Halford & Brough in the Morning - Well At Least Brock Boeser Finally Scored A Goal

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss yesterday's ninth loss in a row for the Canucks (3:00), plus they preview this weekend's playoff action with NFL.com's Nick Shook (27:46).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Willie. Yeah. What's that? Well, it looks like a giant. Johnson. Leaves for Zach Werensky right circle. Rich shot.

He scores. And you're right there. Tase Thompson's goal. Thompson. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning. Make a 6-1 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody, sweet, sweet Friday.

It is Halford and his brought to this Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, do you? Good morning to you. Good morning. Lattie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Brup in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, too much lower payments. And three, financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program, hour one. is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming live from the Kintech Studio, make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics.

It is time now for the morning guest list, the Duick Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 630. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join the program. We are now just one day away from the start of the NFL divisional round on Saturday. It's Buffalo at Denver, followed by San Francisco at Seattle on Sunday. It's Houston at New England, followed by the Rams at Chicago.

Nick's going to preview it all for us at 6.30. We can also talk about that. John Harbaugh of the Giants news from yesterday. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway is going to join the program. A reminder, it is Ask Us Anything Friday. $100 gift card to AJ's for the best ask us anything. Hashtag it, AUA, ask us anything. Put a pizza emoji into your text.

Text it into the Dunbar number text line at 650, 650. The best ask us anything. We'll win the $100 gift card. 730, Dan Rosen's going to join the program. Senior writer from NHL.com. 10 games in the NHL last night, including the Canucks 4-1 loss to the blue jackets in Columbus. We'll go around the NHL with Dan.

We can set up tomorrow's massive 13. game slate. It's hockey day in Canada. Dan's going to join us at 7.30 to talk all things in H.L. 8 o'clock Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. And for this, as always, I turn things over to our show's resident Dollywall babysitter Jason Brough. I think we're going to talk a little bit about Kiefer Sherwood and when that trade is going to happen.

So we've got a big show ahead on a Friday. Lots to get into. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? All the action because I'm losing. We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.com. Port Moody's Ken Johnson goal and an assist. Columbus, 4-1 win over Vancouver at Nationwide Arena on Thursday. The lone goal for the Vancouver Canucks scored by none other than. than Brock Besser. His first goal in 22 games. That's right, his first goal since November 28th.

So nine straight losses for the Canucks. On the road trip, they lost all six in regulation. That's a tough one. And now they're in jeopardy of losing their 10th straight Saturday at home to Edmonton when an eight-game homestand opens up. A couple stats that I picked up on social media yesterday. First from J-Pat. They got outscored 27 to 9 on the six-game road trip.

They have not won in regulation since December 19th. That was the game at the New York Islanders. Another one, courtesy Adam Kierzenblatt. The Canucks go

0-6-0 on the road trip. and are now winless in their last nine, he points out, as per the NHL records, Vancouver's longest winless streak in a single season is set at 13, which occurred all the way back in 1973, 74. There were a few ties sprinkled in there back in the day. Right, exactly.

I wonder if Don Waddell, the general manager of the Columbus Blue Juckets, pulled the trigger on the coaching change at the time that he did because he knew that Calgary and Vancouver were coming to town and he was like, if I want to set up my new coach, Rick Bonas, and give him a good start. I'm going to give him Calgary and Vancouver to try and gain some momentum because that's what the blue jackets have done.

They beat Calgary. They beat Vancouver and they look like a much happier group. I think there may be something to your theory, because Rick Bonas, after the game yesterday, he wasn't even all that happy with Columbus's play. I think he noted that they didn't like their first period. He thought they got better as the game went along. But even without the Columbus Blue Jackets being at their best,

they were still able to handle the Canucks with ease, a 4-1 victory at home. And, I mean, it was funny listening to the post game. And I sat in Vic, God bless the work that they're doing on like every other night basis. because it's getting very difficult, very difficult, to break these games down in a vacuum in their individual parts. Because when you take a step back and do the sort of wide lens view,

there's no point in breaking down shift by shift or, I mean, they were talking at length about the importance of the Brock Bessor goal. And I was like, I don't know if there's any importance to that goal. He probably feels better for him now that he's scored for the first time in 22 games, but it changes zero trajectory. I think both for him and for the team.

I can't see him having a sustained level of success offensively because the Canucks can't score goals with regularity. Nine goals over a six-game road trip is pretty horrific. Getting outscored 27 to 9 is pretty horrific. And I will remind you, this is still a team that's got a lot of the parts that were brought into this season for them to be a competitive outfit. A lot of veteran pieces still there,

just not getting anything done with regularity. You did mention Besser did finally bump the slump. It was a nice passing play with the man advantage. Power play looked good on that one. They didn't score right away, but they had some really nice puck movement. Zev Boullium, who I thought had his legs right from the start last night, and that's the sort of thing we should be monitoring some of these games. Like, how do the young guys look?

Zeeb Boulliam spent a game in the press box, and I think he's looked pretty good. Since coming out of the press box, he got it to Elias Petter. who made a quick, decisive cross-ice pass to Besser who got a quick shot away that beat Elvis Merslickens. It was nice to see Pedersen looking so happy for Besser, even if Besser himself looked maybe almost embarrassed that had taken so long to score again. And there might have also been the fact that he's not going to have a big cellie with the Canucks still down two goals because that made it 3-1. He's probably not going to have a big celly. He's like, how's the road trip going? All right. It's not going well. Okay, I'll just

muted celebration. You mentioned the offensive struggles and that goal occurred on the power play. The five-on-five offense is really atrocious. It's a real struggle.

It's non-existent. For the Canucks right now. If you look at the underlying numbers, you go to natural stat trick. The Canucks actually aren't the worst in terms of five-on-five offense, but they're one of the worst. The devils, the Cracken, the Rangers, and the Kings are all slightly worse at five-on-five offense, but I think it's getting worse for the Canucks. They scored five-on-five goals in their first

game of the season against the Calgary Flames, and I think that carried them for a bit. Maybe it's still carrying them. It might be. And, you know, like, we used to spend so much time on line combinations and everything and now it's kind of like yeah like I don't know some guys were out there PD and Besser and Ogrin had a couple moments as a trio I guess we haven't actually talked much about ogren on this show but I do really like his speed yeah the bop line is it what were they calling on that I just made it up right now nice it was gonna be the bop line yeah they just got a little bop to him pop it yeah they did have some bop they did a little bop ogrin's only 21 and he's shown he can score at the

HL level, just not yet in the NHL. A couple other points. Hoaglander was scratched for Baines.

Anyone cares about that. And anytime they want to trade a Vandercaine, I'm good with it.

Do you think they'll be able to do it? Do you think he's movable? Assuming they retain on salary,

do you think he's movable? A couple other questions. Okay. Do you think he'll be in the league next season? Okay. Or do you think Danny Millions is going to try and get him some of that sweet KHL cash?

Sweet, sweet Russia money. He's got to say he's got seven goals and he doesn't look like he's going to score many. I did not put this in the notes because I found this this morning. So this will come as a maybe a surprise to you. But you know how you were talking about the L.A. Kings potentially being a suitor for Elias Pederson? Well, hold the phone, my friend, because according to John Hoven

of Mayors Manor, a fairly well dialed in LA King source, he's been covering the team for decades now, I'm just going to read the following from one of his most recent post up at Mayor's Manor. While it's still a rumor, something we don't normally spend

too much time on, but this was just too intriguing not to stop and give it a pause for a few minutes. Two separate sources have told me, over the past week that they believe Ken Holland is kicking the tires on a potential Evander Cain trade. Nice. Good old

Kenny Holland. Now think about this. Think about this. What has Ken Holland done since coming aboard in Los Angeles? He's brought some of the band back together, some of his favorites from his time in Edmonton, including Cody Cici. And probably more

closely as it relates to the Evander Cain situation, Corey Perry. L.A. King fans thought that Corey Perry would never ever be a member of the Los Angeles Kings given he was embroiled in that rivalry for so long as a member of the Anaheim Ducks, but Ken Holland said, never mind that.

This is the kind of guy that we need. Ken Holland, you'll also remember this is a guy that went out as the general manager of the Edmonton Oilers and acquired of Andrew Kane when many people thought you shouldn't do that. And for a while, it worked out okay in Edmonton. It was a fairly good producer in the playoffs

and they liked having them there. I wonder if this will end up being the move. Remember, when we talked about an Evandercade trade earlier, my entire theory and premise about him getting acquired was you only need one. Yeah. There's 32 general managers out there, but you only need one to say, hey, I'm willing to take that risk. I wonder if Ken Holland will end up being that guy.

Well, you got to think that he wants out now. I know he wanted to come home or he was looking forward to come to play in Vancouver, but he's got to now think about his future and the fact that if he stays on this Canucks team, he's not going to put up many points and he's not going to have a very good case in unrestricted free agency. Okay, it was a busy night in the NHL.

Where do you want to go next? Let's start with our good friends in Buffalo. The Buffalo Sabres, everybody won their 15th game in their last 17 last night. A 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens at home. with the Key Bank Center. Listen, just, I want to play this clip. Cage Thompson completing the hat trick last night for the Buffalo Sabres at home.

Listen to the pop. Listen to the energy from the Key Bank Center. They are all, they're all about it in Buffalo. Sabers fans fired up. Buffalo wins their 15th in their last 17th. Here's what it sounded like. Tage Thompson with the winner. Benson will get it out.

Chip and Chase that to the punch. Guess who's got? Hatrick, Cage Thompson, his first against the Canadian. So the Buffalo Sabers are now. firmly in a playoff spot. And then a half's player took on a hat. Two points in a playoff spot? First wild card spot, not even the second wild card spot.

And they're just a few points back of the Montreal Canadiens with games in hand. Is this the year the Sabres win the cup? This is it. Hey, Doug. Poor Kevin Adams. Poor Kevin Adams indeed. I've never seen the general. He's like, I built this team.

Yeah, the conductor of this brilliant, brilliant team. I've never in my years of covering the NHL seen a general manager firing have this much effect. on the ice. Yeah, I've never seen a new GM bump. Never. Not like this. They're unbelievable since, and Yarmal Keck-Kleining basically just came in. He's like, no more messing around. And they're like, yes, sir, Mr. Kekalainen. Well, not that you say it. Yeah, they've gone out and been so impressive. I was impressed when they're not guaranteed to make the playoffs, though, because there's some really good teams on the outside looking in right now, including Toronto and Washington. Yep. Philly has really fallen off.

Yeah. They got goaltending issues. Damblod R got hurt. Yeah. But I think there's a lot of people that looked at that team and they're going to fall off. They're going to fall off. And frankly, again, I don't think Flyers management is going to be super upset at that because they know that they need more young players. They don't really have big time.

They don't have big time difference makers. I know Zegras is playing well. Yeah, he's good. But, like, they don't have, they don't have those stars. The guy that's supposed to be, Matt Vei Mitchcoff, is he's a bigger story in Philadelphia than whether they win or lose right now. Totally. Everything on social media is about Mitchcoff.

You know, talk, it's like, I got another Pedersen. I can't believe this again. I thought I was getting away from this. This is killing me. And I don't know how this ends. I'm very curious to see it because he's had a massive regression in his sophomore year. I mean, we're not, we're talking about production that's fallen through the floor. After being close to a 30 goal score a year ago,

I don't really know what to make of it because I understand what Tocke's saying is that if he's going to be an effective player for a long time in the NHI, he's going to need to learn to do the things that he's not doing right now. And I think everyone agrees with that universally across the board, right?

At the same time, there's a way that you teach and there's a way that you're deployed. And it was the Marty St. Louis quote you brought up the other day. Sometimes with certain players, you don't want to overcoach them. You don't want to step on their creativity. Now, this is Talks issue, and it's going to be his issue because of his reputation going into this job as well.

Yeah, I mean, it goes back to Arizona with a guy like Clayton Keller. Sure. Are you overcoaching these guys? Are you letting them get away from their instincts? Now, the counterpointed Vancouver that he always had was, we'll look at Quinn Hughes. I mean, am I not overcoaching him or something? What's going on here? What's the difference is because Quinn Hughes has taken his game to,

another level to the point that he won the Norris Trophy. And I think in Philly he can say, well, look at Trevor Zegris. Yeah, exactly. He came over here, he put the work in, and look what he's doing right now. So anyway, it's an interesting situation in Philly. We've got a couple more games I want to jump to, though, here. Let's go to Vegas. So the late game in Vegas last night, also the game of the night in the National Hockey League.

For those that missed it because it was late, Mitch Marner had to assist in his first game against his old team. But that was not the story last night. It was Thomas Hurdle scoring with seven seconds left in regulation to tie it. And then we'll play the audio now. Jack Eichel with the OT winner to, of course, win it as Vegas rallies to beat Toronto six five in overtime.

Here's what it sounded like. Sorry, does you want the winner or the time? Yes, the Jack Eichael winning goal in overtime. As I just said, back the other way. Riley's got a step. Here's Biodar gets it off. Touch that one off the side of the net.

The game winning goal was very odd because on a two-on-one, Stone, and I forget the other skater on the ice came in, and then the puck went behind the net, and Stone just kind of flipped it out to the net front. I'm like, what's he doing? And then out of nowhere, Jack Eichol skated onto the scene and had what was like an uncontested breakaway and put it away. And then when they showed the reverse angle,

there was Austin Matthews about 90 feet in the distance, clearly gassed and unable to make the back check. Eichel scores in overtime. There were some booze, weirdly enough, in Vegas, or Mitch Martiner by all the traveling Leafs fans. Yeah, lots of Leafs fans there. And there was also a Willie's Better chant, of course, referencing William Neelander.

Oh, yeah, what happened to him? He got hurt, and he left the game, did not return. Craig Brubay said it was an aggravation of a previous injury. He did not hurt himself taking his shirt off. You got hurt selling? Yes, that's correct. For the second time, I think. Wait, really?

Yeah. Okay, how do you get hurt? These kids in their cellies. Context. Contacts. Try to do a backflip or something? Contacts, Greg. Well, am I wrong?

He reagravated a previous injury. Oh, my cellie injury. In the midst of his celly. Which he also injured initially during a cellie. Because he takes his shirt off when he's cellies. It's true. He tripped on his shirt. Well, all these injuries are, it's significant for the least regardless.

But the Olympics is coming up. and you know I was I was doing a little research because I wanted the the islanders are coming to town on Monday and I was wondering if Horvats going to be able to play and it doesn't sound like he will he was injured I want to say like a week and a half ago now and they said he's going to be week to week but I think they're being extra cautious with him and there was talk that he could maybe join the islanders on this road trip but it doesn't sound like it's going to happen. He actually hasn't played since January 1st. So we're talking like he's coming up on the third week of being out.

But yeah, yeah, I get it. I know that. They're going to be really careful with him for their own sake too. They're not thinking like, oh, well, he's got to play in the Olympics. But I think Horvats probably thinking that too. It's one of the most intriguing storylines going into the next two and a half three weeks prior to the games, is to see how these teams are going to deal with. the most minor of injuries.

I think that stories will start coming out about players if they're not feeling great, having a little bit of extra precaution. Like I talk about the Quink Hughes situation and how I think, I think part of the mutual agreement that he came to with the Vancouver Canoxo and not going to the four nations was partly due to the fact that, well, you're going to get the Olympics. You are going to get that opportunity. Well, that opportunity is here now. If you don't go to the Olympics, I know that there'll be another international date that the

NHL put on in between the next games between Milan and the next one. But this is a big opportunity for a lot of these guys that they might not get again. Yeah, it's a first time back at the Olympics a long time. Like this might be the only chance Bo Horvett ever gets to represent Canada in Olympics, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. He's not going to jeopardize this in any way, shape, or form. By the way, the Oilers got shut out by the Islanders in Edmonton, Sorokin.

I think he made 35 saves or something like that. So that's not great for the Canucks. With the Oilers being upset about getting shut out by the Islanders and then the Canucks are looking to avoid their 10th straight loss and they've got the Oilers Saturday at Rogers Arena. So I understand that this is a rebuild and this is what it looks like and the losses are going to pile up. I have a morbid curiosity and fascinating.

nation to see how long this losing street can go now? Well, you've got to set the record now that you've tied it. I mean, at least got to get one more. Just hypothetically, and I don't think it's that... They've made the banner and everything. I don't think it's that wild, a hypothetical because of how bad they are. I know. Is it possible that this thing extends across the entire eight-game homestand?

No, no, no. Who are they going to beat on the homestanders? The Islanders are a defensive dynamo. Yeah. The Islanders had... They'll win a game. You know what? We should do this exercise.

We should do this exercise. at some point over the course of today's show and try and figure out what game they're going to win. Because I'm going to put it out there right now. I think they're going to win a couple games at home. I don't like their chances against Edmonton. No, me neither. On Saturday.

I think that one's going to be a tough one. I had a hard time because I looked at this yesterday, trying to figure out who's the most likely opponent to fall to the Vancouver Canucks at home. Because I will remind everybody. Well, none of them at this point are likely because the Canucks are the worst team in the NHL. I didn't say likely.

I said most likely of the eight. Now here's the thing. As you pointed out. They could beat Anaheim. They could beat San Jose. Come on. Those teams aren't juggernauts. They can beat anybody.

They could beat Pittsburgh. The problem is they haven't beat. Oh, sorry, I'm looking at the wrong. No, no, no. That's the right one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They can beat New Jersey. There's a lot of beatable teams on this, on this homestown.

I think they're going to win two or three. You know what else we said that? There's a lot of beatable teams on this trip was the six-game road trip that they just had. Yeah, but they're great at home, aren't they? They are. They've won a lot of games four, as a matter of fact, at home this year. So I think there's a lot of opportunity there for the Canucks. I'd be, I don't know, man. Like, this is a really bad hockey team right now.

They don't even play with the sort of naive energy of a typical rebuilding team that's young and running around. Like, they're trying really hard. I thought Booion played well. Yeah. I thought he played well last night. But their structure is gone. and someone texted in and he said W2EF is Marcus Pedersen doing out there.

He had a nightmare last man. Yeah, and he got on the wrong side of Marchenko. And then took a penalty for what led to the second goal, if I'm not mistaken. Marchenko's a good player. He's a big boy. He's a big dude. Marcus Pedersen found out the hard way yesterday.

To answer Halford's question, you know why they're not playing with the energy of a fresh new rebuilding team? Because they have all their same players doing. They have all the veterans. They aren't a rebuilding team yet. They have to trade all those guys. Once they do that, then they'll be like a San Jose or Chicago and with the fresh plucky players. Well, speaking of trades, they got to get Bluger back in the lineup soon and then trade him.

Yep. Because I think the rest of the NHL will want to know that he's healthy and ready to go. And there was even talk from Adam Foote that Philippa could be back in the lineup soon. Potentially next week. Yeah. Did you listen to the audio? Yeah, I did. It was very weird the way that he said it because he almost threw it out there as.

as an example of why the Canucks can't wait for guys to return. And then in doing that, kind of announced that Bluger could be back as soon as Monday and Heidel could be back next week. I was like, that's an interesting way of delivering that news. But he wanted to make it sound like we can't wait for the cavalry to come because we've got a game on Saturday that we need to try and win.

But he said, Bluger may be Monday and Heedl maybe next week. Heedel did practice. He doffed the non-contact. Oh, he did? Yeah. So it's a step further towards returning. Oh God, I hope he can stay healthy

Not for the team's sake I know, they're rebuilding Exactly what you're saying For his sake, man That was, I still felt I felt so bad for him Of all the guys to get caught With your head down

What, seven games into the season? Six. Six games into the season? Tom Wilson Yep All right We got a lot more to come on the show Who's joining us next?

Nick Shuck's going to join us from NFL.com next we're going to look at the four divisional round playoff games, including the Seattle Seahawks, hosting the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night. Lots to get into with Nick Shook from NFL.com. That's coming up next on the Alfred and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns,

we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 33. on a Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough show on Sports 9th, 650. Halpert & Brub in the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Let's try this again, Halford. Okay.

Only a licensed insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. To learn how, visit them at sands dash trustee.com. I didn't do that very well. I thought it was sands.bblah, trustee. Hey, sometimes we make mistakes here. Okay? Wouldn't it be great if Halford did? didn't make mistakes.

I cleaned it up. You learn from your mistakes. That's the important thing is that you learn from your mistakes. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of Hour 1. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them in 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Nick Shook from NFL.com joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Nick. How are you? Fantastic, guys. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on, and we're excited. Divisional Round of the playoffs.

We are going to focus here, though, on the Seahawks 49ers game for obvious reasons. And up at NFL.com right now, you had your three storylines to follow heading into this game. The three must-know storylines. I noticed that you didn't have Sam Darnold's oblique injury. Was that because it popped up too late? Or are you not really that concerned? Tell us a little bit more about what's going on with Sam Darnold and his oblique injury going into this game, Nick?

Yeah, there's a little bit of combination of both. It popped up right after I'd already filed it, but I did make some adjustments just to include it in there. Because I think it kind of speaks to a larger point within this game, which is how do the Seahawks approach this game offensively? Obviously, that's, you know, kind of a layup when you look at that. But what I really was concerned with was reflecting on how these last two teams performed when they played in Week 18 and how the Seahawks had relied so heavily on the

ground game, which, you know, I mean, they've been a better role. the second half of this season and has changed the picture of how their offense looks on a week-by-week basis. But it also wasn't a way that you necessarily can, you know, think of the Seahawks, and you first think of who this 2025 team is. You think about the defense. You think about Sam Dunnell. You think about Jackson Smith and Jigba.

And then you start to think about the running game. So for them to kind of assert their will in such a dominant fashion in Santa Clara against the Niners in Week 18 was, it was impressive. It's not a little startling. I'm really curious to see if they try to do that again. They'll be at home, so they don't necessarily need to try to control time, possession, and keep the ball in the Niners' hands. But at the same time, they kind of, that's their best approach to win this game.

Because if you can, you know, keep the ball out of the 49ers' hands and then lean on your defense when they do have it, you're going to increase your chances because of how good your defense is. And also because the 49ers, you know, for all the things that they've accomplished this season, they are on offense-first team because they have to be. And if you limit possessions for them and are able to cash in in yours, just the formula really works in your favor. So I'll be curious to see how Sam looks.

I'm not 100% concerned about it. I'm not actually not even close to really 50% concerned about it. It's just that he popped up on the injury report on a Thursday, which was a surprise given that we hadn't really heard anything about it, but he sounded pretty confident that he was going to play. So I'm going to trust his words. I'm really curious too, Nick. And now that I think about it,

I don't know which way I'd go if I was the Seahawks planning on offense because you could come up with the idea of, let's blow these guys out of the water early. Let's just take care of this game and get it out of there. And by the end of the first half, we know we're going to win. The 49ers are so injured. And, you know, the Seahawks have had two weeks off. They're playing at home. But on the other hand, I think the only way the Niners win this game is if the Seahawks themselves make a lot of mistakes and turn the ball over and Sam Darnold throws interception. So do you think the Seahawks will come with a conservative game plan or do you think they'll allow some risk into it?

Yeah, I think that's, I wouldn't call the conundrum because I think you're operating from a place of, of privilege being that you're, you know, at the one seed you got the buy week in, uh, and, and you're able to, you know, host this divisional round game, even though it's against a division, uh, rival. So, you know, I caution against the idea, everybody wants to start fast. The Bears spent, you know, all of, uh, the lead-up to wildcard weekend talking about how they must start fast against the Packers. They can't afford to start slow. And they did the exact opposite. And they still were able to turn it on the fourth quarter and author another miraculous. come back. Everybody wants to hit the ground running in any sport, especially in football,

and you think, you know, all right, well, you always would plan to have success early, especially when you're at home and you have the, you know, the fans support behind you. But I also, the idea of jump all over this team, you know, take care of business early. I don't know if that really exists in today's NFL, and I think that the Bears Packers game is a decent example of that. So I think you have to go, in the direction in which you're most comfortable. And, you know, if you circle all the way back to Donald appearing on the injury report with an oblique injury, then maybe you do lean on the running game again.

I'm a traditional believer in always trying to establish the run. I know it sounds cliche and that's fine. But if you have a rushing attack that the opposing team cannot consistently bottle up or even limit from, you know, getting you first downs frequently, then you're forcing the defense into a much more difficult. position in which they are going to have to dedicate extra guys to the box, especially with the way that, you know, Kenny Walker and Zach Charveney run. These, you know, these are hard running guys and that can be explosive,

but we're not talking about little running backs here. You're going to have to dedicate more guys to the box. This Niners defense, you know, like you had mentioned, it's banged up. I mean, they got to the point last week, they were playing linebackers that I had to Google because I was just like, wait a minute, what? Like, I haven't seen this guy on the field in weeks prior. So I kind of think that they probably should try to lean on the run game again. And then if it doesn't work, you know, you move from there.

So I love the idea. I think every fan loves the idea of jumping all over a team and blowing them out. I don't feel as confident about the idea, even though you have, you know, an explosive passing attack when it's at its best, which, by the way, kind of hasn't been for a little bit now. Yeah. How big a loss is George Kittle for the Niners? You know, it would be bigger if they hadn't spent multiple stretches

without him in the regular season. And that's not to diminish his value to the team. He's obviously still George Kittle. But, you know, when they lost to me as the Eagles last week, I was like, you know what? For all the teams that this would devastate in a game like this, the Niners are probably the last team to be devastated by it because they just had to go through a good portion of the season

without him due to a hamstring injury. He missed some other time later. Like, we all got real familiar with Jake Tungis this year. Yeah. Back in week one, including Seattle, nobody even... And in Seattle and the NFL anywhere knew who Jake Tunges was until he caught that path in the end zone to win that game.

Now we all know very well who he is because the neighbors have been forced to introduce him to the rest of the NFL world. So I think that they'll be able to handle it better than the average team, but I mean, it's still losing George Kettle. Yeah. We're speaking to Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Bills at Broncos to kick things off. Should we be a little bit more concerned with the number of receivers that the Buffalo bills have lost in recent weeks, including two to torn ACLs last Sunday against the Jaguars.

Their receiving unit is super thin right now to the point where Brandon Cook, so I think he's played on every NFL team right now, is a very, very important member of that receiving crew. Yeah, that's a fun little trivia question, is how many teams is Brandon Cooks played for? I can think about the Patriots, the Rams, the Saints, we can continue to do it on the list. We're now in Buffalo.

Yeah, we should absolutely be concerned. You know, it was one thing when they lost. lost Dave Davis injury, right? And you look at the rest of the group and you think, okay, well, you got cooks, you got Coleman, you got Shakir, you got

I don't know, you can go with Shavers. You know, he's that kind of guy that has kind of ascended a little bit this year and proven to be reliable in key spots. And then the next day you got Shavers on an ACL TIR that he played through the entire second half and you're like, well, where do you turn from here?

And what's funny is if, you know, I had to do a quick scan of the bill's death charges. I'm trying to formulate my thoughts for this the other day. And the bills have an entire section of their wide receiver death chart on their official team's site. And it's just the guys that are hurt. I was like, oh, look, they organize them nicely. It's just the guys that are injured. And I'm like, okay, now let's go find your practice squad because I know Nicole Hardman's on this team,

but he's already bounced up and down a couple of times from practice squad to active roster. Yeah, we should definitely be concerned. This is not the best Bill's team in the last five years. In fact, I would venture to argue that this may be the worst, but they do not have the same boogeymen in front of them, and they have Josh Allen at the peak of his powers. Even though Josh Allen is banged up more this year than he typically is, we learned in that game against Jacksonville,

he'll still find a way to get it done in crunch time, and that's what makes them scary. So, yeah, I'm concerned about what they have at receiver, but the three that they have left, I'm relatively confident in. Cook, Shakir, and Keon Coleman, if they use Keon Coleman, right, which they tend to not do. And they have one of the best running backs, if not the best running back in football and James Cook. They're going to be fine, and they're really going to be fine because of the guy we're in 17 behind center.

Okay, let's go to the Sunday games here, Houston and New England. Nobody, including us, really spent much time talking about how awful C.J. Stroud was in that win over Pittsburgh to open the playoff round because it didn't, need to be. It was not really an issue, at least on that Monday nighter. I know you wrote what we learned for that Monday night game. So as we go into a game where it's going to be decidedly more difficult for the Houston Texans and C.J. Stroud, what's going on with the Texan signal caller here because it was not good against the Steelers? Yeah, I was going to say, hey, now, I pointed out that that was something that they very much had to overcome. Because any other game, or maybe with any other defense that isn't as an elite of the Texas defense,

They lose that game and C.J. Strides, the scapego goes going into the off season. I mean, the guy accounted for five fumbles. He became the second player in NFL history. Playoffs, regular season, doesn't matter when, to account for five fumbles in a game and win. He joined Eli Manning. I don't know, this is burned to my brain now because I've had to say this a number of times. Week 16 of the 2007 season was the only other time somebody has fumbled five plus times and won the game. Yeah.

So, yeah, this is something that they cannot afford to repeat. obviously. What I was really concerned about more than anything was just how he struggled with pressure. Pressure that didn't even exist sometimes. I'm not talking just past rushing pressure, the pressure of the playoffs. This is a kid who's played in a number of playoff games to start his career. It's been, this is going to be a sixth one. And he's performed largely well. He's been the steady, you know, kind of calming force of this offense in previous years. He gets to Pittsburgh and it's like, suddenly he's completely lost trust in his offensive line, which I kind of understand given what happened to him last year and how they're better this year but they're not the

best. And he's just making strange decisions where he won't give up on a play. It's like the nerves of the playoffs got to him. And it wasn't until like, I think mid to late third quarter, he finally took a sack, like accepted I'm going to take this sack. And I was like, okay, that's you again. That's who you were before. That's who you can be.

And you need to learn how to protect the football because he accounted for so many turnovers. Like you get stripped sack twice when you're trying to throw the ball. way. You throw a pick that you'd never needed a throw that was late in the red zone that cost you a scoring opportunity. Until that defense broke it open in the fourth quarter, the Steelers were in a game they didn't belong

in because of the opposing quarterback. The Texans can't afford that this week. They simply cannot afford that against a better offense in New England or else they will lose this game. It is unfair to put too much on the defense by putting them in tough spots like Stroud did last week. So I don't know necessarily what's going

on with him other than I think the Menthol played a huge part in his performance in that game. And hopefully he's gotten the first round jitters out of the way and can settle in against the Patriots this weekend. Okay, and the night game on Sunday, it's the L.A. Rams at Chicago, and I emphasize the at Chicago, because the weather in this one is supposed to be miserable.

We're talking wind chills of zero to minus 10 Fahrenheit, 20 to 30 mile an hour winds. They're supposed to be snow. Is all this stuff going to potentially, neuter or neutralize the Rams passing game? Yeah, I fear that it might. You know, the windy city is, you know, didn't earn that name for nothing. And, you know, you kind of seen how it's the elements have already affected, you know, the ball travel.

I think about even the Philly game against San Francisco last week. The ball was kind of getting pushed all over the field because of wind gusts there, too. I am not too far away from Chicago currently. It snowed yesterday for more than 12 hours straight. here. And so I'm telling you, it is cold, it is windy, it snowed, and it drifted so hard that it put a, like, a wall of snow in my driveway. If the wind is anything like that in Chicago this weekend, it's going to be difficult for Matthew Stafford and the Rams. It reminds me of what they encountered in Philly last year, where their season ended when it was snowy and made for, you know, great photos and video and everything, but also contributed to the fact that the Rams weren't able to, you know, overcome a, a really great Eagles defense.

The thing that's working in the Rams favor, though, is that the Bears defense is one whose success is predicated on takeaways, which sounds right. You know, that's, I mean, that's standard in football regardless of who you are, but this Bears defense especially has hung their hat on forcing takeaways. That's why the win over the Packers was so rare. They didn't force any takeaways in that game yet. They still managed to find a way to win. The Rams are equipped to make them pay for this, but I just don't have the full confidence

in them because they haven't quite look like who they've made. more for most of the season over the last, you know, four or five weeks. And you add in the elements, you add in the cold, it becomes much more difficult against a team that is riding an incredible wave of momentum. And it's very thrilled to be there and their fans are going to be full throat from the first, you know, from the opening kickoff. So, yeah, this is the road game that I think is going to be the most difficult for any of these teams remaining in the divisional round.

And yet I am so fascinated to see how it plays out. Okay, Nick, that was great, buddy. Thank you very much for taking the time. to do this, we really appreciate it. I don't need to tell you to enjoy these games this weekend. I know that you will, but enjoy them anyway. You know what? Let's have a good time with this. I hope that when we do this next Friday, we're previewing specifically an NFC championship that involves the Seattle Seahawks. Thanks again for this, bud. Hey man, one extra, have a good day. It never hurts anybody, so I will. Thanks for having me guys.

Thanks, man. Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Okay, it's Ask Us Anything Friday. It is. And the listeners might need to bear with me on this one for you, because it's about soccer and it's about European football. And I need Halford to answer some questions because it also relates to England at the World Cup. All right. Okay. All right. So what just happened at Real Madrid with Zabi Alonzo?

And because did you see Jude Bellingham just recently came out and said, I had nothing to do with that because there was, there had been talk that maybe he was responsible for whatever. happening with rail? There's a situation ongoing at rail with all of the massive global megastars that they have in their employ. Killingame, uh, Vinny, Jude Bellingham,

take your pick. There's very high profile stars there. And it's been said that it's the toughest managerial job in the world because oftentimes these players are so big and so powerful and so talented that they don't necessarily listen to the manager. And Jabby Alonzo came aboard. as a very accomplished player and a very accomplished manager, to the point where many thought that he's one of the few

that could adequately fill this role. Okay. Lasted like seven months. Right. Like it just didn't work out. There was some, you know, if you really look at these like clips that were surfacing on social media about Mbopé kind of blowing off his gaffer's direction.

And there have been many, many anecdotes about players just, quite frankly, not respecting the coach. Okay. Which brings us to England, who have a German manager now by the name of Thomas Tuchel. Yes.

And he does not seem to care for Jude Bellingham. And he does not seem to care for his attitude. But Jude Bellingham, I think most people can agree, is England's most talented player. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. And Tuchel recently came out with some comments about,

and don't forget this, English is a second language, so it sounds a little weird. But he said, it will be very important that we don't select just for talent, but also for what we need from a player. What the social skills are of a player, is he a good teammate? Can he support if his role is maybe the supporting role?

So this is where the focus is. Now, Thomas Tuchel has left Jude Bellingham off England squads. And he also had some words for Jude Bellingham. when Bellingham was substituted out of a qualifying game and kind of threw his hands up in the air and was upset. And Tuchel didn't like that. Is there a possibility that Tuchel leaves Jude Bellingham off this squad? No. No.

No. Okay. But it'll be very curious to see the deployment at the World Cup. And I think the big one is going to be the substitutions. If things aren't going well in a particular match for England and it's Bellingham, that's one that's taken off, because that was the sort of the spark that lit the fire originally, like you alluded to.

But he won't do it. He won't go that far. Now, I do think it's relevant to a lot of the things we talk about, right? You know, for example, the Seahawks trading D.K. Metcalfe, and a lot of people thought, well, you're losing a lot of talent there. Well, the Seahawks are currently the favorites to win the Super Bowl. And of course, we've had a conversation. with the Canucks about character and even if someone's talented, does that make them a good teammate?

What's best for the team? I think you can agree with me in saying that this is one of the biggest stories to monitor heading into the World Cup. Yeah, because two, I mean, here's the thing. Tugel's short for this job anyway. Like, he took a short-term contract and he's very much in a prove-it mode. Like, if you win, maybe extended, and if you win, you'll see. cement your legacy. But it's very immediate that the sole purpose

for him being hired wasn't to guide this program for years it was to take them to the 2026 World Cup and win it. And win it. Yeah. In those moments where it's like you have one match to decide everything. If he decides that it's not going the way that he wants and

Bellingham's a reason for it, he could do something wild. So they've got a couple guys that could play the 10 position where Bellingham plays. Yeah. Cole Palmer but he's been hurt for a while. Morgan Rogers, who's been unbelievable at Villa, you could make a move of that magnitude and still have a really good player in that spot.

Yeah. Now, no one's quite got the talent level of Belling, I don't think anyway, but in a particular match, sometimes it's not about the talent, it's what are you doing in that exact moment? I think Tucco really does believe in this stuff about, you know, and I think there's a good reason to believe in it, in team chemistry.

Yep. He has a very short fuse when it comes to anyone acting out against the team. And he's had some quotes that, you know, Jude Bellingham needs to listen to what I say. He can be a very, very, very effective manager in small doses. So he's made his reputation on what he's been able to do in Champions League, including winning it with Chelsea back in 2020.

He has a short fuse and he makes very sort of brash and bold decisions. Brace of decisions. Which in the moment gets success, but they often linger and that's why he doesn't last at these jobs for too long. It's like he's kind of, he'll burn a bridge

to get somewhere. But then when it comes to, that seems to be every soccer manager. Some have a better way of dealing with the high profile guys. But oftentimes it's either a manager that's got a huge reputation or it's a guy like,

I mean, the two guys that they said, the only guys that could ever manage Real were Zadan and Ancelotti. Yes, they're different caliber of guys. And I think there's some merit to that. Now the problem if you're real

is that there's only two of those guys and there's not a, you know, they thought Jabby Alonzo could be it and prove not to be. It's the, you know, the international footballing world, it's so different in terms of managerial stuff, but in a lot of ways it's the same because you're dealing with a lot of egos

and a lot of personalities and you have to try and make the mash. You have to appreciate and respect your star players, but they also have to play within a team context. And that's a difficult thing for any manager to try and massage and manipulate. And then you add all the pressure and the expectations to that.

Well, and then throw on the fact that Tugel's a German coaching England. Yeah. Which that dynamic just hangs over everything. There's a lot of people in England that wouldn't mind seeing him fail because it would be a validation that you need an English manager. I think there's a lot of people in England that wouldn't mind seeing Jude Bellingham fail. Well, there's that too, right? And it all kind of plays into it.

But what a diverse sporting segment of the show that was. We went from the National Football League to England's selection. at the upcoming World Cup. We got so much more to get into on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Hour 1 is in the books, hour 2 is on the horizon.

AJ from A.J's pizza is going to join us on the other side. Dan Rosen from NHL.com is going to join us at 730. After AJ, we will have something of an open segment. So if you want to fire your ask us anything's in, go ahead. Hashtag him, A.U.A. Put a pizza emoji into your text. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650.

Throw them in. You get a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza. on East Broadway. That goes to the best. Ask us anything. Finally, one more thing before we go to break. I do need to remind you that the Nick Shook segment here on the Halfford and Brough show on SportsNet 650 that just happened. Brought to you by the Clayton Public House.

Pre-game to post game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football. Be sure to get your reservations in now for the big football party hosted by SportsNet 650. The Clayton Public House. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. For more information, visit them online at the Clayton Pub.

com. You're listening to the Halford and off show on Sportsnet 650.