Halford & Brough in the Morning - It Just Keeps Getting Worse

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

In hour one, Mike Halford and Jason Brough discuss what happened in the world of sports (3:10), including the Canucks 6-0 loss to tie the franchise record losing streak, and an incredible NFL playoff weekend. They break some big news of coaching firings in the NFL, and discuss what the Canucks need to do to maximize this season. 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.

You're listening to HALFORTAF You're listening to Halford and Brough. 31 saves shotout for Tristan Jari and a thorough 6-0-0 win over the Vancouver Canox who have now been defeated in 10 consecutive games. Tonight on Rock Bottom. Chehita at his own five across the 10, 15, 20, cut straight upfield, has a gap. I'm going to 40, midfield 50. trying to trip the boat down and flag it down.

Shaheed to the end zone. Holy cap fish! Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford and it is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming here live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. No-a-dog this morning. Regular Zach is here, though. Good morning, regular Zach. Good morning. And Lattie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Brough of the morning. is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Got CRA debt? Wow, new read. Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit Sands-dustee.com for more. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 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. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Make 2026, your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. Got a lot to get into on a Monday show.

Big weekend, lots of sports to cover. We're going to begin with the Dewick Morning Drive. That's our morning guest list here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. The morning drive begins with Mike Tanier. He's going to join the show at 7 o'clock this morning. Our NFL insider from the two deep zone, the NFC and AFC championships are set. New England will host the Bo Nixless Broncos in the AFC title game, and your Seattle Seahawks will take on the L.A. Rams for the third time this season

in a much anticipated NFC. Title game will break it all down with Mike at 7 o'clock this morning. 7.30 Dennis Bernstein is going to join the program. He of the fourth period in Sirius XM-N-HL radio. Based out of Los Angeles, Dennis is going to be giving us some King's Intel as they become a team to watch as we get closer to the trade deadline. Could have Andrew Kane end up there? Could Elias Pedersen end up there?

We'll discuss all that and more with Dennis. Bernstein at 730. 8 o'clock Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and Ingole magazine is going to join the program. As you heard in the intro, the Kinnock's got absolutely worked 6-0 by the Oilers at Rogers Arena on Saturday. They are back in action tonight, though,

against the aisles that, once again, at Rogers Arena, we'll get into all that and more with Kevin at 8 a.m. Working in reverse real quick on that guest list. 8 o'clock, Woodley, 7.30 Bernstein, 7 o'clock, 10. That's what's happening on the program today. Do you know Dennis Bernstein's a big Rams fan too?

I did not. know that. That makes sense so because he's in Los Angeles. Ooh, spicy. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm losing. We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

Miss it? You miss that? What happened is Bratziovay of 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.com. what's up? Just smiling, buddy. I'm just having a good time.

I'm just smiling. Just smiling about the Seahawks. Is it because of the Seahawks? Yeah, yeah. We're not going to start with the Seahawks. No. Okay? No.

It's not, you know what? It's more of a rarity that the Seahawks got to, or sorry, the Canucks were on a 10-game losing streak than the Seahawks getting to the NFC title game. Although this has happened in franchise history before, among others, Joey Kenward pointed this out both on social media and through texts. The Vancouver Canucks. As it said in the intro may have hit rock bottom on Saturday. Their 10th consecutive loss,

Jack Roslavik and Kisbury Kappan did the majority of the business. A six-goals second period on Saturday night. Oilers absolutely blast the Kinnock's 6-0. They were right there except for the second period. And 13 minutes specifically of that second period. Nikita Tolapil, 29 saves. We can get to his story in a little bit later. But the Kinnocks have lost 10 in a row.

They're 08 and 2 over that stretch. They just finished a road trip in which they went, 06 and 0. That's right. Not even a loser point out of that one. And that loss on Saturday drops them to wait for it, 4, 13, and 3 at home this season. I thought that it was going to be impossible for the Canucks of last year to be outdone

with how poorly they played at home and how many clunkers they put up in front of a ticket-buying fan base. They're overcomers. I was wrong. Somehow they've managed to be worse at home. I think that loss against Edmonton on Saturday. You could put up there with any of the disgusting home losses from last year. Well, at least the thousands of Oilers fans weren't upset.

A lot of orange in the building. Yeah. A lot of orange in the building. Look, we're not going to spend too much time breaking down the game and talking about all the goals. The Canucks surrendered in that second period. There were mistakes made by young guys, including the goalie. There were mistakes made by veterans. The Canucks are entering a rebuild and losses are expected and frankly desired. But there are still a lot of highly paid veterans out there on the ice. And results like Saturdays will only increase the speculation that some of them could be on the move soon.

Take Connor Garland. On Sunday there was a report from David Pagnata who works for the fourth period. Thank God there wasn't one of those on Saturday. and he said, in between all the turnovers in this Texan Patriots came, hearing trade talks involving Canucks forward Connor Garland continue. Per sources, Vancouver doesn't want to move him per se, but will continue to entertain inquiries. Poor Connor Garland had to stay after the game on Saturday for after hours on Hockey Night in Canada

where he was obviously asked about his future and whether or not he wanted to stick around for a rebuild. Yeah, and let's hear his answer right now, Laddie. This is Connor Garland, as you mentioned, on After Hours. It was a question that Scott O took from the public, actually. It was one of the ones that submitted via Twitter. And it asked exactly that, whether at his age and where he's at in his career,

if Conor Garland wanted to stick around Vancouver. Here's what Conor Garland had to say on After Hours on Saturday. You know, I think people look at something like that through the hockey lens. You know, I've signed on to, you know, be on this team for another six years, which would be 11 years. And that's not something you do blindly

and just sign the contract and don't think about it. So, you know, I have a great connection to the city. I enjoy playing here. I want to get this team back to the playoffs and enjoy that feeling when you're on the run in a city like this. You know, my son was born here. My wife's expecting I have another baby in April,

our first daughter, which is another thing that, you know, it's in the city and it really bonds you in your family of city. So if that time comes, that's not something I'm taking lightly or just, you know, I'm throwing it out there. I want to get, you know, move on. It's something that, if that process ever happened,

that would be a long, long decision. And that's not something I'm thinking about right now. I'm thinking about our performance in two days. I'd just like to say, I have a lot of respect for Connor Garland. He's well-spoken. For a variety of reasons. And thoughtful.

I think that the way that he's been able to turn himself into a very talented NHL player, despite his diminutive frame and the fact I don't think he was projected to be this kind of impact player at the NHL level. It's a model that you would want to show to other players. I think he drags his team into the fight. I don't think he's ever shortchanged the Canucks for every day and every dollar that he's gotten out of his contract. I think he's given Max effort.

I think he's got a good attitude. And I think that he understands a lot of what it takes to make it in the NHL and is open and willing to share those things with the next generation because of how difficult it was for him. He also turns 30 in March. All that being said, they should probably consider trading him. Yeah. I know that he might be a great mentor,

and I know that those at Canucks HQ are probably not wrong when they say that if there's a short list of current Canucks that could help steer this rebuild through the tough years, Garland will be one of them. But right now, I think their primary objective should not be, looking two or three years down the road. It should be all about the immediacy of capitalizing on assets and getting

picks and prospects in the door. Yeah, Garland has a no move clause that kicks in July 1st. So the Canucks have to be mindful of that. If they do move him, they'll probably make sure he's somewhat on board with the destination because they did give him that no move clause and, you know, say what you will about agents.

you do have to maintain somewhat good relationships with them. But the risk in not moving him before July 1st is that he asks out after July 1st. And then he controls the process. Now that would be a slippery move by Connor Garland and we just spend a few minutes praising him. That would be funny if he was just like, no, I'm, I am committed to helping the young players on this team and I love Vancouver

and I want to be a Canuck for life and then what did you say my no move clause just kicked in? Yeah, I went out of here

and I'm telling you where I'm going to go. I'd actually kind of respect it. He's always been an elusive player. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That slipperiness extends off the ice as well.

Other teams do not like to play that guy. Yeah. Meanwhile, Agent Alan Walsh took to social media to complain about the speculation surrounding his client, Philip Hironic.

Future Vancouver Canucks Captain Philip Hironich. And Alan Walsh tweeted out, this is just wasted air. Great players are in demand everywhere, but the NHL is not fantasy hockey. Why bring up players that are not available for trade? Vancouver management and coaches are happy with Phil, and Phil has no interest in going anywhere else. It should be noted that Alan Walsh also tweeted something similar about Phil Deno, two or three days before he was traded by the L.A. King.

We should mention that that was also a retort from Alan Walsh to something that Elliot Friedman put on 32 thoughts, Heronik, and it was a spitball report at best. In the report, Frege said he understands that Heronik has a full no move and controls the process. And he was basically saying if there was a team that would be interested, he wrote Ottawa as one being one. I mean, I don't really want to go too far down the road of parsing through Alan Walsh's remarks, but part of the reason fans like fantasy hockey is because it's fun and trade speculation is a part of every major sport. Yeah.

I understand that I understand that Elliot Friedman throwing it out there has a little bit more clout than say like fart dog 620 on Twitter or some other anonymous account. Like it carries more weight when Freed just doing it. It's a fart dog 420. That's right. Yeah, sorry. But at the same time, speculate. of speculation.

He broke the Hughes trade, though, didn't he? Who? Fart Dogg. Yeah. Tip of the cap to you, fart dog. You're doing a good workout. Yeah, he had Zeve Buhiam in it all along. Speaking of Freed, Elliot Freeman reported that the Canucks are working, they are now

working with Kiefer Sherwood's agent to facilitate a trade. And this has a lot to do with the extension that a lot of teams would want to get Kiefer Sherwood signed to before. or they give up a return to the Vancouver Canucks. And they want to know what that extension could look like. If he's asking for the moon, well, maybe they're not interested in Key for Sherwood anymore. But that's a situation with Sherwood. Frankly, there isn't a Canucks veteran that hasn't been the subject of trade speculation,

except for, I don't know, maybe Kevin Lankton. Like, you know? I don't think there's been a ton around him. He's probably the guy that gets ends up getting moved first. But, you know, this is what happens when a team announces its intentions to move in a dramatically different direction. There's a push for management to turn veterans into futures, hopefully. And there's quite often a push from the veterans to go somewhere with a better chance to win now. Now, they don't always come out and say, I want a trade.

A lot of the times they'll speak publicly about their commitment to the city, how much they love the city, how much they love the city, They want to be part of the solution. But behind the scenes, they're like, hey, like, this isn't really for me. This is one I signed up for. Listen, if you guys can find something, bring it to us. And we'll discuss it. Remember Ryan Kessler right before, that was Olympic year too, right before he was traded. Not right before, but before he was traded, he said, like, all this rumor stuff.

you know, it's all lies or whatever, and then he ends up going to Anaheim. Yeah. I want to add one note onto the Sherwood thing, by the way, and it relates to some of the other big news from the weekend. That, of course, that Sunday, the Calgary Flames finally traded defenseman Rasmus Anderson to the Vegas Golden Knights in case you missed it. The exchange was Zach White Cloud, a defensive prospect named Abram Weeb, who Laddie is quite familiar with. Or Betriloak Chief. 27 first round pick and a conditional 2027 second round pick. Now, I mentioned this trade in relation to Sherwood

because of the UFA status and what you talked about with the extension. Now, in the case of Anderson, Craig Conroy in the aftermath of the trade said that five teams were interested in trying to obtain Anderson. But when the agent informed the flames that he wouldn't sign an extension with Calgary or anywhere else, a bunch of teams dropped out.

Some of them reduced their offers. And it kind of left Vegas, which is the place that Anderson wanted to go on the short-term deal. Really, one of the few suitors left. Now, that's a nice pickup for Vegas, especially, you know, in the wake of losing Petrangelo, who's such a big piece for them. So they get Anderson. And part of the reason Anderson didn't want to sign anywhere with Vegas or otherwise is because he's been playing on a really team-friendly deal for the last few years.

He only is cap at his 4.55 million. Calgary picked up 50% of that for the remainder of the year. So what does this mean for Sherwood? Well, I look at it and I'm like, if you're going to deal Sherwood and you go and talk to his agent, he could very well do the same thing Anderson's saying. And like, we're not going to sign an extension anywhere. I'm going to go to unrestricted free agency because this is my one big chance to cash in, not unlike what Anderson is thinking here.

I don't know how much that would change the equation for Sherwood. I think a lot of teams might have envisioned him as a rental anyway, like just for the remainder of this year. It's worth noting you're starting to see these things now where... I think Vegas will want to sign him long term, don't you? They will. The question is, does Anderson want to take that deal? Or does he want to try free agency, being one of the best defensemen on the market? We've got an entire hour for what happened.

So we can return to the Canucks and the NHL on the other side. And we'd welcome your texts into the Dunbar Lumber, text line at 650, 650. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com. Let's get to the Seahawks because the Seahawks blew away the 49ers on Saturday. But, and maybe this is just me, maybe this is just my fear. What's the one team I have not wanted them to get in the playoffs? It is the Rams.

That's who they're getting. And the Rams, after an incredible win at Chicago, they will be the team that the Seahawks face in Seattle next weekend. Yeah, and I want to first bask in the glow of what happened on Saturday. And I want to start with our good friend Steve Rable, Seahawks Radio Call. It's not very often that you get the game-winning score on the first play of the game. But that's what happened. Oh, no points. All the points of the Seahawks needed came on the first play of the game.

Rashid Shihid kickoff return for a touchdown. Here's what it sounded like. Holy Catfish. Steve Rable on the call. We're off and running. End over end. Chehid at his own five across the 10, 15, 20. Cut straight upfield.

Has a gap. Across the 40. Midfield, 50. Try to trip him go get him. Flagging down. Shaheed to the end zone. Holy catfish. Open the game with a 95 yard.

So a little inside baseball here when it comes to play by play. There was a flag on that play. Eddie Pignero, the 49ers kicker, tried to trip Shaheed on the kick return. It was almost like a slide tackle. I saw that. I knew that was the flag. On the TV call, the end of the touchdown score was very muted because the, I can't remember who was on the call. I apologize in the moment, but they really played it down.

and the Westwood one radio call also played it way down because they weren't sure if the touchdown was coming back. Raves went full-throated on that one. He was like, whatever, I can dial this one back later. I'm getting fired up. And it was great because the touchdown ended up standing. And as I mentioned, had the Seahawks just left it there with the seven points on the board,

they would have been fine because that was one of the most emphatic beatdowns you're going to get in a playoff game. The numbers here are remarkable. I'll get through this other. To give you an idea of how comprehensive and definitive and outstanding the Seahawks were in all three facets of the game, they scored 40 plus points. They rushed for 150 plus yards. They had zero turnovers. They allowed zero touchdowns. They had fewer than 10 penalty yards. And they scored a special team's touchdown. Those numbers I just threw out there. No other team in NFL history has done that in a single game, regular season.

or playoffs. It was as dominant as you can be against the 49ers team and actually I waded into 49ers Twitter after the game to see what they were saying and if you want to talk about a like a crestfallen despondent fan base, they're like we just got

and we got our ass beat twice, twice in the span of two weeks. And it wasn't close. The Seahawks went down to Santa Clara a few years ago in the playoffs and they were totally outclassed. Right. But the thing was is like they had an opportunity,

let's say the Seahawks had an opportunity two weeks after getting out class to make amends. Yeah. And it got way worse. They were so hurt, man. They were so, like, credit to the Seahawks, they were amazing and the crowd was amazing. But, you know, like, Kristen McCaffrey obviously wasn't 100% in that game either,

like for the whole game. And it was kind of like, well, what other things could possibly happen? The 49ers. That was the second. I just want to throw it out there. That's the second most lopsided loss. 49ers have ever suffered in the postseason. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean that, that, you know, listen, I'm, I'm worried about everything. So I was a little bit worried about the Niners coming into Seattle because they had shown such incredible resilience throughout the season, you know, and Kyle Shanahan did a great job as head coach. But when they returned the opening kickoff, you know, it's like, it's like the place was, that was the type of start that was possible with the 49ers on a short week, with the 49ers all banged up, and perhaps more most importantly, with the Seahawks on two weeks rest and just like ready to go, healthy, feeling good about themselves.

And then you could tell that the 49ers were just like, I can't, I can't handle this crowd. I can't handle this defense. What do we do with our hands? This is incredible. And frankly, that's why I wanted the Chicago Bears because I don't think Caleb Williams for all the miracles that he pulls out of

you know where. I don't think he could have handled that. I'm a little more worried that a veteran like Matt Stafford who's kind of seen it all is going to be like, yeah, it's hard, but I can handle this. Yeah, I agree with that. This is the most difficult opponent that you could have got in the NFC championship. That being said, if you're a neutral, it is an unbelievable, unbelievable matchup in the NFC championship.

It is everything you possibly could have asked for. The numbers on this thing, consider this from the regular season. Seahawks and Rams played each other twice. Series was tied 1-1. In those games, total points, Rams 58, Seahawks 57, total yards in the game. those two games. Rams 830, Seahawks 829. Like there are, there's very little to choose between the two. You know what I was really impressed with again on Saturday? Was the Seahawks ability to run the football. Oh, Kenneth Walker was incredible and hopefully Charbonnet is okay and ready to go for the Rams game.

175 yards on the ground. As this season has gone along, they have become way less reliant on Sam Darnold and Jackson Smith and Jigba, which really carried the offense in the first half. Who I was impressed with, Cooper Cup. Veteran guy. Yep. Showed up in a big game. Yeah. It was a very impressive win for the Seahawks.

I guess we should talk about some of these other games. You kind of mentioned the Rams off-handedly. That was a fantastic game yesterday. Very trying conditions in Chicago. The Rams survive an all-time miracle throw from Caleb Williams to send that game into overtime, which was an unbelievable play. Also, maybe one of the funniest plays of the weekend when the, um, the, um, the, Rams defensive players were calling for the push-off.

On Colquemette? There was no push-off. You weren't even close to them. That was just like panic desperation. He must have pushed off to get that wide open. We couldn't have possibly left him wide open. That would be reckless and irresponsible. It was such an unbelievable play.

I think they both, both the Rams defenders looked at each other, like, we'd better come up with something real quick. And they thought it was a try for the push-off, but it was not a push-off. What a throw from your back foot. In those conditions, getting chased by like five massive dudes. Laddie, do we have breaking? We do. You know what?

This sounds the breaking news sounder. Sportsnet 650. Breaking news. According to noted NFL insider Diana Rusini, the Buffalo Bills, one day after getting dumped from the playoffs, have fired head coach Sean McDermott. Wow. Wow.

Okay. That is a big, bold statement. Maybe not entirely surprising, given that the road in the AFC playoffs was pretty wide open without Patrick Mahomes and without Lamar Jackson. To go into Denver and to turn the ball over the amount of times that Josh Allen did yesterday, I guess Sean McDermott walks the plank for it, but one of the longest tenured head coaches.

He'll be removed from the stadium just yelling like, it was a completion. Yeah. It was a completion. That's funny. Full control. That's going to be his last thing. That's going to be the last thing that he does is the Bill's head coach,

is making phone calls from the plane, complaining about the catch and overtime or the non-catch. As it was, yeah, okay, busy morning and news just coming across, according to Diana Rusini, first one on this from the athletic. Sean McDermott out as the Buffalo Bills head coach. So the immediate reaction there, obviously one of the longest eras in National Football League coaching history. Sean McDermott's been with Buffalo for an awfully long time. It's another vacancy that opens up.

offseason that's, I believe, only seen to this point, one coaching higher. And that, of course, was John Harbaugh going to the New York Giants. McDermott will probably be in demand as much as anybody, given the success that he's had in Buffalo over the last close to a decade. But yeah, some big news on a Monday morning. Shaw McDermott out as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. Okay, so so much to discuss from this weekend in sports. So get your text in to the Dunbar-Lumber text line, 650, 650. We will talk to Mike Tanier in about 35 minutes. So we'll have a lot of NFL coverage to go.

In the next segment, there is some more Canucks news and some NHL news that we'll get into. But text into the show. We'll love to hear your thoughts, opinions, questions. You're listening to the Alfred Ambrough show on Sportsnet 650. It's good. You know what I mean? And even veteran people. Metron guys that had moments where they just didn't have, you know,

I've been there like I said earlier. 633 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford, Braves, SportsNet, 650. Good tune. Halfford and Breb of the morning is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycable pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid.

Visit them in 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Chad from Surrey just texted it in. Good morning, fellas. Just curious if these rumors about EP40 have some legitimacy. I understand they're listening, but is that all this is, or is there some smoke here? And the Flyers? Really? Yeah, I saw some rumor from some guy. I don't even can't remember his name.

Fart Dog. And he listed the Flyers as a potential destination. and I'm like, dude, no. Was it Fart Dog 420? It wasn't. Oh. But, yeah, I mean, I get the Flyers need help down the middle. The Flyers are falling apart, by the way.

Dan Vlodar was apparently what was keeping them together. The glue, they call them. And it's probably good for the Flyers because they're like the Canucks. You look at their lineup and you're like, man, they're a few, like, good players, but there's no difference makers in this lineup. And making the playoffs would actually. actually be not good for them. But first of all, do you think Rick Tocket would endorse trading for Elias Pederson?

You know, he would probably have a say in the matter. Probably. And then do you think Elias Pedersen would waive his no move clause to go to Philly to reunite with Rick Tocket? For sure. Seems like something he would do. It's just not going to happen. So, you know, we started the show.

today talking about all the speculation around some of the conducts veterans. Some of the speculation and reports are going to have some accuracy, but there's going to be some insanity out there too. Can you imagine though? If you did get traded to the flyers, I mean, I guess the relationship was solid. I can't. I honestly can't. No, like it's not going to happen. Even for the purposes of the bit, I can't. I give it a 0.0% chance of happening, which also is the same percent chance.

I give the Denver Broncos of winning another football game. And I apologize. Another football game? I think they could win a game. This year? Yes. Yes. You think with Jared Stidham at quarterback that they have a chance of beating the Denver or sorry, the New England Patriots?

I think they could. I don't think they should be favored, but I think they could. I bring this up because this was other big, the big news of the weekend was after that, very impressive when over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC divisional round, get a spot in the AFC championship. Like, did you see Sam Darnold's numbers from Saturday's game? Like, he just didn't, he just didn't make a mistake. He made some nice throw us, but I think he completed 12 passes.

Yep, 12 passes. Like Jared Stidham couldn't do something like that? I mean, he hasn't really thrown a pass in over a year in a competitive football game. I'm sure he still knows how to, like, throw a spiral, though. I'm sure. It was funny because Peyton quickly shot down the note. that the starter and the backup split reps during the season. He's like, that's kind of a fallacy.

Like, we don't do that. New England's a five and a half point favorite, and I think that's fair. And actually, an interesting debate is who's the best quarterback left in the postseason. It's either Drake May or Matt Stafford, but, you know, Drake May. It's the two MVP candidates. Yeah. I mean, he's turning into a star before our very eyes.

But, you know, listen, let's not get hung up on that. Drake made needs to learn how to hang on to the football. I don't know how many of you watched in detail that New England Houston game. See, that could be something that costs the Patriots in Denver. Denver's got a great defense and they're going to be playing at home. That was not befitting of a playoff game, the way that that game was played between the Patriots and the Texans. It looked like just which team wanted to win less. I've never seen that many turnovers in my life in a playoff game.

I think it stopped at eight mercifully, but May had more fumbles than he actually lost. He football the ball four times and lost it twice. And I'm just giving Juan and Comox a hard time. Of course, the Jarrett Stidham-led Broncos have a shot on Sunday in the AFC championship. But that's the other big news of the weekend is that Bo Nix is out for the remainder of the year with a fractured ankle. I've got a few Broncos buddies. And I was like, well, at least you got to enjoy that win for, what, six minutes before that report came out? And I know this isn't like revolutionary analysis, but it completely sucks that this has happened.

because the Broncos were a very, very intriguing team the way that they won that game, the way that they took care of Josh Allen. Knicks played well. How good their defense is, how tough they are at home. It just takes, I mean, really, you can lose your starting quarterback during the regular season, but to do it ahead of the AFC championship game,

it's such a gut punch. And it takes away from what would be a great game, of two of the best young quarterbacks in the AFC going head to head for a spot in the Super Bowl. It would have been fantastic. Okay, that's 6-0. home loss to the Edmonton Oilers, there was, there were some corresponding moves that were announced the following day. Patrick Alvin announced that Victor Mancini and goalie Nikita Tolapilo had been assigned

to Abbotsford. D.Pedy has been recalled from Abbotsford and Goley Yuripatera has been recalled from Abbotsford under emergency conditions. I felt bad for Tolo Pelo on Saturday. That was... That was rough. You know, the Canucks have had a number of games where they've had, I guess, the third stringer in, and they've been shelled.

You know, Tolo Pilo, he's had, what, a couple games, not Saturdays, but a couple games where he's faced at least 40 shots. Yes. And they're like, all right, we got a young guy in that. Let's give him some work. Let's not protect him in the slate. Yeah.

I just want to say on that, by the way, sorry to cut you off, but I was listening to Sat and Bick between the second and third period. See, yeah, the second intermission, and that was after the sixth goal onslaught in the second period. And they said between the vibe in the building and the body language they were getting in, what they were witnessing on the bench,

that they actually thought that the Canucks might put Kevin Lankton in, who was sick and under the weather and not even on the bench, they might have to put him in for the third period just to get total pilo out of there because they were, I'm not joking, I'm not trying to put words in their mouths, but it sounded like they were legitimately concerned about cracking total pillow in half

with how badly that went against an opponent, and we're not talking about some bottom-man low-scoring team. We're talking about an eminent team with Connor McDavid that can pounce at a moment's notice and really bury you.

McDivode do only got like one assist, I know, I know. I think his mere presence probably. And there was no dry saddle there. No, and that was the thing. You thought maybe, maybe the Kinex would be able to escape without having it cave in on them. But I think you saw in the second period, like six goals and what was it, 14 minutes. I felt awful for Toil Pila because he shouldn't be in that position.

Well, this is the balance that is tough to strike in a rebuild, too. You want to play the young kids. And we're not complaining about the rebuild, okay? We're just saying these are the things. They're not in a rebuild. Well. They're not in a rebuild. They're playing some young kids.

They are. They are. They're playing a lot of Young D. And they played a young goalie against the Edmonton Oilers on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. It didn't go well for them. So this is the balance you have to strike between giving them NHL experience, but also trying to keep their confidence high and making sure they have something to work on. Now, in a lot of cases, you need to support your young players. but the NHL is also a bit of a sink or swim league.

You're either going to learn your lessons and become a better player out of this or there are going to be some cases where you lose your confidence and your conclusion is that you can't play in this league. I'm not discounting that at all. And that is the reality of the league and it's a tough league and it's not supposed to be easy to be in the NHL. It's not. You know, you get a chance. you can see if you can do it.

You'll often get multiple chances. But if you don't go back to the HL or if you don't in the off-season work on your game, then there are lots of other young guys that will take your spot. See, it's a very fine line. Because for me, part of becoming really good at your job and quite frankly growing as an individual is dealing with some adversity

and having some hard times. because the sooner you're able to navigate those choppy waters, the better served you're going to be when it inevitably happens again later on. To think that you're going to go through your career and it's going to be swimmingly awesome. It's naive, right? So part of me is like, yeah, it's tough that young players are getting thrown into unfortunate circumstances,

but there is a sinker swim element. My bigger concern right now is that on the weekend, the three defensemen that played the most minutes were still Hronick, Pedersen, and, Myers, all of whom are Marcus. Marcus Pedersson, all of whom are veteran presences and have played a lot of NHL games. And the forwards that got the most minutes

were still Garland, Besser, Lius Pedersen, and Evander Cain. So it's not quite the rebuild that a lot of you think are envisioned. This is what happens when you play all the kids, because there's still a lot of veteran players that are out there logging pretty significant minutes.

Yeah. PD was minus four. Besser was minus three, Heronic, minus two. Like, yeah, There were some young guys, some of the young defensemen took minus twos as well. But yeah, I think that's, that's, I hate the black and white. Oh, well, you wanted to rebuild? I do too. This is it.

Like, first of all, Canucks fans are allowed some residual anger and frustration over what has happened. You can't just be like, okay, well, no, you stop being angry now because they're losing. and that's what you want. It's like, no, we don't, we don't want losing so much as a well-thought-out rebuild. And, and I have no problem

if you've reached the conclusion of, I don't know if this management group is up to it. Well, I just look, I look at a little bit black and white, and they're not in a rebuild right now. But they will be. They're going to answer it to it. Sure, great.

But right now, it's a team that still has a lot of guys that this management group signed on to be competitive that they're playing and just kind of floating, just kind of going through it. Now I saw a lot of people texting in on Saturday and a lot of people were like,

can we show some semblance of comeback or fight or spirit or that you're pissed off at the result? And to me, that's also not the antidote. I don't think that you need somebody going in there and trying to fight Vasili Podkoles into the third period of six nothing game

because it's not going to prove anything. It's not going to do anything. They need to change out. a majority of this roster. Yeah. And I do not buy for one second, one second, that there's enough viable mentor candidates on the active roster. Sorry, I don't.

You know who is a totally viable veteran mentor that came here for one year and left? Ian Cole. And there's a lot of Ian Cole's out there. If you want someone to show up and to teach everyone how to be a professional, go find someone later and sign them to a short-term deal and tell them that's their explicit reason for being in the NHL. If you're going to lose anyway, It doesn't really matter if the guy can play all that well. That's a good point.

If he played well at some point in his career, that's important. If he's hung around in the NHL for a long time, he knows what it takes to stick there. Bring him in and show all the young kids how to do it. If you're going to lose anyway. But don't do it with Garland and Pedersen and Cain and Bessor and Horonick and Marcus Pedersen and Tyler Myers doing all the heavy lifting in terms of time on ice. Don't do it. There's a lot of texts coming in about Adam Foote.

And a few texts about his media avail over the weekend. And he's struggling a bit up there when he's trying to communicate what's going on. And listen, let's have a little bit of fun here. Lettie, have you got it ready to go? Here's a, can you set this up for a cell for? I can. Okay. So in the middle of his media availability on the weekend, Adam Foote was asked about

Elias Pedersen's line specifically in the second period where the score went from zero zero to six nothing. And then by extension, the question was asked about Pedersen's group and a lot of the veteran

presences on the team what the coach needs to see from them if he needs more from them given that things really fell apart in a very short period of time in the second period. And you know, by the score ended up being six nothing rather lopsided.

Okay, listen closely and you tell us what the message is here. Everybody. Like, you know, it's, and like I said, I will say, it's going to be harshly looked or looked so hard because of our situation where if, you know, you're back in the day

and our team or Detroit back in the day, we all had our big games where we lost big or it didn't look good. You know what I mean? And even, veteran guys have had moments where they just didn't have, you know, I've been there, like I said earlier. But now everything is because of this.

And, you know, there's not a lot of room for error. But we're going to keep building it and keep working on it and keep teaching the details and, you know, keep supporting these guys. So they don't, you know, we've got to build their confidence and teach them how to survive these situations when they happen so that they're going to grow. They're going to grow from this and we'll keep helping them out through it.

Just keep on trucking. Sir, this is the Wendy's. I get what he was saying, but it was not well delivered. I don't care about the delivery. I do. I think communication is. I think that ship is long sailed. I think it's fairly well established.

There might be an issue with the message getting across. But I don't like, don't like that we're a game 40. eight now. Anyway, and it's still young guys making mistakes as the sort of overarching theme to the entire issue. S is out. It's like they're young, they're young defensemen.

We're teaching them. I'm like, are you? Are you? The centermen are, you know, centermen aren't very good. It's like, yeah, but, but they know how to play hockey, right? Well, he's got a few very blanket statements

that he falls back on. And that's fine because I don't think that he's in the business or, quite frankly, has the interest of going after any of his veteran players through the media. I think it's probably done behind closed doors. And I know that the healthy scratch of, say, Jake DeBrasch, for example, shows that there is some line being towed. But at the same time, when we've only got certain things to parse through and we're trying to figure out where things are going, if you are indeed in a rebuild, it sure seems like a lot of the issues with winning and losing right now, are being pinned on young guys making mistakes and making them over and over and over again. Yeah.

Right? And at that point, I think a question has to be raised is, when are they going to get fixed? What steps are being done to make sure that they're corrected? And do you see a time in the not too distant future where maybe you don't put these young guys in as many situations to make the mistakes that they're making?

Those are all viable questions. I think another conversation is, frankly, what kind of coach should the Canucks target for next season? Yeah. Because I'd be shocked if Adam foot is back. I mean, I know some people have said, well, there's maybe a 20% chance.

For me, it's, I don't know. I never say 0%, but 1%. Well, you need a teacher. You need a teacher. We didn't plan that. Yeah. You need someone who can teach these guys how to play. And Manny Mahaltrow, to me,

I've never been in the dressing room, Mani Mahaltra, you know, but by all accounts. You never worked under him? No, never got coached him? You know what? He never played me. That's fair. Never played, man.

He was like, you're skating is just awful. See, man, he gets it. He's got a good eye for talent and what talent doesn't look like. But that's a profile of the coach. I think it's more than fair to start wondering about coaching changes in the offseason. There's no reason to fire Adam foot now, unless the Canucks come up with one. I don't know. And if they do, if they do fire Adam foot, if they do fire Adam foot,

Yeah. What an absolute botching of the coaching situation by the Vancouver Canucks, not only failing to keep Rick Tocket, but then anointing a guy whose main job was to keep Quinn Hughes happy and Quinn was not happy. And then in a rebuild where you have basically said, like, we want to lose games. We've come to the point where this season, this season, we don't know about next season, but this season we want to lose games. You know, they're not going to fire them. That's why. Because it would look, it would look so, so bad to fire them.

Just be like, even though we're losing and we want to lose, we still need to fire the coach. Well, a lot of executive groups don't get a fourth coach in their tenure. It's a lot, less we forget. And I know the inherited Boudreau. Yeah, they'd be like, but we wanted to keep Rick. Yeah, but what happened? And go back through the chronology of it. It wasn't like the Boudreau exit was super clean.

That was messy, and it still rankled some people to this day in the National Hockey League about how that was handled. Now, say what you will about that. You can have your opinions, but if you line it up chronologically, they went from Boudro to Tockeet under pretty odd circumstances. They went from Tocet to foot under very strange circumstances. And by strange circumstances, I mean, they were desperate for him to stay. And he said, no. if they move on from foot, that's four coaches

that they will have cycled through and the foot chapter will be regarded as one of the worst in franchise history. Never mind this regime's history. It'll be the worst in Canucks history. Adam Foote's going to end up with one of the worst coaching records

in Vancouver Canucks coaching history by the time this season is done. Okay, there's a little more Canucks news to share. Teddy Blugher could be playing tonight. Yeah, the Canucks have a game tonight against the islanders. I'm going to go. Joe Fan. Nice.

I'm going. I'm sitting there. Nice. And it'll be my first game of the season. So maybe my attendance will turn this thing around. That's it. Playoffs, baby. Bluger is going to want to get his legs before the Olympics

because he's going to represent Latvia over in Italy. And the Canucks will want to get him up and running and showing that he's healthy enough to play because he's a pending unrestricted free agent. And I'm sure they'd like to get a late round pick for him ahead of the trade deadline. Philip Heedle also practiced in a non-contact jersey

and spoke to the media afterwards. The conucks are going to be more cautious with Heedle for good reason, considering he's out with another concussion, but it sounds like everything is going well for Heedel. Hopefully,

concussions are just so hard to predict. Hopefully he can stay healthy. time. But the Canucks also need to be mindful that they really, really take care of the player and recommend doing what's right for the player in this situation because it is a lost season and I'm sure Heidel

is dying to get back out on the ice because he wants to show the league and everyone, you know, maybe the Czech head coach that left him off the Olympic roster that he is able to play and his career is not over. But, you know,

the Canucks also have an obligation to take care of their employees and make sure that doctors are signing off on this. So I know we're up against it for time, but I do want to play the audio, not the Heidel audio. That was a long clip, but I'll try and paraphrase as fast as possible. Heidel yesterday was asked a multitude of questions about his health,

and a couple of them asked about whether his entire family was on board with his return or not, meaning, you know, do they want you to continue trying to pursue your professional hockey career or have the multiple concussions suggested that maybe it's time to shut it down. Heidel then pivoted it off that and said that, you know, the media is going to say what they want to say and write what they want to write on that front. But I have the backing of my family. And then he went off into a tangent about something that the check head coach said.

His name is Redeem Rulik upon the selection announcement for the check team. There was like a Google Translate that was being kicked around social media. And I don't really understand exactly what Heidel would have taken issue with. I guess the coach alluded to the fact that they heard that Heidel might have been returning to play sooner than he has. And that might have made him available for selection. But where it is at right now, Heedle's only an option for that team if someone was to fall out of the picture. So there's a lot going on there. We can play some of the audio later on in the show.

We've got some audio from Philippeal. We've got some audio from Adam Foote on Philippeal about that. very notion getting back into play despite the repeated concussion history. Okay, we got to go. The first hour of the show is in the books. Hour two is on the horizon. I'll remind you that this segment of the show was brought to by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal and why nobody has since 1926. Visit Duick Jam on Marine Drive, Duick downtown, duick and Richmond and online at the Duick Auto Group.com. Coming up on the other side of the break, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone is going to join us.

We will preview next weekend's AFC and NFC. Title games will also look back on all the news from the divisional round and the big news of the morning from the NFL. Sean McDermott fired as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.