Halford & Brough in the Morning - Quinn Hughes Shouldn't Have To Do Everything

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), they talk Saturday's Canucks home win over the Washington Capitals (6:00), they talk Sunday's playoff action with NFL.com's Nick Shook (26:49), as the Super Bowl LIX matchup is set, plus they hear from Elliotte Friedman (39:34) regarding the Rantanen trade, and how Elias Pettersson was almost a Carolina Hurricane. 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 the f***ing Canucks? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- You're listening to Halford and Brough. The middle of the ice, Hughes with a wrist shot, he scores! There's not a lot of big boys like the Caps have some big boys up front. This is the big but. At the end of the day, you choose your hard. And right now we're not choosing the right hard.

You have to embrace the hardness. Oh, I'm hard! It's a game of 18 yards. I poured water on my head. And the campus city chiefs are gonna pull this off. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. This Alfred at his brow,

fitted sports net 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Ladi, good morning to you.

Hello, hello. And intern Ryan, welcome to the show and good morning to you as well. Good morning. You did it, perfect. Alfred and Brad for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one one of the program our one is brought to you by North Star metal recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North Star metal recycling they recycle you get paid This is the 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step You know what kind of show we have today Jason? Kintec Footwear and Orthotics working together with you in step. You know what kind of show we have today, Jason? Big show. It's a big show. It's pretty big.

It's pretty big. We got actually it's it's actually overloaded. It's too crowded. There's too much going on the show today. Four guests, Knax game day, two giveaways, countless reads. We got a lot to get into. The show begins at six thirty this morning. Nick Shook from NFL dot com is going to join us, folks. folks The Super Bowl is set the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles They will meet for the second time in three years two weeks from now The Chiefs are looking to become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls

I also want to ask Nick about the Seahawks They have hired a new offensive coordinator Clint Kubiak formerly the Saints of the Saints. That's going to be all at 6.30. Seven o'clock, Thomas Hickey, former NHL defenseman, now NHL analyst is going to join the show. He is working the broadcast tonight. Canucks Blues 430 from St. Louis. It's an Amazon game. Thomas Hickey is going to be calling the game for Amazon Prime. Here's what we're going to do.

As a former player, we're going to ask them about the Canucks current offensive woes, specifically their inability to generate scoring chances from the slot. Now, as a former defenseman, I bet he loves how much the Canucks funnel things back to the point. Keep doing it guys, keep doing that. He's like, I personally love the way that they play hockey, so we'll talk to Thomas Dickey about that. We'll also look ahead to the game tonight.

7.30, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, Ingold Magazine. I joked on Twitter on Saturday night that we officially begin the goalie controversy and debate today. I don't think it's a joke. I wasn't even joking because Woodley is on the show and we need to talk about this. So who goes tonight at St. Louis?

Is it Demko or is it Lankton? Who goes for the rest of this road trip? Do you remember just like a week ago? Yeah, we got to get Demer a run of games. Well, I mean, do we? Hold up. A lot has changed since then. So we'll talk to Kevin Woodley at 7.30

about all the goaltending issues for this team. Eight o'clock, Andy Strickland's gonna join the program. Blues Rinkside reporter for the FanDuel Sports Network. We of course will preview tonight's opponent, the St. Louis Blues. The game is in St. Louis tonight. Quickly, I will let you know that because it's an early game, we have a crazy lineup of consecutive Canucks shows today on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk goes from 12 to 2.

Canucks Central in the pregame show picks up right after that and goes all the way through to 430, which is when puck drop will happen. Batch and Randy will be on the call right at 430. And then after the game, the postgame show runs all the way through to nine o'clock. So we got about nine hours of consecutive Canucks coverage

around the Blues and the Canucks game. And a reminder, if you don't have Amazon Prime, you can hear everything all right here on Sportsnet 650. We're also giving away, God, we got a lot to get into here. We're giving away another pair of nine-inch nails tickets. Now let's work through this. Caller number nine at eight o'clock this morning,

eight o'clock, eight zero zero. Caller number nine is gonna wear a pair of tickets to see nine-inch nails this summer. The show is in August. It's at Rogers Arena. Phone number here, 604-280-650. That number again, 604-280-650. We are also giving away a pair of tickets and a $50 gift card to the Clayton Public House for the big football game on Sunday, February the 9th. That's going to be a call at 815 yes that's also gonna be caller number 9 no yes really and yeah you're your last minute yeah

I'm gonna yeah caller 9 just gonna make it easy caller 9 across the board all right that number again 604 280 06 50 we got hours of planning down the drain just cuz of Mike Alford just like that Mike Halford. Just like that, poof, gone. And just like that, pa. And the planning was we were gonna take caller eight. Yeah. But instead. Let's make it more confusing. Ah!

So, working in reverse on the guest list, eight o'clock Andy Strickland, seven thirty Kevin Woodley, seven o'clock Thomas Hickey, six thirty Nick Shook. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm moving. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools or resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca Quinn Hughes scored twice and the Vancouver Canucks beat NHL leading Washington Capitals 2-1 on Saturday night at Rogers Arena. In doing so the Canucks took care of a pretty vaunted opponent capped six game win streak gone Alex Ovechkin still 20 goals shy breaking Wiengretzky's record and another fantastic performance for Quinn Hughes as he goes further and further up the rankings for the heart trophy

for MVP. I'm not sure how much more praise we can heap on the captain's shoulders, but he deserves everything he's getting, except maybe the team around him. This quote made me sad for him. Ian McIntyre got this quote from Quinn Hughes after the game on Saturday and Quinn said, I feel responsible that we've had the

turmoil that we've had. It's not your fault. And I want to be the reason that we can get out of this and be successful. It's embarrassing to lose some of the games we've lost the last couple of weeks. It's not your fault. It's not your fault.

Give him a hug. It's not your fault. Do you remember last week we were talking about how if we were Quinn Hughes we'd be furious at our teammates for everything that's going on? Mm-hmm. Do you think it's a little embarrassing that Quinn um, Quinn Hughes has 54 points and the next highest point getter on the Canucks has 33? It's. Wait, I didn't.

So he's, so he's a defenseman, remember? Yes, now I'm aware. And he has 21 points more than the next guy on his team, which is JT Miller, who has played six fewer games than Quinn Hughes, but 33 points to 54. And then you go down to Besser with 32 points, Garland with 31, Pedersen with 30 points. It's great for his MVP candidacy.

However, it's bad for the hockey team, I would say. There should not be that great a disparity in your first point getter and your second point getter, especially when your first point getter and your leader is a defenseman. Like it's a wild stat. I didn't realize until you put it in the

notes, to be dead honest. I knew he was leading. I didn't realize it was such a big gap. What do you think about the notion that he feels responsible for some of the turmoil that they've had because he is the captain of the team and, um, you know, there is a, a responsibility on paper that the captain of the team. And, um, you know, there is a, a responsibility

on paper that the captain sorts this stuff out. I think he feels responsible for everything with this team. Like I have to do the majority of the defensive work after you do the offensive work. I got to take care of the dressing room. That's all messed up. He probably has to do some of the laundry from

time to time. I just, I just pictured him cleaning the toilets in the dressing room. He's just vacuuming after postgame. Yeah, Hughes is in there. He's like, who destroyed this toilet? I have to do everything around here, and I have laundry. He hands out the hotel keys when they get to the lobbies.

Like, don't lose this. They hardly lose it 10 seconds later. This is your third key. I didn't get a key. You did get a key. I just gave it to you. It's hanging around your neck. Oh, yeah. He has to call everyone and remind them when the meetings start. He did get a key. I just gave it to you. It's hanging around your neck. Oh, yeah.

He has to call everyone and remind them when the meetings start. He's got a lot on his shoulders for just a tiny little guy, but he is responsible for an awful lot on this team. So that first goal that he scored, obviously a very nice goal, an incredible backhand, penetrated the middle of the ice. He got to the middle of the ice. He got to the middle of the ice and that was a big theme after the game from Rick Tauket.

And I actually went to this game, my first game in the press box had Saturday free. And I went and I went to the game specifically with this question in mind. And I was going to go down and ask Rick talking about it. Why can't the Canucks generate more scoring chances from the slot? Now I imagine that as soon as I showed up, they would get like 30 slot scoring chances. I'd be like, okay, well, this is typical sad club commish stuff, but the game delivered.

Uh, the Canucks only two goals were scored by Hughes while the forwards barely generated any chances. And Taka talked a lot after the game about the Canucks inability to get to the inside of the ice and that was before I specifically asked about it. Um, I want to play the questions that I asked him and his answers, but just so you know, he already talked a lot about it and it was me kind of like revisiting it because on our show, we've had a lot

of talk about the constant point shots. And I think it's interesting that a lot of people have texted in and said, that's what Rick Taukett wants. That's what his system calls for. point shots. And I think it's interesting that a lot of people have texted in and said, that's what Rick Taukett wants. That's what his system calls for. He's responsible for the way the Canucks are playing. Like that is a big responsibility for him, but that is not what he wants.

So getting to the middle of the ice, not everyone skates like Quinn Hughes, they can't create those chances like he did to get to the inside. There's not a lot of big boys, like the Caps have some big boys up front that can take the puck to the net and no one can really do anything about it. What's the answer for your group?

Well, you can use your quickness and you gotta remember when you do take the interior, you know, they play man on man, right? So usually you have man on man, the guy's behind you, so you got to have the patience to be able to have a guy on your back and take it to the interior. So I think you can use your quickness. You know, you have to have, you know, listen, let's face it, you have to have some courage too to get into the interior, but I think you can use your quickness and you got to,

I remember I used to talk to Sidney Crosby about this, you know, his heart rate was always the same, you know, if a guy was on his back or wherever, don't panic, the guy's on your back, we talk about that all the time. So to answer your question, don't be afraid when somebody's got it, take it to the interior and then make a play. Do you feel like there's too much deferring to the point, man? A million percent. It's been it's been a struggle all year trying to, I shouldn't say a struggle, it's something that we've talked about like and we'll do a good have a game where you know you'll go wow

we did it and then it's the sustainability is what we're having a tough time with and hopefully a game like this, quitting getting a goal, you can build off that, Practice it more when we practice. We actually talked about that tweaking our practices where we instead of having three or four points just basically do a lot of interior offensive stuff just for half hour. Don't even worry about defense. I think we have to start doing that more. So tweaking our practice will help and it's on us coaches to really preach it.

So I want to be specific about what I'm talking about here. I'm not talking about rush chances. Everyone was talking about rush chances earlier in the season. I'm not talking about rush chances right now. I'm not talking about going to the net and setting screens or trying to tip pucks. That's important, but I'm not talking about that here. I am talking about the Canucks inability to get set up in the offensive zone and generate clean shots

that don't come from the perimeter or from bad angles. That includes, by the way, while they're on the power play. So let's think about this. There are a few ways to get chances in the slot. Can you think of some ways to get some chances in the slot? You can skate into the slot. Yeah, well, Quinn Hughes did that. Yeah.

That's a good way to do it. Okay. What if you, what if you've got some big boys on your team? Then you might have to get the aforementioned courage, maybe be a little physical and, and establish your position in the slot. So you can do, you can just use something, some, some of the power for it's just, I got the puck, I'm taking it to the front of that. A little bit of bump and grind.

Don't you think the most effective way would be to pass the puck into the slot and have someone there to take the pass? Mm-hmm. That also feels like a good way to do it. Seems easier, right? No, it should pass it to the point. Let the puck do the work. Right. Which is why Tauke was out there with Pedersen at practice yesterday, getting him to make plays while feeling pressure on his backside.

Like Sidney Crosby is so good at, right? Sidney Crosby, if so, you know, if you're trying to check Sidney Crosby, he'll turn his back to you, but he still is able to skate away from that pressure or turn against that pressure and make plays. He's not automatically just going to fling the puck away. And I get the sense that a lot of the Canucks are doing that.

In fact, it's not even a sense I'm seeing it happen. Here's Rick Tauket talking about the work he was doing with Elias Pedersen yesterday at practice. Working on skating and getting inside, being able to get people on your back, still have the puck and make a play off that. I think sometimes when you get it, you defer too much. I think that's just a mental mindset.

And I think for him, we're just gonna have to spend every day and continue to do that and string some really good practices for him. And even in a morning skate, you can still work on that stuff. I got some stats for you. Our friend Adam Vingen, who used to cover the Nashville, cover Nashville Predators, now does some stats work for Sportsnet.

He's got access to the Sportlogic database database and he sent some of this stuff over to me. The Canucks are 30th out of 32 passes, 30th in attempted slot passes, the forward. So you take Quinn Hughes out of this dead last in slot shots on net per game. This absolutely matches the eye test. There's nothing I find fishy about those numbers. Anyone who watches the Canucks on a regular

basis knows they don't create many slot shots. And that is pretty important because that's where a lot of goals are scored. The forwards will feel pressure and they will fling it back to the point like it's their safety blanket. So who are the best guys, individuals who are the best individuals at creating slot shots? What kind of player do you think would be good? On the Canucks?

No, no, no. Just like, it's typically going to be your centers, right? Yeah, centers. Because those are your puck distributors for the most part. So in the league, Nathan McKinnon, Kucherov, not a center, but. McDavid, Marner, not a center, but still a creative player. Jack Hughes, Jack Eichel, Clayton Keller, Dry Cytle, Crosby, William Nylander. Those are the top 10 players in completing slot passes into the slot.

Here's where the Canucks rank. What a surprise. It's a defenseman that leads them. Quinn Hughes is 36 in the NHL. Now JT Miller, who's a pretty good passer when he's on his game, is 40th. Garland is 87th. Elias Pedersen is 122nd in the NHL.

Feels low. At the end of the day, you need your playmakers to make plays when the puck is on their stick. They're going to feel pressure sometimes, like a quarterback that still makes a throw with the pocket collapsing, or even in the case of the best, you can have a guy hanging off them and they'll still make throws under pressure.

So what is the disconnect here? What needs to change? Well, I think this is why talk, it was asked that question last week about, you know, is it maybe that when you have a player is singularly talented as an effective as Hughes, that maybe some of the players on the ice have an inherent deferential lean.

God, that's a big sentence, but they, they inherently think like, I should just get this back to him. Maybe some of the players on the ice have an inherent deferential lean. God, that's a big sentence. But they inherently think like, I should just get this back to him. It's like that joke where he says, like, when Quinn doesn't have the puck, everyone should be asking, when do we get him the puck? Or when he's not on the ice. Now, Tauke shot that down. He's like, to me, that's, he actually called it asinine.

He's like, an asinine way of thinking, you know, everyone out here has the ability to make plays. And he always says the same thing. We want our guys guys to make plays so it does circle back to the question. It's like well if the head coach Wants you to make more plays and be more creative and drive the guts of the ice the same guts of the ice that he talks So much about defending with your honor in your life. Why isn't it happening? Why do you rank? solo solo and all of the key metrics in that particular area of the ice? And I don't really have a great answer, unfortunately. And I think the problem is I don't think

Taken has a great answer either. There's obviously- Well, he's obviously working on it, right? Yeah, but there's definitely something, the only real one I came up with is that, and I hate hanging this on Pedersen, but when your best player and your highest paid forward in your number one center Defers as often and with regularity as Pederson has done this year. I do wonder if everyone else

Takes a page from that or it's the when you mentioned like look at the other high paid Top-flight elite guys in the league. They're doing it with regularity. Your guy is not. And again, I don't want to pin this on one guy because I think it's a team wide thing. But for Pedersen to be like rank 122nd in the league in some of these metrics, which is what a consummate with a third line center or a guy that doesn't even get the amount of ice time and opportunities, it's a problem. I think some of it is definitely on that.

Um, are they big enough up front? Okay. So the personnel is the other thing that you have to discuss here. When talking, cause he answered your question with, well, you need to have speed. So the obvious follow up question is like, do you have enough?

And then the other one was like, you obviously, and he even said, he's like, you know, you got to acknowledge it. You need the courage to go there. And courage comes in a lot of different forms. Oftentimes it's from the bigger, stronger guys that are maybe not worried about getting hurt or not worried about paying the price in front

of the net or in that, in the guts of the ice. Or just the strength to carry the puck in there. So do you have the personnel and the right personnel because if you look at the team, there are some guys that have particular characteristic and traits that you like, but maybe not necessarily the ones that are built to play that style of hockey. They've missed Dakota Joshua this year.

They've missed what he brought to the table last year in a big way. There's a chance he's going to play tonight against St. Louis, but he hasn't been the same player as he was last season, understandably, I suppose, but because of all the injuries, he also hasn't had that consistent role on the third line with Connor Garland and maybe Teddy

Bluger. Yep. And I think that's been a factor as well. But I think this is the number one challenge for Rick Tauken. This is right now the number one challenge for him is to figure out how to get more scoring chances out of his team.

And, and like this does. Can't just be all the, all created by Quinn Hughes. Right. And this does trickle down to other guys. Like, I mean, right now you're looking at it and it's like, where are this presence in this part of the ice, like where Sherwood, where's Heinen, where it's like, where are this presence in this part of the ice? Like where Sherwood, where's Heinen, where's the Brassk,

where are some of these guys? Understanding that when you go through a prolonged scoring slump, oftentimes the best way to snap out of it is to go to the toughest parts of the ice and try and create from there. I do think at times that the Canucks are, fall into a comfort of perimeter.

Like they, you know, whipping it around the outside, getting it back to the point, and then hoping that something bounces in off a guy, often becomes the default or the de facto. And it probably happens too often, right? In the game where it's like, well, here's, we've gained the offensive zone, what are we gonna do? And then it's like, it's probably safer

to just get it back to the point. What I don't understand, like I don't think Rick Taukett is beyond criticism, okay? I don't think he walks on water. I don't think he's the greatest coach of all time. I understand people's, and this goes to management too. I don't think they're perfect either. But can actually need more puck movers on the back end.

There's no question about that. And sometimes in zone, when you've got, when you got set up, you want to have some guys that can make a pass, obviously, right? But I just don't see, like people blame this lack of slot shots on the system. Like what is it about the system? Like you tell me specifically what target should do differently when the Canucks get set up.

Like how can you create more chances? I'm open to it, right? I mean, he is clearly like, we're working on this. Yeah. And we're working on it. And, and you know, whether or not he can answer this question. Yeah. Is massive for him and for the team.

Now this goes to the power play too. Like I'm, I'm including the power play on this. The power play is exactly the same as when they get set up five on five. The perimeter, perimeter, perimeter, if they can get set up perimeter. And then eventually, all right, get it back to Hughes and he'll dance around up there, open up a shooting lane and, and fired on that. Like that is not how a power play should be working. You know, the power play, when they had Horvat there,

I mean, again, this is possibly a personnel thing. Set them up in the bumper spot. It was just like, boom, perfect. One timer. That's the type of goals I'm talking about creating, these one timers where you're getting a clean shot and scoring. You see all these other teams getting to the slot, making East-West passes.

What is going on with this team that they cannot create? They've got the talent to do it, I think, but maybe there's just a personnel issue there. Okay, we got a lot more to get into on the program today. We're gonna have a ton of Canucks talk today throughout the show, a ton of hockey talk. Thomas Hic Hickey is going to join us at seven o'clock, former NHL defenseman. He's working the Amazon broadcast tonight. Canucks blues 430 puck drop from St. Louis.

Kevin Woodley is going to join us for some goaltending talk and some Canucks talk. Andy Strickland is going to preview things from the blues, but coming up on the other side of the break, we do need to talk about the national football league everybody, because the Superbow Bowl is set. It is a rematch of two years ago, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will meet in two weeks time.

Nick Shook from NFL.com is gonna join us to look back on the AFC and NFC championship games from yesterday and our first preview of the Super Bowl. Speaking of the Super Bowl, a friendly reminder, we are hosting a party at the Clayton Public House for the big football game on Sunday, February 9th. Yes, that's right, Sportsnet 650, a party. We are giving away today a pair of tickets

and a $50 gift card to the Clayton Public House. That's gonna go to caller number nine at 815 this morning, phone number 604-280-0650. You're listening to the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info,

and even the post game show. Listen four to six p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Kansas City has the second fourth down stop in this half. Oh, poor Buffalo. 632 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody, even those in Buffalo. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Nick Schuch from NFL.com is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour one for real. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go, Nick Schuch from NFL.com joins us now on the Haliford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Nick, how are you? Well guys, what did I say?

Until the Chiefs are officially eliminated, I won't believe it. Hey, they, here they are. They're back in the Superbowl again. Are we surprised? No. I had a hot take Nick on Friday and this was my hot take and it couldn't have gone worse.

My hot take was that the Bills would beat the Chiefs and a controversial call would go the Bills way. I was just kind of trying to mix it up a little bit. That did not happen. In fact, the exact opposite happened. What, what was your main takeaway from the chief's bills game and did it include that controversial call fourth and one? And to me, it looked like the bills had a first

down to a millions of people. It looked like the bills had a first down. Did it look like it to you? Uh, well, first off, good on you for being ambitious and hopeful with your hot take and your prediction. And I understand what you were trying to make happen there. But unfortunately, now, I mean, it kind of from the one angle looked like he probably, like I think it was Gene Steritor said on the broadcast, had about a third of the football across the line.

But there's so much traffic. There's so many bodies in the way that when you see that angle, you know, it's kind of hard to really just say definitively and because often, you know, in the NFL replay process, when you, you know, when they have a call in the field and there's no definitive evidence to be able to overturn it, they just stay with the call. They don't say that it's confirmed. They just say that the call stands.

It's just the way things are done. And in that instance, you know, it, the bill's ended up on the wrong side of it, but also football doesn't come down to just one play. You can pick apart a million of them. And it was the, it wasn't the first time that they got stopped on a fourth down, you know, they get stopped later on the crucial fourth and five, they had an opportunity to go win the game. It's unfortunate for them in terms of luck, but they also ran the sneak to the same side multiple times and they were generally predictable when it came to that.

So you know, it's a bummer for them, but you know, they do play four quarters and they didn't have a great first quarter. So to bring it out of that one play, I think it's reductive. But I also understand that it's a key moment in the game. Is Josh Allen ever going to make it to a Super Bowl? Well, that's why the narrative now is, what are they gonna do? Is Sean McDermott the right guy for that? And I think that the Bills are in

that weird spot where I feel like they overachieve this year in terms of roster strength. Like we did a little exercise before we started taping NFL daily last night, which was if you look at the Eagles roster, you look at the Bills roster, which Eagle would you trade for any of the Bills players not named Josh Allen? And there was like you had to go to like Titan number two like replace grant calcaterra with Dawson Knox To really find a legitimate argument. I think that this this Buffalo roster is You know not quite as strong as some of the other teams that were left, you know, probably Not as strong as Eagles with Eagles are incredibly deep. They could stack up against the Chiefs I guess,

which means they're close. But yet here they are continuing to lose to the same team over and over in heartbreaking fashion repeatedly. After beating them in the regular season every year, Chief, that's the thing. It's that they beat them in the regular season and they're all fired up. Oh, we got them.

We took them down in the regular season. I feel like I'm living in, you know, in Groundhog Day when it comes to every Bill's Chiefs regular season game at this point because it's not going to matter when the playoffs come so how do you get over that hump? Is it a coaching thing? Is it a personnel thing? I think they can get better personnel wise. This is a year of transition after moving on from Stephon Diggs. I think that they're gonna have to take a hard look at their coaching staff not immediately not now

over the longterm, just because Sean McDonough was a great coach to get them back to the playoffs and to this level of success. But sometimes, you know, that you have to consider is that as far as he can take them. I even like it to, you know, a story in progress in the NBA with the Cavs this year. You know, JB Bickerstaff was a great coach to lead their, you know, turnaround from a nothing of a team to a playoff team, but they needed to replace them with Kenny Atkinson to reach new heights.

I don't know if, you know, that's necessarily going to be on the big old card for the Vils in the next year or two, but I think it's something that we should have in the back of our mind after their latest playoff defeat. We're speaking to Nick Schuch from NFL.com here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Nick is our Monday morning quarterback brought to you by the Clayton Public House pregame to postgame. The Clayton Public House is your home of football.

I do want to turn our attention back over to the NFC championship game in which the Philadelphia Eagles once again, just bludgeoned an opponent. And this time it was the Washington commanders. And with all due respect to Jayden Daniels and everything Washington did this season, the story quite obviously is 55 points, which is an NFC championship game record, seven rushing touchdowns, which has not been done in a playoff game since the 1940 Chicago Bears and I believe that the forward pass was outlawed at that point.

So running was a big part of the game back in the day. I mean, here's the thing, most of these teams that run the ball as often and with the frequency that the Eagles do aren't an explosive offense, but the Eagles have sort of become this very unique, almost a unicorn like team where they run the ball a ton, but they've also got a crazy explosive offense and it's a lot of fun to watch. Well, I think traditionalists will be very much on board with the way the Eagles play

football because you know for the longest time, at least when I was growing up, it was always you must establish run to set the path. You start with the run game to set up the path and now we it's a pass first league and you establish the pass to set the run and everything else, right? Well, the Eagles said screw it, our quarterback may be banged up and our offense through the air is not great because he holds onto the ball pretty long and it's just kind of what he does. It's not entirely his fault. So we're going to lean run and we're going to lean run and do it with a player who has had a better season than anybody on this planet. And I mean,

anybody walking this planet ever could have imagined for him when he signed with the Eagles this offseason say Juan Barclay and that alone makes this team extremely fun to watch because You can kind of like, you know set your watch to his games to his performances He's a guy who starts hot starts to the big opening play usually But he also is is pretty consistent throughout the game and he's guaranteed, almost guaranteed, to close it emphatically. And he did all three of them on Sunday in this game. And the other thing that the Eagles did, you know, they threw the ball well after not being able to do so in the last couple of weeks.

Hertz looked better than I thought he would, you know, playing on that injured knee. He got A.J. Brown involved. He got Dallas Goddard and DeVon Smith involved and Kenny Gamewell before he left with an injury. But what they did more importantly than anything was they forced turnovers and then their offense capitalized on it You know, that's how you explain a 55 double nickel Performance in the NFC championship games every time they got a turnover They produce points out of it and that's really what swung the game

So this is one of those rare games where in a high stakes situation you see one team deliver an absolutely complete performance in all three phases of the game. And that's what Eagles did on Sunday. Yeah, because it was remarkable because if you look at Daniels this game, I know he had to drop back to pass a lot because they were trailing so much, but he was fine. He got let down by a lot of veteran guys on his team who made really critical mistakes and couldn't protect the football. And Philadelphia did a remarkable job of taking every single fumble and then like cramming it back down Washington's throat. And that just killed them in the end. Looking ahead.

Yeah. And then looking ahead to the Super Bowl now, it's very interesting because in terms of just singular talents, Saquon Barkley versus Patrick Mahomes, and I know there's a lot of other things. It's the ultimate team sport, yadda yadda, but Barkley versus Mahomes in the Super Bowl is very tantalizing. things. It's the ultimate team sport, yada yada. But Barkley versus Mahomes in the Super Bowl is very tantalizing and it's going to make for a lot of storylines over the next two weeks. Yeah, I mean, we have a number of them. It's the rematch of Super Bowl 57. It's

Jaylen Hart getting back to the Super Bowl. I think he's the first quarterback to have lost his first Super Bowl and make it back in a long time. And obviously my homes and the Chiefs and the three people, the matchups themselves, you're right, Saquon versus this Chiefs team, you know, defensively that was their name of the game last year. And they just got to the Super Bowl after giving up 29 points in the AFC Championship game, but getting key stops.

They're back toward a more balanced team, and I don't think it's because their offense is necessarily spectacular. In fact back toward a more balanced team. And I don't think it's because their offense is necessarily spectacular. And in fact, I know it's not, it's just that their defense hasn't been as notably fantastic throughout portions of this season as it was during that run. But I think it makes for a great matchup because, you know, when you look at these two teams,

I think these are the two Titans of the NFL in terms of roster strength, experience, everything. And the only weakness I can really see when I stack up pound for pound is I don't have as much confidence in, in Eagles offensive coordinator, Kellan Moore, as I do in Andy Reed as a play caller and Steve Spagnolo as a play caller on the defensive side, because Vick Sangio has done a great job with this defense. So there's just so many different things that you can try to unpack here.

Andy Reed, you know, facing his former team and a team that he's already beaten once in the Super Bowl. The Eagles, you know, getting back to a Super Bowl after having won in 2017 with a vastly different roster, only four guys are remaining from that team. And yet, you know, since they were there two years ago, there's a combined 25 guys from starters, 25 starters from both teams on these two rosters. Actually, I think it's 27 because it's 15 for the Chiefs on both sides of the ball and 12

for the Eagles. That's an incredible amount of familiarity which means the whole all they've never been here before story is gone. It's setting up for a true rematch and I know a lot of people are tired of the Chiefs and everything and maybe they wanted to see the commanders and the Bills because the story's fun but this is we're gonna see some high-level football in this game and that by the way that Super Bowl two years ago was setting out to see the commanders and the Bills because the story's fun. But this is, we're gonna see some high level football in this game and that, by the way, that Super Bowl two years ago was setting out to be the best Super Bowl in history,

if not for the anti-climactic ending. And I can speak to it firsthand because I was sitting there in the end zone where Juju Smith-Schuster got held and set up that, go ahead, field goal for the Chiefs. Speaking of going to the Super Bowl, when you head to New Orleans? I'll be out of here in six

days. Half of the plane, getting down there, and getting ready for opening night and all the coverage in the world on NFL.com during the week. Okay, I'll tell you what, we'll hold off on your Super Bowl pick until we talk next time and next

time we talk, you'll be in Louisiana. It'll be a lot of fun. Enjoy the trip, man. It should be great. Thanks for doing this. As always, we appreciate it. We'll talk next week. Yep, thanks guys. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Nick Schuch from NFL.com here on the Halifax and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. For those that missed it, line opened right after the AFC Championship yesterday. Kansas City Chiefs slim one and a half point favorites, early opening line for the Superbowl, which I move, probably move a little bit, is the- I think it's moved up to two at Sunbooks.

There you go, see, it's already moved overnight. Okay, we had to cut things short with Nick because we still got a lot to get into from the National Hockey League and as it pertains to your Vancouver Canucks, from the weekend. On Friday, not long after we got off the air, a pretty massive deal went down in the National Hockey League.

For the second consecutive year, the Carolina Hurricanes, those plucky Carolina Hurricanes made another significant bold move to try and bolster their Stanley Cup champions likelihood. This time it was acquiring Niko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche, along with Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks, in a three-team trade that was consummated on Friday night. So short, in the deal, Marty Nacius and Jack Drury go to Colorado. There was a couple picks that were change hands as well. They go to Chicago. But at the end of the day, the Carolina Hurricanes acquired Miko Rantanen,

who many just clean and plainly understand as a top 10 player in the league, a multiple 50 goal score, and a guy that is a pending unrestricted free agent was asking for reportedly $14 million a year on his new deal. Colorado couldn't come to a financial agreement. Boom, they shipped him out. Now you're wondering how do the Vancouver Canucks fit into all of this? Well, according to multiple reports on Friday and Saturday, the Colorado Avalanche weren't the only team that Carolina was calling to go big game hunting, to try and get that superstar player in the door.

I'm going to throw this over now to a report from Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada, Elliot Friedman, yeah, Freage, about what the Carolina Hurricanes were doing, who they called, and how the Vancouver Canucks fit into all of this. Here's Freage. And finally, Pedersen. There was a time yesterday I thought that Pedersen was going to be a Carolina Hurricane. Obviously, it didn't happen. I think those talks continue. And I believe that one of the teams that has really shown a lot of interest is Buffalo there are others but the Sabres are definitely in there one thing on that Vancouver angle and not JT Miller

It was gonna have to be no yesterday if they were gonna make the deal was gonna be Patterson So as we understand it Friday broke down like this and this is courtesy of our good buddy Greg was Shinske from ESPN. He reported that Carolina essentially asked both Vancouver and Colorado to provide your best offer. Give me your best slideshow, put together a deck, make your presentation for what trade you can present to us. It was believed through multiple insiders that the Colorado one focused around,

random obviously, and the Canucks one circled around, Elias Pettersson. Now there were some reports that there was also a JT Miller trade presented, but of the two, the Carolina Hurricanes would have preferred the Pettersson deal. Right.

Yeah, and I reported on Friday one of my rare reports. I was like a real hockey journalist this week. Check out this guy over here. Insider, I heard Roger's arena was buzzing. Like they had all their decision makers there, including the bean counters and all, like they were, they were prepared to make a deal, but ultimately as it was reported, Carolina said,

we're going to take Rantanen. Correct. And he's a better player right now than Elias Pedersen is. There is a challenge in that they need to resign him while Pettersson is under contract. But I, you know, it's funny, like obviously thought about Carolina and I mean that top line that they

could put together if they want. Sebastian Ajo with Svechnikov in Rantanen. Yep. Like, are you kidding me? Like that, that is, that is, that's a playoff line right there. That the big skilled, smart, like this is, Carolina better get past like the second round.

Well, I mean. But, but you know, to be honest with you, the team I thought about the most was Colorado. I understand why it was done. Like I get it. They have a internal cap and they don't want to give any more, anyone a higher cap hit than Nathan McKinnon.

Who makes 12. But I hate this deal for them. Like I, I look at Colorado right now and I don't think, it doesn't sound good on the Landisgog front. No. Um, I think, uh, Martin H.S. is a fine player, but I think he's a significant downgrade of Miko Rantanen, significant.

There's going to be a lot of pressure on him to perform in Colorado. Um, I will just wonder if there's another shooter drop for the AVS because they are a smart org, smart organization smart organization, but they've got McKinnon and McCarr right in their primes right now. And this isn't really, they can't afford to just

be like, well, whatever. I mean, I guess we won't win it this season, but I think they are significantly worse after this trade. The team that jumped mine for me wasn't the Colorado Avalanche or the Carolina Hurricanes. It was the Vancouver Canucks because this was just another further illustrative point that the Vancouver Canucks are still very much in talks with a lot of different teams trying to solve this issue and trying to figure out which one stays and which one goes, JT Miller or Elias Pedersen.

And now, we gotta do the Buffalo thing again, apparently. I thought we were through the Buffalo Sabres and all the reported trade targets and everything else, but as Freage mentioned in that clip, Buffalo is a team that's now circling back and potentially inquiring about Elias Pedersen. You'll remember that we did this song and dance back in December when Elliot Friedman talked about

Buffalo and the Vancouver Canucks both on the 32 Thoughts podcast and on Donnie and Dolly. You mentioned it with Rick Dollywall and the players that he threw out back then were Bowen Byram and Dylan Cousins. You remember those Halcyon days of breaking down Dylan Cousins' game and asking Ray for a breakdown of what Cousins brings to the table

and going back and forth about Byram's potential versus his health? We might be doing it again, but you might be doing this until the situation gets resolved, because it definitely seems as though this management group is trying, I guess valiantly is the word, to make something happen and to not let this season slip away.

Now, as for Miller, the majority of the reports that are out there suggest that it's still primarily and almost exclusively the New York Rangers that are interested in his services. I don't know if both teams are gonna be able to come together on a deal that appeases both parties. But the fact that it keeps coming back to, well Miller's the guy that's gonna go.

No, Wade Pederson might be the guy that's gonna go. It's definitely Miller the guy that's gonna go. But what about Petey being the guy that might have to go? Couldn't it be both? I mean at the end of the day, it could. They're being shopped. We know that. So last week I asked the question, what is the chance?

What are the chances that next season Miller isn't here, Pedersen isn't here, Besser isn't here. Cause he's a pending unrestricted free agent and Thatcher Demko isn't here. And we a pending unrestricted free agent and Thatcher Dempko isn't here and we can talk to Kevin Woodley about this because he's reported, actually he didn't really want to call it a report, but he said that the goalie coach community has told him that they're starting to hear Dempko's name

out there, which would make sense. Especially if they can re- can resign Lankton in. Demko's only got a year left on his deal. And I do think that the Canucks are going to be wary about resigning him, especially with his current health situation. Uh, not so much the way he's played this season because I think it's really unfair to judge

Thatcher Demko on the handful of games he's played this season, given what he's had to come back from, but it's also in Patrick Alveen's words, a two way street. And we hear a lot about how Thatcher Demko, how can I put this? Doesn't always seem like the happiest to be here. I wanna point this out on that note. If you talk about, oh my God, Halford and Brough,

it seems crazy, crazy that that many players from this core could be moved. So for the exercise of Colorado, who just made the seismic trade, I went back and looked at their roster that won the Stanley Cup, not that long ago. It was 2022. It was three years ago.

It was a way better roster. No, no, no. I'm not talking about- Colorado? No, no, no. I'm not talking about the quality of roster. I'm talking about what their core looks like then compared to what it looks like three years later. So of the top 10 players, consider this, Rantan, gone. Kadri, gone. Burakovsky, gone. Landisgok, out of the lineup, injured.

Komfor, gone. New Hook, gone. So six of them. Yeah, well I stand by it. It was a way better roster. What I'm saying is that even for your team, it was significantly better than the Canucks. They still had to move on from a lot of guys that people were either like this is a core guy, we can't lose this guy, we need this guy. It may not be that jarring and that unrealistic to say, you know, XYZ, Miller, Pedersen, Demko, take your pick. Even a team like you said that won a Stanley Cup a couple years ago and was an extremely talented team was forced to have a massive renovation. But that was for different reasons.

Some of it, right? All of it. Some of it. I mean. Landisgog was an injury. He hasn't been able to come back. Rantanen was a trade. I mean, the Canucks are making the, like the

Canucks don't need to move Pedersen or Miller. They got them under contract. They want to need to move Pedersen or Miller. They got them under contract. They want to move Miller and Pedersen because they need to change things up because things aren't working. Right. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if there's an elite team that can undergo this big a renovation in three years, how about a team that, who's like their claim to fame right now is going to game seven of the second round of the playoffs. It's a possibility. Everything appears like it's on the table right now for the Vancouver Canucks outside of Quinn Hughes. And that is for a number of

reasons, including the fact that the team is looking up at the standings at the Calgary Flames, trying to chase them for the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference. And the team they play tonight, the St. Louis Blues, who are a very average team, are just two points back of the Vancouver Canucks in that aforementioned playoff chase. So there's a lot to get into there. We will get into it on the other side of the break

with Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Engel Magazine. Thomas Hickey coming up. Sorry, Thomas Hickey, then Kevin Woodley, then Andy Strickland's gonna join us for a blues preview. And before we do any of that, I do need to tell you about Denny's and their shredded iceberg lettuce, if I can find it here. There it is.

True North Taste the Wates with Denny's 100% Canadian beef burgers made with new, wait for it, shredded iceberg lettuce on a brioche bun and all the classic ingredients. Is that what they're highlighting? I'm just reading it the way that it's written. Okay, they've never had iceberg lettuce before they use Ahead of old lettuce on it. Yeah, I would shredded iceberg. I love Denny's me too, but I'm not showing up They're like can't wait for that iceberg lettuce. You guys got iceberg lettuce now In fact, I'd be like keep the iceberg lettuce off of my melted cheese, whatever. Danny's is like, so many people are asking about the lettuce.

We do need to address this in our ads. What is this? It's iceberg lettuce. I've never had a vegetable before. A lot of people that go there haven't. You're listening to the Alfred and Brev Show on Sportsnet 650.