Halford & Brough in the Morning - It Was A World Series Classic (Unless You're A Jays Fan)

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss a Game 3 World Series classic that saw the Dodgers take out the Jays 6-5 in the 18th inning (3:00), plus they go around the NHL with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (25:46).  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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Fire there comes down to Crosby. Up top, one-tapper calls, and redirection score! The gold and rust. Runt for Sidney Crosby. It's 1,700 points. The captain flies to Rera fighting.

There's a spot here in the bottom of the seventh. And a swing and a drive. Deep left center, can you believe it? He did it again, and the game is tied. I fly to center. Varshow Beck. Game over. Ratting Freeman walks it off.

And the home run to straightaway center field. The Dodgers win, and they take a two-to-one lead in the World Series. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet, 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Hey, dog. morning to you. Good morning. And Elon, in for the ailing Greg Ballack. Good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Scoring, death freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two much lower payments and three financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle you get paid. visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live, barely alive, from the Kintech studio, Kintech, footwear, and orthotics working together with you in step. Well, kudos to you, the few, the proud, the bleary-eyed this morning. If you're awake and you're listening, and you stayed up late enough to watch an all-timer, epic World Series game. We welcome you to the program today. We have a lot to get into today because the sports do not stop. It's another amazing day in sports, specifically in hockey. We've got a huge guest list ahead on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Guestless today begins at 630.

Greg Wosinski is going to join the program. Our NHL insider from ESPN, it is NHL Frozen Frenzy tonight. 16 games, all 32 teams in action, to give you an idea of what's on the horizon. First games start at 3 p.m. our time today. Last games begin at 8 p.m. our time tonight. And that first game. Is the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Philadelphia Flyers? We've got to ask Wish about these penguins.

So hot right now. There's 7, 2 and 1. Watch them last night. I thought they were, weren't they Gavin McKenna, Tank, Sid leaves, no. You know who looks really good? Eric Carlson. It's like a pointy game guy this year. It's unbelievable.

Malcolm as well. Yep. We'll talk to Wish. We'll talk to Wish about that. All the games, huge night of hockey. 16 games, 32 teams. Greg's going to sit it all up at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Jim Cerney is going to join.

the program out of New York. He's the executive editor for Forever Blue shirts. One of the games tonight, obviously, Canucks Rangers 7 p.m. from Rogers Arena. J.T. Miller's return to Vancouver after his trade to New York last season. Rangers are not playing especially good hockey right now. This is a big emotional game for them and the Canucks will talk to Jim about all that at 7 o'clock. 7.30. Buck Pierce is going to join the program. Head coach of the BC Lions. Elon's wearing his old school starter BC Lions throwback. I like that. That's pretty good. BC Lions will host the

Western semifinal this Saturday, November 1st against the Stamps. Kickoff is 2.30 on Saturday. BC took care of business against the stamps during the regular season. We'll see if they can do it in the playoffs. Buck is going to join us to set up the Western semifinal at 7.30.

Finally, at 8.10, Landon Ferraro is going to join the program. Some Canucks pregame stuff there as we look ahead to tonight's game. Canucks Central tonight goes from four to six. Pre-game show goes from six to seven. Batcham Randeep have the call at seven post-game show immediately. Following, Canucks do skate this morning at 10.30.

So we'll get a better sense of who's in and who's out tonight for a team that is really banged up by injury. Landon Ferraro is going to join the program at 8-10 to preview tonight's game. We have giveaways again. We are giving away a $250 gift card to Golf Town at 7.30. And then at eight, Foo Fighters tickets. Foo Fight us going to Friday, October 31st tickets go on sale. That's this Friday.

But we're giving away tickets today and tomorrow. So tomorrow's the last day. I will announce throughout the show when we're going to do these giveaways, so don't worry. I'll give you all the information as we get closer to the actual contest. Okay, there's a lot going on. There's a lot to get into. So without further ado,

Elon, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No, what happened? I missed all the action because I will be. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? 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.ca. Where else are we going to begin? After midnight, our time last night, after six hours and 38 minutes of baseball,

It was an 18th inning walk-off home run from last year's World Series MVP, Freddie Freeman, as the Dodgers beat the Blue J, 6-5 on Monday in an 18-inning thriller. We played the Dan Shulman call in the intro. It was a little muted, a little sad. Understandably, I want to play the Fox call now of what is going to go down as one of the greatest home runs

in World Series history. Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the 18th matching the longest game in World Series history. Here's what it sounded like on Fox. Los Angeles. Fulman says a fly ball to center field. Our show's going back before the catch-strike. Tony Freeman has ended it.

It's a repeat hero with the last word on a game three classic. So that game obviously took on a life of its own. And it got to the point, you know, late last night where it was. It was kind of like, okay, this game is mostly just about how long it's gone on, but that game was not just about how long it went. There was a lot in that game. A lot of stuff happened in that game. My notes are so janky and so out of place, and there's a million different things.

Halford, you know what I was thinking about? I was like, remember when we used to write? Occasionally. Okay. I always knew that, like, we were okay, writers, but we weren't great. and it's games like that where I know that I was never born to write about sports

because I would have been like I don't want to do this this is a nightmare I don't want to tackle this this is too much I don't have the talent to recap that game in written form

so instead I'm going to go on the radio and just kind of like stumble my way through that was crazy when that happened right it was really long yeah it was a long game right Springer got hurt How do you adequately capture the spirit of the thing?

Maybe it is about the length of the game because that was an 18-88 game, as I mentioned, six hours and 39 minutes, 44 players used, 19 pitchers used, 609 pitches thrown, 29 strikeouts, 153 plate appearances, and 37 runners left on base. Both teams emptied the tanks.

as much as you could go. By the end of the game, in case you missed it, Yamamoto was hand up like, I will come back into this game, having only pitched two days prior, I'm ready to go. Clint Kirschau was like, I pitched a inning.

Nope, he pitched a batter. Right. I pitched a batter. Shane Bieber, who's going to start in a matter of hours tonight, almost had the warm-up hoodie off just to try and get warm to potentially get back in this game.

And if you want to talk about storylines, what do we say about poor Brendan Little, who's absolutely nightmarish postseason just added another nightmare as he was brought on as the last option really like the fact that they had to bring them on to finish that game

kind of gave you an idea of where they were at in their bullpen and it was Brendan Little who gave up solo Jack. I was hoping he'd get some redemption there too like he looked like his stuff was okay he was throwing strikes it was the opposite of okay in the end though

because it wasn't even that the Dodgers manufactured a winning run it was that he served up a meatball. It was a meatball to Freddy. And let's be honest, prior to that, Eric Lauer, who deserves a ton of credit for what he did in relief, he had given up a bunch of long fly balls, deep fly balls into various parts of the outfield.

Farshal kept on going back to the track and he was just like, yeah, got another one. You could say, you'd almost see him start to like giggle a little bit. Like you can see a little bit of a smile on its face. And you can see the Dodgers approach at the plate was, we're probably going to end this with one swing. The Blue Jays, they did not have that option. available to them. You can go down the road of wanting to criticize some of the moves that

John Schneider made and the lineup that he was left with by the time they lost that game. And I think it's valid. Because by the end, they had Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and then eight guys that were just up there trying to do anything. And I don't mean in that scrappy Blue Jays baseball

kind of way. I mean, guys that just weren't, they were never going to get a hit in that situation. It was tough to watch because they went 11 innings, 11 innings without scoring a run. Did the Jays really lose it in the 10th inning? Is that where they lost this game? This is the most controversial part.

Why don't you tell everyone what happened and then everyone can kind of have their say? The send. The send herd around the world. Bottom of the 10th inning, Thai France gets aboard. They pinch run with Davis Schneider. Nathan Lucas stepped up.

up, rips a double into the right field corner. If France is running, he's not being sent. No. There's no chance. But Davis Schneider, a slightly better base runner with two outs, gets the round, around third, and is then dead on arrival thanks to a really, I mean, to Oscar Hernandez played that perfectly in the outfield. Relays in, Schneider's DOA at the plate, Jay's challenge in the hopes that there might have been a blocking call on the catcher to no avail. So in the 10th, in the 10th, top of the 10th, I think I said bottom of the 10th, it looked like it was their opportunity to take whatever lead they were going to get.

The issue, of course, was that standing in the on-deck circle was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Now, several people astutely pointed out in the aftermath that let's say they hold up Schneider at third and let's say Lucas either goes to second or first, whatever, right? Lucas ended up on first. They're going to walk Vladie to load the bases. Sure. At which point you've got Isaiah Kyna Folefa at the plate with 2-0 with the bases loaded.

Is that the situation you want? Or is the likelihood better that you're sending Schneider on the hopes that that amazing relay from outfield to infield the catcher isn't going to be picture perfect. I think that's what happened because they sent Vladdy earlier in the game

and I couldn't believe they sent him. Yeah. But he was safe because the throw was a bit off. The throw was actually quite a bit off. Yeah. And I think he probably had a – Vlad is actually a pretty good base runner for a guy's size, right? He's very aggressive.

And here's the thing. Aggressive is an important part of this because the J's mantra throughout these playoffs is be aggressive, stay aggressive. And we've seen countless times where they've been thrown around the basebats, trying to take extra bags, trying to be aggressive. So if that's your M.O. And that's your mantra, fine. The other part of it, though, is that –

and you know, Buck Martinez says this time and time again with Blue Jay baseball, it's get guys on move guys over and then bring them home and put the other team under pressure I would suggest that there is some there's some merit and there's some validity to saying bringing a guy up with the bases loaded

with two outs is going to put the Dodgers under pressure right at that point kind of fluff is trying to put bat on ball and it's trying to make the defense make another play and you live to fight another day I don't know what the right call was to be honest I don't think we ever will Yeah.

You know, I understand. Well, I mean, I think we know what the wrong call was, sending him. But I don't know. I honestly don't know. It was out. It didn't work. But it had to be a perfect, perfect relay from the outfield. It did.

Can we also? Okay. I think that I think he was out by a mile. Yeah. So I think there is a little room for error there. When that ball got hit, I was saying there could have been a hop off the wall in the outfield. Yes. To Oscar fielded that bare handed.

Perfect. Perfect. and whipped it in. And then the relay was perfect as well. And I mean, think about it. Even if the relay skips and the catcher misses it by a beat, anything. But none of that happened. And the Blue Jays missed their best opportunity to take a lead in that game.

Can we talk about Otani? Because he is pitching tonight against Bieber. And I've never seen a guy intentionally walked four times in the World Series after he's already done a bunch of damage at the plate. Two home runs, two doubles, and then a bunch of intentional walks. He was on base nine times yesterday. He reached base nine times

in a single baseball game. Schneider every time he intentionally walked. He looked like he was giving like the check please. I'll take one of those. Thank you very much. They asked Schneider after the game. So if you didn't watch the presser, that's fine. It was very late. So they

got Schneider to walk the media through what he was thinking with the intentional walks. I mean, he gave all the stock answers and cliches you would expect. Well, his fourth, the fourth at bat was not intentional. Well, it should have been it should have been five intentional walks a lot of people would say. Right. And so the Sir Anthony Dominion's one was the one, the home run,

the meatball down the middle where they were finally waived the white flag and we're like, we're not pitching to Otani anymore. They then issued three actual intentional walks and then they kind of pitched around them for the last one. So Otani reaches base nine times in a game, which is just an unbelievable statistic. In the aftermath, Schneider's asked about what they were thinking, and he's like, we're trying to take the bat out of exceptionally good hitter's hands. And then the reporter asks not to give away trade secrets or your strategy moving forward, but is this what we can expect in future games? And Schneider

says, yeah. So I wonder if we have reached the point where they're just not going to pitch to Otani for the remainder of this series. Either they're going to pitch around them and just throw stuff away outside the zone and make him chase or they're just going to issue him first. You know what I'm talking about though, right? His second home run. Yeah. And everyone was like, you should walk him now. I texted. I texted everyone I knew, just walk him. Everyone was saying that. Why? Because he'd already had a pretty good game up to that point. I understand. There were there were so many decisions made last night. The Jays were winning the game at that point.

I understand not putting the tying run on base when you're out 5-4 at a baseball game. I know these are extenuating circumstances because it's Otani. But I was like, even though I was like, don't pitch to them, I'm like, I get what they're doing here. You don't want to put, because here's the thing, the guy behind him in the order,

Mookie Betts, and the guy behind him, Freddie Freeman, are dangerous hitters. Yeah. So at 5-4, when you put the tying run ahead, you get the go-ahead run at the plate. You're like, if you do something bad here, you are going to get eviscerated. in John Schneider's defense, Dominguez could have taken that at bat

and maybe not delivered one and grooved it right down the middle for that home run because it was an awful pitch. Yeah. Right? I mean, you could have done a lot of different things. What's the opposite of an intentional walk? Like, that was it. It was like, do what you want with this, Shohei,

and Shohei did exactly what he wanted with it. I don't know what happens after this, by the way. There has been a game of this length in the World Series. It's actually the 2018 World Series between the Red Sox and the Dodgers. and it was Max Muncie, quite famously, that walked that one off. Those series to me, they don't really stack up because I felt like the Jays needed that one. And it would have been more of, we stole one, and they needed to steal one in L.A., right? If they want the series to go somewhere, they got to steal one in L.A.

I thought that might have been the opportunity last night, because you look at it now, and you've got Otani coming on the bump tonight, and then you've got Blake's, Snell, who I would suspect would be a lot better than his first start, and then you've got Yamamoto again. So it is not going to be any easier for the Jays right now. I do want to talk a little bit about the Canucks, but just one final note on that game. That would be one of those games where you could put just a list of like 20 crazy things that happened last night in Los Angeles, because we haven't even mentioned some of the base running mistakes, or we haven't even mentioned some of the great defensive plays, like two amazing throws by the Blue Jays, Barger, and Vladdy.

I mean, a couple amazing defensive plays by the Dodgers, too. That stuff just like, it's like, oh yeah, and that happened. That was one of the most incredible, fascinating baseball games I have ever seen, and I'm glad I was able to watch the whole thing. Pedro fell asleep. Everyone I knew. He is my dog, just I didn't need to. keep saying that. The real ones, by the way, and I know people listening right now who watch

the game and stayed up, the real ones are the ones that texted with you right till the end, where they were looking for snacks at 11 o'clock at night, trying to get a healthy snack out of the fridge, talking about what's going to happen moving forward. By the way, another thing, and I know you mentioned it briefly, but the George Springer injury that happened, I think it was in the seventh inning, where it looked like he did some sort of oblique or back strain. John Schneider said after the game that it was right side discomfort and that, Springer was getting treatment on it if they don't have Springer in the lineup

that is such a massive bat for them moving forward. Well, Kirk, Kirk didn't look 100% either. I didn't, I know he was hurting. I really, really did not like that lift there where they put Tyler Heinemann in for running purposes. Like I know Kirk's not a burner, but guess who isn't

either? Heineman. You lose Kirk's bat. You lose him behind the plate. I felt like... But I wonder if he might be a little... He might have been banged up because he was wincing at the plate. Springer and him both pulled love handles. Potentially. It happens in baseball, you know,

those guys, I'll tell you. Okay, I think, you know what? I think we actually did a pretty good job of covering almost everything in that game. It was a wild one. If you were there, either like watching it on your phone in bed or on the couch and television, you want to weigh in for your thoughts

or how tired you are this morning. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650. It was an all-timer. And it's very cool that we are working in sports media for the game that tied the longest one ever in World Series history, but we'll pivot now to the Vancouver Canucks. Well, we'll only got a couple of minutes

here, so we'll have our big discussion at some point later in the show. Wish is going to join us in about 10 minutes here. It's the return of J.T. Miller to Rogers Arena tonight. Now, Elyice Pedersen and J.T. Miller have

played actually in two games against each other since the trade. there was the meeting in the four nations that didn't really deliver I think Pedersen only played like 10 minutes at that point and Sweden had already been eliminated I don't really remember much from that game

but I do remember thinking and whew, Pedersen is not in a good way right now at that tournament frankly he looked like he didn't even belong in that tournament he's playing better now though the other time they met was in Madison Square Garden and I actually like I kind of forgot about this do you remember he got hurt on taking a face off

in March last year it was like any Trocheck what Trocheque who's also hurt and not playing for the Rangers tonight but yeah so the two meetings between Miller and Pedersen have amounted to nothing really in terms of fireworks now will something happen tonight between miller and peterson i don't know but i have trouble believing that tonight's game will just come and go without something

significant we'll be discussing the next day maybe it'll be the crowd reaction maybe it'll be like wow i didn't see that coming we've discussed every possible scenario from competing uh let's go PD J.T. Miller chance to, I don't know, some sort of like, or is there going to be a video tribute or no video tribute? What's the reaction going to be like that? Will the camera pan to Elias Pedersen? What will he be doing then? You know? Maybe it is a moment between Miller and Pedersen. Maybe they'll hug it out. They won't hug it out. Probably not. Or maybe it's just who wins the game and what the fallout

for the loser will be. It's not like, either team has had a super comfortable start to the season. I know vibes are somewhat higher around the Canucks after the weekend where they played a pretty solid game against Montreal, although they lost, but then got a very gutsy win over the Edmonton Oilers. The New York Rangers, meanwhile, come into this. I mean, they're not playing well at all,

and they're coming off a performance in Calgary where the flames, I think heading into that season, or heading into that game they were the worst team in the league beat the Rangers and beat them handily and the game before the Rangers lost to San Jose yeah the Rangers are in a bad way

there were some talk from their room and I think Miller might have been one of the guys was saying like they feel that their underlying metrics and maybe some of their chance generation is better than the results show but the results are the results and that game in Calgary I think it was the Calgary game specifically

I think they had the old classic it didn't feel like 5-1 game to which I responded, but it was still a 5-1 game to an absolutely awful Calgary team to start the season. So the vibes are not great for the Rangers right now. I wonder if this will be a springboard to better times for the team or if this could even get worse for these guys somehow, because there's a lot of frustration with this team too, including from the head coach, Mike Sullivan. Okay, Greg Wysinski is going to join us next. We'll talk all things NHL with Wish. We'll try and get into

the Canucks Rangers game a little more later in the show. We had to talk mostly in the first segment about that baseball game last night. There's too much stuff going on. We got Jim Cerney and we have Land and Ferraros. We got two segments basically dedicated to tonight's Canucks Rangers game. So that's pretty good. Yeah.

And before we go on the subject of Canucks Game Day, I do need to remind you that Canucks Game Day coverage on Sportsnet 650 is brought to you by Panago. Go for the win by medium Panago pizzas and score free cheesy bread. Use code Canucks deal at Panago.com. Panago for it. Restrictions apply. Game day only. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks.

Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. 632 on a Tuesday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how. Visit Sands dash trustee.com. We are in our one of the program. Greg Wyshinski from ESPN is going to join us in just a moment here.

The highlight of hour one. Hour one is brats 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. To the phone lines we go. Our next guest is our NHL insider from ESPN.

It's Greg Wichinsky here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Good morning, Greg. How are you? Oh, boy. You know, I couldn't be more. jealous of my friends on the West Coast being able to absorb all of that baseball without the extreme after effects the next morning. You guys, you guys won this round of East Coast West Coast bias. Oh, did that game go a little bit late? It was fine.

It went a little bit late. You know, it's fine. You know, one, you know, as a writer, I'm usually up late anyway. And then we just had the baby boy, so we're up late anyway. So, I mean, it kind of fits the lifestyle. But there was definitely a moment last night in which I was wondering if we would get within 10 minutes of puck drop on the Frozen Frenzy today. And like the, you know, the hot dog vendor is pitching for the Dodgers. By the way, I tweeted out last night that the Blue Jays losing was all Marner's fault. And I received a message this morning from somebody who said, no, it is. And I just thought, that's wonderful.

I don't know why that struck me as being so funny, but somebody out there just vehemently puffing their chest out and defending the virtue of Mitch Marner, not having been the reason the Blue Jays lost, I thought it was delightful. Disagree. Yeah, disagree. Let's start with the frozen frenzy then,

since you walked it through the front door. All 32 teams are in action tonight across 16 games. Staggered starts time for them all. We should begin, though, with the one right here in Vancouver, because of all these 16 games, this one ranks pretty high on the drama scale, the controversy scale, with J.T. Miller's return to Vancouver.

How much of appointment viewing is this going to be for you, Greg, given that there are a lot of games to choose from tonight? There are a lot of games to choose from, but I don't think there's a lot of games that have inherent dramatic storylines like this one does. I mean, there's going to be some great hockey play tonight. I know I'll put my time in with the Devils and Avalanche and, you know, at Vegas and Carolina,

be fun. And so, like, there's a ton of really compelling matchos, but, but nothing on the appointment viewing. You've got to be there for, for warm-ups level that I think that this, this game has. And, you know, the fact that Alias Peterson is, is playing as well as he is, I think adds to it. I think it would be a much different dynamic if J.T. Miller was making his triumphant return. And, and, you know, the subject of his bullying was, was still a shell of his former self. And so that adds even more intrigued to it. And you probably have a better handle on it than I do, but like I wrote this morning on ESPN, I don't necessarily know what the reception is insofar as Miller's return. I'm sure it'll be overall positive. Am I going to

that? Well, we've kind of debated on it. I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be positive. But I think the fact that Pedersen is, you know, he's coming off a good game. He's playing a little, he's coming off after two good games, actually, over the weekend. He played well. I think if he was playing poorly, then the potential there might get a little more toxic. You know what I mean? Like it could be, it could get ugly. Like the J.T. Miller fans might out cheer the PD fans.

But, you know, there was a Pedersen chant in the building. over the weekend. A good one. Just to be clear. Things are looking good for Pedersen. But it's interesting that for both teams, it has been very uncomfortable the start. You know, the Canucks have a slightly better record than the Rangers,

but both of them are in serious injury concerns with Trocheck out for the Rangers and way more guys out for the Vancouver connects. What have you thought of the, I'll ask you about the, the Rangers start. What have you thought of their start? Well, first off, good to hear. They're not buying out PD, as had been suggested, I suppose. Yeah, there was a kind of, that's, it's been a busy start, wish. Yeah, yeah, good, you know, 10 games in, there's been a lot discussed. Yeah, kind of, kind of a crazy ass idea. Um, the, uh, I think, I, listen, I, I think, first on the, on the Miller thing, I think that you're right, that if conditions were different,

it would be less about J.T. Miller than it would be a protest vote against Petey, right? Like, you've traded the wrong guy kind of thing and management, and it gets a little bit more complicated than that. And tonight should be much more just about, hey, here was a really good player for us, and things didn't work out, and overall, let's welcome them back. I'm sure it'll probably be what it's like. As far as the Rangers go, you're right. I mean, the Trocheck injury really kind of guts what they do offensively.

They're right now, I think second the last in the league in goals per game ahead of only Calgary who beat him like 5-1 the other night, which is kind of amazing. But, you know, they're struggling offensively. The Trocheque loss is big. A guy who I thought was going to have an absolutely monster season as sort of the replacement for everything that Chris Kreider used to do for them, Will Cooley, two points in 10 games and a minus four is a terrible start for that kid. That's one of the bigger surprises, I think, early on in the season

because he was positioned to be a real offensive force in their top six. And, you know, Lafranierre's got one goal in 10 games. Like a number of the guys that they were counting on to really pull the cart offensively for a team that does have some pretty decent depth issues this year, more so probably on the blue line than up front. A lot of those guys aren't pulling their weight quite yet. Well, it's a good way to transition to the penguins. What do you think Mike Sullivan is thinking, watching his new team, the New York Rangers,

while also keeping an eye on the Pittsburgh Penguins who are easily the most surprising team of the start of the season. Did he trusted the process, man. Kyle Dubas knows what he's doing. They're going to win the cup this year, obviously. No, you know, listen, the veterans are carrying the freight there. And, you know, you see it in the way that Malkins playing, and you see it in last night with the way that Sid and and Ross played and you know Eric Carlson had three assists by the way every time I see Eric Carlson has a multi-point game I just assume

he's sending tapes of that to like Tampa yeah but yeah I mean it's they're they're an amazing story and obviously like the underlying part of that story is you know Sidney Crosby told me in Vegas during the player media tour that he was trying to be as optimistic as he could

about this season, and he was putting full base in the idea that the young players could play well and that they could be irrelevant team. And, you know, there was a pass out of Pittsburgh for Malkin and Crosby this year if the penguins were atrocious in the first few months of the season and were clearly not going to be a playoff team. But, you know, the more Ws they put on the board, the more points they bank now, the more unlikely it is that one or both those guys might end up leaving before the deadline because I think, you know, they've both been explicit in saying they want to win in Pittsburgh and they want to be back in the playoffs as penguins.

And if there's a scintilla of a chance of that, then our fun gets ruined. So that's to me the most interesting thing about what the penguins are doing right now. Jack Hughes is playing pretty well. What's going on with him? Boy, is he? Oh, he's in the lineup. I don't know if you had heard. Oh, that helps.

That helps. That helps. That helps to score goals. That's the big news. When he plays, he is, without question, like, one of the most effective offensive players for his team that you can find. Like, if you watch him and Brat together, it's like they're playing at a different speed than everybody else sometimes when they're clicking. You know, Hughes' goal scoring has been insane so far. I don't think that anyone anticipated that level of offensive output, but he's been great.

Devils have never had a 50 goal score or a hundred point player, by the way. So, you know, if he plays, you know, like 78 games, maybe they get both based on how he's playing so far. But, you know, jerseys, jerseys have been pretty good. And I think the reason they've been pretty good is not only what Jack's been doing, but also, like, sneakily, they've built out their depth in a pretty interesting way. I think recasting Dawson Mercer as a second-line winger, instead of trying to force him into being a shutdown center, kind of recalibrated his career.

I think he showed up in better shape, too, this season than he did last season. And, you know, they've built out a decent little third line now with Cody Glass and Connor Brown, and they got from the Oilers, and it's kind of clicking right now. Like, they're playing with the same level of speed and creativity, that they played a couple of years ago when they made the playoffs. And so that should hopefully continue

until Jack gets hurt because he gets hurt all the time. And that's the sad part about Jack Hughes. You mentioned a player coming over from the Oilers wish we watched the Oilers on Sunday and the Canucks beat them even though the Canucks didn't have Quinn Hughes in the lineup.

And that was a little bit surprising. But then, you know, we're watching the Oilers and Halford and I are texting back. we're like okay if nudge is a winger who is their second best winger and we're like oh is it you know hymen's out for now

so is it like manji apani is it pod colson and then uh i'm sure you saw the goal where kefer sherwood nice goal made matthias at home look about 80 years old on the play there's concerns there you know i i I don't know if there's still some runway for the likes of Savoy and Howard to get going,

but they probably aren't quite ready for prime time. And I'm looking at this Oilers team, and I'm going like, they need stuff. Well, it's almost like watching a team where the franchise player only took a two-year extension. Almost like that. You're like, is that why? Is that why? That's probably why, right? Yeah.

I mean, we talked about Coley just before. Savoy, and the expectations on him might have been unfair in a sense of like he was young and they need cheap labor and he looked like a guy that could maybe pop offensively. He's got one point in 10 games. I mean, like, he has not been the answer at all for them and neither is Howard. And I think waiting around for either of those eggs to hatch

is probably not the best use of Connor and Leon's time. So, I mean, listen, I think the Oilers inherently are probably just a winning, a get in win type team at this point. Like, I don't think they look at that division and say we're going to be better in the regular season than Vegas, for example. Just get in, play the Kings, beat the Kings, and then, you know, advance to the next round and see what you're working with. But, I mean, to answer your question, it's obviously Hyman.

Like, I think he's probably the best or second best winger on the team. And then beyond that, it's kind of an issue of the sort of depth that gives you pause about them making a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup final. Do you think Cadreys going to get traded? I really hope so. By the way, I haven't done the exercise yet, but I am excited to go back

and see how many people said that Calgary turned the corner last year. Who said that? I'm sure some of the people that were writing about them coming within sniffing distance of the playoff bubble and, you know, they've rebuilt on the fly or whatever, are probably writing obituaries like before the end of October.

So I, you know, listen, everybody needs a hobby, and mine is probably going back and reading those articles and comparing what's being written today. I think Codry is such an ideal second-line center for any number of contenders. And, you know, he's one of those guys that, for various reasons, and sometimes it's just to see what happens when he's in a pressure-packed playoff series, can he be on his best behavior, is what you want to see in the postseason.

You know, when you look around and see teams that might, I would hope that, you know, he finds a different home at some point because I think it's, you know, rather than wither away in a season for Calgary where they're already tabulating lottery odds. Do you think Montreal would make a play for him? I think they could I think you know when you think about

the type of like symbolic let the play speak for you type player that could certainly benefit some of the young guys on that team I think Kadri certainly fits that bill

I mean I still think that Montreal comes back to the pack but it's undeniable that the pieces that they have in place there right now I mean, they're going to be good for a while. And that top line continues to really dazzle you,

although Slfkoski's offensive numbers aren't quite on the level of Suzuki and Caulfield quite yet. But defensively, I checked the numbers the other day. Defensively, that line is like giving up less than a goal per 60, I think, at 5-on-5. Like, they're playing really well. And I got to give them credit for understanding, you know, how to develop, how to draft well, and getting the guys. in the right places there and now if this is real

and I still am not convinced that it is but if this is real this season then you start to get into the veteran augmentation of the roster portion of the rebuild and Audrey could be a guy that you look at yeah their power play Montreal's power play I don't know if it was just

the Canucks penalty killing because they're missing some guys that made the Habs power play look especially good but man Demadov is some player to watch with the man advantage and just in general I wanted to ask you about one more center. The Canucks have been tied to Pavel Zaka in Boston, and this isn't necessarily a question about Zaka, the player.

It's more, I'm trying to understand where the Bruins are right now, because for them to trade their two C, and the Canucks can frankly only afford, I think, to give up futures, what would that you know would the Bruins be interested in those futures or are they still thinking like well we might be able to make the playoffs this year

when you said this wasn't about Zach of the player I thought you're going to ask about Zach of the person I'm like ah you know this is more about Zach of the human being wish the humanitarian food big K-pop demon hunters fan

your question is really interesting because I've struggled with understanding that myself in a sense of like when you look at Zaka, you see a player that has a lot of value. You know, a 200-foot player certainly found his game in Boston in a way that he did in Jersey, and really has become somebody you can plug and play in a lot of places in your lineup. But like, every time I talk to somebody tangentially related to the Bruins,

they all say the same thing, which is that he's kind of more of the solution than part of any problem. And so it's entirely possible that they see, him as a player to hold on to as they pivoted to whatever they're pivoting to, right? It's clearly not a tear down because you've got Pasternak there for forever, right? So you can't tear it all down. And to that end, I mean, I think he has a ton of value and I think that he's a player that could really hasten whatever they're doing there.

But at the end of the day, they could view him as being someone to hang on to if they think whatever it is their planning is closer than we expect. And again, I'm being vague because I don't know what they're playing. I just think that is one of those classic teams that was set up to win, you know, in the short term and in the long term. And then everything kind of went sideways. And now they're stuck in a purgatory where they have an absolute superstar player on an extremely team-friendly deal. They've got a goalie that I think could be a franchise guy on a good day. They've got a few really good defensemen.

They've got some decent pieces. I mean, the more, the geeky, you know, campaign continues on Federer. Like, he's just been great for two years straight. But ultimately, like, what is it all that up to? And maybe their math is different than our math. Because when I look at that team, I don't think it really adds up to much. We're speaking to Greg Wischinsky from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. A couple more before we let you go here.

I did want to touch on a couple of teams from the West. One, the hottest team in the West, the Utah Mammoth, when you look at the Central Division. Yeah, it's crazy, right? They're ahead of Colorado on the standings, ahead of Winnipeg, the traditional powers in that division. Take your other pick from the other ones. Is this team for real, Greg,

having ripped off seven straight wins and looking for an eighth tonight? Well, I don't know if they're eight straight wins, you know, real, but I had them in the playoffs. I thought that they were well positioned to be a playoff team in the West, you know, if they got the goaltending, which they have so far. And I think the fact that unfortunately, Conor Ingram's career went the way. that it did. I think Vanichek coming in

and sort of stabilizing that position so Vemelka doesn't have to play 85 games or so it seemed down the stretch for that team last year that was going to be better. But, you know, just like the leveling up of young offensive players all at the same time,

they smartly added Paterka, who sit right in. He's got nine points in 10 games. Cooley has been great. You know, Nick Schmaltz has got 16 points, you know, and Dylan Gunther's been great. Like all of the young players that they need to sort of be the engine for that team are doing their part. And it's kind of funny.

Like there's another team in the West that I think is sort of in the same spot where you have this incredible young core, plus, you know, Clayton Caller, I guess you could say, that you're depending on to sort of drive your team while you fill in the blanks with veterans. And that's Anaheim. And I look at what the core in Utah has done versus what the core in Utah has done versus what the core in. Anaheim has done to the point where they've broken up part of that core by trading Ziegress. And it's kind of stark contrast in the maturation of both those teams.

Speaking of young players driving the bus for their teams in the West, what more can be said about what Macklin Celebrini is doing for the San Jose Sharks? I know the wins aren't there quite yet, but you went so far as to call him a superstar, Greg, in your article. I think he is.

Yeah. I think any time you go you go from being a rookie of the year finalist to someone who literally has willed himself into the team Canada conversation by virtue of how incredible his play has been in all facets. It's not simply just like scoring goals or passing the puck to Will Smith or whatever. Like he just plays great all over the ice.

There's a maturity to him. I wrote about him when he was a rookie or maybe actually probably before the draft and everyone knows the tales. about his father working for the Golden State Warriors and Macklin being exposed to some of these amazing players like Jamon Green and Steph Curry and players, other players from other teams throughout his childhood.

You know, there's something about him that speaks to that, I think, the more that you see him play in the NHL, the more you see him and play in the NHL, you see not only a star quality, but leadership qualities and a consistency in his game. And, you know, it's getting thrown in my face a little bit online that I said that there's a better than good chance that

Celebrini makes the playoffs before Badaard does only because now the Hawks have a little bit of something going. So everybody in Chicago is trying to like throw this back like a pie. And that might be the case. Like Chicago might nose ahead of them into a playoff spot, but I mean, I think

the debate between Bidard and Celebrini is over. Like I just think Celebrini is a remarkably good player. And again, has the best quality for me that a young player can have, which is handling eccentric man on the street interviews in New York. What was that?

What was that? So I was on paternity leave during that, and I was so jealous. People, like, interview the woman who does those interviews. And I'm like, that would have been, I would have made that call 10 seconds after watching that video. But, yeah, I mean, it's a thing that happens here in the city is, there's people that, like, create content by walking up to people that are sitting

outside at a coffee shop and filming them and him and will smith played along if you haven't seen the video it's it's pretty great uh and and they're and they hang tough throughout it and it's great uh Greg this was great buddy thanks for taking the time to do it as always enjoy the frenzy this evening it should be a lot of fun we'll do this again next week no problem thank you for hanging with a little bit of a of a voice issue because i'm a little sick and also because i was up until like three o'clock in the morning just to see freddie freeman hit a home run so Thanks for doing this hit then, buddy. You're a trooper, buddy.

Thank you. Much appreciate it. You know what? That's right. Let's celebrate the real heroes, the former bloggers who do morning radio. Yeah. It's right. We salute you.

Yeah. See you, buddy. Thank you. Greg Wischinsky from ESPN here on the Halford and Rough Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. This Saturday, November 1st, your BC Lions take on the Calgary Stampeders in the Western semifinal. Secure your tickets today at BCLions.com. Coming up on the other side of the break, it's hour two.

Jim Cernie from Forever Blue Shirts is going to join us for a New York Rangers previews. J.T. Miller and the Rangers make him, J.T. Miller makes his return to Vancouver tonight. You're listening to the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet, 650.