Halford & Brough in the Morning - Don't Count Out The Yankees

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk yesterday's Blue Jays loss to the Yankees as the Jays were unable to pull off the sweep (3:00), plus they discuss the start of the hockey season with Sportsnet NHL host David Amber (27:56). 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. It's a drive down the line with Fitzperance's moment. It is. It's time. George has arrived. It was best player in the game type performance. It was, you know, special. The Meritors won it tonight.

A final score of eight to four over the Tigers. They lead the best of five series. Two games to one. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough.

It is SportsNet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adol, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are an 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. Intech, footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Big show ahead on a Wednesday. Lots to get into on the program. Guest list today begins at 6.30, and one of our favorites is making his return to the Halbro Show. David Amber is going to join us at 630.

Sportsnet Hockey Night in Canada. NHL host is going to join the program. He's going to join us ahead of a big, all-Canadian doubleheader in the NHL tonight. And you can see it all right here on Sports. net at 4 o'clock, the Maple Leafs hosts the Habs in Toronto. 7 o'clock, the newly re-signed Connor McDavid and the Oilers host the Calgary Flames in Edmonton. Canucks fans are going to want to pay extra special attention to that second game, given that the Canucks face the flames tomorrow night at Rogers Arena in the season opener.

Lots to discuss with David at 6.30 this morning. 7 o'clock Frank Sarvalley is going to join the program. NHL Insider, host of Frankly Hockey. on the Victory Plus network. Yeah, that's his new gig. We'll talk to Frank about a lot of things going on around the league. Frankly, it's hockey today. We got Frankly speaking.

We got Frankly hockey. All kinds of Frank related puns and titles. It's great. Frankly, I can't wait to speak with Frank. That's going to happen at 7 o'clock this morning. A lot of games in the NHL last night that we can get through as well. Florida Beach Chicago and their Stanley Cup defense. That was followed by a very interesting result from Madison.

and Square Garden, where the visiting penguins scored three times, the home New York Rangers, captain by J.T. Miller, scored zero times, meaning not only did J.T. Miller lose in his first game as captain, but Artur Cilovs got the NHL's first shutout of the season. We'll talk to Frank about all that at 7 o'clock. 7.30. Randy Janda is going to join the program. Canucks color analyst right here on Sports 10.6.50. Canucks practice today, 1030 a.m. at Rogers arena. That is all ahead of, as mentioned, tomorrow's season opener, the home opener against the Calgary Flames. We'll talk to Randy about all that at 7.30. 8 o'clock hour is entirely Halbro. Yeah, final hour of the program is just Jason and I. We may do an entire hour of

what we learned. It's not too sure yet. Got to see what the user submissions, the listener submissions are like. Text in now if you've got a what we learned. Dunbar Lmer text line is 650, 650, hashtag it WWL. And tell us what did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports. Working in reverse on that guest list. 7.30, Randiip Jan to 7 o'clock. Frank Saravalli, 6.30, David Amber. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, to 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 the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at B-C-C-S-A.C-S-A.C-S-A. I remember yesterday morning when you were talking about the tremendous opportunity that the Blue Jays had last night at Yankee Stadium. Yep. What happened?

It got even more tremendous. As a matter of fact, it exceeded my wildest expectations when the Jays were up six-one, but Alas, it all went south from there. Aaron Judge hit a monster towering, tying home run, and then drove in four runs total for good measure. A clutch performance for the ages and the best of his career, I would say New York Yankee staved off elimination, rallying from, as I mentioned, five runs down to defeat the Jays 9 to 6 on Tuesday night

in game three of the ALDS. Let's hear it now, Greg. The Judge Blast. This is the Fox Call, if I'm not mistaken. His moment, Aaron Judge, goes yard off Louis Varlum. Two-strike pitch. It's a drive down the line. If it's fair, it's his moment.

It is. It's kind. George has arrived. That was a great call. If it's fair, it's his moment. Both things were true. Can we keep this to his moment? Can this just be his moment?

And then that's it. Well, we're going to find out real soon. singular moment. We're going to find out in about 12 hours time. Can I, uh, go. Can I, uh, do you want to talk? No, no, do you want to talk? No, no, you go first.

Okay. You go first, Jason. It's very polite of you to cede the floor to me, but you go first. Okay. We got a text in this morning. And, um, it was from Matt and Surrey. And he said, okay, I know the Jay's lost. They were due to have one of these kind of games.

No worries at all. And just saying, he adds, if a snapshot of Vladdy's Superman slide last night is in the cover of MLB 26, there's something wrong with this world. That was an awesome slide. And that was Big Man coming down the tracks, get out of the way. No one's slowing this train down. I've got a more prescient text that I think will set up your little spiel here. It's one from Comox. Real simple.

Texted in this morning at 5.51 a.m. And he asks, do you guys think the Js blew it last night? Okay. I know the Js are still up to one in the series. And I know that I have a reputation for being a bit of a jackal. Not you. It's well learned. No.

But we do, we all have to admit, we do have the makings of one of the great sports collapses in Canadian history. There is. We have the makings of it. he is. Remember that the Jays have a bullpen start today. And the Yankees have Cam Schlittler on the mound coming off that terrific performance in game three against the Red Sox. Now, panicky Jays fans will insist that the Jays hit Schlitler hard when they saw him.

True. But here's the thing. The Yankees can hit two. And they showed it last night. And the Jays, to me, and I think to everyone else, in the moment, maybe not after the game where I thought they looked pretty composed, but in the moment, I thought they looked big time rattled. This Jays team does seem to run hot and cold more than others. Remember, it was literally two weeks ago that John Schneider, the manager, was doing his best to avoid a full-on pan. as the Jay's stumbled down the stretch.

Since then, to their credit, they've pulled themselves together to clinch the AAL East and the wildcard by. They watched the Yankees eliminate the Red Sox. They destroyed the Yankees in games one and two, and they took a 6-1 lead in game three and all but booked their tickets to the AALCS. And yet, seemingly with one swing of Aaron Judge's bat, and I know there were other things, but that was the moment, we're back to trying to avoid a full-on panic.

This team runs hot and cold. And can we also say that they came into this postseason with a bit of a reputation? they were a reputation of a young team well not a young team but like I would say like a you know what the best word to describe them was was like unproven and maybe a bit immature we all wanted to know how Vladdy would perform in this series

and in this postseason and it looked amazing and when things were going well it looked even better so all I'm saying is that the ingredients are there for a collapse. And now we're going to find out what this team and what this group is really made of. So in light of that...

Is that fair? Yeah, in light of that, I think we should turn our attention back to the guy that you name check a couple times in that soliloquy. The manager, John Schneider, who when the team was floundering a couple weeks ago, got to the point. Not only did he try and calm everyone down.

He swore. He said a swear. He said a swear. He said the sky is not effing falling. He dropped an F bomb. Yeah, he was like he might in two weeks, but. Schneider was asked about this notion of, is this the beginning of a collapse? In light of the fact that the Jays did have a 6-1 lead in an elimination game,

and it was the Yankees' largest comeback ever in an elimination game in franchise history. Immolation game. I don't even know what that is. So Schneider was asked. about all that. Here is what the manager had to say in the aftermath of a 9 to 6 loss to the Yankees last night. Yeah, I mean, we had a spot in the ALCS in our hands when the series started. You know what I mean? I know it's 6 to 1 in the third inning, but we still have a spot like that tomorrow. You know what I mean? So these guys will be ready to go. You know, it's

it's really comforting for me to see them do that all year. I know they're going to do it again tomorrow and you have to kind of take out the outside noise that comes to playing here and all that kind of stuff. So I got all the confidence in the world and these guys showing up tomorrow, ready to go, and just doing their normal day and competing their asses off. Oh, almost another swear there. Okay, so a good, very good sort of typical manager speak in the aftermath of a loss. It's like, this is a loss, not unlike any other loss. We just regroup. And all we got to do is win one more game and we move on to the ALCS. We could have won it yesterday, but instead we can win

it today. And I'm like, that's good managing right there. You keep the troops calm. Nobody's freaking out, didn't even have to drop a swear. He's comforted. You heard him say that. I would not be comforted. That's not the word I would use. I wouldn't be comforted because when we were going through the game yesterday and I was, a couple people reached out to me on Twitter, like you were pretty

confident yesterday. I was like, yeah, you know when I was really confident, when they were up 6-1 and they, for the third straight game, did the thing they did in the first two games, which was rough up a Yankee starter and generate a ton of offense and go yard again, lest we forget that one of the big moments early in that game was Vladie going yard yet again. What I didn't have on my bingo card was the way in which they lost that game. I had yesterday, I did, you know, hold the option that might lose that game yesterday, right? Even though I was like kind of talking pretty confident on the air. I thought

if they're going to lose this game, it's going to be a super, tight, Yankees are fighting tooth and nail with their backs against the wall and it's a tight game that goes right down to the ninth or maybe extras. Or Bieber's going to get blown out. They're going to lose by a massive margin. There's going to be like, let's just flush it and get to that bullpen

game. Nowhere on the bingo card did I have the Jays kicking the ball around and handling it like it was a live grenade, which is so atypical for this team. Like it just doesn't really make sense.

It doesn't? No, they're not a bad fielding team. They haven't been a bad fielding team all year. Look in the environment they're in, man. I understand. Look around one time in your life and look in the environment and consider the situation that they're in. All I'm saying is they're not a bad fielding team. Like there wasn't any pressure when IKF booted the ball in the beginning.

It was just a routine grounder that he completely gacked on. The barger one, bad. Bad. And by the way, I did not like it. And then the crowd, and then the crowd starts to get into it. And then things start rolling the other way it's sports. This is what happens. So what I'm saying is, so what I'm saying is, the ways that I thought that they would lose that game. I didn't have that one. But it happened. And that gave me pause because when a team starts to do things that it doesn't normally does, it's kind of what you're talking about. Is the momentum turning? Are the baseball God suddenly not in your favor? Are you feeling the pressure? Because again, I think the biggest takeaway from yesterday's game for me was that they blew a five-run lead in an elimination game. It doesn't matter when it was, because I know Schneider made a point.

That's your biggest takeaway. Wow, that was everyone's takeaway. It's not just they. You know, who I'm most disappointed in is Shane Bieber. That was probably his worst start as a Jay. And he didn't even have to be great. They spotted him six runs early, and all he had to do was get through four, maybe five innings.

You can give up two, three runs, but no, they just, he ended up. Take him out too early at the same time? I don't think so. That's a tough one. I just wish he had a better performance because that would have quelled a lot of that early part of the comeback. That's a tough one because here's the other thing

that I don't like about where this is sort of trending. At the beginning of the series, it was very obvious that game four was going to be a bullpen game, right? That was when they didn't put Bassett on the roster and they didn't put the choice. Everyone was like, game four is a bullpen game. You've been talking about the bullpen game since the beginning of the series because that was the one that was going to line up with Schlitler.

If that's the case, it seemed awfully strange that Bieber got lifted with 53 pitches yesterday. I don't know if you saw it on Twitter yesterday, but Vernon Wells, all-time Jay's legend, took to Twitter to say, if you know that this bullpen game is coming, you know, days almost a week in advance, you don't lift your... Because they wanted to put it away. They didn't want to game four. I mean, they gambled. They gambled and lost. They gambled and lost.

It's not the end of the world. But there was a gamble there. and the people that defend the decision to take Bieber out will say, well, it was an aggressive move. You know what else was an aggressive move and a gamble that I really didn't like was that putting Barger in for the kill shot. That was another thing.

They went 0 for two on aggressive moves and then he struck out. Lucas was right there. They made the bad error. Thanks for coming out. You want to talk about like the environment getting to them and the emotions of the close-out game getting them. I was like, when Barger came up for ICF,

I remember thinking like, this feels like a wildly aggressive move and a manager looking for a kill shot for a team that the way they kill everyone isn't, it's death by a thousand paper cuts. It's never been. It was like being at the blackjack table and they're like, I am on fire right now. I'm going to make an even bigger bet. Kind of like that. IPF just needed to come out of the game. Well, he needed to get out for sure. The dealer's showing six and you're like, oh, that's a bust card.

And then it's like, oh, 16, five. oh 21 I lose I'll be honest with you I kind of hope we get a game five Laddie's going to hate me for saying this but I personally exercised my demons with the Jays in 1992

and can you allow me like two minutes to be old man here? Yep I lived and died with the Jays when I was a kid now I have to admit I'm more of a curious observer I hope they do well because I've got a lot of friends

who are Jays fans, but I'm more of a neutral observer. Yeah, I do. He hopes everyone has a good time and no one gets hurt. Yeah, you know, I'm such a good guy. But here's the thing about the, and J, Lattie, you probably know this, but you didn't live it, right? You didn't live the 92 World Series, right? I was too young to remember.

You were too young. Okay, here's the thing about the Jays before they won in 1992. There were some very painful losses before they finally got over the hump, and frankly, the Jays were left. labeled as Chokers. They blew a 3-1 ALCS lead in 1985 to Kansas City. They had a brutal late-season collapse in 1987, so they didn't win the division that year. In 1989, they lost the ALCS to Oakland. In 1991, they lost the ALCS to Minnesota. In 1992, in 1992, Everyone will know that they won the World Series and they beat Atlanta

and probably people remember the play that did it. But it was beating the A's in the AALC that got them over the hump. And you kids out there go learn about game four against the athletics, the powerful athletics who I think had won like three World Series or something like that before that. and Alamar's home run They've been to three worlds here Okay

Alamar's home run off of Dennis Eckersley At the risk of laying it on A bit thick That's when they stopped being chokers And became champions Yeah no you're right This is the moment that the Jays need to find

In one of these next two games Otherwise this is their I don't know where are they in the in the matching part of the, are they up to losing the ALCS in 91? Are they still collapsing in 1987, or is this their choke in 1985? I don't know. I think they're a little closer to match. They don't have to match up completely, but teams need to, you know, some teams, they just

like, they hit and then they win, and then it's like, wow, that's crazy. Where did they come from? But the Js of, you know, there's a narrative here. And I think, you know, although the team has, has, has, changed a lot around the likes of Vladdy. I thought if you're looking for some symbolism, Laddie's

play at first base was... Yeah. It's not, you said Laddie. Okay, Vladdy. Well, Laddie doesn't... I would have made the play. Vladdy's play at first base was symbolic because everything had been going right

for Vladdy until around that moment. He had made a great play in the field in game one. Yep. And then, like, That was a tough play to make, for sure. I didn't even put it in my list. No, no, no. I had three errors.

That wasn't one of them, but it wasn't good. No, it would have made the play. But he at least maybe should have gotten something on the ball. Should have knocked it down or whatever. Whatever. I thought that was symbolic. And now, you know, I'm not going to sit here and say like they're done or whatever. I have lots of friends texting and saying, they are losing this series now.

But I think it is yet another, let's spin it the right way. because I'm feeling in a good mood today and say like this is the opportunity to find the Alamar home run. Well, this is why I kept bringing up and as you scoffed at my takeaway that it wasn't just that they lost it was that they had the game in their grasp.

Yeah, but everyone knows that. I was just saying it was obvious. But we're not talking. My takeaway was that they blew a 6-1 lead in a clinching game. Yeah, because again, I didn't realize the numbers were so skewed heavily in favor of a team that is leading by five

in an elimination game. Yankees are the first team in MLB postseason history to be down by five plus runs in a sweep situation and come back and win it. The first team in MLB history. I was talking to a couple of Yankees fans last night, including AJ, and they're like, we were cooked. They had, because again, at that point, everything that J's did in the first two games had happened again. They ran through Rodon. It was not good. Vladie went yard again.

Everyone was putting bats on balls. Varsha was staying hot. Ernie was like hit the ball right like everything was going I can't wait to see Yankee Stadium today It's the the I'm like look this this is exciting This is this is this is awesome and uh okay We'll talk some more uh blue jays as we go along and we'll get into the start of the NHL season which we really haven't talked about

Also hold on sorry by the way it is It hasn't been announced but it's been reported that louis Varland who gave up the home run to Aaron judge yesterday is going to start the bullpen game today for the jays and we had a couple texts coming and one just came in as a matter of fact how are we feeling about varland starting game four i'd be like did you see game three i who else is who else would you put in lauer oh my god laura and now lauer the disgrace broadcaster no i don't know who is it like if it's not varland who is it i don't know i don't get the if you're having a bullpen game you should probably know the guys that are going to

put you out of the bullpen i had audio some semblance of confidence I had audio from yesterday. We didn't play it, but I think Schneider was just playing coy in the moment. But after the game, he's like, I don't know who I'm going to start yet. But that wasn't a bad pitch to judge. Like, when you really break it down, 100 miles an hour... He's a great player. Yeah, it's Barry Bond's 2.0 you're dealing with here.

He's a great player, and he turned on that thing, and he barely kept it fair. But he also hit it 9 million feet in the air. Yes, so there's that. I mean, what a visual that was, too. I was like, that ball's never coming down. It's gone now. We have to go get a new one. That's it.

When I went off the foul pole, I was like, good night. Every time I watch the film, I'm expecting it to just a curve left, just a little bit. It never does. I feel bad we haven't paid the Mariners much attention. Yeah, let's talk about a good baseball team. Okay. That's also up to one in their series. I feel bad that we have paid you attention.

Yeah, now I've read it. Okay, the Seattle is just one win away from their fourth trip to the ALCS, where they'd be looking for their first ever trip to the World Series. the story on Tuesday in Detroit probably the long ball for the Mariners I know And the lack they're of of the Tigers

Right I know Calaralee A.k.a. Big Dumpur. I still don't like saying it. I know his two-run Homer was late. Swares hit one. J.P. Crawford had a pretty good game. He had a home run.

Swares and Naylor have just one hit between them this post season. Naylor's been brutal. Suarez at least did one good thing yesterday. Naylor's mind might be elsewhere because he had to go be with his wife

between games two and three because they're expecting a baby, but I know he did hit one hard that didn't get out, but... His fielding at first base hasn't been ideal idea. He seems like... He's still a point where you wonder if he's in the lineup. Yeah, look, hey, and again, he's dealing with something on a personal level and I don't want to make light of it

when I just said he just hasn't played well in this series. Thankfully, for the Mariners, it has not cost them because the Tiger's offense has dried up in a major way. And if you go back and you look at, this is sort of a trend

that established itself in the wild card against Cleveland. They only hit 218 against Cleveland. They only scored nine runs in the three games, but they managed to squeak their way through. And now that they've got, gotten up against a Mariners team in a best of five. After game one, they won in Seattle, their offense is really dried up.

And now, as you mentioned, Seattle's one win away from their first ALCS in 24 years. Okay, it's being reported. The one I see right now is Draggs from TSN. I expect the Winnipeg Jets will officially announce the Kyle Connor extension. Eight years, $12 million A-AV. Selfish. Selfish Kyle Connor. Yeah.

Why didn't he take a haircut? Why is he making 0.5 million less? Not a leader. Not a leader, Halford. Not at all. Okay, who's coming up next? We got David Amber for a little hockey talk coming up next on the Halford and Brush Show on SportsNet 650. It is a big, all-Canadian doubleheader on Sportsnet tonight.

You got the Habs and the Leafs at 4, followed by the Oilers and the Flames at 7. You're going to want to watch that Flames Oilers game for a multitude of reasons, but one of them, of course, is that the Canucks are going to play the Flames tomorrow night, 7 o'clock. The NHL season finally gets underway for the Canucks as they'll take on the flames in the second of a back-to-back. David Amber, coming up next, you're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Richo and Saty R. Shaw,

your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post-game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on-demand through your favorite podcast app. It is time for David Amber. He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey, maybe. It is time for David Amber.

He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey maybe. I'm on the hotline, baby. I remember what I was doing at 23, pooping in my pants. There's a massive butt coming here, guys. No one's fighting Rick talking.

No one wants to fight Rick talking. I'm on the hotline, baby. It is. It's David. It is. It's David. David. Amber, it is. It's David. He's on the hotline. 634 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brubb, Sportsnet 650.

Halford Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. As the music suggests, David Amber is going to join us in just a moment here. His first hit of the new season. Our one of this program 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 them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Very excited to welcome our next guest back onto the Halford & Brough Show. It's David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, SportsNet NHL host here on SportsNet 650. Good morning, David. How are you? Hey, Jason, Mike. Great to be back on the hotline. and I hope you guys had an awesome summer, and here we go.

Tonight's the night. I just want to ask you, though, what's the vibe in Toronto these days? What's the vibe in Toronto today? A lot going on. A little restless. When it was 6'1, there was a lot of celebrating. I was at a bar last night watching the game, and it was 6'1, and people were ready. People were like, all right, I can't believe it.

Who were going to play Seattle or Detroit? And I'm like, hold on, hold on. And, yeah, so it's a little scary. Remember, you don't have to think too long ago. The Leafs had a 2-0 seriously in Florida. We know how that went. So different sport, different team, but certainly a little bit of anxiety heading into Game 4 tonight. Probably not ideal for the Leafs that – I have imagined that – I don't know what percentage of the sports folks are going to be on the Jays, but most of it?

Yeah, I mean, I wasn't thrilled. Yeah. I'm in the office tonight. We're doing a double header, and it's a great double header, right? Leaves, have Oilers, Flames, and, you know, certainly there's going to be a good percentage of our regular viewers who are going to be, at their minimum, flipping back and forth, but probably pretty glued to the Jays.

But listen, it's all good. It's exciting for the country. I know there's Jay's fans from east to west, and they're really an exciting team to watch, win or lose, and it should be fun tonight. But, yeah, it's going to splinter our audience tonight, but that's the way it goes. So we must have missed this last night, Halford, because Elliot Freeman reported that the Jets and Kyle Conner were closing in on a contract and then I guess it was finalized today or now it's being reported in more details, eight years, cap hit of $12 million for Kyle Conner.

What does this mean for the Jets, David? well that's great i mean you have to give kevin shovel day off a ton of credit right like he re-signed schifely he re-signed he re-signed he's now uh he has morrissey locked down he just locked down connor i mean there's this whole notion oh winnipeg no one wants to play there well he's finding players that are happy to stay there play there uh thrive there and this is their window and they lost dealers i get that but they they locked down a guy who's one of the most prolific scores over the last six, seven years. I mean, he's in the elite,

you know, top five, six guys in the league when it comes to goal scoring over the last handful of years. So they had to retain them. And the number's reasonable, guys. It's so funny, we're all wondering what the McDavid 12.5 is going to mean. But the number, what, the same as Ranton?

It's the same as Mitch Marner. You know, and to use another talented winger, star winger, like it's not an unreasonable number. I'm happy for the Jets fans, and they're going to give it another kick. A lot of people think there'll be some regression after that incredible year last year, and there might be some, but knowing that Kyle Connor and Halibuck and everyone are locked down, they can kind of exhale and sort of to see where this goes. The Connor McDavid contract extension launched a million sports takes,

like on sports radio, you know, the written words, social media. How did you see that extension? Well, maybe I'm simplifying it, but I just thought there's a guy who's solely focused on winning. We kept anticipating it was going to be a shorter term deal, which it was. But I don't think anyone really anticipated that low a number, especially on the heels of Caprizov at 17 million, right? Like, to me, I'm like, oh, God, so now is he going to want 18 million? Is he want 19 million? I mean, it wasn't a negotiation.

It was basically Connor McDavid saying, here's what I'm going to do, and Stan Bowman and everyone's saying, thank you so much. I was really shocked. You know, he's basically said, this is our window. I'm taking a massive pay cut to allow you to surround me with better players to potentially win this championship. And either it's going to work out wonderfully and then I'll get my money later or it's not going to work out and I'll probably be on my way and no one could begrudge him going somewhere else to try and get this done because I think that's what his sole focus has been. and it's been hard for him to watch other guys, you know, his peers, the Nathan McKinnons and obviously Florida in the last couple of years and all the players in Tampa with Stamcoast and everyone, you know,

these are his peers. And really he has no peers when I say there is peers. But I mean, the other superstars, the other captains, the other franchise players have their moment. He's waiting for his moment. So I thought it was a very selfless act. I thought, you know, it doesn't mean other players are going to follow suit, but I thought it was an amazing situation for the Oilers.

especially with all this sort of growing speculation. Maybe he wants out, maybe he wants to leave. I never thought he was going to leave. I thought it was going to be a short-term deal, but I never in my, you know, wildest dreams thought he'd go to 12-5 and, you know, think about that. In three years, there's going to be 20, 30 players making more money than him. That's crazy to think, but it's going to be the case.

Well, it's certainly driven some, like, tasty narratives going into tonight. Again, the all-Canadian doubleheader. You got Edmonton hosting the Calgary Flames. It's a tough start for Calgary. We'll get to that in a second. You've got McDavid signing this deal on the eve of the regular season. The conversation, as Jason mentioned, is everywhere. I came in this morning, both TVers on different channels in the studio.

Both had Connor McDavid's stand-up interviews going on. Like, this is the driving force. And it's really, it's sort of crystallized this narrative that the Oilers are all about winning in the now. Like, McDavid takes less money now to win now. And they go into tonight. And then it's also like, oh, yeah, also the Calgary Flames are playing hockey. You know, like everything is hyper-focused on the oilers. So set it up for us tonight, the second of the doubleheader.

We will get to Toronto and Montreal in a sec, but Edmonton, Calgary and the second of the double-hatter where all the storylines are pushing the Oilers here. Well, listen, it's such a, it's, as I was in Edmont, I was in Vancouver, Redmondton, Calgary, you know, getting a chance to talk to the GMs and talk to some of the coaches a couple of weeks ago, and it was awesome. It was a really good trip.

And when I got a chance to talk to Spitzam-Bomb, and I said, it's kind of got a suck for you, where it's Stanley Cup or bust, right? You can't get to the game seven of the Stanley Cup final, game six of the Stanley Cup final and come in and go, yeah, we just want to make the playoffs or we just want to get to the Stanley Cup final. Like it really is, you know, they're one of the only teams

where it's literally Stanley Cup or your season has been an absolute failure. Sure. If you want to just look at the end result, you know, the process is what they always have to focus on, but people are going to focus, obviously, on the end result. Calgary, it's a different story. Can they keep the momentum from last year, you know? They were one of the Cinderella stories,

one of the good, feel-good stories of the year. Ryan Husk did a great job with that young group. And, you know, it was so unexpected. And Dustin Wolf, how incredible he was. Can they maintain that momentum? And already Hubertos heard and the posthus, uh, posthus, uh, so you're kind of going, uh, oh, like, that's not ideal to get the season started.

But for Calgary, it's going to be about growth, right? Coronado, uh, Wolf, what Zane Perak going to do in his NHL debut, right? This electric defenseman, uh, Oh, HL records. He was tying records that Bobby Orr said in terms of points and goals in the OHL for a defenseman. So there's a lot of intrigue surrounding the flames, but, you know, it's obviously a very different set of expectations. If the flames make the playoffs, that's going to be considered an awesome year.

For Edmonton, it's Stanley Cup or bus. So it's going to be, that's going to be a narrative that sort of plays itself out throughout the season, I think. You know, Jason and I were talking about this because the Canucks saw the flames in the preseason, and it didn't go especially well for Calgary. They got the doors blown off. I mean, it was actually a game in which Hubertow got hurt. One of the things that we were kicking around was,

can you really do the prove them all wrong thing two years in a row? Because last year, Calgary defied expectations, proved their doubters wrong, fought valiantly to try and get to the last days of that playoff chase. We tried, we failed, let's not try anymore. The start to this season, David, like it is a tough start. So you mentioned no Huberto, no pospicil, they got to go to Edmonton tonight

then they got to turn around and play Vancouver the next night like it just feels like it's a very large task for a team that maybe doesn't have that same screw it, us against the world mentality that they had last year because they didn't prove a lot last year and Dan will Dustin Wolf be as good as he was in

his Calder finalist season I mean they don't have Dan's Ladar anymore you know Devin Cooley right now is the backup who's played all of what five games or something like there are a lot of question marks there. What's going to happen with Rasmus Anderson, right? Who hasn't signed a long-term extension. So Craig Conroy's got to figure out, is Anderson going to be on the move? Are we going to trade for futures? And that becomes a big hole on the

team. Yeah, I agree with you. This could be a year where there's some regression, and I don't think that would be shocking. And I don't even sure it should be viewed as a disappointment. I mean, the flames were kind of rebuilding, and then they had this a bit of a resurging year. but there's a scenario where they kind of drop back down into the bottom tier of the NHL and that could very well happen. So let's see how what kind of start the team gets out to.

I do love the identity of the team. Ryan Huska has them playing for each other. They know their identity. They're this blue-collar team. They don't look around and have Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid or Quinn Hughes. They don't have superstars. They have a lot of good players, though, and a lot of players that have

maybe a higher ceiling than we've seen so far, the Frost, the Fairbys, etc. now it's incumbent on them to kind of Ryan has got to drain every ounce out of these guys again and that's not easy that's not easy to have everything fall in the place I agree with you I think it's a long shot probably for them to make the playoffs

but I think they could have growth even without making a playoffs they could see signs of growth if correct to be in everyday NHL or in Coronado improve etc Dustin Wolf have another great year so there's it's different you know what they might view as what looks like success

is different than other teams you know, what the Leafs want to look like success or the Jets or the Oilers is probably a little different in Calgary. And quite frankly, Vancouver, whenever you're talking about the Canucks guys, and, you know, I always come on and you guys laugh a little bit because I've got, I come on with an optimistic take and I know people love being cynical out in Vancouver about the Canucks, but one thing I'll say is everything went wrong last year for the Canucks. Fair, right? Is that a fair thing to say everything went wrong?

As much could possibly go right. It was funny because the, year prior, the mantra going into the year was, well, if everything goes right, we got a good shot. Everything did go right. And they had a great year. And then I think you could say for the inverse last year for sure, yeah. Yeah, so everything went wrong and they missed the playoffs by six points. They had 90 points when everything went wrong. And I remember, I'm going through notes. I'm making notes on all the teams that they get set for this year. Five times in the first 41 games did they have Demco, Hughes, Miller, and Pedersen all play. Like, they just, they weren't healthy. And then with the infighting. They had so many problems.

and they still had 90 points. So if Pedersen can find his game again, if Demko can stay healthy, I get it. There's a lot of if-if-ifs. But if these things can happen, you know, DeBrusk again show out and be the guy he was another, you know, high 20, low-30 kind of season in goals. I know it was a career high-28 from last year.

If all these things can sort of fall into place, you know, Vancouver could have that resurgent year again. You know, who's to say that's all going to happen? but if I was a Canucks fan I'd feel a sense of optimism going everything went wrong last year and they still were a 90-point team David this was great man

thanks for taking the time to do this today we really appreciate it enjoy the doubleheaders and it's actually an amazing sports night hockey and otherwise incredible man yeah so have lots of screens be prepared and it's great having you back on the show we'll do this again next week yeah thanks guys go jays and enjoy the games tonight

thanks buddy appreciate it that's David Amber Sportsnet Hockey Night Canada NHL host here on the Halford & Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650 I do want to pivot quickly to some of the other NHL stories from last night. I do want to spend a couple minutes here talking about what happened at Madison Square Garden between the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a very interesting game going into the game because of all the storylines at play,

especially from a Vancouver perspective. Former Vancouver Connect J.T. Miller, his first game, captaining the New York Rangers in their home and sees an opener. In net, for the Pittsburgh Penguins was none other than R.D.C., Seelovs. And lest we forget former Canucks assistant coach Mike Sullivan, who last year was coaching the penguins

and now behind the bench for the Rangers. Artie must have got lit up, right? He did not. A 3-0 shutout victory, Artie Seelovs. Like everyone's thought, he would have the first shutout in the NHL this season. Everyone thought it, and now it has happened. The first game of the season is a bit of a wild card

for old Artie Seelofs. It's either goes really, really badly or really, really well. The heroes from the game last night, By the way, Justin Brazo, scoring twice for the penguins. C-Lov's a 25 save shutout. And Dan Mews, who I absolutely forgot, was the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. You know who else I forgot was a head coach again? Not that Dan Mews is a head coach again.

Jeff Blashill. Chicago? Yeah, because he was coaching last night. I was like, oh, yeah. He's still coaching. Anyway, I have a funny little bit here I want to do because prior to the game, I guess ESPN managed to get the footage. This is real. This isn't just me setting up a bit. This is the real footage

of a very excited and inspired Mike Sullivan talking to his new Rangers team ahead of which is obviously a big game for him because they're playing his former club, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Here's Mike Sullivan pregame from the dressing room speaking to

the Rangers ahead of their season opener against the Penguins. We talked about two things since the start of trading camp. And I'm going to remind you of it again, right? We talked about an identity. and try to build something here that we're proud of, right? What does Rangers hockey look like when we're at our best? And we try to define that every day, right?

So everybody's got a responsibility to that. North-South, dictating the terms, playing the game the right way, right? The second thing we talked about was being a good teammate. And we try to define that for you, right? Reliability, know your job. Predictability, do your job. And dependability is the discipline to do it shift after shift after shift, all right? This is the start of it.

Let's have fun with it. Let's get excited. The building is going to be electric. So I know we're going to have juice. We've got to have control the motion. All right? Let's be ready to play here. That sounds great.

Those are all good ideas. I love that. MSG is going to be rocking tonight. Let's hear of Mike Sullivan sounded like after the game, a 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. I guess just kind of generally speaking, Mike, would you take away from that one? Well, I think my first observation.

is we've got a long way to go to become the team we want to become. You know, I thought we had moments in the game where we were, you know, playing the game that we envision that we can play more consistently, but it's not nearly consistently enough. And, you know, I thought there were moments

in the second period we started to play. I thought the first period, you know, for whatever reason, we had hesitation in our game. Some of it, I think we can iron out but certainly we got a waste to go. But what happened all the things? The abilities. Rangers hockey, baby.

Dependability. Responsibility. Approachability? I forget which ones he mentioned there. I did watch a fair amount of this game flipping back and forth. How was it? And the most energetic MSG got was when Aaron Judge hit the home run. Yeah.

Where was the energy ability? Because people were watching on their phone, obviously, or in the suites there at MSG. And then they showed the replay of Judges' home run. And you could see even Sid on the bench was looking up. He was like, well, that's a big moment for the Yankees. He's probably cheering pretty hard for the Blue Jays as well. Sid's a big baseball fan. J.T. Miller looked slow.

And look, he had the Crosby assignment, and that's a tough assignment. And Crosby didn't score. It was the Justin Brazo show, obviously. The Brass show. And Miller was also injured in the preseason. And he said afterwards, it's kind of what I expected. Like, I didn't expect to be flying out there. But, I mean, you know, I joked about this on social media afterwards.

Like, take yourself back a year ago to when the Canucks were about to start the season with Archer Cilovs as a starter. And J.T. Miller was a big part of the Canucks. and last night Archer Seelov's got a shutout for Pittsburgh and J.T. Miller was the captain of the Rangers team that Seelov shut out.

And it made me think like and it's an excitement thing but also like not an anxiety thing but it's the trepidation that starts with every season. You're like, where's this thing going to go, man? Yeah.

You know, like where's it going to go? Where is this next adventure in the Vancouver Canucks story going to go? Things change real fast in the NHL. In every sport. Sometimes you don't think they do, but then you look at yesterday. It's like Miller's captaining the Rangers. Seelov's getting a shutout for the Penguins. Sullivan's coaching the Rangers now.

Against the Penguins? What is going on? They showed him on the bench behind the Rangers, and they didn't show any Rangers around him. So I was like, oh, yeah, they're Sully with the Penguins. Like, you know, and I was like, no, wait. a minute. Didn't he leave? Oh yeah, he's with the Rangers. At the risk, at the risk of reading too much into game one of 82, kind of getting a, I don't like my team vibe already.

I don't like my team. I like the money that I'm getting paid, but I don't, I don't know if I love my money. And you know what he's probably thinking? You know who I did like coaching? Sidney Crosby. That was fun. That made my job a lot easier. This Miller character, I'm not sold on. I got Mika Zabinaget. You know, their top line is Miller flanked by Zabinajet and Will Cooley, that's our top line. So you look at that and you're saying, yeah, I could understand why they might have a problem scoring goals early in the season. Like, if Miller's not going, you've moved Zabinajet from center two-wing in the hopes of getting him going offensively. By the way, I don't, I'm not going to

read anything into what Pittsburgh did yesterday. Like, I still think they're going to be bad. No, she loves when the Vesna Bay. Yeah, right. Rangers were not a dangerous team last night. Seelov played well, but they were not a dangerous team. I cannot believe the blue line that the penguins are putting out there. I cannot believe that blue line got a shot. Like it's still got Carlson and Chris LaTang, right? That's okay.

Carlson and everyone was raving about his play last night barely played over 20 minutes. Like he was kind of one of the low men in terms of minutes. They have guys, they have Parker Wetherspoon, Ryan Shea, Caleb Jones, and Harrison Brunichay on their blue line. and there are guys playing pretty significant minutes ahead of LaTang and Carlson. Carlson more so. Carlson was coming in just around 20 minutes, but I noticed on social media last night

a lot of people saying like with a reduced role and less obligation and responsibility, Carlson looks better. Now, I think this might just be a way to try and move him at some point if you could get off that contract because I don't think they have any interest in retaining his services, I mean. But it's an interesting team to watch.

I still think they're going to be bad but that was a really good win for them last night and I want one more thing shout out to RDC loves because we gave him a lot of crap on this show like without question we you you did too

you really picked up I gave him a lot of crap on the show I said he was unplayable last year well he was I stand by it but I made a point of saying it repeatedly repeatedly good on and for getting that shutout hey maybe he's gonna Baker Mayfield you

maybe oh but hopefully laddie you looked at it a little closer what did you think of that 25 save shut I ran through I didn't watch the game, but I ran through his saves. They compile it on NHShall.com, and it didn't look like you had to make any 10 bellers. No, no. The Rangers were not dangerous.

MSG was dead. Like, it was... That didn't help. It was a bad atmosphere. Well, the Rangers didn't give them anything to cheer about. Frank Sarvalley is going to join us next, and then we're going to talk Canucks with Randeep at 730. The hour three is wide open. So we'll do some what we learns.

Maybe we'll run through some Patrick Alvin audio in that segment. But let's get your what we learns into the Dunbar-Lumber text line, 650-6-50. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro.

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