Halford & Brough in the Morning - Murphy's Law Has Found The Canucks

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk a potential Canucks Hronek injury and how the team will deal with it (6:00), plus they preview Sunday's Seahawks matchup at the Jets with ESPN's Brady Henderson (28:35). 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-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- I didn't like what I was hearing this morning. No! God, please, no! No! No! The game is over. The Bears won't even get to fourth down. They leave Detroit with a timeout in their pocket. How in the world can that happen? It's the Bears. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios of beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with

anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier

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Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Raffi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, what a big show we got today. Big day for the National Hockey League. No games yesterday, so there's 14 today, including a matinee, an afternoon affair for your Vancouver Canucks. A 12 o'clock puck drop in Buffalo today.

I'll get to our Sportsnet 650 scheduling in just a moment here. 12 o'clock our time, 3 o'clock Buffalo time. 12 o'clock our time, 3 o'clock Buffalo time. Never been good with the time zones. I know our times, though. 6.30, Brady Henderson from ESPN Seahawks Insider is going to join the program it's the Seahawks it's the New York football Jets

on Sunday Aaron Rodgers and the Jets hosting the Hawks Hawks are two point road favorites we'll talk to Brady about all that 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's Pizza is going to join us I lamented to AJ yesterday I was not able to go by for American Thanksgiving they opened up at 9 o'clock I was just too busy and I lamented to AJ yesterday. I was not able to go by for American Thanksgiving.

They opened up at 9 o'clock. I was just too busy and I wasn't feeling great yesterday. So I'll catch up with AJ today and we'll give away a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza. Did they have any turkey pizza? They had breakfast pizza.

No turkey pizza. You should try a turkey pizza. You can table that when we talk to AJ at 7 o'clock. Mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy. Okay, that's enough. That's enough. I got it. enough 602 already enough out of you um did you watch all the games yesterday yes okay not bad actually not bad yeah it wasn't it wasn't the greatest the Bears Lions game which

we'll get into is obviously the talking point from the day but uh decent job from the NFL from carving something out of some pretty weak matchups uh 7.05, Paul Hamilton's going to join the show from WGR Sports Radio 550 in Buffalo. We will get a preview from the Sabres side of things today. 7.30, Moj is going to join the program. 8 o'clock, it's Rick Dollywall. A reminder, we are giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway to the best Ask Us Anything or What We Learned. Oh, by the way, it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the program.

If you want to ask us literally anything, Dunbar-Lemertech's line, 650-650. Get them in. Hashtag them. A-U-A. And then we're going to give away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We're going to get into everything right now. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed it? You missed that?

What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools or resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. It was not good news for the Vancouver Canucks yesterday. Although the club has yet to confirm any of the news that we are about to pass your way. There are multiple reports out there, including one that we're going to play in a moment here from Elliot Friedman. The Vancouver Canucks blue liner, Phillip Hirona, could be out a while.

That was Friedman's designation with a suspected shoulder injury after an awkward collision late in the game against Pittsburgh the other night. And Rick Tockett is going to meet with the media about half an hour after our show ends. 9.30 our time, 12.30 Buffalo time. There's no game day skate because it's a weird start time, but Rick Tockett will meet the media, and he's going to get some questions. We actually kind of broached this during the show, but it felt like we were scared to even entertain the idea

of what the Canucks defense could look like without Philip Hronik for a long time. I'm serious. Like scared as in like I don't want to deal with this. I don't even want to talk about it. I don't even want to talk. I don't even want to entertain it. And we all saw the play at the end of the Pittsburgh game

when Hronik goes into the boards awkwardly. I don't think it was a super dirty play by anyone on the Penguins. It was just he got caught off balance a little bit, got shoved a bit, and then fell into the boards and, I don't know, separated shoulder. Who knows? I have put a bounty on Jack St. Ivany's head. Right.

Jack St. Ivany. That's the guy that did it. Jack St. Ivany. Sounds like a kind of soap. It's like, are you using your St. Ivany soap? I am. Like, like yeah it separated my shoulder it made me slip in the shower so does that mean does that mean the right side is now myers-de-harney-jolson we'll get into that in the second day dog yeah i mean that's what we were

that's what we were scared of i think we actually said i think well actually i think it's like imagine their right side with and we were kind of like, all right, well, what do you do? Do you put Juleson with Hughes? They've played together a little bit before. You reunite Susie Myers and say, like, guys, figure it out. Pretty much. Just figure it out.

No more messing around. Play better hockey. And then the third pair is, what De'Arne and Brandstrom? Well, we don't know yet. We are going to find out at 9.30 from Brent talking. He's out for a long time. Yeah. And I think it's going to be a month. Let's go to the audio now. Here is Elliot Friedman. This was

right after we got off the air yesterday on the Fan Hockey Show. Elliot Friedman with his update on Philip Hronik. Unfortunately, I think Rona is going to be out a while. I don't know exactly what is going to go on there, but I didn't like what I was hearing this morning. He's a really good player for them.

I mean, look, they rotate their pairs a bit, but he obviously plays a lot with Hughes, and when your D is as banged up or struggled as much as theirs has at times down the lineup, guys like that take on extra importance. I always say, if you're going to get banged

up, you might as well get it out of the way now. The other thing, too, is that Vancouver has built itself up a bit of pad. Like, they're not 100% secure, but they're not 100% secure, but they've gotten themselves off to a good start. Now, I think the interesting thing I always wonder about here is timelines because, you know, their D has struggled they've battled injuries and you know that Rutherford and Alvin like to deal right but you always have to

prepare for guys coming back like as you mentioned Besser's back Demko is coming back very soon Miller will be back so you have everything you, you have to do in the sphere of you've got to be able to activate all these guys and play all these guys, right? So I'm always careful about that, but we'll see what the timeline is. I just don't know. So 3-putt Shane texts in to the Dunbar-Lemmer text line, 650-650, and and he writes this is where talk it earns that jack adams award well he earned it last season too but he said anyone could win

uh the jack adams when your team scores at historic percentages and have relatively no injuries time to embrace the hard talk yeah yeah um i i did uh i was on with kipper and born yesterday and kipper asked me um you know what is talk it how has talk had been throughout all this and i kind of said like i think he's just trying to maintain his composure yeah throughout all this like he's trying not to freak out at least publicly we don't know what he's like behind the scenes but i imagine he's looking at this right now and going first of all i can't necessarily count on any help coming from a trade we don't know if a trade is going to happen i'm sure he's in contact with patrick alvean and jim rutherford but

it's a tough situation for management too. And I know that was kind of the conversation a lot on the station yesterday. Do you make a trade now? Well, what are you willing to give up? Would it be better to just wait and see if you can survive this for the next little while. And because any GM that sees the situation the Canucks are in, not going to give them a sweetheart deal.

You're not going to get a really effective defenseman for not much. And these are the types of situations when you can really make mistakes. And I think the entire organization has to show some composure here because, like Freed mentioned, they've had an okay start. They're 11-7-3. They're in a playoff spot. So they can't afford to lose 10 in a row or anything, but they can afford a stretch where they go, I don't know, four and six over the next 10 and then hopefully make it up a little bit. They might fall a little

bit out of a playoff spot, but if they can just grind out some wins or grind out some games where they can get it to overtime and get a point, even if they don't win, that would go a long way towards them surviving this little thing and then getting guys back eventually. Like Miller will be back soon, hopefully. Demko will be back soon and be effective, hopefully. And that means you could go with Demko or Lankanen, right? As opposed to Lankanen or, ugh, Silovs. Right.

Right? And then, you know, before you know it, hopefully, Hronik is back and then you might be in a better position then to make a trade not out of panic, but just like, yeah, we want to. So they have I will say it is kind of funny how last season, it was like perfect story

book season, incredible. And this year it's like every week it feels like something horrible happens. That was like the exact opposite of last year's vibes are now being like bestowed upon Canucks fans like well you like last year well welcome to reality boys that's exactly what I was saying on on fan 590 yesterday it's almost it's it's almost comical and I was going through some of the things like Like, and I, I think, you know, it started with the goaltending situation as a whole, right?

Um, and that included Demko's weird injury, included the, the goalie coach drama. Uh, and we'll see if that has any effect because Demko is coming back and he doesn't have his guy, Ian Clark working with him on a regular basis.

And then we went into the season and Pedersen still looked not great and then Besser got hurt and then JT Miller left the team you know I mean am I missing anything here in terms of all the did you mention Dakota Joshua Dakota Dakota Joshua right I mean I mean, that was, you know, it's not high vibe stuff, right? I mean, it was really tough for him, and thankfully he's okay, and he's back in the lineup now. But, man, it's just complete opposite. Last season didn't go all great for the Canucks,

but the first half was incredible. The vibes were high, though, and now it's like anything that can't go wrong is starting to go wrong. Right, but okay, so you said that, and that's accurate. You have to finish the sentence with, and they've survived it.

Yep. That's the key to this whole thing. It has not sunk them to the point where they're down with the Nashvilles and the Chicagos and the San Jose's of the world who are currently operating out of the Western Conference basement. Thank God for Quinn Hughes.

Right. And so in terms of actual corresponding moves in the aftermath of this chronic injury, and I will remind you, none of this has been made official by the club yet. We presume that it will be at around 9.30 this morning when Rick Talkett meets with the media. According to the official NHL roster site, the Canucks have

opted to bring up Mark Friedman from the American Hockey League affiliate in Abbotsford. This shouldn't come as any huge surprise to anybody. They need a body. They need a healthy guy that can play on the defense. Some will remember that Friedman got knocked out cold during a game with Abbotsford and was actually stretchered off. He has since recovered from that.

He has played a handful of games. And given that he's played close to 100 games at the NHL level, he was the next logical call up when you're dealing with something on the road and you need an NHL capable defenseman at the ready. Friedman up. Archie Baines down again, according to the NHL-capable defenseman at the ready. Friedman up, Archdeep Baines down, again, according to the NHL roster site. And they've been forced to sit some veterans anyway down in Abbotsford just because they want to play some younger players. They're flush with defensemen down there.

Danny in Brookswood texts in and says, how long does Hronik need to be out for for it to impact our cap situation slash help help accrue cap space i never totally understood how that all works um yeah here's the thing they wanted to accrue cap space by not using ltir so no one's been on ltir this season we'll see if they can continue doing that because if they were to acquire a defenseman, a significant defenseman, they might have to put Hronik on LTIR. But I don't know. The thing with that is if you acquire a significant defenseman and you put Hronik on LTIR eventually you got to get down to the cap number right so I I don't know what what's going to happen um you know the the trades out

probably wouldn't create much cap space like let's say Nils Hoeglander was involved in a trade out that's not going to create a ton of cap space because his new contract extension doesn't kick in until next season when his cap hit goes up to $3 million. So there is all sorts of complications going on for the Vancouver Canucks right now. On the subject of Nils Hoeglander, we've got some audio on him as well.

Rick Dollywall yesterday talking about the latest on the beleaguered forward who isn't getting a lot of ice time under Rick Tockett, isn't putting up a lot of points, and as you mentioned, does have that new contract in hand. Here now, Rick Dollywall on Nils Hoaglander. Okay, so I got a little bit

of an update on Hoaglander this morning. He's obviously in Rick Tockett's doghouse. This is almost like, Ryan, Kuzmenko-like what's happening. I was told this morning that all parties, including Hoaglander's agent Alain Noir, are trying to get things back on track

for Hoaglander. All parties want the same thing. They want for Hoaglander to play well and get his confidence back. There has not been a trade request made by the agent, but he has picked up the phone and he has called the Canucks. There is concern from the agent's side. You do hear his name pop up in trade rumors, Ryan.

Canucks are making calls on the market right now. You do hear Team Zwan Hoaglander. It does not sound like the Canucks want to move him right now if they're working with the agent to fix this. I'll be very curious to see what happens over the next week. I'll be very curious because I could definitely see everyone saying, let's take a breath. Let's pause.

Let's not freak out. Our pets' heads are not falling off. Let's see what happens. Can't I freak out? Let's see what happens when we get Demko back in the lineup and then when JT Miller returns to the lineup. Now, I wonder if that could all happen or both those things happen on Friday, December 6th

against Columbus because that's the one we've been circling for Demko's. Taylor Swift day. Taylor Swift day. It's going to be wild downtown that day. Taylor Swift's going to be in town. Downtown is transforming, by the way. I walk to work, go up to Granville, Georgia every day,

and it's like there's all these crazy displays up now. It's insane. Yeah, it's almost like she's a big deal. I guess. Some sort of artist. But anyway, to my earlier point, when 3-Punch Shane texted in about how Talkett's going to earn the Jack Adams, which, again, I agree with Jason.

He did that last year. Now it's prove-it time. I do wonder if this is the perfect opportunity for him to say, boys, you see those hatches over there? We're going to batten them down. We're going to batten them down real good. And not unlike what the Boston Bruins have done in the aftermath of firing Jim Montgomery and bringing in Joe Sacco.

You can do low event hockey in this league. Lock it down, man. You can lock it down in this league. Aaron from Coquitlam, who is a Leafs fan, texted in and said, thinking of you guys and Canucks Nation. Thanks, Aaron. Thanks, Aaron. But glass always half full.

Players can surprise when pushed into roles. My Leafs went 7-2-0 without Austin Matthews and missing 7-8 forwards a night. Rise up, look at each other in the room and embrace adversity. The Canucks will gain from this mentally. Yeah, hopefully. You know, they say what doesn't kill you

makes you stronger. I always push back on that. It says, yeah, but it might kill you. It could kill you. I don't know. I've never liked that because if you get hit by a semi truck and it doesn't kill you you will definitely be weaker unless you get stronger you won't though you will be in a lot of pain it'll narrow back right yeah oh yeah clearly someone here hasn't been hit by a semi truck yet i do think that there's a couple of opportunities here and one is for talk it to re-implement the importance of defensive trademarks and hallmarks and places that you need to be.

I think there's also an opportunity. I think he's been doing that. But here's the thing. I think you can go out now with the explicit purpose of we are in prevent mode. Oh, that's what they did in Boston. Right, and it's not what they did in Pittsburgh. Well, no, but I think Seelow's put them in an early hole there because if you give up an early goal and then a bunch more,

then you're like, okay, well, we can't lock it down now. We've got to run and gun. See, I thought that the mentality in that game should have been the first period is to protect Artie at all costs. Yeah, yeah. We have to do whatever we can. Well did man do you see that no did you see the first goal though the first one was bad the first goal and then the second and thirds were defensive breakdowns yeah okay i i'll give you that but you know it was one of those situations where i think they got rattled

as soon as arty led in that first goal oh Oh, I do as well. Yeah, yeah. And he did too. And he did. You know, Wills got rattled. And that was also, listen, that was also the second game of a back-to-back on the road after a game in Boston that I think was probably quite physically taxing because they were, they didn't have the puck much. Yeah. And when you don't have the puck much yeah and when you don't have the puck that's exhausting anyone

who plays beer league hockey knows when you go out against a team that's better than you or playing better than you and they have the puck all the time you're just like man this is exhausting you're trying to get in the lanes you're running around a lot you're trying to close up passing lanes you're not controlling the play so you're not in control of your own energy expenditure you have to go out and react as opposed to try and put your imprint on the game and that is one of the challenges and it is one of the drawbacks of saying okay we're gonna play a lock it down style we'll bring it to soccer to you how many times have you seen it in in a soccer game where a team tries to play park the bus soccer and then they hold on they hold on they hold on but eventually

there's a breakthrough late in the game because they just can't hold on long enough yeah it happens because it's exhausting trying to do that but the other part of is you get it to penalties and in the hockey parlance that's one point yeah yeah yeah just get it is you get it to penalties. And in the hockey parlance, that's one point. Yeah, England. Just get it as deep as you can and keep it going. The Canucks have got to play tournament football. Yeah, seriously. They do. For the next few weeks anyway. And they also need to get some clarity on what's going on with Vincent Desharnais,

who was nursing an injury at last blush. Like when we last got an update, it was about a week and a half ago that he was dealing with a minor injury and that was what had kept him on the shelf you would i this is again i'm not saying this is a golden opportunity but is an opportunity like he needs to play he needs to work through whatever he's doing and he needs to figure out whatever is going on so that they can make a definitive statement of we think there's something here or this is going to be a problem that we're not able to fix where would you um are you gonna get me to do the pairings i have no idea i went i was going over them this morning

like i do think that there's some validity to keep hughes with a guy that's going to be 100% defense stay at home. I guess it's maybe Juleson. I guess. I don't know. It's not a great solution. I have time for the let's just put Hughes and Brandstrom together, but that's more like an intriguing science experiment type thing than actual practicality.

The right side of their defense right now is so problematic because Myers Juleson Deharnais there's issues across the board there you might go back to who is Quinn most comfortable with and then that's the answer to the question and even ask him he's like which of these line them up like by the three bachelors you get to choose them like which one do you want it's the dating game. He's going to be like, you know what? I'll just go by myself. Right.

Yeah. I don't need. I want to be single right now. Go four forwards. I'm looking to discover. It'll be like a power play. I'm looking to discover myself right now. So those are the options, though, unfortunately.

And I don't know how close Forbort is to returning. The only thing I could say is that with this heronic injury, it does open up some more minutes, and there are opportunities to either play elevated roles or to work themselves back into the lineup and to prove that maybe they weren't a bad offseason signing. I got to say, I regret picking up my Forbort license plate because he has not done a lot yet.

The Forbort license plate is gathering dust. He's in the same camp as De'Arne. He needs to play, and they need to figure out exactly what they've got. Well, it's going to be hard for him to play because he's hurt right now. When he comes back and... He's got to play, though.

Unlike De'Arne, though, he looks at least like a capable NHL defenseman. He's played a lot of NHL games, and he's more polished than De'Arne. Four-board's a completely different story. He's just... It's been bad luck keeping him out of the lineup. But none of you can tell me

you've got a firm grasp on exactly what he is on this team because it's been such limited playing time I mean he is what he is and that's a defensive defenseman

who can kill penalties and isn't going to knock your socks off I don't think we need to to analyze too much about what Derek Fourboard is he's actually been in the league for quite a long time

I know I didn't say he hadn't been in the league for quite a long time. I know. I didn't say he hadn't been in the league for quite a long time. It was the same thing with DeJarne in Edmonton and DeJarne here. But he was a project in Edmonton. DeJarne was a wild card in Edmonton which is why he was out of the lineup eventually in the playoffs. So today's opponent

the Buffalo Sabres. Little note from their practice yesterday. Yes, they did practice on American Thanksgiving. Rasmus Dahlin exited the practice 45 minutes in. Lindy Ruff said it might have just been maintenance, but also, you never know. You'll have to tune in tomorrow to see if he'll be available. That could be a big boon to the Vancouver Canucks

if he doesn't play. The Sabres have actually been playing pretty good hockey lately. We're going to talk to Paul Hamilton in the 7 o'clock hour about this team that did lose to Minnesota in its last game, but outshot the Wild by a pretty good margin. Had won three straight prior to that, and had won seven of nine overall over their last nine games. So they're playing better hockey.

But like everything in Buffalo, it's always sort of like with an if or with a but. There's all these trade rumors swirling around this team. Crazy trade rumors. With a lot of their young players. There are a couple guys that have been underperforming this year. Dylan Cousins is one of them. Jack Quinn is another one.

Man, there's been so many players that have gone to the Sabres. I mean, like, mom, this guy, these guys are going to, like, eventually they're going to. Do you remember watching Dylan Cousins in the juniors? He looked amazing. He just, like, had so much energy out there. He was just an incredible hockey player. They go to Buffalo, they're like, bleh.

The Sabres jersey is really heavy. Very heavy. So we're going to talk to Paul Hamilton at 7 o'clock about all that as we preview today's game. A quick reminder. You know what? I'll save it. We'll do it on the other side.

I'll give you the entire update for what you can expect on a not-so-us friday here across sportsnet 650 we have seven hours of canucks coverage after this show so we'll get into all that but brady henderson is going to join us next for a seahawks preview seahawks are in new york uh 10 a.m on sunday to take on the jets you're listening to the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 it's canuck central with dan riccio and satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post-game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays

and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.33 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Fiesta Friday just makes me more sad the colder it gets outside. I'm picturing the Bears head coach with a sombrero on his head. Tears rolling down his face, knowing that there might be a press release in Chicago today. Matt Eberflus, you're on permanent vacation. Do you think they'll fire him?

I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of people in Chicago that are just sitting around going, all right, where's the tweet? Where's the tweet? If there was ever a singular in-game moment that led to a firing last, or yesterday, sorry, probably would have been in for the Chicago Bears.

Well, he's been there a while now, too, right? Yeah, he's in his third year on the job. This is his third year. The third year's not going well. I mean, I guess you can say they made a nice comeback attempt yesterday, but the way that ended. So I actually wasn't watching the game, and then I saw the highlight on my phone,

and I'm looking at it, and I'm laughing. I'm like, why didn't they spike the ball? And I saw the play, and I saw the clock run out. And then, because I wasn't watching the game, then I noticed that they had a timeout left. And I saw the play, and I saw the clock run out. And then, because I wasn't watching the game, then I noticed that they had a timeout left. That little white tick underneath the score. How does that happen?

This is crazy. Everybody froze. Everyone froze. Including that one guy that literally froze and allowed Caleb Williams to get sacked. That wasn't good either. He went into glitch mode. The right guard went into glitch mode. He's like, ah, there he goes.

And my quarterback's down. Okay, we're going to shift gears only slightly, though. We're going to stay with the National Football League. We're going to go to Seattle. Joining us now, as he does every Friday, from ESPN, our Seahawks insider Brady Henderson here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Brady.

How are you? Good morning, fellas. Doing great. How's it going? Good. How's the Thanksgiving hangover treating you? It's not as bad as it has been. Yeah, I was having dinner at my girlfriend's place with her parents,

and so I showed some restraint for once in my life on Thanksgiving, and I'm better off for it this morning. That's good. Okay, so the Seattle Seahawks are in New York. The 6-5 in NFC West the Seattle Seahawks are in New York. The 6-5 in NFC West leading Seattle Seahawks this weekend to take on the 3-8 New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers. It's a 10 a.m. kickoff

our time. Seahawks are favored by two. Let's start with the wide receiver position because DK Metcalf and Lockett have missed practice time this week. What is the outlook for both going in to Sunday's game in New York? Yeah, that's another one of those situations where, you know, when an injury like that pops

up on the injury report on Wednesday, you know, there's kind of a couple days there where we're a little bit in the dark because we don't hear from the head coach. You know, the last time we heard from him was before the injury report came out on Wednesday. And we won't hear from him until this afternoon. All you can really do is sort of try to dig in what you can and speculate. And so it's really tough to say what's going on there just because, you know, both of those guys finished that game Sunday and played their normal amount of snaps. And so, you know, when a guy a practice on wednesday and he's back by thursday it's obviously nothing to worry about but when you miss two practices then you do start to

wonder so um with some of those other guys like leonard williams you know he didn't practice last wednesday or thursday with the foot injury and he played through it so that was just you know the fact that he hasn't practiced this week that seems like just a regular maintenance thing same with abe lucas uh they gave him last thursday off and then you know just to rest that the fact that he hasn't practiced this week, that seems like just a regular maintenance thing. Same with a Lucas. They gave him last Thursday off and then, you know, just to rest that, that need that he's coming back from. And so,

but this is different. These appear to be injuries that popped up on Wednesday and we really don't know what's it's hard to really know what's going on with them. Okay. Well, this leads into the next question that I wanted to ask, and this is the more pressing one for me, and it's about Jackson Smith and Jigba.

So is his emergence over the last little bit a byproduct of the fact that DK and Lockett were hurt or is it a byproduct of the fact that maybe everyone's starting to realize that he might be the one true number one receiver on this team I think it's more about him yeah and I mean remember he had that huge game in week two against New England when you know they had everybody there and so I think this is what you're seeing it's not really about Metcalf it's more about how he's a really talented receiver who was breaking out like you know like everybody thought he would this season and certainly you know that I think it was the Rams game a few weeks ago where he went off for 180 yards, two touchdowns.

It definitely helps not having Metcalf in that game, especially with some of the deep stuff that typically that's Metcalf's job is to take the top off of defense. And when he wasn't in that game with the knee injury, you saw JSN do a lot of that stuff. But I think you're just seeing a guy break out because he's a really talented, really savvy receiver, and they're obviously throwing the ball a ton because they can't run the ball. Yeah, they help each other at times, though, like you mentioned.

I mean, on the touchdown that JSN had in the last game, DK Metcalf kind of ran interference, and JSN was able to get underneath and catch the touchdown. So my next question kind of ties into that does jsn's emergence impact what the seahawks do with dk metcalf going forward because he's due a big contract pretty soon he is yeah and like we've talked about he's one of many guys on that team and so you know when you look at all of the guys from that 2022 draft that they had who were you know those guys will now have

played three years so they'll be eligible for an extension and just to remind people of those names it's Charles Cross, Foye Mafe, Reek Bolin, Ken Walker III, Abe Lucas, obviously his situation is such that you may want to play that out just to make sure that he's, you know, the knee injury is all good now. And then, you know, DK Metcalf and Geno Smith. So you've got a ton of guys. Ernest Jones, add to him to that list. You've got a lot of guys there.

And the simple math is that you're just not going to be able to, I don't think, to be able to pay all of those guys without making, you know, you're going to have to make some really tough decisions on here. And so I think one of those tough decisions, the writing has already been on the wall there, which is with Tyler Lockett. You know, when a guy gets over 30, takes a pay cut, then I think your days are kind of numbered in there.

As tough as that would be for the organization and for a lot of fans to see that, then it's hard to imagine locking on the roster next year. With DK, though, I just think he does so many things, like you mentioned there. It's one thing to say, okay, you can try to replace those stats. You can try to get a guy who can get you over 1,000 yards. It's a threat to get double-digit touchdowns.

I mean, that in and of itself, there's no guarantee that you could go draft a receiver who could do that. It's one thing to do that. It's another thing to find a receiver who is as big and as fast and as talented as him that commands as much attention from defenses that he does and so that's kind of the counterpoint to the the DK Metcalf debate is it's not just about replacing the production it's about replacing you know all of the just all of the double teams that he gets and all of all of that you know that frees up opponents or that frees up teammates, I should say. And so that's got to be part of the decision making is, you know, it's not that easy to

replace him just because there's just not that many guys who are as talented as him and thus that command as much attention to defenses. So Brady, I know you did a lot of math for one of your articles on Geno Smith's contract. Can you give us the conclusion of that contract? And basically, is Gino going to be back? And if he is, what is he going to cost the Seahawks? Yeah, well, so the upshot of all that a couple days ago was that, you know, he's got a chance to really position himself to make a few more million dollars.

So without getting into all the contract jargon, basically he has $15 million in escalators that he can make on top of the $25 million he's currently set to make next season. So that $15 million is broken into five different escalators that are based on his performance and the team's performance. So basically in some of those, he's lagging well behind and he's not going to be able to get. But in others, he's right there. So he's probably going to hit the $2 million yard passing yardage escalator.

And he's got a chance to hit the completion rate escalator and another one that's tied to the Seahawks either winning 10 games or making the playoffs so what that what that looks like is let's say he hits those three that's an extra six million dollars that he's scheduled to make next season now those are different than incentives because once you hit an incentive you're guaranteed to make that money these are escalators that increase our roster bonus. He's due to make it March. So he's still got to be on the team on the fifth day of free agency in mid-March in order to cash in on those. Most likely, what it would do is that would just raise the floor on negotiations for the next contract.

So if he's all of a sudden supposed to make $31 million next season. Well, then he's negotiating from a position that says, okay, I'm making $31 million next year. So we'll start from there. I think that the sort of idea is to force a decision by mid-March, whether that's to cut him or to give him a new deal by then. So my guess is he won't technically make that money. It's either he's either going to be cut before then or traded before then, or it's just going to be rolled into a new contract.

It is a weird situation, though, because the better he does and the better the Seahawks do, the more leverage it gives him, and in an odd way, maybe, the more likely he is to get cut. Yeah, that could be. I still think the most likely outcome is if he's not on the team next year, that they would trade him before cutting him. But as we all know, you've got to find a trade partner. It takes two to tango.

And so, yeah, I think going into the season, yeah, I think I made this point too that there would be a case where that could actually work against him. Meaning if he has another season where he's sort of up and down and he really hasn't totally convinced everybody that he's the guy, well, if all of a sudden it's now $4 million or $6 million more to keep him, then yeah, that that does that could in theory work against them just because that gives the team more incentive to move on and the timing of it i mean the money gives them that incentive to to make a decision the timing of it

gives them a reason to do it by that point because you're not going to see them um you know let him collect that march uh tickets march 19th roster bonus and then move on from them. So the whole idea with roster bonuses is to really force a team to make a decision one way or another as soon as possible because the player and the agent, they look at that and say, okay, well, if I'm going to be on another team, if I'm going to be looking for another team, I want to do that as soon as possible uh as opposed to you know getting cut in June and then trying to find a new team when

all the other teams have spent their big money and they don't have enough left over to you know sign a player to a big deal so the March roster bonus that exists because the agent and the player want a team to make a decision as soon as possible. So you are, I think, the upshot there is that I think we're going to have a pretty good idea of Geno Smith's future by mid-March. Brady, one final one about the actual game this weekend before we let you go. The ground game for the Seahawks. They had a whopping 65 rushing yards against the Cardinals last weekend. That bumped them all the way up to 28th in rushing yards and yards per attempt.

So it's still way down there. But I noticed that a lot of the coaches and players were talking up this ground game optimistically saying that they were seeing things that it might be trending in the right direction. What are the signs that they're seeing that I'm not seeing? Well, yeah, you've got to look really hard, I think, to find a sign that they're running well. I mean, Ryan Grubb, he was asked about that. And he said, you know, it was the fact that they ran the ball when they really had to on that final drive,

which I would say there was two good rushing plays on that final drive. They ran it, I think, five times for 15 yards between the two running backs. But one of the plays he mentioned there was that third and fourth check at the line of scrimmage that ended up being a handoff to Zach Charbonnet I think for six yards so um I mean they still they're not giving themselves enough turns they're not getting themselves enough uh you know bites at the apple in order to really

you know find a groove in the run game um maybe that's different when they're playing a team that you know they're favored over and maybe they can get out to a big lead. But I continue to say I think Ryan Grubb is coaching for his job, and if they don't get this run game fixed, I can very easily see him being one and done, which would surprise a lot of people just given how big of a hire that was initially. But when you call plays for an offensive-minded head coach who wants to run the ball and And you don't run the ball. That's just not a recipe for being

employed very long. The Seattle Seahawks at 6-5, looking to go to 7-5 this weekend in New York. To take on the Jets, a reminder, it is a Sunday 10 a.m. kickoff hour time. Seahawks are favored by two points, slim margin against Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. Brady, thanks for doing this today, bud. Really

appreciate it, as always. Enjoy the game this weekend. We'll do this again next Friday. Okay. Sounds good. Thanks, fellas. See ya. Thank you. That's Brady Henderson from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. A presentation of the Clayton Public House. Pre-game to the post-game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football.

Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online at theclaytonpub.com. There's no surprise why the Seahawks can't run the ball, right? Like their offensive line just... It tatters. It tatters and it has never been good enough. Your center is retiring in the middle of the season.

You're on your fifth string right guard. It's no good. I think I made the point earlier in the week. How many times has just like a big hole opened up on the offensive line for the running back to go through? No times. It never happens. And every time Geno takes a snap and it's a passing play,

he's under pressure. There's rarely a time where he's just back there unless the other team's in max protect. And then even then then sometimes they get through to the quarterback there has been some criticism of ryan grubbs play calling because part of establishing a running game is getting the rhythm of it down and putting yourself in the proper situation most of it is just blocking you disagree no i the the ola the o-line isn't good enough the o-line stinks yeah i think the o-line what

gino's been able to do with that o-line is actually incredible now i actually think they're worse at pass blocking than they are on blocking well you know i know they're different but blocking they have some good looks on the ground this year it almost feels like they don't go to it with the regularity that they need to and that's what's bothering there's a disconnect at a certain level with grubb and with mcdonald because what i like about ryan grubb's play calling is the passing game and especially finding like figuring out like hey jackson smith the jig we can do everything he can run every route we need him to that underneath screen that they ran was really cool. We can line them up in the slot.

Great. And then they realized we can also line them up out wide and you can take deep shots with them too. So that's great. Like I love that part of it. But the ground game has just sort of been like, eh. Okay, let's talk about this Bears-Lions game yesterday because after the game,

Matt Eberflus was basically saying, like, they doubled down, or he did at least, and he said, I like what we did there. And that was the final play where the clock runs out, they lose the game, and they've got a timeout left. You like what they did there? Well, do you want me to run through all the comedy of errors? Let's play also the play, too.

I'll set it up. So final drive, or what's going to be the final drive of regulation anyway, because if the Bears kick a field goal, game is tied, Bears score a touchdown, they're going to win the game, and it would be a huge upset over the Detroit Lions. Things are going great on this final drive. As a matter of fact, Caleb Williams, who found a connection with Keenan Allen in the second half of that game yesterday,

hit Keenan Allen for a 12-yard completion to put the team inside the red zone. They're on the Lions' 13-yard line. Then things started to go real bad for Matt Eberflus, Caleb Williams, and the Bears' offense. They took a penalty for illegal hands to the face, which pushed them all the way back to the 35. So now not only are they out of the red zone, but they got to make up a few yards to make it a comfortable field goal.

Then, trying to set up that field goal, the backup tackle, as you mentioned, Larry Barom, didn't move when Caleb Williams snapped the ball. Zedaria Smith comes around the edge, sacks Williams. Now all of a sudden you've got a situation where there's about 31 seconds left. And as you mentioned, the Bears have a timeout. Now we're going to throw to Jim Nance and Tony Romo as they pick it up after the Caleb Williams sack and the chaos that continues over the course of about 35 to 40 seconds. Laddie, let's play the audio.

For 15 seconds, and it's third and 26. They have one timeout left. This is like the light box. You could have gotten numbers, but just didn't. You better hurry. Oh, no. This is disaster in the light box. You could have gotten numbers, but just didn't. You better hurry. Oh, no. Oh, this is disaster in the making here. You're going to have to do something when it comes down to this play.

Incomplete, and the game is over. Completely botched at the end by the Bears. I can't believe they didn't take a timeout. I like what we did there. That was the Bears head coach. Completely botched. This is disastrous. You know what?

I like what we did there. It was interesting. It was entertaining. Overall, I liked it. I liked it. I liked our process there. He said the hope was that we could re-rack the play, snap it with about 18 seconds left,

throw into field goal range, and then call the timeout. Now, that's great conceptually, but as the play was developing, it was pretty obvious to everybody, everybody, those watching it, those on the field,

on the sidelines, that they weren't going to be able to snap the ball in time to get a playoff and then call a timeout to set up the field goal. It wasn't going to happen. You had to stop the clock just to salvage the game. But he didn't do it. Did you see the shot of his face after? Because he knew that everyone in the stadium was looking at him.

And he knew that the camera was going to be on him. And you almost expected the music to pipe in. I bet he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach like, oh God. And we had a timeout left. So do we have the, what audio do we have? There it is.

Well, there go the bears again. It's cool that the Bears took over. There has to be, in a Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game, there has to be one team that's really embarrassing. Yes. Usually it's been the Detroit Lions. Snapped a seven-game Thanksgiving losing streak. Finally won.

Up the Lions. That's good. Do we have the Caleb Williams audio? If you don't have it at the ready. Caleb Williams, to his credit, rookie quarterback showing veteran poise, was asked a pretty delicate question and managed not to throw his coach under the bus. Caleb Williams in the aftermath of that debacle on Thanksgiving. There wasn't like any huge communication in that situation. You get a call with that time. You got to, you know, you got to try and get the guys back, get everybody lined up. So you go run a play and got the play. And then, you know, I made an adjustment because I saw the clock running down,

knowing that if we complete a ball in, you know, inbounds or anything like that, we won't have time to kick a field goal or anything like that. So, you know, I made adjustment and knew Rome was either going to be one-on-one or he was going to, you know, beat the safety and be one-on-one there. And, you know, I tried to give him a shot. We got the shot and missed. That's a real leader taking bullets. And he knows, I mean, it doesn't really matter because your coach is going to get fired pretty soon anyway.

So, you know what? I'll shoulder the load on this one. I do want to pass along one thing here. The schedule for today. So it's obviously a bit of a weird day with the Canucks game at noon. So what's going to happen is Halford and Brough's going to be on the air

until 9 o'clock this morning. From 9 to 11, it's going to be the fan hockey show as per usual. Pre-game show for Canucks and Sabres begins at 11 a.m. our time. By that time, Canucks head coach Rick Talkett will have met with the media in Buffalo,

so we'll have all of our usual staffers breaking down whatever's going on, because we're obviously going to get an update on Phillip Hronick. We're going to get confirmation, I think, of the Mark Friedman recall. Puck drop is at noon. The postgame show goes from 3 to 4.30, and then it's Canucks

Central from 4.30 to 6. So you have today seven hours of consecutive Canucks coverage all right here on Sportsnet. It's honestly too much. It's a lot. Yeah, it's too much. It's a lot. So coming up, we're going to do the Buffalo side of things.

Paul Hamilton's going to join us. AJ's going to join us as well. A reminder, $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway today. For the best Ask Us Anything or What We Learned, get them in. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet.

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