Halford & Brough in the Morning - Helicopter Fear Unlocked

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), including the news that Alex Ovechkin will be out 4-6 weeks with a fractured leg, possibly affecting his chase to break Gretzky's goal record (6:00), the boys set up Sunday's Seahawks matchup versus Arizona, as ESPN's Brady Henderson (27:47) joins the show, plus they do some Ask Us Anythings (41:58). 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.

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My feet start getting heavy because I'm squishing through the snow. You know, listen, it's ball. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Baker. 6-0-1 on a Friday. It's Alfred and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and bruv in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by 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 Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we've got a lot to get into on the show today. It is a Friday. That means it's Ask Us Anything Friday. That means we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. For the best, ask us anything or what we learned. Start getting them in now.

Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Or give us an ask us anything. Don't forget to put a pizza emoji into your text to be entered into the contest. Guests today, 630 Brady Henderson, ESPN Seahawks Insider is

going to join us. Seattle hosts the Arizona Cardinals in a huge NFC West battle on Sunday. Talk to Brady about that. 7 o'clock, AJ is going to join us from AJ's Pizza. 7.05, right after AJ, Elliot Friedman is going to join the program, Jason. Wow, what a get. Fried is going to join us. We'll ask about if he's got any updates on JT Miller as the Canucks head out

on a lengthy road trip that begins on Saturday in Ottawa. Well, I want to ask him about that number three item in 32 Thoughts where he's just, it's just me here, it's just me here, but maybe the Bruins should trade Nikita Zdorov back to Vancouver. If you want to hear more about that,

Friedge is going to join the program at 7.05, 7.30, the Mo hear more about that, Freja's going to join the program at 7.05. 7.30, the Moj, Bob Marjanovic, is going to join the program. Busy week for the BC Lions. We'll get Moj's thoughts on all the moves that are happening. Maybe the inevitable Buck Pierce hire as head coach of the BC Lions.

We'll talk to Moj about that at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall. Jason is Dollywall's official handler. It's one of his many tasks here at the halford and brough show so what are we going to talk to rick about today jason uh well uh rick texted me yesterday and all it said was 3.6 million watch the gray cup okay and it was like, he was like, and slam dunk, Rick Dollywall. Boom. So I replied to him, the long list of Grey Cup viewership numbers going back to 2009 when it was 6.1 million.

What's the trend been since then? I mean, it has been, it was a good number for the Grey Cup relative to the last few years. The Grey Cup viewership had actually fallen below 3 million. And then Rick's, let's see, he's probably not listening right now, but see if Rick does this to me. See if he says, every league has its issues. Every league has it. I'm like, oh, that's a good argument, Rick.

That's a great argument. It's like every person has issues. Every league has it. I'm like, oh, that's a good argument, Rick. That's a great argument. It's like every person has issues, so everyone's the same. I'm going to wait and see if Rick says the word sinister because Dolly Wall loves saying sinister. Nothing sinister here. Nothing sinister here. He wants to make sure there's nothing sinister. That's why he knows he's being sinister.

I'm not going to argue with Rick. I'm going to try not to argue with Rick about whether or not the CFL, we should be worried about it or not. Because number one, I don't want to make it seem like I'm arguing for it to happen. Correct. I want the CFL to be in trouble. Yeah. And I also just don't want to argue with Rick.

Two things. Two things. Okay. So working in reverse on the guest list real quick eight o'clock dolly wall 7 30 mark janovich 705 friedman seven o'clock aj 6 30 henderson so we go last names only here except for aj the the mono named aj uh we got a lot to get into on the program so without further ado laddy let's tell everybody what happened hey 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? You missed that? You missed that?

What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best

in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Although the Vancouver Canucks did not practice and did not do media yesterday, we do have some Canucks-related news from Thursday. After five games in the National Hockey League, Jonathan Lekromackie has been demoted back to the club's AHL affiliate in Abbotsford. And in a corresponding move, just before leaving to head out on a jet plane to Ottawa, the Vancouver Canucks were called Centre Max Sasson from the Abbotsford Canucks.

So there's a few takeaways here that sort of jumped to front of mind for everyone upon hearing the news of the demotion and the recall. One was that with the demotion of Lekker and Ackie, many assumed that that meant that brock besser's return to the lineup would be imminent besser did return to the ice this week he was confirmed to be traveling with the vancouver canucks because the vancouver canucks put out a little mini video yesterday in which brock besser was boarding the airplane so there's

your evidence there's your proof of travel that's your demco and that's it and that's a big deal too with i mean the canucks haven't come out and said it's a concussion. But whether it's a concussion or whiplash, like going on a plane sometimes, people are like, don't go on with a concussion, right? So that is a good, that's good with Brock Besser. Yeah. So Lekker-Mackie goes back to Abbotsford after a five-game stint in which it was okay. I would classify it as okay. He got his first NHL goal.

That was his only point in the five games with the team. If you look at his game log, the time on ice gradually went down and down throughout the course of the five games to the point where he played 13-47 in that final game, the loss against the Rangers. He's not ready, and that's fine. I didn't expect him to be ready. I thought it was great when he scored his goal. I didn't think it was great that after he scored his goal,

everyone on the Canucks stopped playing. That was against the Islanders, remember? But listen, he gets a taste of the NHL, not just preseason. He gets a taste of actual NHL action. He can go back to the AHl now and apply what he learned so uh as regards to max sasson i'm not going to be overly analytical in this one i think he's getting a nice little bump because he has been the abbotsford canucks best player as of late with seven points where's he gonna play them i don't know is he gonna be a winger question

yeah because if let's say besser doesn doesn't play on Saturday in Ottawa, then I suppose you can bump one of the pre-existing centers to the wing to fill the spot that Lekromacky used to have. And you put Sasson. Suitors the 2C, though. Or you just play Sasson on the wing. Or you don't play him at all. I'm not exactly sure what the game plan is here.

I think it's probably a reward. And a guy that they have liked, they have talked about him, especially in the preseason, is a guy that they thought has really responded to a lot of the calls that they've given him in the American League. He's 24 years old. He's another one of those, you know, pulled himself up by his bootstraps and worked his way from being an undrafted guy.

He's a good skater. Came on as a college free agent after his college career was done. He's a little bit older. When he was in camp, he was skating at one point with Di Giuseppe and Sherwood, both guys who, you know, Sherwood's obviously a full-fledged NHLer now. Giuseppe's played over 300 games. So maybe there was something there. At the end of the day, I'm not going to get too caught up in the Max Sasson recall

because I think it might just be a thing more about the player than the actual NHL team if that makes sense well he's gonna I think he's gonna isn't he gonna play he'll probably get a game or two yeah but are people so are people expecting Besser to play on Saturday because there are only two scratches in their last game against the Rangers that was Besser who's not on IR or LTIR, and Vincent Darnay, who's a defenseman. They don't want to go seven defensemen. No. They didn't like it that time that they did it. They don't want to do that.

So either, I mean, unless I'm missing something here, on Saturday in Ottawa, either Sasson's going to play or Besser's going to play. So we'll see. Let's not worry too much about it because the Canucks are actually going to practice today in Ottawa. They're going to practice in a few hours from now. So I assume they'll do some line rushes then. We'll get answers to all of our questions.

We'll get answers to those questions. And anyway, something to look forward to at the Canucks practice. So we got a lot to get into from last night in the National Hockey League. Before we get into any of it, we do need to pass along probably the biggest news of the day yesterday, and that was that Alexander Ovechkin is now going to miss the next four to six weeks after it's a confirmed fractured left fibula.

The club announced it on Thursday. We talked about it the morning after it happened. He went leg on leg, shin on shin, fibula on fibula with Utah's Jack McBain on Monday after scoring two goals and taking the NHL lead in goals with 15. This is going to be the longest absence of Alexander Ovechkin's career.

It is remarkable. What a downer. It is great. Well, yeah, it's a downer that he's going to miss this much time. It's also wild that over 20 NHL seasons, Alexander Ovechkin has missed 59 games. More crazy, only 35 of them have come because of injury. You remember how his career started, too?

Breaking his arm at the World Juniors. That's right. And then he went his entire career without ever breaking anything again until now. So if you ballpark what's going to happen here, four to six weeks, usually about 15 to 20 games. The only reason I bring that up is because if it runs longer to six weeks,

his return would run very close to when the Vancouver Canucks are in Washington to take on the Capitals on January the 8th. It actually seems like Ovechkin, if he goes closer to six weeks, it'll be right around that time on the schedule. I hope it just doesn't slow him down too much, too. Yeah, I know. Coming back from this, Ovi's such a big dude.

Yes. Sometimes he's bigger. Him maintaining his weight, his strength strength while he's recovering from this like it's pretty tough to recover and stay in shape when you've got a broken leg when your job is hockey player right like yeah okay i'll go on the rowing machine i was like oh is that gonna help a lot trust me trust me you know what's not gonna do it either i learned uh riding the bike the stationary bike ain't gonna going to get it done. It'll get your legs going and everything,

but it ain't going to get it done. Well, it's even harder with a broken leg. The reason I said the rowing machine is because you... I guess you use your legs a little bit. You can bike with a broken leg and you just scream a lot. Yeah. It does help your pain threshold, which is a good thing. Okay, I want to get into some of the scores from last night.

Can you fire up the Elias Lindholm power play goal audio? Because the Boston Bruins got a whole bunch of things done in their first game in the post-Jim Montgomery era. They got a shutout. They finally scored a power play goal, and Elias Lindholm ended up scoring the game winner

with the man advantage. Here's what it sounded like, the lone goal in Boston's 1-0 win against Utah on Thursday night. Postrack sent it out in front, the dunk and the save, they score! Elias Lindholm looks to the heavens, he stuffs that home, a power play goal, Bruins 1, Utah nothing. So he wasn't joking, he actually did look to the heavens. I was watching the game.

There was a sense of relief with both Lindholm and the Bruins on that play because he hadn't had a goal in 17 games. He's obviously been under fire for his lackluster play, and the Bruins have the worst power play in the NHL. So I was watching this game, and it was actually kind of entertaining how it ended because the Bruins scored an empty netter with about a minute left and everyone was like they got it done they fought you know they what a big win for the Bruins and then and then what happened and then it turned

out that right before I think it was Pasternak scored they showed a video replay that he had knocked down the puck with a high stick. So the goal came off the board and everyone was in Boston and was like, oh God, Utah is definitely scoring. But they held off the hockey club from Salt Lake

and got it done and the announcers were like, and the Bruins got back to their identity tonight. I heard a lot of that. They were a stingy Bruins team and I was kind of rolling my eyes. I were like, and the Bruins got back to their identity tonight. I heard a lot of that. They were a stingy Bruins team. And I was kind of rolling my eyes. I was like, yeah, they beat Utah. Yeah, you shut out Utah.

But guess who got the shutout? I thought that was interesting. Who was in goal? Eunice Corposalo. No Jeremy Swayman. As the goalie debate rages on. Is it not the tale as old as time, though? Coach gets fired, and then the goalie suddenly plays average or good

and then they're good again. He only had 21 saves. He didn't do a whole hell of a lot. Yeah, Joe Sacco's like, I'm a genius. I'm never going to lose again. We're never going to concede a goal again. I bring up Swayman because it's a good jumping off point for the next game that I want to get into.

His former battery mate in goal, Linus Allmark, and the slumping Ottawa Senators, who the Vancouver Canucks are going to play on Saturday. Ottawa lost its fourth straight game on Thursday night to a good Vegas team, for sure, but a tired Vegas team that was in the second of a back-to-back that had lost 3-0 in Toronto, and who's playing Ilya Samsonov in net.

Do you know how there's been a conversation in hockey in the last little while about the death of the plan of just shoot the puck and any shot will do and there's no such thing as a bad shot and teams are more and more realizing that sometimes if you take a bad shot, it can actually be just a turnover.

Sure. And certainly, to make a long story short, there is such thing as a bad shot in the NHL. I'd be curious to know what's going on with Ottawa. And maybe we can talk to, I guess, Freed's today. Freed's would probably be our best answer in terms of the Sens. Like, how is it that they're constantly getting so many shots? So that's good.

But how many shots did they have last night? The Sens had... Like 40 shots, was it? Something like that? 40, yeah. Stacks own up, made 38 saves on 40 shots. Are they the new volume shooting team with the low shooting percentage?

Like, what's going on? I'm not expecting you to, like to know the question or know the answer. I'm just, every time I seem to see Sens games, it's like, wow, that's a lot of good shots. And Drance mentioned it on the show yesterday. And normally you're like, yeah, that's good because that's a proxy for possession. Are they just not doing anything with the possession? Is it bad luck? I'll tell you what they're not.

Are they due to break out at some point? I'll tell you what they're not doing. Are they not getting saves? I'll tell you what they're not. Are they due to break out at some point? I'll tell you what they're not doing. They're not getting saves? I'll tell you what they're not doing with that possession is winning hockey games because they've now lost four in a row and they've now lost six of eight and the frustration is building and building and building in Ottawa.

Brady Kachuk had some very pointed comments midweek after they lost their third of their own. Then Brady Kachuk went out and was on the ice for every single Vegas Golden Knights goal last night. He finished dash three. Not good. Plus minus.

Important stat. Adam Gaudette scored, though. We'll get to see him on Saturday. So I am... I don't know how this sets up for Vancouver. How many is that for him? Seven?

Seven, yeah. He's on fire. He's going to lead that team in goal scoring at this point if he keeps it up. So all Mark's numbers right now are not good. 4-6-1 record, 887 save percentage, which is sub-900, which is the league average.

So he's below league average. And it just hasn't gone well. I can't tell, having watched a few Ottawa games now, if this is kind of what you were alluding to. The way that they play, they do have a lot of possession. They do have a lot of shots on net. When Allmark gets a shot, it's very sporadic, and it's usually more of a high-danger chance than an easy save.

The Sens are averaging 32.6 shots a game. Only two teams, Carolina and Edmonton, are averaging more than that. They're averaging 27.3 shots against, so basically out-shooting their opponents by five shots per game. And that's usually a pretty good sign. The Canucks, by the way, in case you were wondering, 27.9 for 27.7 against. So about even for them. But typically, and we can maybe talk about the Edmonton Oilers because they lost again.

Typically, when you're out shooting your opponent by five shots per game, you're going to be pretty happy with what's going on. So is this a quality shots issue? Is this a goaltending issue? Is this a luck issue? I'm kind of curious to see this Ottawa team. Yeah, okay.

So we got two other games that we want to get to before we get out of here, both involving the Alberta teams. Jason mentioned Edmonton, so let's start there. Minnesota Wild, 5-3 win in Edmonton against the Oilers on Thursday night. Freddie Goudreau with a pair of goals. Kirill Kaprizov an assist. An 11-game point streak on the road right now.

So he's playing exceptionally well. We will get to see the Minnesota Wild. I think this is the last game of the road trip for the Vancouver Canucks, if I'm not mistaken. So we will get to see the Minnesota Wild. I think that was the last game of the road trip for the Vancouver Canucks, if I'm not mistaken. So we will get to see them soon. Do you have the knob block audio here? So this was making the rounds last night and they played it on all the broadcasts.

He almost starts to criticize Stuart Skinner, who has not been good this year. And a big reason why the Edmonton Oilers have not been able to string together a win streak this season and why they're on this current losing streak. Then he sort of walks it back. I'll play the audio for you, the listeners, and you can listen to it. Here is Chris Knobloch on his goalie, Stuart Skinner, following a 5-3 loss to Minnesota on Thursday night in Edmonton. Skinner! Is that it? Yeah, he's not playing. The level he was last year.

Last year, you know, since I got here, I thought he was one of the top goaltenders. And if he had a bad game, it was turned around the next night. You know, I think overall, I think for a goalie to play well, it's got to be predictable. We got to be more predictable for him.

And what kind of shots are we giving up and where are they and taking away the high danger shots like tonight. That's not a predictable game for a goaltender to turn his game around. So the reason I got play was... The first part was Knobloch. He started off angry and then...

Jason Greger asked the question about Skinner's very erratic play this year and Knobloch started criticizing his goalie. off angry and then jason gregor asked the question about skinner's very erratic play this year and knoblock started uh criticizing his goalie everyone everyone was you could hear everyone standing on attention like whoa he's gonna go in on stewart skinner then he kind of changed his answer it was like but we need to make the game more predictable for stew and we can't have all of these you know hockey shots going at going towards him right and i was like heaven forbid our goalie needs to make a save right and i i was like there's a coach that realized he might media should have been like i'd

like to uh return to the part where you're criticizing your goal yes remember when you said he was a top goalie when was that i just want to know when was that uh so that's the story at edmonton uh and finally we'll go calgary you know? As much as Calgary is a bitter rival of the Vancouver Canucks, and I don't like anything about them, really, I do have a grudging respect for what they're doing this year. They just won't go away, and they just continue to put up pretty impressive performances with regularity.

So last night, it was a 3-2 win against the New York Rangers, who we saw earlier this week in Vancouver. The thing that impressed me about this one, they put nearly 50 shots on net last night. I believe they ended with 49 on Shusterkin in a 3-2 win. It was Connor Zeri midway through the third period with the winner. Dustin Wolfe, another pretty solid performance. They kind of keep collecting points.

They kind of keep playing hard, despite the fact that they don't have a ton of talent, and I don't really know what direction they're going to go in because they're hanging around the playoff conversation as we get closer to American Thanksgiving. Yeah, I think they're doing more than hanging around it. They're in it right now. Based on record and goal differential,

the Calgary Flames are a better team than the Vancouver Canucks right now. Yes. I'm not saying that's how it's going to end in the season, but they're 11-6-3. The Canucks are 9-6-3. So yeah, the Canucks have got two games in hand, but the way the Canucks are playing right now, the absences from the lineup, I don't think

you're looking at their next two games and going, oh, we'll get those for sure. Yeah. I mean, we got all these people texting in to the Dunbar-Lumber text line and going, oh, great. Ottawa's getting a lot of shots on goal. So they're playing relatively well, but they're not getting the results.

I wonder what happens when they play the Canucks, right? Yeah. What would it say about the Canucks history? That is this a breakout game for Ottawa where they finally get it done? Because there's going to be a lot of attention on the Sens. There normally isn't all that much attention on the Sens in Canada, but with Vancouver coming in, it's going to be HockeyNet in Canada Saturday.

The Sens are going to get attention in an all-Canadian matchup against the Canucks. Yeah, Cam from Delta texted in. It all sets up for the Sens to bust the funk. Thank God it said that, against the Canucks, in the most Canucks way ever. An absolute classic move by our fellow. I'm not sure what to expect from Ottawa going into Saturday's game

because I'm not sure Ottawa knows what to expect. You know what Ottawa strikes me as? Ottawa going into Saturday's game. As like the Canucks before talking. A little bit. You know, they just need and I I wasn't sure if Greener was going to give it to them or not because he didn't manage to do it in Vancouver they seemed like a team that had talent um I don't know if there was like a weakness on the roster. I mean, there was, but then they went out and got Allmark. And with a little structure and a little discipline, they could be a pretty good team.

Because I think they have some pretty good players. I don't think you look at that roster and go, I like their roster more than I like, say, Detroit's in terms of talent. So when they lost earlier in the week to the Oilers 5-2, Greener took to the podium or the assembled media afterwards and talked about that they make glaring errors. Like they actually play. Yeah, that sounds like the Canucks.

They play well. They play well. They have possession. They do a lot of the things that you like, but they make these big, loud errors. And they often end up do a lot of the things that you like but they make these big loud errors and they often end up in the back of the net and that's how when you play edmonton fairly even and you come out on the wrong in five two you go last night in vegas and he classified that was a better effort but a tough loss and for him he's got to look at anything i know vegas is a

good team i know that they are tops in the Pacific Division. But we get them second of a back-to-back. They just played last night in Toronto. It was a physical game. It was a nasty game. They lost. We're getting a goalie that hasn't played in a little bit. We're not getting their number one.

And they can't get the job done. That's what they're talking about, the immaturity in Ottawa. They can't get the job done. I think your goal for the Freed's hit should be to get Freed's radioed about Brady Kachuk. He loves being radioed. Yeah, he loves it. He loves it. I will ask him about Ottawa 100%.

And then I'll start to talk about the frustrations. And then I'll be like, I heard Brady Kachuk was really frustrated. Yeah, David Ember was saying that. David Ember came on the show. We heard from David. It was pretty clear. Freed's is going to join us at 7.05. When do you think Brady will request a trade, Freed?

Has it already happened? Do you think they're just keeping that under wraps? And maybe that's why the Sens are kind of having some troubles right now. Trouble in paradise. Because they know that their captain has asked help, and everyone's just trying to keep it quiet. If you want to hear about the Brady trade request, it's's going to happen at 705 when frege joins the program coming up on the other side we're going to dive into the nfl seahawks specifically with brady henderson from

espn we got a lot more to get to on the program don't forget to get your ask us anythings and what we learned in dunbar limber text line is 650 650 you're listening to the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews,

inside info, and even the post-game show. Listen 4-6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 632 on Fiesta Friday here on the Alfred and Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Wow, the horns are coming in loud and clear.

Getting us fired up for Fiesta Friday. This one's called Tequila Fiesta. Oh, nice. I'm going to have one of those later. That's an original name for it. This next one's called All Inclusive. We were talking about inflation at the break. The price of tequila has gone through the roof.

It has, I can confirm. Yeah. Crazy. Like $10 more for a Mickey in one year. I know. Trust me, I know. You know what I didn't enjoy seeing yesterday? What's that?

Even though it was kind of cool for a football game? Snow. Yeah. We're officially in the snowy season because I'm watching it on TV and the game was in North America. The highlights of that game were incredible because the first half of the game, no snow. Yeah. The grass was green.

The field was visible. It looked like a normal football game. And then the second half, all hell broke loose. It looked crazy. We will get into Thursday night football. It was a very entertaining game. Well, a lot of the guys were complaining afterwards that they didn't bring their mittens.

That's right. The kickers had a nightmare yesterday. Their hands were too cold. The punters couldn't catch the ball in order to punt it. It was a problem. Okay, we got Brady Henderson waiting on the line here. We need to take care of some business on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650 before we get to him for a little Seahawks talk.

This show is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. He is a presentation of the Clayton Public House. Brady Henderson from ESPN joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Brady. How are you?

What's up, fellas? I'm doing great. Good to talk to you again. Good to talk to you as well. So speaking of weather, as I understand it, it was a very tumultuous week at the Seahawks facility as it pertained to the bomb cycle and all the weather that was whipping through Washington. Yeah, I would say still is, too, because as of yesterday, they still did not have power there. I mean, they were on, they've got generators there, obviously, so they're on backup power, but it's limited.

And so, yeah, their routine has very much been affected just because they don't have a lot of things they normally have there's some rooms including the locker room uh are very dimly lit sort of looks like a movie theater in there with guys are you know using the flashlights on their cell phones to find stuff in their lockers uh there's no hot water again at least there was not as of yesterday um so you know, no sauna either, no hot tub, which a lot of guys use, you know, throughout the day. There's internet, but they don't have a lot. And so I don't think if they lose this game,

that's going to be the reason that they lose this game. But it certainly is an inconvenience. And, you know, at the same time, if they do win it, it's probably something that they can point to and say, yeah, it was one more bit of adversity that they overcame. But it definitely is, at the very least, it's an inconvenience. And I don't know, just based on kind of what I'm hearing about, you know, what the people are saying here about how long this outage is going to last in some places. I don't know if they're going to get power back today. So it could be something that they will have had to deal with for pretty much the entire week.

So Brady, there wasn't much good about the third Godfather movie, but there was that good line of just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. And I feel that way about the Seahawks almost every season. And I feel that way about Geno Smith quite often in games. The Seahawks almost every season and I feel that way about Geno Smith quite often in games the Seahawks go down they beat the San Francisco 49ers Geno Smith in the game throws a horrific interception early in the game just a really bad decision but then bounces back and leads a couple of touchdown drives. What should I think about this Seahawks team? Because now I'm excited about them because I see two Arizona games in the next three weeks, and I'm like, we can get this thing.

We can win this division. It's right there for them. Yeah, I still think that it's definitely not going to be a cakewalk, and it's interesting. If you look at the projections that he has been whatever you know stock you want to put into those uh i would put more stock into those than pff for instance but um you know just speaking of this kind of things with numbers that seemingly come out of nowhere but our predictive model just to give you an idea

gives them i think it's only a 25 chance to win the division if they win this game. And even if they win this game, you know, they would have a share of first place at the very least, if not sole possession. And even then, still only a 25% chance to win the division. It would drop down to 6% with a loss. So that gives you an idea just of, A, how tough this division is, how tough their remaining schedule is, and, you know, it also reflects kind of just what the model says of or thinks of the kind of team they've been so far. But the other side of that is they seem to have –

there's a chance that they've fixed their two biggest issues. And fixed, maybe not entirely fixed, but fixed to the point where they they're going to get passable play along their offensive line i mean um you would think that losing connor williams and having to go to your backup center would be a really big deal especially given how bad that offensive line already is i think it's possible that that's not going to be that big of a deal i don't think connor williams was playing all well, and maybe that was a factor in his decision to retire. There's a whole other story there, and there's a lot, I think,

that we don't know, that we may never know. But that's an interesting story there. But he was not playing all that well, and Oluwetemi, I thought, played pretty well. He got blown back on the fourth in one play, but he was pretty good in pass protection. And their defense, without a doubt, has turned a corner. And I don't think it's a coincidence that that happened pretty soon after

Ernest Jones arrived. I think that, plus a lot of other things, a lot of other personnel changes, maybe the coaching points are hitting harder, but their run defense has gone from bad to pretty solid the last couple games. And so it's not like they're just pulling these, you know, not like they just pulled that victory out of nowhere. I mean, there was some signs of that, at least with the defense in the Rams game before that.

And so, look, are they a Super Bowl contender? No, I don't think so. But are they going to be right in it in the division over these next seven games with a very good chance to sneak into the playoffs? Yes, I think so. I do want to ask about Connor Williams. With the pretense that I know, it's very cryptic.

You came on our show last week and you said, I have to be careful about what I say with regards to reporting. And then shortly after that, obviously I'm watching stuff come along on my Twitter timeline, and there's Connor Williams retiring nine games into his tenure with the Seahawks, and there was a lot written about it in the aftermath. I'm sorry if I'm throwing you on the spot, but I've got to ask, is there anything you can tell us, or is it all sort of shrouded in secrecy

or maybe something that you can't say out loud? What is the deal with Conor Williams' retirement? Well, yeah, it's just i haven't really gotten a straight answer i i've dug into it and i when i talked to you last night i had heard that he there was a chance that he was retiring um i it seemed at least earlier in the week that he had it was still up in the air so i was told that he had retired on wednesday uh but that it was still up in the air as to whether or not he might come back. And they weren't totally positive of that.

And they didn't, you know, they were being very mindful of kind of giving him space and all that. So it was still unclear as to what was going to happen. And it was also still is unclear as to why it happened. You know, it's I just I don't want to speak out of turn because i don't know but i will say that when a guy you know leaves midway through the season when he's a starter on that team i don't think that just happens because the guy up and decides you know what i don't really feel like playing football anymore i just think that that there's got to be something serious going on there and so um you know beyond just not wanting to play football anymore. And, again, I've heard different things.

I don't want to say because I don't, you know, I'm not confident and that's what it is. It's because I've heard kind of conflicting things. And so it would be kind of irresponsible of me to report what I'm not sure of. But I am confident in saying that I think it's got to be something. The guy's got to be going through something if he's going to decide to leave a starting role in the middle of a season beyond just, you know, just kind of being done with football.

I want to go back to that win over the 49ers. What did it do for this team? How badly did they need a big win like that, an almost unexpected win? Oh, very badly. Yeah, very badly. I mean, in the standings, obviously. I mean, if you lose that game, you're way down in the bottom of the standings. You've now lost, what, seven straight to the 49ers.

You would have now lost six of seven in the season. And I think we've talked about this, like the kind of bad vibes that generate in a locker room and maybe the lack of trust, too, that would come about when, you know, you just, the messaging from the coaching maybe. Yeah, I just think they really needed a win. And I don't know if you could have picked a bigger turning point type game, like the game that would, you know, swing their season potentially one way or another with a win or a loss than that one just because they needed to get that monkey

off their back. It was a division game, which means it counts more in the standings. And it was coming off their bye, so it's not like they're going to have another break for the rest of the season to rest and regroup. But I think a win like that, if there's ever a win that can be a turning point, it's a win like that, an emotional win, last-second win, when you beat your division rival finally for the first time in two and a half years. And so, yeah, I think it was big.

And again, for as much trouble as they've had this season, as much adversity as they've faced, as they've brought upon themselves, they got a chance to be in at least a share of first place uh by the end of the weekend so yeah it was i don't think you can overstate how big that win was um which impressed you more was it geno smith's resilience after throwing that early interception uh especially after a game in which he'd thrown three interceptions and basically apologized to the entire city of Seattle for his performance?

Or was it the defense? Because after that interception, they held the 49ers to a field goal, and then later on in the game, this was another moment when the Seahawks looked like they might have been done. They turned the ball over on downs, and the defense held again and gave the Seahawks a chance to win the game, which they did.

Yeah, the defense was really good. I think the big stat there was in that first game against the 49ers in October, they allowed, I think, eight plays of over 15 yards, and they only allowed one of that. That included two 79-yard plays. One of them was the Debo touchdown. They only allowed one of those plays. I think it was a 22-yard Juwan Jennings catch.

So they did a fantastic job of limiting explosive plays. They were, you know, just on the details and, you know, not letting open receivers run free, but they also tackled a lot better than they had in that game. And, you know, a lot of times you don't see tackling get better during the season just because it's hard to really work on that in full speed when you're really more in like maintenance mode during the middle of the season and practice. You're not trying to, you know, get guys hurt.

So you're really you're not doing these full padded, full speed, full contact practices. So but, you know, their tackling was a lot better. Their run defense was a lot better. Pass rush, still a lot of, you know, not great. And a lot of those third downs they gave up. You know, 49ers, I think, were 7 of 10. They did get that great stop at the end to give the ball back to Geno Smith and the offense, but San Francisco still did convert, I think,

7 of 10 tries on third down, and some of that was because they just didn't generate enough of a pass rush, especially not with four guys there, so but at any rate, the defense took a big step forward. I thought that was huge of Geno. I mean, he's had a lot of he's had quite a few, I should say,

interceptions this season where sort of tough-luck deals, right, where the receiver, DK Metcalf, runs the wrong route in the first game. A ball gets tipped or he's hit as he's thrown. There was no qualifier to that one. That was just a really bad play. Like a guy trying to do too much, you know, throwing, running to his left, scrambling, throwing back across his body and just airmailed the throw.

So it was a bad interception that put them in a tough spot, but the defense responded. And, you know, Gino talked about how, to give you a little insight into kind of something that Mike McDonald did, his dad is a military guy. I think his dad went to West Point, which is the Army Academy. And so Mike McDonald has, I think, a strong connection to the U.S. military. And he brought in a group of U.S. Navy SEALs.

And one of their messages, which ended up really resonating with Geno Smith, was really the message was all about moving on from, you room, which is when they're in a situation where they're, I guess, barging into some building or a house or something like that and something goes haywire, their message is always, okay, move on, clear the next room. And Mike McDonald told us that that message really resonated with Geno Smith. And Geno was talking about it to us yesterday. He made it clear that he realizes those guys have a lot more at stake than what he does playing a football game.

But I think his thought was, you know, if they can do it, move on to the next deal in like a really tense situation, then you can do that when you're playing a football game. And we know that he's a very emotional guy who sometimes, you know, kind of lives and dies on plays. We saw that in the Buffalo game. That has happened a lot behind the scenes, but that was maybe an instance of

him doing the opposite of really moving on from a really bad mistake that he made and not letting him affect it for the rest of the game. Excellent insight, Brady. Thanks for sharing that with us. Very well done. Every Friday, very well done. A reminder to everyone, it is the Cardinals in Seattle this weekend

to take on the Seahawks. Cardinals are one-point favorites. It's a real pick-em in Seattle this weekend. Brady, I know we're going to let you go. Thanks for doing this. Enjoy the game this weekend. We'll do this again next Friday. Sounds good, fellas.

Thank you. See ya. See ya later. Brady Henderson, ESPN, Seahawks insider here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Brady is a presentation of the Clayton Public House. Pre-game, the post-game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors.

Visit them online at theclaytonpub.com. When I say that this is a vital game for the division, I do mean it. If the Seahawks lose this game, their record goes to 5-6. They're two games out of first place in the division. I do mean it. If the Seahawks lose this game, their record goes to five and six. They're two games out of first place in the division. And I think most importantly, their division record would be one in three. They're cooked. They really need this one.

Arizona's got a little more leeway. They haven't lost an NFC West game yet. And they're coming off a bye. So you know they're going to come in with the better record, expecting at the very least to show out. I know it's a pick-em game, but usually home field advantage gives you three points. So people are expecting the Cardinals to win this game.

Okay, it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the Halford & Brough Show, and you can text in your Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. The Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber, and Ladner. I hope you know this by now. It's moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. Justin and East Van, ask us anything. If you're on a news team, but you couldn't cover sports,

would you rather report the traffic or the weather? Great question, Justin in East Van. That's interesting. There's a depends, though. What's that? Because I would say weather would be more fun because you get to be in front of that cool green screen. However, traffic.

We're on the radio still. Oh, it's the radio. Oh, then it's not switching mediums. I was going to say, well, okay, I'd pick traffic then, because there's a chance you get to fly in the traffic helicopter. That is true. I wouldn't want to go up in the traffic helicopter. Really?

That'd be fun. Really? Have you been in a helicopter before? Helicopters are terrifying. It makes me nervous, man. I've never been in one. I was in one once. How was it?

I'm not really scared of flying, so I was okay with it. Helicopter seems different than a plane. I could understand why people freak out. Yeah. Everything's too close. The propeller, the window, the inevitable fall down. It's all just too in your face. Well, there's no forward momentum.

Yeah. It's very unique. At least, again, you know, it's very unique. At least, uh, like I, again, I'm not an expert on helicopters, but at least you sound like one in a,

in a plane. You're kind of like, well, if the engine blows, we can glide. Yeah. I don't know if even that's true. You just got to foot,

you know, like the wind will keep us up. Right. They're like, yes, sir. The wind will keep, I didn't invent the name,

but there's a thing called a Jesus nut. You can look it up. It's the point on the top of the helicopter that if it ever fails, you drop from the sky, essentially. It is a single point of failure that is on every helicopter, and if it ever breaks, I'm Wartos. Good luck to everyone in a helicopter today.

I'm just putting that out there. It's called the Jesus nut? It's called the Jesus nut. Definitely not what I first thought of when I thought of Jesus nut. Yes, I know. I said I didn't name it, but that's what they call it. So I would take weather, just because I'm looking at the weather all the time anyway. Yeah. So I'm fortunate enough that I don't have to deal with long commutes.

Yep. I hate the traffic in Vancouver, and I think I would get stressed out if I had to do it. Let's give everyone a little look behind the curtain here. We're getting older, the Halford and Brough show. We're no longer the young, fresh-faced kids on the block. We're old with wrinkles and don't look good. We also don't commute during normal hours, so traffic is a non-factor. But we get older everybody knows every year you get older the more into weather you get oh yeah it's an axis thing the xy every year bird watching thing as soon as you turn 60 you're like hey birds are everywhere let's start washing them every year you

get older you spend a correlated amount of time more on weather apps or just looking outside being like tut tut looks like rain it looks like rain and in the summers it's like we really needed that yeah it was hot right that's that's a dad it's a dry heat yeah so i think that weather fits what we're doing like if we were to do a natural pivot where they finally were like you guys have been doing this for a long time we're going to shut it down like that's understandable like okay you have a choice i think we'd both go directly to weather like together you mean you report at the same time think we'd both go directly to weather. Like together, you mean? You'd report at the same time?

Just two, yeah, Bert and Ernie, Stadler and Waldorf doing the weather, just pointing at the clouds. The text inbox is predictably full of helicopter experts. One's from Melissa in a helicopter? Yeah, she actually is in a helicopter, so she's probably the person we'd be speaking to about this. She asked us if we wanted to ride in a helicopter. Nope, I don't.

What about the previous conversation suggested to leave with one of them? We are all terrified. Was it the inherent fear of being in a helicopter? This text, I don't know if this is real or not. Oh, boy, you guys are wrong on helicopters. Ha, ha, ha. All the fellow helicopter pilots are freaking out at their radios this morning. Do we have a big listenership in the helicopter community?

That's kind of funny. I want to imagine that we do. What did we, other than Brough's- The helicopter demo, big into Halford and Brough. Other than Brough's assertion that maybe it would just float, what did we say that was so incorrect about helicopters? Well, someone texted in, a helicopter can be landed safely even if the engine fails and has no power.

That's cool. Yeah. Did we say that it would- I wasn't really paying attention. If it lands on a giant pile of pillows. Do we have one of those handy? Or people just hold a really big net all together. This is, okay, this is.

I like this one from Matt. When helicopter pilots start learning to fly, one of the first things they teach you is that the helicopter is always trying to kill you yeah also the glide down when a helicopter engine fails is called auto rotation okay that means spinning uncontrollably to the layman and someone yells out jesus the nut is loose oh not the jesus nut that's actually i'm reading the page that's actually why they call the Jesus nut. I'm reading the page.

That's actually why they call it that. Because if it ever fails, the only thing you have left to do is pray to Jesus. That's why they call it the Jesus nut. Jesus take the wheel now that that nut is gone. I don't understand why they got to start the blades first. That made me so nervous. I don't want to duck under blades as they're swinging around above my head. Can't you wait to start the blades so you get in?

I don't know. We have countless helicopter experts. I'm solely going based off of movies here. Does everyone have to duck too? Even shorter people? Do they have to duck? I think instinctively you'll want to. Can you walk confidently to the helicopter? I don't think anyone's walking confidently to the helicopter.

Dude, I'd be crawling to the helicopter. I'd be just down on the ground. I'd be like, no, I don't want to be anywhere near this blade. Shout out to Dalvir who cherry picked the line of the morning by the way, courtesy of Jason Brough. A helicopter seems different from an airplane. If you're going to have one takeaway from the Helmet of Brough show this morning, that should

be it. Because they are, in fact, two totally different things. Yeah, but then I went and stated the example of like, if there's engine failure, that seems like a different situation. But he didn't confidently say they were different. He just said they seemed different. So that implies they could be the same.

It's the touchy-feely generation. I feel like a helicopter is different than a plane. But I don't want to state it on the record. Yes. Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show. But I don't want to be criticized. A lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. AJ from AJ's Pizza.

I don't want to offend anyone, but I think a helicopter is different from an airplane. AJ from AJ's Pizza is going to join us at 7 o'clock. Elliot Friedman coming up next at 7.05. Then it's the Moj at 7.30. It's Dollywall at 8. And finally, to cap off a Friday show at 8.30, we're going to read what we learned and ask us anything. It's your chance to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.