Halford & Brough in the Morning - DAAAAAA YANKEES LOSE!

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the Blue Jays knocking off the Yankees to secure a spot at the ALCS for the first time since 2016 (3:00), plus the boys hear from Canucks President Jim Rutherford ahead of tonight's season opener (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough You're listening to Halford and Brough Jeff Hoffman strikes out Cody Bellinger and the Blue Jays have done it They have knocked off the New York Yankees. Can't lose. Start spreading the news. We're fired up.

We're ready to go. I don't get to go. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah, let's go, Canada. Oh, my freaking ears. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody.

It's Halford. It is Brough at SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog, good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Robert and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest. Two, much lower payments and three, financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program.

Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech, footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. It just keeps rolling here at the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Another great sports night last night. Another great sports night on the horizon for tonight. Yeah, we're more of a baseball show now. More of a baseball show. Yeah. Do the Canucks play tonight? They do. First game of the season.

Last night was like flames and oilers, leaps and habs. And it was like, yeah, yeah. By the way, the night games last night, after the baseball in the National Hockey League, what a great, great dessert, if you will. It was a meal of sports. The two games last night, flames, never doubt the flames,

never doubt those plucky Calgary flames. And Vegas and L.A. put on a show too. There's so much happening in the world of sports right now. We've got a million things we've got to get into. First hour of the show, it's all uninterrupted. Halford and Brough, going to spend a lot of time. And congratulations to the Toronto Blue Jays

and super fan Greg Laddie Ballick going to the ALCS for the first time in nine years Greg congratulations yeah this is basically the furthest they've gotten next to 2015 I think it was that they've gotten this far in my fandom life because I don't remember 92 93 I'm happy for you I'm happy for you as well you put the grind in you put in the work the blood the sweat the tears you did it all now you get to go into the ALCS

did you did you did you tape up the room yesterday and throw some champagne around. I cannot believe how many texts I got from my buddies or I saw it on social media who are like, man, it's not like hockey. Like hockey you win around and you don't celebrate like that.

I was like... It's different. It's different. And also just... Just let them have a good time. Just like they're having a good time. Just let them... Just let them... Everyone loves to put on ski goggles, right? Maybe hockey players should celebrate every round like that. We're too tired because it's a hard game. I got asked yesterday, they're like, what's up with the ski goggles?

And I'm like, well, between the beer and the champagne, getting your eyes, it can sting. And I said, and then the corporate overlords at New Era jumped in, and they're like, we're going to brand those. Give them to everybody, and we can make a buck off. They should get bigger each round, the ski goggles. Whether you go, the bigger they get. By the time you win the World Series, you should be wearing a full helmet. Yes. With a giant champagne bottle.

100%. I also got a report that Laddy's been banned from AJ's pizza for life. So AJ's coming on the show tomorrow. maybe and we'll see we'll see if any of us are allowed back because he has pointed out that this show has been decidedly pro Blue Jay over the last little bit. By the way, do you know how dumb I am?

I do. Tell me anyway. Because you just said like the ski goggles are sponsored. Yeah. Part of me last night and I part of me last night was like so do the Js like have to

put that in their luggage? Like bring their don't forget your ski goggles. So, yeah, I'm not joking. I think that used to be how it works because you had to bring it. And it was like, well, they're just wearing Oakley's and stuff. They got a ski goggles guy. Someone brought ski goggles for the first time.

I'm like, that's a bit presumptuous to, uh, to pack, uh, to, to pack, uh, if I was on the other team, I'd be like, these guys have packed their ski goggles. They are ready to go. All right? We're using that as motivation. Ski goggles are in the building. And now new air is there. Seems a bit jinxy.

Well, it's like, uh, now we're way off topic, but like, uh, March Madness. Yeah. Remember, they'd always bring the ladder out to cut down the nets. Right, right, right, right. And some keen company was like, what if? What if we sponsored that ladder? Then everyone can make money off this. And that's the important thing at the end of the day

is that everyone squeezes every last dollar out of everything. Yeah, they used to have to ask the stadium janitor. Yeah. Where's the ladder? And he'd be like, I don't know. I'm using it right now to cut out the bottoms of the peach baskets. Anyway. Need those peach baskets.

Okay, guest list. 7 o'clock at Anverk is going to join us from MLB Network. The Js are on their way to their first ale. LCS in nine years. Who they play remains up in the air because in addition to everything else, the Js are also the first team to book their ticket to the CS, the final four. We won't find out who they play until Friday because that's when Seattle and Detroit get underway.

Game five back in Seattle, that's going to be awesome on Friday. We could find out the NLCS matchup tonight, though. The Dodgers and the Brewers are both going to get right back at it looking to finish the job as both are up to one in their respective series. Verk is going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk about all that. 7.30, Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN is going to join the program. Very interesting game for the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday as they go all the way east to Jacksonville to take on the Red Hot Jaguars. It's a 10 a.m. start our time.

Jags are one-point home favorites, despite the fact they have won three straight games against very good opponents. Houston, San Fran, Casey. we will preview that game with Brady at 7.30. At 8 o'clock, a very befitting guest booking, given that it's the Canucks home and season opener tonight, John Shorthouse is going to join the program. Doesn't do a lot of radio, a bit of a recluse. Doesn't like to go and make a big deal,

despite the fact he's on TV 82 times a year. The play-by-play voice of your Vancouver Canucks. Canucks are a recluse? He's like Howard Hughes? Isn't it a recluse? I don't know. I always thought it was recluse. Recluse?

I would call it recluse. Potato potato. You should just... You should ask Shorty only Blue J's questions. He's a big F1 guy. I think I might pivot. Oh, do that route then?

You could be our F1 insider because I know nothing about F1. So we could ask him about that. We'll probably ask him about the Vancouver Canucks. Wow, he must have loved him. We had David Colthard on that one time. That one time. He must have loved that.

Yeah, he did. When I asked if the cars have power windows, he liked that question. I forgot you asked that. The Canucks are in action tonight, as we mentioned. they finally get their 2025-20206 regular season underway. Great sports, that is to mention.

The Canucks game is one of 14 NHL games tonight on the slate. Plus you got Thursday night football. Plus you have two Major League Baseball potential elimination games. It is a huge night for sports. We got a lot more to get into on the program. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, Shorty, 7.30, Brady, 7 o'clock, Adnan. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it?

You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies, Sebastian, tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCCSA.ca.ca. We begin where else with the Toronto Blue Jays. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer each drove in runs.

Eight, count them eight Toronto pitchers. Shut down the New York Yankees in a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night that sent the Jays to the ALCS. As we mentioned for the first time since 2016, let's play it now. Hoffman on the bump, Shulman on the call. Here's what it sounded like as the Jays punched their ticket to the next round. The one-two pitch. Got him!

Jeff Hoffman strikes out Cody Ballinger, and the Blue Jays have done it. They have knocked off the New York Yankees. They have won their first playoff series since 2016, and they are going to the American League championship series. So first things first, and this will pivot over to you as well, they deserve a ton, underline ton of credit for the way that they played yesterday. day. All that talk after blowing a five-run

lead in game three and having to face game four with this makeshift bullpen start going up against Cam Schlittler who was a star against Boston. I was skeptical that they were going to get it done in game four.

I was worried about how many residual scars there were going to be from game three. They flushed all of it and played textbook. And here's the important part. blue jay baseball yesterday now stop rolling your eyes if you don't like how i'm saying this because that was a blue jay performance they scattered 12 hits across nine innings they got contributions from everyone and then i think it was befitting that they were able to use i mean i hated watching

it i hate bullpen games but i understand they're a part of the modern game eight pitchers over nine innings like the ultimate everyone is pulling the rope type performance from the jays it was remarkable. Laddie? It was amazing. And I agree with you, though. The eight pitchers is a bit much. I always have the mentality that one of them is bound to have a bad day. So when you use that many pitchers, it's bound to go wrong at some point.

But hey, it worked out this time, and they took down Cam Schlittler. So yesterday we said we're going to find out what the Blue Jays are made of because they put themselves in this position of, uh-oh. Like, uh-oh, we didn't get that done. might have given the Yankees life and we did find out what they're made of and it was very impressive it was look

the bullpen games might not be for everyone but I think what it showed yesterday was how many guys the Js have that can contribute and that's you know I know sometimes it doesn't go well but like you couldn't

how many guys How many guys would you say last night where you were like, wow, you had a major contribution to the game? Like all of them? Take your pick. Like honestly, I wonder if there was one guy in the room afterwards that was like, I didn't do anything. Trey you savage. No, it was like of the guys that played, of the guys that played, everyone contributed. And the plays in the field that they didn't make in game three, they made in game four.

There was a nervous pop-up to the foul line, you know, the one that Barger screwed up in game three, and they made the play. Vladdy at first in the ninth inning made a very nice play. You told me the crowd was getting on them, and they couldn't handle the pressure. I thought it was the wind. He thought it was the pressure. You know what it was last night? None of it. Laddie.

None of it. They did lose their composure in game three, and they found it in game four. And that was really impressive. and I think a lot of credit goes to the leader, John Schneider, because there's a story that he texted the... Pete Walker and the other Blue Jays pitching coaches, and this was reported by Keegan Matheson. And he said, this is an opportunity to have some fun.

And they went out there and they had fun. The message wasn't like, oh, come on. please guys let's get this done let's buckle down it was like go out there and have fun and relish the opportunity it was very impressive and i said yesterday you know i went old man mode and i said the jays you know back in the day when i was a super fan of the jays they would choke all the time and then there was game four in the a lcs against oakland in 1992 where they came back from being down in a big way roberta wailmar hit a big home run and that was going to kind of their get over the hump moment.

I honestly wonder if we'll look back at that game yesterday and say that was their get over the hump moment where they could face adversity and they could face the doubters and they could confidently go out there and win a huge game on the road. Yeah, still early days in the playoffs, right? It is.

Right, it is. Without question. All you've done, and if you want to adopt the philosophy that Schneider had after game three, which was, you know, flush it and tomorrow's a new day and a new opportunity when we start an new, then you have to do that after a win as well, unfortunately. You don't rest on your laurels. You're like, let's get back to work. I'll say this. It is kind of refreshing, having followed the J's this year, perhaps closer than I have

in the last decade and a half, two decades, because of the run that they went on, especially early when it was a summer. I'm going to be dead on. It's not a ton else going on. So we were very invested in the Jays on a day to day. And I kind of became enamored with the way they played baseball because, yeah, they have highly paid guys, none more so than Vladi Guerrero. So they're like a lot of other MLB teams and they've got high price talent. But they've also got guys like Nathan Lucas and Miles Straw and Ernie Clement who went out and just did the business all year long. Now, the question was, can you count on these guys who are like AAA lifers to step up

in the biggest moments? And, you know, Lucas yesterday was amazing. That's a guy that has played 733 games at various development levels along the way. He played for Victoria. The Victoria Harbor Cats, they're a summer league. They play in the summer league? They're not a winter league. No, no, no.

But like, what's it called? It's a collegiate summer league. Yeah, it's a collegiate summer league. That's what I mean. He was 19 when he came to the Victoria. He was 19 and he played for the Harbor Cats. He's played nearly 400 AAA games. Like, he's a guy that's just been around, just hung around.

He's 31. Yeah. Ernie Clement. Ernie Clement went 9 for 12 in the series. If it wasn't for Vladdy, and I mean, Vladdy's numbers were ridiculous. Vladdy had 529 in the series, right? But if it wasn't for him, like, you could have made the argument that Clement was their MVP.

He got on base all the time. And then, you know what? I wrote down every single name of the guys that pitched yesterday. Because outside of Hoffman, who's the most well known for good and occasionally bad reasons, It was Louis Varland, Mason Flew Hardy, Sir Anthony Dominguez, Eric Lauer, Yarrow Rodriguez, Brendan Little, Braden Fisher, and then Hoffman doing the job, just one after another, a conveyor belt of pitchers coming out. Now, again, I think part of the bullpen game is that you do mess up whatever flow

or whatever momentum is going on in a game. They like to say, the broadcasters like to say that it's about putting out fires. Like it gives the manager the opportunity to put out a fire I don't even think it's that I think you're snuffing out even the potential of a fire burning before it starts How challenging is that for the opposition Like how hard was it for the Yankees

I mean in theory it's like a bullpen game Because like ah So you don't have any good starters So you're gonna start the scraps from your from your bullpen But you also as the opposition When you're the Yankees Like how do you prepare for a bullpen game Bob.

There was a really cool, I don't know if you guys follow Pitching Ninja. He overlaid all of the Blue Jays pitchers that pitched in the game, and they all had different release points. It was like a rainbow of release points, and that's got to be difficult for the hit. And the Yankees will have been familiar with some of those guys because they faced them before during the regular season, but it's hard to remember all those details. Which one is this guy again? Are you Lauer or are you Flew Hardy? Turn around. Flew Hardy.

What kind of name is that? Strikeout. Demberton. Over Canadian. That's right. And so that in itself was very reflective of this. And I mentioned us already, this Blue Jays team. It's like, everyone chips in.

Everyone is swinging bats and throwing pitches and we get it done collectively. Compared to a Yankees team. And I know this was one of the many criticisms of this Yankees team, but it seemed like everyone was waiting around for the meat of that order to come up every time. I mean, I know who was it yesterday, McMahon went yard, which was a bit of a nine-hitter. Yeah. But I was like, Anthony Volpe was terrible. at the plate. He did nothing. And that bottom half of the lineup didn't really do a whole hell

of a lot. If you look at that series, Judge was really, really good, really good. But they were able to minimize the damage that he did and take care of the rest of the guys. And then finally, final note on this before we move on, the Yankees over the course of this series defended a lot worse than the Jays did. I know the Jays kicked it around in game three and it wasn't pretty but you know the Yankees made and this was reflective of the regular season as well over a larger

sample size they made more mistakes in the field they just and that was the Yankees a bit of an Achilles heel during the regular season whereas it wasn't for the Jays so it's nice to see that play out over the course of a five four game series but best of five anyway so on top of everything else the Js now get to sit and wait they get a little bit of

extra rest they get to rest some of these arms they won't kick off until Sunday and they have no idea who they're playing yet because the Mariners and the tigers the tigers won yesterday so they forced the game five back in Seattle on Friday. Someone texted in and said that little almost had a bad game for the Blue Jays bottom of the seventh. Yep. Um, that Grisham foul out to short was massive because judge was waiting then. Yeah. It was it, you know, that was a little dice Judge has to lead off the 8th, which is, you know, but you want Judge with runners in scoring position out.

Like, that was the big, I think that was the biggest out of the game. It was right up there. Yeah. Because it was, as the English, like to say, squeaky bum time when that ball went in the air. I was like, oh, no, not another high pop. This is not good. But lo and behold, they took care of business. And then Judge still wasn't done.

He got a run scored in the 9th. They just didn't go down. He was the one guy that they just couldn't get out. Yeah, it was funny. someone sent me a picture yesterday. It was a picture of Aaron Boone photoshoped wearing a Savannah Banana's uniform.

And I was like, I should put this on Twitter. And I'm like, no, I'm bigger than that. I'm going to wait. Okay, the rest of the baseball story real quick from yesterday, we mentioned all apologies to the Mariners fans out there. We just don't have a ton of time to get into what the Mariners did

or more specifically didn't do yesterday. A big fourth run, six inning for the Tigers yesterday, Green and Baez homered. So the Tigers keep their season live. Did you know? that that was the first game that the Tigers had won at Comerica Park in a month? That's crazy. Finish the season.

And there one win away from going to the ALCS. But, you know, I would prefer to look at this from the Mariners perspective. And I would throw it out there and say, can you believe the Mariners are one win away from an ALCS with the Js? I know. And I really wanted to happen. I really, really want it to happen. Who cares.

Yeah. Vancouver sports fans have grown up with a choice basically of two teams. You cheer for the Blue Jays or you cheer for the Mariners. Back in the day, I guess the Expos were an option as well. But it's become Toronto or Seattle. Never did I start this season in particular thinking, maybe we'll have a Mariners Blue Jays ALCS. Just because I wouldn't have dared to think about that.

And we're one went away from it. it's a scoble start. Now the Mariners have already beaten him in this series but are they going to they beat him. They won the game. They won a game in which he started.

Yeah. How likely is that to happen twice? I know they're at home but man I want this to happen so badly. First of all it's an opportunity if you're a Jay's fan

to get down to Seattle and watch an ALCS I don't know what the Mariners are going to do to try and keep Canadians out of there but who cares we can find a way in there if you want but I just can't believe that's a possibility I need it to happen I'm going to be watching this Mariners game

cheering so hard and I'm kind of like a neutral observer I just want to see it I want to see that happening If the Mariners take on the Jays and the ALCS that's the most I will have ever watched baseball in my life It would be amazing I will watch that entire series this is part of the reason like I always wanted and I always enjoyed working in sports is that it does every now and again give you something that you've never seen before it's the beauty of the unscripted part of it and like I've been doing this for so long now and the thing I'm like wow this could be the first time that all the years of watching baseball and following all these teams and working in the industry that I'd get to see Toronto and Seattle with a chance to go to the world series like it's an amazing thing and it's never happened before and the possibility of it hanging there is great Terrick scubbles in the world

way of it. I'm a bit worried about that. The Tigers are just be like, oh, the Tigers? I know. And the M's are going to send Kirby to the bump, and he was also, I mean, he pitched in the game one of the series, if I'm not mistaken, the one that went 11 on Saturday night. Struck out eight over like five and a third. So, there's

potential here. With his fancy mustache? It's all on the table. Yeah. Mastash and all. It's all on the table. But it's a very tall order because he got to beat one of the best pitchers in the American League to do it. Other games last night really quick. Philly stayed alive. Kyle Schwerber. Schwaber went yard twice.

Lots of staving going on. A lot of staving. A lot of staving. And PCA, Pete, Crow, Armstrong, hit a tie-breaking two-run singles. The Cubs, in a series we have paid zero attention to. This is the most I've spoken about it. Avoided this week by holding up the Brewers.

So those two series go right back at it tonight. So by the end of tonight, we could have our NLCS matchup set. If not, game fives in the NL, both would go on Saturday, which would make for a pretty amazing sports. Saturday, and what's going to be an already amazing sports weekend. Okay, we're getting up against it for time.

Quick reset here on the program. We're going to get into all the hockey stuff next, including what happened in the NHL last night. Also, Canucks president of hockey ups, Jim Rutherford was on the station yesterday. Canucks Central was sat and Dan. We got a bunch of audio there. There's a lot of optimism coming from the Canucks executive ranks right now

about this season. A lot of optimism. Loves what Adam Foote has done. Loves the new system. the attacking system that Adam Foote has brought in. And definitely want to play some Jim Rutherford comments on Elias Pedersen because there's a lot of optimism about not just the way he's played so far, but his attitude.

And Jim Rutherford yesterday called him almost a completely different person. So we'll play some audio on the other side. A lot of baseball talk, a lot of hockey talk. This is a great time to be a sports fan. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Start spreading the news. 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 podcast. Feel good about being in first place, but to hang on the rim this early, let's hang on the rim in October. That's when you hang on the rim. There is. The Toronto. Blue Jays have punched their ticket to the championship series. 632 on a thrash Thursday.

The Jays thrashed the Yankees last night. Oh, look what he did. You are listening to the Halperin Brough Show on Sports 9-650. Halperton Brub of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Only a license insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how. Visit sands dash trustee.com. Still in Hour 1 of the program. No guests.

All Halbro in Hour 1 today. Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid, visit the 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Let's do some hockey talk here, huh? Homey or Canucks, Sportsnet 650? Should we do some hockey talk?

I'm looking at a headline on Sportsnet.com. And thanks for the texter that pointed... Me too, this. Mark Spector article. Skinner fails first chance to show Oilers he can be trusted. Yeah, that. That goalie allowed to Calgary to die the game yesterday. What was he doing?

So, what was he doing? Still trying Skinner. It was like he went, hey, Blake Coleman, I bet you can't get this buck. Oh, you got it. I blame Bouchard. As a long-standing card-carrying member of the goalie. Goalie's union. I said, that one's on Bouchard.

That's not on Schinders. I was standing too close to the goalie. You've got to give him time and space to field that grounder. He was way, way, way, way too much in his business. What are you talking about? Look, it's funny. So last night, what we're talking about here is the Calgary Flames, again staging a huge comeback in their season opener.

So last year, you may recall that the Calgary. Flames went behind three goals in their season opener on the road and came back and won in overtime. Well, yesterday, Nazim Kadri scored in the eighth round of a shootout to give the Calgary Flames a 4-3 comeback victory over Edmonton in Edmonton, spoiling a number of things for the Oilers in the process. One, Leon Drysiddle scored his 400th career goal. Two, Connor McDavid, first game since signing his two years extension. And three, the news during the game that Jack Roselovic had signed a one-year

deal with the Oilers. So everything was looking great for the Oilers except the goal tending. Up 3-0, 3-0 on the flame, and seemingly cruising. As a matter of fact, I sent a text to the group. I said, the flames look horrible. Yeah. They looked overmatched.

They were down 3-0 midway through the game. They had nine shots at the midway point of this game. And then you'd think I'd learn. You think one time I would learn. but I'm a stupid, stubborn man and I always just assume that things are going to go the way

I think they're going to go. Nope. The Calgary Flames, the resilient, plucky Calgary Flames, three unanswered goals in regulation. And the funny thing that played out was the opposites in goaltending because Stuart Skinner had the big, loud mistake

as he always does, and Dustin Wolf, after allowing the three goals, slam the door shut. He is phenomenal. So good in the shootout, too. is phenomenal. He is such a good goalie. He is very impressive. He stopped 7 of 8, if I'm not mistaken, in the shootout. And I mean, he kept them in. They were on the kill in overtime. And I don't know if you saw this, but it was hilarious. Mackenzie Weeger got held, called for a holding penalty on Connor McDavid. And I put on Twitter, like the champ, he lost it. Lose it. He snapped. He went nuts. He got a 10-minute misconduct because he took his stick and smashed it against the glass. And then, You could hear the barrage of F-bombs that he was dropping on the, like he just wouldn't stop.

Was it as much swearing as the Blue J's room? It was on par with, and who, by the way. But angry swearing, not happy swearing. Who had more swears yesterday? Was it Gossman or was it Schneider in their interviews? I think Gossman. I think Gossman had like 12. He didn't even say regular words.

He realized he was swearing on live TV and then started to swear more. Yeah. It's almost like when you give kids the freedom to swear. Yeah. It's like after, after they're going to swear, they're going to swear a lot. If you give a kid the freedom to swear and two budd lights. And ski goggles? They're going to swear.

Anyway, so you know what? The flames, it was an impressive victory, man. Like, I assumed that this might be a regression year for them, but at least for one game, they showed all the fight and resiliency that they had a year ago. They will, of course, take on the Vancouver Canucks tonight. JD Texan, maybe they signed Roselvic to be their starting goaltender. I don't know, man. I still, I realize.

it's hard to find a goal. When you don't have a goalie, it's really hard to find a goalie. The cats seem to find them pretty easily, but when you don't have one, it's hard. And I realize that you can look at these things in kind of like a logical perspective and go like, okay, well, I understand why the Oilers weren't able to find a new goalie this off season.

I get it, right? Who is available? You tell me. But then the other side of my mind is like, how the hell are Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard still your goalies here? It's a fair question. How is that? And I realize they picked up Connor Ingram, but that's a bit of a hope bet.

And you know that there are players on the Oilers that feel the same way. They might like Stuart Skinner as a guy, but they're also like, and I can think of one in particular, that's like, I would like to win a Stanley Cup. and goal-tending is pretty important. It is funny. It is funny that McDavid takes... It's a bad way to start the season for Skinner. McDavid takes this gigantic haircut. He sacrifices.

So then they're like, we're going to give Jake Wallman a bunch of money. We're going to extend Matthias at home. We're going to go out and get Jack Roslavik. And it felt like someone in the back of the classroom should put their hand up. And they're like, what about the goaltending? Should we address it?

With all the other things that we're doing, with all this money that McDavid saved for us, like, should we get a goalie? Laddie, you know, the goaltending market much better than I do was there anything that the Oilers could have done this off season that would have given

them a significant upgrade on that nothing that really would have moved the needle I don't think this year but trades are available and I still can't believe they're running it back with the same crew like you said they picked up Ingram but they're running it back with the same crew

I can't believe that they did that it's just boggles my mind it's almost as unbelievable as when we in the Stanley Cup final and people are like, is Calvin Pickard healthy yet? Like that's no disrespect to Calvin Pickard but he is a

career backup. Yep. Journeyman go to hockey DB and check his stats. He did start but it was like the worst Aves team in history. Remember that when he was that? Yeah. That was his one starting just kind of like are we really asking if he's healthy and ready to go?

Really? That's the position you're in and then you come back and it's the same? So I don't know what to expect from Evanton this year. Probably more of the same. Probably the same thing. They'll always be the questions about the goaltending, but they're going to be more than good enough to overcome it.

Power through it. They will. Greg Texan, John Gibson was available. He went to Detroit. That's correct. A lot of teams were after Gibson. Vegas was in on him. So it would have taken a package to get him.

Well, speaking of Vegas, they also played last night. I was paying very close attention to that one because they were in an All-Pacific Division matchup against the Los Angeles Kings, who, like the Calgary Flames, were playing in a back-to-back scenario. You'll remember that L.A. was on the opening night

of the NHL slate. They took on the Aves. They were at home. They had that cool sneak jersey reveal that nobody saw coming. And then they flatlined against the Aves. Well, they came back last night, and, hey, I will give them, much like the Calgary Flames,

a lot of credit for what they were able to do last night. They had a 3-1 lead in the game. Then they trailed 5-3 as a wild game. They ended up winning. 6-5, also in the shootout, but here's, I had two takeaways from Vegas because it was the first time I'd seen them this year. One, that line with Eichel and Marner is going to be a massive, massive problem for the rest of the division this year. Did you just say it was the first time you've seen them this year, Vegas? Yeah. It was their first game. I know. Yeah. Well, because I

saw LA already, the team that they played. So I wasn't paying much attention to L.A. I was paying attention to Vegas in their first game. And I didn't see any of their preseason. games. Sneaking into their practices. Because I didn't really watch Vegas preseason games this year because I wanted to see Marner and Eichael. How did

C.C. and Dumlin do for the Kings? That was Ken Hollins. So they've given up... Idea to fix the Kings? They've given up nine goals in two games now. They're not good. I mean, I don't know

what to expect from L.A. This year I give him a ton of credit for winning that game last night because it really caved in on them in the especially like halfway through the second period into the third. But it's not good. They showed some jam. I'll give them credit. It was a big comeback victory.

My other takeaway from Vegas, by the way, Aiden Hill, no bueno. That was a poor performance from Aden Hill. And I think there were some rumblings that they might have been looking at upgrading their goal tending in the offseason as well. Yeah. Because I'm not sure that they were thrilled with the way he played in the playoffs. He was on the Four Nations team, right? He was there. Yeah, it was, it was, um, Montembow?

Montembow. Hill. Yeah. Binner. Binner, right? Yep. Montembo wasn't, he was the one in the press box. And Montembo was like the, we're going to bring a young guy and, you know, you know.

He'll get some experience. He's the lone guy to go back. They needed one. Yeah, they needed one from back or they get all, you know. Yeah, that, that, that goaltending story is still going to be interesting for Canada. Troy and Cloverdale writes, and you guys spend so much time hating on the Oilers. No, kind of.

Look, it's a division rival, first off, and it's a longstanding traditional rival, and this is your home of the Canucks SportsNet 650. We don't spend that much time hating on them, but I don't think it's unfair to point out that of all the things that they seemingly really needed to address, as your goalie was number one, and they ran it back with everything except last year's goalie coach.

Like, what else? Like, I don't know. Maybe they needed to upgrade the defense in some meaningful fashion. But to me, the most glaring and obvious thing was the goaltending. Yeah. And running it back seems wild to me. Like, I understand that it's hard to find a goalie. And I understand you can't just snap your fingers and make it happen.

But especially with McDavid bending over backwards financially to make this thing happen, you'd think that they would take some of those funds. Like, did you need to pay Jake Walman $7 million a year? Give him six. go find another goalie. And Justin and Langley Texan, you guys don't spend enough time hating on the Oilers.

Yeah, it's fun. We have fun. We want the Canucks to win. We don't want the Oilers to win. We are not objective journalists. So let's talk about the Canucks. Because, to be fair, we also spend a lot of time hating on them. True. Maybe some say too much.

But there's a lot of positivity right now. Let's run. Jim Rutherford was on with Sat and Dan yesterday. And the vibes are high. The vibes are high right now. Now, the Canucks haven't played a real game yet. They start tonight, so we'll see how the vibes are tomorrow when we come in, talk about the game. But Jim Rutherford, I want to start with just Lattie Pick his most overall positive audio clip.

I think there might be an audio clip where Jim Rutherford, it just says Rutherford on positivity. Now, that sounds positive because he is. is very excited about a number of things. He's excited about what Adam Foot has done in his short tenure as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. He's excited about the youth, what a guy like Braden Coots has brought and Lecker Mackey has brought and some of the good young defensemen that the Canucks have. He's excited about Elias Pedersen and we'll play a separate audio clip on PD, but here is Jim Rutherford talking about the positivity that he sees. Yeah, it's the same.

We, uh, the same as everybody feels right now. Adam Foote, he, uh, he's really done a really good job right from when he got the positioned, um, as far as communication with the players in the offseason. setting goals for them, making them accountable, and everybody bought into it. And he put a leadership group together that he talks to on a regular basis.

And what he asked of the players, they bought into and they did it. And they came to camp prepared. And what he's done with his system and everything he's trying to do, the players have bought into it and everybody feels more relaxed, more positive, and looking forward to the season. All right.

Hey, that sounds pretty good. Pretty excited. Vives are high. Pretty excited. You're getting a fat and happy flames team coming into Rogers Arena. With their backup goalie. With their backup goalie. Don't deal with that's the wolf.

Who is their backup? Who do they choose? Oh, dear. I don't even remember. Who do they go out and get? Well, they have pros. Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Zaw? Or Cooley? Yeah, Cooley or Prostvatov.

It's Cooley, I think. Okay. I think Cooley made it, yeah. All right. Well, it just goes to show that. I'll find it out. You guys talk. It's Cooley. It's not a particular big name.

No. Now, I want to talk about Elyas Pederson and what Jim Rutherford had to say about Pedersen, because the vibes are high when it comes to PD as well. Now, I don't think it was a spectacular preseason by any means for Elyas Peterson. I don't think we watched him play and we're like wow he's back

yeah he did have that great one timer on the power play and he had some flashes at five on five but I don't think he was dominant out there and we don't he didn't need to be dominant he just needs to show signs of progress

and that he's going to be able to maybe ramp it up as the season starts I want to play this audio from Jim Rutherford on to leas peterson because you know it was always going to start i think with peterson's attitude and his approach to the season and maybe he was going to come into this year with a better attitude because he was embarrassed about what happened last season or unhappy about what happened last season maybe he was going to come into camp in better shape because j t miller wasn't going to be at camp

or Rick Talkett wasn't going to be at camp. It doesn't matter why, really. It just matters that he is seemingly a changed player this season. As far as his attitude goes, here is Jim Rutherford on that. Yeah, Pedy is in a totally different place than he was a year ago. And he's done everything he can to prepare himself for the season. and everything that he was advised to do, he was asked to do. He worked, he got stronger, he looks better,

but mentally he just, he's just a different guy, a lot more relaxed, the guy you can talk to a lot more now. And he's excited about getting going. A lot more relaxed than a guy you can talk to now. Hey, he was going on. What's going on, man? Hey, dude. Well, I mean, the things that we heard last year was that, you know, PD wasn't a guy you could talk to.

He kind of shut down. Yeah, he was getting yelled at too much. Yeah, and he was just, I don't know, he was out of it, right? And that's why they needed him to come in this season and be more invested. I want to play this clip because, okay, I just want to play it, and this is on Pedersen's deployment. And we've talked about this a lot, all the things that are going to be on Pedersen's, shoulders. You know, yes, he's going to be expected to be a big part of the power play.

He might be out there on the PK as well. He's going to need to drive some offense, but he's also probably going to be the number one matchup guy. And this is what guys that have played at Pedersen's level before are expected to do. This is what players who make the type of money that Pedersen makes are expected to do. this is the job of a 1C. And here is Jim Rutherford confirming that. Based on what Adam has said and his conversations with PD,

I believe that he's very comfortable using PD in all situations. PK, power play, 5 on 5 on the ice in the last minute of a period or a game. And I believe that PD's looking forward to that challenge. so he said i don't know if it was in that clip but he went on to say that that uh you know that maybe he wasn't used in that way for the last few years and he kind of said for whatever reason for whatever reason rick tocket shade and i know sat and dan were talking about this after the jim rutherford interview good because there was a kind of a hint that maybe talk it didn't see peterson as capable of doing that

And I know there were some comments that Talkett made, and I'm going to say him now, but they were kind of privately to reporters where he would go up to reporters and be like, hey, what's the big deal with this Pedersen guy anyway? Like what, like I don't, I don't get it. And because he wasn't there, I know he saw a bit of the good Pedersen, like a little bit. Sure. But I don't think he saw the best of Pedersen. Well, you'll remember the, you'll remember the reprogramming remarks and then everything.

thing that came from those. And I think part of it was that PD's style of play wasn't what Tuckett saw or envisioned in what he wanted from a leader and a frontline guy. And I don't think that's the worst thing. Sometimes it's just bad fits in the NHL. But I will say this. As a coach, it's kind of your job to cook with the bag of groceries and ingredients that you're given.

It's not to complain that you don't have this. You don't have that. That's not what good chefs do. But I think my point is, is that it's possible that. Tuckett, never held Pederson to the same regard? Like, he never saw the potential that we saw. Yeah, I think that's fair. Because he never, maybe he never saw Pedersen truly at his best.

Well, that's possible, too, right? It's very possible that he didn't pay a ton of a chance into the Canucks when, like, Pedersen was racking up 100 points and burst onto the scene in his first three years in the league. You know, it's very possible that he saw what he saw in the moment. and also saw it, again, as a clash of two personalities where there was one very strong alpha one and there was one that was not necessarily that.

And, you know, you sometimes pick and choose your sides based on your personality or the personality traits you want your team to adopt and to show publicly. If Adam Foote is able to, again, flush so much of last year and the toxicity and the negativity and amplify everyone across the board, he will have done a very remarkable thing

because, again, Jim Rutherford was the one repeatedly who put all of the failings last year on the rift between Pedersen and Miller. I know occasionally he'd mentioned injuries, and he'd mentioned some other things, but Jim Rutherford was the guy who said that in his, you know,

decades of working in the National Hockey League, He'd never seen such animosity and acrimony. And it just split the room in half. He said this. He said yesterday, all hell broke loose. He, and he said it a million. If you want to have talking points, whether they were directed or he writes them down, they're always there and they're always prevalent. Last year was at the feat of the Miller and Pedersen Rift.

And that's coming right from the top of the organization. So how do you change that narrative? Well, one, you get rid of half of the problem and Miller's gone. two, you're forced to change coaches. And that's interesting because they wanted to run it back with Talkett. But they were forced to have almost an entirely fresh start around Pedersen, right? So what do you do there? You say, okay, the narrative now is all of the issues that might have plagued this guy last year are gone.

Miller's gone. Talkett's gone. Maybe those were two of the biggest influences on why his game sputtered last year. It might not be right. it might not be accurate but as far as talking points go going to the season you can kind of get down with it because those two influences are gone and by all accounts

foot is like up with positivity up with people let's make sure that chemistry and camarader yeah let's make sure chemistry and camarader like one and two so in hindsight then is talk of leaving maybe the best thing to ever happen for the Canucks I don't think the best thing to ever happen for the Canucks but I think it might be a blessing in disguise who knows By the way, who knows?

By the way, Rick gets the Florida Panthers tonight in his first game as a Philadelphia Flyers head coach. Ease them into it. They got to go to Florida, too. I know Florida doesn't have the firepower to do this, but I'm hoping it's like six or seven nothing. Just for fun. Just for fun.

That's all. By the way, your pettiness about the Flyers is, in my opinion, totally misguided because... He's a world-class hater. How is it misguided? Because there's no expectations for the flyers this season. That has nothing to do with my salt.

Nothing to do with my pettiness, like nothing. Yeah, this is the hater building, bro. Yeah, yeah. It's not based in any sort of logical reality. I just want you to focus it where it's going to work better, and that's on teams like the Rangers and the Oilers. I got plenty of them, too. They have expectations.

I have plenty of things. Is talking going to suffer when they get Gavin McKenna? Well, but now, I don't wait for that. Because what happens is they need to finish dead last in the NHN and then lose the lottery. Yeah, oh, man. That's when the real salt comes on. By the way. Who season do you want to go worst?

Both. No, no, no. I'm going to throw three teams out there. Boilers, Rangers, or Flyers? Oilers won, Rangers, two, Flyers three. Okay. That's great. I agree with that.

In that order. We're on the same page. We always were. By the way. We're always were in our fettiness. Yeah, our bettiness is always aligned. We're like political rivals that still have arguments. or political colleagues that still have arguments.

I'm just trying to get to this point before we go to break. It is going to be Devin Cooley and Net Tonight for the Flames. We had that hanging there in the balance, but it's not going to be Presetsoff or however you pronounce his last name. Because he's no longer with the team. So it's going to be Devin Cooley and Net tonight. Are there two guys named Cooley now in the NHL? So one spells it the right way.

Oh, okay. Devin Cooley. Yeah. Right. Logan Cooley also spells it the right way. And then there's Will Cooley for the Rangers. Who spells it C-U-L-L-Y-E. That doesn't count.

But it's C-U-L-Y-E. No. Yeah. Y-E? C-U-L-L-E. Cooley. That's like Cull-Y. Cooley.

Right? But it's not. Here's the funny thing about that. It's not pronounced that way. It's pronounced Cooley. And he was on the first line with Miller and Zabinajad the other night. How'd that go? He had seven hits.

That's about it. Okay. We got to go to break. We got lots more to get into on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. guests on the show coming up Adnan Verk's going to join us from MLB Network and then at 7.30 some Seahawks talk previewing Sunday's game

a 10 a.m. start in Jacksonville Jags are a slim one point home favorite against the Seahawks. We got MLB and NFL coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.