Halford & Brough in the Morning - Can The Canucks Take Advantage Of An Injured Panthers Team?

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

In hour two, Mike and Jason talk baseball playoff action with MLB Network's Adnan Virk (1:40), the boys preview Week 7 with Too Deep Zone NFL Insider Mike Tanier (24:55), plus the boys chat with The Hockey News Florida Panthers reporter David Dwork (37:40) ahead of tonight's matchup versus the Canucks.  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.

It's time to chat with Adnan It's Adnan Berkey's on the show We're gonna talk some baseball And take a trip to the silver screen That's right, it's time for Redman. Yes, and then Berkey joins us now. We'll head out to the ball

game and talk about all the films he's seen. 7.04 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough Sportsnet 650. Halford and 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. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Adnan Virk from MLB Network is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 2 of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at 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. I am joking. Please let him do that.

You can do so by visiting him at Jason.Mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec Canada's fevered orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, what are you waiting for? Kintec. It's a good day for sports, specifically the baseball. Yankees-Guardians Game 3, Dodgers-Mets Games 4. Both of them today.

It is a big MLB day. Joining us now from MLB Network, Adnan Virk here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Adnan. How are you? Mike, Jason, I'm great. Before we get to the baseball, a quick story for you. So last week was our first prime Monday night hockey game. But I had my cousin getting married in Brampton,

for those who don't know, in the greater Toronto area. So I flew in from New Jersey to Toronto. I went to Pearson International Airport. I said, okay, give me a rental car. They're like, we don't have any rental cars. I'm like, what? It was Thanksgiving weekend. There's nothing available.

Enterprise, national, budget. Eventually it hurts because we either have a pickup truck or a Tesla. So I'll take the Tesla. And again, our first game is in Montreal. It's Pittsburgh and Montreal, Monday night. So I go to the wedding in Brampton, and then I have to drive. Let me tell you something, fellas. I'm not sure about the review, but the anxiety of driving in the 401 East,

Trenton, Ontario, and my car battery's at 5% Oh man, what a rush. And the next day it's game one. I thought I was going to be stranded and dead and fired, but thank God we got through it. But, by the way, the guy lied to me. He goes, oh, you'll charge it once, you'll be fine. No, two charges to go from Toronto to Montreal a six hour drive. I stopped outside Cornwall as well. Lesson learned, don't get a Tesla for a rental car for a long drive. why didn't you want to take the pickup great question jay i've never driven a pickup truck in my life well they're not good they're not they're not like difficult to drive it's just a pickup truck i know but i would have looked so stupid i couldn't do it and to be honest

it was a hundred dollars more the tesla $100 more. The Tesla was $400, which I already thought was high. What price am I paying here? He goes, it's $125. You buried the lead. Now we know why you chose the Tesla. No, you're right. Tesla was $400. The pickup truck was $520. I go, I'll drive the Tesla. And by the way,

it's more because when you drop it off in a different city, they gouge you. He goes, you're not returning it to Toronto? I said, no, I'm driving to Montreal. He goes, that's an extra $200 charge, sir. Brutal. Before we get to the baseball, just walk us through it. How was the premiere, the debut of Amazon NHL on Monday nights?

Well, it was a ton of fun, Mike. Honestly, it was a blast. And I think what was interesting is that if I was a Canadian at home watching it, the whole fear becomes, oh, here come these big, bad Americans coming in and tell us how to do hockey. Except most of us were Canadian. It was me.

It was Mark Messier. It was Thomas Hickey. It was Jody Shelley, our producer, the legend, Mark Askin. So it was a bunch of Canadians working for this big, you know,

corporate behemoth at Amazon, but doing it on prime. But I think it was a good hockey game, most importantly, and the Penguins won six, three, but a good atmosphere in Montreal. And I think it went off pretty well. You go guys know what it's like when you start a new

show you just want to get through it not kill anybody nobody was named nobody was hurt during the recording of this program and that was indeed what happened i think game two will be better in toronto lightning and leaves on monday okay to the baseball we go um yankees guardians i'm loathe to crown someone when they're only up 2-0 in a series. It's not a stranglehold. It could be tonight if the Yankees win Game 3 and take a real stranglehold 3-0 on the series. I just feel like the Guardians aren't up to this,

and by this I mean beating the Yankees. It was the brutal pitching in Game 1 and the five wild pitches, lousy defense in Game 2. They just don't look to me, Adam, like they're up to beating the Yankees in this series. I couldn't agree, Mike. I couldn't agree more, Mike. And by the way, I'm going to give you props.

You were the one who called it last week when San Diego lost that game four. He said, I think they blew their chance to win, and you were right. They couldn't come through that game five. And similarly now with Cleveland, the fact they didn't win that game two, I think they blew their chance to make this a series.

If you look at the playoff format, under the 2-3-2, 44 of 55 teams that win the first two games at home win the series. That's 80%. Now, last year, there wasn't a chance where that didn't happen. Of course, Arizona came back against Philadelphia after being down 2-0, and Arizona was down 3-2, going to Philly and won. But I'm with you. This Guardians team doesn't have that firepower.

They don't have the strength that Arizona team had. They just look outclassed, quite frankly. And they look like an 82-win team that won a fairly bad division. And it's funny how a few weeks and change things. Wow, the Central's better than we thought. Look, they've got three playoff teams, too. But wait, they beat up on the White Sox. And ultimately, are they a good

team? Probably not. How about this stat? This is so glaring to me. They have not had one star or at least five innings so far this postseason. We all know baseball is different now. We all know it's all about bullpenning. But you can't have one guy go five and dive. As Al Leiter once said to me, he goes, we used to make fun of those guys.

Am I correct? And now we can't even get one guy to do that. Awfully quick hook on Tanner Bybee. We'll see what Matt Boyd can do. By the way, distant relative of Bob Feller, the Hall of Famer, and former first lady Dolly Madison. Well, hello, Dolly. Let's see if this guy can at least go five innings against this Yankees offense.

And it's not like the Yankees are crushing it, but they've been very patient, working the count, working a ton of walks, and working well against that Cleveland bullpen. And offensively, they haven't been able to muster anything against this New York bullpen. Yankees bullpen,.77 ERA so far in the playoffs. I think Cleveland gets one, Mike, at least, but it feels like Yankees in five to me. How excited is Major League Baseball

that we could have a Yankees-Dodgers World Series with all the star power in the major markets there? And if it's not Yankees-Dodgers, it's probably going to be the other alternative would be New York versus New York. Couldn't be better, Mike. Dream scenario. At the start of the playoffs, because sometimes I share your hard-won cynicism,

I said, well, Yankees-Dodgers is what exactly everyone in the world wants, so we're not going to get that because we don't get nice things in 2024, so we're going to get Guardians-Brewers. And thank God I was wrong because I'm with you. We're on the verge of getting what everybody wants. I can't imagine a fall class in which you've got Otani and Betts and Freeman and Judge and Soto and Cole and Stanton. It's amazing. You look at the playoff numbers for the World Series. There was a time, I look back at the 1970s, 44 million people used to watch the World Series. Last year, it was 8 or 9 million for the D-backs Rangers. Now, I'm not saying Dodgers and

Yankees are going to get $40 million people, but you might get $20 million. Can you imagine a double the World Series audience from the year before in today's day and age? That would be gigantic. And to get those storied franchises going head-to-head, no matter what the result would be, it would feel epic to have those fan bases involved.

I think we're going to see it. I mean, the Mets, they got beat up yesterday. Finally, Otani goes deep for second home out of the postseason. But you're right. Even at the Mets, when I beat up yesterday. Finally, Otani goes deep for second home run of the postseason. But you're right. Even at the Mets, when I still think that's great, you've still got Lindor and Alonso who are genuine stars and a Subway Series. I remember going to the Subway Series back in 2000

to be living in the New Jersey area and to see a potential Subway Series on a personal level would be epic for me. How impressed are you with the Dodgers pitching this postseason? So here's why I love to be wrong about Mike, because we watch the games all year long. We think we're experts, me specifically. And I go, okay, well, the Dodgers aren't going to win

because their pitching isn't good enough. And quite frankly, that's what happened for the first few games against the Padres. And all of a sudden, that's when Oscar Grand slam and Nando went deep as the Padres had an early lead. They couldn't score again. And every single one of the panelists thinking, oh, well, hang on, you know, bullpen games don't work early league, they couldn't score again. And every single one of the panelists thinking, oh, well, hang on.

You know, bullpen games don't work in the playoffs. Absolutely, they do, actually. Game four, they completely shut down San Diego. Oh, game five, we're going to shut them down again. Yamamoto's going to deal. Wait, what? They've only got two starters. Surely Buehler's not going to pitch well.

Buehler has one win this season. He won back on May 18th, for God's sake. He's a two-time Tommy John guy. Oh, no, wait. He's going to deal against the Mets and go four innings and then turn over to this bullpen, which also looks like the A's back in 1989. The best bullpen was supposed to be the Cleveland Guardians. Everyone knows that. Well, that hasn't been the case in this playoff.

L.A.'s been wiped out, and it doesn't matter who it is. Brazier yesterday didn't look great, and he still gets a key double play and was able to silence the Mets when they had just the possibility of something happening. Kopech has been great. Their whole bullpen has been top to bottom amazing. And I credit Dave Roberts to pulling the right strings, and obviously Andrew Friedman putting them together.

Every single person, Mike, for the Dodgers, aren't going to win the World Series this year because they're too banged up with regards to their starting pitching. It doesn't matter. They've had their starters step up. Clarity, Yamamoto, Buehler, and the ball plan has done more than the rest. Well, you mentioned Yamamoto goes tonight, and he's coming off one of the best games I've seen a guy pitch

in a decisive, pivotal, winner-take-all game against the Padres in Game 5. That's a tall order for the Mets, too. It feels like there's no break in the action now where you get a chance to rough somebody up because everyone is dealing right now. Yeah, I will say, though, for the Mets, the great news is they got Quintana on the mound, who's been amazing recently,.57 ERA over his last eight starts. He has not given up a home run in his last 47 in the third inning.

So you're right. Yamamoto, I think, is going to be a challenge. And he looks, you know, this is why they paid him $325 million to get wins like this. But I do feel good about the Mets because Quintana has been virtually unhittable. So if the Mets can square things up tonight, make it 2-2, for the best of three,

it'll be awfully fun to watch. And I think it's virtually a toss because, again, both those pitchers I think are going to be stingy. What about the notion that the Mets' magic might have just run out here? Like, my worry was that they would get to the World Series,

and that's where it would run out, and then the World Series would be a dud. But you knew that the vibes were great, especially since they got them rolling early in the wild card, and it carried them through the Phillies. But I do just wonder if this is where the momentum ends, the magic ends, and this might be the end of the Mets. Yeah, I think that's a totally fair point, Mike.

Eventually, these runs are not sustainable you know you can do that in March Madness for a couple of games you can fall off an upset but can you run the table over 10 days it's awfully tough and I think we saw that with the Tigers again they got Scooble and an outstanding ball and a bunch of no names on offense and somehow they cobbled together a huge upset with the Astros and pushed the Guardians to five but ultimately ran out of gas and now for the match you start to yourself, Lindor, who has had big hit after big hit, did not come up with that big hit yesterday. That was an unbelievable at-bat walk for Buehler, as Lindor has been so patient getting on base

or getting a big knock in those spots. Base is loaded. Instead, Buehler goes heater, heater, sets him up for an unbelievable hook, like a classic 12-6 curveball, completely fools Lindor, and he gets out of it. So for Frankie not to come through there, that's a bad omen there for the Mets. Alonzo hit one ball. He's had no doubt a home run. It must have been Wrigley Field in October.

It's also the winds blowing in. There was a bunch of balls last night that did not get out. And, of course, the guy that does go deep is P.K. Hernandez, who now is Reggie Jackson. He's got 15 postseason home runs, which is the same as Babe Ruth. I know what you're saying. Okay, perspective. He's done it in 78 games.

Babe did it in 41. But how about this? Chipper Jones hit 13 home runs in 93 postseason games. And this is T.K. Hernandez, for God's sake. This is not a Hall of Fame third baseman. And he's got 15 in 78. So it speaks to how good the Dodgers are because they're getting that depth in their lineup. It's not just Otani, who hits the moonshot.

It's not just Mookie. It's not just Freddie, by the way, who I believe is, like, seriously hurt. He should probably be out four to six weeks. He's still playing games. He doesn't look good. I mean, that double play was unbelievable, the way he just, like, hung in there. Like, wow, credit to Freddie. He's been tough.

So we'll see what happens to the Mets. Here's one for you. How much money is Juan Soto making this off season so i last my man john hayman who is uh the new york post writer also works for mlb network and he said he polled 14 or 15 different experts and he said the lowest was 10 for 440 that was the lowest he said the highest was 12 for 660. Yeah. Forbes had 600 million for 10 years is what he'll get.

Yeah. He's got, John told me, he goes, his average of all the experts he asked is 12 for 560, which, I mean, that's a breathtaking number. Even with Otani getting 700 last year, to me, that is a breathtaking number. Because when Soto turned down the 440, whatever it was in the Nationals, and then slumped, don't forget, in that season, the pod tournament,

he's never going to get that 440. He might get three. Now he might get six. How many people can turn down 440 and add another $200 million? Only one Soto. Do you think Freddie Freeman would be playing if he wasn't a good Canadian kid? No. I think a thousand percent.

This goes back to the fact he's got two great Canadian parents and every time I see him, I've only met him a few times, every time I go, hey man, Freddie, way to rep Canada, and he responds immediately, dad from Windsor, mom from Peterborough, but that's right, good Canadian boy, able to gut it out right now for this team. He's playing on one leg, Jay, and somehow he's still able to perform.

It's amazing. Was there ever a Dodger player that played on one leg and had a big moment in the postseason? I can't remember. 1988, I seem to think of a guy pumping his fist as he ran the first race. Freddie Freeman, a modern-day Kirk

Gibson. I love it. Adnan, I love talking baseball with you. Enjoy the rest of the playoffs and uh we'll talk again real soon next week all right thanks mike thanks jay be well boys see if that's adnan virk from mlb network here on the halford and rough show on sportsnet 650 doubleheader tonight yankees can take a stranglehold so too can the dodgers again like i said in the call i don't want to, I don't like looking too far ahead because sometimes, sometimes this show has been guilty of getting too excited

about a potential matchup. And then people, we get other people excited. And then there's the light now. It's usually white caps related, soccer related. A lot of soccer related. God, I hope the Yankees lose, though. AJ will be insufferable if he comes on Friday. AJ's been good about it. I talked to him yesterday. If they go to the World Series, though. AJ will be insufferable if he comes on Friday. AJ's been good about it.

I talked to him yesterday. If they go to the World Series, though, he'll be insufferable. Look, that— Well, if they lose the World Series, though, that'll be fun. That's true. Yeah. But it's like your problem last year with the Leafs, right? You don't want them to make a run.

Or the Oilers. You don't want them to make a run because there's always the chance they might win it. I don't feel the same way about the Yankees that I used to because they just haven't been around for a while. It's to the point where I want the Yankees actually to be in some big games because I think it's good for the league. It's exciting.

Look at the star power that we could have if it's a Yankees-Dodgers World Series. As a fan of baseball, you should want that. No. No. Just a direct but very... Would you rather have a team like Detroit in it as opposed to the Yankees if you're talking about the World Series?

Well, your argument is about expanding the game and making it bigger and getting the ratings. I don't care about that. I would personally rather see the Tigers I get it it's just selfish reasons I'm not as passionate about it as you are as it used to be

I think I just I want they're back though they're back on their same crap that they've been on for you know the last two decades

spending a lot of money spending a ton of money going out and scooping up the cream of the crop they do have stars but doesn't it suck when it's all just on one team

or two teams as it is with the Dodgers and the Yankees? But it doesn't if they go up against one another in the playoffs. No, because it's just two hated teams going against each other that nobody likes. But there's no dynamic of... Do you hate Aaron Judge? Do you hate Otani? I hate everyone on the Yankees. I hate everyone.

I hate all the Yankees. I hate everyone. Unless Soto wants to come to the Blue Jays and sign a 10-year contract, then I will love him. So if and when they inevitably meet in the World Series, it's the first one in a long time where I don't think there's a favorite, and I don't think there's a narrative of it'll be a disappointment if one loses to the other because they're the same thing.

The Dodgers and the Yankees are the same thing. They're monster lineups with billions of dollars spent. And, you know, it's like, it's the, I mean, from a, from your standpoint, it's awful because it's the teams that spend the most money just end up going to the championship. But for me, I want to see that play because if you look at the heart of that Dodgers lineup and you look at the heart of the Yankees line, those are the two most fearful lineups in baseball.

Go at it. Let's get after it, right? Come on. It's not a good storyline, though. Where's the suspense? Where's the underdog? I want to see if the – because Otani's mashing. And, I mean, Betts not as much.

But the heart of that, I mean, I guess Kike has taken over for whoever slumped. I don't think Otani's mashing either. Yeah, Otani's mashing. Before the home run yesterday, he wasn't really mashing. His batting average is pretty low. He's hit well with runners in scoring positions. He's hit lousy when the bases are empty. That's kind of how I look at it.

He gets pitched around a few times, too. He's like, this isn't a big enough moment. I don't want to get a hit here. I'll wait. Did I say this correctly? That they pitched around Juan Soto to get to Aaron Judge the other game? I think Vote did it, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I saw something about it.

Weird. Anyway, I could not disagree. It must be tough playing these lineups. They're like, okay, we're going to put this guy on. Who's up next? Damn it. Well, that was like – Can't pitch around him.

Oh, I can't pitch around him either. Oh, I can't pitch around him. What are we going to do here? If you go through the middle of that Dodgers lineup, you're doing something pretty impressive because they've got guys that can rake, right? And that's the same thing with the Yankees. Would you say the Yankees are more rounded in the pitching category

and the Dodgers are a little more well-rounded in the hitting? I would have said that before I watched the Dodgers pitch in the postseason. Yeah, like 45 shutout innings. The bullpen games have been great. It was funny because people were all up in arms in game four against the Dodgers. They're like, I can't believe we got a million dollar, billion dollar payroll and we gotta have a bullpen game in game four. And it worked perfectly.

Like, Roberts was like, you get an inning, you get an inning, and they couldn't hit. To shut out the Padres in the final two games of that series, when we look back on it in retrospect, that was one of the greatest pitching performances in a long time. It's like starting your third string goalie in the playoffs.

Who does that? But then if you had eight third string goalies, you gave each one like 10 minutes. In the while. Whatever the math is. I'm not doing the math properly. Yeah. But it's crazy.

And they've got, I mean, and Yamamoto was nailsing. It was funny because that pitching matchup, like you, Darvish, I think we talked about this on the show. Darvish made two mistakes in an otherwise near-perfect outing, and they lost. That was it. Text in, agree with the dog, meaning Laddie. Same problem with baseball, and the cap is the issue I have with basketball now. No one builds teams from within,

and superstars just go to teams and make super teams. There's no loyalty, and it's boring. Did you watch the World Series last year? It wasn't like, it wasn't Yankees-Dodgers. God, who was it? It was the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Like there's still a chance for these teams. But yes, of all the teams, of all the leagues in North America, Major League Baseball is the one where you can just spend a ton of money and you're probably going to have a pretty good team.

Sure. Yes. Yes. But the issue is that- It is the closest to the Premier League in soccer where you've got the teams with a chance to win the league and you've got a bunch of teams that really have no chance. And it's a miracle if a team like Leicester City wins a league. It's an absolute miracle. Injuries are really the only thing that can derail you at that point when you spend so much money on your team and have so many good players.

Or another team that spends more. Or yeah, you run into another powerhouse. Yeah. Mike Tanier is going to join us next. We'll talk about the NFL, talk about some of these wide receiver trades, and maybe we'll talk a little bit about DK Metcalf down in Seattle,

who has been kind of the trending topic for Seattle sports lately. I think somebody wrote an article about trading DK Metcalf, and that kind of kicked off a big conversation, and it was also a noteworthy week for DK Metcalf and that kind of kicked off a big conversation and it was also a noteworthy week for DK Metcalf because he was under the microscope and he was interviewed and he said, yeah, I made some mistakes. I didn't run the right route on a key play against the 49ers and that led

to a Geno Smith interception. And a lot of people are just wondering, if I will, he's almost like the JT Miller of the Vancouver Canucks a couple of years ago. I love a good Canucks comparison. Do you know anything? No, no, no. When they were kind of like, well, can DK Metcalf, are the Seahawks going to be in their window while he's still elite? And if not,

shouldn't they trade him? And does, and also the whole thing is like, is he the right temperament for the team? I like where you're going with this. I'm going to take the commercial break to think about it. Cause I think there's some parallels there for sure. Yeah.

Like there's definitely something there. We just need to work out some of the finer details. Well, one's a football player and the other is a hockey player. That's a big difference. That's a massive difference. Huge fundamental difference. But other than that.

That's where the comparison falls short. Okay, before we go to break, I need to do a couple of things. One, I need to do the CFL report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL, with all due respect to the other games that are being played this weekend. All eyes are going to be now on the BC Lions in their game against the Montreal Alouettes. Prior to this week, wasn't really that big of a deal. The game meant nothing to nobody, especially the two teams participating.

But now there's a major storyline at play. And that, of course, is that Vernon Adams Jr. will take over as the starting quarterback with Nathan Roark going to the bench. Vernon Adams Jr. has not started a game since August 1st. If you look at your calendar, it is October 17th. That's a long time to go between starts, but the BC Lions are going to do it anyway. I will remind you that when Vernon Adams was behind center,

the Lions were 5-3, and there was talk that he was in MOP consideration. Nathan Rourke, meanwhile, has started BC's last eight games. Eight! But he won't start against the Owls this weekend. It'll go to Vernon Adams Jr., and as we played the audio from Rick Campbell yesterday, this could not just be a one-week thing.

Vernon Adams could win the starting job going into the playoffs when the Lions go into the playoffs, not next week. Cause that's a buy, but the week after that. So all eyes are going to be on the Lions and the owls this weekend. And for good reason, very curious to see how a Vernon Adams jr.

Doesn't his first start since August the first, that was the Canadian football report brought to you by security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Finally, on the subject of the BC Lions, I need to tell you that the roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions' 70th season. It's your last chance to see the Lions at home this year unless they go to the Grey Cup,

so get your tickets now at bclions.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 7.33 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford Brough of 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 that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Mike Tanier and David Dwork are going to join us this half hour for some NFL talk and then to preview tonight's Canucks-Panthers game from Florida. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.Mortgage. If you love paying the banks too much for your mortgage,

then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am joking, of course. Visit him at Jason.Mortgage. Let him shop around for you. To the phone lines we go. Our NFL insider Mike Tanney are here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you?

I'm doing great. Happy belated Thanksgiving and happy two weeks till Halloween. Ah, yes. Good timing on that one. Okay. and happy two weeks till Halloween. Ah, yes. Good timing on that one. Okay, we want to start with you to talk a little wide receivers. Specifically, the two deals made yesterday. Who got the better deal in your eyes?

Is it the Jets getting Devontae Adams or is the Bills getting Amari Cooper? I think it's the Bills getting Amari Cooper because the Bills have more to gain by adding a wide receiver right now. At this point where the Jets are just trying to almost avoid a catastrophe, I think. I was looking at the odds and what Devontae Adams does to that team's odds. Their odds of making the playoffs aren't good.

Their odds of winning the division are bad. Their odds of doing anything right now as a 2-4 team are terrible, and it's almost like a survival mode and, of course, an Aaron Rodgers appeasement mode strategy. I know Devontae Adams is a good player, but I don't know what he solves for that team. When you look at the Bills, you see a team that looks like it's missing the number one guy, the guy who draws the coverage, the guy who makes it easier for Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid and these guys to operate underneath. And that's what they're getting in Amari Cooper. So you don't have this big storyline around it. What you have is a wide receiver who can still get deep, who can still make catches in the crowd, and who can still draw your number one cornerback away

from these other receivers. And then when you look at that, you realize the Bills are the team that could be adding the missing piece to reach the Super Bowl while the Jets are adding a guy to help paddle their boat. What do you make of the state of the Jets right now? I mean, Aaron Rodgers is, you know, emperor king. I mean, that's all this is right now. You stop, you turn the logic of your brain off that says, okay, the Super Bowl or building for next year or building for anything, and you switch it to what does Aaron Rodgers want right now to make Aaron Rodgers satisfied? And he wanted the coach fired, and then, you know, he wanted to mess around with the play calling to make it look like

he didn't get the coach fired. And he's wanted Devontae Adams since the summer, so you bring him in. And he was mad at Mike Williams, so you have to, like, marginalize Mike Williams for a couple days. And you do all these things, and I don't think it solves the underlying problems. Offensive line is not that good. No matter who the play callers are is pretty much Aaron Rogers calling the plays. The defense has slipped a little bit.

And this team was never from the get go as good as the bills was never as good as the Ravens was never going to be the team that they wanted to be. And the fact about Aaron Rogers right now is he's still a top 15 quarterback. Maybe he's a top 12 quarterback. But when you watch him, especially when he tries to move in the pocket, it's hard to say that's a top 10 quarterback. The reason that we went down the road of the wide receiver is because in Seattle right now, there's a DK Metcalf situation.

I'll call it a situation for now. It seems as though he's in the news every week for reasons good bad and otherwise you can't deny the talent that he had i don't think anyone can deny the talent yeah he's had a couple impressive touchdowns this year like he can stretch the field he's got incredible speed incredible ability but he turns the ball over a lot he fumbles a lot and runs lazy roots he also seems to have a bit of a personality problem. So the story this week was that he got on the phone and he called upstairs to Grubb, as he called him, Ryan Grubb, the offensive coordinator. And he said, can we please throw past the sticks?

Now, it's not an unreasonable suggestion. Like, hey, let's try and throw over a first down beyond the first down marker. Because that's how you get first downs. Right. I mean, it makes sense. You gotta go beyond the sticks. It makes sense. Very important.

The thing is that... Football 101. It's of all the guys that should be telling someone how to do their job properly, maybe DK Metcalf isn't that guy. I'm just going to go out and say it. Now, over at Seattle Sports, there's a columnist and a sports personality named Mike Salk

who suggests that the Seattle Seahawks should entertain the idea of trading DK Metcalf in the wake of the Adams trade and the Cooper trade. And he says, and I do kind of agree with this. I want to get your thoughts on it. DK is a really good player who plays a position that many of the teams in the NFL value quite highly. Is that a fair assessment?

It is, and especially because his talent goes straight up the sideline and catch the jump ball. If you look at what the Chiefs need right now, look what the Ravens need right now. You could fit him onto the Lions where their best receiver is a guy who works the middle. Wouldn't it be great to just catch jump balls on the sideline? You can put him – that is fair.

You could put him in those conversations. Do you think it would be worth exploring a trade? There's a couple things. Have you all thrown in the towel? You're three and three. I'm not impressed by the Seahawks, but is it throw the towel in time? Because that's a throw in the towel move.

That's my first thought. And the other thought is, I don't know how bad it is. Some of this has become national news, but if you trade a wide receiver every time they do a prima donna move, there would be 10 wide receivers traded every week. You know, like George Pickens would be gone. And here here in philly there's questions with aj brown where he starts

chirping and then and like every one of these other guys you know romeo dobbs was doing it a couple weeks ago and they settled it there they kind of worked things out so you know the fact that he's chirping i think step one is to try to work that out internally a little bit maybe this is a test for mcdonald and grububb as coaches to assert themselves without making this guy feel alienated. That would be the first thing. The second thing is maybe the situation changes if you lose to the Falcons, because if you lose to the Falcons, you start seeing the doors slam on playoff opportunities. Then you would consider it, because I do agree, Metcalf would have a market right now, because Adams is gone,

Cooper is gone, and there are contenders who would like to make their own splash at the trade deadline. So my thought on the Seahawks right now is actually the lowest that it got was watching the Giants play the Bengals over the weekend because I watched the Giants score, what was it, seven points? And I was like, this team came into Seattle and put up 29. Just controlled the ball. Whatever they wanted to do. What was it? Seven points. And I was like, this team came into Seattle and put up 29. And this is... Just controlled the ball. Whatever they wanted to do.

Just clinical. Daniel Jones is just zipping passes around. And then when he's not going, you hand the ball off and you're running it. Time of possession is up in the 40s. It was insane. And then this is the third consecutive week where the Seahawks have gone up against either an average good or really good offense and have got completely dominated.

Like that Jared Goff game where he didn't throw an incomplete pass was shocking at the time, but then you watch the games after that, and you're like, no, I could see how it happened. I feel like at 3-3, the Seahawks probably know what they are, and that's not a very good football team with a really bad defense. The trade deadline is November 5th, right? Still a ways away. So they've got three games.

They go to Atlanta, they host Buffalo, and then they host LA, and then they're on a bye week. So that could be a big week for the Seahawks, I suppose. Mike, we got to cut you short today because we got a bunch of guests and we got to talk some hockey because it's Canada up here. Sorry about that.

But thanks for coming on the show today. This conversation about the wide receivers and the DK Metcalf conversation in Seattle, I don't think it's going away anytime soon. So we'll talk about it later with you. We might be talking about it on Monday if you lose the Falcons. Awesome. Thanks, Mike. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the 2 Deep Zone sub stack here on the Halford & Brashtown Sportsnet 650.

Even though we did cut him short, he's going to join us on Monday. So we'll bookend this conversation for now. Do we have David on the line yet? Okay, we're going to get him on the line. David Dwork's going to join us from Florida in a minute here so we can preview tonight's opponent, the Florida Panthers. So we did this on Tuesday where we previewed the Tampa Bay Lightning with Dave Randolph,

the play-by-play voice of the Lightning. But we didn't really have a lot to chew on in the preview sense because they'd only played one game. Well, I think there was.

I mean, I think there was the addition of Jake Gensel to the Lightning and that ultimately ended up being a factor in the game because that line of Gensel, Braden Point, and Nikita Kucherov ultimately killed the Canucks.

Yeah, we just didn't know that before the game. Well, we talked about it. We wondered about who would get the assignment to check that line. And we talked about, you know, those, that lightning team still, because they make the trade or they let Stamkos walk and they bring in Gensel, essentially it's not a trade, but it's a switch.

You know, you're adding some speed there where Stamkos might be losing his legs a little bit. So I think the conversation about the lightning was worthwhile. What I'm curious about is what the Panthers are today. I'm not talking about this season. I'm talking about what kind of team are they

that the Canucks will face? Because yes, they had some off-season losses, including Brandon Montour, puck-moving defenseman who's now with Seattle, but they are going to be playing tonight without Barkov and Kachuk, but they still seem to be a pretty good team. Yeah, and they have one-two straight without Barkov and Kachuk. We should add as well be a pretty good team. Yeah, and they have won two straight without Barkoff and Kachuk,

we should add as well, 4-3 wins over the Bruins. And then that very emotional game the other night in Columbus, which was the tribute to Johnny Gaudreau pregame, they won that game 4-3. So it's a test, no doubt. Maybe we should have looked at the start of this road trip and realized that the Canucks were going to be in a little bit deeper than we thought.

The Tampa Bay game actually probably broke not in the Canucks' favor because that ended up being their de facto home opener. So you had all the energy of that with the crowd. They're a good team, man. They're a good team to begin with, right? Yeah. I think the energy might have been a little different had they played that opening game at home against Carolina, got that out of the way.

It just really goes to show you how much expectations have changed for the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks went in to Tampa Bay, a team that has been one of the best teams in the NHL for a while now. I realize they've fallen off a little bit in the last few years and a lot of people are wondering if their window is closed, but they're still really good. They've got some really good players there. And the Canucks got off to a bit of a slow

start, which isn't surprising for the reasons that you laid out. Tampa Bay, first of all, good team, home opener. They want to come out for the fans who've been through a very tough time with the hurricanes there. And they dominated the Canucks for the start. But the Canucks didn't get dominated for the rest of the game.

They found their legs in the second period. There were a couple breakdowns that led to goals against, but they didn't quit. And at the end of the day, you're looking at the shot clock and it's like, yeah, the possession was pretty even. It was a loss. They went into Tampa Bay and Tampa Bay played well and the Canucks didn't play well at the start of the game. But overall, I wasn't watching that game. We have to remember what it was like a few years ago when the Canucks would go on the road or frankly at home sometimes and play a team

that was clearly better than them. They would get dominated. They couldn't get out of their end. There would be games where they'd be outshot like 43 to 19 or something like that. That, that, that had, that did not happen in Tampa Bay, but our expectations have changed so much with this team.

When you go into Tampa Bay and you lose, it's like, oh my God, what happened? I mean, it's the lightning. And the Canucks are on the road. Are we shocked here? Not shocked by the results. I would say that there's going to be additional

levels of concern because the expectations have been raised. You're not that team that goes into some of these places the expectations have been raised you're not that team that goes into some of these places and say well we're clearly second best but if any team in the nhl went into tampa bay and that happened to them it wouldn't be a shock no not in that situation i agree with you there i think the pedersen thing is just hanging over all of it yeah and if you were able to remove that aspect of it um i think there are some things that need to be monitored and on the like concern-o-meter right and one of them would be that um they've got they've scored three times over the last two games and the offense has

been okay well the top six has not been up to par right when the chances come the finishing hasn't been there um i think that talk it's mentioned a couple times that he isn't thrilled with the end result of the possession yeah i think that there's a sense that they could generate more with more physicality i think that there's a sense that they could win more battles in the offensive zone and then you look at it and you're saying, aside from that, you want to look at it, four of the goals of this year were scored in the first period against Calgary, where Calgary was running around like crazy

and consistently putting the Canucks on the power play. So you're looking at guys like, I mean, Pedersen first and foremost. The offense needs to get going and the finishing needs to happen. We have David Dwork on the line here. So, David, how are you this morning? Thanks for joining us. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on guys. You're very welcome. We're glad to chat with you. So this is the Stanley Cup, the defending Stanley Cup champs from the Florida Panthers. But the team as comprised today, let's talk about the team as comprised today uh who are they missing compared to last season's

roster uh well guys that they lost in terms of free agency you're talking about like flatterberry tarasenko kevin stendland who was such a key player uh on florida's fourth line and to their penalty kill which was such a key asset last year on the back line brendan montour oliver eckman larson, Anthony Stolarz, who I don't know if he got talked about enough as perhaps the best backup goalie in the league last year. So solid for Florida. Could play in any situation, not just your traditional backup.

So Toronto's lucky to have him. So those are the guys that I could be even missing a guy or two that they lost just in terms of free agency contract-wise. Now you've got Alexander Barkov, who's out probably about another week. He was skating this morning. They're hoping to have him back before the Finland games in less than two weeks now. Matthew Kachuk has been out battling an illness.

They're hoping that he'll be back in the next couple of games. So right now, it's a very different looking Panthers team than what you saw at Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final. The Carter Verhage contract. Now, it was a lot of term and a lot of money for a guy that's that far along in his NHL career, but it is a guy that earned every cent of it with where he had bounced around from and where he landed.

What was the reaction when that Verhage deal got done? Not really surprised at all. The way that they did it was kind of cool because they brought in Carter Verhage. Bill Zito brought him in after everything was open at night and just kind of been to the media room like, hey, by the way, this is a little surprise for you guys. And we're all standing around thinking,

oh, maybe they're bringing the Stanley Cup in or something. But no, as soon as we saw Zito and Verheide, it was like, oh, this has been in the works for a little while. I know that the two sides have been speaking for a few months. They started almost immediately after the season ended and had been working towards it. Carter very much wanted to be in South Florida, and the Panthers didn't really have a problem with giving him that kind of term.

They think that he's going to be pretty viable throughout. This is just the guy who, just like with so many players that Bill Zito has brought in, amazing work ethic, great locker room guys, and nobody here is like a superstar. There's nobody that's self-reliant on this team. They play such a good five-man game that so many guys are just complimentary of one another. And I think that's why there's so much comfort handing out these term deals to a lot of their core, because they're comfortable that they're going to be playing that level of play.

You're thinking Paul Maurice is going to stick around for a while in his systems, obviously, but it all works right now. So they're happy to invest in that for the future. He's a handful on that line with Bennett, and I know that the Canucks will probably see a lot of that one tonight. I think Rodriguez is the winger that completes that line. If you could confirm that for us, and then what the Canucks are going to go up against with that line,

given the fact that Barkov and Kachuk are out, it seems like Verhege and Bennett will do a lot of the heavy lifting. Yeah, it's basically been like a pretty heavy top six with those two guys out. The line that you mentioned with Bennett centering for Hagee and Rodriguez, and then there's also the other unit of Anton Lundell, who is just maturing at a rate that we're thrilled to see down here, along with his finish for any two-listerin and Sam Reinhardt on the wing. And that line's really been doing a lot of the heavy lifting

over the last couple of games. I think they've scored seven or eight goals in the last couple of games between Reinhardt and Lundell, each who also had one last game. I think that's just kind of, it gives the front office that sense of like we're doing something right because they can miss such key players. You pull out a bar cut, like okay, you're missing one of your key centers, it's tough. You pull out a good shot, you're missing a winger,

but it's easy to slot guys around in this lineup. You take out two key guys in your top six and you really can get left a little stranded. But the way that the Panthers play and the way that, as I mentioned, just that style of hockey that they play, as long as they're able to control the puck, which they've been able to do for the most part, other than the Buffalo Sabres game last weekend, they can sustain their style.

And tonight will be a good test just because, as you guys mentioned, Vancouver comes in, such a hungry team still looking for their first win. So I'm expecting it to be a pretty entertaining hockey game tonight. Are we expecting Bobrovsky to start? I know Spencer Knight had a real busy night the other night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Got 38 shots, made 35 saves in a 4-3 Panthers win over Columbus.

Tonight, Sergei Bobrovsky will be in that. I think Paul Maurice just confirmed that a few minutes ago, actually. So you'll get Bob in that. Actually, you guys, maybe you can tell me who are we going to be seeing for Vancouver?

I was hoping to see Shelobbs in person, but I know... No, I think it's going to be Lankanen, Kevin Lankanen, probably for the Canucks. I'm not the coach, but I think it's going to be

Kevin Lankanen. And your guess is as good as ours because we have nobody working the practice today. So if you go by and check it out, you'll know more than we will. I don't even think the Canucks are skating this morning. Oh, they're not skating this morning.

That's right. They practiced yesterday. But yeah, it sounds like it'll probably be Lankan given that they played Sealoves on Tuesday night in Tampa Bay. How has Spencer Knight been? I know it's been a journey, to put it mildly, for him. And now he's got that number two job with Stolarz out.

Interesting character. How's he been aside from the one game? I mean, off the ice, he's been great. He's been exactly as you'd want him to be, just comfortable, calm, cool, collected Spencer Knight that we've gotten to know over the last few years. On the ice is what we're kind of keeping an eye on. He had a rough first game in Buffalo,

but to be fair, the entire team didn't play well in Buffalo. It wasn't just on Spencer Knight, although he did give up a couple wonky goals. The game in Columbus, I thought the first goal he gave up was not great. It was a rush goal, kind of coming through the right face-off circle. But as the game progressed, his game built, he got more confident, he got stronger. His third period was spectacular. And I think with Knight, that's just kind of the name of the game that you're looking for with him is just consistent progress like you don't want to see him taking any steps backwards based on this path that he's been on so i'm sure he's going to

continue to get opportunities that's the way that they want to handle the goaltending down here is maybe like a 55 30 ish you know 50 30 kind of split between the goaltenders and uh that's what they did with solars last year and like mentioned before, he was so just solid and consistent in that if they can get anything close to that with Knight, it'll be kind of a double win because you're getting the reliable goaltending that you covet from your backup, and you're also getting the progress that you want out of your goaltender of the future. So it's only two games, very small sample size,

but so far you've got to be pleased with what you're seeing from Knight. Is it still weird that the Florida Panthers are the Stanley Cup champs? Just for so many years in the NHL, like no disrespect meant, but the Panthers were completely irrelevant. And now they're the Stanley Cup champs. I'm still waiting for like the NHL network to put them in their, their intros because like, you know, you got the lightning in there already. I've been, that's what I've been waiting for but it is completely it has not sunk in whatsoever i've been following this team

since their inception i grew up in south florida the the panthers are a big reason why i played hockey why i pursued a career in hockey so for me personally it's it's a little surreal still to see how everything played out over the last couple of years and then over the summer uh i you know no it, it's totally weird. I'm just kind of answering your question again. But this is a team that for half of their existence, they basically were irrelevant. They didn't make the playoffs. They didn't make any substantial moves.

They struggled. They were kind of in that no-man's land of not making the playoffs but not being terrible enough to get top picks. And so to see what's happened over the last several years, particularly since they hired Bill Zito and the shift that's happened on the ice and off the ice, it's been remarkable to see. It's been well-deserved for between the longtime employees of that franchise, like guys like Randy Moeller that have been around forever,

or the fans down here that have been thick and thin. I know the Panthers are doing something really cool. They're giving all their original season ticket holders actual Stanley Cup rings. They had them in the building to get them fitted for it. They're going to have their names on it. So it's a pretty cool thing that they're doing. And there are, you know, I saw some jokes online. There's a few hundred original season ticket holders,

and my dad is actually one of them. So it's really cool what's happening down here. And I just hope it lasts. And I do think that the way Zito has built this team, that they are built to last. So it should be a fun few years for Panthers fans for a change. Very cool. David, this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do it today. Enjoy the game tonight. It should be a good one.

My pleasure, fellas. Anytime. Thanks. That's David Dwork from the Hockey News. Panthers reporter here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Yeah, I aired there. Shockingly, I aired there. The Canucks are not going to have a game day skate today, this morning. It would have gone off any time now.

They will do a pregame media availability, though. Head coach Rick Talkett and select players will meet with whatever media Vancouver has down there at 1.30 our time. And then at 4 o'clock tonight, there's the game against Florida. So at 1.30, folks, 1.30 our time. And then at 4 o'clock tonight, there's the game against Florida. So at 1.30, folks, 1.30, you'll probably get answers to the questions like, will Eric Brunstrom get into the lineup tonight?

Who will play on your forward lines? What do your forward lines look like? And who will play in that? Can you please tell us your forward lines? We were not at practice yesterday. I apologize. Yeah, just tell us everything. The media business is broken.

Speaking of broken, Thomas Chance is going to join us next to talk about Elias Patterson. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.