Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Seahawks Absolutely Dominated The Patriots

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason continue to discuss an impressive Super Bowl win for the Seahawks with Too Deep Zone NFL insider Mike Tanier (1:31), plus the boys look ahead to Olympic Men's Hockey with Sportsnet's Luke Fox (24:24), who joins the show live from Italy. 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.

Marty back to the northwest and the party begins and Leavon won't stop for days. 703 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands. That's trustee.com.

We are now in our two of the program. Mike Taney, our NFL insider from the two deep zone is going to join us. In just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brats by Jason Hamanuk at Jason Dow Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason Dow Mortgage. We're coming to live from the Kintech studio. New Year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech.

If you want to text into the show, text in to the Dunbar Lumber Text line at 650, 650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Let's go now to the ABLE Auctions hotline. Our next guest is our regular Monday NFL insider, author of the Two Deep Zone. Mike Tannier joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you? How are you?

We're great, buddy. That was fun yesterday. I just realized that when a West Coast team wins the Super Bowl, the game ends at like 8 o'clock or 18. Yeah, we were all in bed by 930. It was great. Yeah, folks can drink for like four and a half, five hours after the game easily. Like, normal people can do that. Forget though the crazy drinkers can do that. So what I'm saying here is it's seven in the morning your time.

No Seahawks fans are listening to us right now. No one's awake. Just the diehards right now, Michael, only a handful of them. But there are some that are texting in right now, basking in the glow of what was a pretty impressive Super Bowl victory. Hey, Mike, we were trying to remember earlier in the year because there was one point, and it was like week six, seven, or eight, I think I asked you like, hey, have you noticed the Seahawks because they look pretty good?

And you were like, you kind of, I don't want to say copped to it, but you're like, I have. and you admitted like, listen, the Seahawks don't get a lot of attention where I'm from. They aren't top of the national sports shows, but this team is pretty good. Right. And credit to Aaron Schatz and DVOA and the analytics people because they spotted it first. Spotted how top to bottom good the Seahawks were. Cut through the Darnold story, cut through the personalities or lack thereof of that team, the smaller market, the storylines, etc.

And so the Seahawks were playing very well. And you're right, at the time, I was a little skeptical, but let's face it, you guys were a little skeptical, too, for about the... I was still skeptical in the first half of the Super Bowl when I was like, oh, that was close to picked off. You know what's funny? I was watching the first half of the Super Bowl,

and this reminds me of the Seahawks game against the Falcons. Falcons got a week 14, week 13, I forget what it was, where it's like, you know, it was 6 to 3 at a half time. I'm like, what is wrong with this team? And it's like, that's the Seahogs. They settle for field goals, which is smart because their defense is going to stop the opponent enough that a few points makes a difference. And they very, very slowly matriculate to the point where they're capable of taking over the game. So I mentioned your walkthrough, which is very well done, by the way, to our listeners earlier in the program.

There was a couple lines that caught my attention. And we've been talking about not just the playoff run and the Super Bowl, but this entire body of work, this entire season, 17 and 3. The three losses were by 4, 3, and 2 points. You got it here as one of the greatest teams in NFL history, according to the analytics. When you look at this season, tip the tail, where does it stack up among some of the all-time greats for what the Seahawks did this season?

I believe ranked fourth, although I was talking to, the founder of DVOA, Aaron Schott, and he forgot to carry the two somewhere in its calculations that may actually be third. And the teams that stacks up against, one of them is the 1985 bears. I think people will nod and say, oh, yes, the 1985 bears with the stifling defense and, like, no quarterback, because McMahon was hurt most of that year. So really, no quarterback. The 2007 Patriots, everyone remembers them very different team.

They're ahead of this team, as you might imagine. 1989 49ers. That was one of those late era 49ers where they had everything. You know, they had Montana and Craig and Rice and Lott and all these other guys on defense and on offense. So you're talking about these phenomenal teams of history. Now, not all of them were dynasties, not all them went on to three or four Super Bowls. You know, the Bears certainly had that one big jump, and after that they couldn't quite get back. But there are these teams that were, as you suggested, top to bottom, rugged, physical, well-built, well-constructed, and usually they didn't fall apart.

If they couldn't get back to the Super Bowl, they at least were always back in the championship games. They're always right there in the conversation for years to come before and after that win. The interesting thing about this Seahawks team, when stacked up to some of those great historical teams, as in your headline, no one saw this coming. How does a team this good and this dominant creep up on the rest of the NFL? You know, part of it is the way they played.

Folks do remember those 85. bears and like, you know, the quarterbacks were scraping themselves off the field by halftime. People remember the 2007 Patriots and we were talking about running up the score. Is that ethical? That was the storyline. This is a team where, you know, it's 9-0 at halftime or 6-0 at halftime a lot. Part of it is the personalities. And again, I think we joked about this a couple weeks ago. We don't know these guys. Nationally, outside of Seattle, Vancouver area, we don't know who these guys are. We don't know what personality Jackson Smith and Jigba has or Kenneth Walker has or you know even though

Leo Williams has been in the league for years and was in New York we don't know much about him so when you have this team where it's a lot of no names and a lot of guys who don't have the spotlight and who don't state supermodels or singers etc then you sit to turn to them and say we may overlook these guys because we don't have these easy things to write about we're speaking to Mike tannier our NFL Insider on the two deep zone here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. With every dominant defensive performance like we saw yesterday, you've got to ask some questions of what the opposition was doing on offense, specifically Drake May. And I got to ask about Mike Brable too, because I thought some of the play calling was strange,

like where was the designed run for Drake May? Anyway, what did you think of what May did or didn't do yesterday and how bad the Patriots looked on offense? It was a bad performance by May. also a bad performance by May, the ASC championship game. Also a bad performance by May, the game before that against the Texans, where CJ Straub was worse, but I think May fumbled four times in that game, his teammates kept pouncing on them.

Also a bad performance by May against the Chargers. I think he had one or two good throws, outperformed Justin Herbert, but like not a good performance. We kind of saw in the playoffs steadily that May was struggling to take that next step in the spotlight against this better competition the type of Patriots didn't found, didn't face in the season. That said, obviously not all him. I think you're going to touch on Vrable in a minute. You saw the offensive line, two rookies, a bunch of journeymen at Center, Bradbury, at right-tackle Moses,

a lot of guys who weren't up to the physicality of these top defenses that they faced late in the season, and that really came to roost in the first half of that game where you guys saw it, I'm sure you were talking about it, Derek Hall ripping somebody away. That rookie defensive tackle ripping a guy away and just really like pushing the linemen right into May. It's hard to play quarterback under those circumstances when you're

a veteran when you're a second year, 23-year-old is really, really hard. Can you remember a year like this in the NFL? I mean, it was a bizarre year. The fact that the Patriots and the Seahawks made the Super Bowl, the Seahawks were 60 to 1, 65 to 1 to win the Super Bowl, and the Patriots had longer odds

than that is one of the most unlikely Super Bowl matchups in history and we were talking about all the teams that went into this season that ultimately disappointed Kansas City, Baltimore. We didn't talk much about the Detroit Lions on this show but they had a very disappointing season and they went in with such optimism. Green Bay, even a team like the Washington commanders

had a lot of optimism heading into the season. Just your thoughts on the overall year that we've seen in the end. NFL. Thanks for not mentioning the Eagles. We do appreciate that here in Philadelphia and thanks to disappointing teams. I don't recall what felt like an extinction level event. Because that's what it felt like, the Ravens collapsing early in the year, Patrick Mahomes getting injured, all the teams that you mentioned, all those disappointments happening all at once. That was strange, that was maybe unprecedented. I have to think back to like the strike years,

where you would have the strike years and like these weird teams would bubble up. Why? Oh, well, because they were replacement players on the field for three games. Who had the best scabs? Yeah, right. You know, our brick layers beat your bricklayers, whatever,

that sort of thing. It was a chance for, you know, an opportunity for a unexpected team to rise up when the perennial powerhouses were getting in their own way. And that's not a knock on either the Seahawks or a Patriots. It's a credit to teams that put themselves together so when windows of opportunities become available, they take advantage of them when the games are supposed to win.

And that's what we saw here. You're right. I haven't seen a more unpredictable in September Super Bowl result. And yet outstanding, you know, all-time great team Seahawks, you know, perennial dynasty Patriots, there was still plenty to root for come yesterday afternoon. I do want to circle back to the second part of that question I asked with Mike Vrable and the job that he did or again didn't do yesterday. So the stuff that stood out to me,

punting on fourth and one when you're down 12-0 seems like a wild move. I know there was at least twice the camera panned over to him on the sideline. You could see him mouthing the words calm down to his offense, like as if they either the moment was too big or they just weren't executing because they were too nervous. It was second and one though. Remember it was second and one?

And then third and one and then fourth and one. I remember watching that, I'd be like, I'd punt if I were him. But here's the thing. To me, to me it felt. like his entire game plan on offense was predicated on Donald's going to give us the ball at some point. And that's a, you know, and we were going to get better field position and we were going to get a gift at some point because our defense is good.

When that didn't develop, it felt like they never had a plan B and they just were more than willing to try and hang around in a game. That quite frankly, they were never going to be able to hang around in long enough because they couldn't put up any points on offense. Yeah, he showed a distrust in his offense in general with that four. There was another fourth down conversion that wasn't quite as egregious, but it's like the game's getting away from you. You'd better do this.

He fails to go for two late after they finally scored the touchdown. Early in the game, he doesn't challenge that Cooper Cup Bibblebobble that was like a 25-year completion. If you don't worry about your offense, you better challenge everything that your defense gives up if there's anything challengeable because maybe you stop that early field goal. And I'll say this about Rabel. You mentioned mouthing the words calm down. down.

You know, when somebody keeps saying calm down, calm down, they're usually talking to themselves. That's a good point. You know, like, the thing with this matchup going into it was despite the fact that Braybel didn't have a lot of head coach, obviously coaching experience in the Super Bowl. He played there numerous times. Everyone seemed to think that the edge in terms of experience and savvy and know-how was going to lean towards him and his staff as opposed to McDonald's, but it certainly didn't play

out that way. Another question is we bounce around here. We're speaking to Mike Tan here. our NFL insider from the two deep zone. Kenneth Walker the third, tremendous performance over 150 yards from scrimmage on route to Super Bowl MVP. It poses a very difficult question, or maybe not for the Seahawks now, I'm not sure. What do you think the Seahawks should do with Kenneth Walker moving forward? I am going to very quickly pull up the cap space numbers for the Seahawks.

I've already heard franchise tag being thrown around, which is always a dikech. Running backs love that. Yeah, they love that, don't they? Oh, yeah, it's their favorite thing in the world. Guys who have really short careers, like not getting long-extended contracts. I, for some reason, can out here they? Oh, a lot of cap space. I would say look towards an extension.

I think Walker has, I think he makes a difference because of the fact that he gets so many yards that are not blocked up for him. And I see that there is money to splurge a little bit. give him a Sequin contract. He was a Sequin contractor or a McCaffrey contract, they're not that big anymore. These contracts for running backs are not that big. You're not giving them $250 million. You're giving them like $55 million.

It's a big difference after that as a reward, as a gesture that the rest of the team knows that you're all into repeat. Go ahead, do it. Granted, it didn't work out for the Eagles and Barclay, but whatever. I still think it's the good call. Well, I mean, it's not just a Super Bowl performance from him. If you look at the work that he did over the last week of the regular season and all throughout the playoffs,

it's almost like his running style got more effective in the postseason. I don't know if it was because the defender's over pursuit or something, but his cutback ability and then when he gets to the line, and we used to, it would drive us nuts because he'd always try and bounce everything outside. We're like, just take the yards. But we also didn't blame him because the Seahawks offensive line wasn't creating any holes. It was his only option to bounce it outside. And then you watch them yesterday.

And it's like you got a great. pursuit from the defenders and he bounces it outside and he's going for eight, nine, 10 yards and it's like, this is great. This is what we needed all along. We are hypocrites, basically. Yeah, you're right, though. It seemed like he was making better decisions in the playoffs in the last three or four games than he was making earlier in the year where you would see a four-yard run right in

front of him. It's like, well, let me see what's outside. You'd get stuff. Yesterday, that was the factor the Seahawks needed. The thing that you couldn't scheme up on defense, you know? everything that was schemed up, the Patriots had an answer for. They were jumping routes. They were winning a man coverage.

They were winning at the line of scrimmage. You needed a guy who was going to just start matching buttons on the game controller and saying, okay, one-on-one athlete in the open field, Kenneth Walker or Robert Spillane or somebody like that who wins. Walker was winning those battles. And he kept the Seahawks in the game when nothing else for either team was working offensively. Okay. Mike, the Super Bowl is.

is always fun and we had an extra special time this year because the Seahawks won it. But the morning after is always sad and in part this year because this is going to be our final hit for a while anyway, I'm sure we'll be calling you with some big free agency news breaks and everything. But on behalf of all of our listeners and everyone at the show and our producers, I want to really thank you for joining us every single Monday throughout the NFL season. You're the best. We love having you on. Your insights are fantastic.

It's been such an awesome season. It ended in a way that it hasn't ended in a long time for Jason and I with a team that we follow and support actually winning. So that's great. And it's very cool that we had you here to break it all down for us on a weekly basis. Thank you so much for having me. I think we've been doing this for almost 10 years through thick and thin, through various spots on both sides.

And it's always a pleasure to be on with you guys. Thanks for doing this season, Mike. We really appreciate it. Enjoy some rest in the offseason. We'll call again soon. You got to take care and enjoy the off season. You too, buddy. Thanks. That's Mike Tannier, our NFL Insider from the two-deep zone here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNs 650. Should we call those years the germane effetti years that were tough?

Oh man, the effetti season. We should take another holding penalty, bud. I forgot about those. We have a new effetti. It's called Bradford now. But that was an example of the drafting that fell off for the Seahawks for a few years. Yeah. Terrible offensive lines for so long, right? And now it's really turned a corner. except for Bradford. But it's really turned a corner.

And now they've got a franchise guy and Gray's Abel. They really do have a lot of talent at a lot of different spots on the field. Like for all of the whimsy that we're weaving this morning about culture and camaraderie and selflessness. Those guys are brothers out there.

Yeah, what's on the front of the jersey is more important than what's on the back. Like, let's not forget. They had guys that were making plays at every level. Yep. And more credit to John Schneider, maybe the one area of this team that needed a mid-season boost was the special teams, and what does he do?

He goes out and gets a freaking boost. Rashid Shaheed comes in and gives him an amazing boost in the return game. Yeah. And provides. Made some big plays. Maybe that one facet that you could have said they weren't great at. I mean, there's special teams yesterday were phenomenal. Like, there was a legitimate.

You think Michael Dixon was like, I haven't punted this much ages. There was a legitimate case. There was a legitimate case you could have made for either Michael Dixon. or Jason Myers winning MVP yesterday. That's how good they were at their respective jobs, right? Myers was, what, 5 for 5 on field goals and knocked through his extra points? And Dixon's punting was phenomenal. Incredible.

Phenomenal. And as you put it. He had seven punts. Yeah. Only once during the season did he have seven punts. It was that game down in Jacksonville. Like, and it's a hilarious thing to think about, though. It's like, well, you don't necessarily think about punting, but think about a guy that hasn't been relied upon that much all year.

And then in the biggest. game of the year, like you have to go and punt the same amount of times you have probably over the last few games and do it in pressure moments and he came through flawlessly. It does speak to like how well-rounded and how much talent this team has. Yeah. Honestly. Okay.

How many three and outs were there yesterday? Like for people that are texting and saying that it was a bad game, like you're not wrong. It wasn't a good game. I mean, I think it was a beautiful game because the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. But there was a stretch there.

where I think seven of eight possessions were three and out. And this is why when people are equating bad with boring, that's what it was, is it was boring. Yeah. Is that here's the thing. Except for Michael Dixon. It's amazing.

He was fantastic. Coffin corner punts. Love a coffin corner. But if you're watching that game, even if you don't know anything about football, I think you're looking at it. You're saying this is really, really dull and conservative style.

Yeah. No one took a chance on third down. There was a lot of third and long. Do you think there's a lot of Super Bowl parties where the non-football fans were like, is this what you guys do every Sunday? This is boring. I had to say it's better. It's better normally.

It's better. I had to say a couple times yesterday. I'm like, it's usually not this dull. Usually teams try on third down. But what I said to my life, this is just, you know, yeah. I mean, I am wasting my life. Yeah. I have entertaining Sundays occasionally.

What I said about variable, I think ultimately held true is there were certain points, especially in the first. half where I was like, he needs to stop waiting for his defense to make something happen for his offense. Because that's what he was doing. I thought. I thought he was waiting for Donald to turn the ball over. Yes. And eventually you have to turn away from that. But I think it might have been a smart game plan. I mean, early on, I mean, weren't you nervous with some of the throws that Donald was making? Right. There was like three that could have been picked off. But when they got the ball on offense, it felt like

everything was a holding pattern. Like they were just waiting for something else to happen. Yes. And you can't win, I don't think you can win games like that. I really don't. But I, but I do think maybe, maybe that was their only chance. And then eventually Drake May just got

rattled and he was a 23 year old kid out there. And he looked like it. Yeah. And I'm glad that's, again, I said this earlier, I'm glad Stafford won MVP because I think Stafford ultimately deserved it. Yep.

And I'll be really curious to see how the Patriots come back because they had a very easy schedule this year and a lot of things went their way. But, you know, it's not automatic. I think most people will be like, yeah, the Seahawks will make the playoffs next year. Patriots, there's a lot of teams

that could bounce back in the AFC. Patriots aren't guaranteed to make the playoffs again. Real quick, before we go to break, I need you do the one to watch. Brought to you by Limitless AV, Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts. Canada's women's Olympic hockey team is back on the ice. Today, it is a noon puck drop, 1210, our time to be specific.

They are taking on a Czechia team, which could be interesting given the Czech shut out Finland 2-0 in their first game on Sunday. These two teams did meet at the 2025 Women's Worlds. Canada took care of business pretty easily, 7-1 there. The one to watch tonight, Marie-Philippe Poulin. She had two goals in that aforementioned game against Chequia. We'll see if she can get on the sheet. Today, a reminder of that game is at 1210 our time.

That is the one to watch brought to you by Limitless AV, specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid work spaces. Book your personalized tour of their experience center today at limitlessavie.com. Coming up on the other side of the break, speaking of the Olympics. We're going to go to Milan. We're going to talk to Luke Fox from Sportsnet, NHL and Olympic writer. We're going to talk about what he saw after Team Canada's first practice yesterday. We'll get the lines.

We'll get the D-Pairings. We'll get all of it coming up next on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on SportsNet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 731 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut that debt by up to 80% with Noel. upfront fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour two of the program with the midway point of the show. Luke Fox from Sportsnet's going to join us in just a moment here, live from Milan. Fashion week. Also the Olympics. Hour two.

Dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. You all watched fashion file with me. That was a pretty good show. That was a pretty good rendition of fashion file too. We are an hour two of the program. Pre-internet. What the hell is fashion file? Oh, I know fashion file, buddy. Sorry.

Sometimes he'd see a little something. Yeah. It's like red shoe diaries before red shoe diaries. Hour two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominick at Jason Dohmorg. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, and don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason.com mortgage. To the phone lines we go.

Luke Fox joins us now on the Halford and Brubbsh Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Luke? How are you? I'm doing well. I'm calling from nine hours in your future right now. That's amazing. I love when we do this. What's the future like? Do we figure out robots yet? Do you do it? No. No, it's a little rainy, but it's fashionable. Okay, I want to start with just set the scene. Tell us about the rink, actually. I saw the picture that you tweeted out, and I saw the quote from John Cooper saying how much he was just blown away at what the rink looks like aesthetically from the outside.

So, yeah, set the scene on what you're dealing with there in Milan. Well, I feel like they poured all the money into the outside and not the inside. Because the outside is spectacular. Like there's all these lights and rotating graphics on the outside, and it's very attractive as you walk up. And then once you get inside, there's a lot of unfinished projects. I went to wash my hands. And you know those automatic soap dispensers where you hover your hand underneath

and soap squirts out? So I did that and the soap squirted out two sinks down from me. There's still a couple kinks they need to work out here. But the ice is getting better, which is the main thing, right? Like inside the bowl, it looks good. On the outside, it looks good, but you get in the bowels of the place, and, yeah, the contractor's not quite done his job yet. So I've worked the Olympics before, and I know what it's like trying to get to all the practices and, you know, talk to everyone. It's a lot of work.

It's a lot of running around, and then you're going to write your stories as well. You've seen the Canadians practice. Who else have you seen practice? I've seen the Canadian. one and a half times. They kind of closed practice to us today. I've seen the Americans twice, a little bit of the Czechs.

I saw the Swedes. And that's about it, because it's one of those things where you watch one practice, but then you're rushing to go interview guys who just practiced, and another practice is already starting. Because all the men's teams

are using the same two ranks. There's a practice rank adjacent to the main rink, and it's just basically a bubble, a tent. There's not a seat in the place. And then they have their dressing rooms and walk two minutes with skate guards between the two rinks, if need be.

But the ICE is getting a workout because every country here is using the same two ranks. Okay, well, let's start with Canada then. I think the big story, correct me if I'm wrong here, is that this is just early and the line changes, line combinations, could still change, but it sounds like they're going to start with McDavid

with Celebrini on his wing and Tom Wilson on the other wing. What was the talk about that? What did John Cooper say? What did the players say? How awesome is that? That's a bit of a curveball, right? Like Tom Wilson,

Tom Wilson especially. This guy was on the bubble to even make the team. He's 31 years old. I don't think he's represented Canada at a best on best since he was like 17 years old. And, you know, I asked John Cooper. It was the first thing I asked him.

You know, why Tom Wilson? And he had a great line. He's like, well, every line needs an F1, right? And that big boy is one of the best, one of the best F1s I've ever seen. So, you know, Canada is going for balance. They got Sidney C. at 3C. So they're trying to spread out the talent.

And the reason for that, Cooper said, is what he learned from coaching four nations is that the pace of play, I mean, it won't be when they play, if they play like France or someone, but when you play the other elite teams, the pace of play is so high that you have to keep rolling lines.

So why not spread out your big guns across all lines, every line of threat. But it's fascinating. I think he kind of looked at the Zach Hyman role that he plays on Connor McDavid's wing in terms of a guy who plays kind of in straight lines, throws the body, goes to the net first on the puck,

and that he can kind of create some space for Connor to do his thing. And then you got Macklin Cellebrini up with Conner, which is crazy because he's literally the youngest guy in the men's tournament. He's 19 years old, and all of a sudden, what a chance. Not only is he going to the Olympics, but he's on line one. So we'll see if it sticks.

Like four nations, the original lineup that they went with in Sweden had changed by the time they were trying to win a gold against the U.S. So I'd be shocked if something stays the same way all the way through, but it certainly is a fascinating lineup, especially that top line. Was Coop asked about the goaltending? Yeah. What did he say? And so I asked him yesterday, and he's like,

I can't talk about everything. We have a few days to kill. But he was re-assed by someone else. He shied me away. But he was re-assed this morning. And he gave a great answer, very defiant. He said that, you know, I know you guys got stories to write, but this isn't a story in my mind.

You know, our glories are just as good as anyone in this tournament. And, you know, he talked about a story. a guy like Darcy Kemper who actually spoiled John Cooper's chance at a Stanley Cup ring because he was playing for the Colorado Avalanche and they defeated Cooper's Lightning in 2022. And he's a champion. And he reminded everyone that Bennington is a champion both at the NHL level and stood on his head and was a major reason that they won four nations. So he was very adamant that these are guys.

and we have faith in every single one of them. Now, it's all finding good for the coach to have his guys back, but a couple leaky goals go through in Canada and the early going, and those questions will arise because that's kind of what you circle as Canada's greatest weakness, right? Yeah, oh yeah, I mean, it can't be blind loyalty. Like, you just can't, you can't do that. I mean, look, if Bennington was having an average season in St. Louis,

we'd be like, okay, fine, yeah. Send him out there again. You can make the argument he's the worst starter in the NHL. I mean, that's out there. And I don't know, these Olympics seem pretty important to Canadian hockey fans. And I'm really,

what do you think they're going to do for game one? Who do you think gets the start? Do you have enough information to make a call yet? I have a hunch. They're tight-lipped, and I talk to all three goalies today, and they say they don't know the plan. And Cooper, you know, I'm sure he has a plan, but he's not revealing it.

And there is a back-to-back, too. So we're going to see at least a couple of these guys. I would be shocked if it's not Binnington. And same with, you know, Helibuck's not having a great season by his standards. And I'd be shocked if he doesn't get the first game for the U.S. I think it's just more out of loyalty or something or consistency. And I think it's just easier to start with the guy. that you're used to and then make a change

as opposed to going the other way. So I would guess Bennington gets game one against the checks, but you know, it has to be a short least, doesn't it? I mean, just what you're talking about? He's not

having a good year. Now, you think, okay, I'm not having a good year, but I was great for Team Canada at Four Nations, and I'm playing behind a much better defense, and I'm I should have way more run support than I do with the blues, all those things. But Logan Thompson is outplayed him.

Darcy Kemper is outplayed him this year more recently. And you can't, you can't mess around with it. So I would expect the short leash, you know, if Bennington looks really fallible here. Luke, so 20 skaters can dress in the Olympics, correct? Yeah. Okay. So are teams going to go? four lines and four pairs or are they going to go

extra forward and an extra D? Have you had any conversations with the coaches about that? Not yet. My guess would be to go 13 and 7. Okay. And yeah, it's interesting wrinkle because international rules wasn't the rule of four nations because that was all strictly NHL rules.

The other thing I was talking to guys today, they have to wear neck guards because that's the double IHF rule. And some of them do it already. And some of them aren't used to it. And they're trying out different styles and neck guards in these practices. Some of them are, I guess, don't want a test drive and are just going to have to suck it up in their first game and throw one on and deal with however different that feels.

But I wonder how much action that sets. the 7th defenseman and the 13th forward get, just because guys like rolling lines, deep pairs, you know, they have chemistry. I think where you might see teams use it is in special teams. Like one guy's a great penalty killer, but you don't trust them. And then, of course, if there's an injury mid-game, it's like, what a relief, right? Because you do have an extra body. Do you think it's fair to say that there are two wow groups here?

And I'll explain what I mean by a wow group. Wow would be the Canadian forward group. You look at the talent and that and you're like, wow. And the other one would be the American defense. Because the American defense, the eight guys are Quinn Hughes, skating with McAvoy, not Faber, his teammate in Minnesota. Faber's with Slavin. I thought that was weird, by the way.

Well, I think you've got two really good defensive players in McAvoy and Slavin there. and then you got Werensky, who's a Norris Trophy contender with, and the other three guys are Hanifin, Sanderson, and Jackson, Lecombe. Like that, that's got to be the best defense group in the tournament, right? I think so.

And any defense decor that has Werenstke on your third pair, and I believe he was the highest point producer in the whole four nations of all the countries. That's right. And, yeah, that guy's just a beast, and he's a minute muncher, and he's down on your third bear. Like, and, you know, I think this speaks to Bill Garen's philosophy

and maybe why, and it's going to be controversial if they can't score, but why he left off some of his offense and did not name guys like Jason Robertson and Cole Coughfield to the roster is this team is built to beat you to one. Their D-E-Core is phenomenal. They got three excellent goaltenders. So if they need to make a switch back there, they will. going to be so well protected because I agree with you that that decor is is a wow. Were you surprised at how Canada rolled out its deep pairs of practice? Like Tazza McCar was a no-brainer

and I'm looking at I'm like they might have to play a lot. Morrissey Preyko, fine. Like, okay, Harley and Dowdy is already giving me anxiety and like a little bit of heartburn. Like I'm not Should have brought Schaefer. Should have brought Schaefer. And then as Theodore and Sanheim has I guess like a de facto fourth pair. I just looked at it and I'm thinking if Harley and Doughty are a pair and your third pair and it gets away from them and it goes sideways, which it has for both of them this year, like neither of them are having great regular seasons. All of a sudden you're looking at it and you're like, man, you're really just rolling your top four

and your top two pairs and that's what you're going to do. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't shocked because those pairs, like Theodore went down early in the Four Nations. So those are actually the same pairs that. they used a year ago. Yeah. And, you know, the team is really pounding home the idea of familiarity. Sure.

You know, the coaching staff's the same. Most of the roster is the same. So I think that's what they're going to go with to start. But, yeah, I mean, Doughty's, he's getting a little older. But the one thing about him is you never question the passion. Like, he's going to leave it all out there. And so, you know, know, I think the idea is if we see that he's faltering, we can make a switch, but this is

what we're going with now. And, you know, it's not like, Shade Theodore is going to play. Yeah. And maybe that, maybe he's the seventh guy. And, you know, he was taking reps, I think, on the, on the second power play unit. So they're going to, they're going to find a spot for him. I mean, yeah, my thing with Doughty is, like, especially internationally, until otherwise proven, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt because he was great in. four nations, and that was also coming off a long layoff as well. We're speaking to Luke Fox, SportsNet Olympic writer here on

the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Just turning our attention back to the Americans again, I assume the big talking point and the big media availability was surrounded that Jack Eichol's centering the line between the Kichuk brothers? Yeah, I mean, I think one of the

big talking points is how they're approaching this tournament a bit differently. in the Canadians in terms of where they're living. And Ikel was great on the brothers because the Americans have decided to spend the whole tournament in the village and the Kachucks are rooming together. You have to have a roommate. Right. And Ikel had had some great lines.

You know, you're saying, like, I bet they're going to push their beds together. And if we hear a head go through a wall at midnight, I know which room it's coming from. And the Americans have kind of really embraced that. whereas the Canadians are going to, they spent the first couple nights in the village, but they're going to test out the five-star hotel now. Okay. To see if they like that better, which is kind of an interesting way to go. But that line was great at the Four Nations,

and they're going to be dependent upon because, like we talked about, they didn't bring all their shooters. So, you know, Eichl's going to be dependent on big time. So was Austin Matthews, who didn't score a goal in Four Nation. He only had assists. so guys like that are going to have to produce for them. Luke, this was great, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do this today.

We appreciate it. Get some rest. You got a long couple of weeks ahead of you, but enjoy all of this. It's going to be a lot of fun. Oh, yeah, it's the best kind of grind. Thanks for having me on, guys. Yeah, thanks for coming on.

We appreciate that. That's Luke Fox, SportsNet, NHL, writer, and Olympic coverage here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. So, for those of you that were maybe preoccupied this weekend or didn't get a chance to see everything that Canada rolled out at its first practice.

They practiced Sunday night in Italy. And as Luke mentioned, they're in the future. So this was yesterday. So the big news was, of course, McDavid centering a line with Celebrina Wilson, which I think is like the best thing ever. This is why John Cooper is the best because he does things like this. He zigs when other guys are zagging. He didn't see this coming.

It's so off the board that it makes sense when he explains it. Second line is Nathan McKinnon centering Brad Marchon and Nick Suzuki. third line, Sidney Crosby as your 3C between Stone and Marner. Then your 4C, former Vancouver Canuck Bo Horvettes, centering Brandon Hagel and Sam Reinhart. So the two guys right now that are on the outside looking in, not surprisingly, the two replacement guys,

Seth Jarvis and Sam Bennett. The defensive pairs, it is Devon Taves and Kail McCar, which you would expect. They play together in Colorado. Josh Morrissey and Colton Pareko, which as Luke mentioned, was one of the pairs that played together at Four Nations. The one that scares me is Harley and Doughty,

and that's current form. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I really liked Harley at Four Nations. He's a late addition there. And people were like, who's this guy? Thomas Harley, never heard of him. It's not bad. You know what I felt Harley was at Four Nations?

You know those guys that get thrown into positions where they're too young and too naive to know any better. And the adrenaline's just going? And they just go play. They don't think about the magnitude. That was Harley for me. Afterwards, when he got the accolades and people started paying more attention to him,

I've noticed his game has deteriorated a bit. Anyway, Shea Theodore and Travis Sandheimer, the other pairing. And then, of course, Jordan Bennington, right now I think everyone's assuming that he's going to get the start

when, and, you know, Luke just said it on the show, when Canada takes on Chequia in the opener. It's going to be very interesting to see that opening game. I took a look at the stuff that was coming out of the check practice this morning.

You're going to see a lot. of Vancouver Canucks defenseman Philip Ronik. He manned the first power play unit. Not surprisingly, he was on the team's top defensive pairing, also not surprisingly. That check team, when you look at their units in terms of like the first power play unit in the top lines, they have a ton of talent.

They just don't have the depth, obviously, that a lot of the other. Isn't David Camp, they're two-see? Right, that's what I was talking about. Yeah, yeah, it kind of falls off after. He's like, that's all right. I've been like the one C or the two-see for an NHL team the whole year.

It's, you know, like a friend. Frequently. Then they're like, where are you guys, in the standings and he's like, don't focus on that. Why you gotta be so negative? I'm a two C in the NHL. Doesn't matter where we are. The other C on the Canucks that's over in the Olympics is Elias Pedersen.

Yep. And Sweden's got an easy one to start it off on two days from now. Wednesday. They are going to play Italy. And Italy is going to get pumped. And Pidi was on a line with Zabanajad. and who else was he on the line? Ricard Raquel.

So they're going to be expecting. They're going to need a lot from PD. I wonder if him and Zabanajad will ever have a chat about you know who. We'll see. I'll be like, how's he doing? He's pretty mad. Yeah.

Not having a good time. Kind of out of answers. A lot of I don't knows. Team Sweden had a closed practice to start the tournament. I don't know who, I guess, Petterson did media availability. because he was the one that confirmed that he's with Zabinajad and Raquel.

They just got off the ice, I guess. Molly Walker from the New York Post, who is a Rangers beat writer, who's also covering, I guess, a lot of Sweden because Zabinajad's over there, among others. She's the one that just tweeted that out.

So, you know, it sounds like, I thought that Zabinajat was going to get bumped back to the middle for the Swedes in light of the fact that they lost Carlson and they were pretty thin down the middle. But it doesn't sound like they're going to do that straight away. They're going to lean on PD a lot in this term.

At least to start. They're going to have to. And it's going to be a proving ground for him. I don't, I mean, the line, I mean, we're going to be honest here. It's not exactly a blazing speed line. Like Zabinajad's lost a step as he's gone along in his NHL career. And Raquel is just like whatever. I think that this is going to be a line though that is going to be counted on a lot

because you put it no other way to say it. They have to. Yeah. Like you need him to produce for you if you're Sam Halam, the Swedish head coach, because you just don't have a lot of options down the middle. So Sweden kicks it off on Wednesday against the hosts from Italy. And then in two days comes a much sterner test when they take on their arch rivals from Finland

and they finish it off on the 14th. Every team is going to play three games in four days. Yeah. And they're going to finish off with Slovakia. Canada, on the other hand, gets his toughest test first in the group stage. And on Thursday, they will play Czechia. as Halford mentioned.

The very next day they play Switzerland. Now, Switzerland could be tough, and Switzerland has given Canada's tough games in the Olympics in the past and internationally. And then their final game of the group stage, they get a day off after the Switzerland game, and then they play France. And then it's, you know, right into the playoffs.

And it's, then you start getting nervous, right? Because any team out there, especially one that makes the quarterfinals, is going to be able to pull an upset. Yeah. This test to open the tournament, I think, is great. I think you're going to get a very, very difficult opponent

in check you right off the hop. You're not going to get one of these minnows of the tournament. I mean, you saw it on the women's side. Canada, on the women's side, Canada had Switzerland in the first game. I mean, they were never in danger of losing that game, but it's also a little close for a while. Right, but it's also not like a true bonafide test. No.

Like the game. Because they're in the women's game. There's like one test. The score was, score was reasonably close, but the shot metrics and everything else were so, such a disparity between them. Like you look at this check team and you've got Marty Natchezis, David Posternak, Thomas Hurtle,

Andre Platt. Like there's guys that can play and can do damage, especially in like very small sample sizes. Like if you're going to give away a couple power plays. They're going to roll that first unit. It's going to be dangerous because pasta's out there. If you get caught in a situation where you've got, I don't know, your fourth line out against their top line,

like it's something where you can be taken advantage of. And I know the fourth line here has amazing players on it with Horvatt and Reinhart and everybody else. But it's not a walkover by any stretch, and I think it's going to be a really good challenge for the Canadians right off the hop. What's your confidence level in Canada winning gold here? Pretty high.

Yeah, mine is two. Yeah, pretty high. I'm worried about the gold tending. I'm worried about the blue line a little bit. I just look at the talent that Canada's got up front. And even though it goes against my normal instincts, there's like defense wins championships, defense wins tournaments, like, I look at all that talent.

Yeah, but when you get that much offense? Yeah, right? Who cares? For me, I'll score like eight goals a game is fine. I mean, one of the toughest things is going to be determining who is, who's running, who's running this power play? You know, like, who's in charge of this power play and which guys are the complementary parts of the power play? So you remember how you wanted to punch me? in the face when I wanted the Rams and the

NFC title game, right? I wanted to punch you in the face if the Rams beat the Seahawks. Right, but my thinking was that's going to be the best game and kind of that, like if you're going to be the best, you want to beat the best.

You know, I want Canada to win gold. I need Canada to win gold. There's no question about that. Do not question that. But they need to do it against the Americans. The reason that Four Nations was the Four Nations and we will never forget it.

It's because they beat the U.S. in the final. We need, like, I need that. Like, I need air to breathe. I need Canada, U.S., gold medal. I need the Kichucks to be crying after this game. Like, I want it all, right? Yeah. My nerves will be

on edge for that. That's going to be crazy. If Americans play the Canadians in an elimination game. 2014 Olympics. It also means you've got to get up at 5am on a Sunday. I don't even, I can't care.

I'm not going to go to bed. If it's Canada, U.S., I won't go to bed for two days. If anyone complains about that, like come on.

2014 goal medal final. Yeah. Nothing to it. Dude, I was there when I was bored. I was like, what's going to? Even if the Swedes had pushed,

even if the Swedes had pushed Canada, even if they had pushed them, it still was going to be a flat final. Yeah. Because it wasn't Canada, US. For sure. And the Swedes had all sorts of injury issues.

It wasn't really a fair fight. Sat. It's going to join us next on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650.