Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 1/26/26

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the Seahawks taking out the Rams in a close one to punch their ticket to a Super Bowl versus the Patriots, plus the boys discuss a weekend of 'Nucks losses to the Devils and Penguins with Canucks Central host Satiar Shah. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Dan, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Sam steps up, goes back inside. Come, make the catch. Touch-down. Ball is caught. Pooka Nakuwa slides out of bounds.

No, clock keeps moving. Nakula on the Jennifer Super Bowl. Now, Kindle of Drive. He scores. Another. The morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on him. Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Monday. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Ada, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have payday loan debt? Sands and associates could cut that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1.com. is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, make 2026, your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. Boy, do we have a lot to get into on the program today. What an exciting weekend in the world of sports. What a championship Sunday in the National Football League.

And congratulations to the Seattle, Seahawks who are on their way somewhat improbably to Super Bowl 60, where they will take on the New England Patriots and a rematch of Super Bowl 49. Who are also there somewhat improbably. Pretty crazy that this is the

Super Bowl matchup we got, but we got it. So we're going to begin our guest list today at 7 a.m. Full hour right off the hop of uninterrupted Halbro. Mike Tanier's going to join the program at 7 a.m. our first guest today on the Duick Morning Drive, of course, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It's our morning drive. Super Bowl 60 is set,

As I mentioned, Mike is going to join us to break down everything that happened on Championship Sunday. What a terrific, terrific yesterday it was. We'll go through it all with Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone at 7 a.m. 7.30, Luke Fox is going to join the program. NHL writer for Sportsnet. Very busy weekend in the National Hockey League. There's another five games on the slate tonight. We had the Mitch Marner return in Toronto this past weekend.

Willie Nealander flipping the bird on national TV. Vegas getting stumped. In Ottawa? What happened there? We'll get into all this and more with Luke Fox at 730, our NHL writer from SportsNet. 8 a.m. Satyar Shah is going to join the program. Canucks Central pre-imposed game host right here on SportsNet 650. Canucks lost a pair of home games since we were lost on the air.

Friday, rather entertaining loss to the Devils. Yesterday, a somewhat less entertaining loss to the Penguins. Also a super greasy hit from Brian Ruston, Brock Besser, in that Pittsburgh game. Lots to chew on with Sat. We'll do that. 8 a.m. Finally, speaking of 8 a.m. Today and every day this week, we are giving away a $50 gift card to the big football party

at the Clayton Public House on Sunday, February the 8th. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. 604-280-0-650 will win the $50 gift card. We're going to do that every morning this week at 8 a.m. 604-280-650.

$50 gift card to the Clayton Public House is up for grabs. That's the show. That's what's happening today. Laddie, without further ado, 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 happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. It was Big Sam.

Sam Darnold throwing for three touchdowns. Seahawks defense came up with a couple big stops late, and the Seahawks advanced to the Super Bowl beating the L.A. Rams 31 to 27 in the NFC title game on Sunday afternoon. You know, Halford, we bemoan our sports luck a lot on this show. We do. Mostly because we have to cover the Vancouver Canucks most of all, and we will get to them in just a bit.

Well, maybe we won't. But we've just seen both the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Cubs, and the Seattle Seahawks make unexpected runs to championship games in the last few months. Now, hopefully, the championship game goes better

for the Seahawks than it did for the White Caps, but, I mean, these, for me, at least, these came out of nowhere. A nice little unexpected treat. Yeah, I had no expectations for the White Caps

heading into this season, and I thought if the Seahawks made the playoffs, that would be okay. This season, I certainly didn't expect number one seed in the NFC and to be favored in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots of all teams. 16 wins for our Seattle Seahawks this year, all told. It is a remarkable total.

I want to dive into the game here a little bit because it was a very entertaining game. By far, of the two AFC and NFC title games, it was by far the most entertaining game yesterday. Let's hear now that aforementioned fourth downstop. We're going to turn our attention to Kevin Harlan over Westwood One on the call. This one was the one that really settled the game. It's fourth and goal for the Rams late. Looks like they're going to score.

Looks like they're going to take the lead for just the second time in the game. Seahawks defense comes up big. Here's Kevin Harlan on the call for Westwood One. Six of Seattle, fourth and four. by four. Shotgun snap, four-man rush. Stafford winds up, throws back in the end zone. Incomplete.

Underneath, looking for Ferguson. Witherspoon broke it up. On down, Seattle will get a bat. It held. The Seahawk defense has held. And the Seahawks defense only needed to hold one more time beyond that. Now, I will say this, as we turn our attention to the Rams ever so slightly here, I know a lot of Rams fans.

I got to be sick to their stomach for losing that game yesterday. This isn't to say that the Seahawks got lucky or were fortunate or didn't deserve to win. But in a game where you just couldn't make as many mistakes as the Rams made, they did it at so many different levels. So that play at the end,

I know this is a lot of revisionist history there. A lot of people are saying, why are you not taking three points there, making that a one-point game? And then if you get the ball back, because remember, at that stage of the game, the Rams got all three timeouts left

and the two-minute warning, why are you not kicking a field goal, trying to get the ball back, and then setting yourself up so that you don't have to go the length of the field for a touchdown, you're trying to kick a field goal. Broncos fans are listening right now. Yeah, why are you not kicking the field goal?

Why are you not taking points in those moments? I understand that over the course of an 18-game regular season probably bears out that being aggressive and going for it on fourth down, over a larger sample size makes more sense. But in those particular moments... You still got to think critically in the moments.

You gotta take points. You gotta take points. What a shocking turn of events for the Rams in their season. Yeah. Who had made it until Week 16 in Seattle, which they led 30 to 14 at one point in the driver's seat, I would say,

to win the division and go to the Super Bowl. And, you know, I know the Rams lost the next week in Atlanta. I feel like they would have won that game if they had beaten Seattle. I think they were still shell-shocked. I think they were too. From losing that game. Yeah, I think it's a really good point.

And, you know, because of that and because the Seahawks were able to finish it off and get number one seed in the NFC, all they had to do was win two home games and go to the Super Bowl. The Rams had a much tougher road there. They nearly pulled it off, but they had a much tougher road. So that game that you're talking about, that comeback win for the Seahawks, one of the things that happened there was... When they got that ridiculous two-point conversion break. And the Rams were awful on special teams to the point where they spot... They fired their special teams coordinator after that game against Seattle, which was a bizarre in-season movie, don't see it very often, and bold that late in the year.

To have the special teams screw up as badly as they did yesterday to sort of cap off this season where Rams special teams have been so bad all year. That's got to sting. That absolutely has to sting for Rams fans. But enough about those losers. Let's turn our attention now to the Seattle Seahawks. And I got to say, as one half of a sports talk radio show that has been pretty critical of Sam Darnold and very unsure if a guy like Sam Darnold could lead you to the promise land.

Yeah. That was an unbelievable performance yesterday. Unbelievable. His ability to make plays while not turning the ball over, go toe to toe with a Rams offense. Rams offense put up 479 yards of offense in that game. It was remarkable. And isn't Sam Darnold kind of the number one reason why a lot of us are

shocked that the Seahawks are in a Super Bowl and they just had the season that they did. Not that we didn't know that he had a very good season for Minnesota last year until the very end. But it's just, you know, I've been winning as a Seahawks fan. I'm like, yeah, okay, all right, yeah, Gino Smith, fine. Okay, we're not winning a Super Bowl with Gino Smith. He's not terrible. He's not the worst quarterback in the league.

But, you know, in order to win a Super Bowl, you need a great quarterback. and then they go and they sign Sam Donald and you're kind of like, yeah, I guess he's like a, he's the caretaker quarterback while the defense continues to improve and they add some weapons on offense. But, you know, how are the Seahawks going to get over the hump? Now, look, they haven't won the Super Bowl yet and the find a great quarterback narrative could still play out

because Drake May is a pretty good quarterback, and people might not know him as well as they know Matthew Stafford because Stafford is like 40 years older than him. But if the Seahawks are going to win the Super Bowl, I think it's very interesting that they will have to beat back-to-back the two MVP candidates. Like you're either in the Drake May camp or you're in the Stafford camp.

Or you're throwing your vote away. But yeah, no, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, no one's in the Sam Darnold camp, right? No. Not at all. Well, we are. Well, I mean, we are now.

Definitively, Big Sam, Sam, Sam, Donald. Here's the thing. And he made some great throws. He made some great throws. 25 of 36 passing, which is very, very accurate and a high completion percentage for 346 yards and three touch-hounds. You could make the argument, quite convincingly, that Sam Darnold played the best game of his professional career in the biggest game that he's ever played. in, which is a tall order for a guy that you've had questions about. Never mind the fact that in the aftermath, his head coach, Mike McDonald, is talking about

how he barely practiced this week because of the oblique strain. Here's the other thing with Donald. He didn't just do it against any regular opponent. He did it against the team, the Los Angeles Rams, who had his number all regular season. Six interceptions across the two games. They had him figured out. I know he mounted a nice comeback in the second half of the second game, he was a mess in the first half of that game.

For him to not take the sacks and not turn the ball over, there was a handful of times yesterday when he dropped back to pass and I got the lump right in my throat thinking like, oh man, this is it. This is the dartle pick. It just never came. And he missed a couple passes. Like his accuracy was off because you're not going to be perfect. But I think with us, you're kind of like, oh, God, come on.

Yeah. Kenneth Walker, too. Yeah, great game. How many unbelievable moves did he pull off? I thought that they were going to burn him out. The shake and bake! I thought they were going to burn him out early. Because in the first drive, especially,

it felt like every play was either a hand off the walker or some sort of screen pass. And I was like, I don't really want to see that much of George Halani, so let's see if we can try and keep Kenny on his feet. He was great, though. Fantastic effort from him. Do we want to talk about Rieke Wullen now, or do we want to just be like, ah, you little scamp?

Get out of here. I don't know. No, no, no. I'm not in little scamp. Someone texted in already about it. So I played a late beer league game yesterday and this guy walks in and he's wearing a Seahawks jersey. I'm like, yeah. And then I realized it was a Rieke Woll in Jersey.

I'm like, that's a bold. You were nearly in, you're nearly a lot of trouble. You take that off right now. That was awful, by the way. I know you said it was a brutal call. Here's my, okay, yes. But that was taunting, man. Here's my thought of it.

He got warned on it. Here's my thought. Multiple times, and he still did it. My bar for getting a taunting penalty in the NFC title game is like, you basically have to whip your pants down and like dangle on the guy. It should be the highest of thresholds. It should be so gratuitous and so. In a game where-

But he was being warned by the ref, go away, and then he went closer. In a game where it was heated and there was a lot of stuff after the whistles, don't get me wrong. He put himself in a terrible position. It was embarrassing that he got chewed out, by a rookie, Nick Eman Worry, who was appropriately chewing him out for his lack of discipline, but it's embarrassing that a rookie is telling a vet to calm down in those moments. Also, Wulin, that might have been the only play he made up to that point.

Yeah, Eman Worry, I tweeted this out too. Eman Worry is running around making plays everywhere on the field. He didn't feel the need to jump up and gesticulate after everyone. Well, he was celebrating, but he wasn't taunting. Wollon breaks up one pass. Granted it was a big third down play. And that's the response. Like, just get back to your sideline.

Like, here's a thing. Do I think it was a stupid call? Yes. Did he put the referees in the position to have to make it? Also, yes. So, I don't know. I mean, I saw that he got to make it. I was also joking.

I tweeted out yesterday. Very active on social media, by the way. Two tweets. He got up on the podium, Rieke Wallen afterwards. No, no, no. There was like a divide of like guys that got to go to the podium. Oh, okay. And guys that didn't.

They were like podium and non-podium people. And Wollin was a podium person. And I tweeted out, I'm like, they should demote him to non-podium. Oh, I see. Right away. Yeah, yeah. Like McDonald should have been staring daggers. No, no, no.

But he had to be on the podium because all the reporters were like, yeah, we want to talk to that guy. No, no, no, sorry. This was in the post game celebration. Oh, I see. Okay. Joe Allen was up there. Mike McDonald was making a speech. Yes.

He didn't deserve podium. Someone should have pointed out and be like, get down. Yeah. Right away. Get down. So, I mean, someone texted it in. Do you think Rick Willan's going to play in the Super Bowl? Obviously he's going to play in the Super Bowl.

But that was one of the stupider plays I've seen in a championship game. I did keep the channel on the Seahawks Post game for a while last night, just enjoying it. And I heard JASN, who was massive. Unbelievable in that game. And he was talking about proving all the doubters wrong. And I was like, hey. They're talking about me. That's right.

I was one of the doubters. There was another guy. I think it was, I think it was Witherspoon, was saying, you know, and all you people that doubted Sam Darnold, I hope you take a look in the mirror. And I'm like, I will. I'm taking a look in the mirror right now. And I'll be honest with you, Spoon.

I don't like what I see either. I didn't believe in this team. And you are appropriately and rightly, making me feel guilty. Yeah. No, it's good. He had a tough game yesterday. He made a couple plays,

but early on he... He was getting chewed up by Puka yesterday. Yeah. Which is fair. Just don't fall. He kept falling. You were looking in the mirror. You're like, hey, I'll tell you one thing.

A little bit of advice from the guy in the mirror. Stop falling down, maybe. I don't know. Try it. It was a great game. Great game. And again, I talked about the Rams earlier. That was kind of what I expected.

I know we had this weird, like, back and forth going into the game where you didn't want to see the Rams and I was like, bring it on because it's going to make for an unbelievable NFC championship. Like those

those are the two best teams in the NFL. I know we've got some Tom Brady fans lingering in Patriotland and those, that was such a better game than the AFC title game. It wasn't even close.

That's, that's, I wish you hadn't said that. What? Because we meet again, Boston. Yeah. Will this be redemption?

for all the Seahawks also slash Canucks fans that listen to this show or another punch in the groin or the head or the gut wherever you want it because two of the most, if you're in that camp of a Canucks slash Seahawks fan, your two most painful losses came against Boston teams, the Bruins and the Patriots, respectively.

and I know that this won't make up for the Canucks losing to the Bruins or the Seahawks even losing to the Patriots like it won't. The way that went down, that will be remembered forever. The Seahawks had a chance of back-to-back Super Bowls, and we all know what happened. Yep. I'm a little bit, I'm always a little bit worried when people are like, oh, the title game was that, that was a super bowl. I realized that for a lot of the NFL era, that was the case.

Like, the NFC title game would be the Super Bowl. There were, you know, it was what, the 80s and the 90s? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The NFC would go and they would, and it would be like, you know, either the Niners or the Cowboys or whoever. Yeah, for you kids, though, they'll remember. Like, the Super Bowl used to be very comprehensive. It used to suck.

Yeah, yeah. The Super Bowl would be blowouts. but you know, Drake May is a, he's a hell of a quarterback. He just hasn't looked that good the last two games. Well, it's pretty hard to look good in the snow in Denver. Yeah, the week prior. No one was going to look good there. Well, Jared's did, I sure didn't.

We can get to that minute, but, okay, I get exactly what you're saying. There is going to be an element, and I think as this week progresses, so see, the Seahawks Open is a four-point favorite last night across multiple sports books. I would assume that number's going to grow once bets start coming on this, to the point where when Super Bowl week actually kicks off a week from now, I wouldn't be surprised that that line gets like seven or maybe not that high. But it's going to be by the time they get on the planes to go to Santa Clara, the Seahawks are going to be decided favorites going into this game.

And I don't love it either, right? I would much prefer that it was a game of, hey, here are two unexpected Super Bowl finalists going up against one another. instead of having the Seahawks are going to be fairly significant favorites going in. Also, you know what I'm not excited for? Endless, endless, endless references and allusions to Super Bowl 49. I've already tired of it, and they haven't even started yet.

I know. Just run the ball this time. I don't want to hear about Malcolm Butler. I don't want anyone. I don't want anyone to rehash the final play at the goal line. I don't want to hear from, I mean, I know they're going to bring back. I actually got some audio here for you guys. Oh, my God.

Richard Sherman and Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson will be doing the speaking tour I'm sure it's all going to happen And they'll be like Drake May what do you remember about that It was like I was nine He's like I think I kind of remember seeing it But I'm not sure So that's some preemptive stuff from us

Just be ready to be And I'm not talking about blanket coverage You're going to be inundated with references to that game Because one of the things that I think a lot of people don't remember is that aside from the goal line play That was a classic Super Bowl Yes.

Right? That was, the fourth quarter was incredibly back and forth. If you go to... And the plays that were made to get to that play. Was it the Baldwin catch? Was it? Curse? Curse?

Yeah. Anyway, there were so many plays down the stretch that if you go to any sort of definitive list of the greatest Super Bowls of all time, Super Bowl 49's on that list. So you're going to get a lot of references to it because the hope is that these two teams will put forth a show.

There's been a couple people texting in saying this is an awful Super Bowl matchup and they're not excited for it. I really hope that we get a good finale here. Last year's Super Bowl was so forgettable. Then I'm really hoping that this will be a good, compelling matchup and it's not especially one-sided. What you said about Drake May,

I ultimately hope holds true that it was the conditions that we're preventing him because, wow, I obviously want the Seahawks to win. No, I'll take a blowout. I'll take a blowout. Yeah, I was going to say that would be awesome. I'll take an absolute blowout of the Patriots. Yes, absolutely.

Boston fans are already like, easy. It's easy. We just got back to, you know, when you're a Patriots fan, you just have high expectations and you go to the Super Bowl. It's the culture that Robert Kraft built,

et cetera, et cetera. Wouldn't it be something if the Seahawks two Super Bowl victories were just absolute blowouts? Like, because I would be awesome. That would be incredible. I don't know how many teams. I want the Seahawks to absolutely annihilate them.

Yeah. I mean, I don't want it to be close. I wanted to be like a lopsided score. Yeah. I mean, that would be amazing. You're not going to argue. I don't care if it's a boring game.

You're not going to argue with a win. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I get that part of it, 100%. Right? I mean, what I'm thinking is you beat an NFL candidate, MVP candidate in Stafford. Close to his best yesterday. Stafford was very good yesterday. There's no question about it.

The Rams were very good yesterday. There's no question about it. To go in and to be able to do it to the Patriots and the other MVP quarterback that you pointed out, I think it would be amazing. It would cap off, quite honestly, one of the most improbable, but also highly successful. Never mind Seahawks franchise. It's like one of the greatest NFL seasons of all time.

They've lost three games this year. There aren't, and barely those games. There aren't Super Bowl matchups that occur like this. There have been some teams that have gotten there unexpectedly, but not many times both teams get there unexpectedly. And I don't want to act like the Seahawks or the Patriots were expected to win three or four games, but if you go back and look at their over-under-win totals,

they were like eight and a half, nine. They were awful last year. Something like that. The Seahawks, you know, haven't made the playoffs, what they missed, the last two years? Yeah. So, you know, I think everyone said,

yeah, yeah, they're building something on defense. They got a good coach and Mike McDonald and, you know, a pretty good weapon in JSM. But no one expected the Seahawks to go to the Super Bowl. Nobody expected the Patriots to go to the Super Bowl. I was actually trying to think of another Super Bowl matchup that's been this unexpected from both teams. So don't give me like, you know, this team that got there unexpectedly.

Like I realized there were those, maybe Rams and Titans back in the day. That's not a bad one. Other than that, I can't really think. There aren't many, I don't think. Because there were so many dynasty teams that got through. You just assumed they would be there. You go chiefs and then prior to that, you go Patriots, then you can go down the list. There was always these teams that you expected.

to be in. Oftentimes it was like you said, one expected, one surprise. Never like this have we seen two surprise teams, although they were the number one and number two seeds in their conferences. Yeah, but preseason I'm talking. Preseason. Preseason. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Well, it's time to chat with Satyar. We'll talk about the hockey now. Let's chat with Satyr. Checking in. on the Canucks Well, it's time to chat with SETIR

We'll talk about the hockey now Checking in on the Canucks Talking Hockey now 802 On a Monday Happy Monday everybody Halford, brough of Sportsnet

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make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. To the phone lines we go. Satyar Shah joins us now on the Halford & Breath Show on Sports 965. What up, Sat? What's going on? I never know what to expect. Listen to you guys, but good stuff as always.

By the way, how hyped up are you guys after the Seahawks win. Pretty hype, man. I'm not going to lie. It was, so for the beginning of the year, this is wildly unexpected. Obviously, our expectations grew throughout the year. I'm finding it hard to believe that this is,

they've won 16 games this year. They're 16 and 3 now. I'm still in a state of disbelief. It hasn't just been like a nice, cool year. The Seahawks are in the super, the real Super Bowl? It's one of the greatest seasons in franchise history, right? 16 wins in a Super Bowl appearance.

Like, it doesn't get a lot better than that. So there's a bit of shock and awe. still. Also, how Sam Darnold played yesterday. I would say he saved the best performance of his professional career for the biggest game of his professional career, which you wouldn't naturally expect

from Sam Darnold of all people, but it was, and the game yesterday was awesome. Weren't there still some throws that made you nervous, though? Only because of the history against the Rams. Like when they came off, they were fine. Yeah. I was nervous every time we dropped back. I was, too. I was like, here it comes. Did I bet on a Sam Darnold interception

yesterday? Maybe. But still, Still. I don't know. What did you think of the game? It was hard for me to watch it properly. I watched it in full when I got home last night after the game. But we kind of keep an eye on it throughout the evening the whole time. I was just amazed at how good a game it was going back and forth. But you're right about Sam Donald. Not only was he, you know, not only did he not turn the ball over.

He actually made some big plays that I thought he wasn't able to make. So I think you're absolutely right. But my biggest takeaway was, is John Schneider, the best executive in football? When you look at you change complete direction, right? I mean, you rebuild completely. You're back in the Super Bowl. You're the favorite setting into the Super Bowl now all of a sudden. And all you've done is when.

You've had one losing his record in what in 20 years, whatever, how long he's been the GM of the Seahawks and not close to, but something around that time. I can't think of another executive that has done what he's done that's currently in the NFL that's had a completely different coach, completely different quarterback, and now they're on the virtual wing. And even some of the mid-season pickup, right? Yeah.

Like, Shahid was like, when he first came to Seattle, I was like, yeah. But he's made some massive plays along the way. Yep. Yeah. Well, on special teams, and that catch to begin the game, it was like, you know, punching the mouth right away. And, I mean, that defense is just unreal. And we know the NFL is not quite at the level that we've seen in terms of the high end the last few,

last couple years. But the way that team plays defense and the way they're able to make big plays in critical moments of games has been incredible to watch. They're not quite like the Legion of, of boom, but they're just different to how they do things. I'm just so impressed about how good they are. And they probably are the best team in the NFL this season and nobody knew until

what, this week? Yeah, possibly. And hey, you want to talk about maybe a parallel to the Canucks. You talk about a trade that really turned the fortunes and being able to cash in on an asset and just alter the course of your franchise. What they were able to do with the Russell Wilson trade to Denver. I mean, I know that

the jury's going to be out on the Quinn Hughes trade for years and years and years, but there are some parallels to be drawn there. The thing is, is after Russell Wilson, Schneider still had to pivot off Pete Carroll and then Gino Smith and then D.K. Metcalfe. He had to totally reinvent the culture of that team. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's just unreal what they've been able to accomplish.

And if there's a lot of lessons to be learned about how to build in football, but making the trades and finding a quarterback is the biggest thing. And when you find a quarterback for pennies and Sam Donald, he actually got more in return for Gino Smith. I think that kind of tells half the story right there. what were the talking points after Friday and Sunday's losses? I mean, it was more entertaining. Like, that's the kind of bar now, right?

Like, the game was more entertaining. People fought, the players fought back. Fans in the building had fun. And I don't know you talked about that too when you went to the game before. But that's really been noticeable the last couple games. The pop in the building a couple nights ago against the Devils with Teddy Bluger scored a goal. Now, they didn't win the game. But when he scored, it was as loud a pop as I've heard all season long.

There's a different enthusiasm. I think fans, at least that are showing up to the game, they have the right mindset, they want to have fun, they don't care, and all they want is a good effort. And that's been my biggest takeaway is that it's not overly negative right now when it comes to going into the building. People are excited to watch the team try hard and be in the game, and they're completely fine with the team losing.

All they want to see is an entertaining game. And I think that's been... I'm laughing because that's the marketing. Come watch the team, try hard. But that's kind of where, I mean, if you're rebuilding, right? I know. Isn't that the battle?

And I think we talk about, I think the biggest thing that the organization should take away from all this is the fans are okay with the team not being good as long as the efforts there and you have a plan in place to make the team better long term. Have young players show up, have a good effort, put together a fairly entertaining

product and fans will be supportive. Now it's different to be supportive now versus a few years and we'll see how it goes. But, you know, all this talk about you know, does the fan base have a stomach to watch some bad hockey or or watch a team be bad for a couple of years. I think right now, when you're going to the building,

you're getting that type of sense at the very at least. And if you're going to not be a good hockey team, at least have young players play and play a part. And I think the last couple of games, at least the effort's been there. And you're not watching, you know, the veterans put their heads down and lose five, six, nothing and you're completely run out of the building.

At least put on a good effort for the fans. So, Sat, we've decided to call, shorten the veterans with term. to just VWTs, because we talk about them all the time. Like there's the pending UFAs, and now we've got the VWTs. Who do you think is the most likely VWT to be traded this offseason? Oh, I think DeBrest would be my guess. I think he's probably one of the guys that,

listen, I'm not saying Jake DeBusk wants to get traded, but looking at his ice time, looking at his usage, looking at why he signed in Vancouver when he signed, and the other options he had. I would have to imagine he's thinking about how, not that he made a mistake, but what would it look like if he would have gone elsewhere and been in a situation that is more competitive

and perhaps played a more consistent role. I'm not sure how excited he is about his ice time being as low as it is half the time. And I know he's been sick the last couple and then maybe that put something, you know, it makes it a little bit different in terms of why he wasn't playing a ton the last couple games. But I have to imagine he's frustrated

not being up the lineup and seeing other guys play more regularly. And I would imagine if there is a possibility for him to go to another team that's in a more competitive situation, I wouldn't be surprised if he would waive. Whereas you look at a guy like Brock Bester, we know he doesn't want to waive. We don't look at heroic. They want to keep them. Look at Myers, you know, Marcus Pedersen. You know, they got families.

I'm not sure how eager they are to get up and go. Now, you can always make life miserable for somebody and eventually they can say, yes, I'll leave. but that would be my guess. I think Jake DeBrusc is the most likely one. Alfred and I were talking earlier in the show about the three young defensemen that they've got playing fairly regularly right now. Some guys are in and out of the lineup, but it's Tom Vlander, Zeev Bouillon, and Elias Pedersen. Next season, do you think they will be as patient and understanding of some of the mistakes that these young guys, are making because I keep wondering about overall team expectations for next season because I keep hearing Jim Rutherford say this is the year to lose essentially.

Well, I think that's the biggest litmus test everybody has, right? I think going into next year even and you can tell by the way Alvin has talked about we have to, we can't get under the cap floor and that's as to say they're going to go and spend to the ceiling. But that, hey, don't expect us to sit idly by and do nothing. They're going to be looking for avenues at least to make the team better or find ways to improve over the long term. But that's going to be the biggest litmus test. Are you willing to live with mistakes? Let's say you start off the season and you're six and four through your first 10 games. How do you go about the remainder? If you have a couple of games to see a guy's struggle, do you put in the veteran player? Do you get tougher

on them? I think the results in how you start the season will dictate how patient they are or how impatient they are with some of these players. And that's where I can understand it from a short term aspect where, okay, well, we're trying to be competitive. You know, we're competitive to start the season. We have to make sure that we play as clean as possible. But are you willing to live with it for a full year?

I'm not so sure they are. And I think that what we saw the last little while, too, is you get to a point with these young players where you think the mistakes they're making are hurting them too much. And at that point, do you feel like you have to send them back down to Abbott's for play some games? feel like you have to change force of direction to ensure that they do learn how to play the

right way. And there's that fine balance with development. It's not just about throwing guys out there and making mistakes and drowning. You have to find ways to improve and play. So I don't think it's one of those black and white things. But I do think results to start the season next year will determine their posture moving forward. And if they get off to a good start, will they look at it and say, hey, maybe we're better

than we thought? And I think that's the biggest test that I have for these guys. Are you willing to be patient and go through it? or are you going to get a bit over-eager if you get off to some early success? That's another thing Halfer and I were talking about earlier in the show. We're like, how could they surprise? Because we were talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins, who nobody expected to be a playoff team this season.

In fact, we thought they'd sell off a lot of their pieces, which they haven't done. Now, the Penguins have Sidney Crosby. So that's kind of the answer of like, How could we surprise people? Well, you know, Sidney Crosby. Is there that for the Canucks? Well, I think with how the league is shaped now

and how average the entire league is, or as a kids would say, it's very mid. I think there is an easier chance to bounce back if things align for you if you stay healthy and a couple of guys get hot. Like, I think the key is obvious, right? You have Deb goal healthy, he finds his game, length and then plays ball.

Now you have a backbone of goaltending, right? let's say Heidel stays healthy, Marco Rossi stays healthy, and Pedersen stays healthy. That's not to say they have great centers, but certainly it's okay. You don't have a first-line center because Pedersen's not playing like it. You don't have a good checking center

outside of Pedersen being that guy. You have Heel and Rossi, though, that's two capable offensive players. Pedersen, at least good defensively. And whoever you put on the fourth line, let's say it's a veteran. If those guys stay healthy, could they be in the mushy-nism? Could it be a team that it's on pace for 90 points?

Maybe, and maybe that's how you're surprised? That's a possibility, but how likely is it that the guys we've mentioned stay healthy? Like, if you don't stay healthy, there's a goal-pin. To me, the guys who are so important to this team that are in the critical positions, you can't even bank on them being healthy. And I guess if they did stay healthy and they all played well, then there is a pathway for you to be better than expected next season. But how likely is that?

Am I crazy or does Pedersen look a little more confident with the puck? on a stick these days? I don't think you're crazy. I think it's been noticed, too. You know, I think a cynic might say he's gearing up for the Olympics. And, you know, maybe now he's playing a little bit better with that end in sight and he wants to make sure that he takes advantage of the opportunity, doesn't get embarrassed, you know, on that stage.

And now that you have a bunch of injuries to centers, he can play a bigger role. Just to jump in. Just to jump in. I think the cynic would say that, yeah, the pressure's off. Yeah, not too. You can see that as well. I think that's the other part of it as well. You know, and I think what somebody

did tell me that they had said from the beginning that they thought it was going to be a process that could take much of the season for him to regain his game, that it's going to take some time for him to get back to what he used to be. It's not going to be flip the switch when the season begins. It's going to take time to get the confidence back, find that groove again. You can look at it from that standpoint,

point too, but at the same time, I think we've all kind of been through so many different things with watching Patterson play that even when he's playing better, and I would imagine even internally, some people kind of rolling their eyes and saying, oh, now you're better all of a sudden. So I think with him is everything's been soiled so much that you can't even look at something of him playing well without it being met with some level of skepticism or some level of derisiveness and perhaps even internally with certain people too. I think that's where with him, nothing is ever too simple, right? But you're right. He does look better.

He does look more confident. He's made more plays. I mean, good defensively. He's been trying hard, right? I mean, no block shots. He tries to play goalie. I'm sure Ballack would be proud of watching him. Get into the butterfly and then kick the pad out the way he did.

I thought he was a little deep in his net. I'll be honest with you. Yeah, it should have been challenging the shot a bit more, right? But that's the thing with him, right? Like, he does a lot. He does the details really well. There are a lot of things that he does well. And he's a player that has always at least tried in his own end.

It's like he dogs. Yeah, he has bad dog language sometimes. He looks like he's down on himself sometimes. But I don't think, you know, just the pure effort has ever been the issue with him. It's just where do you find that year? Where do you find that fire to bring the best out of yourself? My main concern about his actual game now is just his speed. Like he can't, you know, if he comes up on the ice on a rush, like he always has to stop up.

Yeah. Do you know what I mean? No, you're right. I know exactly what you mean because I was talking about that too with guys watching the game and it's like even when he plays well

that pop isn't there in his game that explosiveness isn't there in his game like when he makes something when he makes something happen it's usually off a standstill it's off the wall and he'll take a guy on make a move

at the past he makes the vision that you see from him but it's never off the rush beating a guy driving towards the net like we very seldom see him do that he doesn't have any real pop in his game and that's right even when he plays well

is that serious? to be an elite player even there anymore if you don't have the explosiveness. And some guys find other ways to impact the game and score more and perhaps, you know, evolve with that explosiveness goes away. And he just hasn't done that. So I do totally see that.

So even when he plays well, and we're seeing the best version of him, he's still not playing it at a first-line center level. Do you think there should be a succession plan laid out by the club for whenever it is that Jim Rutherford? calls it a long and successful career? I think ideally that would be what you have.

You see what happened in St. Louis, for instance, right? Like Alex Dean is the guy who's going to take over at Doug Armstrong. Like they're rooming him to be the dude who's going to oversee the operation and he's slowly taking over. But that's also not something that you see very, very often in the National Hockey League. I think ideally in this market, especially with people having a lot of questions about what this is going to look like and what the plan is. You feel better about, okay, they're going to seed this plan through if they're rebuilding

actually and they have a succession plan and management. But I'm not sure how common that is across the league, generally speaking. And if you look at it too here, I think a lot of people have questions about, is Alvin, so Rutherford goes, does Alvin just stay as a GM? You're definitely not going to make him the president. Do you want him to have another president here too, right? I think that's the question that, you know, it would be nice if the owner did speak to the media here at the end of the season at some point where some of these questions could be answered

because we've seen this in the past too right like when linden left initially they didn't have a president and it wasn't until bending left that you brought in Rutherford and now you have you know the buffer between management and ownership at least in theory with having the president in place and i think ideally in this market you would like to have that um but i don't know if there are any plans yet that they're going to have those have two different people of empower positions in hockey the same way they have right now. And I think those are all fair questions

and questions we don't really have answers to. I've got a couple more questions. So the first one is, do you think there is a chance that ownership could speak? I mean, honestly, I don't know. Okay. Given how negative things have been and how angry everything has been, I think things would have to end on a pretty positive note

by the end of the season. Or if they're making a change, let's say, you know, they're rather first staying, but they're making changes in management, maybe Denny speaks, but I don't know. We've asked about it. I know early in the season, before the season began, we were asking to see if we can get them on a station

or get them on a certain show as people asked. And it seemed like maybe a possibility, but then as soon as things went sideways, that just kind of went off the books. Yeah, I know how those requests get made. Sometimes it's like, you know right away, whether or not. And then sometimes they're like, well, we'll see. So I guess we will see about that.

the other one would be what was the response during the post game show yesterday to the lack of response from the Knox after Brock Besser got hit a pretty dirty fashion by Brian Rust. It was pretty standard to how fans usually feel

when a Knoch gets cheap shot at. They feel like there wasn't enough of response. They want to see the team be a lot tougher. Now, we'll say it wasn't as lively a post game show because we were watching a Seahawks game too last night. So you weren't getting quite as much angry. And there were a couple people that texted and message me and they were like, yeah, I'm pissed about it, but who cares? The Seahawks won.

So it's like there are people that were just excited about the Seahawks win that maybe took the edge off a little bit. But it was a general response we get from fans that the team's not tough enough. They never defend each other. And this is not a team that has leaders that's willing to stick up from one another. And that's a general response we often get when the team doesn't fight back. But, and listen, I'm, I completely agree that. need to get tougher. I want to see this team stand up for itself more. I want to see them defend each other more. But I do think given how that unfolded late in the game, and you heard

some players post-game talk about, they didn't even notice what happened until afterwards and they didn't realize what was going on. If that had happened, say, with five minutes to go, and there was no response, I think it would have been more justified, but it happened literally as the game ended, and there was a lot of confusion right away. So I can give them a bit of a pass on it, but fans weren't willing to give much of a pass, at least the ones who were critical at that post-game. always different at the end of a game too, right? Because like the buzzer goes, you're kind of milling around after the game.

I mean, yeah. Anyway, we hope Brock is okay, and we hope Brian Russ gets a suspension, and we hope the Seahawks win the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks. Sat, thanks for taking the time to join us. I think the one that you can be most confident about is the Seahawks won in the Super Bowl, to be honest. Oh, you're just, you're trying to jinx it. I know what you're trying to do.

No, I don't believe in jinks. I don't believe in jinks. I don't believe in living life in fear. Like, I'd have no, I have confidence in the Seahawks. You can take it up with me afterwards. I made a sports career out of living my life in fear, so. Constant, constant fear. Thank you, Sad.

There are different ways to get to your destination, right? Oh, my God, this is so philosophical. I love it. Thank you, Sat. I appreciate that. Can you be my life coach? See you, buddy. Amazing.

See you, buddy. We'll try. Later, guys. Bye. It's Satyar Shah, Connect Central, pre-imposed game host, also aspiring life coach. here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. You'd be like, first of all, like, you got a shower.

Yeah. That's more. I'm tired of this life coaching. That's less philosophical, more operational. Spent ten minutes working with properly. I'm not going to do this show. I can't help you, man. You mean every day?

You'll be doing it every day? Fine. I can't actually, on that subject. Don't you question? You shower every morning before the show? No, I used to, but I don't anymore. I've done it a handful of times not. Sometimes if I really have to wake up,

I'll have a quick rinse. I just don't want to wake up my house. Yeah, that's fair. You know? It's loud. I've, we got humans in there. We've got three animals. It's a zoo, right?

Bring the cat in there with you. Cats love showers. So that won't make any noise. Okay. Switching gears here ever so slightly. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the Duick Auto Group. Specifically, my 2026 Chevrolet Equinox. So here's the thing that I've learned over the last week.

EVs, I'd never, I'd never driven an EV before we hooked up with the Duick Auto Group, right? they heat up unbelievably fast. And I'm talking about like the inside of the car, right? Like the actual physical heat, the seats, the steering wheel,

everything. I didn't realize that was, you're like the heat are real fast. You can drive them for like 10 minutes. No, no, no, like if it's cold in the morning

and you step outside, it doesn't, I guess because with like a standard gas vehicle, um, I don't know, blood flowing, you know?

It's not like that. No, it's, so what does it say here? Oh, you're such a, I know, it's good, right? They use electric restrictive heaters or heat pumps,

which provide near instant warmth without waiting for an engine to reach max operating temperature. Interesting. Yeah. So you're driving, you know, sometimes when it's cold, you have to wait like several minutes before you get warm and de-frost and everything.

This happens right away. I'm learning all this stuff about EVs, basically. That's good. Yep, let me tell you. I'm on board. I was told electric vehicles weren't good in the cold. I have been suitably, impressed. I mean, again, like, we got to, this is all relative, right? Because inevitably,

we're going to get a car, one text coming, it's not cold. What you're going through is in cold temperatures. Do you have to plug it in every night? Like into an outlet? No, not every night. You can, right? I don't have a... How long is it go without having to do that? You're just making a bunch of hand gestures right now. Like, how long will the car last before you have to plug it in? That's on a few factors. The battery is about 350 to 400 kilometers. Oh, that's good.

The burn rate of the kilometers obviously depends on other factors than just driving, right? Like, if you're just sitting there, like, second up all that sweet, sweet heat. But, yeah, I don't know. I think it's been every, like, five, six days that I have to do this. Plug it in. And for those of you that aren't watching the stream, I'm doing the plug-in motion. You realize you work in radio, right? Theater of the mind, folks.

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