Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 2/9/26

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they discuss their Seahawks winning the Super Bowl, plus they talk Canucks and Olympic Men's Hockey 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. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Here comes the Blitz. May. Henn as he tries to throw. Ball comes out. Shannon Owensu, and he scores. Touchdown. Seahawks.

Three, two, one. The Seahawks. For the second time, In less than 12 years, the CIS win Super Bowl 60. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford and his brough at SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios

in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Oh, Michael, good morning. Hey, dog, good morning to you. Good morning. Matt Lottie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Do you have payday loan debt? If you do, Sands and Associates. Sands and Associates can cut that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star metal recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Pall Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio. New Year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech, which everyone uses to celebrate a Super Bowl win. Good energy this morning, Jason. Hey, how often do we get to celebrate a championship on this show when our team wins something?

Our team won something last night. They actually won. 12 years. According to Steve Rable, I lost track. 12 years. What a performance yesterday from the Seattle Seahawks. Your Super Bowl champions are guest lists today, our Duick Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group, is going to begin right there at 7 a.m. Mike Tannier, our weekly NFL insider from the two deep zone, as mentioned.

The Seattle Seahawks have hoisted the Lombardi trophy for the second time in franchise history. Mike's Monday morning walkthrough, a must read for anyone, Seahawks fans or otherwise, in which he calls Seattle the greatest team ever that nobody saw coming. It's very appropriate, very apropos from Mike. We're going to talk to him about all that at 7 o'clock. Do you remember, and maybe we'll read it, recap with Mike. There was a week, I don't know what it was, week six, seven or eight in the season, when we asked Mike, hey, have you noticed the Seahawks? And he was like, I have. And I asked, like,

are people in the main market starting to take notice of this Seahawks team? And he admitted, like, Seattle doesn't get a lot of attention. And they really didn't for a long stretch of But it is an unbelievable regular season when you stack it all up. Didn't you say they could win the Super Bowl like really early on? And everyone was just like, what are you talking about? Mike? No. It was like around that time, week six or seven.

No, the narrative, the narrative was like. You're not winning with Sam Darnold. I mean, that was the narrative. You're not winning a Super Bowl with Sam Darnock. I think the narrative developed about halfway through the season where there were like 15 teams that were probably like, hey, why not us this season? Look at what the Chiefs are great. The Ravens aren't great.

like, man, right? You know, anyway, we'll get into this. So Mike's going to join us at 7 o'clock this morning. At 7.30, we're going to go to Italy. Luke Fox is going to join us. Sportsnet, NHL, and Olympic hockey writer. We'll get the latest on Team Canada, following the team's first practice on Sunday,

during which we got our first look at forward lines and deep airings. On the women's side, Canada takes on Chequette today at noon our time. So Luke is going to join us from Milan Cortina at 7.30 this morning. 8 o'clock Satyar Shah. It's going to join the program. Canucks pre and post game host right here on SportsNet 650. Going to take a deeper look at some of the Canucks participating in this year's Olympics, including Peti, who's on the line with Mika Zabinajad and Ricard Raquel for the Swedes.

And Philip Heronik, the checks are practicing this morning. They, of course, will open the tournament against Canada. Heronic, not surprisingly, on PP1 and on the top, deep pairing for the checks. Lots to get into his Satyar Shah at 8 o'clock. Working real quick in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, we got sat. We got Luke Fox live from Milan. And 7 o'clock, we got Mike Tanier,

our NFL insider from the 2 Deep Zone. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, 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 invest in tools, resources and safety training, visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. As mentioned, the Seattle Seahawks absolutely dominated the New England Patriots on Super Bowl Sunday, holding the Patriots scoreless through the first three quarters,

capturing their second Lombardi trophy in the process. A swarming defense absolutely took care of Drake May all night, three turnovers, six sacks, and one interception return for a touchdown. And of course, finally, it goes without. saying a stellar offensive performance from running back. Kenny Walker, who had more than 150 scrimmage yards, and he wins Super Bowl MVP. When did you stop being nervous during the game? The Nuwosu pick six. So I was like, put it to bed. Really? Yep. Put it to bed. I stopped being nervous in the first half. I was like, the Patriots do not have it today. They didn't have it. The Seahawks

defense is too good right now. The Matt Collins touchdown scared me a little bit because they picked on Rieck woolen? I was like, I wonder if they could do that again. But until it was put to bed, I was always on edge. That's just the kind of guy I am. How unlikely a championship was this for the Seahawks? They were somewhere around 60 or 65 to 1

long shots in the preseason. I didn't miss the playoffs the last two seasons. Yeah, they went 10 and 7 last year. They barely missed the playoffs. So they weren't bad. But Super Bowl contenders? No. It was such an odd

season in the NFL, and we were kind of talking about this before. I can't, I can't remember exactly when we started asking, hey, mine, not the Seahawks, but I don't know, it was probably around halfway through the season when the chiefs were, the chiefs at one point were five and five, the Ravens were five on five, the bills looked good, but not great. The Detroit Lions, we didn't talk much about them on the show, but they had a very disappointing year. Yep. And so did teams like Green Bay. Yep, that's fair to say. Overall, had had, had, had, had, a disappointing year. There was optimism about the Washington commanders heading into the season, and they were terrible. The Eagles were super dysfunctional all season, and despite being Super Bowl

champions, like the fans seem to hate them. And then they lose to the Niners in the playoffs. And then the Broncos, who had an unexpected, great season, great defense there. Then Bow Necks gets gets hurt, you know, right as the AFC title game, I guess was, no, no, no, right before the AFC title game. Going into the UFC title game. The team that scared me the whole season was the Rams. And ultimately, they were probably the second best team. But only barely, only barely behind the Ciox.

I still think about that crazy two-point conversion that helped the Hawks beat the Rams in week 16. If that goes the other way, are you and I, celebrating a title today. Like, I know the Rams went out and lost to Atlanta the following week, but I don't know if that happens if they beat the Seahawks. Look, they were the two best teams in the NFL. I mean, we can say it now and with the benefit of hindsight,

it kind of feels hollow, but the NFC championship was the Super Bowl. Aren't you glad that Stafford won MVP and not Drake May? Because I'll be honest with you. Look, this may be totally unfair to Drake May because I didn't watch a lot of Patriots games this year, but I'm watching him last night and yeah the Seahawks defense was amazing

but I was like how easy was the Patriot schedule were they playing teams in the NFL because he looked like a rookie in that game he looked he's not far removed from me no I know but but that's a thing

I mean he just lost the MVP race to Matt Stafford and he looked shaken in that game so I watched Watched, obviously, every playoff game that the New England Patriots played in pretty closely. And there were warning signs right from the wildcard win over the Chargers that what we saw in the regular season from Drake Bay was not going to show up in the postseason. I mean, I know that the Seahawks harassed the living daylights out of May yesterday and they finished with six sacks.

But if you go back... And they had a rookie left tackle that was getting picked on. But he got dropped five times against the Chargers. He got dropped five times against Houston. and he got dropped five times against Denver. So, like, teams were getting to him with regularity, and they were turning the ball over. So the Seahawks did a fantastic job doing it yesterday,

better than any of those other teams have. If you look at a lot of the metrics, they harassed Drake May in a way that he hadn't seen all season. But, yes, his regular season schedule was padded with teams that he was able to take advantage of. I will say this. Throwing 31 touchdowns to just eight interceptions across an entire regular season,

still really impressive, no matter who you're going up again, He didn't turn the ball over anywhere close to the amount that he did in the postseason. Did the game suck? Game wasn't great. From an entertainment standpoint, I had a lot of fun watching it. I had a good time. Are you asking me? Me?

This guy? Two thumbs? I had a good time. The first half was pretty boring. The whole game sucked. It was beautiful for me. And even if I wasn't a Seahawks fan, I can always appreciate a great defensive performance. But the game sucked.

There was no drama. and it was totally one-sided. I mean, you mentioned that the Patriots scored that touchdown. I was like, okay. I mean, most people in Seattle were already celebrating that point. No drama, totally one-sided, that does not make for a great game. Even if you don't require touchdown after touchdown to be entertained. It was just a close game.

There's no drama. There was nothing. There was nothing. That game just ended, you know, and the Seahawks were. running away with it and they celebrated it. And it's okay to admit it. It's okay to, if you're a Seahawks fan, you're like, yeah, it was a domination. It was so dominant.

It was so dominant by the Seahawks defense that the game sucked. Yeah. I mean, the other Super Bowl that they won, was that a masterpiece? No, they pumped Denver. Yeah. Well, I had very similar Denver vibes. Not the fact that it got, it got away from Denver early in that school. This one took a little bit longer.

And I'll give credit to the Patriots defense, and specifically Gonzalez, who I thought was their best player. But let's stop talking about the Patriots here for a second, though I did wait into Patriots Twitter last night to get their feel on what the Seahawks did to them. What you saw yesterday was one of the most dominant defensive performances that you'll ever see in a Super Bowl,

statistically or eyeball otherwise. And all it really took was a stat correction from that being the most great QB, harassment, I'll call it, in Super Bowl history. Seven sacks is the record in a Super Bowl. Four different teams would put that up. The only reason the Seahawks didn't match that record was because when Witherspoon hit May and Nowsu returned it, originally it was called a sack and a fumble, but they called

it an interception. They called it a pass. So they took away Weatherspoon sack. That put them at six sacks. That was the only reason that that game isn't going to be there in the pantheons of great QB harassments in Super Bowl history. Can I ask you a bit of a psychopath question? Yeah, sure.

How bad were the Patriots fans hurting? Terrible. Really? They were? Oh, yeah. They were? Because, like, okay, I'm sure it sucked for them. But there's no way this makes up for the last Super Bowl.

No, no, no. The Pats had, like at the end of the day, the Pats had a magical season and took advantage of an easy schedule. They're obviously a good team and they've probably got a bright future with Drake May. but that was a mismatch yesterday. And sometimes I think it's better to know that the other team was just better than you. The ones that really hurt are the ones where you had it in your grasp

and you let it slip away. Or you just flat out choked. You know, I mean, had it in your grasp and you let it slip away. And I think about the 2011 Canucks. I think about the Blue Jays. Frankly, I think about the white caps because I thought, you know, down in Miami,

despite the star power that might be. Miami had. I'm like, the White Caps had that. Like they were playing better than Miami. This isn't a game. And, you know, they made a big mistake and then they kind of just lost their momentum. So, tell me more about the Patriots fans hurting because I feel like this doesn't

really even come close to making up for the last time. Well, part of it has to do with how awful and inept the offense was. It's hard going to a title game. Let's not forget. Say what you will about May going into this game and not being fantastic in the playoffs. He was still the runner up for MVP. And to be dead on,

it was a tie for MVP with how the voting went. Like, he ran that offense to the point where you didn't expect him to put up 50 yards and no points. Like, they were putting up one of the worst offensive performances in Super Bowl history. That in itself is embarrassing and disappointed. They didn't, couldn't do anything. It almost felt like they showed up to the Super Bowl and then went totally flat. The only reason that game wasn't a bigger blowout at halftime is because the defense did incredibly well. And I will say this, at a certain point in that game, the Seahawks knew.

that if they didn't make a mistake and Darnold didn't turn the ball over, they didn't fumble, they were going to win. That was very obvious because they were able to get the ball into the red zone, which the Patriots weren't able to do. They were able to move the ball into positions where they could at least kick field goals,

which the Patriots weren't able to do. It was kind of an embarrassment until they were able to put up a cosmetic score or two at the end, to be honest. There's a difference between being embarrassed and having your heart ripped out. Yep. Would you agree?

Would you con see that? Well, it wasn't getting their heart ripped out. It was just getting embarrassed on the national stage. It was bad. Their offensive line was getting mocked by Chris Collinsworth on the broadcast. Yeah. They're having a tough day out there. I mean, anytime you go and you give up Super Bowl records to the opposing defense,

yes. I thought Chris Collinsworth was really good, by the way, on the podcast. There was one point where he was just silent for eight seconds. Like, he was trying to put words together to explain what he just saw. He's like, I don't even know what that was. Like, that was just awful by the Patriots. Yeah. I mean, I just think he felt out that game real early.

Yeah. Another very interesting dynamic from the Patriots' Center. of things that I saw. They've now lost more Super Bowls than any other franchise. Are they five and five in Super Bowls? I think it's six and six if I'm not mistaken. So it's an interesting dynamic because no one's won the kind of Super Bowls. Oh yeah.

They've won. You know what I mean? But they've also gone and lost multiple times now. I would like to make a formal apology to Sam Darnold. There is no way. I pictured the Seahawks winning a Super Bowl with Darnold. And even during the game, I've got to be honest with you, I had my doubts, especially early on.

I think it's easy to forget after such a dominant performance by that Seahawks D and the score line. He needs a real risky throws early on. Almost got picked by Gonzalez. That was the one where I thought that if that game had a chance to go one way or the other, that might have been it. Well, I mean, I thought Collinsworth nailed it. There was a couple.

He was like, he's throwing into some tight windows out there. And there are a couple throws that if they bounce the other way off, someone's hands, those are picked off and gone. But when all was said and done, Sam Darnold didn't turn the ball over once in the playoffs. The guy that led the NFL in turnovers, didn't turn the ball once, turned the ball over once in the playoffs.

And he made the place he needed to make. I think it was five TDs and no picks in three playoff games. And then he told the NBC broadcast afterwards, he was like, as long as you believe in yourself, anything's possible. And I was like, God, that's cheesy. But I will allow it and maybe even shed a tear

because, you know, when the Seahawks, when the Seahawks traded away Russell Wilson, I was like, okay, we're in the wilderness now. And Gino Smith played better than, I think, a lot of people, including myself, expected him to play. But he would just be like, man, that was a dumb mistake. dumb play. And ultimately, you know, the Seahawks made the decision. We can talk about the decision making that the Seahawks have made, many of which have gone their way. They made the decision

to go to Sam Darnold. And I'm like, okay, that's a caretaker quarterback. In my opinion, for a little while, until they find the next guy. And, you know, they can build something on defense. They can maybe win a few games, get to the playoffs. You know, again, Even during the playoffs and even during the Super Bowl, which the Seahawks won decisively, I was like, I don't have full belief in you, Sam Donald. And I think it was great to see a guy like that who appreciated the belief that he got from his coaches, his teammates, the management that targeted him and said, we want you, even after the way it finished in Minnesota, we want you, and we think we can win with you, because I didn't think they could win a Super Bowl with him.

So, yeah, there's a lot there. They put together, and for those of you that are like, you're such a Seahawks homer, this station is like so in the bag for the Seahawks. I say this without hyperbole. Sam Darnold was the QB of what's going to go down as one of the greatest single season teams in NFL history. That's not hyperbole. The Seahawks went 17 and 3.

Their three losses this year were by four points, three points, and two points. Outside of those, single score losses, they won 17 games. They rolled the Niners in the first round of the playoffs. They got through the Rams in the second round, and then they rolled the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

As you mentioned, did not turn the ball over a single time during their Super Bowl run. the first team in NFL history, and we're talking fumbles or picks. They played it as well as you could play in a year where it was wide open. They firmly established themselves as the best team in the NFL. The Rams were there. The Rams were there for sure.

But at the end of the day, they beat the Rams two out of three times. And they took care of everyone else in pretty convincing fashion as the season went along. And Darnold didn't just manage that. In certain phases, he had to cut down his mistakes. and he'd limit what he was doing. But if you look at his numbers on the year, look at how durable he was, if you look at his ability to overcome the issues that plagued him,

it's a really remarkable season as a leader, not just as a lifeguard or as a stopgap or as a guy that managed the game. Was he great yesterday? No. And he acknowledged it in his post game availability too. He said the offense could have been a lot better, but it didn't really matter.

Here's what I do remember. It was around week six when they went down to Jacksonville. Jacksonville was four and two at the time, and they had just beaten Casey. Seattle went down to Jacksonville, beat them 20 to 12. They only let the Jags score 12 points, and they sacked Trevor Lawrence seven times.

I remember thinking at that point, okay, the defense is really good, and it could take them places, but Darnold needs to clean up all the stuff that's still plagued him. Turned them all over too much, took way too many sacks. Didn't clean it up really right at all in the immediacy.

Something clicked after that crazy game against L.A. that you were talking about with the nutty two-point conversion and the crazy comeback, where he had a terrible first half and turned the ball over like crazy. And then played a really good second half, got them back into it.

After that game against the Rams, Sam Darnold threw one interception over the next five games. And it was against, I want to say Carolina in the next game, after the Rams game, where they won quite easily. But then he goes,

regular season finale against San Francisco doesn't turn the ball over. Wildcard against San Francisco doesn't turn the ball over. NFC Championship doesn't turn the ball over, of course, a Super Bowl. Like that, that to me is the mark of a guy that got it. He figured out what he had to do to be successful. And still took some risks, still made some risky throws in the Super Bowl, but deserves a ton of credit for steering this team.

When you think that they went from Russell Wilson to Gino Smith to Sam Darnold, in the second, you know, first year on the job. Yeah. He goes out and does that. Really remarkable. So I saw the Super Bowl odds for next year, came. out and the Seahawks are right at the top of the list. There's no reason why they can't return to another Super Bowl next year. I mean, the reason would be like, it's unlikely, you know? Yeah. It's hard to make back-to-back Super Bowls. I mean, they did it just over a decade ago. And the second one, you know what? I didn't enjoy it. Didn't go as well as the first.

I didn't love it. You can go great. But, you know, most of their core, not all of their core, but most of their core, but most of their course, pretty young. What do you want to do with Ken Walker now? Uh, hug him. So he's an unrestricted free agent. There's another guy.

We should have mentioned him. Well, I mentioned him on the- You know what? I mentioned him in the intro because I knew we weren't going to talk about him, which is kind of be fitting. I know a lot of people in the aftermath

was like, we didn't, like, he's a very soft-spoken guy. Listen to a bunch of his interviews and everything. And he's not really a big, bold personality. He didn't get a ton of media attention going into the Super Bowl this entire week, played fantastic. And then the narrative afterwards was the Seahawks going to keep him.

He is such a fundamental part of their offense, but we know how the running back position works in the NFL. There's always a new guy on the horizon. Are we going on Brady this week? Because there's a couple of guys that I want to talk about. Brady's tomorrow, yeah. Brady's tomorrow. Okay, so let's table this conversation.

What did the Seahawks do in the off season? You know, top of mind for me was like, okay, they've got JSN as maybe. the best receiver in the NFL. Do they need a little... Could you see John Schneider saying, okay, we need a little bit more after? And this is no disrespect to Cooper Cop

who meets a big place down the stretch. But he's getting a little bit older. Sure. Right? Like, do you need to do a little something there? Now, this is a question I want to throw to the listeners because I realize that not all of you are Seahawks fans, but most of you, if you're listening to the station, your Vancouver Canucks fans.

And we have seen runs from the Toronto Blue Jays. We've seen a run from the Vancouver Whitecaps. And now we've seen not only a run, but an actual championship from the Seattle Seahawks. And

despite the NFL and the NHL being very different in terms of how you manage a roster, how quickly your draft picks can make an impact on your actual NHL team, on your actual team. Like, there are lessons to be drawn from the Seattle Seahawks.

And I'm going to throw it out to you, the listeners, you tell me what is the biggest lesson the Vancouver Canucks can learn from the Seattle Seahawks who just won the Super Bowl. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of the best. 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 Satyar, checking in on the Canucks. Well, it's time to chat with Satir. We'll talk about the hockey now. Checking in on the Canucks. Talking Hockey now. 803 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody.

Halford Brubb, Sportsnet, 650. That's baby making. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Got credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can cut your debt by up 80% with no upfront fees. This is today at Sands-Trustee.com. I love how you're still not entirely sure where it is yet, so you just give it that extra long pause. Just to be safe.

Just let it breathe. Yeah. We are in hour three of the program. Saty R. Shah is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three. Hour three is brought to by Campbell & Pound. Real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Dashpound.com today.

We are coming to live from the Kintech studio. New Year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech. Guests on Sportsnet 650 call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline. Email sales at abelhe auctions.ca to get your business assets sold. and your building cleared. Hey Jason, let's go now to that ABLE Auctions hotline. Joining us now, Satyar Shah here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

What up, Sat? What's happening, man? I'm good. Not as good as you guys, though, celebrating a Super Bowl. It was a lot of fun. This morning's been actually, it's been really great. It feels good. It's a real rare feeling. It's unique. I wasn't really sure what to do or how to do it, but I knew. You know, Seth, you've just got to build the culture

and you've got to get players to buy in. And, you know, it's just, what we do with the Seahawks. You know, maybe your Cleveland Browns can learn something from it, but we'll see. No, no, I mean, it's one of those things. They clearly have the good

veteran leadership that I show the young guys how to win and succeed, right? I mean, they wouldn't be here for a pretty good veterans. I got to ask. Do you see they win with that Cooper Cups? Well, you know what? That's a good point. Because all season, we've heard about how Cooper Cupp has made it about the

other guys on the team and not himself. And he's been teaching the young. He's been a good mentor. No egos on that team, guys. He's been a good mentor to that young receiving group. And, you know, we've tied everything today, honestly, at some stage, back to the Canucks in some way, shape, or form. A lot of it's been very passive-aggressive.

Yeah. Very, very passive-aggressive. But, you know, it's funny when you talk about building a culture and having the right guys around, I went down the road of the coach, as a matter of fact, given, you know, they identified Mike McDonald as the guy

they brought him in. And he set a standard right away, made no nonsense, no sort of wishy-washy ways about it. Like, this is the way we're going to do our business. This is how we're going to do things around here. And I said it actually reminded me of when Rick Tockett first arrived in Vancouver, that there were certain things. He called them non-negotiables. There were ways you did things, and there were ways you didn't do things.

And if you didn't do them the right way, you know, you were either going to be punished with a decrease in ice time, or maybe you're going to be shipped out in the off-season. I do think that that's such an imperative lesson for franchises to learn. that you got to set a standard, you got to set it early, and you got to uphold that standard if you're going to build a culture. Yeah, 100%. And, I mean, it's interesting because one of the things Mike McDonald gets criticized for

is his communication and how his skills of the media haven't been all that strong, but he's a defensive guy. You look at Adam foot, like defensive guy, communication of the skills, communication skills of the media hasn't exactly been 100%. But it's that setting of the standards that obviously has been lacking. At the same time, what you also need is to have a high-end play. is that really buy into it. And for the Cadacians,

and I think this is the biggest issue since the Quinn Eustrade. Like, outside of Philipronic, who's their high-end player? And who's the player that leads the way because he's so good on the ice and he plays. Well, it's Philopronic essentially, right?

Like, if you look at everybody else, I mean, Garland works hard, but what is the equivalent of on the Seahawks? Like, their, you know, their fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh best offensive player, if you include the linemen?

I think that's a big issue as well, right? like obviously the standard needs to be said. We used to have like high-end talent and players that are dogs in many ways, and that's what the Seahogs have. Yeah, it's funny. You know, I talk a lot about culture and ask the question of Patrick Alvin, about culture,

and yet I find myself going like, okay, let's not get carried away with this, though, because, you know, culture really doesn't matter unless you have the talent to go with it. Mm-hmm. Well, 100%. I mean, it helps in terms of working hard, and I think if you have a key,

that is able to perform better than what the talent level they have. That's a team you look at and say, well, not only other players dedicate it, but they have the right game plan, they have the right dedication. I think part of the issue with Vancouver this year is they haven't even met the baseline, right? And I think you can look at it both ways. You can look at it and say the coach is in a tough spot because he hasn't had a healthy team at any point. But at the same time, have they at any point this season performed better than what they have on the ice? I think the best teams are the teams that, even if they don't have the most talent,

the hardest working teams and the hardest teams to beat, are the ones that truly buy into doing something, and the coach gets execution day in and day out. Yeah, we're sitting here talking about the same issues cropping up, but a lot of it does come down to talent, but at the same time, I think in the absence of that challenge, you still look at it and say, you're not extracting every bit of value from these individuals,

and the individuals haven't played at the level where they're giving everything they have on a night-to-night basis. I think it kind of goes both ways, but I don't think we can, I know there's been a big push about, well, how bad is this season been? Can you really blame the head coach? He's not really at fault.

And okay, sure, he's not as fault for the bigger issue. But I don't think you can explain in a way how poor this team has looked at a night and a night basis and give the head coach a pass. So we asked the listeners earlier in the show, what are some lessons that the Kinecks can learn from the Seahawks and, you know,

culture was brought up multiple times. So that one was obvious. The other one that people brought up was don't fear making changes and be proactive, not simply reactive. And, you know, there's a lot of people I remember there, like, the Seahawks should not trade Russell Wilson. You know, don't do it. I mean, I wasn't in that camp because I think his time had come in Seattle. But there were people that didn't believe the Seahawks would do it. Because you go off into the wilderness if you trade a Super Bowl winning quarterback.

And, you know, there were people that. said, ah, big mistake trading D.K. McCaff. That guy had talent. You know, there are a bunch of moves that the Seahawks made, and that includes, by the way, switching out Gino Smiths for Sam Darnold. A lot of people thought, that's actually a downgrade in quarterbacks. But the Seahawks knew what they wanted and they weren't scared to make some risks. And, you know, we're still wondering if the Canucks are going to trade any of these veterans that they've locked up to long-term

deals and there seems to be a fear. Maybe I'm wrong about this because we haven't even had the off season yet, but there seems to be a fear that if they trade away talent, there's no way they're going to be able to replace it. Well, I think that is a real fear that they have.

I don't know if they're afraid of free agency, but I think when Alvian mentioned that they are considering the cap floor, I don't that's lip service. Like I do think that if they feel that if they move, say, three guys would term and all of a sudden you're staring at, you know, a $6 or $7 million deficit in the cap that you may have to spend it on players you don't want to spend it on just to get

to the cap again. And that's part of the reason where you hear them talk so much about keeping bets, it's hard to replace them. It's not necessarily just about, well, we can't find bets. It's also like, who do you sign? If you look at the free agent market this here, for instance, but they go through the names and outside of the top two or three, and they're all going to get, you know, overpay. Panera's off the list already too, right?

Not to say that they were going to go after Panarin, but who's the best officer player in free agency this year? It's Alex Tuck and Nick Schmaltz, for instance, and that's essentially it. And once you kind of go down that list, do you find yourself in a spot where you have to overpay to be able to just have somebody here to reach the

Calfloor? Now you're stuck with another player that's not making a ton of money. And I think that's also an issue with NHL free agency, with how few players get there, but also with Vancouver and how poor the season is gone, when you look around the league and you say, If you're a player who's a free agent, why would you sign a Vancouver? And if you're forward, who are you signing to play with in Vancouver? Yeah.

Yeah, you're not going to pile up points playing with any of the players in Vancouver. No. So if you're doing a one-year show-me deal, unless you're up against it, it doesn't look like the place you go to increase your value. So what do you want? You're looking at, you know, probably extra money, extra term, for you to consider coming to Vancouver. And how wise is that where Vancouver finds itself?

And the other part is, at least, I mean, you know, the contract the trade Quinn Hughes, right? So, I mean, I think that's fair to say. I mean, they got a lot of return for him. You can look at BK. METCAS. Like, do they have another player outside of Philip Peronik, who is a DK Medcast equivalent where you can get a good draft pick back and return? And equivalent to, you know, a second in the NFL or a first round pick in the NFL,

which is a lot more than a second in the National Hockey League. I was talking about Garland about this last week on the show. We think Garland was a good player he is. But how many contenders who have to be a lot of the game in the game. cap space, like the true six or seven teams are looking to win the Stanley Cup. Like which of those teams are trading for Carter Garland? Like which of those teams look at Carter Garland

and say he's going to be our missing piece? As nice as he is. I think he'd be a good addition. Yeah, I think he'd be a good addition. Sure. I mean, he might not play. He's either going to play on your second line or your third line, but I think he's a pretty good player. Yeah, but I mean, that's the thing. He's going to be a second and third line. He's making $6 million per season. And

the contract kicks in next year. I'm just saying, you can trade him probably, but are you getting this really good return for an undersized forward? Because you know how guys in the NHL look at it as well, right? Are like, is you truly a player that we're going to, you know, have, make a difference for us up the lineup in the playoffs? And you're right. Like, on a certain

team, he'll be on the third line. He'll be a nice addition. But are you taking on $36 million in future cap considerations and giving up a first round pick to do so? If you're a contender, like, is that the missing piece? I'm not not even sure the connects have that missing piece player outside of Philip Peronik that teams are clattering for. Isn't that like a secondary concern, though? Like, shouldn't the

concerned be like you've got a limited window in which to move garland anywhere before his no trade kicks in like it's great if they don't get the return that their desire but like with all due respect to this organization like nothing they've wanted is turned out over the like just throw it on the pile of other things that you wanted to turn out that didn't like to me moving off garland and I don't buy the you can't get to the salary floor like I don't buy that in the slightest there's ways that you can buy that at all I don't buy that at all every time they trot that out I laugh because I'm like you can find ways to to get there. Like you're not going to be able to sign a guy in a one-year deal on a

prove it deal to try and get another deal. How about just signing a guy that's hanging onto his NHL career? Take a bad contract off someone's hands. Bring a veteran that's desperate to get in the NHL and see what he gives you. Because I got a feeling that he's probably going to give you a good honest work rate and shift because he wants to keep his NHL career alive. Like those are the guys that you can target in free agency. I went to the bottom of it. You can go to the bottom of the bin and find those guys. Like, you know, going back to the Seahawks thing. I was going to bring this up earlier. The move that they made last

season, midseason, was they traded Jerome Baker out because he wasn't doing what they wanted him to do at linebacker. They signed him months prior to that to be that guy. And then they took a look at him and they're like, it's not working out. We don't like, it's either, it's not working out

the way that we envisioned it or you're not a schematic fit. And I'm sorry that we signed you months ago and you thought you were going to be here for a while, but you're not. There's a lot of parallels there to a thing like Garland where you just signed him, but a lot has changed. since the Garland contract got signed. As a matter of fact, almost everything's changed.

It's a different team. It's a different trajectory. And I do wonder at this point of you just say, let's get what we can get and move on because we're starting from scratch. Well, I think, I mean, I'm on the bodeg. I'll get whatever I can to move it out. I just think by the deadline, it might be harder to do that.

I think by the time you get to free agency or at least before July 1st kicks in, you're going to have teams that are not in the playoffs and teams that have the same issues that make room might be facing that. We need to spend money on some players. Then a guy like Garland is going to be easier to trade for. I just think at the deadline for a contender, it might be harder to pull that off.

I think the offseason, though, I think there's no excuse if you get July 1st and you haven't traded at least two guys that have term on contracts. It doesn't even have to be, like to me, I even include a guy like Drew O'Connor, for instance, on that too, has one more year left after this. Like, is Drew O'Connor going to have his value be any higher than it currently is in Vancouver? No. Probably not. No.

But I think he's going to get a good role. next year, so I don't know, maybe slightly higher. Maybe slightly higher. Either way. But you know what happens in Vancouver. I mean, the guy will take a step back next year. I mean, just how things go sometimes. Or it'll get hurt. Especially when you have a career year. Yeah, exactly.

But I think when you get to the offseason, you have to trade a couple of these guys. I just think by the deadline, the guys would term is because Vancouver's players up front, like I just don't see them as being a lot of missing peace players for teams around the deadline. But once you get to free agency, once you get to the offseason, there is going to be a market for a lot

of these guys. And I think it's going to be a massive a mistake. If you sit there and say, well, we could only get a second round pick for Carnar and Arons. We kept them. We can only get like a, you know, a second for, and a prospect for, you know, Gibroski, we decide to keep these guys. I think that's a huge mistake. I just don't know the deadline is going to be a time where you're going to be able to hold off those traits. Okay. Well, there's always the deficit between what we think the Kinnock should do and what we think they actually will do. Let's take away all our opinions because ultimately they're meaningless.

What do you think they will do? Do you sense that there is an urgency to move off of some of these vets? So, I mean, I get mixed answers on it. I think what they don't want to do is make it seem like they want to punt on all these guys.

But I do think that if they have their way, they'll move at least one of these guys. And honestly, like, I think the guy that for all this talk about the second dairy players, I keep going back to Pedersen. And I keep wondering, if you want to have a clean slate and move forward, and if all the leaders of the previous core have failed, are moving forward with that piece.

And like you guys are mentioning about the Russell Wilson trade and D.K. Metcalf, a little bit different. Like, you're not getting the same return, I think, as you got for Russ trading Pedersen. But there was a pretty big debt cap hit as well moving. Like, there was a pain associated with moving with Russell. Yep. And I wonder if they understand with PD, there might be some pain involved here at some point,

but it's something that we have to do. That's the one I really wonder about. And as for all this talk about the Bruskin Garland, like he's ultimately the big one. The biggest number on the team, you probably could, depending on what you take back and get a little bit more back in return for PD.

That's the one I have my biggest, like, set up. It's a big picture of this off season. Like, if you're trying to move forward, is this the, try to build a new culture? Is this the guy you can have here? I mean, we've only said that, like, what a... Do you see it?

A million times? on our show? I mean, I knew you want to ask you about PD because it's kind of like, yeah, I mean, the same will stop over and over again, right? Like, they have to move them if they want to change the culture. They have to. Well, I think they do. I think based on, like, even for him, is he ever, I think the best chance for him to find his game is finding it elsewhere. Like, I know you brought up a lot too, rough, like something broke in his brain

after they force him to sign that contract and whatever it is that happened. Like, I don't know if he's going to, if he's going to find his game in the NHL again, is it going to happen in Vancouver? doubtful about that. And I mean, and again, we're not in the locker room, but if you want to talk about having players set a standard, your highest paid player has to set a higher

standard. Without question. What do you think about him potentially rediscovering or finding his game while playing for Team Sweden on a line with Mika Zabinajad and Riccard Raquel, Molly Walker from the New York Post just tweeted out a while ago that while the Swedes had a closed practice today,

Pedersen did confirm that for the second consecutive practice he's skating with Zabinajad and Raquel. I like his chances against Italy. Yeah. Here's the thing. Are they going to give him some secret sauce in Milan where he gets faster and can shoot the puck harder? Right. So far this year, like so far this year, not only have the burst not been to the top speed has been there,

but his hardest shot this year, I think is 91 miles an hour, which based on the puck track tracking data, that's the weakest hardest shot he's had in the five years of been tracking this data. And it's significant compared to other years. So he's not shooting the fuck as hard. He's not skating as hard. He's all of a sudden going to find that in the N8 in Milan. I just don't buy it. And this is where when you look at his game and you're right, he works hard.

Like, he just one of the things he's done well defensively. But there's no pop in his game. And he was never the most explosive player. So I don't want to pretend like he was out there, you know, breaking ankles like McDavid. But he had more pop and more juice in his game, both on his shot and his skating. And that's been dropped off dramatically. So again, I think we're back to. Is he going to have an off season?

Is it going to be healthier for next year? I don't know if a two-week tournament's all of a sudden are going to change his physical fortunes around. And if they do, I think that poses bigger questions. Number one, like, what did you ingest? Kind of joking. But number two, like, how come you found it then? It didn't have it before.

Sat, what's the Kinex theory on why the shot has gone away? Why the hop in his step has gone? I mean, we were talking last week a lot about his skating stats. and it's not new that his skating hasn't been the same, but, you know, like I've been noticing that, you know, on the positive, I think he looks a little more confident with the puck on his stick. He's not fumbling it away.

He's not bumbling in. But I've just noticed how many times he's losing races to the puck or just taking a really conservative line, not even trying to be first to the puck. You know, he doesn't beat guys one-on-one anymore. And you would need to dangle in order to get through a guy. you know, you can't, he's not just going to just waltz around someone anymore.

And I wonder what the Canucks are thinking, because I know they wanted to turn down the temperature a little bit on him, but do they still maintain that he needs to train harder or are there injury concerns? Like we're still, what's frustrating about all this, and I've said it so many times I'm sick of it. We still don't have a diagnosis

on what the hell happened to this guy. Well, yeah, and if we do, no one's spoken about it. And then when it comes to injuries, nobody ever says anything in this market anyways and I mean so I think they still believe a lot of it comes down to training

how hard you work will you put into the off season and he had a better off season but I'm not sure he came into the off season like I don't think the off season was also like a 10 out of 10 I think they said all the right things about it but I'm not sure they felt like he he came in and the type of undeniable and amazing you got that feeling too hey it was like let's

yeah let's it wasn't just knocking it out of the park there but you know I guess he did the stuff so let's turn down the temperature. It was turning. Turning down the temperature was clearly something they intended to do this season. Yes, regardless of whatever it was. Like, even if he came into his camp in bad shape, I think they were going to downplay it.

But that's not to say that he didn't. He did gain weight. He did come in. He did come in. But I don't think he came in and blew the doors off the testing the way, you know, guys like Hogi and J.T. did the year before. And they were like, oh, my God, the testing was incredible. Look at how it's hard these guys worked.

It wasn't that sense around him. And with PD, the thing with Tim has been he hasn't had success in these playing through injuries. And I'm not trying to say he doesn't like playing through injuries. I know that's a question that people wonder about sometimes. But I wonder too. And nobody comes down to say these things because I think they're careful, especially to the people in the media because you know what happens.

But if I have to guess, I think that they would want him to be stronger fighting through injuries as well. Like if you're day to day, can you fight through it? And if you're playing, can you push a little bit more than what you do? And it's great that you're playing and you feel like you're a little bit banged up. But can you push a little bit more? I think there was some frustration on that road trip that he wasn't in the line. Yeah. I think there was some frustration there.

Yeah. And not just from like, you know, people in the organization. I wonder if players sometimes. And that happens to you, right? Because they're like, hey, I've come, how can you? Hey, I saw Mike Rupp had a great video about this talking about Jack Hughes. I saw it online. And he was talking about how if you're day to day, it comes down to you.

Because, like, you're okay to play if you day to day. And that's not to say you have. have to play when you're day to day. But there's certain times, and if it's been there long enough and you're not playing, guys around the room are like, hey, kind of, hey, what's going on here? Like, I know it just comes down to you being mentally strong enough to push through it. And sometimes it takes a day, sometimes take two, but it goes three to four or five days, day to day, like what's going on? People start asking questions. And that's just how players in the NHL talk about it afterwards that after they played and guys currently in the league.

So you can hear guys say stuff like that. So I do wonder if that came up to. But I just think, They look at PD as a guy who has all the talent, but it may be pushing 90% of it, 85% of it. And how do you get to him pushing that 100%? Does he have that would pin him still? I think that's probably a big question they have internally. I can't say for sure. That would be my guess.

Your phone cut out there, but you were talking about the Mike Rupp video where he was talking about Jack Hughes, right? Yes. Yeah, I watched that too. Yeah. I thought he was talking about you. I was like, I've never seen a video where Halford makes good points.

Oh, yeah, I've never been. And when I'm day-to-day, I am out. Let me tell you that. Sat, thanks for doing this today, bud. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again soon. Anytime, boys.

Yep, I'm good on. Satyar Shah, Canucks Central host. Also, Canucks pre and post-game host here on the Halford & Brub Show on Sportsnet 650. I'll try and find that video, actually. It was good. Rupper really just kind of took dead aim. It was because Jack Hughes is obviously out of the lineup a lot. And he said, can't get him out of the tub.

If you're day-to-day in the NHL and you're in the tub, although maybe in this instance you're not in the tub, but if you're day to day, it's your call to go. Yeah. It's like the doctors aren't holding

out. If you go to the doctor, you're like, my team needs me, I'm going to play. They're like, well, get in there. Strap on your skates, Gordy,

you're going in, right? Yeah. Take an Advil or something. What was that with Charles Barkley's line on Vince Carter? Tape and aspirin to it. Get in there. And where you go.

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