Halford & Brough in the Morning - Losing Streak Snapped

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the Canucks snapping their 11 game losing streak yesterday with a win over the Washington Capitals (3:00), plus they discuss yesterday's wild press conference from Bills owner Terry Pegula, as WGR 550 Buffalo's Brayton J Wilson (27:29) joins the show.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a fucking Canucks? Da-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough.

Yeah, it feels good to finally get a win. Yeah. Yeah, it's a relief, obviously. What a freaking boost. They came together, and they were resilient. I love it. They're going to build from this. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Thursday.

Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford and his broth. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios, and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adon, good morning to you.

Good morning. Gladdy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Browth of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Got payday loan debt. If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands. Dashtrustee.com.

an hour one of the program, hour one, is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Pall Street in Vancouver. We're coming live from the Kintech Studio, make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. Big show ahead on a Thursday. It's a four guester today, five guester yesterday, four guester today on the Halford and Breft Show on Sportsnet 650. Time now for the Doick Morning Drive. That's our morning. morning rundown of the guests. Guest list today begins at 630.

Brayton J. Wilson. Ooh, sounds regal. He is from WGR 550 Sports Radio in Buffalo. He was in attendance for that wild, wild Terry Pagula Presser yesterday that took the internet by storm. How is the city of Buffalo feeling

after a whirlwind 96 hours for the bills? Their recently departed head coach, their owner, all of it. We will ask Brayton at 630. 7 o'clock Ufa Bowden's going to join the program. He is now the head of content creation for a sports agency called Better Collective, but today he serves as our chief Swedish hockey correspondent. So as it currently stands, Sweden's Olympic team is without injured players, William Neelander, Leo Carlson, Joel Ericksonek,

Jonas Brodeen, and Victor Headman. That's a lot of guys. What are they going to do at the Olympics? We'll talk to Ufa about that. We'll also get a more in-depth scouting report on Ivor Stenberg, the possible number one overall pick at this year's draft. 730 Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN, is going to join the program. I think we all know what's going on here. Seahawks, Rams, NFC championship this Sunday at 3.30. Winner, of course, advances to the Super Bowl in Santa Clara

and all of the electromagnetic fields that you get in Santa Clara. Brady's going to join us at 7.30 this morning. 8 o'clock, it's Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk. As you heard in the intro, Canucks win. Canucks win. Snap the 11-game losing streak last night with a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals. We'll talk to Dranser about all that and get into some Canucks trade talk as well at 8 a.m.

We got so much on the go, not even going to do the show list in reverse. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? missed it? You missed that? What? 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 BCCCSA.ca.

Brock Besser had a goal and an assist. The Canucks scored four unanswered goals on route to snapping their 11-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night. Canucks win. Canucks win. I think it's fair to say that the Connox is. responded in a positive way to their coaches' comments after Monday's loss.

We'll play some Adam Foot audio coming up in just a few seconds. Last night, the Kinex fell behind early by two coals and kind of got screwed by the referees in the process. So what a test for this team. Were they going to fold their tents and just say, well, the world is out to get us? That's what I do every day. But the Kinnaks did not. And based on the fact that they came back, scoring first.

Four straight goals, won the game. I guess they didn't act, defeated on the bench, or let their frustrations get the best of them. Now, they were tested again late in the game. The Caps pulled the goalie down two and made it a one goal game with just over three minutes remaining, but the Cunuchs pulled themselves together enough to get it over the finish line.

And honestly, it was a pretty big roar from the crowd at Rogers Arena when the final horn. went. I wasn't at the ring, but it popped on my TV. It popped. Maybe I just wasn't used to cheering at Rogers Arena. But don't they know about the tank? Don't they don't know the people that were there to watch a hockey game? For one night. They allowed it? They allowed it. They said, you know what? Let's snap this 11 game losing streak. Yeah. Even though, even though it directly defies the tank, they were happy last night, Jason. I heard the pop as well at the end of that game. And it's understandable.

11 losses in a row. That's a lot. 09 and 2. Two games went past regulation. Nine regulation losses. It's a lot of losing. Every now and again, fans just want to see a win, even if it's counterintuitive to finishing dead last in the NHL.

Okay, we'll get to some of the players who had good nights for the Canucks and maybe try and trade them out of town because of they did that. But first, let's hear from Adam Foote about what he had to say about the Canucks not only getting the win, but doing it in the fashion that they did, getting tested. I would say twice, falling behind 2-0 and on kind of a weird call from the referee, but also right at the end where they had to hold on and avoid the late game collapse. Okay, so the first clip is how the veteran players, who Adam Foote called out following Monday

night's loss to the Islanders, did it a little different this time, and they handled adverse. Well, here's Adam Foot following the win over Washington. It was good. We got down early as you saw and they were resilient. I think the best part about it was how our bench was after being down to nothing. It was really calm and you got to get a lot of credit to the guys for not getting rattled. It was really, you know, T.J. the ref came up to us after the first and he said he missed that call. It was a really odd call, though.

I could see why he missed it. You don't see that happen too often in the game. But, you know, when they got the high stick on the play, here we go, here we go. Are we really, is this happening right now? But maybe it was meant to be to give a test to our guys. And they were, you know, our vets, it was one of the best game. I saw Garley and Bessor play.

Not just because he got, best got points. just he was competing and he was matched against Wilson. Real tough matchup and he defended well. So T.J. in question is referee T.J. Luxmore. Great name. Sounds like a chain of casual restaurants with a pretty good happy hour. T.J. Luxmore called a holding penalty on Max Sasson after Sasson had his stick taken out of his hands by Hendricks Lappier. And no one understood like what the rationale was for the call. I think, and it was IMAC that pointed it out,

I didn't see it on the screen, but I guess the other three officials tried to talk T.J. Luxmore out of it, but he wasn't having it. Called the penalty anyway, and then I guess he went up to the bench afterwards and tried to explain what he was thinking or seeing on that one. If the game mattered more, the call would have mattered more, but it did provide a moment for the Kanax to go through adversity

yet again this season and have something not go their way. And kudos to the group, at least in Adam Foote's estimation, for not letting it go off the rails at that very moment. Do you think they were all coming back to the bench and just very carefully closing the gate and very carefully putting their sticks down? Head held high. They're like, you know what?

I don't even mind that call. The vets responded well after I directly called them out. Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, right? Not a single one smashed his stick when I specifically asked them not to smash their sticks. The vet's just like, we're still in this, guys. Let's stay positive than looking around and smiling at Adam Foot.

Everyone like Sacks at Bester, like, oh, Besswood looks great. This is the worst day of my life. He had a golden assist, though, despite grinning through it all. Here is Adam Foote, another quote yesterday, talking about how he hopes. I'm being a good role model. That's right. That's not quite the vibe, but close. How the Canucks in this group are going to build from the resilience shown last night. Well, it's great. It's, it gives them the confidence. Like, you know, like I said, it's normal to feel frustrated what's been going on with this group as far as they haven't got to bounce from an injury all year. I mean, it's, I've never seen anything like it.

And then, you know, what happened with how you leaving and then extended injuries, Demko and things like that? And they get challenged. And they decided they can't. came together and they were resilient. I love it. They're going to build from this. And, you know, I'm happy for them. I'm proud of them. So let's hope that they do. Because one of the recurring themes with this particular group is that just when you think

that they've put something past them, we're just when you think that they've, they're no longer going to make the mistakes that they used to make, they go out and make them again. that was sort of the bigger takeaway from Monday's remarks from Adam Foote. It wasn't that they were hanging their heads and smashing their sticks and slamming their gates. It was that they were doing it again. And this was something that they just couldn't seem to eradicate from this group. It was a different coach behind the bench. It was a different kind of messaging.

The vibes were different, but the behavior was the same. One game does not change everything. It's a step in the right direction, sure. but I'm going to be much more curious to see what happens when it continues to hit this group because I'm going to tell you something out there in listener land. There are more tough times ahead for this group as this season's played out.

What did you think of Jake DeBrusk commenting in IMAX article? And he wasn't trying to, I don't think he was trying to push back in a meaningful way to what Adam Foote had said. But he did say, look, when I was in Boston, there were guys slamming gates and snapping their sticks and these are pretty good competitors. And he kind of suggested like it's not a big deal. Myers did the same thing, by the way.

Is the biggest deal the fact that their coach told them to knock it off? Because some coaches will have a different attitude about this, right? They'll be like, yeah, they're like coaches have different opinions, just like fans have different opinions. And I've seen a few people and I'm not going to push back too much on these people. that say look, he's coming back and he's yelling and he's frustrated that he didn't get a goal. At least it shows that he cares. Okay, fair enough, right?

But this coaching staff, and that goes back to when Adam Foote was on Rick Tocke's staff, their philosophy was that's wasted energy, right? And when you're in a game and if you're frustrated, you're probably losing the game, let's channel that energy. let's not take away from the focus of the team by being distraction and let's knock that stuff off, right? I'm really glad you brought this up. I'm really glad you brought this up

because when we had this conversation yesterday, there were way too many of you in listener land texting in with that exact argument, pushback analysis. And that's great, but you're missing the point. Forest from the trees, all that stuff. the biggest takeaway here is the coach told him to do something and they didn't do it

and I didn't like Debrusk and I didn't like Myers being like that's no big deal to me that's more of the problem if it took Adam foot 49 games to finally say something it's a big enough deal that he said it and secondly

if the coach tells you to do something and it's within reason like he's not asking you go out there murder people if it's within reason and it's his philosophy murder people quietly with focus yeah

And don't hang your head after you do it. Be proud. If the cops show up, you're not going to, you know, hang your head. You've got to get your way out of this. Slam the door in his face. But it's one of those things where if you're not listening to the coach and you're not paying attention to his message, I think there's a much larger story here and a much larger situation

that really needs to be analyzed by the decision makers and the people of power at the organization. Because you're not going to give your coach a fighting chance or in the case of Rick Talkit, he's not going to stick around to see how it turns out if he can't get his message through to the guys. It's very simple. If you want to relate it to the majority of people out there,

try not listening to your boss with regularity and push back against some of the few key tenets that he or she has to do your job. See how that goes, right? Especially when something like this, it makes sense. You just laid it out pretty clearly. There's a reason they don't want players to do this.

It's not just because they don't like it. It's because they think it adversely affects the collective and they think it's wasted energy and it's a distraction. All those for me, I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Don't do it. Listen to the coach. The coach is the guy in charge.

Bruce let us do it. Right. And that's going to be the pushback. Other teams around the league, other teams around the league, I'm sure the coach is like, you know what? You be you. If you're pissed off and frustrated, go ahead. Let it out right now and get it over with.

Every time another team slams the gate, they just look up at foot. See? Well, they're allowed to do it. They did it over there. Right. Well, in their house, there are different rules. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. We don't live there, though.

Right? You live here. And like, this is the whole point. It's like living in North Korea here. This is the whole point of the thing is at the highest level. It's like, are you on board or are you not border? Are you buying in or are you not buying it? When people ask, like, what are those sentiments actually mean?

I'm like, that's kind of it. It's like sometimes you have to put your personal feelings or your desire to show your frustrations aside for the greater good, which is everyone pulling the rope in the same direction and doing the things the coach wants them to do. That to me seems pretty straightforward. My buddy's kid actually said that to him once. He said, it's like living in North Korea in this house.

And so he shipped him off to North Korea. I'll show you. It was also a good night for Vancouver's many, many, many, many trade candidates, including Evander Cain, who showed up again. He scored, but he also got a good forecheck in, didn't get a point on Brock Bessor's goal that led to the continued forecheck by David Kempth, who had a good game. And I thought the returning Teddy Bluger looked, pretty good. I read that the

connects are 3 and O with Bluger in the lineup. Yeah. He's been the key. So if they get Bluger. Patrick Galvinia is like, see, it's been injuries. Bluger, Rossi, Heedl. You're looking at 12 and 5. It's a cup winner. Yeah. It's a cup winner. Yeah. No frustrations there.

Which one of those pending UFAs will net the biggest return? Kane, Camp, Teddy Bluger. Probably Kane. Oh, Camp, Easley. easily. The thing is, like,

you're always looking for centers, right? Even Teddy Blugher was traded to Vegas, and they didn't even use them. Yeah. But they just had them as a spare center. You always want to have a bunch of centers if you want to go for a long cup run.

It's probably Kane, but regardless, they all need to be cashed in. Hopefully the scouts have noticed that Kane has turned it on a bit lately. If I'm the Canucks, I'd want to move him as soon as possible, given his injury risk, with no real reason to keep him in Vancouver any longer? Like, I don't think, like, I don't think he's going to be part of the future here. But teams closer to the cap, or maybe ones that just

want to take the time if they have it, may want to wait right up until the deadline. Okay, let's talk about the deadline. Just so everyone knows, the Olympic roster freeze starts February fourth. And then the actual trade deadline is a month later on March 6th. So there's almost two deadlines this season. The Canucks have seven games left until the Olympic break. I'm going to throw another guy's name out there that we haven't talked about much in terms of trades, but apparently the Canucks have had calls on Drew O'Connor. Is that someone they should consider moving? Yes.

Or do you keep him for next season because you do need players and see if you can't drive up his value even more? Because remember, Drew O'Connor had a pretty quiet start to this season in Vancouver to the point we were doing the old bit about what would you say you do here. And you never know. Like he might be a top six guy next season in Vancouver if they move out a bunch of other veterans, guys like Connor Garland or Jake DeBrusk. O'Connor is a big guy who can skate and you could sell that he'd do well in the playoffs.

My thought would be move him now, find another Drew O'Connor and try and elevate him next year and sell him again next year. That's the ticket here. Let's not get too attached to anybody that's over the age. I'm willing to go like really low on this one. But let's not get too attached to anybody here. Let's remember eyes on the prize. sell,

accumulate picks, and a lot of them, and do what you will with those picks. But if someone shows an interest in Drew O'Connor, like, okay, let's get them moving,

right? And then sign another version of Drew O'Connor for next year on a one or two year deal that's cheap and flip him at the deadline too. Jake DeBress had a couple of points, I think last night.

He definitely had an assist on Philip Peronix goal. So while we're at it, let's talk a bit about his potential value. He's got a no move clause for the next two years. So that complicates things a little bit

but I wonder, I just wonder if he'd be open to a move, given the way his season has gone, including the healthy scratching that Adam Foote gave him. It's actually, that's a cool way of putting it. The healthy scratching that Adam foot gave him. Yes. I've always had a hard time. Can you scratch?

I love a good healthy scratching. That's the spot. That's the spot, coach. Not all coaches do this. He's like, now you're not playing. You play well, I'll scratch your back. I don't, I've always had a hard time with the verbiage on that one. I know they say health bombed a lot.

Yeah, I don't care for that. No. If I were DeBrusk, I'd also be wondering about the future of the roster and how that's going to affect my production. We all know that DeBrusk has struggled at five on five, and so have the Canucks centers this year. So who's he, which centers, you know, there's a lot of talk about trading Elias Pedersen. Yeah. Who are going to be the offensive-minded centers in Vancouver? next season. Is it going to be

Philippeal and Marco Rossi if Pedersen's out? And I don't know if he will be. But that's how I'd be thinking if I'm Jake DeBress, because you want to put yourself in the best position to succeed and, you know, I'm sure everyone would want to rather play for a winning team.

You know, I'll just jump in on that DeBresc thing. You know, when he signed here, I do remember there was a lot of talk from him specifically about going to a Canadian market, playing in a Canadian market, and in the playoffs and being part of it because of his dad's career and his dad obviously working with like sports net and hockey night and getting to see these big moments and these big events that I mean he played in big games in Boston but he just wanted to have it in one of quote unquote those type markets and since he's come here it's gone in the exact opposite direction right you got to think that this is just not worked out the way that he and his camp assumed it was going to I don't think it takes a Rhodes scholar to figure that point out I think that that conversation should be as soon as the season's over,

or maybe even before, if he doesn't want to play out the year here. But that's a conversation that they should talk about, hey, are we really going to keep doing this for the duration of your contract? Because we're not getting any better. And that, you know, idea of playing in a Canadian market in the playoffs, it's not going to happen here for a couple years. I love that goal by Philip Peronick last night. The recognition that the caps were vulnerable to an odd man rush,

demanding the puck from V-Lander. It was like, okay, okay. and then finishing off the two-on-one with DeBrusk, I don't think Kronix's going to get traded. His agent sure doesn't like the speculation about it. Future captain, man. But man, could he net a big return and both sides were open to it?

Which I don't think they will be. But man. 28 years old, right in his prime, playing a premium position as a right-shot defenseman with a very affordable cap hit. But again, I don't think he's going to. I don't think he's getting traded either, but I'm nodding my head along with everything you said and written here. I think he's much more likely to remain in Vancouver as a leader, teacher, role model for guys like Tom Vlander, and possibly even Keaton Verhoff, who is the right shot defenseman played for Canada, the world juniors, who many people expect to go third overall.

And don't forget, even though the Canucks are dead last in the NHL, if they finish that way, the most likely pick is number three. Right. And I understand, back to the erroneous part of this equation. Like, I think if you're going to, like, you've heard me talk. I move everybody, right? But if there's one guy that, and there's a number of things that he's done here, he's shown up every night. he's played remarkably well. The fact that he's, I think he is plus minus is zero.

The fact that he's been able to do that, logging like 27 minutes a night, often against the top opposition. He's a competitor too. You can tell. He likes to play hockey and he doesn't want to talk. And that's fine. Because if you're putting up your end of the bargain

and you're putting in a good, honest shift every night and you're playing like what the club needs you to be, then I'm like, okay, there's a guy that you want to keep around. Also, you want to talk about someone's going to, said an example, how about someone that does it with actions instead of words? As opposed to so many other people around the organization. How about someone that just goes out and does their job and then

doesn't need a pat on the back and doesn't get the highs or lows that you're talking about with some of these other veteran players? Like, goes out, plays, does everything you ask of them, goes home, and then does it the next day. Here's some pretty good lessons there that I think he could instill into a younger generation. So I don't mind if Hronix sticks

around. That being said, they could get an absolute truckload if they were to move, like a truckload if they were to move them. You could sell a good story. You're giving whatever incoming team a lot of cap control with how many years he's got left on his term. Yeah, I'm with you there. You could get a lot in return for Hironic.

That was a bad loss by Washington, which got Tom Wilson back from injury and still blew a 2-0 lead to the worst team in the league. There's going to be a good team or two that misses the playoffs in the east where it's a very different race than in the West, and maybe it's going to be the Washington Capitals. What's going up next?

Coming up on the other side of the break, we're going to change gears, change lanes, if you will. Brayton J. Wilson's going to join the program. He is a sports reporter for WGR 550 Sports Radio in Buffalo. Buffalo is going crazy right now. Yesterday's Terry Pagula Press conference, which I didn't realize was an absolute rarity, him going up there, not just speaking,

but speaking as candidly as he did about Keon Coleman and Sean McDermott, everything else that's going on. The bills mean everything to Buffalo, and yesterday was a wild day for the bills. So we will talk to Brayton J. Wilson out of Buffalo. Maybe we can get into some Sabres talk as well because they had some news coming across yesterday as well. But that's coming up on the other side.

7 oofa Bowden's going to join us for so Swedish hockey talk. 7.30 Brady Henderson for some Seahawks talk. And then at 8, it's the Dranser Thomas Drance. For some Canucks talk, you're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650

or wherever you get your podcast. on a trash Thursday here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Halford Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you getting collection calls? If so, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% and stop those calls. Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com for more. Still an hour one of the program, Brayton J. Wilson from WGR 550 Sports Radio in Buffalo is going to join us in just a moment here.

Hour one of this program is brought to by North Starman. 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. A very eventful last five days in the city of Buffalo. Joining us now to break it all down, as mentioned, from WGR 550, Brayton J. Wilson here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Brayton. How are you? Good morning, gentlemen. How are you guys in Vancouver today? We are well. We have been watching with morbid curiosity. what's been going on in Buffalo over the last five days. So I'm trying to break it all down for the listeners. Saturday, it's the heartbreaking loss in Denver, in overtime to the Broncos.

Monday, Sean McDermott's fired after nine years on the job, one of the longest tenured coaches in franchise history. And then yesterday, Terry Pagula, the owner of the Bills and the Sabres, has a, let's just call it, an eventful press conference discussing the dismissal and a lot of other things as well.

how hard have the last five days hit the city of Buffalo, Brayton? Yeah, I mean, it's been a whirlwind. You know, certainly Saturday's loss was a loss like, you know, we've seen before here in Western New York with playoff heartbreak. And it's kind of been a theme of the bills is every year that they've been to the playoffs recently, it seems to one way or another. They come so close to finding a way to finally get over that hump. And then they end up losing in just soul-crushing fashion.

Monday's news was. certainly surprising. And, you know, just after 9 o'clock, all of a sudden we get the blurb that Sean McDermott's been fired as the head coach. And then, yeah, yesterday's press conference was certainly an interesting one, maybe not one of the more interesting, you know, entertaining ones that have been done over the years here in Buffalo. There's certainly been some dozies.

But, yeah, yesterday's press conference, and Terry Pagula made it very clear that it was his decision and his decision alone to fire the head coach, really based off of the locker room after that loss to the Broncos where, you know, he tried to talk to Josh Allen. He saw the players' reactions. He said he could feel the pain and the emotions of that loss and felt that a change was needed and that Shaw McDermott wasn't going to be that guy to be able to get the bills over the hump. So now the head coaching search begins for a new man to try to find that answer is the bills look to get back to the Super Bowl and win their first championship. I'm not following the process of going into the locker room, seeing

a sad Josh Allen, of course he's going to be sad, and then deciding that I need to fire the coach. Can you explain this to me further? Well, certainly, yeah, it definitely got that feel that the decision was made based purely off of emotion. And, you know, there was some pushback yesterday during the press conference with regards to that decision. And Terry Pagula sort of elaborated on it a little bit saying that he felt. felt that the bill's at a proverbial playoff wall where he felt that, you know, the bills have been to the playoffs for seven straight years. They've won in the wild card round six straight years, and they either get to the divisional

round or the AFC championship game, and they cannot find a way to overcome their past demons and get past whoever they're playing, whether it be the chiefs, the Bengals, or in this case, the Broncos, and get, you know, to the next round of the playoffs and get to that Super Bowl. So, yeah, certainly it was a very interesting press conference yesterday, some of the comments that we heard from the owner of the Buffalo Bills. And, yeah, I mean, it just felt really odd that the decision would come based purely off emotions because you know what they say. You know, you don't want to make decisions solely based off emotions.

And the elaboration was, you know, it is what it is. But, yeah, it was very suspect. It's a tough time to fire a coach, too, because a lot of the, Top candidates have already been hired. Have you heard any names linked to the Buffalo Bills? What's the speculation about who's going to take over the job? Yeah, I mean, this coaching cycle seems, I mean, I've heard it's a weaker cycle. And, you know, some people don't like some of the candidates out there.

But, you know, the bills have announced at least, it's been reported that there's been six candidates that they are set to interview or talk with. point here, and obviously that list could be expanded a little bit. But Joe Brady was interviewed yesterday by the team. That's an obvious with him being the current offensive coordinator of the team. Former offensive coordinator in Western New York native Brian Davel is also in consideration, reported to be in consideration for the job. Obviously, he's recently served as the head coach of the New York Giants. Grant Udinski, who is the offensive coordinator for the Jaguars this year,

helped Trevor Lawrence, along with Liam Cohen, to being an MVP finalist. this year, Anthony Waver, Weaver with the Dolphins, their defensive coordinator, he's reportedly going to get an interview. And then one of the more interesting names that I thought was strange, but I can understand Anthony Lynn, he was the interim bill's head coach for the final game that in the 2016 season when Rex Ryan got fired as head coach. He coached that last game where the bills, you know, got blown out by a Jets team in New York. And certainly an interesting list. And, you know, that, Again, that list is certainly expected to grow,

but the one thing that Brandon Bean, general manager and president of football operations with Bill said yesterday, it is going to be 100% open search for the new head coach, and he doesn't care if it's an old coach, he doesn't care if it's a young coach, a first-time head coach, a grizzled veteran of the NFL in coaching circles, he wants to find that right guy to get the team over the hump. We're speaking to Brayton J. Wilson from WGR 550 Sports Radio in Buffalo after a wild five days for the Buffalo bills. Brayton, please explain to me the Keon Coleman situation and why he was trending on social media yesterday. Yeah, that was a wild sort of situation yesterday because, yeah, Keon Coleman has been a bit of a divisive conversation piece this season for the Buffalo Bills just because we can see the talent that's there and the potential that's there with a player like Coleman and his ability to be a contested basketball.

catcher in tough situations and being a guy that, you know, has decent speed after the catching can break free and do some things on the field that we've seen in spurts. But the biggest bugaboo with Keanu Coleman has been maturity issues. You know, he's been late to practice meetings. He's missed meetings. And that led to in-game suspensions. It led to healthy scratches for games this year. And, you know, that was the thing that was brought up yesterday was, you know, sort of the

situation where, you know, was there something between, you know, McDermott or, you know, whatever with Bean and drafting him? And then obviously the big talking point of that press conference was when Peripagula came in and said, look, that was, that was the coaching staff's decision to draft Dion Coleman. You know, that wasn't Brandon Bean's top pick that he wanted to make. He was just being a team player. Now, later on, he kind of walked it back and was trying to explain it a little bit more saying, oh, it's a collaborative. effort that we have when it comes to drafting players and, you know, figuring out who we want to bring in that helps fit the Buffalo Bills and what we're trying to do here. But, I mean, what was said was

said was, you know, and, you know, for people that kind of took that and, you know, maybe left the press conference a little early hearing just the fact that it seemed like the owner was throwing the head coach under the bus was absolutely wild. But yeah, I mean, Keon Coleman, I think he's a fairly decent wide receiver. It's just he's got to get over those maturity issues. and he's got to grow up. And, you know, especially after today, I think there's huge questions whether or not Keon Coleman is a member of the Buffalo bills come next season.

Yeah, I think that's fair to say as well. As anyone heard from Sean McDermott, is he going to have a press conference? No. So, essentially the only thing that was put out there was from, I think, Ian Rappaport or Tom Pellasaro over on Monday later on in the day, they tweeted out a letter of Sean McDermott, you know, thanking the bill, thanking the bill fans, and just, you know, the time that he spent in Buffalo, I mean, nine years. He came here in a time where the team had not made the playoffs in 17 straight years.

The team was one of the laughing stocks of the NFL, and he brought respectability to the bills. He brought a sense of success and prowess to the team, and, you know, the last nine years have been a wild turnaround for the bills. And, you know, they're still seen as one of the respectable jobs. And, you know, even Terry Pagula was saying that this is a job that, you know, is a high priority job for some of these candidates. They want to come here and coach whether or not he's trying to, you know, speak up to the job or whatnot to try to get other candidates to call and express their interest. Regardless of that, you know, you've got the reigning MVP at quarterback. He just got named as a finalist for MVP once again this year. And, you know, there are other good pieces here in Buffalo that, you know, have.

have been a part of the organization for years that are solid pieces and that can help win in the long term. The bills just need to find a way to get over that hump. They also need to get some more weapons for Josh Allen, especially at a wide receiver. That was the big thing for the bills offensively this year was they didn't have off, they didn't have wide receivers that could get open for Josh Allen, which led to him getting sacked more and led to more pressure on Allen and led to him being more of a superhand like figure trying to go on when football games.

for the bills. And, you know, it weighed on him. And as Territuola said, it weighed on him. And it showed in the locker room. And you could get that sense even in his press conference where he came out very emotional. And, yeah, it's just there's a lot of questions surrounding the bills and they're not entirely bad questions. And nothing that you would think that, oh, this team's going to take drastic steps back next year going forward. But yeah, there's certainly questions with this team. And Shaw McDermott was one that helped answer a lot of them, and now it's about finding that next guy. Brayton, will the bill's identity change at all and the fan base when they move into this fancy new stadium? You know, that's an interesting question.

I think Shaw McDermott brought a certain identity to the team, and a lot of the players have bought into that. And, you know, unless the new coach is completely the opposite of Sean McDermott. I don't think that many of these players are going to change very much. You know, they definitely wanted to bring good culture guys into the locker room, and they wanted to, you know, bring really good character people in, and Shaw McDermott really preached that as well. And, you know, even guys like Josh Allen, they preach that as well. I don't think it's going to be super drastic, again, unless, you know,

the new head coach is a complete opposite of Shaw McDermott. But, you know, Brandon Bean is still there. And Brandon Bean saw very much eye to Iowa, Sean McDermott, out of number of matters. And, you know, yeah, even yesterday. Yesterday they talked about, they had their disagreements with certain things, whether it was drafting players or signing players or claiming players off waivers like Darius Slay. But certainly, I think that's interesting to think about.

But with Brandon Bean at the helm, I think that that culture, that mentality that they've had for the last nine years will remain relatively intact. I know you follow the Sabres pretty closely, so I do want to ask you. One hockey question is the city of Buffalo ready to latch on to the Sabres? is the hope for the city after the bills went out so painfully, or is there still a bit of a cautious optimism around the hockey team? Well, certainly having them win, you know, that huge stretch of games, the 10 straight games and, you know, 14 of 16 games, that was certainly helpful, 15 of 17, I think, actually.

But, you know, yeah, it certainly helps that the team continues to win. You know, they just beat Nashville the other night in really wild fashion. They get out to a huge 4-0 lead. nearly blow it. But yeah, certainly having the Sabres win and being successful again has been huge. And, you know, it's amazing too because, you know, with that press conference yesterday, you know, earlier in the year, the Sabres fired general manager Kevin Adams and Terry Pagula, who really hasn't spoken to the media in any instances with either the bills or the Sabres. With the general manager change in Buffalo, the Sabres, he made his opening statement,

and then he stepped aside and said, all right, I'm turning it over to Yarmal Kekelein, and the new general manager and Kekelein and spoke. Yesterday, obviously, Brandon Bean and Tara Pagula were up at the podium. They were up there the entire time. Terry spoke his piece. He turned it over to Brandon Bean, and then, you know, Terry stayed up there, answered some more questions, which was unique. It was different.

We haven't heard that from Terry Pagula in a while. But with the Sabres, it's interesting, though, because it almost seemed like the news and the reports came out that Kevin Adams was going to be fired, and the team started playing better. Then they fire them, and they continued winning with Kekeleinen at the helm. And now, you know, yeah, they've had a couple of games where maybe they've hiccuped and lost along the way, but they're still in playoff contention. They're sitting currently right now in the number one wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference based off points percentage. And they look reinvigorated, to be, to be quite frank.

They're getting the goal pending. They're getting scoring from all sorts of areas, whether it's, you know, Dave Thompson or, you know, you get the young guys like Noah Osland or Consta Helena stepping up and scoring for them. So, yeah, it's certainly nice to see the Buffalo Savers winning and get this, guys. The last time that the Bills and the Sabres both made the playoffs in the same year, you know, same campaign was the year 1999-2000. So the 1999 season, the Bills made the playoffs, and then the 99-2000 season,

the Sabers made the playoffs. That's the last time that both professional sports teams in Buffalo made the playoffs in the same year. And I think a lot of people are really excited to see the hockey team starting to succeed once again and playing really well under Lindy Ruff as well. It's a little bit of nice nostalgia to see that. And, you know, it's a breath of pressure to see that happening, especially with the way that, you know, kind of things that played out with the bills. Well, with no playoffs here in Vancouver, we've adopted the savers chances of getting into the postseason

and snapping that drought. So, Brayton, with that, we'll let you go. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Great job. And let's do this again as we get covered. closer and closer to the Sabres making the playoffs. Sounds good. Thanks guys. Appreciate the time.

Thank you, Brayton. Appreciate it. That's Brayton J. Wilson from WGR 550 Sports Radio and Buffalo here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So before we get to this Flyers, Utah game that we want to talk about just for a sec, the Sabres will be helped by the fact that the Leafs suddenly have a real injury crisis on the back end because they're already missing former Kinnock Chris Tanev and he might be done for the year. Oliver Ekman Larson got hurt last night

and he's expected to miss some time and it's now being reported that Brandon Carlo might have an injury so the Leafs Blue Line is old and it needs to be made over Big minutes for Troy from Richmond I'll tell you that. Yeah, Stetcher's going to have to

half the game. So just something to keep an eye on there in the playoff race in the Eastern Conference, but man, what an end to that Flyers Mammoth game. Yeah, let's talk about this. Clayton Keller scored twice, including the OT winner two minutes into the overtime frame. Utah rallies from a two-gold third-period deficit to extend their winning streak to four games, though that wasn't really the story. Now that said, I do want to play the audio because Keller was the hero in regulation scoring with 35 seconds left. And then in overtime,

he took care of business as well. But hold on. Did you see what happened before Keller did all that work? I was going to get to that. Yes, the Garnet Hathaway. The Garnett Hathaway. Yeah, we get too many clips to play. But anyway, we'll get to that in a second. Let's hear about the hero first. Clayton Keller in overtime yesterday as Utah beats Philly.

Do you want the O.T. Goathe goal? Clayton Keller in overtime as the Utah mammoth beat Philly. And now take it away. Guntrow will bring it back. Here he comes. Dilling Gunther is in. Bumper holds to Keller, six, he stars.

They were going mental last night. Now, the Garnett Hathaway miss, you were alluding to. He had a chance to ice that game with the empty net. By the way, Utah pointing out, that was the first time that they've ever scored a goal with the goal he pulled in an extra attacker, by the way. So there's that. Hathaway, I think he was trying to take an extra stride in the offensive zone

or an extra couple strides. He pulled a Patrick Stefan. No, he got. You got stick lift. Yeah, he got stick lifting. Yeah, but no, but I know he didn't miss the net, but like that was the same version. He stopped moving his feet.

He had a wide open net. He got a little bit cute. And then someone caught him. And then Clayton Keller scored with 35 seconds left to send the game. Patrick Sefer, nobody caught him. Do we have the... We've got talk it. Do we have the Hathaway play?

Let's hear the Hathaway play. Go bacon with a pass. He's got Hathaway with the empty day. Utah still alive. Yeah, that was, I mean, that was the game. Yeah. That, I mean, and apparently he was beside himself in the locker room. Didn't even get changed after the game, just sat there in full uniform.

Yeah. That was it. So. Ray Ferrar, just losing it somewhere. Rick Tockett. Shoot the puck, man. Rick Tockett was not happy after this game. The Flyers are not in a good way.

They've lost seven of eight. They had that game. And we're going to break out of this funk to a certain degree, but they did not. As a matter of fact, they found a way to lose it in overtime. We've got Rick Tock. It's first response to a question after a gut-wrenching overtime loss to Utah. Here's what it sounded like. Flyers head coach, Rick Tockett after the OT loss to the mammoth.

Have that another step in the right direction, especially the way that first period went for you guys? Yeah, I mean, obviously we had good parts again, but, you know, that's not acceptable what happened tonight. So it's really not much to say, you know, that we sunk in pressure situations, something that we got to get out of this. team, right? You got to rise to the occasion. You got to want to be out there in pressure situations. A couple of guys sunk

in certain situations. So it's the bottom line. So we've got to recover from it. One, five, and two in their last eight games and that good start and all the positive vibes that they had in Philly to start the year. Starting to come back to Earth a little bit. Although Ziegress and Drysdale are still playing well. They've got

a lot of guys on that team. I think that Tuckett knows probably aren't long for what he's going to do there. And he's just kind of waiting to move things along. They also had a season under torts where they started off pretty well. Same idea. And then kind of fell off, so this was a bit of a test.

They also have Sam Erson rocking an 858. Yeah. 858, he's played 21 games. Goaltending problems in Philly. How do you let someone in the net for 21 games? I know. Well, they did it in Ottawa, so they may as well do it in Philadelphia. I don't think there's great urgency

from the management to make the playoffs this season. I really don't. I mean, is it disappointing, maybe, but also maybe not, because they're like the Canucks. You look at that lineup and yeah, fine, you've got a couple good players, even some of them young. There's promise for Matt Viv Michoff, although it's not going swimming right now. There's promise for Trevor Zegris. They got some good players. I'm going to be real curious to see. They have no difference makers. They have no difference makers. They need to be in the higher end of the draft. I'm going to be curious to see what happens with Mitchcoff moving forward.

Because it seems like there's this continual back and forth between he's an important part of our future and then the other part of that equation is, but he's got a lot to learn. And it doesn't seem like. But isn't it okay to have a young player that has a lot to learn? I just wonder about. Don't you just want to see how he responds to those lessons? It just doesn't feel like it's getting any closer from him being like, like he's important and he's a, if you were to have two opposite ends of the spectrum.

One is like, we're really happy with this kid and he's going to be a big part of our future. And the other part is he's way off it and he needs to figure out a lot of things before he becomes an impact player. It doesn't feel like those two things are coming closer together. Like there's a real resistance from the player you can tell to certain coaching elements. And that's been pretty well documented there. And the fan base seems split on it. Like some of them are clearly in Camp Talk It. Like you got to listen.

from our rant from earlier, you got to listen to the coach. He's in charge. If he's got non-negotiables, that's what they mean. They're non-negotiables. And then there's other people that are saying,

Mitch Koff is the one maybe difference maker that we have on this team. Don't screw them up. Don't screw it up. Let them play. And, you get those across the NHL. This isn't exclusive to Rick Tuckett. But in Philadelphia,

where they're in the middle of this rebuild. I'll be curious to see what Rikov is. I mean, Tuckett has that reputation now, right? 100%. Of my way or the highway, people bring up Clayton Keller in Arizona, the hero from last night without Rick Tock and behind the bench. They'll obviously bring up Elias Pedersen in Vancouver.

And now it's Mitchcoff in Philadelphia. And, you know, the counter argument is, I guess he wasn't, I guess he didn't decide to do anything to Quinn Hughes when he was here in Vancouver and blossomed into a Norris trophy winner. And I guess, I guess he didn't do anything bad to turn. River Zegris, whose career was not looking good

and Anaheim goes to Philadelphia and he's been rejuvenated. So, lots of time for online arguments about Rick Tocket. This time in Philadelphia. Before we go to break, I do need to remind you that you can reserve your spot for the big football party at the Clayton Public House hosted by Sportsnet 650. Email info at the Clayton Pub.com.

Clayton Public House, good food, good people, good times. Hour one of the program is in the books. Coming up, we're going to talk. a little Swedish hockey. Ufa Bowden's going to join the program. We'll talk to him about the very injured Swedish Olympic team that's going to be going to

Italy in just over a month. And we'll also talk to him about Ivar Stenberg, who could be the number one overall pick at this year's NHL entry draft. That's coming up next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.