Halford & Brough in the Morning - Cue The Fan Blogger

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk the first Canucks win of the regular season (6:00), plus they preview Sunday's Seahawks matchup in Atlanta with ESPN's Brady Henderson (27:55). 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.

Whoa. Wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough. He'll drive in on the right wing with speed. Miller with a shot. He scores! J.T. Miller, the overtime winner. It was a good fight, a hard-won fight for us. What a freaking boost. Swung in, hit high, hit deep to left.

There she goes. A walk-off, two-run home run by David Fry. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford.

It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Vibes are high today. 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 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar

Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And 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. You know what else I was waiting for? A win. The fan blogger in the intro. And a win, of course. It was nice to hear him. It was tremendous. It was a good night. It was a fun night. The latest debut for the fan blogger

in a while, probably. Yeah, it's been a long time. October 18th, yeah. We got a lot to get into on the show today. Guest list begins at 6.30. Brady Henderson, ESPN NFL insider, Seahawks insider. He's going to join the program. It is the Seahawks in Hotlanta to take on Kirk Cousins and the Falcons on Sunday. 10 a.m. kickoff, our time.

Seahawks are three-point dogs on the road. We'll talk to Brady about all that. Who's going to play, Who's going to not? Their offensive line is now down to you will be playing right tackle. I've got to put on some weight. Laddie will be playing guard. And A-Dog will be the center. That's the one where

you snap it through your legs. A-Dog, are you ready? Snap it through my legs. Brady Henderson's the quarterback. He'll sneak up behind you. I don't like the sound of that. Pat you on the butt and be like, A-Dog, let's do this. Wait a minute, don't like the sound of that. Pat you on the butt and be like, hey, dog, let's do this. Wait a minute. I do like the sound of that. That's encouraging.

So Brady Henderson's going to join us at 630 to talk a little Seahawks. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizzas. Here's what we're going to do. I know we played in the intro, and I know the baseball game yesterday was an all-timer. Instant classic between the Yankees and the Guardians. If you missed it, you're going to have to wait until 7 o'clock until we do

the deep dive because AJ, a diehard Yankees fan. Now, it's not quite the gut punch that it would have been in a game seven. We should do the call to intro him. Force him to listen to it. I got a little spiel I want to run through and really, if you missed the game yesterday

because you were watching the Canucks game, try and like recapture some of the magic of the drama. It was an unbelievable, unbelievable baseball game yesterday. Are you going to set the tone? Okay, you're in Cleveland. You're depressed. That's right. It's eight rocks, but you know it doesn't.

The baseball team is all you have. All the body of water is smell funny. You're in Cleveland. Anyway, so we'll talk to AJ at 7 o'clock and then we'll get into a bunch of baseball then. 7.30, Bob the Moj Marjanovic. Ooh, we got a lot to talk about

with Moj today as the Lions play their final game of the regular season on the weekend with Vernon Adams Jr. Now the club's starting quarterback. For how long? I don't know.

We'll ask Moj at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. We'll talk about last night's big win for the Vancouver Canucks and a flurry of other notes. I know you put them in the notes with Dollywall. It's to be asked about, but I did not read it. I like to be surprised because when Rick is on the show,

it's always a surprise. So Rick's going to join us at 8 o'clock. A reminder, we are giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway today. It is the best pizza place in the world. Like last week, we want to make it as

simple as possible. Any listener submission, either what we learned or ask us anything is eligible, right? We're going to do that.

$100 gift card to AJ's. Dunbar Lumber text line is 65650. Andy? With a pizza emoji. Put a pizza emoji into your text.

Make it a what we learned. Hashtag it your text. Make it a What We Learned. Hashtag it WWL. Make it a Ask Us Anything. Hashtag it AUA. But put the pizza emoji into your text. You got a chance to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. That's what's happening on the show today. Don't even have time to get

to the guest list in reverse, because Laddie, we need to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was...

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction

Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The Vancouver Canucks got their first win of the season yesterday.

JT Miller, as we heard in the intro, courtesy of Batch, 2-0-9 into OT, a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers. Let's hear Shorty's version of the OT winner. Here's JT Miller getting the Canucks their first win of the season last night in Florida. Brings the puck back over the pass to Miller. Besser gets onside as Miller gets around Lundell. JT Miller shoots, he scores! JT Miller roofed it! And the Canucks have their first win of the season.

It comes in overtime. Let's go! Rick Tockett asked the Canucks to dig in, and that's exactly what they did Thursday night against the defending Stanley Cup champs. Granted, the champs were without two of their best players, but still, that was a hard-fought win

for the Canucks, who matched the Panthers in physicality and got a big goal from JT Miller and a huge performance by Quinn Hughes, their captain. That was also a good hockey game. Especially the third when the intensity really ramped up. I thought the first two periods it was kind of like, well, this isn't an oil painting, but the Canucks are working hard.

The third was, dare I say, nerve wracking? A little bit of a nail biter. For game four of the regular season. You know, if you can have a nerve-wracking game in game four of the regular season, last night was it for the Canucks. The Canucks now have points in three of their first four games. That's good, but no regulation wins. That's bad.

That's bad. It's been a bit of a mixed start for the Canucks this season, but they finally get their first win of the season last night in Florida. Their next game is Saturday in Philly against a Flyers team that they've already played and lost in a shootout too? Overtime shootout? I can't remember. Yeah, shootout too, overtime shootout? I can't remember. Yeah, shootout.

Kevin Lankanen, who played last night, I imagine is going to get the start again because he played against the Flyers in Vancouver and played very well. And he has clearly been the better of the two Canucks goalies so far. Artur Silas has played two games. Kevin Lankanen has played two games. Lankanen, so far, the best goalie so far. Artur Silas has played two games. Kevin Lankanen has played two games. Lankanen, so far, the best goalie. I don't know how Rick Tockett is going to

deploy his goaltenders in the next little while, but it's good that they got Lankanen. That's all I, you know, like, thank God they went out and got that guy. Let's go through some players last night because I would like to start with the captain Quinn Hughes. That guy was all over the ice. He had a goal. He had an assist. He had nine shots on goal, so much for his issues getting the puck through. He could have had a few more assists

too. It was terrifying when he got hit from behind late in the game. You could actually hear him kind of yelp out there. I think it was Sam Bennett hitting him from behind. It wasn't a super dirty hit. Sam Bennett with a questionable hit. Yeah, he just, I mean, it was, I don't know. Quinn isn't the biggest guy. So when he gets hit hard, you're kind of like, oh boy.

And then he went down the tunnel and it was like, oh no. Come back. But he was back. Fortunately, he was fine and came back to set up Miller's OT winner. Really nice play by those two. I know DT thought it was a set play and I thought it was a set play at first. Was Brock Besser going in and then having to race back to get onside? Was that part of the set play?

It's all part of the design. Was that part of the design? They call it subterfuge, Jason. Huge game for Quinn Hughes. And another big goal for JT Miller. These guys are the two Canuck leaders. It was the second big goal of the season for JT Miller. You remember he scored the big tying goal against the Calgary Flames. That was a JT Miller kind of hockey game too.

The Panthers play some big boy hockey, and JT Miller is fully capable of playing big boy hockey. Bobrowski was on his game last night, so that was a really good shot to win it in overtime, and the Canucks badly needed it. If you're wondering about Quinn Hughes' nine shots on goal, that's the most by a Canucks defenseman in a single game in 11 years. You've got to go all the way back to November of 2013

to when Alex Edler put up 12 shots in a single game. He had on goal, Alex Edler. That is a mind-boggling statistic. But it was a great performance from Hughes and Miller. And what a familiar refrain for this show where we talk about the alphas, the leaders, the dogs in the room.

Who are the guys that are going to gut it out, grind it out, and get you a win when you, I mean, they needed a win last night. Let's just make no mistake about this. If the Canucks didn't win that game last night, it would have been a disappointment because the Florida Panthers were without Matthew Kachuk. They were without Alexander Barkov. They were without Jonah Gajevich.

How do you survive the loss of Jonah Gajevich? They were actually down to eight or nine forwards at one point last night, the Florida Panthers, when Reinhardt got hurt. He returned pretty quick. They didn't play Gajevich because he got hurt early and was knocked out. Then the other forward they have, Giles,

played about four minutes. So they had really, really gone to three lines early and often. But they played a pretty committed game. They did. That was a physical,

physical game last night. Not to put the focus elsewhere, but I was listening to 32 Thoughts on the way and it freaks you to the two best games on an 11-game schedule

last night. Both happened in Florida. It was Canucks-Panthers and then the Lightning beat the visiting Golden Knights. Two late goals for the Lightning to beat Vegas. Yeah, games on an 11 game schedule last night. Both happened in Florida. It was Canucks Panthers. And then the lightning beat the visiting golden night. Too late goals for the lightning to beat Vegas. Yeah. And the lightning who just beat the Canucks now are off to a three Oh,

no start with wins over pretty good opponents, Carolina, Vancouver, Vegas. That's a pretty good start. Anyway, I digress. Let's get back.

Let's talk a little Kevin Lankan. And cause I thought for me, the story of last night's game, I know Miller's OT winner was big I know Hughes was big but given where the goaltending's at I feel like Lankanen

not just establishing himself as the better of the two but a guy that can win he won that game for them I thought especially I thought he did I thought he did

I thought that save on Rodriguez which was a guaranteed goal yeah right and it was almost one of those saves it was like whoopsie

look what I did but he managed to keep it out one of those saves. It was like, whoopsie, look what I did. But he managed to keep it out. One of those goals I didn't love, but he was fantastic. Other than that. Second and third period, he was unreal. He was very good. Yeah. He is.

It's nice to have this debate. Who is the Canuck that stepped up the most? You can have it between Lankanen, JT Miller, or Quinn Hughes. I would take Hughes because I thought he was brilliant all night. You know what it is, though, almost? But it's okay if you want to go with Lank all night. You know what it is though almost? But it's okay if you want to go with Lankanen. You know what it is almost?

House of positivity, baby. We love our Canucks here. I almost have come to expect those performances from Hughes and from Miller. Like that's kind of what that's – Yeah, Hughes took it to another level. He did. I thought last night. For sure.

That was a great performance. Like that shot was – I can't believe how far a shot's come. His shot is so good now. Yeah. It's a rocket. It's a rocket. He had everyone out. I can't believe how far his shot's come. His shot is so good now. It's a rocket. He had everyone out. I don't know, A-Dog, one for nine? Yeah. Need a higher conversion rate.

One for nine. There's the house of negativity. Disappointing. There we go. No, but look, going into this season, and especially given how the first game of the year went, I think it was fair to have a couple red flags raised in that. If you're like, well, Seelov's is your opening night starter.

He puts up that performance. And you're not going to have Thatcher Demko riding in on a white horse anytime soon. Lankanen coming in, not getting a training camp, basically getting thrown into, what, one or two preseason games. That is an impressive, impressive performance. So a lot of people texting in about you-know-who. It was progress for Petey. No points, just one assist in four games, but he was decent last night. I'm not going to lower the bar for

him. He hit a crossbar, didn't he? Yeah, but I'm not going to lower the bar for him. He had a great scoring chance, courtesy of a really nice pass by Nils Hoeglund. He was on a line with Hoeglund and Garland, and I expect to see that trio going forward because it seemed to work pretty well. He also made a couple of nice passes to create scoring chances. I think one or two to Jake DeBrusque. DeBrusque couldn't convert, and he was very frustrated after one miss. Petey also blocked four shots, so he was doing his job defensively. So it was a positive performance, relatively speaking, you know, uh, I, I want

to get to the point where we're talking about a positive performance, not relatively speaking. Uh, we're still really waiting for him to take off. And again, I, I, I don't think we should lower the bar. We can, we can recognize when he plays better and that there's progress, there's nothing

wrong with progress. Um, and I guess if you want to call that anything last night for Petey, it was a step in the right direction. Yeah, I'm fine with that. I don't think we need to go to – the fatigue has set in. I can even tell when you sent your notes last night that the Petey fatigue had set in a little bit. I thought Brock Besser, no points last night.

He played really well. He had a ton of scoring opportunities. I think if you look at the analytics from last night, he had by far the most high-danger scoring chances, played really well. I also want to mention Kiefer Sherwood. Ten hits, a couple pucks to the face. I mean, that's a physical night for Kiefer Sherwood,

which is exactly why they brought him in. It felt like half of those hits were on Nate Schmidt. I don't know what the deal there was. Honestly, get in on the forecheck. Nate Schmidt can be feisty sometimes. I think he was kind of like, the Canucks don't care for him. They did not care for him.

And then one other guy, I guess we should mention, Eric Branstrom made his Canucks debut. He only played less than 12 minutes. I think it was 11.49 in all. Didn't make any huge mistakes, so that's good. I think he got caught up the ice once and got bailed out. But look, that was a tough assignment for that guy. He has to fly to Florida. He's never practiced with the team, probably doesn't know many, if any, guys on the team, and he goes in there and plays in a pretty important game for them. You can see just by watching him that he is a very different type of player

than the guy he went in and replaced, which was Derek Forbort. He plays a less structured game than the big, tall defensemen that are in the Canucks, what we call the bottom four here. I don't know if that was just like, we need someone to step in for forward, and we can't play Day or Nay and Juleson together on a pair or whatever. That'd be fun, though. I don't know if it'd be fun.

He was a lefty that was available to play, and I think the Canucks probably wanted to take a look at him. I'll be curious to see if he stays in the lineup going forward or if he's used by the Canucks going forward. If they say, okay, go play your way, or if they try and say, okay, look, we know you want to be a bit of a rover, and we know you want to use your skating ability

and use the thing that makes you the player that you are, but we do play a pretty strict system here. I prefer him to both DeArne and Julesen, if I'm being honest. I prefer him to DeArne and Julesen. You need roles, though. Can he come penalties like DeArne? He's not good defensively. He's a good penalty killer.

DeArne's a good penalty killer. Yeah. De'Arne's a project. This is the, I don't want to get too bogged down in, the Canucks had a good win last night. There is a depth concern on their back end, right? Let's just put it that way. Sure. You know, maybe that's something that management is going to have to address later in the season, especially if De'Arne doesn't,

if the project doesn't develop like they thought it would. I have seen a couple people really, and we want to talk about a house of optimism, try and say like Braunstrom could end up being what Forsling has been in his career. It took four stops before he figured it out. There's nothing. I don't know about that. That'd be nice, though. But there's nothing so far, and it's too small of a sample size

to gauge either way, but there's nothing that would suggest it would be. I do think that from the outside when they made the deal and they sent pullman's contract away i thought they were almost like forced to take brandstrom back that it was like okay colorado wants the space but you're gonna have to take brandstrom's 900k back in exchange like i didn't really think it could be i don't know but i but i didn't really think they had huge plans for him then i talked to some people that covered him in Ottawa, and I was like, what's the deal here? Because he's played close to 300 NHL games, and he was a regular last year.

Like, it's not like he was in and out of the lineup. He played 78 of 82. And the refrain came back is that he didn't really know how to defend the way that the club wanted him to. And I'm like, that's fine, but he's only 25. Is there the potential to learn that side of the game and they're like well as you said kind of a rover that was you know he wants to go out there and he wants to skate when he has the freedom to be free yeah as we all do right just i don't have

the skating ability or talent um he can make things happen but in a structured role in a third pair you're right you're like don't make things happen just go out there and play it safe uh let's talk about what else happened in the nhl last night um i'm really keeping an eye on the the trio i love how they've been kind of grouped together buffalo detroit and ottawa yeah freijan well not to interrupt but freijan um kyle are doing the same thing yeah yeah i yeah, yeah. I think everyone is. We were doing it last season, too. Yeah, those three teams are now a story moving forward. And none of them have

broken through yet. They all lost last night. The three, by the way, are the Buffalo Sabres, the Ottawa Senators, and the Detroit Red Wings, all in the Atlantic, all looking to break through. So, Detroit is now 1-3 after a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers.

The Ottawa Senators are two and two, not bad, after a three-one loss to New Jersey who looks, they look pretty

good right now. Markey looks unreal. They played seven games already. They're five and two and I think the big and saddest story,

the sad club brethren of the Vancouver Canucks, the Buffalo Sabres, they lost to Columbus last night 6-4 to drop them to 1-4-1 on the season. And, man, they've tried everything except winning. They should try that. Lindy Ruff brought back.

They're still a bad hockey team. winning they should try that lindy ruff brought back uh you know they're just they're just they're still a bad hockey team they lose six four to columbus one four and one i saw ross must dally after is like you know like i don't know we gotta try harder i don't know what you're supposed to say anymore right he said that we need to play more desperate and then he took as a good captain does yeah he's a captain there because he had a terrible turnover last night they turned the puck over with regularity trying to do their breakouts and then it's just a sort of like shrug afterwards when the puck's in the back of the net because i mean i guess lindy ruff can't bench ross misdeline and matthias samuelson in the same game but their mess their and i don't know if this is just everyone's on high alert

because it's the beginning of the season and everyone, I mean, we've done it here, overreacts the first four or five games of the year, but Buffalo looks like they are in a very, very bad way. By the way, because I am a seasoned professional, I did my pre-scout last night. I watched the Canucks next opponent, who is their previous opponent, the Philadelphia Flyers.

They played in Seattle last night. And here's my one hope for Saturday's game. I watched that game on Seattle TV. It was weird. I was flipping by.

I was like, oh, the cracking game is on. Here's my hope for the Flyers game on Saturday is that they give Fedotov the start again

because he is not good. I don't like Arison. He might be one of my least favorite goalies in the league. I think Fedotov is worse. Somehow they found a goalie worse. Well, it like Arison. He might be one of my least favorite goalies in the league. I think Fedotov is worse. Somehow they found a goalie worse. Well, it was Arison that played against the Canucks.

Yeah, and I don't like him. Yeah, so Arison had to go in and relief yesterday, which is great because that tires him out too. Fedotov is very slow. Very slow. It's funny. They had Scott Hartnell working the panel in between intermissions because I was watching the Philly broadcast.

And he was trying to dance around the issue that all the goals stunk. And he was trying to do it diplomatically. And then finally he was like, but they're just shooting the puck right at him. And it's going right through him. And he's like, that's bad. Right. So it's not. They lost 6-4 in Seattle.

And if you want to talk about things that are breaking the Canucks way, a couple people pointed out to me, that's a bit of a scheduling rarity what's going on because they're going to stay overnight in Seattle they're going to make the five-hour flight home on the Friday and then they got to host the Canucks on the Saturday so the Canucks are probably going to be in Philly before the Flyers are yeah the other notable from last night on the out-of-town scoreboard I don't know which is more notable the Oilers winning their second in a row to improve to 2-3-0, or the Predators falling to 0-4 on the season after a 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Yeah, so now there's only two teams in the National Hockey League that are 0-4, and it's Colorado and it's Nashville. Very strange. Yeah, two very high expectations teams just because Colorado is Colorado and Nashville, after a pretty impressive, unexpected playoff appearance last season facing the Vancouver Canucks in the first round.

Then you go out and you add Stephen Stamkos and you add Jonathan Marcheseau. 0-4 start. Zero points and a minus three for Stamkos. And you lock up UC Soros. And they send Brady Shea. They are completely away from... They're missing Ryan McDonough. They are.

They've gone completely away from the way that they played last year. No, no, no. They have gone completely away. They're trying... So they had... I was listening to an interview with Andrew Burnett and then one with Barry Trotz. And they lost their identity because they batted those guys?

We just want to outscore everybody now. They're not playing that type of hockey that we saw last year in the playoffs, and then one with Barry Trotz. And they lost their identity because they batted those guys? We just want to outscore everybody now. They're not playing that type of hockey that we saw last year in the playoffs, which wasn't super exciting, wasn't very high octane, but was hard to play against. Julian Breezeball is looking early on, looking like he made a pretty good decision taking Gensel over Stamkos. Early on. The Lightning looked good.

The Lightning. I mean, those are three really good wins to start the season. There's no other way to say it. Like, those are impressive victories. Yeah. That's why I thought the collective freakout

over the Canucks' loss to Tampa Bay was like, why is everyone surprised by it? Like, this is a good Lightning team and they played really well for their home fans who have just been through a lot. The Canucks lost that game because the Lightning played so well to start that game.

Now there were, the Pedersen thing kind of hung over it all. I realize that. But so far, if you look at this Canucks season, I don't think it's been that bad a start. The Pedersen thing aside, okay, I realize we all want this guy to play better, but you start out, they should have beaten Calgary, but Seeloffs. They played well enough against Philadelphia to get a point.

They were all over the flyers early on, couldn't convert on their chances, right? But in those first two games, they easily played well enough to win those games. Yep. Then they go to Tampa Bay and they play a very good Tampa Bay Lightning team. Tampa Bay plays very well to start, but the Canucks find their legs.

And by the end of that game, the Canucks were fine. And then they go last night and they beat the Florida Panthers um you know me I'm not a guy that's going to make excuses for the Canucks or only harp on the positives I'm definitely not that guy but I I really don't think the start to the season has been that bad considering all the challenges that this team is currently facing the number one thing being that they're missing Thatcher Demko they're missing their Vezina finalist goalie they're doing this

with Silovs who has struggled and with Kevin Lankanen who is new to the team with a bunch of new players with Elias Pedersen who is trying to find his game it hasn't been that bad well I'm glad you brought this up because it's I did think think about this a little bit and I'm like, what is it about this start to the season that is maybe either drawn the ire or been a tad concerning or different. And I realized that last year the Canucks were 42, one and four when leading after two periods last season, and they frittered away some leads going into the third period this year.

So that's the one big difference. The Calgary game set the tone. The Calgary game was a set. It did set the tone for sure. I mean, they technically blew a third period this year. So that's the one big difference. The Calgary game set the tone. The Calgary game did set the tone for sure. I mean, they technically blew a third period lead last night as well, right? So they came back and won, of course. Didn't they go into that? I think they went into it tied. They had a goal in the third period. It was 2-1 going into

the third, if I'm not mistaken. But we got to double check because I'm not really a numbers guy and a stats guy. I think they went into the third tied at 2. Okay. Well, then they blew two third period leads this season. Whatever the case, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Brady Henderson's going to join us on the other side, talk a little Seahawks. Three straight losses for the Seattle Seahawks. They're three-point dogs this weekend in Atlanta. 10 a.m. kickoff on Sunday. We'll talk to Brady about that coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah,

your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.33 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. We'll be right back. Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Fiesta Friday Hour one of this program, we're smack in the middle

of it, is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal Northstar Metal Recycling they recycle, you get paid visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver to the phone lines we go it's time now for our Seahawks preview brought to you

by the Clayton Public House pre-game to brought to you by the Clayton Public House. Pre-game to post-game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online at theclaytonpub.com. Brady Henderson now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Brady. How are you? What's up, fellas? Good to talk to you. Good morning. We need to start with something that's not good, and that is the state of the Seattle Seahawks offensive line, health-wise. We're not sure who's going to be playing.

I suggested that Jason might get some reps at right tackle this Sunday in Atlanta because it just seems like the revolving door keeps revolving, and the story of this season continues to be the story this team, especially on the offensive line, can't get healthy. Well, Jason strikes me as a real road grader, a real nasty presence at right tackle. Yeah, I've been trying to eat as much as I can over the next few days. Very handsy.

I'll be ready. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, the Seahawks have had a very tough time there. So just when you think it couldn't get worse, it might be getting worse now. And, I mean, they're probably, it sounds like it's going to be down to their fourth string right tackle Sunday in Atlanta. We don't know exactly who that's going to be, but I don't think it's going to be Stone Forsyth. He has not practiced this week because of a hand injury and just to give you guys an idea like we are not allowed to report what we see in terms of like you know what I get what a guy is wearing or whether he's on crutches but let's just say

hypothetically hypothetically speaking here you can pick up what I'm putting down if a guy who's been dealing with a hand injury was walking around with a cast on his left hand you know we wouldn't be able to report that. So that's just hypothetically speaking. So, yeah, I don't think Stone Forsythe is going to play, and it sounds like he's going to have to miss some time maybe beyond this game. And so you're looking at whether it's Jason Peters, who's 42 years old, the rookie sixth-round pick, Mike Jarrell or McClendon Curtis.

It's not, you know, you're picking between, you know, I guess the least bad of three pretty unideal options. Obviously, Jason Peters is a future Hall of Famer, very accomplished player. And if I had to guess, I would say he's at least going to get some playing time on Sunday, whether he starts and plays the whole game or not. I think they're going to work him in there. But when you're talking about putting guys out there who are four or five years older than me, that's not a good situation.

So what does this impact the most? Does it impact the passing game or does it impact the running game the most? Yeah, that's a good question. I might even say the running game, just in this game in particular, just because, look, you never want to be as shorthanded or down to your fourth string option at right tackle in any game.

But I suppose that if there is one game to do it, this is not the worst game, just because Atlanta, I mean, they do have some accomplished rushers, including Matthew Judon, who they traded for, I think, right before the season. But by and large, it's really not, it has not been a good pass rush group. They're one of the lower pressure rates, one of the lower pass rush win rates in the NFL, haven't had a lot of sacks. So, I mean, they are playing at home and you do have, again, some good accomplished rushers there, but they have not been really effective. So maybe the thought is you can survive this game if you you know have a plan to get the ball out and you really have a plan to help out whoever it is at right tackle so i would i would think the issue would be more so in the run game just because as we've all seen you haven't been able to get it

going when you have been able to run ball you know when you've been in situations where uh the the score and the clock don't really dictate that you kind of get away from the run um there's times where they've been okay they just haven't been able to stick with it by large and um that's why ken walker is you know has eight ten fifteen carries uh not a lot more you know they probably prefer him to be over 20 per game, and they just haven't been able to do that. Brady, talk to us about DK Metcalf and why he seemed to be the main character in all the debates and all the talk about the Seahawks this week.

Yeah, well, he, you know, to his credit, he came out and set the record straight on, I think it was Wednesday or Thursday, Wednesday, when he said that second interception was his fault. And I think we talked about this last time, last Friday, in our recap of the game. It certainly looked like that wasn't on Geno Smith. That looked like there was a miscommunication there where he thought DK was running an in route and was going to flatten it off like you normally do on that kind of route but he kind of drifted up field he saw some open space behind him so and DK confirmed that that he saw an opportunity for a

big play and veered more towards the post when he should have been staying flat on the route so to his credit he set the record straight after Geno Smith had tried to take the blame for it but you know there was also the you know the kind of interaction he had over the headset with Ryan Grubb where he's yelling at him about, I think, wanting to go deep more. And I imagine that Ryan Grubb was telling him in some terms, DK, it's hard to go deep when your pass blocking is already such an issue and then you're facing Nick Bosa and all those guys at the

49ers were were bringing it Gino Smith and so um you know Grubb kind of laughed off the exchange when we talked to him yesterday but I think just in a big picture sense this is kind of what teams deal with with a lot of star receivers and you know Tyler Lockett is he's the most down-to-earth like easygoing level-headed guy you will ever meet in an NFL locker room. But in terms of big-time wide receivers, he is the exception. And DK Metcalf is more of the rule. And I think with big-time personalities, big-time players like that,

you've got to, to some degree, take the bad with the good. And there's been good this season. He's the fourth- leading receiver in the NFL, and that's with a 60-something yard touchdown wiped off the board because of a penalty last week that had no bearing on the play other than to nullify it. So he's been productive. And you take the bad with the good,

but there has been a lot of bad this season to go along with the good between five penalties, four drops uh the two lost fumbles and then again that um you know that sloppy route or that bad route that ended up leading to the interception i i want i like hypotheticals i know some people don't but let's say the seahawks were to lose these next three games before the trade deadline and before their bye week so they go into atlanta where they are actually underdogs, so they could lose that. Come home to play Buffalo. That's going to be a tough game against a good Bills team.

Then they host the Rams, which, I don't know, they should win that. But let's say they lose all three of those games. So they're 3-6 before the trade deadline. Could you see them entertaining a DK Metcalf trade? Well, logically, that would make sense. Yes, because you've got a guy who, again, has been sort of up and down. He's in the last year of his contract, and the wide receiver market has exploded, as we know, and so you're probably going to have to pay him a lot of money this offseason if you want to keep him around. You've also got the fact that they have a lot of other players up for extensions,

including Geno Smith, including all of those guys from the 2022 draft class who are going to be in line for new deals. The Boye Mafe, Rick Wolton, Ken Walker III, all those guys. Charles Cross is probably the first guy on that list. So, yeah, and if your season is going nowhere, and depending on how they have viewed some of that volatility internally and how much of that they feel like they have to live with slash are willing to live with going forward,

then, yeah, I think logically that becomes a conversation. The yeah but to that is that the Seahawks fired, I mean they essentially fired Pete Carroll last year. So if I'm John Schneider, I'm looking at that and saying that if Pete Carroll was not safe, then there are no sacred cows in this organization. If Jody Allen was disappointed enough with the results the last few years to move on from Pete Carroll, then John Schneider's probably got to be feeling some sort of pressure

to win right now. I think the new coach, Mike McDonald, has got a six-year guaranteed contract, so he probably can play the long game. I just don't know if John Schneider, if he trusts, you know, sort of his standing enough to kind of play that long game and give up, you know, when you're giving up one of your best players, your most talented players, then you're playing the long game. And I just wonder how willing he would be to do that, you know, if he's not quite certain that he would have the job security to pull that one off. We're speaking to Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We mentioned after the most recent loss, Brady,

that the Seahawks have, I believe it's the worst turnover differential in the NFL. And we were saying, you know, part of this is because, obviously, you turn the ball over on offense. But the other part of it is that you're not causing enough of them on defense. I know that you wrote about this for ESPN.com this week, that the Seahawks were searching for answers to the turnover problems and the turnover differential. What answers did they find?

Yeah, I think one of them is that you've got to get more people to the ball, and as we've seen with the DK Metcalf fumbles over the last few weeks, fumbles happen when you get a lot of players to the ball. And as we've seen with the DK Metcalf fumbles over the last few weeks, you know, fumbles happen when you get a lot of players to the ball and if one guy holds the guy up, the other guy comes in and punches. Scenario where you see a lot of fumbles forced. I think the other thing is they've got to force teams into more pure passing situations. Because the other way you see fumbles is you get guys you get teams

in third and long and uh your pass rushers can you know pin their ears back so to speak and just tee off on quarterbacks and haven't been in situations enough of those situations between you know all the big deficits they've been chasing even when they haven't been doing that they've generally played in close games i think with the the exception of that Miami game in week three, where they really pulled away in the second half, they haven't been in enough of those situations. And that's just in terms of like the game flow. Even when you look at individual third down plays, they haven't been good enough on first and second down to force teams into third and long. It's been, you know, I think they have one of the lower average distances

needed for a first down on third down if you look at their opponents. Because, again, they just haven't been stout enough on first and second down. So I would say it's those three things. And, you know, the good news for them is they've got the – you know, they're going to be without Nwosu. You've got Nwosu for probably until late in the season at the earliest, but you're getting Byron Murphy back this week. You've got Mafe back.

Derek Hall is still doing his thing. You've still got Leonard Williams inside, so you should have the pieces up front in terms of your pass rush. The pass rush, it has been okay. It just hasn't had enough of those what I terms of your pass rush and the pass rush, you know, it has been okay. It just hasn't had enough of those, what I would call pure pass rush situations where that's when you really have a chance to, you know,

affect the quarterback and make something happen there. The three and three Seattle Seahawks traveled to Atlanta this weekend to take on the four and two Falcons. The Falcons are three point home favorites. Remember it's a 10 a.m. kickoff our time on Sunday. Brady, thanks a lot for doing this today. We really appreciate it, as always.

Enjoy the game this weekend, and we will do this again next Friday. All right, Jason, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you got out there at right tackle. It can't be much worse than what they've had. This is my time. This is my time. I'm going to make it happen. I actually got to catch a flight real quick. See you, Brady.

Yeah, all right. Good luck. See you guys. See you. Brady Henderson, Seahawks insider from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I was like, there's a guy worse than Stone Forsyth on the Seahawks? His name's Jason Brough. Yikes.

I sent you guys the video, or maybe I just sent it to you, but there was a video making the rounds about how tragic their offensive line has been. People spot shadowing Stone Forsythe, who may or may not have a cast on his hand, apparently. He's their third string right tackle. He is what he is. Put it this way. When you get down to the fourth string right tackle,

which is what they're going to this weekend, it's a blank. There's a nameplate and there's no name on it. It just says fourth string. Because most teams don't have one. It's crazy. It's unbelievable. Speaking of unbelievable, Laddie, we're going to do this right now.

We're going to do the baseball. We're going to do the operatic, the orchestra of audio that was yesterday's baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians. All right, set the scene. Okay, so to set the scene,

you got to jump ahead all the way to the eighth inning of this game, right? Yankees are up to... Forget the first seven inning. Forget the first seven inning. Nothing happened. Nothing of note. Yankees are up 2-0 in the series. They're down 3-1 in the game, though.

And you're like, all right. Guardians, you know, they got Klasse on the hill. They're big closer. The flamethrower. They're just working hard to produce any sort of offense. They're up 3-1 in the game, and they're down 2-0 in the series. So this is a chance for the Guardians to get back in this game. This is great, right?

Then Aaron Judge comes to the plate with a man on. And it's a pretty good at-bat. Class A's throwing heat. Judge is digging in. And then Aaron Judge does this. Ready for a one-two. Here he comes. Judge, line drive, right field, hit well.

And it is up and out! Judge has homered the game is tied at three incredible so keep in mind now it's a big swing it's a big momentum changer but it's still three three yeah and there's two outs in the inning it's it's the eighth like you're still in not great shape but you're in okay shape you can get out of the inning tied because's the eighth. You're still in not great shape, but you're in okay shape. You can get out of the inning tied because there's two outs. Yes, Judge just delivered a huge dagger with two outs, but there's still two outs. The only problem is that John Carlos Stanton came up

right after Aaron Judge with the score now 3-3. Still two outs on the board, and then John Carlos Stanton did this. A home run to Kerry Carpenter. That ball's hit well. Deep center field. Way back there. John Carlos Stanton! A home run to Kerry Carpenter. That ball's hit well. Deep center field. Way back there. Giancarlo Stanton.

A home run. Judge and Stanton go back to back. And the New York Yankees have grabbed the lead. So this is feeling very Cleveland at this point. Very Cleveland. I went to my watch on this one. In real time, in the span of three and a half minutes. The Guardians went from being

3-1 up, four outs needed because remember, all this was happening with two outs in the eighth. With their closer out there. With their star closer out there to now it's 4-3 Yankees.

Cleveland looks like it's decimated. It's dead quiet. It looks like it's badimated. It's dead quiet. It looks like it's bad, bad times for Cleveland. They're about to drop 0-3 in the series. Yeah, the Yankees added one more in the top of the ninth. So it's 5-3 heading to the bottom of the ninth. Cleveland, it's looking rough.

They got a couple outs. At this point, they've blown their lead. Luke Weaver, who if not for class A, is probably the best closer in baseball right now, is on the hill for the Yankees. There's two outs. You mean Cleveland. Sorry, Cleveland. There's two outs.

And actually, the ninth inning started great for Cleveland because Ramirez reaches on an error. So you're like, all right, we got some momentum going. Then Naylor grounds into a double play and it's flatlined. 98.5% win percentage or win probability for the Yankees at that point after the double play. So the Cleveland manager, Steven Vogt, does something inspirational. He goes to his bench for a pinch hitter with one runner on with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. He calls on John Kenzie Noel, a guy who up until yesterday I had no idea existed. And when I saw his name, I'm like, that's a cool name.

You don't get a lot of John Kensies in the MLB. He has a very odd batting stance, too. Everything about him is... You guys know about Big Christmas? I know about Big Christmas now. John Kenzie Noel, who prior to this was like one for 16 as a pinch hitter. So it's a gutsy call to go for him. But with a homer.

Yeah. So again, bottom of the ninth, 5-3 Yankees, two out. John can't see Noel with a runner on, does this. Oh! Oh my goodness! Big Christmas has tied it! The ultimate present under the tree! Oh, my goodness!

So what do we call that bat toss, by the way? Is that a bat fling? That was like he swung it. He swung. Bat spike. And then just like flung his bat in the rebound motion. I had a lot of respect for the way that he pimped that one because it was a fling. It wasn't a flip.

And then he threw his hands up in the air. And then he got back to the dugout, and there was like no celebration. He's like, yeah, I did that. He wasn't a flip. And then he threw his hands up in the air. And then he got back to the dugout and there was like no celebration. He's like, yeah, I did that. He just kind of stood there. And I was like, this is amazing. But the game wasn't over. It's only tied. It's tied 5-all now. So the momentum that it previously swung

all the way in favor of the Yankees in the 8th is now all the way in the favor of the Guardians after the bottom of the 9th. You go to the top of the 10th. It's a little bit of a longer inning, but the Coles Notes version is the Yankees don't get any offense. They don't put up any runs.

So then we go to the bottom of the 10th. Naylor opens with a single. They bunt him over to second, one out. Ground ball moves him to third, two out. Then David Fry comes to play plate. So a reminder here in the ninth inning, they hit a home run with two outs on the board. In the 10th inning, in a walk-off scenario, two outs on the board. David Fry comes up and does this. Carries the winning run in game three. Fry, deep drive, left field. Fry's watching.

It is a walk-off home run. David Fry lights up the Cleveland night. I don't remember a game where I saw four more emotional, pivotal home runs in the span of two innings, or three innings, sorry, the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth. Yeah. Four really, I mean, the Yankees went back-to-back home runs to take the lead in the span of two innings, or three innings, sorry, the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth. Yeah. Four really, I mean, the Yankees went back-to-back home runs to take the lead in the eighth.

That was supposed to be the story. And I'm sure a lot of the listeners right now didn't even see this because they were probably watching the Canucks game because at the same time, the Canucks were playing the Panthers in Florida. My phone was just going insane. Yeah. Because everyone was like, you got to flip, so I'm flipping back and forth and trying to keep an eye on what's going on.

A-Dog was so confused because on our chat, we were like, oh, my God. Awesome. Amazing. And A-Dog's like, because Sherwood took a puck in the face? Yeah, I watched the Cucks game. I'm like, I guess it was okay. Pretty cool. So like the Fry home run is going to be the one that's probably going to be,

I can't say remembered most because the big Christmas home run was so improbable. But the Fry one, too, he's not known as a power guy. I think 17 is his career high home run. And he didn't need to swing for the fences. All he had to do was have a base wrap, and he would have scored the guy from third. But he went launch point. That was gone. And it was remarkable.

And on top of all of this, is if the Guardians lose that game, I know the series isn't done, but the series is done. They're down 0-3. Yeah, they're done. So we're going to talk to AJ coming up. I have no idea what the mindset is of Yankees fans right now because they're probably still comfortable. Totally.

I think they're still the heavy, heavy favorites to win this series. You know when there's like vibes and magic that goes against you? You're in either a series or a game and you're like, wow, everything's going against us right now. Are you feeling 0-4-ish?

Right. AJ? You know? It's the Canadian magic. 2004-ish? Four Canadians on the roster. So that's the team I'm cheering for.

I saw there's going to be a documentary on Netflix on that Red Sox team in 2004. Yeah, because they haven't really done, well, I haven't done anything about it

since the 30 for 30, I don't think. Well, it's 20 years, 20 years. Yeah, the 20 year anniversary. Yeah. Um, just a reminder, get your ask us anything's into the Dunbar Lumber text line. We will have some time, uh, after we talk to AJ, the presenting sponsor of ask us anything Friday and what we learned all week on the Halford and Brough show.

So ask us anything, pizza emoji, literally ask us anything, uh it into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. It can be about sports. It can be about life, entertainment, philosophy. We got one in there about alternate universes, which we might get into. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.