teams anticipated. And that's why we're hearing, you know,

interest in other players or, you know, it's just a bunch of smoke screening early here, but I don't know. I mean, I think Cam Ward goes first. I just don't know who takes him because Tennessee is interested in trading out and seeing that I've seen reports that they're interested in trading out and I wouldn't be surprised the Browns were interested in trading out of two two. So Evie's gonna get wild. It's gonna be one of those that dress this year That is very much not chalk and we're obviously, you know a couple months away from it

But could dominate our conversations the next couple of months, that's for sure. Two more before we let you go. One, what's going on, as I do the what's going on question again, what's going on with Debo Samuel and the San Francisco 49ers? Yeah, things like that era's over too. You know, that financial thing,

they paid Brandon Naik last year and they liked what they saw from Ricky Pearsall in the last few games of the season. We gotta save money somewhere. They got to pay Brock pretty soon. So sometimes things like that happen. Debo also hasn't stayed healthy in the last few years and he's not quite the big play key player that he used to be in that offense.

I think it's time for the 49ers to evolve and for Debo to find a new home. Very curious to see where he goes because I think he's brings a lot to the table, but I just don't think it's going to be in San Francisco anymore. As a fan of the Seahawks, I'm curious to get your take on where the Niners are because they were so clearly the most talented team in the division for a little while, but now you're like, okay, well, Debo could be gone.

Christian McCaffrey's head is injury concerns, Brandon Iyuk, injury concerns, Brock, well, Debo could be gone. Christian McCaffrey's head is injury concerns. Brandon Iuke, injury concerns. Uh, Brock Purdy, not going to be cheap anymore. So, um, where are they at in your opinion? I think they're much like the Chiefs and they got to, you know, retool a little bit. Uh, I think that they're really just needing it healthy.

Um, what happened last year was, you know, it's just devastating for them health-wise. They had so many injuries on both sides of the ball. I still think they're a very talented team, but you know, you move on from a guy like Devo, unless you're trading him and getting a, you know, a haulback, you know, it's, you gotta find a replacement. But luckily that's what the draft's for.

And we've seen guys, you know, we've seen teams, look at the Eagles, you know, they draft guys that are NC contributors. They just gotta be good at drafting. They gotta be good at identifying talent. They draft guys that are in-team contributors. They just gotta be good at drafting. They gotta be good at identifying talent. So I think the Niners are closer. I mean, the industry west remains wide open. Like Seattle could win it.

The Rams could win it. The Niners could win it. The Cardinals could win it. Like it's a weird division. So I don't know where they stack up in the grand scheme of things, but I think that they'll still be pretty similar to who they are.

Okay, Nick, we know it's been a long season, it's been a long weekend, it's probably a long night in New Orleans as well. One, thank you for doing this this morning, we really appreciate you taking the time. It was great having you on the show all year, you're awesome at this, we love having you on the program. I always try and do the farewell and then realize

we're probably gonna call you in like two weeks time when another major story breaks. But, who am I to break with tradition? Thanks a lot for doing this this year we really appreciate it and your stuff from the Super Bowl was awesome. Yeah no problem guys thanks for having me it was really enjoyable and love talking to you guys I'm sure I'll hear from you within the month and I won't be mad about it at all. Awesome thanks buddy. Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. I always feel a little bit bad about calling

media guys the day after the Superbowl. Yeah, I know. He's like, are you tired? Yeah, he sounded like he was having a good time. I was like, there, yeah. Well. No, it's just- It was.

It's not even that. It's just a long, long day. For sure. You get up, you work. I would say yes. There's all the festivities. Yeah. Right?

And then you've got to do all your post-game work. He probably like, he probably wasn't like partying. He was, he was working, right? And then he's got to wake up. Might have some partying. What'd you guys think? Working then party. So one of the most predictable things about any Super Bowl

is people arguing over the halftime show. And it's always like, it's hilarious. It's like, it's always like, it's so generational too. Right? Like it's like, you know, Kendrick Lamar, I thought he was good, but like, am I his biggest fan? No. And that's okay. You know, there was a lot of, there was a lot of old guys out there that were like, this is not my kind of thing.

And then the young people out there would be like, okay, Boomer, I'm like, all right, enough of this, right? They used the youth. Yeah, it was like, you know, I thought it was a good show. I thought it was a good show. I thought it looked good. Now, I mean- I say the same thing never.

They're like, what did you think of this halftime show? It was fine. I loved it. Yeah, yeah, that's actually the best thing to say. I loved it. I love music music There's no hooray for everything, but it was yeah They're like did you enjoy like yep? It was the best. I loved it. It's just so good is last year It's so predictable. Yeah, right like all the old sports writers were like, oh, let's know, you know Prince or whatever, you know, or McCartney or whatever, you know? And then all the young kids- Mario's Speedway.

Did they ever do the Super Bowl? I don't know. See, I'd watch that. My favorite of recent years was actually probably The Weeknd still. And I'm not even, I don't even listen to The Weeknd's music. It was a cool show. I don't really know him very well. I don't know his music very well. But I'd like, of the last like maybe five or six, I'd say that is by far my favorite one.

Yeah, you know what? I love that one. Yeah. It was great. You're easy to please. It was great. I want it, you know. You ducking an opinion?

That never happens, man. Am I ducking an opinion? You are 1000% ducking opinion. When you say, every time, every time I see a show, I'm like, I loved it. That's leaning into an opinion. I love music. I love performance. I'm going over the list of all the performers.

How many times did Up With People do the half, there's like four or five times they did it. That's the Simpsons joke. Yes, yes. Hooray for everyone. The evolution of halftime shows is actually pretty interesting. It's amazing when you go back to the list and scroll back it it ramps up really quickly

And there are some iconic ones like the the Michael Jackson one where he just stood there with his sunglasses on for three minutes Not moving and people were just losing their minds over him like that's one of the most iconic ones for sure Like that was incredible the prince one is obviously very very famous Some people think the Creed one was great. I love, I love, you know what? Halford loved them all. I loved all three. I loved all three. Love Creed.

Um, by the way, I didn't even watch really the second half. Like the second, that was a, that was a very disappointing Superbowl for me. Um, unless you're an Eagles fan. Yeah, unless you're an Eagles fan, then it's great. I mean, um, I was a Seahawks fan for their blowout win over Denver and I didn't care. It wasn't a good game.

I just wanted the win, right? And huge win for the Eagles and you know, maybe people even disrespected Philly a little bit, um, because they were so good after their bi-week coming out of, uh, I guess going into week six. They scored. They scored.

They were incredible. They scored 95 combined points in the NFC championship in Super Bowl like they were dominant But it was understandable that people were like I think the Chiefs are gonna win because they got my homes. They've got Kelsey and Andy Reid and Steve Spagnolo, right? Like like you're just like in the previous day, right? You're just like well, they'll you know, and they did it all season. They found ways. I think if you look at their point differential, it was like, nothing, right?

Almost every game, almost every single game they won was like a one score game. And they kind of kept finding ways in the playoffs and they got to the Superbowl. So people were like, yeah, they'll probably find a way. And then you watch the game and you're like, oh, there's a massive talent discrepancy in a lot of areas here.

That to me, if you want, like as we were really searching for narratives in the aftermath of this thing, I think a lot of the collective media was because it was very, very surprising what happened in light of what you said, the chiefs, if they did one thing all year and take away that final week blowout loss to Denver, where everybody rested. Take that one off the equation, out of the equation. Every game that the Chiefs played this year was tight. They played in so many one score games that- But they won them all. That was the thing. They found a way and people were like, that's what they know. They just know how to win.

So it was funny because last week on the show, we had Mike Tannier, our weekly NFL insider. What did Mike say? He said, if you're looking for a bet and this is just his gut feel, Eagles in a blowout. We have people texting in, they're like, who is this analyst that you guys have? Yeah. He said, tease the Eagles to like minus six and a half, and then you'll get, you know, plus 300. And you know what else he said? He said, I could see Philadelphia giving us offensive line problems like when Tampa Bay

beat them in the Superbowl a few years ago. He also compared it. He also said like, I could see a Seahawks Broncos scenario playing out. So for the largest part of this game, I was actually monitoring how big a blowout this was going to be because for a time it was trending to be one of the most lopsided Super Bowls in league history. Can we talk about how funny it was that Tom Brady kept on saying like, you know, like if I'm, if I'm,

if I'm the Eagles, I'm not, I'm not resting on my laurels one bit, like you cannot afford to lose your focus for one second. I'm like, I bet they can. Yeah. I bet there's five minutes left in the game, Tom. Like this, this one's over brother. I know, I know you led an incredible comeback

against the Atlanta Falcons, but this one is over and it's kind of okay to say that. If you want to talk about storylines going into next season and you're really into broadcasting, you should pay very close attention to what Fox is going to do with Tom Brady moving forward. He was just boring man. He didn't add anything.

He got elevated to the big chair and some of the biggest moments of the year in his first real year being a full-time analyst. There are guys that spend their careers honing their craft and trying to figure that gig out, it's not easy. I mean, being on television and trying to come up with things in the moment is not easy. I liked him in the first quarter.

I was like, oh, this guy's insightful. He's entertaining. Then by the end of the game, I'm like, it sounds like he's just doing a podcast. Like, he just seems sort of just like, it was a bad game. It was a bad game. Yeah, that's true.

It was tough for those guys. Because they were there. I'm sure that doesn't help. They were both like, they were probably thinking. I don't know if they were hearing it from the like, Tom, make sure people keep watching, right? Like, you know, like it's, it's, you know, it's almost like a couple of those seasons that the Canucks would have a few years ago is like that, you know, if they,

if they put together a winning streak, they might get into the playoffs. And everyone's like, no, they won't. Right. Like it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. And I know it's over. I know I pointed this out prior to Nick coming on, but we were spoiled three consecutive years in a row with outstanding super bowls, right? Every one of them, the last three decided by three points.

All of them went down to the wire. This one, you could have made the argument that when Cooper DeGene had the pick six, the game was over. Yeah. That was eight minutes into the second quarter. Like that was the thing about, it wasn't like one of those games where they hung around, they hung around and then

the game got out of hand in the fourth. This thing was over early. That was on Cooper Jhajin's 15th birthday too. Happy birthday to him. He's so young man. So young. 22 year old kid in the Super Bowl. I actually think Mahomes threw that pick because he thought he was just some fan that had run onto the field. Look at that little guy. He was his birthday yesterday. No, I know.

Yeah, he was 22 years old. 22 years old. 22, yeah, yeah. Okay. And he is now a god. I think that's it for Super Bowl Talk for us for the next little bit. However, we do have an entire open hour here

on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. If you wanna get in on the action and have your stuff read on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. If you want to get in on the action and have your stuff read on the radio, Dunbar number text line is 650 650. We can dive back into everything that happened over the weekend with the Vancouver Canucks because there was a lot of it. The win over Toronto, the injury to Thatcher Demko, taking Queen Hughes out of the Four Nations faceoff in case you missed it he will not be playing for the US in the tournament which gets underway on Wednesday. We can also look ahead of the Four Nations faceoff. In case you missed it, he will not be playing for the U.S. in the tournament, which gets underway on Wednesday. We can also look ahead to the Four Nations faceoff now

because that's it for the NHL for the next little bit. They're on hiatus while we get prepped for this tournament. If you wanna go around the NHL, we can do some of the stories from the league. We can also take a look at what's gonna happen to the Canucks when they come out of this break, what they've got on the schedule moving forward. We'll take a look at the standings as well.

Anything you guys wanna get into, we can do it over the next hour. Kevin Woodley's gonna join us at eight to talk about what's going on with that, Tridemko and the injury that he sustained over the weekend. Also, finally, before we go to break, another reminder, we are giving away Rugby Sevens tickets, the HSBC Vancouver

rugby sevens every day this week today and every day this week we're gonna be giving them away it's caller number seven at 815 this morning the phone number here 604 280 0650 that number again 604 280 0650 815 a.m. caller number seven for the rugby sevens be sure to get your tickets you're listening to the Haliford and Bruff show on sportsnet 650