Halford & Brough in the Morning - Is Kiefer Sherwood The New Alex Burrows?

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), they talk a big Canucks road win over the Senators (6:00), the boys wonder what's wrong with the Ottawa Senators (27:00), plus they chat the red-hot Seattle Seahawks (40:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford and Brough. Patterson in the slot to the right circle. DeBrusco into that with a backhander. It's loose. They score. Kiefer Sherwood in the crease. Digs it home.

I thought we played a really terrific game. I thought we did a good job. He's going to dump it over the top. Intercepted. Kobe Bryant. Far sideline. He's got the blockers. 30, 25, 20, 10, 5.

Touchdown, Seahawks. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Alfred. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And as we continue in our intern program here at Sportsnet 650, intern Spencer, good morning to you. Good morning, guys. Thank you.

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

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Kintec, got a big show ahead on a Monday. Lots to get into from the weekend that was. A lot of guests to talk to as well. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the Too Deep Zone is going to join us at 7 o'clock. Yes, that does mean that the entire first hour of Halford & Brough today is all Halford & Brough as we go through everything that happened

over the weekend. Mike's going to join us at 7. He wrote about the gross chase for the NFC West. It's a gross chase. But no one's terrible. No one's terrible. You can look at it in a negative way that the NFC West is, you might suggest it's bad. Gross.

But there isn't a bad team there. There's no Carolina in there. There's no New England Patriots in there. There also isn't a good team in there. There's a bunch of mid. You know how we like to use mid? Is our trying to glom onto the youths. You know, this is disappointing.

To start the week off, the Seahawks are back in first place after two very impressive wins. It was an impressive win. I am back on the bandwagon. They pulled you back in? Exactly. That's what they do. Just when I think I'm out, I'm back in.

They go and they beat the Niners down in San Francisco. I know the Niners have one or two injuries. And then they take care of business. And the defense has looked good. Defense has looked looked good in back-to-back games. Mike McDonald, he is back to being a defensive guru, and I'm not going to have you paint it with this negative brush. If Mike Tanier wants to come on and call it a gross race, I think it's a very exciting race for first place in the NFC West. You know what's happened

here? I've become the bruh. You're so caustic. You're so caustic. I've become the bruh. He's become the hound. No, you are you have always been caustic and don't pretend that you haven't been. Alright. Adnan Burke's going to join us at 7.30 instead of his usual 6.30

slot. He's doing Amazon Prime Monday Night Hockey tonight. It is the Ottawa Senators, who are a mess, by the way. They'll be playing the Redhawk Calgary Flames. He's doing an interview with Nazem Khadri this morning. He did a sit-down interview with Conor McDavid last week, so we'll talk to Adnan about all that at 7 30.

8 o'clock, Satyar Shah is going to join the program. We'll talk about the Canucks' big win in Ottawa on Saturday and all the news surrounding the team at 8. So we got a lot of Canucks talk. Sat's going to join the program. We'll talk about the Canucks' big win in Ottawa on Saturday and all the news surrounding the team at 8. So we've got a lot of Canucks talk. Sat's going to join us at 8. Adnan Virk at 7.30. Mike Tanier at 7.

That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the B.C. Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We begin in the nation's capital on Saturday. Jake DeBrusque, two goals and an assist. Kiefer Sherwood, a goal and an assist.

Elias Pettersson, two apples. Kevin Lankanen, 26 saves. And Max Sasson had an assist in his NHL debut. The Canucks did all of this without the services of their captain for the majority of the game, a 4-3 win against the Sens in Ottawa on Saturday. My buddy texted me after the game. He said, I knew I was into that,

and I knew I'm really supporting the Canucks this year because I spent the entire game yelling at the TV, at the referees through the TV. There was a lot of angst. They made me so angry. A lot of angst. A lot of angst. The Canucks fan base was back criticizing the referees

like no other fan base can. Explain this to me. Okay. Quinn Hughes gets ejected. can. Explain this to me. Okay. Quinn Hughes gets ejected. Fine. It's the rule. It's stupid, but it's the rule. Stutzle, his hit was so much worse than Hughes's was.

It wasn't so much worse. It was a lot more dangerous. It was worse. A lot more dangerous. Neither should have been. A lot. Stutzle is kind of a little rat. I don't like him.

Yeah. I mean, he's a good player, but he's sort of like a new Marchand a little rat. I don't like him. I mean, he's a good player, but he's sort of like a new Marchand for me. I just don't like him. But anyways, but he doesn't get ejected. Did he even get a penalty on that? The Canucks got a penalty off of that play. Did they not? I want to say. So what the heck, man? Like, how

does that happen? How does Hughes get ejected for his hit? Stutzle, his hit, not nearly as bad. Sorry, so much worse than Hughes's, and doesn't get nearly as the same kind of- Is this the call-in show? Is this the post-game show? And you're A-Dog on line three?

I haven't been this angry at a Canucks game in a long time. Don't worry, man. They won the game. They won the game. And you know what? I want retribution. Sometimes the best wins are when you overcome challenges. They barely won the game.

Got really dicey at the end there. But they overcame the challenge, just like the Seahawks did, all right? I don't know. I found that whole thing rather... Just to clarify before we move on to the actual game, I love that you've turned in a mic from Surrey, right? Like at 6.06.

It just made me very angry. So what's up with that? How does that happen? They all got penalties for roughing. So there wasn't a penalty on the hit. Stutzler got a penalty for roughing. Hoaglander got a double minor for roughing. The second one was served

by Max Sasson, so he had a big night. He got to serve a penalty, and he got his first assist. You're right that the officiating was not good. They kind of put themselves in a box with what happened with Hughes when they called a major. They called a two-minute minor for boarding or cross-checking. It would have been fine.

But what the referees do is they call a major first because that's the one that you can look at and review. You can't review a minor. Now, they caught themselves in a box, I said, because when you call a major and there's an injury, they're like, ah, crap. Yeah, they were like, well, he did cross-check him from behind. It was a bad hit. I'm not saying it wasn't a bad hit.

Did go into the wall, and he's headed back to the room, so there's a bit of an injury there. So, I mean, they were in a situation where they couldn't exactly be like, actually, it's a minor. Yeah. I probably wouldn't have cared as much if it wasn't Hughes, our best player. If it was like Branstrom or something.

Continue, Jason. Let's talk about the game. The Canucks actually got off to a great start in terms of how they were playing. They were out shooting the Sens by a bunch early in the game, but everything changed 12 minutes into the first when Quinn Hughes got tossed for boarding. His buddy, Josh Norris, maybe they had some issues back at the University of Michigan or they were just, you know, sometimes when you're friends, you're just like,

I've had enough of this guy. The play was reviewed, and we all know it was a bit of a soft call, but I actually didn't expect it to be called back because Norris did go face first into the boards and had to go to the Sens room with an apparent injury. The Canucks did a great job of killing off the major, and then they took the lead on the power play of their own because the referees were like, we better call something on Ottawa real quick, and they did,

and Jake DeBrus tipped Garland's shot past Allmark. The Sens tied it up in the second, also on the power play, when Brady Kachuk pounced on a loose puck around Kevin Lankanen, but Teddy Bluger answered back a few minutes later on a great spin-around pass from Max Sasson, who was playing his first NHL game. He had a lot of friends and family there, and Dad looked very happy, looked very excited,

and Max Sasson made a key play in the game. Now, it was 3-1 Canucks before the end of the second after DeBrus. That guy again. Remember him? Beginning of the season, guy couldn't score. Now he's scoring. Scored his second of the game. The assist from line mate Shrewood, Kiefer Shrewood,

who is a fan favorite, might have become the quickest fan favorite in Canucks franchise history, and Elias Pettersson. We'll talk about both of those guys in a bit. That line struck again in the third. This time, it was Sherwood from DeBrusque and Pettersson, and it looked like the Canucks would win this thing comfortably. That is presumably why Brady Kachuk decided at that point, let's drop the gloves with Dakota Joshua and get tossed out of the game,

which is exactly what he did. Perhaps he should have tried to stick around because the Sens made it interesting in the end, scoring twice to make it 4-3, but it was too little too late for poor Travis Green's team, which dropped its fifth straight game to fall to 8-11-1 on the season. The Canucks, minus a bunch of their stars, A-Dog, overcame a lot to improve to 10-6-3.

They've also won a whopping seven straight on the road. Remember that loss to Tampa Bay? I do, Jason. All the way back in October. It was the Canucks' third game of the season. And remember, they went in there. They hadn't actually won any games yet because they dropped their first two.

And then they played Tampa Bay. And Tampa Bay, because there was that hurricane, came out in front of their home fans and played a really good first period. And they ultimately beat the Canucks. That was the only road game the Canucks have lost all season and it seems like it was 600 years ago.

Lots of Canucks fans in the crowd, I noticed, and they sure enjoyed the part midway through the third period when the Canucks on a delayed penalty to Ottawa played nearly two minutes of just straight keep away. They call it a rondo. A what? Soccer. They call it a rondo.

When you do your little warm-up and you play keep away. Oh. It's called a rondo. The Canucks fans there should have been O-laying everything. Yeah, they should have. They could have really got into it. Sorry? Yeah, rondo?

Yeah, the keep away was actually really funny. The fans were not enjoying that. My favorite part of the game. Yeah, but there were a lot of Canucks fans that were laughing. Yeah, it was funny. It was like almost two minutes. Yeah. They should have done the Olays.

It's so ballsy to do without a goalie. Right? There was one back pass I was like, all right, guys. Enough of this. But I'm a little too close to the sun here. But I really respected it. The Suns killed off the two-man advantage, unfortunately. My stat of the night, Filip Hrononic played 27 minutes and 38 seconds,

was a plus three with one assist. Very impressive performance from him. I think we should also mention that Elias Pettersson on that line with DeBrusque and Kiefer Sherwood has four points in two games since JT Miller left the lineup. My stat of the night, Kiefer Sherwood with a game-high 10 hits for the Vancouver Canucks while contributing offensively as well. So you move him up to the top line, he doesn't forget where he came from.

He's still grinding, he's still forechecking, he's still hitting. What a pickup for the Vancouver Canucks. Go ahead. Stewie texts in to the Dunbar Lumber text line and get a load of this. We got a new read here, guys. Nice. We got a new read. I think it was my comment the other day.

It was like, surely they know this place has moved. Texts in to 650650. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and reno warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at DunbarLumber.com. Stewie says, the Canucks are still out of the playoffs as of now. The West is a lot harder this year. Yeah, a lot of that, though, is Canucks haven't played many games.

On points percentage, they would be in. Points percentage, they'd be third in the division. They've only played 19 games, and they're one point back of the Edmonton Oilers for the second wildcard spot. The Oilers have played three more games. Yeah. I was thinking about this because we're going to maybe talk a bit about the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And every time I look at the out-of-town scoreboard, the Penguins are playing. I mean, they seem to play every night. They've played four games more than the Vancouver Canucks. They've played 23 games. than the Vancouver Canucks. They've played 23 games. They've only won seven. Get a load of this goal differential, man. Minus 34.

They are almost. For the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah, they're horrible. They're down there. San Jose's the same. San Jose's played 23 games more than any other team in the NHL. Dreadful. They got six wins and a minus 27 goal differential.

So, yeah, this Pittsburgh Penguins team that on the weekend celebrated Sidney Crosby's 600th goal in the National Hockey League are one of the worst teams in the NHL. Another text in to the Dunbar-Lumber text line is, Sherwood the new Burroughs. I think Sherwood's just Sherwood, man. Like, yeah, it's great. I understand it. I know it wasn't meant in any way, but it was meant as a compliment.

But Sherwood's a guy that is writing his own story. But I do really like him up on that top line with Pedersen and DeBrusque. And the Canucks brought Sherwood in not to score points. They liked his speed. They liked his physicality. And I think they liked the fact that he goes out on the ice and chirps. How many times have we heard

Rick Talka talk about the Canucks like, ah, they're a bit of a quiet team. They need a bit of energy. And especially with JT being out, they need a guy who is going to provide their team with energy and maybe get under the skin of the other team. So in that way, yeah, he's Burrows-esque. But

I think the bonus and the canucks will probably say like oh yeah we saw lots of offensive potential in him he is a guy that has gone down to the hl and piled up points and i think we've seen like he actually has some offensive ability he has a very good shot and now he's playing with two guys that are getting paid a lot of money to put up points to produce. And he's really helping them because, you know, Petey is playing well, but I still don't think he's up to full speed. And I mean the speed thing, literally, like he's not moving as fast as he used to, and I think that's not just Jason's eye test saying it. Like, if you look at the analytics,

and, you know, there are, they do track speed of the players now. He's really not, like, skating as fast as he was. He is playing well, but it's great, and Petey has said this, that Sherwood is the type of guy that can go in, get the puck, make things happen on the forecheck, and then those other guys can take advantage.

It's been a good month in November, though, for Pettersson. He's got 11 points in 10 games, which is the kind of production that we needed to see, including, as you mentioned, like four points in the last two, two multipoint games back-to-back, and it's the second time that he's done that in November, put up multipoint performances back-to-back. With Sherwood, just to circle back on what the texter was saying, when the Canucks said, and Patrick Alveen said,

we need to find the next Dakota Joshua, that to me is a more appropriate comp. Because they went out and identified a guy where they thought that there was more than what he had given or what he was able to produce in his previous stop, plural stops. And I think that's the key here is finding like burrows he kind of matured and matriculated within the canucks organization right they i mean i don't think that anyone in the canucks organization when they first saw alex burrows had identified him as a guy that could go on to become what he became with this pro

scouting department they went outside the organization and found Dakota Joshua then found Kiefer Sherwood now granted Quinn Hughes might have been the pro scout that found Keith Kiefer Sherwood because he did play a role in getting him here but to me that's a sign of really good pro scouting and the ability to identify what guy isn't just going to thrive in your system but might be able to be elevated to a role that he hasn't played before. Because right now, Sherwood's a first-line winger on this team. Yeah. You know?

Like, no one would have expected, back on July 1, that the Canucks' top line going into late November was going to be Pedersen, DeBrusque, Sherwood. No one had it. He played over 20 minutes because he's on the power play as well. He's on the first-unit power play. Kiefer Sherwood is on the he's on the power play as well. He's on the first unit power play. Kiefer Sherwood is on the first unit power play because they're missing a bunch of guys,

but also because he's shown an ability to go out and win puck battles, keep pucks alive, and he's got some finishing ability. Yeah. I want to play some audio from Rick Talkett now, right at the very end of his presser following Saturday's game. Talkett was highly complimentary of his team, even though it got a little hairy late, and they did beat an Ottawa team

that's not in good shape right now. Without Hughes, without Miller, without Demko, without Besser, they managed to pull together a pretty impressive road victory. Here's Rick Talkett, a bit of a Q&A with our very own Ian McIntyre, following the 4-3 win over Ottawa on Saturday night in Ottawa.

I thought we played a really terrific game. I thought a little bit of Hudson rules at the end, a lot of cross-checking in front and stuff. But I thought for the most part that the guys really handled the pressure of it. Being able to kind of put in their memory bank and use it as a foundation for other games? Yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, it's an A2 game schedule.

You're going to go through some a lot of adversity and stuff, and it's the way you handle it. You got to, you know, like I told the guys, block out the outside noise, you know. You know, 72 hours, things change, you know, or 24 hours, and you can control it. So that's the narrative that we talked about before the game tonight. And I do understand why Talkit went that route.

Like it was a good win for sure. Also, I think after the homestand, it could have been one of those things where you're not exactly sure what, where the team's going to go, right? You get four out of a possible 12 points at home against some inferior competition as well. You're without Besser. Miller takes his leave of absence.

You go into Ottawa and Hughes gets the gate early. You've got Max Sasson playing in his first game in the NHL. It's a lot of different moving parts. You've got Kiefer Sherwood, suddenly your first-line winger. To do what they did was important. It's good to get that road trip off on that right foot. It's important to take advantage of an Ottawa team, and we can get into them in a minute,

that is completely discombobulated. And now Hughes is rested for the next game. He's ready to go. He can play 28 minutes now. He can take all those Veronic minutes. Do you want to hear a very telling stat? I do. And I'm actually going to use it in trivia form.

Who would you say is the leading Canucks goal scorer right now? Isn't it like an eight-way tie? There's a five-way tie for first. All with six goals. JT Miller, Elias Pettersson, Kiefer Sherwood, Brock Besser, and Pew Suter all have six goals. And then it's pretty close in second. Connor Garland, Jake DeBrusque has five. A bunch of guys have four or three or two like they they're getting scoring from everywhere and we've said multiple times this season so far this year the strength of this team is their balance

up front and their depth up front and now we're seeing it because they've got two very key guys out of the lineup in JT Miller and Brock Besser. That's two thirds of their, essentially their top line. Yep. The JT Miller was their top line last season. I think they went into this season as the top

line again. And now their top line is Pedersen, DeBrus, and Kiefer Sherwood. And, you know, I, I've got to tip my cap to those three because they knew that without JT Miller this was going to be tough and they were going to have to step up and then the last two games they have stepped up yeah the depth that at four we probably don't talk about it enough because we're so concerned about the back end we do talk about it a lot though like we had we were talking about it earlier in the season i mean yeah we'll

talk about the problem areas more but i think it is very impressive and you know some people have texted in and said um they spent too much time and they spent too much cap space on filling out the the forward group and they they kind ignored the defensive group. And my pushback is always, and I'm not, you know, blocking for the team here, but it's hard to find defensemen. Yeah. Like it really is. They tried. It just hasn't worked out.

They tried and, you know, I guess they could have tried harder to keep Zdorov. They could have given him what he got from Boston, but I understand why they didn't. I think Zdorov's a little overpaid in Boston. I know we all liked him here. I think he's a lot overpaid in Boston. Yeah, I wouldn't...

I can see Canucks fans turning on him if he came back and didn't play great with that new contract. What was funny is when Freed wrote that blurb in 32 Thoughts and suggested maybe Boston will trade Zdorov back, and all the Canucks fans were like, only if the Bruins retain. I'm like, the Bruins will not be retaining salary on a guy that they just signed. People are also getting on my gaze. They're like, you're misremembering the Zdorov era here.

I'm like, I remember it crystal clear. No, you don't. Yes, I do. He wasn't very good to start. I know he wasn't very good to start, but it was a great pickup. It was a great. That was the whole point of the exercise was there was a great pickup. But you made a comment where it was like great right away,

and it wasn't great right away. He was okay during the season. In fact, there were multiple reports, and I heard it myself, that the Canucks were thinking of flipping him. Yeah, but I don't... But then he came into his own in the playoffs. Okay, I don't recall saying it was great right away.

If I did, then that's on me. What I was saying was it's a great pickup. Like when they talk about pro scouting, talent and identification and filling a need, they had to do it on two fronts. One, their defense wasn't rounded out enough, and two, Susie was hurt. So they needed something to go straight away.

So your options are limited at that point. Classic Halford gaslighting us. Oh, it was great! Hit the ground running! It was fantastic. His contract in Boston's working out great. Since you're talking about defense, a couple of different texters pointed this out. Now that Hronik has proven he can play well by himself, will they finally split the pair up? One game. I don't know, man.

I don't know. They've been just so – you could ask, will they split the pairings after pretty much every game this season? They never do. Right? Susie Myers together, Hronik and Hughes together. game this season and they never do right with susie myers together it would just help their defense out so much if they could do it and they could both play well by themselves yeah it would i mean you know you're you're right so uh i hope he considers it at least but the interesting thing was you know susie is now he's probably the number five defenseman now because Branstrom is regularly playing more than him.

Now – Branstrom was a good pro scorer. Branstrom was going to play more when Hughes went out because he's a left-side guy, and he's going to take some of that power play time too from Hughes. But, you know, Soucy still needs to be whipped back into shape. Boosh and North Van, Nobody asked, but I think we should call the DeBrusque

PD Sherwood line the DePesha Mode line. Feels like a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about that. Who said that again? The Boosh? The mighty Boosh from North Van? Do you guys remember DePesha Mode?

Yes. I remember DePesha Mode, yes. I know what he's getting at. It's just that's kind of, it's just too complicated. Yeah, it feels like De-stretch Mode, to be honest. It's not complicated at all. Do it again. Depeche Mode. De-brusque. Pe-ter-son.

She-er-wood. Oh, my God. Depeche Mode. As an 80s guy, I'm all over this. I'm willing to table it, Boosh. We'll see what happens. We'll go to break and we'll come back and discuss hopefully other things than that. We got Adnan

coming up in the 7 o'clock hour. We got Mike Tanier coming up in the 7 o'clock hour. Sat's going to join us at 8 for more Canucks talk. We got a lot to get into on the other side. Are there any Ottawa Senators fans currently listening to the program? And if so,

what's going on with your hockey team? Let us know, because that was something else on the weekend. They've got a game tonight, the last of their homestand. They've lost every game on this homestand.

They ain't got a single point out of it. It looks like Brady Kachuk's super frustrated. Travis Green seems super frustrated. We don't normally spend a lot of time talking about the team the Canucks dispatched of. Is Brady Kachuk's super frustrated. Travis Green seems super frustrated. We don't normally spend a lot of time talking about the team the Canucks dispatched of. Is Brady Kachuk going to ask out? Is my hot take finally going to come true?

Weigh in. Dunbar-Lumber text line is 650-650. We'll get into a whole bunch more around the NHL and some NFL stuff, including the Seahawks win over the Cardinals on Sunday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet at 650. Quinn Hughes gets ejected.

Fine. It's the rule. It's stupid, but it's the rule. I've had it up to here with you, rebels! It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app.

We regret to announce the following layoff, which I will read in alphabetical order. That is the truth. That is all. A bunch of jackals. You're listening to the Halpern and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halpern and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, more parts. I love that you two just sit there and wait for people to be fired so you can then in turn fire up the power plant layoff. It's a simple Simpsons reference. Don't read too much into it.

Can you play it again? By the way, this isn't... The following layoff is now in alphabetical order. Bannister, Drew. That is all. Poor Drew Bannister. Not really, though. He's an initial coach. He'll get hired in like three days. He won't. Poor Drew Bannister. Not really, though. He's an initial coach.

He'll get hired in like three days. He won't. He won't? Well, otherwise, he won't. By some hockey team, some league, somewhere. That was pretty rough. So in case you missed it over the weekend, the St. Louis Blues fired their head coach, Drew Bannister.

Now that, in and of itself, isn isn't that surprising the blues were off to a pretty bad start to the year they weren't scoring a lot of goals but when explaining it the general manager doug armstrong made like no bones about the fact that they weren't really considering firing him until jim montgomery became available he didn't even try and pretend. He's like, as soon as Monty got fired by Boston, we were like moving on this. Drew Bannister's got bigger. Are you serious? That's what you were waiting for?

He actually didn't have, if you look at his work in St. Louis, it wasn't bad. They actually had a decent turnaround under him last year before falling short of the playoffs. And this year, you know, they got subpar goaltending. They were without Robert Thomas for a long stretch.

They didn't have a great record, granted. They're a bad lineup, man. Yeah, like I don't really put that at the feet of Drew Bannister. That being said, the moment that – this sounds awful – but the moment that they said that Drew Bannister was going to be the head coach, I'm like, I would hold on to that interim tag for as long as possible, Drew Bannister, because you are not going to be the long-term guy here you know drew bannister when the bruins fired monk armory was like crap this is not good for me is it like it's not drew bannister

it's definitely not i always forgot his name too i was like is it davis pain in st louis it may well has been davis pain but uh so, that's your second significant coaching change. So here's the thing. If you want to be carry on a tradition of being employed, make sure you coach in Boston. The last three coaches that Boston have fired have all been hired within eight days of being fired. So it's Claude Julian first. He got fired and then he got hired by the Habs like eight days later. Bruce Cassidy. of being fired. So it was Claude Julien first. He got fired, and then he got hired by the Habs like eight days later.

Bruce Cassidy, he got fired, and then he got picked up by Vegas five days later. And same with Monty now in St. Louis. You know where Davis Payne had been for the last few years? Ottawa? Yeah. He's an assistant with the Winnipeg Jets now,

but let's talk about the Ottawa Senators because we're all a little more curious about the Sens than we might usually be because Travis Green is the head coach there. And that team is, you know, they had an opportunity there on a Saturday night to really take advantage of a Canucks team that went into the game without JT Miller and Brock Besser and Thatcher Demko, we should mention, and then lost Quinn Hughes, their best player,

their most impactful skater, halfway through the first period and did nothing about it. The five-minute power play they had was, you know, to use a Tony Gallagher, dreadful. It was bad. And credit the Canucks for killing that penalty. It was a great kill.

And then credit the Canucks for scoring on a power play that was obviously going to come to them real quick after they killed that penalty just because, you know, referees. They went down 4-1 in that game and the Canucks were deservedly in front I was watching the Sens game and I'm like there's nothing this team does that's particularly impressive and Travis Green after the game was like yeah we gifted them a bunch of goals and it might not have been pizzas up the middle or anything but just confusion it looked like they're a confused team like Travis Green hasn't been able to come in and do what Rick Talkett did which was basically tell them how to play hockey and that's what they

need now remember when the Canucks hired Rick Tockett halfway through the season or whatever it was, and people were like, why not just keep Boudreaux? Why not just tank, tank, tank, tank, lose as many games, make a coaching change in the offseason? I think Tockett's ability to come in and coach how many ever games he was, 20 or 30 or something like that, I don't know what it was, after they fired Bruce Boudreau was very key to the Canucks getting off to the start that they did last season.

I would agree with that. He was already in there teaching them how to play the type of hockey that he wants in actual game situations. Travis Green had to do it at training camp. Travis Green had to do it in the offseason. And they have not figured it out yet. And Brady Kachuk has not figured out how to control his emotions.

And it's funny, if we're talking about parallels, Rick Tockett came in and one of his challenges was going to be how to craft JT Miller into a better leader. And certainly last season, JT Miller into a better leader. And certainly last season, JT Miller was a better leader. His emotions were channeled the right way. And Brady Kachuk, I think, his emotions have not been channeled the right way. He's going out there, he's wasting a lot of energy. And Travis Green, I I know stuck up for Brady Kachuk after the game he said well maybe maybe Brady's fight with Dakota Joshua in fact helped us get

helped us get back into the game we found some energy and you know they did score two goals they made it interesting but I know there was a lot of discussion let's say and a lot of opinions on Brady Kachuk after that game coming out in Ottawa. There are a lot of stories written about Brady Kachuk and whether or not he needs to just tone it down a little bit and stop with all the running around

and just get focused on scoring some goals and winning some hockey games because he is a pretty good player. He's super frustrated, right? You can tell. I think that's the one thing that's very obvious when you watch them play is he is really, really frustrated.

I guarantee some of that has to do with the dynamic with his brother who, you know, was freed from the shackles of Calgary, went down to Florida and won a Stanley Cup.

Meanwhile, Brady can't get into the playoffs. I think if he was frustrated with the organization, he would have a fair shout. I do believe that. Do you know he's on his fifth head coach? Brady Kachuk hasn't been in the NHL that long.

He started under Guy Boucher. That's how long ago it was there. Then he had Mark Crawford for a little bit. Then he had DJ Smith. Then he had Jacques Martin. Now he's got Travis Green. And this is a guy that signed on to be part of this thing in Ottawa, wanted to be named the captain.

So he is at the front of it. And I don't think you could ever blame him for falling short or not doing his job. I mean, he's 20 points in 21 games or 21 points in 20. He's a pointy game guy. He's doing everything that he can. He looks around. And I think that the frustration would be more than justified

because the goaltending is not good, still not good, even though they made the all-mark trade. And what you pointed out, what Green pointed out, they make a lot of the same basic elementary mistakes all the time. If you're going out and you're losing games and you put forth a good fight and you just get beat, that's one thing. But when you're shooting yourself in the foot

or you're making the same mistakes over and over again, that also gets frustrating. The word of the day here is frustration. Let's pick on another team. Yes. And that is the Pittsburgh Penguins. And it's worth talking about the Pens this week because the Canucks play in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

They play in Boston on Tuesday and then Pittsburgh on Wednesday. And typically when you'd look at that schedule, you'd be like, ooh, that's going to be tough. You've got to go into Boston and play the Bruins, and then the very next night you've got to play in Pittsburgh against the Pittsburgh Penguins. I think the Boston game is going to be tough because I think the Bruins are maybe going to get a bit of a bump

with the coaching change. Big time. Oh, yeah. They're like, we don't allow goals. We're not going to score many, but we're not going to allow any. But these Penguins, and I hope I'm not jinxing it here, are terrible. Not just bad. They are terrible. Like, not just bad. They are terrible.

Yep. They lost to Utah 6-1 on Saturday at home. Their last game before that, also at home, 4-1 loss to Winnipeg. Their only win in the last little while was a 4-3 shootout win over, congratulations, you beat the San Jose Sharks. Barely. You know, there have been 7-1 losses to Dallas, 5-1 in Carolina. The Canucks have already beaten them this season.

The Canucks beat them 4-3 earlier in the year in Vancouver. Sid scored his, what, 600 NHL goal in that Utah loss. The only goal in a 6-1 loss. And he was probably like, yeah, that's awesome. And like, all the Penguins came off the bench to congratulate him. It's kind of like, yeah. He looked at him, he's like,

please go back. Please go back to the bench. This is awkward it must be it must be um i mean like i know a lot of people aren't going to feel sorry for a guy that's won as much as sid he's won three stanley cups won a bunch of gold medals in the olympics he's a very accomplished player and if you retire today first ballot hall of fame obviously considered one of the greatest players ever and he made the decision to stay in Pittsburgh. And he made it by taking a below-market contract, too, because he wants to give Kyle Dubas the best chance of putting together a winner. My point has always been, I look at this team,

they've got nobody that's trending the right way in terms of youth. Rutger McGroarty, if he ever turns into an impact player, it's going to take a while. And this is a team that has a lot of problem contracts on the books in terms of older, aging players that used to be good but aren't as good as they used to be. And I'm just looking at it, and I looked at his decision, and I said, you know, I get the loyalty, and I get wanting to stay with the same team your entire career.

You know, the Sidines did it when a lot of people thought, why don't you go chase a cup elsewhere? I get it. But I'm just kind of like, as a hockey fan, I don't want to see Sid go out like this. I don't know what's going on in Pittsburgh, though, because now we've got two coaching changes. And to be honest, the fact that the coaching change didn't happen in Pittsburgh ahead of what happened in Boston and St. Louis is comical. Pittsburgh's maybe the worst team in the NHL right now. You can make the argument they're the worst team in the NHL right now.

They're allowing more than four goals a game. They're only scoring two and a half. And that's with all these guys that they paid to be offensive producers. Here's the kicker. two and a half and that's with all these guys that they paid to be offensive producers here's the kicker right now at money puck they have a 1.9 chance of making the playoffs yeah i know it's early i think that's too high i know it's early they're they're a bad team so the question is why are they not they're definitely beating the canucks on wednesday but gonna crush them they're they're a bad team they're gonna crush them why? Why have they not made the change behind the bench?

And I think there's a few things at play here. Wish wrote about this for ESPN, by the way. It just went up this morning talking about the coaching hot seat index. And it feels like Sullivan, in a very weird way, there are some parallels between these bets that they've made and these commitments that they've made and these you know commitments that they've made to Crosby and Malkin and Letang it almost feels like Sullivan's kind of in the same mix like they they like him as a coach they know he's a good coach they've committed to

him through 2027 and almost like they're willing to ride it out which is crazy to me because well there's always those reports that he's very well respected by the ownership group. Fenway Sports Group. Fenway Sports Group, yeah. I mean, now here's the thing. Imagine if they can't do this. That's where I was going with this. Like, right away. That's where I'm going with this. Maybe they just looked at the goaltending numbers and said, oof, we'll cut this

guy some slack. I don't know, man. The goaltending is bad. The goaltending is bad. I know. The goaltending has been just as bad as Jari. But their offense is bad. Their offense is bad, too. Like've been dreadful. I know. Nedeljkovic has been just as bad as Jari. But their offense is bad. Their offense is bad, too. Like, they're not scoring enough. You can't point it solely at the goaltending, but it's a huge...

Of course it is. Every time I look at Penguins fans, they're just complaining about the goaltending. It has been bad. So I think it's a major factor. But, yeah, so they're going to be one of the teams... I mean, this is actually a pretty interesting trip for the Canucks. You know, like, I think we may have talked ourselves into Ottawa being more interesting than they are, although they are on the verge of being a tire fire.

I think they are, yeah. Boston's had the coaching change. Pittsburgh may very well have one coming up. And it's also a long trip. The Canucks aren't coming back until December the 4th. It's a long way and a long way to go on this trip. But it started interesting, and they've got a couple interesting games coming up. Just in case you were wondering, had uh derrick lalonde from

detroit and luke richardson in chicago right at the top of the coaching hot seat he calls it burning up sullivan got his own category because it's just so unique to everything else uh let's do some seahawks talk here i do want to talk about the game. When I said that the division off the top was mid, I stand by this because yesterday in the NFC West, three of the four teams lost games and three of the four teams looked terrible losing their games. So I'll put aside the Cardinals because I do think the Seahawks had a lot to do

with how bad the Cardinals were. But the Rams had a chance to do something on Sunday Night Football and they laid an egg. And the Niners are an abject disaster. If you missed it, they got beat down. Now, I know they were without Brock Purdy and I know they're injured, but they lost by 28. Well, they were without Bosa too, right? Yeah, but they were without a lot of key players. But they lost by 28 points in Green Bay.

The game was never really close. They had like 9 million pre-snap penalties. I was watching the game, and Shanahan was going nuts on the sideline. Like, you guys got to stop taking pre-snap penalties. So the division is mid. But congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks, who are now somehow back atop the NFC West. And they did it, and I will say this,

just to counterbalance all my mid talk, that was a very, very good defensive performance. That was a great defensive performance yesterday. And they made some real key plays on defense down in San Francisco, too. After some mistakes from Geno Smith, and Geno, there's one terrible, at least one terrible mistake by Geno Smith, and as usual, he owned it after the game,

and Mike McDonald says, yeah, we got to cut down on the red zone turnovers. While staring directly at Geno Smith. Just where that was on the field, it was a 10-point game. At least you want to kick the field goal right in that situation, and he turned the ball over. But as he did against San Francisco,

he came back and made plays and led important drives. And, you know, he's an interesting guy because his mistakes aren't just like oh that was a bit of a bad decision that was a oh my god what are you thinking dude like it's it's that kind of it's that kind of play but then you know he'll he does manage he usually finds a way to kind of redeem himself. Yeah, and yesterday wasn't really even about Geno so much.

It was pedestrian, 254, touchdown pick. Jackson Smith and Jigba continues to be. He's the number one receiver on the team. I saw a lot of stuff coming out of Seattle yesterday where they were like, is he surpassing Metcalf? I'm like, it's happened. It was awesome. Anyway.

To be fair to DK. Well, I usually like to criticize. He's hurt. Well, no. Just don't cut me off like that. Who are you, A-Dog? But he's well, I usually like to criticize. He's hurt. Well, no, just don't cut me off like that. Who are you, A-Dog? But he's hurt. Who are you, me? He's hurt.

On JSN's touchdown pass, it was also DK Metcalf that did the hard work. Like, he cleared out. A little offensive PI. Yeah, well, he took, like, two guys out, essentially. Yeah, he's good. He's like, I'm running my route. And if you get in my way, then that's your problem. Swinging his fists.

And then JSM was just wide open. Yeah. It was a nice pass from Gino. It was a nice play drawn out. We are burying the lead here, though, because the story of the game, the story of the last two games, and maybe the story of the season for the Seattle Seahawks is that defensive guru Mike McDonald has shown up.

That's been the big story. I got really good vibes, and all it took was two weeks. But I remember the first five or six games of the season after they went 3-0 and everything started to sputter, and they were putting up these defensive clunkers at home, too. Daniel Jones and the New York Giants are racking up 29 points. I'm like, what is going on here? Mike McDonald was brought in as a defensive guru.

I see no guruing on defense. Well, kudos to him, man, because he made some big, bold moves in the middle of the season, which is tough to do in the NFL. It was like Homer was in charge of the union. He was like, maybe this guy isn't the brilliant technician I thought he used to be. I thought he was. I was getting those vibes. I swear to God. god i'm like did they gaff on this hire good on him man because he knew something was wrong with this defense he didn't sit there there's two things you can do at that point you can do change stuff up schematically or you can change your personnel

he gutted gutted the linebacker position what's happened happened since he's done it? They go down. In San Francisco, they hold the Niners to less than 20 points, which was a great defensive performance. Ernest Jones IV. Yeah, and they got a rookie play, a fourth-round rookie playing linebacker right now. And they're not playing great, but I think it did two things. One, it took Baker and Dodson off the field

who weren't getting the job done. But two, I think it sent a warning shot across that defense that, hey, if you're not going to do the things the way we want them done, we will get rid of you in the middle of the sea. So this is what they did yesterday. James Conner, running back for Arizona, who's been great the last two games, eight yards on seven carries.

I do not remember a time when the Seahawks shut down a run this effectively. Can we still talk about how bad the offensive line is? It's not good. How many times does Geno actually have time to make a pass? Not enough. Versus how many times does it look like everything has collapsed and he has to bob and weave back there? He actually made a number of great plays escaping the pressure.

And then with Kenneth Walker, how many times is there just a running gap that's created for him? Not many, right? It's usually like, oh, Kenneth Walker sees problems. Now he's got to bounce into the outside. And sometimes it works because he's super fast. But other times he'll be like for a 78-yard loss. So they're doing all this with still a problematic offensive line,

I would say. I also want to talk about their next opponent because they go to New York next Sunday and play the Jets. And there are rumblings right now that, you know how the Giants just cut Daniel Jones loose. I've heard it. There are rumblings at least that the Jets might do the same with Aaron Rogers.

They might just be like, listen, man, we tried, we failed miserably. Let's end this right now. Because apparently Aaron Rogers won't even get medical scans yeah because he doesn't want to he doesn't want to find out the bad news

he's like he's like a guy that won't go to the doctor because i know the news is not going to be good which i respect i've done that before it'll probably just go away on its own. Do not recommend. Yeah. It's not sound medical advice, but it's medical advice. Uh, I, I don't know what's going to happen there. I do wonder if you mentioned the New York giant situation.

I wonder if what happened over the weekend would give the jets pause because it got worse for the giants over the weekend. In case you missed it, the giants made just some crazy decisions over the last week. They benched Daniel Jones. They moved him to fourth string. They had him playing safety at practice. Like all the hallmarks of an organization

that is dysfunctional and doesn't really know what it's doing. Then they just mutually agreed to give Jones his release so that he could try and resuscitate his career somewhere else. Bit of a weird move. Instead of going to the backup quarterback,

Drew Locke, they put in Tommy DeVito and there were rumblings that they're putting in DeVito. One, going to the backup quarterback, Drew Locke, they put in Tommy DeVito. And there were rumblings that they're putting in DeVito, one, because they didn't want to pay Locke his contract bonuses, and two, they got a better chance of losing with Tommy DeVito at quarterback. And boy, did they on the weekend. They were down 30-0 against Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At home, Baker Mayfield's out there openly mocking Tommy DeVito,

doing the Tommy DeVito celebration after a running touchdown, goes to the podium and laughs about it. Malik Neighbors, this great rookie wide receiver that they've got in New York, is conducting a press conference afterwards with the media saying, I don't know why I'm not getting the ball. And then when I do get the ball, it's when we're down 30 to nothing. And when they ask him why, he says, not go ask my coach. He says, go ask Dabes, Brian Dabes.

That's exactly what he says. He's chewing on gum and he's like, go ask Dabes. And I'm like, the guy's been in the NFL for like 10 games and he's already calling out the coach. And I'm like, what kind of like group do you have? They're like, how? It's just a mess well I think I think I think the Jets are more dysfunctional but you could have a good

conversation you could have a good argument um it was the athletics Diana Russini who's been doing all the reporting on the Jets especially their ownership group and she wrote that it appears increasingly likely that the four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers who is banged up could be placed on injured reserve or possibly benched over the next few weeks signaling the end of his disastrous time with the Jets as for Rodgers his relationship with the owner has been strained for months my understanding is that Rodgers still wants to play next year, just not for the New York Jets. There was that report that came out, also from The Athletic, and I think Diana Brussini was one of the reporters,

that Woody Johnson wanted to bench Aaron Rodgers after four games. And there has been a little bit of pushback to that report. It was like he was joking. I was like, I don't know. So we all know how Aaron Rodgers sometimes responds in these situations. He gets stubborn. Yeah, and the other part of it too is that all the guys that championed Aaron Rodgers

over the last little bit are kind of gone. Like Robert Sala is gone. You know? Joe Douglas is gone. Well, if he's lost the owner, too. Right. And if Woody Johnson's already...

I mean, you've got to understand that this is also to put Tyrod Taylor in a quarterback. It's not some young hotshot that they think might have a future. It's just a journeyman backup. Well, it might also be to intentionally lose.

Well, that's what the Giants are doing. Yeah, exactly. Because they need a quarterback. The issue is, is you really undermine what you're doing with your team and with the guys that are on the field playing. Let's talk more about this with Mike Tanner on the other side

of the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.