Halford & Brough in the Morning - Time To Exorcise Some Demons

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Too Deep Zone NFL insider Mike Tanier (1:27) about a great weekend of playoff football action, plus they chat the top hockey stories of the moment with Sportsnet NHL writer Luke Fox (27:41). 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.

Monday, Monday, happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brubb of the morning is brought to 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-Trustee.com. We are now in our two of the program. Mike Taney, are our NFL insider from the two deep zone. It's going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2.

Hour 2 is brats by Jason Hominoch at Jason. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason, Dom Mortgage. We're coming live from the Kintech Studio, make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger, like the Seahawks

of Kintech custom orthotics. To the phone lines we go, our next guest is a presentation of the Clayton Public House. He joins us every Monday here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Our NFL Insider, Mike Tannier, joins us now on SportsNet 650. Good morning, Mike.

How are you? I can't believe we're here after all the complaining and kuzetching. I heard from you guys every Monday morning for four months about the Seattle Seahawks we're here talking about the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Well, neither can we.

And we were joking earlier in the show. You know, a couple of the Seahawks got up there and they were like, you know, this is for all the doubters. And I'm like, hey, he's talking about me. I was a doubter. I was a doubter. That's perfect.

I mean, can you blame us for being shocked that the Seahawks got the number one seed and then made it to the Super Bowl against the Patriots of all teams based on preseason expectations? A little doubt and skepticism was warranted throughout the season, and I was doubting along with you guys, maybe trying to keep more of an open mind. But, yeah, this was a little engine that could. And they stayed the course through that entire season, and the Rams fell off, and the 49ers fell off, and they put themselves in the position to be here.

And, yeah, now you've got this mojo, this Patriots mojo that you have to deal with. But the Seahawks are clearly the superior team to the New England Patriots. And anyone who watched anything yesterday has to come away with the same impression before we even talk about strength of schedule or statistics or anything else. I do want to, like, your lead for the walkthrough. Visit Mike Tanya, your substack, by the way, and check it out the two deep zone, where you call it a back and forth battle between evenly match familiar rivals, a masterpiece marred by a little wonky officiating.

I think that's perfect. Like that was, for a trilogy game about as good as you're going to get in the playoffs, extremely well played, excellent offense, really what everyone expected going in. Like, no one thought it was going to be lopsided one way or another. No one was expecting sloppy football. and good on both teams. As that game existed, as a singular entity in a vacuum, an awesome football game to watch.

A fun game to watch full of back and forth, moments when both teams looked unstoppable on both sides of the ball. It's like a rocky movie, you know? It's like, that's not a real boxing match. One guy doesn't kill the other guy for a round and then come back in the second round and it's the other way around and one guy kills the other guy.

That's the way it was in that game where even the plot twists turned up have another plot twist. You look like the top. haunting call. I'm like, wow, that was the momentum

changer. It's like, no, it wasn't actually the momentum changer. There is no momentum.

It's just going to be back and forth slober knockers until the end. What did you think of that taunting call? Hate it. I hate 90% of taunting calls, 99% of taunting calls.

Hated that one. Hated that one in the situation. I have strong feelings about taunting in general as a, as a penalty. I would say this. The NFL needs to keep taunting.

One warning. Do it as a one warning situation. First taunts a warning. So we don't have this situation where it's like, aha, third and 12, here's a getting out of jail free card, because the guy looked at somebody on the sideline the wrong way. If you issue a warning there, and then

the second time you do the panel day, it's like, okay, well, you know, the coach should have settled you down. But, you know, as I wrote, the Cilocks got away with a face mask on Stafford earlier in the game. That would have been a first down, like down to like the 12-yard line or whatever it would have been. So there was a little bit of, yeah,

was some Milwaukee officiating both ways. It didn't wind up mattering in the end. How big of a gut punch was it to the Rams and Rams fans to have special teams be a major part, a special team's flaw be a major part of a loss after they had gone a few weeks without screwing anything up on special teams? Yeah, I don't know. Rams fans have to be frustrated.

They also have to be frustrated because it's not like the team turned a blind eye on the problem. They changed kickers. They changed coaches. They had a couple different returns. return men through the year, some of whom got hurt. Bottom line is sometimes it's your third best return man because the first two guys got hurt and he's going to muff these plays.

It was a little validating for me and some of the folks in the analytics community who you really break these games down and we're like every week's like, don't overlook the fact that the Rams have real problems on special teams. They have real problems on special teams. And, you know, most people are like, yeah, whatever, whatever you say, that point Dexter, you know, Sam Donald's going to choke, whatever. and then you have this big special teams mistake that, again, the Seahawks who have outstanding special teams, that was a gift, but their outstanding special teams happen to capitalize on it and turn the tide of the game.

You mentioned Sam Darnold there. We'll turn our attention to him now. 346 yards and three touchdowns, 25 or 36 passing. Does not turn the ball over. It takes minimal sacks. So he does it, like we're trying to contextualize this at the start of the show. Probably has the best game of his NFL career in the biggest game of his NFL. career and does it against the Rams team that had his number all season long.

The amount of interceptions that he threw against the Rams this year was it was like that was one of the major storylines going into this. Great throws too. Under pressure, those, I think all three touchdown passes were under pressure. So what did he do? What did the coaching staff do? How did they allow Darnold to have that kind of performance in the NFC championship against a Rams team that gave him so many problems this year?

I think it was an outstanding coaching performance. there were some opportunities that Clint Kubiak created to get guys open. You think of the Jackson Smith and Jake but touchdown where he's in the backfield and he weaves through. That's a little bit of clever coaching. I think it's a heck of a game by Cooper Cup to make a couple of those catches. You know, the fact that Jake Bobo was out there able to make a play, et cetera. Got to give credit to Sam Donald himself. And, you know, the story of Sam Donald as this epic choke artist is built out of like two games last year with the Vikings,

that were falling apart, and the jet stuff. And you should never hold the jet stuff against anyone. But that's what we're basing all of this on, no matter what he did. It's like, oh, you know, choke artists, seen ghosts, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Some of that was six-year-old leftover residue of playing for that horrible franchise. I think he said it after the game, you know, this game gives you opportunities to get better as you go along. He's gotten better every year. It was shocking from to take that next step suddenly.

but I have a funny feeling that, and let's be fair, part of that was he got the ball at the 17-yard line. That gets him the Bobo touchdown. You know, he makes some great throws, but he's putting the opportunity and a structure to make the plays, and that gives him the chance to turn around and make them. So for the hardcore Seahawks fans who only really focus on the Seattle Seahawks, tell us just generally how of the New England Patriots done it this year. How did they get to the Super Bowl? Okay. The Patriots faced the third easiest schedule in NFL history, according to DVOA analytics analysis.

Third easiest schedule in history. Using that schedule, they went out there and Drake May blossomed into an MVP candidate, and a lot of their free agents and rookies really had standout seasons. And it was hard to tell how great they were and how much of the fact that it seemed like they were playing the Jets every single week. was so comically easy. This team rather itself in the shape. So when it reached the playoffs, I think you saw that game yesterday. Oh, look, it's another backup quarterback. And the snow hits, and they get a win there.

It's kind of been like that all season. Now, it sounds like I'm dismissing and denigrating the Patriots, and trust me, I am. It's making me nervous because I've had bad luck against the Patriots. Well, yeah, again, there's mojo. And they reach the Super Bowl again, and it's like, oh, it's mojo. And they get this play where Jared Stidham like fumble sideways, and you're like, maybe that was an incomplete pass.

And it looks like the talk rule, for those of us old enough to remember it. And it's all of those things. They are not that great a team. They are a weak team by Super Bowl, AFC champion standards. Here's the thing. I said they had the third easiest schedule. The easiest schedule in NFL history belonged to the greatest show on turf, 1999 Rams. So you cannot dismiss a team just because they had an easy schedule.

Sometimes that's the launch pad, that's the springboard, for them to get the big games they need when they need them. I mean, there has to be something said for what this Patriots defense. I know everyone talks about Drake May and rightly so, but in the playoffs, I mean, they beat the Chargers 16 to 3. Yes. They made C.J. Stroud look terrible in their win, 2816 over Houston.

And then I don't really know how you judge. anyone's performance in that game in Denver, but, I mean, they held them to seven points. They have a defense, of course, Mike Rabel is a very smart defensive coach. He's like the old version of Belichick, as opposed to like the old version of Belichick that we see now. And they have a lot of veterans on defense. I think Christian Gonzalez, a cornerback is like their star.

He's a younger guy. But you look across the defense, it's a lot of guys like Milton Williams, Harold Landry, Robert Spillane, guys who were three or four years at other teams, came over as free agents, have slotted into these positions and are playing very hard. And yeah, they intercepts dropped four times. One of that was Carlton Davis, another veteran that they brought in. They have that game yesterday.

It's a better defense now than we saw a couple of months ago with this team, where they were having a hard time stopping Joe Flacco, but it's still a defense that's full of kind of guys who are playing at the absolute peak of their performance right now. We're speaking to Mike Tan here, our NFL Insider, from the two deep zone here on the Halford & Breft Show on Sportsnet 650, mostly because we have one listener, Juan, and Comox, who is a diehard Broncos fan. I will ask a Broncos-related question here. What did you make of the job that Sean Payton did preparing Jared Stidham for this game and then calling the game while in the moment with Stidham under center?

That's great because there's two different questions. I think Stim looked really prepared early on and all the scripted stuff and the early deep pass and things like that. And there were some drop passes that he threw on the money, et cetera, and that was working well. Calling the game, I think, you know, we can all quibble at the fourth and one call. He himself said it was the wrong call. He should have gone for it, but not done that. In the snow, late in the game, a three-point game, they got the ball on the other side of the 50, and they're throwing the ball. Yeah, that was the worst part.

God, I was yelling at the team at that point. It was so clear that no one could run round. anymore. You know, the one thing that you could probably do, and you guys probably drive in snow and and ice, going forward is usually your best bet. Do some Crow Magnon football. And over and over again, he didn't do the Crow Magnon football. You try to run the ball.

It was lateral, sideways, stuff like that. That was very, very strange. We might be talking about a different game, obviously, the fourth and one, that's one thing. A different game, if they just get Will Lutz into field goal range, when they were already at, like, the 35, his kick was blocked. If they get 15 more yards down the field, that might have been the difference. And we might be talking about a different Super Bowl right now. I want to ask you about two more parts of the walk through here.

Just the headline itself, the subhead, actually. Seattle Seahawks, ORA Farming. I'm not 100% familiar with the terminology, Mike, but I think I have an idea of what you're talking about here. Walk us through this before we get into the Patriots legacy part of things. Well, I hope I used ORA farming, right? I think you did. I think you did.

Right, right. You know, the 2011, 2011, 2012, 2013, Seahawks that we all talk about outside of your area. We all think about the Legion of Boom. We think about Beast Mode. We think about those guys. Russ Wilson, when he was young, they had aura. They were the bad boys. They were, you know, they had so much personality that we would see this team and like instinctively root for them.

Or maybe root against them if you don't like bad boys, but whatever. they had a persona. This Seahawks team does not have a persona. This Seahawks team is Sam Darnold and a coach that looks like he's just some 35-year-old high school coach that somebody grabbed somewhere. And Jackson Smith and Jigba, who we just know he's good. We don't know anything else about him. That's who this team is right now. So, you know, I don't think ORA matters.

But in the next couple weeks, fans are going to find out who these Seahawks are. And if the Seahawks do erase the legacy of that, that. loss to the Patriots, then I think we're going to find reasons to root for them and discover who these guys really are. Well, that was the other part of it is like, when we came in this morning, I warned everyone. I'm like, if you think that you can't possibly be inundated by Super Bowl 49 references, get ready for the next two weeks because it is going to be so over the top, not just because of the Malcolm Butler play at the end, but if you look at it objectively, that is one of the greatest

Super Bowl games that's ever been played. It's on every definitive list that's right up there among the greatest games. reason that people harken back to it, but there's also the Patriots legacy part of this. And it's a new chapter, right? It's no longer Belichick and Brady. It's Vrable and May. But there's all the other

familiar haunts and ghosts and all that other stuff. What did you have to say or write about the Patriots legacy? Imagine Malcolm Butler's phone at about like 1030 Eastern time last night. Could you imagine? Every, every Yahoo,

I want to interview you. I want to have the, you know, the exclusive scoop going back to that. And it's like, obviously there's a scar for you guys. You know, maybe it helps a little bit that you had a Super Bowl ring the year before when you clobbered, Peyton Manning. There's a scar there for you. The rest of us don't want to hear it. No one wants to hear from the Patriots.

No one wants to hear from Patriots fans right now. Don't want to see them popping up on Facebook and, like, no, for two years they disappeared and then they're back. And no one wants to hear about the greater glory of that. The last thing I want to hear or see is another breakdown of the strategies that, led to the throw because I think I spent three years hearing about how, well, you know, Belichick put his heavy personnel in and that forced Pete Carroll and his coordinators to go with the light personnel. Don't want to hear it.

These are not the same Seahawks. Like I said, very different bunch of guys, different personality, completely different Patriots team. What's done and done, let's talk about this team and these teams and what's going to happen in two weeks. I heard it was Russ calling an audible on the play because he actually said to Marciaun Lynch in the huddle. I'm not giving it to you because I'm jealous of you, and this is, for me, I'm bigger than the team. That's what he said.

Those were his words. Can you believe that? He said, I'm bigger than the team. And with that, and new chapter has been written. It's out there. Spoken words, said out in the ether. Hey, Mike, we're up against it for time. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this today.

We really appreciate it. We will do this again next Monday, the official kickoff of Super Bowl Week. You got to. Take care and enjoy your week. Yeah, you too, buddy. Thanks. That's Mike Tanier, our NFL. insider from the two deep zone here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650, a presentation

of the Clayton Public House. I got duped once on air by one of those fake articles about the Russell Wilson calling the audible at the line. Oh yeah. Because it never actually just so we're clear. There's no evidence that that actually happened. Can we make that abundantly clear? That was just you being funny. Yeah. Just a little wink and a nod. But there's a longstanding conspiracy theory out there. We love our conspiracy theories here on the Halfford and Brough show. We love them. That the reason the goal line play happened in Super Bowl 49 was because Russ got to the line of scrimmage and called an audible. Now, there's no evidence whatsoever. It's a matter of fact, so this is how good I am at my job. I read the fake article and then asked KJ write about it when he came on our show one time. Yeah. And KJ was like, what? And then the way that he reacted in the moment I froze, I'm like, oh man, this is not even close to being true. He's not even playing along. This is like coming way out of left field.

Sure enough, it was, yeah, I got duped on the air. And I asked you. Yeah, you were like, the onion normally is such a good newspaper. Usually so accurate. Those folks at Rebel News got me again. Ah. But yeah. Did you watch any hockey over the weekend?

A little bit. There were some good games, man. Habs Bruins. I know it wasn't top of everyone's list on Saturday. Really good game. The Habs on the power play are fun to watch. and Cole Calfield had a hat trick, and they still lost, but man, American fans are like,

that guy should probably be on our Olympic team. So this is what we missed with international best-on-best is everyone thinks it's about the tournament, but there's so many other good subplots. Every time now that someone, there's always one guy who takes the snub super personal. Yeah. Like Michael Jordan, the meme, like, and I took that personally.

For the Four Nations, it was Mark Schifley after he didn't get named to Team Canada, and went on an absolute tear afterwards. And right now, it's Cole Cawfield of the Montreal Canadians after not being selected for Team USA who was just going berserk scoring goals. Oilers Capitals was a lot of fun. I was. I did watch a bit of that one.

And Evan Bouchard, six point night. I mean, he was really good. And I'm still watching these Oilers games. I watch a lot of Oilers games, and I'm like, these guys are like, they have the high-end guys. guys. Yeah. Right. David and Drysidal. Yeah. Bushard's again, Bushard's six points. Like that's the high with Bushard is he can give you unbelievable production. And yet they're in a six five game. Yep. Right? With the Washington capitals. With a not great Capitals team. Yeah.

Let's be honest. And I, and I just, I don't know. I mean, can I see them making a run? Yeah, because what are they going to get in the first round? Were they going to get Anaheim? In the first round? Is they going to be their first round matchup? Or are they going to get, I mean, they're They're not going to get Vegas, and they're not going to get any of the teams, obviously, in the Central Division. They're going to finish first or second in the division, right? So they're going to have an easy first round matchup. Look at Vegas. Vegas isn't amazing.

Do you see what happened in Ottawa the other day? I'm going to blast at 7-1. So could I see Edmonton making it to the conference final? Yeah, of course I could. But I don't think they're as good as they were two years ago. I think that was their chance. That was their best chance to win the cup. Laddie, as I throw you on the spot here,

has their goaltending gotten any better since they made the trade? Either statistically or by the eye test or even just the vibe of we've got a more solid goal in here because Skinner's been fine in Pittsburgh. I know he'd probably run out of rope or leash just because they'd been too many times that they've been burned by him falling apart. I follow a lot of Penn's fans on social media,

and I'll say the vibes are certainly better. But the numbers are about the same. Okay. Maybe slightly improved. But it's such a small sample size. He hasn't played that many games. But at the beginning of the trade, I thought it was a lateral move for both teams.

But the vibes, getting jarring out of there, certainly improved the vibes amongst fansmen. But you've added significant cap space. Yeah. And the Oilers should be aggressive buyers at any deadline when they've got McDavid and Dry Settle. A few people texting in about when we were talking about

Cole Cawfield and he said, the Americans pick J.T. Miller over two potential 30, 40 goal scores. That's their problem. The Miller pick is unconscionable right now. Honestly, it's, it's, it's, part of my half, part of my mind. Okay,

this is my half, this is my Halford hot take. Okay, this is something that you would do. But I know where it's going. J.T. Miller's not going to play in the Olympics. That's exactly where it's going. Like I don't, like I don't, yeah. Like I think,

somehow something's going to happen. Like, I can't see it right now. Yeah. He's not in a good space right now. No, I am more than 1,000 percent. Is there more than 1,000 percent? Mathematically, I'm more than 1,000 percent with you. Yeah. I don't think he's going. Like you're saying he's just going to decline?

There'll be a, they'll be, there'll be an injury. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Or he'll bow out. And then they'll add Jason Robinson, their top goal score. Or Cole Coughfield. Or Cole Cawfield, another goal score that scores a lot of goals. Right now, it's very hard to justify two picks on the

that team and both them, funnily enough play for the New York Rangers, Miller and Trocheck. I just don't see why they're there. I've seen that when they announced it. I'm like, you're mixing, missing your best goals scores. You know what, Addo? I was right. You may have been right all along. They just, they didn't take their top two goals scores. Calm down. I wish I hadn't had that hot take now. You may be the hidden

genius. This show has never, ever truly had. I'm just saying, it would be funny if they now just realize it and at least take one of those guys. But back to your hot take. But I still think their strategy is going to be good defense, for checking and trying to,

if you're looking at the Canadians, you're like, Canada, not the Montreal Canadians. If you're looking at the Canadians, you're like, we can't match their forward group, but maybe what we can do is get on some of their defense fund. Okay, I want to go back to your point, though, your hot take. Okay. Because there's a couple things here.

We had J.T. Miller on the show about a year and a half ago, maybe even two years ago, when he was still a member of the Vancouver Canucks, and we were talking about in advance of the four nations. And he was very not interested in talking about international play. Yeah. Even in, and we threw him a couple softballs.

We're like, isn't it great to represent your country? How excited are you to play best on best? Everyone just says yes and they move on. He wouldn't do it. He's like, not thinking about it, not interested in talking about it. Haven't thought about it once. Okay, fair enough. Yeah.

Then the tournament came around. And obviously he was one of the big catalysts of the fights, which are now sort of, they hockey lore, and it's not that long ago, but the three fights. And he gladly took part of that. If you hear the backstory and read the backstory of it, he was an integral figure on that team. I think a lot of people saw him as like the dad or the unk of the team because he's so old. Yeah, yeah.

Compared to the rest of the guys. And he was like the older version of the Kachucks in the sense that they're like, kind of nasty, kind of mean, physical, you know, so he was part of that maybe bridging the gap from the old to the new generation, which is great. I'm not sure any of that stuff really applies to the now. But I think like Miller is very much when he's on his highs, he rides the highs and when he's on the low, you know what I mean?

So like him being completely disconnected from it in one conversation and then being totally into it at the Four Nations, that kind of strikes me like what he's at. Anyway, it was just a hot take. Probably won't happen. I like a hot take. I got to do the one to watch. But I thought, you know,

if I'm going to have a Halford hot take, that's going to be my one. And I was like, and we were dancing. there. We were dancing there. You knew what I was going to say. You know what I was going to say. One to watch J.T. Miller? Not tonight, my friend. But he did, and

the dance, the delicate dance between Halford and Brough continues, because you already previewed this one talking about the Oilers and the Anaheim Ducks, who played tonight a battle of two versus three in the Pacific Division. That is our one to watch brought to by Limitless A.V. Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts.

Now, the one particular player to watch tonight, Evan Bouchard, he can match a record that is held by one defenseman, Paul Coffey, the most points by Oilers' defenseman ever. Over two games is eight points. Yeah. Bouchard had six last game, so you math elites out there,

two points tonight, and he matches a mark only held by Paul Coff. Did Paul Coffey did to play any great offensive players? No, he did it all himself. Did it all himself? Yeah, yeah. It was just him. So, uh, Bouchard and the Oilers tonight taking on the Anaheim. Ducks, that is your one to watch.

Brat to you by Limitless AV, specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions. and hybrid workspaces, book your personalized tour of their experience center today at limitlessavre.com. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. 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. Lyrics to this from A-Dog.

Pretty good. I'm getting a slight haul-in-o-n-o-n-d-fives. A little bit. A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. It's pretty good. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates.

Do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands-trustee.com. Dali Wals reporting that the Department of Player Safety is closely reviewing the Brian Rust hit on Brock Besser last night. And the expectation is that supplemental discipline will be coming here. Take that, Brian. I like how Dollywood was like, they are closely reviewing it. Not just be like, yeah, I kind of saw it out of the corner of my eye.

It looks like, I don't know, three games. As opposed to all the other plays, but they just kind of give it a cursory. Casual review. Look at that. All right, next, you are listening. Again, to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Hour 2 is brought to by Jason hominck at Jason.

Domorgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Dobmortgage. To the phone lines we go, our next guest, NHL writer for SportsNet. Luke, Luke, Fox joins us now on the Halford & Rough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Luke, how are you? Doing okay. Just buried in snow. But otherwise, pretty good. How are you guys? We're well. You are the third guest. We had David Amber on first, then we had Jonas Siegel on second.

And now you all three have remarked on the terrible weather that's been going through Toronto right now. A lot of complaining out of Toronto. I've got to be honest with you. It's going to say. It's just a lot of work. It's just a lot of shoveling. I've already done it twice, and I've got to get up and do some more after this. Well, a lot of complaining none of it about the hockey team amazingly, although there's plenty to choose from.

So let me get this straight. Over the last 48, 72 hours, the Mitch Martyr return on Friday, consecutive losses, 6-3 to Vegas, 4-1 to Colorado, so they out scored 10 to 4 for you athletes out there. And then the story that superseded all of it is William Neelander flipping the bird from the press box in the game against Colorado on Sunday. So a lot to unpack here, Luke. I guess we'll start with Neelander. What was he doing? What was he thinking?

And how much more is he going to need to apologize? Because I understand this might have gotten to the point where the NHL is going to investigate. Yeah, they are taking a look. And, you know, we've seen this, I guess, a couple times before. but usually it's from a player who's playing in the hockey game and not one who's injured and watching from the press box. I remember Andrew Ferrence did it in a playoff game against Montreal. Yeah, flipped off the Habs fans.

And he got like $2,500 fine. Like it didn't slap on the wrist. So if Neelander got a slap on the wrist like that, I wouldn't be shocked. but I think it's just immature and a bad look and he apologized but the apology was on Instagram and it just reeked of PR going to the

player and saying hey you better do something because this is turning into a thing and the video is going around so he said a moment of frustration but you watch the video and it's more just like a guy being a goofball Yeah, that doesn't look like a moment of frustration at all. No, it looked like, oh, I think this will be funny or I don't know what.

But, you know, this is supposed to be one of the leaders on the team, highest paid guy, and your team is getting absolutely worked over by the Colorado Avalanche. The funny thing is, not funny, ha-ha, just ironic, is this was a game for the kids. The Leafs hardly ever play matinees. So this is one where, you know, they're encouraging more kids to watch the game, whether it's on TV or actually come to the arena. And, you know, you do that. It's just kind of like, who's running the show here?

It just kind of felt childish. Yeah. I mean, I'm not offended, but I think it's a bad luck when your team's in the middle of a four-game losing streak. You're out of the playoff pitcher and, you know, you do that. It's just unprofessional, I think. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, for sure. Silly.

Yeah. So what's happened to the Leafs over the last couple of weeks because, you know, they made a nice run and they were even into a playoff spot. And now they're pretty far back. You know, a five-point deficit, I believe it is out of the second wildcard spot. They've got a big game tomorrow against the Buffalo Sabres. Yeah, they do. And it's weird, you know, in January to think of a game as,

as a must win. And of course, mathematically, it's not quite that, but it carries that kind of weight all of a sudden. And that's because they came home off a decent road trip where they got a couple wins and picked up an overtime point. And all of a sudden, they lose four in a row. And, you know, many of those losses were lopsided. Their defense has been porous.

kneelander's absence on the ice is really being felt because it feels like if Austin Matthews isn't putting in the puck, no one else can. They're short game breakers and their confidence is low. I think one of the most disturbing things is after that game, you know, I kind of asked Craig Barubei what the mood was on the bench when you go down to nothing early after he had just ripped them for their slow start. against Vegas. And they have another slow start against Colorado.

He said, it's quiet. You know, there's no chatter. There's no guys trying to pick their teammates up. It's a lot of hung heads. And Jake McCabe, after the game,

admitted that their confidence is low. It's like, it's one thing to lose. Like, there's no, there's no shame in losing to the Colorado Avalanche. They're trucking everyone this year.

There's no shame in losing to the Golden Knights. You know, they're probably the toast of that division. But I think there is some embarrassment when you get, you know, waxed in your own barn and there's no pushback, very little physicality, very little energy, very little feeling of we can rally and do this.

It's kind of just rolling over and letting teams come in and whoop you when you're the team that probably should have more urgency because you're the team that's supposed be fighting for a playoff spot and now they're I think they're five points out and you know it's starting to feel like like it's not happening because the kind of heater that they're going to have to get on now is going to have to be long and there's no feel around the spirit of the group that that's coming yeah what what does Brad for Living think of all this because I'm looking at this Leif's roster and I'm looking at, you know, their prospects or their young players and they're not totally bereft, but there's no, there's no savior coming. What's he going to do? I mean,

I look at that blue line and, you know, that thing's falling apart and it's not going to get any better. OEL, Tenev, these guys are older guys. Morgan Riley's an older guy. Is, are they just going to keep trying their best every season? Or could you see them do something proactive, even if it is dramatic, like trading one of these top forwards for some assets that's going to help them retool? I think that's what they should do, Jason,

but I don't get the sense that that's what Bradford Living wants to do. And maybe that's partly because he's in a tricky spot, and to do that would kind of, admit failure and you know he's on the hot seat Craig Brubay's on the hot seat it's hard to envision a world where this team misses the playoffs entirely and both those guys keep their jobs but I think probably the smart thing is to be realistic about the situation they're in they do have assets they could probably sell and do kind of a I mean they're not going into a full-blown rebuild that's for sure not when they have Matthews and in

lander is still in their prime and still under contract for a few years. But a little bit of a reset, kind of what the Boston Bruins did last year, I think wouldn't be the worst thing. It would probably be the smart thing. I just don't know if management has the stomach to do that when they might, when Tray Living doesn't necessarily have the leash to go see through to the next step, which will be building it back up next year. That's the danger.

It's in a really tricky spot. But if they wanted to admit that this team just doesn't have it, you know, I'm sure there'd be lots of teams that would be willing to trade for, like, rentals like Bobby McMahon, Scott Lawton, Troy Stetcher, or something a little deeper. Like Oliver Eckman-Larset, I don't know if his value is going to be any higher than it is right now.

He's playing great hockey. But there's still a bunch of term on that contract. He's getting a bit older. Like, you could really turn that, him into something because I'm sure a real contender would want him the way he's playing right now. So some really fascinating decisions.

I think what's going to happen is they're going to wait to the last minute to make those and really what they're doing is crossing their fingers and hope they get in the race. That's plan A is that somehow these guys find it within themselves to get back in the race. It just doesn't feel like that's

happening right now. We're speaking to Sportsnet NHL writer Luke Fox here on the Helford & Brough show on SportsSign 750. One of the teams that rolled through town this past weekend, Luke, the Vegas Golden Knights, obviously got a win in Toronto, but then went to Ottawa and got the doors absolutely blown off them on Sunday, a 7 to 1 loss, following which Mark Stone, a former Ottawa senator, said, it was looking like an NHL team versus a junior team, and that meaning that Vegas was the junior team in that one. And then Bruce Cassidy said, is this a practice thing or is it showing the hell up on time?

They were very disappointed for what they did on Sunday in Otto. What did you see from Vegas this weekend, specifically what you saw in the Marna return game? Well, in that game, they were fired up, and I loved how they approached it. They didn't duck the fact that this was a big game for the teammate. You know, I don't know if you saw, I think it was Keegan Colissar when he was coming out.

There was a fan that had a 16, leaf sweater where instead of Marner on the nameplate it said sellout. I did see you this. He lifted out of the fans' hands and threw it on the ground. They kind of rallied around their teammate. They said this is a big

game for Mitch. We want to win this game for Mitch. Mark Stone, who's lived a similar return. Going back to Ottawa, Jack Eichael had lived through something similar, going back to Buffalo. They kind of embraced that. The that this wasn't just another one of the 82 games,

it was something extra special. And they delivered a real performance. And the Leafs, by contrast, were kind of trying to downplay saying, ah, it's just another game, but it actually meant something to Toronto's fans. So they kind of embraced that that was a moment, and then they delivered.

So maybe there's a bit of a letdown in Ottawa, a big game. I had heard that the Golden Knights went out for a big celebratory dinner with Marner after that game. So maybe there was some tired legs. But I appreciate Cassidy and Stone, the captain, like coming out and ripping that performance. It's like we're not going to just sluff off a loss like that. We're going to call it for what it is and get ourselves back on track. I kind of hate when teams, good teams kind of just say, ah, well,

it's a scheduled loss or what did you expect. We had an emotional one in Toronto. There's going to be a letdown. I like how they checked themselves right away and don't let it faster. Luke, this was great, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do it, as always. We appreciate it. Enjoy all the games this week, 15 games on Thursday night.

That'll be a fun one. We'll do this again soon. Yeah, non-stop until the Olympics. Okay, enjoy it, guys. Thanks. Thanks. That's Luke Fox from SportsNet, NHHL writer here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of co-workers at SportsNet,

Elliot Friedman, he dropped a new 32 Thoughts podcast, does I understand it? We got some audio. Yeah, we got some audio just on the trade market. You know, I know as Canucks fans were waiting for more trades. They've traded Quinn Hughes. They've traded Kiefer Sherwood. There's a couple more obvious ones to come, all the pending UFAs, Evander Kane, Teddy Bluger,

David Camp, I suppose, if anyone's interested. Sure. And then there's the other ones with term. The veterans with term. I think that's, is that the phrase that we're going to give them? The vets with term. VWTs.

Yeah. The VWTs. Okay. I like that. Yep. All right. Here's Fridge talking a little bit on the latest 32 thoughts podcast, just about the uncertainty about how many sellers there actually are.

And he starts with some examples about, for example, what is a team like Nashville going to do? A couple of people did say to me on Sunday that they think there's more sellers than care to admit. Like, I wonder about some of these teams that are right around it. They would go, oh, Colorado first round, that could be really ugly. Mm-hmm. You said there's more sellers. You know who one guy said

Someone said to me Is a guy and it will see how Let's see what Nashville does here In terms of What they What they ultimately decide to do Someone was saying to me Nick Purbix

I said you know what That makes a lot of sense White Hand shot two year deal Manageable number 2.75 but you know Nashville's got to say we're out Perpix watch the Nick Purbix watch

don't care for that surname yeah it's uncomfortable it makes me feel weird so here's another clip from Frege just on the uncertainty around the Olympic break because we talked a few times about this Olympic roster freeze and we wondered are there going to be some teams

that want to get this stuff done before the Olympics Olympic break, buyers or sellers, but there is an element of all this, and it is the cash money revenue versus expenses argument against trading or picking up a player before the Olympic break. I had one manager tell me that we're in on a guy that there's not a huge rush on, and he's the kind of guy that he wouldn't tell me who it was, but he says it's the kind of guy that If we don't get, there's a couple other guys like him.

Like, we'll get one of these guys. So if you're not rushing, he's like, why do I want to pay him a few hundred thousand dollars to get a tan? And he said, I know why the other manager would like to trade him because he doesn't want to pay him a few hundred thousand dollars to get a tan. So we might, unless there's a real race to get one of these players, like you're worried about an Olympic injury or there's big. Big demand on this guy or a certain player, I think you might see some people wait. So I don't think there's going to be a bidding war for a VanderCain services. Kevin Weeks has reported that Colorado is interested.

Dallas is interested. Previous reports have L.A. being interested? That's three teams. Sounds like a battle to me. Can I throw a theory out there, by the way, unless you really want to go somewhere with this? No, well, sorry, February 4th is the roster freeze for the Olympics. Do they really need to freeze the rosters for 18 days to not let general managers make deals?

Does this not seem? Everyone goes on vacation. They don't want guys getting traded while they're away with their families doing stuff. It's 12 days before the trade deadline when the freeze gets lifted. That feels like, it's not ideal, but also, why can you not make deals? What's the real reason? What's the number one reason? Respect.

I would actually want to know though. Because they're going to have deals and as soon as the roster freezes over, we'll hear some deals. Wouldn't you want to know? Like even if you're on vacation and it kind of ruins it, you've got time with your family where you can arrange stuff. Yes. That's kind of the point. Like you've got these weeks off.

What better time to trade someone when you don't have to worry about playing hockey and traveling And I know some guys are going to Cabo for the duration of it. And I'm sorry that the multimillionaire athletes might have their vacations interrupted. But this is ridiculous from a league perspective in terms of being able to do business. I know I'm not naive enough to think that there aren't going to be a million phone calls and trades being consummated. Do they also not want to be announced? Do they maybe not want the guys at the Olympics to be traded? But here's the other part of it.

Like the NHL, for all of its griping and belly aching about how, well, we just lend our players for free to the IOC, you may as well conduct your business. Like keep your league running an operational while it's going. If you're not getting anything from the Olympic, the IOC and the Olympic Committee for having your players over there, then just keep doing your business. That would be funny, though.

Like I know that one. Just like right before the gold medal game. Like, hey, good luck out there. It's the biggest game of your life. But you need to get some movers. Yeah, seriously. These freezes, by the way, are negotiated on behalf of the players in the CBA. They clearly want them.

I get why the players would want it. The players want to go, and they want to have nothing else to focus on if they're at the Olympics, then the Olympics. And if they're not, then on Cabo. Like Cabo on three, let's go. We don't have to worry about anything until February 22nd. From an operational standpoint, it seems wild to me that there's a freeze of like two and a half three weeks, two weeks before the deadline. Well, let's make them regret it.

just throw around some wild rumors. Like if you're a savvy GM, you're obviously making deals during the Olympics, and they just haven't them in a cupboard. Like, so the moment the lift, freeze is lifted, you go and consummate the deal. It's in. Right, but I just, I don't understand

why the league would hamstring itself during a time where everyone's sitting around, like when the Olympics hit and we're here, there's only a handful of hockey games. Like, if you look at the tournament, it's not a massive, it's not the World Cup or anything. There's not that. many games. There's a lot of downtime

there. And the guys that are in the Olympics, they're going to be in the Olympics. They're going to be inundated by Italy and the scene and doing all the things at Olympic athletes. Are you just angry about a lack of content? Yeah, basically. I don't know. I mean, I got...

Do my job for me. February 8. Are the Super Bowl is going to be over? I'm looking at the next month. I'm like, I can't do basketball yet. I'm not ready. I'm not mentally prepared to do basketball yet. Okay? I don't really know who's good or not yet.

I haven't done a ton of Raptors content. I'm not ready for it. Anyway, okay. We got one final hour to go on the Halford Abrupt show on Sports 9-650. Saty R. Shah is going to join us on the other side.

We're going to get back into the Canucks talk with Sat. He, of course, was on the call. Sorry, working the pre-and-post and intermissions for Friday's game, a loss to the Devils. And Sunday's game, a loss to the Ben Kindle-led

Pittsburgh Penguins. That was an afternoon affair, which went at the exact same time as the Seahawks game yesterday. So I bet there's a lot of you listening right now that didn't even see the Canucks game yesterday. I'd be curious. By the way, I flip back and forth a little bit.

I won't name the establishment for the establishment's sake because I don't think it was their fault, but I went somewhere yesterday to watch the Seahawks game. I counted 15 screens and there was at least 75 people in attendance, maybe closer to 100. There was not a single screen showing the Canucks game. There was not a single person there that asked for it to be turned on. It was just not. There's usually one person. Just one.

They're like, okay, we can set you up with this TV. I don't even know if it works anymore. We've been trying to get someone to carry it, but it's pretty old, so it's heavy. It's an old tube TV with the big backed on it. There you go. The laptop that the waitress checks people in with. They're like, we can turn this on to the Canucks game once she's done checking people in. And you can watch it there.

Anyway, we are going to talk about the Canucks on the other side with Satyar Shah. Oh, and a reminder, if you want to win a $50 gift card to the Clemachie, Clayton Public House for the big football party on Saturday, Sunday, February of the 8th. Be caller number 5 at 8 a.m. So in five minutes time, call in 604-280650. That number again, 604-280-650. The big football party is at the Clayton Public House hosted by Sportsnet 650. If you want a seat at the table, email info at the Clayton Pub.com,

Clayton Public House, good food, good people, good times. Be caller number 5 at 8 a.m. 604-280650. you're listening to the Halford & Breft Show on Sportsnet, 650.