Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will The Sabres Escape The Sad Club Before The Canucks?

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason look back at an exciting weekend of NHL playoff action that saw the Buffalo Sabres winning game one of their round one series versus the Bruins (3:00), they talk game one of Sens vs. Carolina with Coming In Hot Podcast host & Ottawa Senators analyst Brent Wallace (11:15), plus the boys get the listeners thoughts regarding the season ending press conferences held by the Canucks this past Friday (23:59). 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.

a Monday, Monday, everybody. Happy 420, everybody. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Halford and Brough the morning is brought to you

by Sands and Associates. They're open seven days a week and they're open late to help you get debt-free. With no judgment or no upfront fees, visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are now an hour two of the program.

Hour 2 is brought to by Jason hominuck at Jason. dot mortgage. If you love giving the banks more your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage. for you. Visit them online at Jason. Dow Mortgage.

Really enjoying this fake Prince music. Laddie. It's called Fritz. What did you actually Google up to find this music? I just searched cheesy 80s. Cheesy 80s. I have to go down the list pretty far. Oh, yeah. Sounds good. Let's go wild. I don't know. Let's go crazy.

I get it. It's go mild. I understood that reference. Okay. Yeah. Sometimes I don't know with you with the 80s stuff. It's a party like it's 1998. You know what? I watched over the weekend. Speaking of the 80s, I watched Police Academy. It was on TV. Mixing it up a little a.

And I was like, I'm going to watch this. And I'm watching it. I was like, Little Jason did not understand all these racist jokes. Yeah. Jokes. Why that stuff didn't age well? What do you think I take you all those Police Academy movies for? For fun? I didn't hear anybody laughing.

Police Academy was awesome. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech. Guests on SportsNet 650 call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline email sales at

A-B-L-E auctions.ca to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. Okay, quick reset here about what's coming up. Brent Wallace is going to join us out of Ottawa in about 10 minutes time. We'll talk about Ottawa's 2-0 loss to Carolina in the opening game of that series.

Game 2 goes tonight at 430. If you want to weigh in on anything Canucks-related, what you heard from Jim Rutherford during his media availability on Friday. Well, we went over in the first half hour of the program, the five most telling clips, if you want us to play something else.

We didn't really get into the coaching stuff. I know Andy was alluding to it, but we didn't get into a lot of things because there was a lot to unpack and a lot to digest. If you want to weigh in or you want to get your text read, we'll have an open segment at 7.30. Sat's going to join us at 8, and then we're going to do what we learns at 8.30.

Dunbar Lumber text message in basket is 650, 650. so be sure to get them in. We'll read you what we learns, obviously, in 8.30, yada, all that stuff. I do want to get in some of the other playoff results from the weekend. Laddie, we got the Samuelson audio ready. Okay, I want to start with what happened in Buffalo over the weekend. Sabers, unreal comeback at home after falling behind 2-0 to Boston. It wasn't looking great for the Sabres, but a big rally in the third period, punctuated by this goal.

We'll play the audio now from Mattia Samuelson. Listen, not just to the call, not just to the goal, but importantly, the pop from the fans in Buffalo. Here's what it sounded like. The eventual game tying goal, but the go-ahead goal, Matthias Samuelson. Game one, Sabers win, 4-3. A cloud carries up ice and tosses in. That breaks on the back end for Hamas Little to get a handoff. Here's a pass, Samuelson.

So you actually heard in the clip that they were playing the end of the, Alex Tuck announcement for his goal. And that's because the Sabre scored three. Tate's Thompson's goal, but Alex Tuck had an assist. They scored three goals in a four minute and 34 second span. And then you heard the call. He said absolute madness because it was Bedlam in the arena in Buffalo. Awesome crowd.

It was unbelievable. That game epitomized the Saber season because it looked at the beginning of the game. It was just going to be like, oh, another disappointment. for Buffalo fans. And then after the second period, they refired Kevin Adams. And then the third period saw the magic of

the Buffalo Sabres this season. And I just can't imagine what it would have been like to be in Buffalo yesterday, which is not something you ever say in a positive way. You're like, most of the time you're like, you look at the weather or something.

You're like, man, I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be in Buffalo. yesterday. Just awful. But is there any arena in the NHL that fans would have wanted to have been a part of more than that

game, especially the end of the game? Did you see the crowd shots outside? Like, they had a big watch party for game one of the playoffs and guys were going crazy out there. It looked like so much fun. I'm going to try and say this with some tact. I will fail. But when you live in a

city like Buffalo, there's a reason that they're so rabid about their sports teams, right? There's a lot of reasons to want to be distracted. Oh, we got! By the local sport. Yeah, there's a reason that they're, you know, jumping through tables at Bills games

and they are, and granted, yesterday had the energy of a 15-year wait for a playoff game. April 16th, 2011 was the last time they played a playoff game. So it was 15 long years. They also have so many people like, you know, looking down their nose at them. Not just for their city, but also, like, for their sports teams.

Sure. You know, the Buffalo Bills lost four straight Super Bowls. The Buffalo Sabres have never won the Stanley Cup. And people look at them. They're like, you get the teams that you deserve because you're Buffalo, right? So when Buffalo can have some sporting success and come back on a win a game like that against kind of like a sports royalty. city like Boston. Yeah. That means a lot.

It's sort of an unparalleled sports energy because of the dynamic of the city and the losing and the way that they've lost. And when you get a collective, and I'm not talking about hockey, but like a collective sports market that always feels like it's been punched down on and they just want the team to thrive. It makes for a special thing. Now, here's the scary part. There is a lot of very good vibes going on.

in Buffalo right now with this hockey team. I've officially adopted them. I don't know where you ended up landing on that when we tried to do the adoption papers last year. I've got Montreal. Yeah, so I've got Buffalo. I'm cheering for Buffalo for sure. A couple of people were asking me yesterday, like,

are you worried about them winning Stanley Cup? And my knee-jerk answer was no. Like, I think that they're probably a ways away. If they win the Stanley Cup and the Canucks are the only team left in the sad club, I actually got this question on social media, so be it. Yeah. Like, wouldn't that be the saddest thing of all? I mean, that would be

the Vancouver Canucks alone in the sad club at the very least until maybe San Jose or Ottawa joins them in a couple of years. So we said that on Friday, it'd be hilarious. The other really, very, very funny. It would be very appropriate if all these teams in the recent years

can escape the sad club, whether it's the capitals, the blues, the kings, I mean, a lot of them left. And the Canucks and the Sabres are still there, The Sabres, they have the type of team that I think could do it. So the other reason I'm talking about the vibes out of Buffalo,

Rick Generate, their longtime famous play-by-playman who passed away, they brought his wife out yesterday, she bangs the drum before the game, and then they go out and do something, and you want to talk about like the stars and the moons, the lining and all the cosmic energy, the last time the Sabers had a multi-goal comeback in the third period of the playoffs was in 1993 with the Brad May May Day goal.

Maybe Rick Jenneret's most famous call ever. Was that Ray Bork, he put that incredible move on to? Yes. There were two incredible moves because with one hand, Brad May drew the puck between Ray Bork's legs and then made a great move to score the actual goal. Yeah. And they were like, is that Brad May doing that?

It was, that's why I think it reached. I guess Ray Bork, no less. in retelling it. I think the story goes, the general was he kind of ran out. He didn't know what to say because you weren't expecting Brad May to do it. Just how you got that now iconic Mayday, Mayday call. But anyway, great game in Buffalo yesterday. Sunday was awesome. Sunday was some really good action. I don't want to like dump on the Saturday action, but I wasn't super enthralled with the Ottawa Carolina game, although the start was great with Kachuk fighting stall right off the hop.

that was pretty good. Philly, that was a pretty solid road effort in Pittsburgh. Yep. And the Travis Sanheim, Sidney Crosby rivalry kicked off in a major way and Sanham had a great game.

He was really good for Philly in that one. He scored the go-ahead goal in the third period. So Philly... Another big goal for Porter Martone. Yeah. That was a nice shot. Philly beat Pittsburgh 3-2 to wrestle home ice advantage way early in that one.

Just 17 shots on goal for Pittsburgh. Rick, talk at hockey, baby. It was not a great performance from the Penguins. Honestly. Only 20 for the Flyers. the most shocking result for me of the entire weekend was Minnesota absolutely pounding Dallas 6-1 I didn't watch any of that game did you see any of it yeah they were it was well the odds your story was a big one because obviously you get pulled from a start and you I mean the ghosts of

like peter debaura references and everything coming up I mean here's the thing boldie was all over the place erics and eck was phenomenal both of them finished with two goals and an assist it just looked really easy for Minnesota, which I mean, everyone, we've been talking about that series for months because it's been penciled in. And everyone thought that this was going to be tooth and nail

so little between the two teams. I don't, sorry? Oh, yeah. Sorry. Andy decided to interrupt mid-sentence there. Yeah, so you had a complete blow out there. You had the abs in a narrow one. That also wasn't the most exciting game on the planet.

Either two won over the Kings. And then, course, as mentioned, we had the Ottawa game. So we'll go now to Ottawa. Our next guest joins us now on the program. Host of the Coming in Hot podcast, Sends podcast, out of Ottawa. Brent Wallace joins us now on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

Morning, Brent. How are you? Good morning, gentlemen. I'm fantastic. How are you? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this as always. We appreciate it. So I watched the game, and we were talking about it before we got you on here. Amazing start with Kachuk and Stahl deciding let's kick this thing off in style, scrap right off the hop. Then it kind of settled

in. Not a ton of shots generated, which you come to expect from any game involving the Carolina Hurricanes. They do a good job of shot suppression. So does Ottawa. Yeah, just 22 shots on goal for the Sands, no goals. What were your takeaways first before what we got to correct

going into game too? Yeah, I mean, great point. In both teams, in fact, I think are two of the top three teams in the league when it comes to shots against. They just give you nothing. It's just a smothering game of hockey, which if there's a couple of scoring chances, you to live with. It doesn't always tend to lead to exciting hockey.

I thought game one was fairly good, just that you didn't know what to expect. There was a little bit of momentum off the fight at the beginning as you guys talked about. Listen, the Carolina Hurricanes won 53 games. They're the second team in the NHL. They didn't just win by fluke. It's going to be a hard game for Ottawa in this series, but they're not infallible. I think if Ottawa could find a way to generate some space on the ice, they're going to have a little bit better chance.

They didn't do them run. Yeah, you know, it was interesting because I think like halfway through the second period, it was still a single shot total on the board. And, you know, the guys calling the game, we're saying there's just not a lot of space out there. I guess it's easier said than done, but which players in particular need to do a better job of either finding that space or finding a way to generate more? Because as we said, like, it wasn't necessarily just the shutout. It was just the 22 shots on Freddie Anderson.

Yeah. And the funny part is Carolina didn't have a shot on goal for the first like 13 minutes in Ottawa. at four. Like, it just, and then it just turned around. When Carolina turned the game up, it, it became really hard for Ottawa. Tim Stoctaw is obviously going to be a factor when he's the best player. He's got to find a way. And I thought, really, both their tops of two lines need to find a better way to generate.

I didn't think there are guys down the middle of the ice, Pinto, Dylan Cousins, or Tim Stutz that had great games. And Stutzler referred to it yesterday when we spoke to him. It was like, I've got to find a way to hold on to the puck a little bit more and make more plays. and find a way to generate some space on the ice. It is suffocating when every time you turn around is one of suit Carolina hurricanes in your face, but they know they've got to find a way to hold on to the puck at the same time and see if they can create some offense.

How big a loss is Artem Zube if you can't come back for you too? Yeah, it's not just the fact that's Artem Zube, it's the fact that he's one of their top penalty killers, he's one of their shutdown guys, and they're not deep on that side. They've been dealing with injuries on the blue line all year. I think they've used 13 different defensemen. Artem Zube is a big part of that.

Like we saw at the end of that game last night, three guys played over 26 minutes, Spence, Sanderson, and Shabbat. There was no player or no defenseman on Carolina that played over 21 and a half minutes. They just roll all 60. Ottawa can't do that. Dennis Gilbert played seven minutes that game. They just need another guy in that blue line. Right now they don't have it.

may end up being their Achilles heel right now if they can't find a way to figure out how to get four guys playing right now. How does Thomas Shabbat look to you? I mean, people didn't think that he'd be playing yet, but he is at their displaying

despite the, was it the broken arm? Yeah, so it's not his wrist, it's his arm, it's screws and plates in it. I don't, like, if that's me, I'm probably balled up in the corner for the next six months. Yeah. Right? Like a normal person, you're just like, like, for him, it's like 17 days later, he's playing.

And we're like, we don't understand. Yesterday, like, there's no rap on it. Like, I know he plays with one during the game, but just standing around, like, it's just a bare arm. And so I don't know how he's doing it. I don't know if it's a bionic arm. I don't understand. But, like, he still played 26 minutes. Like, he doesn't shy away from contact.

They are targeting him as one of their main guys to, you know, they're looking, trying to put pressure on all the D. But, like, he was bumped a lot in game. one and he still will be. But he said he doesn't mind it. I just wish he'd stop taking big hits because right now it's not ideal for him. How crazy has this season been for you to cover the Ottawa senators? It's up there. And there's been a few.

But it just never, like it seemed to be always something. Even right off the top, like they had a bad start. Three games in, they lose Brady to Chuck for 20 games. Their bullpenning is historically retrocious. That's just the beginning of the season. it has been a long year. I'd probably put it in with the top three or four most interesting years I've ever seen covering the Sends.

And I've done this. This is like year 25. What's at stake for the Sends in this series? Like let's, I mean, they're the underdogs in this series. Let's say they don't manage to upset Carolina. Are you going to head into the offseason with Brady Kachuk rumors, Lina's Allmark rumors? Like, what do you expect to happen?

Oh, great question. So Brady has two years on his deal left. I don't know. Like the rumors I think are always going to be there regardless. Linus Almarch, I think that's probably settled down a little. Now, maybe not, but I think for the most part, he's just entering year one of his four-year extension at 8.25. Like, I think he's a, I think that won't be a big deal. But there's going to have to be some discussions about backup or something.

They need help on the blue line. They need a top six if they're not going to make significant changes. But I think maybe, as you've seen it with all teams, if you don't start to win, you've got to figure out the right recipe. And it may not be the group they have here. You mentioned Allmark. What did you think of him in game one? I thought he was fine.

I know Freddie Anderson got the shut up, but I don't think he had to do a whole lot. I thought Linus Allmark was the better goalie of the two for sure. The first goal is weird to me. Should he have had it probably, but it's still an odd. goal. The second one, that gets by, I mean, he loses track of it. I still thought he made some really key saves at key times. They kept them probably in this.

Like, Ottawa was within one shot of going in from tying this game for an extended period. They weren't out of this by any stretch. And so I thought Linus Almark was their best player for sure. There was a moment on the weekend. They panned over to Travis Green. It was after the too many men on the ice penalty, which he did

not like. And then I think it was a trip on Sanderson, which put him down five on three. And you can see the classic Greener like muttering under his breath but not hiding every F-bomb, every second word. This year... You just make a thought here.

You guys know, Travis Green is a huge poker player. He loves to play poker. He has the worst poker face of any coach in the national hockey league. He does not... He does a really good job of not losing his cool, but also letting the refs know how pissed off he is.

Because he's very... He's like a demonstrative under the radar swearer. I don't think he likes his hand. He is an instant gift mission. to me. He's a mean guy for sure. What can you say about the job that he's done this year under, like we were talking about it all, the controversy

and everything else that's kind of embroiled the team this season? So I know like I'm obviously biased because I see this team every day, but I still think he should be considered as a finalist. Not win it, but finalists approach to the year. This team by the since January 25th

is I think six overall in the league in points percentage. And with average goal tend them, it has done a really good job with a ton of injuries and without very good goaletting and a penalty kill that was at the beginning of the season. The fact that they're even in this conversation says a lot of what he's been able to do and how he's been able to find the right people to put in place. I think he's done a remarkable job. And if you go back to even last year at November, I think November 25th,

I think there's six overall in the entire national hockey leagues in points percentage of women, somewhere in that area. It's amazing how if you have a really good goal tender or you can do in the national hockey. I know you mentioned Stoosla and he's going to be a big part of this. I wonder how much debate in Ottawa there is about whether or not he's the type of one C that you can have on a Stanley Cup winning team.

It's almost like the debate you have about, you know, a quarterback in the NFL is like he's a good quarterback but is he a Super Bowl quarterback? Do you guys have that debate? lot and what do people generally think? And we kind of compare it to Jason Spetsa. Jason Spets up points for game player, number one center in Ottawa. Like, probably 650 games nearly and was a 650 point player.

Like, everybody thought that they weren't sure if he could get the job done as the number one center leading Ottawa. Now, he didn't take him to a cup final, but they weren't able to win it. And people kind of compare that to Tim Stutz's a great offensive numbers. Great talent. Like, skill level is off the charge. Can you do it? I'm not sure. I think so. The interesting part is if I told you who led the Sends and hits last year in the Toronto series

in round one, you're not going to say Tim Scudeload. But he had nine hits in game one and led them and hits throughout the series. Like he is a gamer, ultimate competitor. I think he's just coming into his own as a player at his age. I think he'll be fine as the number one center. It may not be at the time right now. I still think he is a superstar player at some point in this league. game two of the series goes tonight 4.30 our time sends look to wrestle home ice advantage away from the Cains in Carolina.

Brent, thanks for taking the time to do this today, man. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight. Thanks, guys. Chat soon. Yep. Talk soon. That's Brent Wallace from the coming in hot podcast out of Ottawa here on the Alford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.

Okay, we've got a couple segments that have been left pretty much just for the listeners, our usual what we learned in the third hour. but also the segment coming up next, I would love to hear from some listeners about what they heard on Friday from either Jim Rutherford or the players that were made available. We've got a lot of time to cover the playoffs. We've got two months, but we won't be having a show coming on the heels of a major Kinex Press conference probably in a while.

So let's spend the next. segment talking a bit more about Friday and what we heard. Or it can just be questions of, what do you think is going to happen with regards to the head coach? What's the timing on all the decisions that the Canucks are going to have to make? Anything that you want to discuss, we've got an open, we've got an open segment on the other side. So it's an opportunity for you to text into the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650, 650.

you're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about JanPro. Cleaner workplaces, start with consistent cleaning. JanPro helps businesses stay clean day after day. Start clean, stay clean. Visit them online at Janpro.com. 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. 732 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford, brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brother of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. They're ready to give you the financial fresh start you deserve. With no judgment or upfront fees, visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We're in hour two of the program, midway point of the show. We got an open segment ahead.

Hour two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominoch at jason. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around and find the perfect mortgage for you. visit them online at jason dot mortgage okay i want to play two more clips from jim rutherford's media availability on friday in case you somehow missed it on friday or over the weekend in the discourse that followed kinnucks president of hockey ops jim rutherford met with the media following the dismissal of general manager patrick alveen all this went down on friday it was a very busy friday in kinnuckland as you would expect there was a lot that rutherford got into one of the things we haven't really discussed yet is Adam Foote,

the head coach, both the job that he did his future in Vancouver and why they never dismissed him during what was a terrible season on the ice. We're going to start with the first clip. And this is Jim Rutherford on the future of Adam Foote. This is Rutherford again from Friday's media availability talking about the still employed Canucks head coach. It'll be the decision of the new GM as to what happens with the coaching staff, as to what happens with most things going forward.

I'm sure you guys have a bunch of questions, and you're going to hear the same answer over and over. The new GM is going to have a lot of responsibility and a lot of say and make those decisions. I'll try not to give you that answer too much, but that's the way the future is going to be here. So you'll notice in that answer, it wasn't really so much about Adam Foote

and more about Jim Rutherford explaining that it'll be the decision of the next general manager and suggesting that a lot of the decisions coming forward will be the decision solely of the incoming general manager. That didn't stop the Vancouver media, though. They later asked and got another answer for Rutherford. This is about why he didn't firefoot

or why they, they being him and Patrick Alvin, didn't fire Adam Foote at any point during the season, or following the end of the season. Because he may like the current coach. And I think respectfully, we should give our coach that chance. You know, we can talk about different things about what happened with the team.

But as long as I've been in this game, this coach has been dealt the hardest hand to deal with. And this is a very difficult year. So that's why I want to be, respectful and give both the new GM and the coach the chance to to see what they think of each other. You know, it kind of came out in the aftermath and we discussed this in the earlier part of the show, but I really do wonder, one, how big the rift was between Alvin and Foot with regards to how the team was being coached and the objectives and directives from above and foot taking

orders. And then two, how big a role that played in Alvin's dismissal? Because I think it's not really fair to suggest that the managerial moves that Alvin either made or didn't made led to entirely his dismissal? Because I mean, the most obvious answer would be like, well, did he really ever have the full autonomy to make moves? Yeah. And I or was he asked to do things that were almost impossible, like conjure up a good center, a good young center out of nothing, but don't trade away the future.

Exactly. So it kind of brings, so it kind of brings my attention back to the coaching conversation. And I understand where Rutherford's coming from with, well, we'll give our new general manager the opportunity to make that decision, right?

Yeah, he might like the coach. He might. And sometimes new GMs are like, I'll just keep that bullet in my chamber. And I'll, I would push back a little bit on this being the hardest hand that a head coach has ever dealt in NHL history. I know, you know, Rutherford's kind of want to hyperbole, right? Remember the Pedersen Miller Rift was unlike anything he'd ever seen in his four plus decades in the national hockey league. I'm like, I bet there's some that were probably on par with it.

But for the purposes of, you know, making it dramatic and making a statement, I guess you kind of just go along with whatever Rutherford says. What would be the logic of keeping this coaching staff? Like what would did the selling point be? There's no selling point. You just give him the opportunity to prove himself to the new management group. So you can say at least he gave him a fighting chance, which I think was the inference here that they didn't give foot a fighting chance. He got hand,

he got dealt the toughest hand that a coach has ever been dealt. I'd love to hear what some of the players said in their exit interviews, especially the young defenseman about having Adam foot as a head coach. because the funny thing is, is that many of the mistakes the Canucks made were of the variety that Adam Foote was actually, you know, like he was excellent at boxing out.

He was excellent defensively. And the Canucks defensemen were not excellent defensively. And in theory, having a coach like Adam Foote should be great for these young defensemen, but only if he's able to communicate the message effectively and to the point where they're like, oh, okay, I get that. I will work on that.

There's a big difference between... I would love to hear what they said. There's a big difference between knowing what to do as a player and trying to explain it as a coach. Very different things, right? Some guys just know what to do instinctively or innately, and that's what made them great players. It's a lot more difficult

to try and coach guys. And you hear, normally this was reserved for, like, the elite, like high-end super-tebrate. talented guys. Like, it was always the line with Gretzky as a coach. It's like, well, why did Gretzky struggle as a coach? It's like, well, how are you going to teach anyone to do the things that you did? You were one of one, right?

It's also communication sometimes. It's just the way you communicate, the way you explain things. I mean, if you think about universities and some of the smart professors that are asked to explain to, you know, first year students, some of these topics, they're terrible at it. they're just not they're they're not good communicators doesn't mean their research isn't insane doesn't mean they're not really smart they're just not great at teaching um i wanted to read this question here cat's from andrew can we talk about evander cane for a quick second why wasn't he present with the rest of the players for end of the year media has this happened

with any other player. And is, and is it the most bizarre end to a Canucks player tenure given he also recently had the 1,000 game ceremonies after the team failed to trade him? That's Evander Cain. That's what you get with the Evander Cain experience. He was upset, I'm sure,

that he wasn't traded before the deadline. The Canucks tried. Nobody was interested in Evander Cain. They didn't want him. Wasn't good enough. His cap hit was too high. Maybe it wasn't worth the risk. I mean, it was, and I know it was low risk at that point. It was, I mean, if you want to talk about a somewhat fireable offense for Patrick Alvin,

Evander Cain would be up there. It was an absolutely desperate and silly move to bring in Evander Cain. Yep. He is, that, that's what he does, right? Like, he, he just, he wasn't an, he wasn't an awful distraction this season. Nope. We didn't hear any accounts of him being, you know, mean to other players or a real problem in the room, although there were problems in the room. But he's just, he isn't a team guy.

He's not. Like, he's all about Evander Cain. And as soon as he played his 1,000th game and then got the ceremony, you and I both talked, like, off the air. I bet we won't see a vendor cane at all anymore. And that's what happened. Look, I think when Andrew asked this question, why wasn't he present with the rest of the players? Like, he was kind of barely a connect anyway?

This entire season and his acquisition was predicated on, well, we're going to try and make a push to the playoffs. The moment that that died, and it was around the time of the Quinn Hughes trade, I think came to exactly what he had signed up for and then what he was signed up for. after that. I think he also thought he was going to be the hometown hero, you know, returning to Vancouver and everyone was going to love him. And then it was like, wait a minute,

not everyone loves me. And I am reading a lot of people there saying, I can't wait for this guy to be off my team. But just to play devil's advocate and, you know, the other side of this thing, he came to Vancouver, like a lot of guys this season, expecting something a lot different than how it turned out. I mean, I think you could put Adam Flint in this thing. I mean, I think you could put Adam foot in the same category. I don't know if it was hired to do something totally different than the one he ended up doing. Evander Kane was acquired. I think in a lot of ways, pie in the sky to do these things that you're talking about. And it fell apart really quickly around him. Yeah, around him. Like the team was awful within two months of him being on the ice. The time where he had

a chance to make an impact where the season still mattered, he didn't do it. And then afterwards, I could guarantee he wasn't going to do it. Because it was just, it was like, put a post the stamp on it. mail it in and let's just get out of here. Have you ever watched a player all season long and gone, like, more so with Evander Cain, like, this guy is not trying his hardest. I'm usually pretty careful when I say, like, these guys aren't trying, right? Because I think most guys are out there trying. Van der Cain didn't look like he was trying.

There was a couple of games where he'd be like, oh, look at him. He's more engaged. And it just happened to be right before the trade deadline. You know, a couple times where he was like, I better show something. A lot of scouts here tonight. He didn't make an impact on the ice. He didn't cause the chaos that he's supposed to cause. He was actually a perimeter player on the Canucks.

And some of the best plays that he made were just like passes from the perimeter and he would try all sorts of passes. Most of them would get picked off or, you know, go to nobody and they'd feed the rush on the way back. But once in a while, he would connect on a pass and you'd be like, oh, that was a pretty good pass. But he was by no means a power forward that, you know, caused chaos in front of the net or made it hard on the other team's defenseman.

He certainly didn't do a very good job of sticking up for his teammates. You know who it was down the stretch that was sticking up for teammates? guys like Teddy Bluger and Elias Pedersen you know Zeve Bouillon dropped the gloves Van der Kaine he was just a again he wasn't awful he was just there he was just there and it was uh you know and then when as soon as as soon as it all was like all right Evander um so you played your thousands game and now you've got your celebration and you're able to bring the family out he was like peace yeah uh Sid in Maple Ridge, hashtag

WWO, what we learned. We'll do them early today because reminder, we're going to be doing these at 830 as well. What I learned on Friday is how much this team was either one, in denial or two, trying to cover up how bad the culture really was. Well, we played the

clip earlier. Rutherford did peel back the curtain a little bit and let everybody know just how dysfunctional the room was. He did it in a way that suggested that that was also a thing of the past and with the new group, especially led around the young, exuberant rookies and second year players that there was a real energy and vibe in the room that they hadn't had prior. But the culture problems dogged this team this

season. You got to understand. You don't get to be as bad as the Canucks were this year, unless a lot of things go wrong on a lot of different levels. We're not talking about just a bad team by modern singular season NHL standards. This was an all-time, your minus 100 goal differential, your 20 points below the 31st place team in the NHL, rotten, awful, everyone's taking points off, you kind of team.

To do that, you have to have lousy results in every facet of the game. Your forwards can't score, your defenders can't defend, your goalies can't stop pucks, your coaches seem lost, and your culture stinks. You're not standing up for one another.

you're not building guys up, there's toxicity in a room, all of it has to go bad. And I don't know if I got a sense of denial on Friday. I think what I got was a team that maybe isn't fully leaning into, and I said this earlier, an organization that isn't fully leaning into or fully acknowledging what they have to go through in a rebuild, the patience that it takes, the down times that you're going to need. need to go through. It's not, you can't just write the season off as being a singular moment. The vibes might be higher, but

the results probably aren't going to be much higher. You're probably going to lose a lot more games than you're going to win next year. Yeah. To think otherwise is naive. It's blindingly optimistic. And to be honest, it's a tad insulting to fans that follow the rest of the NHL and understand

that there's a pretty standard course of action that goes with a rebuild. And it's years of suffering and it's years of losing and it's years of bad times. Okay, we've had a bunch of people texting in about Teddy Bluger's comments. Okay. I haven't actually, I haven't heard them. So let's just play the comments from Bluger.

They're about the Canucks culture and then we can discuss them afterwards. There's a lot that needs to change. I think there's a narrative around the team. It feels like just from the city in general is kind of like just mediocrity. And I think we can't be okay with that. I think we have to practically try to change that. And I think the biggest thing is just, um,

just, just the, I don't want to say culture, but the habits that we got to establish a value system that we all abide by. That's consistent. Um, we need certain behaviors that we exhibit every day. I think like Brock said,

we, we did have some of that. And we're, you know, I think we were getting to somewhere towards the end of the year. I mean, you saw, um,

even last night guys stepping up and fighting after a hit or whatever. happen and stepping in for each other. And I think that goes a long way. And I think that something like that's contagious. And that's a really good sign. I think, you know, we played some good games, even the games that we didn't win. There's a lot of things that were improving. They compete and the work ethic was more consistent. I think these, these kind of things, you know, it takes time. It's not going to happen overnight. And it's not going to be a smooth climb transition where it's just better every day. There's going to be ups. There's still going to be down. So you've got to make sure you're trending in the right direction. And it's hard.

It's hard finding that balance between always, you know, trying to push and push guys and without just being negative all the time either. And you've got to find a way to connect with guys at the same time. So it's a hard balance. It's not an easy transition, but you look at teams that have been successful, you know, like Marcus and I have been fortunate to come up in Pittsburgh and the culture and the values they have there. I mean, you know, obviously they're so lucky to have Sid. the standard he sets there, but the standards of your preparation, of your diligence, of your details and practice in every game are so high. And, you know, nothing less is really accepted. And I think that's kind of what we got to strive for here.

You know, during the season when we would talk about how we watched the Canucks, this team that we all love. But for the last couple of seasons have also hated. and the disdain that we watched them with and followed them with. And not everyone will agree with that, but a lot of people do. I bet Teddy Blugher would agree with a lot of it. Andrew and Langley texts in and says, Teddy Blugher's one-on-one with SAT was enlightening. And we're just about to talk to Sat about this so we can revisit this with

sat. But Andrew and Langley continues. He said Bluger, the team lacked basics to culture and professionalism citing players showing up with torn t-shirts and backwards ball caps to game day. Players

constantly being late to team meetings leaving messes around in the locker room and making staff clean up after them. It just seems like the team lacked basic decency. You know, leaving messes around in the locker room and making staff clean up after them, that's something that minor hockey coaches

have to deal with. Sure. Right? Like, we're just like, guys, you do not leave messes in the room. You know, your sock tape goes in the garbage. You know, there's a lot of messes that occur from hockey players after games. And especially when you go to a visiting rink, you clean up after yourselves. I know it's different in the NHL and there are people that, you know, do a little bit more.

than in minor hockey. But this is, it is. Andrew Langley nails it. It's like, it's basic decency and how you carry yourselves. And the Canucks have not met the standard of how they should be carrying themselves going forward. And if this team is going to be rebuilding and it wants the grace of the fans and it wants the understanding of the fans and it wants the fans to support them, they need to, at the very

least do the things that anyone can do. And that means basic decency. Be good in the community. Go the extra mile in the community. Get the fan base on your side. Win or lose? Because down the stretch, I think the fans were all pretty good to this team because they understood like, okay, they're in a rebuild.

And we all saw that the vibe was actually pretty positive at Roger Arena, considering they won like, I don't know, nine games there all season. Like that, that may not last, right? You know, there's only so much patience and the Konax, they really just like, be good people. You know, work hard, practice, you know, carry yourselves with some respect and don't act like everyone's out to get you because it's not true. Everyone wants you to succeed, but we are willing to call it out when you. you're not acting properly. Okay, so like not to belabor the point, but just to kind of put it in the

some people will hear this and be like, what is, like, are we really getting down to the minutia and the nitpicking of, you know, cleaning up in the locker room? The big picture thing is, some people will often say, well, culture is just this word that's thrown around. What does it actually mean? When you break it down to its constituent parts, these are the examples, these tiny little things of what a culture is. You know it when you see it, man. No, but there, you don't, you don't have to. No, I think you know a good culture when you see it and you know a bad culture when you see it and the Canucks have had a bad, bad culture.

But this minutia that we're talking about right now, these are the specific examples of what, and the very fine lines and margins separate good cultures from bad cultures. It is things like, how do you treat dressing room attendance? How do you carry yourself going to? The thing with, here's the thing with meetings.

The reason that a lot of NHL teams will issue such harsh punishments like a healthy scratch when a guy shows up late to a meeting is because they want to make sure that the standard is set but also there has to be a serious consequence for it. And what that means is

we don't say, hey, you get a one time get out of jail free card or ah, he's young, he'll learn. What they say is you're multi-million dollar athletes and there's a certain standard that we set here that other places don't have. So you don't get the luxury of being, able to show up five minutes late to a meeting.

If you do, the consequences are going to be harsh and the punishment's going to be severe and it's going to be public. When you keep that standard, everyone falls in line. When you let it slip, guess what? Everybody slips. Yeah. Would you say setting a good culture would be a smart decision? It would be a smart decision.

You know, my smart decision is, by the way, Adam Schefter has this out there on Twitter this morning. It sounds as though that the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots have re-intensified talks for AJ Brown's star wide receiver. I'm using that term loosely given this production in Philadelphia last year to go to New England. Apparently according to Schefter, conversations are expected to resume shortly or on before June 1st,

which is when some contractual stuff will be taken out of the equation and they'll be able to do this deal. As one source told Schefter, the Patriots pursuit of Brown will definitely be re-engaged on July 1. so this will give Drake May a viable number one receiver, but also get A.J. Brown out of Philadelphia, where it feels like it's been very tumultuous, dare I say, maybe an erosion of the culture in that team.

Yeah. Because he's always fussing and feuding on the sidelines, reading books and what have you. The team that won the Super Bowl a couple years ago. That's right, despite the fact that he seems constantly disgruntled. Was that one of the weirdest seasons ever for a defending Super Bowl champ? Where they kind of played well enough to win like 10 or 11 games, but you never felt like they were going to go back?

Yeah. And it kind of felt weird. So the smart decision obviously is if the Eagles partways and finally decide to move on from AJ Brown and send him to a pretty good landing spot in New England. It is your smart decision brought to you by Crow. your trusting accounting and tax advisors for over 55 years. Crow smart decisions lasting value. Learn more at Crowemakai.com. Two hours of the show in the books. One final hour to go. Satyar Shah is going to join us for some Canucks talk.

That's coming up next on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.