Halford & Brough in the Morning - Are The Seahawks For Real?

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk Week 7 NFL highlights, including big Seahawks win over Atlanta, with Too Deep Zone's Mike Tanier (2:07), plus they discuss the latest Canucks news ahead of tomorrow's road matchup in Chicago, including if they'll keep going with Brannstrom on the third D pair (27:00). 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.

7-0-1 on a Monday. Into the end zone by Hall. 7-0-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It's a happy song. Seahawks are 4-3. You're feeling good. Spence in Maple Ridge is not buying what the Seahawks are selling. He said they're fake news.

I haven't had a fake news shout out in a while. It's good. We're probably going to be getting a lot over the next few weeks. Yeah, probably. He said Buffalo will hammer them in Seattle next week. Fade them for the rest of

the year. I replied, you're probably right. I have no idea what to expect from them. I did not expect that. I did not expect that on the weekend.

The Falcons were terrible, by the way. Yeah. They took some bad penalties. Yeah, they weren't good. They beat themselves in a lot of ways. Yeah, I mean, the Seahawks are a very puzzling football team. Seahawks needed that.

Seahawks needed to face a team in disarray. They needed bad Kirk Cousins, and they got them. Mike Tanier is going to join us in just a moment here for some more NFL talk. Before we get to Mike, we need to take care of some business. Half an Inbrough in the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda,

North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.Mortgage. If you love

giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Just kidding. I'm being sarcastic. Let him do that. Visit him at Jason.Mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for?

Kintec. To the phone lines we go. He is our Monday morning quarterback. He has a presentation of the Clayton Public House. He is Mike Tanier here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael.

How are you? I'm doing great. You guys still want to trade DK? Oh, man. I knew that was going to happen the moment that we talked about trading DK Metcalf because he was going to have

one of those games. That's why we talked about it. Yeah. And the answer is, yeah, probably. Yeah, imagine what they could get for us. The price has never been higher. He looked great on the week.

He looked better than Devontae Adams did, I'll tell you that. We'll get to the Jets and the Steelers in a minute. I know that was Sunday Night Football and everyone was paying attention to it, but NFC, for me, game of the week, Lions and Vikings. Are the Lions now the best team in the NFC, even without Aiden hutchinson rushing the quarterback they are the best team in the nfc without aiden hutchinson rushing the quarterback they still need a pass rusher that is not a position of strength for them but when you

look at their offense their offensive balance their offensive line when you look at some of the emerging guys that are coming around in the secondary to help for the fact they don't have a pass rush. And when you look at just their way of winning games late, you know, they won the Rams game late in overtime. They won the Lions game, excuse me, the Vikings game late in the fourth quarter. This is a team that you don't want to face in the final two minutes because they're going to galvanize what they're doing. They're going to run the ball down your throat. They're going to make daring choices minutes because they're going to galvanize what they're doing, they're going to run the ball down your throat,

they're going to make daring choices, and they're going to find a way to manufacture those wins. What they've done with Jared Goff as their quarterback, who's a good quarterback, but obviously somewhat limited in what he can do, he looks phenomenal right now. And he doesn't throw incomplete passes. It's remarkable how efficient he is,

how efficient that offense is, and how fun it is to watch incomplete passes. It's remarkable how efficient he is, how efficient that offense is, and how fun it is to watch as well. It is, and again, I mean, Amon Ross St. Brown is a big part of that. The offensive coordinator is a big part of it. The offensive line is the biggest part of it, and I've been pointing people to Amon Ross St. Brown's touchdown yesterday where the Vikings rushed six defenders. They showed seven, but they rushed six.

Vikings have been getting pick sixes all year and sacks and goofiness and chaos when they rushed six. All six defenders got picked up. Goff had a completely clean pocket, and he throws a touchdown strike. Because, again, when you rush six and they don't get home, someone's going to get open. That's that offensive line. They're running game.

That's that offensive line, and it allows Goff to sit in the pocket, throw the ball where he wants to go, and be efficient. How did they build that offensive line? I know I'm putting you on the spot there, but as a Seahawks fan, I would like to know. They drafted Panay Sewell over Jamar Chase. If you remember that, that was a big deal. You know, that was probably a win-win.

You either had the great wide receiver, you had the great lineman. They chose the great lineman. They had Taylor Decker, who has been there for years. They have Frank Ragnall, who has been there for years. It's just been an investment, both an investment in some high draft picks. I'm pretty sure Decker was a first-round pick. And an investment in money that when these guys have gotten good, they have given them the contract extension right away.

You know, the money doesn't go elsewhere. It goes to the offensive line. So it takes time and it takes patience. Yeah, I know the Seahawks haven't had a really great line. I guess it was Walter Jones or whatever. But you have to start by getting those guys, and that requires a commitment, and that requires investments in some high draft picks.

How big a mistake did the New York Giants make in letting Saquon Barkley leave? Not just leave, but to go sign with the Eagles. It was funny. I joined a betting group where we all put one lock of the weekend and then we put a parlay together. And at the end of it, we all said, how did we miss the Saquon Barkley revenge game?

That was going to be the easiest lock of the lock of the weekend. It sure was because he and the Eagles pounded on the Giants on the weekend. He did, and he's like the least revenge-minded person on earth. If he hears interviews after the games, he's like, yeah, I love Daniel Jones. I love Coach. I love the Giants. But the Eagles needed him because the Eagles aren't doing a lot of other things

right right now, but they have a really good offensive line and can thump the ball. And I'll say this about the Giants. If they had Barkley, right now they're two and five. If they had Barkley, they'd probably still be two and five, but maybe with a few blowouts. I'm looking at the game. Maybe they could have squeaked past the commanders in week two and they'd be three and six or whatever. But the reason the Giants couldn't get the most out of Barkley is because their offensive line is always bad, and they lost left tackle Andrew Thomas.

They couldn't protect anybody yesterday. Their passing game is not really good because Daniel Jones they've been messing with for six years and isn't really much more than a bottom-wrong NFL starter. Jones was out there flailing around getting sacked, and Jalen Hurts didn't have a great game, but he threw a couple bombs and kept the defense honest. So the Giants missed Barkley, but if the Giants had Barkley, they wouldn't be much better because the Giants have problems a running back can't solve. What did you make of Brock Purdy's performance against the Kansas City Chiefs in a 28-18 loss for the Niners?

I can't fault Purdy because I've seen Purdy with every single weapon in the world. And then yesterday I saw him with zero weapons because Debo got hurt and Brandon Ioffe got seriously hurt and Ian McCaffrey's out, et cetera. So he's throwing the guys like Chris Conley and David Bell, who've been bouncing around NFL benches for years. I love to see Purdy with just normal guys because when Purdy has the great guys, he looks like a Hall of Famer, but he has nobody. He's throwing interceptions left and right. I have a feeling he's like an average to above-average quarterback,

but he's never in an average to above-average situation. The Rams have problems right now in that, you know, okay, Purdy, he's fine. He's not going to be Patrick Mahomes. He was never expected to be that. They've got these injuries. Defense is not playing as well as it should. And Kyle Shanahan doesn't look like the guy who is going to provide answers right now.

He's still kicking short field goals. It looks like the dominant personalities in that locker room kind of say and do what they want. It's a rough situation right now. That's good news for the Seahawks because as you watch that 49ers injury report mount up and you can see the tension in that room build,

Seahawks, especially the way they played yesterday, suddenly look like a team that could squeak away with a division crown if this continues in San Francisco. How surprised would you be if that actually happens, though? If it happens because Iook's out for the year and Jawan Jennings is hurt, et cetera, et cetera, I'd only be moderately surprised. The Niners get good news on the injury front, and again,

it looks like he's gone, so it'd have to be some of the other guys. And the Seahawks still pull it off. I'll be shocked because it's a testament to how many opportunities the 49ers left on the table while at the same time it usually should be a sign that the Seahawks pulled themselves together in the second half of the season.

So it was funny, last night in the Sunday Nighter early on, I was thinking, why did the Steelers make the quarterback change again? And then Russell Wilson actually made some throws last night. What did you think of his performance last night against the New York Jets? You know, we all had the same journey with Wilson because he looked washed up in the first quarter and midway through the second quarter. And he did one thing really, really well. He lofted sideline bombs to pick-ins, and then he had one to Furmouth as well.

And that's all the Steelers needed. And I think the Steelers look at their situation and say, our defense really is that great. It's been that great for years. We can run the ball kind of okay. We need two or three splash plays from our quarterback and no negative plays that's what we need and we can do this and that's what they got yesterday i have a funny feeling that in the weeks to come we might see fields again so again you look at wilson running you

look at wilson trying to distribute short passes it did not look good but it was enough last night and it looks like it got guys like pickens back on track where they were frustrated and they were not with the program. And if getting guys back on track was the goal, then Mike Tomlin accomplished it by starting Russell Wilson. Could they use both of them at the same time? Both of them not at the same time. You only play one quarterback, unfortunately. But in the same game? They could.

I mean, Justin Fields would probably be amenable to doing package stuff, like doing some short yardage stuff, etc. And, you know, that's something I know the Steelers talked about in the past with some of their other quarterbacks. Years ago, they used Michael Vick. They had Michael Vick on the bench, and they used him a little bit for that at times. So it's possible. I think it might be more

of a situation where I'm looking at the Steelers schedule, they get the Giants next week. It could be late in the season when they've got some tough opponents where they might be re-evaluating looking at russell wilson and say hey maybe he's come around maybe he's doing what he did you know in 2019 or whatever then we're keeping him if not we can get another joel by putting fields back out there and maybe he knows a little more of the offense when he comes back and you can scare opponents with their leg his legs late in the season when they might not be ready for it. With that defense, do the Steelers have Super Bowl aspirations,

or is the quarterback position just not good enough? It's the quarterback position. It's all the wide receivers except Pickens, and even Pickens is just kind of a one-dimensional bomb guy. It's the offensive line when you look at it. The entire offense has sort of a ceiling on it, and that ceiling looks like it's a ceiling that's below the Bills, who can be in the stratosphere when they're good,

the Ravens where plan lights out, the Chiefs who can't be denied. So they're rung below that. And that's the problem with the Steelers. They were rung below it last year and the year before that, and they were always a tough out, and they were always making the playoffs. I don't see that that's substantially different. They're coming off of a couple of very impressive wins, but when you really look at the nuts and bolts of the offense,

you say this is not sustainable. This is not something that's going to carry them when they need it to against an opponent like the Ravens. We're speaking to Mike Tanier, our NFL insider here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Do you have anything to say on the New York Jets at this point, at this stage? I don't even know.

Aaron Rodgers actually said yesterday, he said the energy felt flat. And I'm like, no, we saw it. We saw the game. 37-15 loss. Even with the addition of Devontae Adams in the lineup, I just feel like this is headed to a big-time disaster for the Jets, who have already made the coaching change. So they played that card.

They've already made the big trade to acquire Rodgers' old buddy. They played that card, and've already made the big trade to acquire Rogers's old buddy. They played that card and they're two and five. Yeah. I think it was Kyle Brandt on the NFL network. So, you know, we have to, we have to admit to ourselves,

they're not good. Like we have to, that this is just not a good football team. And, you know, I, I kind of grabbed that and I, I,

I embraced it. We look at the roster and then we look at sort of like the reputation around them and say, yeah, this should, this should be a Superbow Bowl contender because they have Aaron Rodgers, and Aaron Rodgers says so. And every week what we see on the field is a team that is not responding to pressure, not built logically, sort of built out of the whims of their quarterback,

that has a lot of big-name playmakers where if you look more carefully at them, you say, well, what does this guy really have left? Offensive line is not that strong. Defense is now two or three superstars, and a lot of guys who look like they're under a lot of pressure to perform. It's not a good team, and I don't know what they do next because all that's been happening is more and more pressure being applied to them. They're simply not up to that code. Kansas City, so 6-0, that's good.

Mahomes, six touchdowns and eight interceptions, that's not good. How much longer can they stay undefeated with him doing this? This is offense playing the way that they're playing. I don't know how long they can stay undefeated, and I don't know if that's the goal. The goal is how long can they stay in the Super Bowl conversation? The answer is until early February. You know, a lot of people are making a lot out of Patrick Mahomes' touchdowns and interceptions.

You know, we're ignoring things like, you know, rushing touchdowns. He had one yesterday, et cetera. You look at the results and you look at what he has to work with, and it becomes much more impressive what he's doing. He is having an MVP caliber season because he doesn't have very many guys to throw to. He has to manufacture offense. He has to manufacture drives, and he's been doing an outstanding job of it. You look at that Chiefs schedule.

You look at that division. This is a team. No, they're not going 17-0. They're probably going to go 14-3, and they're going to have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. And come the playoffs, they might have solved some of their injury problems at wide receiver and running back, gotten some guys back, and might be a different team than the one we're seeing right now. Are you looking at any teams with regards to the trade deadline, be sellers or buyers?

You know, there's a couple of guys out there. I mentioned Metcalf. I don't think he's really on the block, but there are players like Christian Kirk out there at wide receiver. There's edge rushers. Detroit Lions should grab a guy. You know, a lot of times at the trade deadline, there's an old pass rusher who's like 30 or 31. Zedarius Smith, for example, from the Browns, on a bad team,

and you can kind of like rent him for like six sacks down the stretch. Lions should do that. I think the Chiefs, I think the Browns, on a bad team, and you can kind of rent him for six sacks down the stretch. Lions should do that. I think the Chiefs, I think the Ravens, other teams that need a wide receiver at the top of the list are looking at what the Bills just did. They brought in Amari Cooper, gave them a touchdown, helped them in a game that they weren't playing super great in the first half. A lot of those teams are going to be looking at that and saying,

who's out there? DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Kirk, Greg Dortch. which of these guys can come in give us some catches and turn maybe one loss into a win down the stretch you mentioned the browns there where do they go from here deshaun watson looks like he's done for the season i don't know if he's done forever but uh that was a pretty ugly scene uh just with the browns fans cheering the injury too. It's bad news for the Cleveland Browns right now. It's bad news for the Cleveland Browns. They brought it on themselves.

Watson brought it on themselves. I have no sympathy for, you know, how he's perceived right now. I don't know the way forward. They really painted themselves in a corner with his contract, with the amount of investment they made in him. We saw the first sign of it when they traded Cooper. And now you're going to start looking at that roster and say, who's tradable, who's got a tradable contract, who's absolutely indispensable besides Miles Garrett.

He might be the only one. And that's what the Browns have to do, but they're not a normal rebuilding team. They can't just turn the page because Watson's contract has 144 million guaranteed left on it, and I don't know how they proceed and be anything more than a rock-bottom team for the next maybe two years.

I just want to set this up real quick because there might be some listeners that don't know exactly what we're talking about, but Deshaun Watson suffered, I don't know if they officially diagnosed him. It was a torn Achilles. He tore his Achilles during the game. He's going to be done for the year. He got carted off.

He was crying. As he was carted off, you could hear Browns fans cheering. And Jameis Winston and Miles Garrett, I understand that they were standing up for their teammate. And I understand that, in theory, you shouldn't cheer when an athlete gets hurt but i felt like there was a large amount i don't know if i'm going to call it naivete or willing ignorance that both these guys were trying to make it sound like deshaun watson was just another regular athlete or no more like a model citizen and i was like what are we doing here like everyone everyone knew the context right like everyone knew that the reason they were doing it was because there's a lot of people

that don't like deshaun watson because the multiple sexual assault allegations and the number of cases that he settled before they went to trial like i just don't know what the purpose of that exercise was because everyone knew what the context was right am i wrong here no you're not wrong again this is somebody that, you know, for reasons of employment you spend every day with, maybe you get to know, maybe you compartmentalize that in your mind. A lot of these guys like Winston don't meet Watson until two years after all the allegations, etc. Sure. You know, who knows? Maybe he's like, I turned over a new leaf. Maybe he acts a certain way around that. Whatever. It's a person you deal with every day, so you try to stand up for them.

It's a person you just saw suffer an injury, you stand up for them. I'm not going to hold anything against James Winston and those guys, but I'm not going to run around the Internet saying, how dare we cheer for Deshaun Watson's injury. He is human garbage. He should be in prison, and I am not going to shed any tears over an injury to a man who has a $250 million guaranteed contract that he signed

after he committed serious crimes against women. Mike, thank you very much for doing this today. We appreciate you taking the time. As always, enjoy Monday Night Football. We will do this again next Monday. You got it. Take care and enjoy your week. As always, enjoy Monday Night Football. We'll do this again next Monday. You got it. Take care and enjoy your week. Thank you.

Mike Tanier, our NFL insider. Visit him at his Two Deep Zone sub stack. Mike Tanier sub stack. So the Vancouver Canucks are in Chicago. They're going to practice at the United Center

in just a few hours. So the things that we'll be looking for at that practice are, well, there's one thing, JT Miller. Is he going to be at that practice? Don't be surprised if he's given the day off from that. Right. I don't know how the Canucks traveled from Philly.

Like, did they stay in Philly after the win and have a night out? Or did they go to Chicago and have a night out? Or did they go to Chicago and have a night out? Because they definitely had a night out after that win in Philly. Probably to go celebrate with Tyler Myers, a thousand games. He had a good game, strong performance. He was the story of that. Well, he was one of the stories of that game. Kevin Lankin was the other big story of that game. But so I don't know what their last look, but they might need to.

Let me put it this way. They might need to shake the cobwebs out a little bit with the practice today at the United Center. JT Miller. Just they, they're like, don't shake. You might further injure yourself. Right. Cause he, so he took the opening face.

That was weird when he was like hurt in the opening face off and headed down the tunnel. I'm like, Oh boy. The freak out meter went from like zero to a hundred. I'm like, he just left. And there was a weird Paul over the broadcast because it was very visible. Yeah, yeah. And like, who leaves after the opening face-off? Who gets hurt on the opening face-off?

Yeah, and then, as many people have pointed out, including Rick Tockett, came back but did not take another face-off for the remainder of the game, right? They're like, we didn't want him taking draws. And then, in a similar line to the preseason where JT Miller didn't feature at all, Rick Tockett said, he's working through some stuff.

He's got some things going on. Very vague, nothing. So we have no idea what the ailment is. Yeah, Brock Besser was like, it's time for face-off Brock. Yeah, which was great. You got hot for a bit. I like face-off Brock. It's a was great. You got hot for a bit. I like face-off Brock. It's a good little tool that he's got.

He's not bad at it, is he? That's where they could use Atu Ratu, actually. That was his one calling card in the preseason. But alas, he's in Abbotsford now. Who else should we talk about? What about Brandstrom? Did you like his game? I'm fine with it.

Yeah, he's not bad on a pairing with De'Arne. Yep. It's a bit of a it's a bit of a risky pairing for multiple reasons but you know you

you get the puck moving ability yep and De'arne can be a little slow footed sometimes so it's nice to have that skating ability in case

you need to kind of make up for him being out of position sometimes I I'm willing to give them um a lot of leash as a pairing because quite frankly like that is they probably don't even know each other they probably introduced themselves like as they were paired up they're like hi i'm eric and

i'm yeah right they they're both brand new to the organization brandstrom really brand new um and i brand new brandstrom new who would have pictured this going into the season like nobody to be honest when I went Brandstrom wasn't on our radar that guy who was like oh the Brandstrom Dayharnay pairing solid like no one was thinking the one that just signed in Colorado yeah

and I've been talking about Brandstrom for years well I mean look at the the lines even what way this is everyone you know people that follow the NHL Well, I mean, look at the lines even. And this is what everyone, you know, people that follow the NHL closely, and especially coaches, they always kind of scoff when we do the, oh, let's get our line combinations. Let's figure out our lines. Three months of line combinations in the summer,

and then they're jumbled up in the third game. DeBrusque is playing with Miller and Besser like four games into the season. They signed DeBrusque to be Petey's running mate. Boom, he's moved. Now you got Petey, Hoaglander, and Garland. Danton Heinen's gone from the first line to the second line and now seems to have found a spot on the third line. Dan Heinen might be playing defense pretty soon at this rate.

Like, he's all over the map, right? And it's just what happens. You think you know until the games are played, and then you're like, oh, now we know. That's kind of how it goes. Daniel Sprong on the fourth line. Right, with Suter and Nils Oman. Like, who had that?

The old SAS line? No one had that going. And we always do this. And Bruff and I probably fall victim to it more than anyone else because it's a fun exercise when the signings are made and when you're going through the slog of the preseason. Well, let's see what it looks like when the games really matter. But it's always the big assumptions that trip you up the most.

The assumption would be that Petey and DeBrusque would be paired together and that it would work. Yeah. And it wasn't early. I thought they had a little bit of chemistry, but not enough to say, like, we want to keep this going. No. Yeah.

No. Well, they found each other for a couple of months. Yeah, DeBrusque had some scoring chances, courtesy Petey. Yeah Petey yeah yeah vice versa but there wasn't enough where you're like we have to keep going to the well on this that was my opinion anyway um do you remember when I said that there were times when Connor Garland was the second best Canuck forward on the team is that still a ridiculous take no I tried to throw a couple other candidates in the mix. Like, I realize JT Miller, Brock Besser, but there are times I just feel like

Conor Garland is the driver. I know JT Miller is going to drive a line. I don't know anyone else besides Conor Garland that I sit there and I go, that guy is driving the line. Like he is, he is powering that line. It's okay to be a complimentary piece,

but I think putting him with Pedersen, there was a reason that was done. And by the way, that was done late last season when Petey was struggling. But I think ultimately Rick Tockett felt like, I can't just give Garland to anyone who's struggling. You have to earn it too, right? And then ultimately went back with Garland, with Joshua,

who's still missing but seems to be getting closer and closer, by the way. But I do think that having Garland on a line with pd can help a little bit temporarily but pd will need to drive a line eventually himself um so i i said that jt miller i think is the emotional heartbeat of the team i think connor garland is the five-hour energy drink of the team if you need a boost you put garland j have a can of garland freaking boost that's what he is yeah because that's he Because he's the cure-all. He's just feeling it right now, too. When he first came to Vancouver,

I just don't think they found the right system or whatever, the right atmosphere for him. It just didn't work out. And now he just knows his role. Yep. And he does it so well. He just wins puck battle. He would be so annoying to play against.

I think he usually gets some votes in that most annoying opponent. Yeah. Vote that the NHLPA does. He does. And you can see why. It's not just the fact that he'll chirp or get involved in scrums or you'll get a garland glove in your face. It's that he just never, he's like a little dog

nipping at your heels, you know? It is, it's true. And he wins so many battles just by getting underneath guys. It's very, very impressive. And you saw on that Nils Hoaglander goal where Petey had a nice assist that it was Garland working down low and attracting all that attention from the Flyers and then able to deliver that backhand pass to the slot

that we've seen so many times before. That's what made that play happen, and it was very, very impressive. Time now for the Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Since it's the last BC Lions regular season game, I'm going to use the CFL report to talk more about your BC Lions. Vernon Adams Jr., 393 yards passing, two touchdowns, two interceptions, 27-3 win for the Lions in their season finale,

pushing them to 9-9 on the year as they wait and lie in wait for the West Division semifinal in the playoffs on Saturday, November 2nd. For good measure, Adams also added 39 rushing yards and a rushing TD in the game. And then of course, after the game, the big news, this is CFL wide, not just exclusive to the BC Lions. It does sound as though Vernon Adams Jr. will be the BC Lions starting quarterback when they take on whoever the opponent will be in that West semifinal in 12 days' time. So V.A. gets a lot of time to practice and get more reps with the first team

and build off a very good regular season finale. A reminder, CFL final week of the season is this weekend. The Lions are on a bye before we skip ahead to two weeks' time when they play in the playoffs. That was the Canadian Football Report brought to you by security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL coming up open segment. We're going to do phone lines for a $100 gift card.

The winner gets to go to white spot with a hundred bucks in their pocket. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet six 50. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas strands. 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. 734 on a Monday. Good tunes today, laddie. You really want to lay down a rap on this one, don't you? I don't. I did not care for that earlier. As a matter of fact, it's the only time I didn't like the music this morning. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. I hit it.

We are in hour two of the program. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Just kidding. Let him do exactly that.

Visit him at Jason.Mortgage. I've really grown into those reads. Really grown into those reads. Yeah, good. They're getting better. Can you grow into giving away a White Spot gift card? I can. We're going to do phones. Someone said, what does

it mean, do phones? And I replied, it means we're going to do the phones. We're going to use the phone. We're not going to do it live. We will not put a caller on the air. Ever. But, right now, if you want to win a $100 gift card to White Spot, yeah, all you got to do is call 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650.

You don't have to do anything. You just have to say hi to A-Dog. That's it. And you can't have won a contest within the last 90 days. A-Dog will ask and will verify this. Call now. In addition to winning a $100 gift card to White Spot, you also get to talk to Andy Cole, the goal king himself, Andy Cole. Everyone just hung up.

Did they? How many callers do we have? Out of curiosity. Immediately lit up. Boards full. That's awesome. You see, I keep telling you guys to just give in one day and do a call-in show and just see what happens. I mean, you have a call to answer on the air. Have you heard our post-game shows? Dude, I've

worked many a call-in show through my radio career, but every once in a while, you'll get some gold, but it's like 10% of the time. So you gotta wade through a bunch and be good at wading through it, but once in a blue moon. 7.30 in the morning, that's when you want people calling in.

At least the post game show, they have a few cocktails in them. They're less nervous. That's true. I haven't slept in days. Let's call the post game show. Anyway now win a 100 gift card to white spot and we'll announce the winner shortly let's get in some nhl stories okay what do you want to talk about sorry no no let's do it yeah let's talk about nashville being 0 and 5 is this and so nashville over the weekend it's funny i was looking for i told you i joined this betting group so we were looking for games to play over the weekend and i's funny. I was looking for, I told you I joined this betting group. So we were looking for games to play over the weekend.

And I'm like, well, it was just something to do. All right. I was bored. And you know, you got to make, you got to stay in connection with your friends. Okay. All right. That's good. You don't get to hang out as often.

You join a betting group. All right. So I was like, I'll pick a hockey game this weekend. I was like, I kind of like the Canucks on Saturday against Philadelphia because Philly's coming back from that West Coast swing. I didn't pick it. I should have. It was a good pick.

The other one I liked. I was like, well, I'll tell you what. There's no way Nashville is going to lose its fifth game in a row. So you picked the Preds at home to Detroit? I threw it out there and everyone was like, I'm not sure. I'm like, okay, we'll just back off. How does this betting group work? Do you all come together on a bet to make?

You put them fourth. Oh, I see. And then there's four guys in the group, and if it doesn't get at least a 3-1 majority, it gets wiped. Oh, okay. Yeah, so if two guys veto it, and they did, thank God they did because I didn't want to be on the hook for Nashville because Nashville is now 0-5.

They lost their fifth game to start the season, 5-2 to the Red Wings on Saturday. What's more, they did this at home again. They are the worst team in the National Hockey League right now. Four of their losses have been at home. They are in a very bad way to the point where they're asking Stamkos what's wrong with the team. He's like,

I'm not sure. I just got here. I barely unpacked. Don't blame me. I don't know what's going on. The only other winless team in the NHL is the San Jose Sharks, but the Sharks actually have points because they managed to send a couple of them to overtime. It is the worst start in franchise history. The 2002-03 team, which was an awful Preds team,

managed to get a tie in two OT losses in their hideous start to the season. But if you look at the numbers on this, there's not a lot of teams that start this poorly and rebound to make the playoffs. I know it's an 82. 0-5 is tough. 0-5 is tough. I know it's an 82-game season, and I know we saw what the Oilers did last year where they went on a mid-season 16-game winning streak.

But the bigger problem with the Predators is they're not doing any of the things that made them successful last year, and I do wonder if the makeover was too much for that team. Do you know a team that's off to a sneaky good start? Who's that? Seattle. Yeah, they're 4-2. I wasn't expecting it.

Joey Decord. Yeah. Did you see him try and jump in the celebratory huddle? Y'all were making fun of the contract. That was an amazing miss. What was he trying to do there? Just join the scrum? He said he had the zoomies.

Like a dog does after? Yeah. Okay. So that was the Saturday's game, right? The 2-1 win over the red-hot Calgary Flames. One of the few teams to take a point off Calgary this year. Put an end to that streak. Yeah.

So here's the thing. Going into this season, I was of two minds with Seattle. One was they're either going to rediscover some of that magic that saw them have that great last, that year under Hackslaw, where they went to the playoffs, they beat the Avs, and they went to the second round. They were just seven games in the second round. Or that was the anomaly and they were going to be just this sort of like bleh team under biles yeah yeah who wasn't a super inspiring hire i had to admit it

and then there was the free agent acquisitions we were like good players but i didn't think there was going to be like a low floor on them i thought that i thought you look at their team and you're not gonna you don't look at them and think they're going to be awful down there with San Jose or Anaheim or any of those teams. Going into this year, I did not have them in the playoffs. Right, but I think we all acknowledge that they could be a factor in the playoff race. Yeah, I just didn't have them in the playoffs,

but right now I'm looking at them, and I've watched them play twice now. They look more like that team. They're faster. They're more dynamic. They're a good, solid team. I think it's going to come down to goaltending, and I guess we're hitching our wagon to Joey Decord down in Seattle. I'm not too sure.

I also want to talk about, I don't know what to make of Calgary, except that they're already talking about adding pieces to Calgary. Why are you laughing? Who's talking about that? Freezer's talking about it on the weekend. Sarah Vallee had a thing too. Yeah, they need a right-handed centerman on draws. And I'm like, no, they need to sell. Like, there's no way they're keeping this up.

Right? Did people say that about the Canucks last season? Yeah. Or is it fundamentally different? I want to change how I said that. There's no way they're going to keep this up. Right? That's how I want to phrase it now.

Because I'll say a few things here. One, they do play extremely hard. They do. Right? They've got grinders in that lineup that give them the energy that they need. They're getting a bounce back year from Huberto. I think they got some youth too, like Connor Zeri. And I got to say this.

Vladar and Wolf look good. They do. Vladar was good against Seattle on the weekend. Wolf, you were high on Wolf the whole time. Yeah, well, he's been the best goalie in the NHL for at least a couple of years. So maybe they've got something there if they can platoon those guys and neither of them get burnt out. they can stay in the race longer than expected um therefore this is the best start in franchise history nine of a possible 10 points is the best

start that they've ever had so i mean kudos to them for that it's wildly unexpected and it's such a weird mishmash of veteran guys who you kind of think they want to get rid of. You know who everyone is super high on? Mackenzie Wieger. Yeah. Who has been good. You're calling the new arena the house that Wieger built. Yeah, I know.

So to the point where on the broadcast, the fellows were sitting around, you know, Juice and Kelly and Elliot, and they started to go down the road of the team canada for the four nations face-off we are on the team yeah i don't know i mean it feels like a stretch but there is there look put it this way there will be some guy on one of those four rosters that was on his on the outside prior to the start of the season that's going to play his way on because he's on a heater the first three months of the year, four months of the year. Do we need to talk about Winnipeg's start?

5-0, goal differential, plus 16. That's impressive over five games. Only plus 16. Only team in the NHL with a 1,000 points percentage, so 10 points from five games. They've been lights out to start the year um it's funny because i had no smoking the oilers is a good way to start the season yeah it sets the tone the last year i had like no real interest or expectations for the jets and then

i started to do all the pre-season research and i was like damn the jets had a good year last year yeah you just kind of forget it that they were the best team in canada record wise and points And then I started to do all the preseason research, and I was like, damn, the Jets had a good year last year. You just kind of forget it, that they were the best team in Canada record-wise in points. They were great. But there was the change in coach, which wasn't really a change because Arneal was already there, and bonus went out.

They didn't really do a ton in free ages. They didn't really overhaul their roster or anything, but Scheifele's playing out of his mind, and Halibut is giving them everything that Halibut usually does. But yeah, I mean, that was another pretty impressive win that they had over Pittsburgh on Sunday. Let's talk a little bit about the Canucks here. Tom and Suri text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650 if you want to text in.

The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at Dunbar Lumber, and Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. Tom and Suri text in. Is the Canucks' relatively newfound reliance on Tyler Myers a teaching moment for everyone? Failure or issues, whether professional, academic, or otherwise, are based as much on the individual as the system they are in. Good question.

Yeah. We always have that conversation about players. Is it them or is it the system and the organization, maybe their line mates? Talk about all the conversation we have about Elias Pettersson. Is it on him? Is it on the line mates? Is it on the organization?

But with Tyler Myers, this is the guy that has been through all sorts of ups and downs in his career. It's been so long ago. Tyler Myers has been in the league for a long time, played a thousand games that people forget he was the rookie of the year. And he was pretty darn good for Winnipeg. I know there might have been, or sorry, for Buffalo. And I know there might have been some, you know, red flags with his game when he was a rookie, but he was this guy, he was this giant of a player that was mobile, he was making plays and then things got a little

bit hard and I think his confidence waned a little bit. Plus he was with the Sabres. Yep. And they're having struggles. He goes to Winnipeg and I think throughout his career, and that includes when he came to Vancouver,

everyone trying to find the right fit for Tyler Myers. Like how many minutes do you play a game? If you get into the 20s, does that become problematic? And I think what's happened in Vancouver is that, number one, I said this earlier in the show the coach simplified his game and he said we want you to do this and that's it and I don't think he had that guidance under previous coaching staffs and they also limited his minutes and I do think that's important I know he was the minutes leader against the Flyers and played very well.

He played over 22 minutes. I don't think that's ideal. They have to be cognizant of that number. And that's why this third pair is so important. Because you don't have to play the hell out of your top two pairs if you trust your third pair a little bit more. And I still don't know how much they're going to trust a pair of either branstrom and dna or forbort and dna or forbort and juleson

that's the one area where i'm kind of like it's not just about the third pair. It's about the trickle-on effect of having a third pair that you don't really trust. I hope that something can emerge on that third pair where you can trust these guys to go out and play 17, 18 minutes a night because then you don't have to overplay the top two pairs. You know, it's funny because of their connection together, but every time I think about where Tyler Myers is at in his career arc and how he's kind of changed and altered his perceptions and his game,

I always think about Luke Shen, right? The Luke Shen path, like I think a lot of people forget, like he was almost out of the league. Yeah. He was toiling in the American. He spent time in three consecutive seasons in San Diego, Utica and Syracuse. Right. And this is when he's in his late twenties,

early thirties. And he figured out, and whether it was through some coaching or understanding that some things needed to change his game, he figured out how to be effective later in his career, like almost a second chapter. I think there's some parallels there with him and Meyer. I mean, there were teammates together back in Kelowna, right?

I just know that in the playoffs, Meyer's played a nasty, nasty game. Yeah. And he hasn't always played as nasty as his size suggests he could. Sure. But in the playoffs, when a puck went into a corner and he was going after it, I felt sorry for the guy on the other team

because he went in there just like almost recklessly. Yeah. It was very, very impressive, and that's the way Rick Talkett wants that bottom four, especially to play, and that's why they all have size. Now, whether or not that plan holds up, we'll have to wait and see because you have to all play well

in order to play those guys. So when the Canucks lose guys like Zdorov and they lose a guy like Ian Cole, that's taking a lot of size and toughness out of your lineup. Now they tried to replace him with Forbort and Day or Nay, and so far the results have been mixed. Another thing to watch for, by the way,

is when Derek Forbort will be back from his absence from the team for personal reasons. We obviously don't talk about that much, but it's a factor. A few things to watch for in practice today as the Canucks do practice in Chicago in a couple of hours number one JT Miller will he be there don't be shocked if he's not because Rick Tock had suggested he might need a few days off after injuring himself in Philly Dakota Joshua is on the road trip and it'll be interesting to see when he starts getting full practices

with the team again. Skated in Philly. Yeah. So will he, I mean, he's got to be close. He's got to be close to returning to the lineup. We'll see when he's an active member of the actual practice. And then the Derek Forbort thing too, like he left for personal reasons. Hopefully everything's okay in his life. But, you know, I think Forbort is definitely back in the lineup as soon as he's ready to go. The question is then is how do you arrange the pairs? Would you go Forbort and Danae or would you say actually we like what Branstrom has brought to the

lineup in terms of puck moving but then you'd have a lefty lefty pair if you go Forbert and Branstrom I'd still rather

that one idea I was thinking of and I don't think the Canucks are ready to do this yet but could you put Eric Branstrom

with Philip Peronic or is that just something you don't want to do because you don't want to break up the pair and could you put Eric Branstrom with Philip Peronik? Or is that just something you don't want to do because you don't want to break up the pair? And then there's no obvious guy for Quinn Hughes to skate with. But you could try, I don't know. I don't know if you would. You could try Hughes with Darren A, lefty righty. I don't think they're going to mess with it

because Hughes doesn't want to be split from Peronik. Yeah, no, I don't think they're going to mess with it Because Hughes doesn't want to be split from Peronic Yeah no I don't think they will either They're comfortable with Branson playing on the right though Or he's comfortable with it Like he does it I don't know if it's super I don't know how comfortable the Canucks are Branson's forward isn't bad

He can do it I know but it's not bad Have you seen it do you know Well, it's lefty-lefty, though. I know. But it's not bad. Have you seen it? Do you know? Well, give it a try. I like your optimism, Andy. I just don't... I just... You really have a hate-on for De'Arne. Hate is a strong word. I just don't see him as a...

I don't think he should be a mainstay in the lineup. I just think he's garbage. I just don't think he should be a mainstay in the lineup. I think give four-board... However you want to do it, but four-board, Branstrom, whatever. But I think you need to a mainstay in the lineup. I think give four board, however you want to do it, but four board, Branstrom, whatever. But I think you need to give Branstrom more of a look. We got a text into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. They will upgrade the third pair for now they deal with it.

Yeah, I think if there was one move that they're going to make, it's going to be to bring in another defenseman for the third pair. I just think you want to try and get those guys as many minutes as you're comfortable with. I realize the Canucks have been, I don't want to say in desperation mode, but when they started the season winless, they were kind of like, yeah, we need some wins here.

And Quinn Hughes, by the way, if you look at the analytics to start the season, Quinn Hughes has been incredible for the Canucks. Yep. The amount that the Canucks are dominating when he's on the ice is truly remarkable. And when he's off the ice, it is somewhat concerning. So on the bright side, the Canucks have Quinn Hughes

and when he's playing, you can feel pretty good about what's happening on the bright side, the Canucks have Quinn Hughes, and when he's playing, you can feel pretty good about what's happening on the ice. But when he leaves, you're a little bit worried. Could he play 60 minutes a game? Oh, it's in the cards. The possibility remains. I think

that the blueprint will follow, in terms of rounding out your blue line, very similar to what they did last year. They will, maybe, I don't think it'll be as early, because I think that the blueprint will follow very, in terms of rounding out your blue line, very similar to what they did last year. They will, maybe, I don't think it'll be as early because I think the Zdorov trade happened a little earlier than it will this year. I think they're probably going to have to tread water with the guys that they've got a little bit longer.

But the blueprint's there. You go and you make an upgrade, maybe January, maybe sometime, like earlier than the deadline because this is a Rutherford team. I'm just hoping that I'll respect Alvin. Like I know,

I think this is how it's going to go. I'm just hoping that Darren could come along a little bit. I knew they, they knew, they knew that he was going to be a project. So,

I don't understand why you're so, I don't, like I'm not that concerned with Darren. Like I didn't expect him to come out of the shoot looking like the greatest defenseman on the planet. I expected there to be some struggles

because it took him a while to work his way through the Edmonton system. And then even in the playoffs, like you pointed this out. Yeah, it's healthy scratch. Yeah. I know we had Jason Greger on the show, and he was like, I think he could be a top four defenseman. I was like, that's nice. To me, he's just like a Juleson.

He's like you plug him in once in a while when he needs his size. I think there's more untapped potential because he hasn't played as much. He's a late bloomer, too. He's also a giant. He's a giant. Yeah. He's a giant. I think shorty got him mixed up with Tyler Myers a few times in the broadcast

because they're just like two giant right shot defensemen so the dream basically is that you would have in your bottom four on the right side you've got tyler myers with his wingspan and dana below him with his wingspan and then it makes it very difficult to get to the net against the vancouver canucks once the playoffs start before i throw to you andy to announce the winner i just want to say one more thing on Dakota Joshua. Now that I've seen Kiefer Sherwood, I am very excited at the prospect of having a lineup that has both Joshua and Sherwood in it.

It's going to be like a hit parade. It's going to be like, I mean, Sherwood is third in the NHL right now in hits. I got to double check that. But if you can, because the problem with having one aggressive four checkers, sometimes he's left to do a lot of that on his own. To have two and you just become a real pain in the butt to play with.

Never mind the fact that you got Connor Garland out there as well. Like, I am very excited for the prospect of Joshua and Sherwood. Well, I wonder if they might be on the same line. I mean, that would be amazing. Well, they might be because if Garland sticks with Pedersen and Hoaglander, you could have a third line of, let's say, Joshua, Bluger, and Sherwood. Yeah, I'm already looking at it. And then you move Heinen down to the fourth line?

Yeah. That's a deep forward group. Heinen's like, son of a... Yeah, just one, two, three, four. And I stay in a spot for five minutes. By the way, do you get Mason Raymond vibes when you watch him play? Yeah, a little bit. A little bit.

A little bit. A little bit. He's better defensively, though. Yeah, I'm just saying he just kind of looks like him, right? Oh, he's speedy. He's a speedy and kind of left shot guy. Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah.

Same frame. Yeah, same frame. You kind of skate around the same. Who's the winner? Congrats to Ash. You've won the $50 white spot gift card. $50? Yeah, it's not $100.

$50. That was a typo. I've been promoting it. It was a typo. Well, it was. Okay. Congrats to Ash. Congrats to Ash.

You have won the $50 white spot gift card. We'll be giving them away every day this week. It'll be $25 by the end of the show. Yeah. Congrats to Ash.

And by the way, $8 white spot. We don't seem to be going to white spot a lot. Yeah. All right. We got to get out of here.

We got one hour to go on the Halford and breath show on sports net six 50. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com in goal magazine is going to join us to talk about

Kevin blanking in. Yeah, that's right. I said it. You're listening to the Halford and breath show on sports net six 50.