Halford & Brough in the Morning - Playoff Baseball Is Going Off

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk wild playoff baseball action with MLB Network's Adnan Virk (1:30), they chat more Canucks after last night's loss (15:00), plus they preview Week 6 and tonight's Seahawks matchup versus the 49ers with NFL.com's Nick Shook (27:15). 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.

It's time to chat with Adnan It's Adnan Berkey's on the show We're gonna talk some baseball And take a trip to the silver screen That's right, it's time for Redman. Yes, and then Berkey joins us now. We'll head out to the ball game

and talk about all the films he's seen. 7.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premium 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 two of the program. Adnan Virk's going to join us in just a moment here to talk some baseball. Hour two of this show is brought to you

by Jason Hominuk at Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, don't let Jason shop around to find you the best mortgage. Just kidding. Let him do it. Visit him at Jason.Mortgage. I actually do love giving banks all of my money. Just take it.

Just take the money. I don't even want it back. We're coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorphe, what to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorphe, what are you waiting for? Kintec, to the phone lines we go. Adnan Virk from MLB Network joins us now

on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adnan. How are you? I'm doing great. Mike, Jason, I got an interesting story what I'm doing today. I got a DM, one of the rare upsides of social media, if you can believe it. I got a DM on Instagram from a girl I went to high school with, so we'd like to... I can't even say I got a DM, one of the rare upsides of social media, if you can believe it. I got a DM on Instagram from a girl I went to high school with, so we'd like to... I came into the straight face. Oh, yeah? For you at the high school, for all your accomplishments. And so I'm

driving back today to Ernestown Secondary School, the high school where I graduated in 1996. I have not been back since I graduated, and I'm going to be – I'm being honored tonight as a distinguished graduate. I feel like John Cusack in Grows Point Blank going back to my high school. I don't know how many drivers there will be. It should be fun. Wasn't he a hitman? Yeah. That's right.

Yeah, I'm not a murder for hire, but I am being honored there tonight. It should be fun. Okay, well, that's very cool. Congratulations. My high school is not called, nor will they ever. That's good. Come pick up your bike. It's been chained up in the playground for 30 years.

Okay, I do want to get to, I think I figured out how to find success in Major League Baseball. You need three things. You need Grimace, you need Hawk to a Girl, and you need Francisco Lindor. And then everything is sorted because the Mets have figured out the perfect equation

for success in baseball. It's been amazing, Mike. And thanks for bringing up Hawk to a Girl again because I'd forgotten about the Hawk to a Girl. But that was a lot of fun to say that name for a few times. Grimace has been a part of it, but of course, Lindor is the show stealer. You know, it's a great story, because Lindor,

when he was at Cleveland, this guy's a really good player, he's a star player, he gets this massive contract, right? Ten years, $340 million. And what ended up happening was, he's actually never made the All-Star team as a Met, because he's a notoriously slow starter. And you look at his numbers, and you'd say, okay, they're expecting to be 280, 290, 30 homers, 100 RBI. Instead, he's around 255, maybe 260, 27 home runs, but around 100 RBI.

So, like, the nitpicky among us would go, I mean, he's good, but $340 million, he's not that good. And then this year, he's been unbelievable. And again, it was a slow first half, but the second half, he put the Mets on his back. And when you get signature moments like he's had so far, not only the home run, you know, getting into the playoffs, that shot against the Braves, but now this home run, which knocks out the Phillies with that grand slam, it's been amazing. And he plays sensational defense. That's a big part of his resume as well.

He's a great face dealer. He's a true five-tool guy. He's known as Mr. Smile because he's been amazing. And he plays sensational defense. That's a big part of his resume as well. He's a great face dealer. He's a true five-tool guy. He's known as Mr. Smile because he's so charismatic and charming. And even my wife laughs at it. Who's that guy? Like, yeah, exactly. Everyone loves Francisco Lindor, men and women alike. So it's been an awesome story.

And in some ways, guys, we shouldn't be that surprised. As we've said before, the home field isn't necessarily an advantage. These are such short series and a division series. The Phillies are a great team, but I'm sure many times throughout this year, they lost three or four games. It happens. And they just ran into a buzzsaw on this Mets team, which has had sterling

starting pitching, key timing moments, and yes, you're right, Mike, even Grimace. You know what else doesn't feel like an advantage? Sitting there for a week watching the wild card go down and then having to play baseball after it because it just felt like the Mets picked up a ton of momentum and rode it into the series with the Phillies

and then because it's a five-gamer and not a seven-gamer, it's over like that for Philadelphia. Yeah, and I think it's starting to become a problem. I think when we're discussing it, I'm sure people in Major League Baseball are saying this as well. Like, eventually, what is the point of playing 162 if all that matters is who's the hottest team in the final two weeks of the regular season?

Like, last year, I'm one of the few who enjoyed Rangers-D-backs solely because of the unpredictability of that matchup, and Texas won their first ever World Series. But if every year you're going to see the teams that get the one and two by get knocked out, I mean, honestly, what is the point of regular season? Just seed them however you want, and you know, whatever the hot team's

going to win. And will the remains be seen if the Yankees can knock out the Royals? That was a gritty, tense, tough game last night. I could see KC winning tonight and sending it to 5, or maybe Garrett Cole sends the Yankees on. But the Dodgers are on the brink. I mean, they got pushed around with the Padres resounding effort last night,

but they could be ousted by San Diego in five. So if you end up looking at the ALCS and NLCS and saying there's no Yankees, Dodgers, or Phillies, is the system really working? It's so much of an issue now. Even John Smoltz, who, again, is working for Fox, he's on the call last night, and he is discussing how it's a potential issue. And I like John's point. He said maybe you make the division series seven

because it's too easy to lose three in a five-game series. If you push it to seven, you can really test them now, Jay. Are the Mets really a good team, or are they just a hot team? If you can beat Philadelphia four times in seven games, then you have more of my respect. There's too much of a chance of a best-of-five

if you knock out even a best-of-three. Baltimore obviously falls in the second half, but I do think if you play a best-of-five if he's knocked out. Even a best-of-three. Like, Baltimore obviously faulted in the second half, but I do think if you played a best-of-five or best-of-seven, Baltimore would be the better team versus Kansas City. So, it's definitely food for thought, fellas. I don't think it's right for the game if the five and six seeds are always going to knock off the upset. I like upset

like everybody else, but I think it gets to be a little bit much. How much have you been loving some of the crowds at some of these games? I know things got a little nasty at Dodger Stadium, but these regional rivalries, I mean, Mets, Phillies, you got fans from both sides at each game.

Same with the Dodgers and the Padres, and even Cleveland and Detroit. I think it's only a couple hours drive between Cleveland and Detroit. I've never done that drive, and I hope I never will, but this is really fun stuff. I don't think there's a sport. I mean, every sport ramps up for the playoffs.

But when it comes to crowds, I don't think there's a bigger difference between a regular season baseball crowd where half the time you're there to just get some sun and have a few beers, and then the postseason crowd where you're basically hanging on every pitch? Oh, I couldn't agree more, man. And particularly my favorite crowd has probably been San Diego. I mean, that environment, Game 3 in particular, Game 3, when they came out and jumped over Walker Beeler and Tatis gets the home run to make it 6-1, I mean, it was positively

electric. You just saw the brown and yellow and the towels being waved by everyone, and yet last night, they were silenced by Los Angeles. So it's great. You get to see a home crowd when they're feverish, like when we saw Citi Field and the Mets win, too, but you also got to see the beauty of a great crowd being silenced.

And Los Angeles got to experience that and what that's like when Mookie Betts goes deep again and Otani with a big hit, etc. So I'm with you, man. Even Detroit Cleveland, they've played 2,300 times in the regular season. This is the first ever playoff matchup between two fabled franchises. They've both been around forever. As we all know, Cleveland hasn't won a World Series since 48.

Tigers haven't won since 84. But, yeah, I mean, that's like the undercard, right? That's probably the lowest one being discussed. Yankees-Royals is an underrated one, too, Jay, because you go back to the late 70s, early 80s. They were showing George Brett there. They got the great Hal McCrae slide where he took out Willie Randolph. Brett going deep off Catfish Hunter, taking a swing at Greg Nettles.

Like, Royals-Yankees used to be an epic rivalry before we were obviously covering this sport or even alive. But I think that's an underrated one as well. But you're right. In the National League, Philly's Mets, only an hour and a half between those two cities, and L.A. and San Diego, which should be two hours, depending on traffic, could be five hours.

Those series have been a ton of fun. I feel like the Padres blew it last night. For everything we said about how great that series has been, and it has been great, and it's been a lot of fun. But you get a closeout game at home. The Dodgers pitching is whittled down to the point where they have to go total bullpen game yesterday. Eight pitchers for the Dodgers, and they win 8-0.

I just feel like San Diego had a huge opportunity slip last night. I'm with you on that, Mike. Jim Bowden, who is a former colleague of mine from ESPN, long-time GM, works at MLB Network. He said he got a text from Dave Roberts last week because Jim said his top three manager of the year candidates are Mike Schilt of the Padres, Carlos Mendoza of the Mets, and the man he believes in William, Pat Murphy of the Brewers. And Dave Roberts texted him and goes, are you kidding?

How am I not top three? This is the best job of my life. We won 98 games and we had no pitching. Like, I should absolutely be a top three brother. And if you know Dave at all, you know he's a great guy, and maybe a little tongue-in-cheek, but maybe genuinely wasn't annoyed. But I thought that was a masterful job last night. I mean, you go in, every single one of those Fox pundits,

and I'm not one for shot and foot, but I was amused. They were all like, oh, San Diego, San Diego, Dylan's defense is so good. I don't like bullpen games. Oh, yeah? Well, Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Don Trell Willis, watch this. Because a bullpen game was worked to perfection by Dave Roberts. He literally worked the magic amazing. And that's the kind of game I think, again, do I love a great starting pitcher?

Of course I do. But a great bullpen game, like if you're a real nerd, you can really appreciate what Dave Roberts did and the way he pulled the levers and pulled all the right moves. And I'm with you, Mike. It really felt like going into this series, most of us at MLB Network picked San Diego. Hey, this is their year. This is

their time. First World Series ever. But they had him on the ropes, and LA stomped him. And now going back for Game 5, again, home field has meant nothing so far this playoff. It's basically a coin flip. It does not matter. And the team that scores first, that doesn't matter either. It's basically a comeback series as we saw again with the Mets yesterday.

But I'm with you. I think San Diego may have blown that chance last night. What would be the pitching matchup on Friday for Game 5 between the Padres and the Dodgers? Well, that's where it gets interesting, right, Jay? Because the problem is for LA, they have two starters, and then after that, it's like whatever you got. So I think Yamamoto,

it's tricky because he's not a guy that, if he needs a lot of rest, he's not even like a four-day rest. If they can, they give him an extra day of rest. So I think in this instance, it is going to be Yamamoto. But they haven't decided it yet. It might be Jack Flaherty. It's one of those two guys. But, I mean, again, you would think it's Yamamoto.

But I just am telling you, by recent history, he's the kind of guy that needs extra rest. So maybe he goes, but it's only like two or three innings, and you piggyback with Flaherty, you go right to that bullpen again. But Hugh Darvish will get the call for San Diego, which is going to be fun. We're speaking to Adnan Virk from MLB Network here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we look ahead to Game 5 between the Padres and the Dodgers,

we have a pair of potential closeout games tonight. The Guardians and the Tigers. Tigers up 2-1 in that one. And then by way of their win last night, the Yankees got a chance to close it out against theout games tonight. The Guardians and the Tigers. Tigers up 2-1 in that one. And then by way of their win last night, the Yankees got a chance to close it out against the Royals tonight. Do you think we will see another Game 5, or do you think these ones get finished tonight?

No, I think we might get two Game 5s, Mike. It's interesting. Cleveland's offense was rather limp in that last game, but I still picked them to win this series, and they got Tanner Bybee going tonight, and he's their best pitcher. So I will call Cleveland to win that game and send it to five. And the Yankees, again, that was a very uneasy 3-2 win last night. I think every single game is going to be close.

I think the Royals are pesky. Garrett Cole has been very inconsistent this season, so I actually think the Royals will push to five. I hope that will give us, obviously, one great game on a Friday night, Padres-Dodgers, but I think we'll get two on Saturday as well. Adnan, this was great, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it.

Enjoy the games tonight. We will do this again next week, and we'll be looking ahead to the ALCS and the NLCS. All right, thanks so much, Mike. I look forward to not remembering any of the people who I went to high school with tonight and pretending like I remember their faces. This should be awkward.

Thanks. No, no, no. Just act like you shouldn't remember them. Just be like, I'm Adnan Berg. You nervously introduce yourself to me. Good luck, Adnan. See you, Adnan. Good luck, buddy.

Thanks, boys. Adnan Berg from MLB Network here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Please no direct eye contact. We've discussed this. Congrats. We only had one person. One person. This is showing the maturity of our listenership.

We're growing. The Sportsnet 650 listeners, only one of you, singular chud, just one chud, texted in and said, it's the morning after the first Canucks game in which they blew a massive lead. Why are we talking about baseball at 7 a.m.? Two questions. We are not talking about anything. Jason and I and Adnan are talking about stuff.

You are listening. Two. I get it. I get it. No, I don't get it. I get it. I don't get it. We spent the entire first hour talking about the game.

But people want to turn the radio on. They want to hear about the Canucks. They want to hear about playoff baseball for 10 minutes. I'm sorry. Let's not get defensive. Jess, let me say one thing. You're getting a little bit defensive. I'm not being defensive.

You're being defensive. You're being defensive. I'm sorry that the Magic Talks. Canucks sure weren't last night. I'm sorry. Hey! Canucks talk. There's a little Canucks talk.

I'm sorry that the Magic Talking box is not talking about the things you wanted to talk about the moment that you turn it on. You're being defensive again. Oh yeah. You know what? I feel defensive actually. Yeah. Let's go back to the Vancouver.

We'll wait till the NFL talk in about 15 minutes. We're going to talk to Nick. Just so everyone's ready. Yep. I got a little tennis talk set up for eight o'clock. Yeah. Nadal retiring. An hour on that.

Big news. An hour on that. You've been warned. We'll do it. Big news. We'll take away your on that. You've been warned. We'll do it. Big news. We'll take away your screens, too. Take away your screens. We'll do it.

Watch it. If you guys want Canucks talk, I can do an in-depth analysis of Archer Seelovs. Do you want that? Do you want Laddie talking technical goalie stuff? He's going to do a live reenactment of Archer Seelovs. Every goal. We'll go through all six. Whoosh.

That's why I passed him. Okay. Steve and Steveston, which is awesome. That's pretty good, man. Texting in. I couldn't believe my eyes watching the River Hockey last night. I was expecting to hear the Bruce, there it is, chants. So River Hockey, Summer Hockey, whatever you want to call it, sloppy.

It wasn't good last night. And let's be honest. If you were paying attention at the end of last season, in the middle of the season, if you're reading about the Canucks and heading into training camp, you should have been able to surmise that this. Surmise.

Surmise. Surmise. Surmise. Surmise it. You should have been able to surmise. You should have been able to surmise that this could happen. That this could happen.

This type of game you mean? This type of game and the defensive breakdowns. Because Rick Tockett is trying to progress this team from being a team that was very good in its own end, but wasn't creating many rush scoring chances, into a team that is still very good in its own end, but is creating rush chances. We talked about it with Rick a couple of days ago.

We both agreed that this is a natural progression for this team. When Bruce Boudreau was coaching, the team was not playing with the type of structure that management wanted to see. Rick Tockett comes in there, and he makes a bunch of simplifications to the Canucks game. He adds a bunch of non-negotiable rules.

He says, we're going to take care of our net. We're going to take care of our own, and that's what we're going to do. That's what we're going to focus on. That is going to be almost the entire focus. He successfully does it. And the Canucks have a great season. If you can take care of your own end in hockey, you can make the playoffs.

As long as you get some timely scoring. And the Canucks have the players that can create that timely scoring. But the goal changed for the Canucks, and I think it went from, let's turn this thing around and be a winning team and maybe make the playoffs. Let's not be a disaster.

Sure. And now last season happens and not being a disaster isn't good enough. You want to get past that second round. You want to actually compete for a Stanley Cup. And we headed into this season and it was like, wow. I mean, we're kind of almost like quietly whispering it, but if this all comes together, the Canucks, you know, they might be able to do it.

Sure. Probably not, but there's a chance, right? There's an actual legitimate shot for the Canucks, but they needed to take their game to a different level. They needed to be very good in their defensive end, but also be a very strong attacking team. And that's the type of team that wins the cup. You're good defensively, but you're also very dangerous offensively. It can beat you in any type of game. You can play a high scoring game if you want to. You can play a low scoring game. You're comfortable in any

position. You're just a good team. You're good at everything that you do. Yeah. And the challenge is going to be telling these guys, yeah, we want you to have a more aggressive mindset. Go out and make some plays. Try and beat a guy. You know, get the puck up the ice quick. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

And it looked good in the first period. And then it was a combination i think of just letting their foot off the gas and getting too comfortable against a team that they thought and they should beat but also i think the mindset is going to get it's going to take a while to find the right balance for this group and to figure out how exactly they're going to play. You forgot a third factor there, though, too. And the goaltending needs to be better. The goaltending needs to be better.

Halford didn't even listen to any of that. I listened to it. He's like, C-Loves got to make a save. Is he getting to C-Loves? But you're absolutely right. If you hand someone a 4-1 lead, and I do think this was part of the trust and the presence of Demko, you hand someone a 4-1 lead and you're like,

can you get us a win over the next 40 minutes? Demko more often than not would answer that with a yes, sometimes a resounding yes. I mean, here's the thing. In the modern NHL, blowing a three-goal lead is not that uncommon. No. Right? It's not that uncommon.

We see it more and more. Right? The key is, can you keep up, can the skaters keep up their end of the bargain? And for a lot of the final 40 minutes yesterday, no, the Canucks didn't. But sometimes it's like, also, can your goalie slam the door shut?

Is he good enough to do it? And that was one of the things that you loved about Demko, is he would give you big saves in big moments. You know, I mean, I look at the game last night, and the Canucks scored five, and I didn't think Vladar had a bad night

allowing five. He didn't have a great night, but he wasn't the reason. But I looked at the chances the Canucks were getting, and the goals on the power play, I'd give him no shot at those. Like we're talking like tap-ins three feet in front of the net, right? No goalie stopping.

No goalie stopping that. The Miller slapper, that's a good shot. That was a hell of a shot. Hell of a shot. I caught him by surprise a little bit. You don't see that very often,

but it happened. That must have felt good to bury that. Right. I would say that the Canucks had a lot of great A's and they converted on them. And then Calgary was like,

we're going to start putting pucks on net. Well, we'll feel better, bro. And let's see what happens. Hitting a 400-foot home run to deep center, or what Miller did. Ooh. I think the homer. You think so?

Yeah. That'd be incredible. Well, the hockey goal, you're beating a goalie. I know, I know. No, no, I know. I think contacts matter, though, right? I'll never know. Yeah.

I'm not going to do either. I'll never know. By the way, that Lindor's jack yesterday, now that we get back into baseball. Avert your ears. That is the second Grand Slam in the entire history of the New York Mets postseason baseball existence. I have a what we learned about that home run.

Can we actually just play the audio? The audio is amazing. Howie Rose's call is amazing. Because the call is incredible. And I'm not on the Mets bandwagon, but if the Padres lose Friday and the Padres are then out, I might climb onto the Mets bandwagon because they're kind of fun. And then the Mets would lose, right?

That's how it works. All right. Here is the Grand Slam home run from Lindor. Two and one to Lindor. Now the pitch. Swing and a drive towards the gap in right center. It's pretty deep. It's back near the wall.

It's gone. It's gone. Francisco Lindor. He may have just outdone himself. He has hit a grand slam into the Phillies' bullpen in right center field. The Mets are leading by a score of 4-1. They were famished for the big hit all night, and Francisco Lindor just provided a feast.

Mets 4, Phillies 1 here in the sixth inning. Now that's a call. Howie Rose is so good, man. He's so good. So energized. That's the reason we're carving out the... Bob Costas did not have an equally good game. No. So they need to alter that. Whatever's going on there, they need to

do... Can you pivot mid-series and just bring in a different crew? Can we play the clip that everyone's talking about? The hit? That wasn't a hit? Well, yeah. I called it a hit. Okay, so let me set the table.

This is from the Yankees-Royals game, and it's Costas and Darling doing the game together, right? And Costas is obviously a renowned broadcaster. I would say if there's maybe a weakness to his game, it's that he isn't a really like sports specific guy. He does everything right. You've heard him call countless games across countless sports. He does the Olympics.

He does it. I think of him more as an Olympic host, right? Like he's a good broadcaster, legendary broadcaster, but it's tough when you're doing sports specific stuff because you need to know certain things like what's a hit and what's not. And in this instance, Bob didn't know.

We'll just let the tape play for itself. Line drive, base hit the center field. It was smothered out there. I don't know if it was caught. It was caught. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. It was caught. It was Ron Darling. He's like if it was caught. It was caught. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

It was caught. It was Ron Darling. He's like, it was caught. So, poor guy. By the infielder, too. Not, like, by the outfielder. Yeah, it was a catch. Did it even get out of the infield?

No, no. You heard the crowd drop, right? They were like, ah. Oh. So, they knew. He just got ahead of himself. Yeah. It sounded like a ah! Oh. So they knew. Anyway, I just got ahead of himself. Yeah, I should. Sounded like a sharp bass hit.

It was. He sounded a little incredulous, though. Like, oh, gosh. Yes, it was. He did a whoopsie doodle. And then they went to break, and that was it. Okay, speaking of going to break, we got to go to break now. Stupid shift.

Why was that guy there? He just smothered it. And now he throws it to Jared. Is that in the rotation? We should make the Jared one. We should make it a hockey. It'll take me a second to pull out. Okay, so a couple things here. Now we're going to talk about some football.

We're going to do the CFL report. He's going to throw it to Jared. That's NFL. Jared Goff. Football, that's unacceptable. I demand more Canucks talk. We are going to talk about football. The CFL report first, and then we're going to talk to Nick Shook,

do a little NFL. We've got two things we need to talk about with Nick. Thursday night football, Seahawks 49ers, and the fallout from the Robert Sala firing in New York. No longer the head coach of the New York Jets. Aaron Rodgers says it had nothing to do with him, and he resents the allegations that it had. How dare you suggest that I might have been behind this move how could

you subscribe to a conspiracy theory about me aaron rogers anyway uh cfl i see what you did there because uh he subscribes to some conspiracy theories you see yeah you see this sets us up nicely for the Canadian Football Report. Brought to you by Securian Canada. Powerful people pulling levers behind the scenes. No funny business with Securian Canada. They're just the official life insurance partner of the CFL. We've got a bunch of games this weekend in the Canadian Football League.

Your British Columbia Lions, who are on their way to the playoffs, are going to go to Saskatchewan to take on the Rough Riders. That's a Saturday affair. That's a 4 o'clock kickoff. The week begins on Friday. It's Thanksgiving weekend, by the way, so we've got games Friday, Saturday, and Monday. We've got Toronto-Winnipeg on Friday.

That one is from Winnipeg. The 10-6 Bombers looking to stay atop the West. In the basement of the West, the lowly Edmonton Elks go to Calgary to take on the lowly Stampeders and a game that really encapsulates where the CFL is currently at in the province of Alberta. And then on Monday, the Ottawa red blacks go to Montreal to take on the 11, three and one Montreal Alouettes,

the class of the CFL this year. That is your CFL report brought to you by security in Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL coming year. That is your CFL report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Coming up, some NFL talk with Nick Schuch from NFL.com.

You're listening to the Halford & 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 podcasts. 7.32 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Good tune.

Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuck from Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Just kidding. Let him do exactly that. Visit him at Jason.Mortgage. To the phone lines we go. Our good buddy from NFL.com, Nick Shook, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Nick. How are you?

Good. How are you guys? We are well. You'd think that given our status as Seahawks fans and the fact the Seahawks are on Thursday Night Football tonight, we'd start there. But no, no. We got to start with the Aaron Rodgers, New York Jets, Robert Salas situation. So you wrote about this for NFL.com.

And the headline is Jets QB Aaron Rodgers resents rumors. He was involved in Salah's firing. He then went on to say those rumors are patently false. So I understand it. Woody Johnson did talk to Aaron Rodgers prior to the firing. In fact, on Monday night, then the firing is made. But that conversation had nothing to do with the dismissal. Is there anything I'm missing here, Nick?

I mean, that's Roger's side of the story. So, I mean, that's all we can really go with, I think, at this point. And the world may never know, at least not for a long time, on the other side of things. But, yeah, I mean, I didn't expect anything less. What else was he going to say in that situation? Look, my coach got fired. Yeah, obviously we need to make some changes. We need to be better. We need to be more accountable and whatnot.

But as soon as you saw the firing happen, it wasn't really that surprising. I mean, they're 2-3. They're not playing good football. They're not living up to expectation. You would think that Nathaniel Hackett would go, but Nathaniel Hackett is obviously

Roger's boy. They go back a ways, but they need to make changes on that side of the ball more than anything. I don't know. It's kind of a weird situation where I think Sal actually got more time than he maybe deserved because of the lack of quarterback stability in previous years. It seemed as though Woody Johnson's patience ran out, but of course the high-profile firing that it was fueled a fire

that ran rampant for a couple days as we tried to pick up the pieces from what happened. Is all this just moot if Aaron Rodgers isn't healthy? If he isn't healthy, yeah. He doesn't look healthy yeah and that's the problem is he doesn't seem to be as mobile as he was a couple weeks ago he had to shake off some injuries

just to be able to stay in the game in London against the Vikings last week but I mean when you get a guy like Aaron Rodgers it's like the LeBron effect the clock to compete starts now and it doesn't last very long. So the urgency is high, the pressure is high, and everybody's just kind of forced to deal with it.

And so, yeah, if Rodgers wasn't healthy, this would be a problem. But in the Jets' sense, they've been operating under this pressure since they got him last year, and they have not delivered. So the only reason that it would really be moot is if Rodgers wasn't on the team, not if he wasn't healthy. So what will actually change now that Robert Sala is out and Jeff Albrecht takes over as the interim head coach? That's the thing that nobody really knows.

If you read between the lines, you can kind of understand what they're saying, which is that like Woody Johnson and a lot of people in the Jets organization really like Jeff Albrecht because he's seen as a well-respected leader and so on and so forth. And any time those kinds of comments are made on the heels of somebody being fired, you have to kind of connect the two at least a little bit. I never thought Robert Sala wasn't a good leader. I know he's a charismatic guy. I think that the cadence thing was very overblown. I think everything with this team has been pretty overblown this season

because they are in New York because of the Jets and because Aaron Rodgers is on that team. And I don't know if it was just a change just to make a change. Like, that's kind of what it feels like more to me than anything. But then again, we also saw Josh McDaniels get fired in the middle of last season and Antonio Pierce come in and, you know, produce a winning record by the margin of one game and get the job full-time. So maybe they're just looking for a spark and had nowhere else to turn.

But it did seem a little peculiar because the issues just didn't seem to be solid as much as they were solid. I think that he was a guy that you would have fired before the start of the season. You would have fired him in the offseason, not in the middle of the season like this. We're speaking to Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, Thursday night football.

So huge game for the NFC West. Classic rivalry between the Seahawks and the 49ers. And everyone's hurt for it. Everyone is injured. No Christian McCaffrey yet again for the Niners. And then I'm going to read out the list of guys that Seattle is either going to miss or possibly will miss tonight's game.

So Uchenna Nwosu, out. Byron Murphy, the second, out. Reek Woolen, out. Boy Mafe, Derek Hall, and Julian Love, all questionable. That is six guys for those that are keeping track at home. Now, McDonald said that he's confident that Mafe and Hall will be able to play. Who knows how effective they're going to be, but given what we've seen from the Seahawks over the last two weeks, where their defense has just been torched, what kind of chance do you give them going into tonight with that many guys either banged up or missing the game entirely? A decent chance.

And the reason is I just watched the 49ers get shut out in the second half by the Cardinals defense. That was something. The Cardinals defense that gave up 40-plus points to the Commanders the week prior. So I think they definitely got a shot. But yeah, that total amount of players missing definitely factored into the way that they played last week and really the week before, too.

I thought they were going to get Chenanuozu back, which is a bummer that they're not going to get him back in time. But it's actually they were in a worse spot, what, a week ago than they are right now because if they get Boye Mafe back, you know, I know he's questionable, but if they get him to play, that's a huge boost. That guy's a stud and one of the guys that they've been missing the most. But, yeah, they've been banged up. It's weird, man.

I mean, it's the NFL and a lot of teams are banged up and it's typical, but it feels like it's been more concentrated on certain teams. I think about the Rams, the Colts, Seahawks. It definitely has made it more challenging for them. But, yeah, they have a shot because the 49ers, I mean, at 2-3, their record is a little bit deceiving. But at the same time, they also have a few things that they need to work out. There's something a little bit off about this team this year.

And I think it's a good time for the Seahawks to strike when they're at home in a rivalry that's important in the division. What's the latest on McCaffrey? Honestly I'll tell you this I don't think that you're going to see him for a while and I think the nature of the injury is a big reason why you know it seemed like oh maybe he'll be able to play maybe he'll be able to get there and then it's become pretty quiet for a while and I think it's because they realize this is a pretty tricky thing that he's not just going to be able to be like oh i'll take a few weeks off and bounce back from and it's it's that's what happens when you're a player like him and you need those and you're an explosive guy like that and you need the achilles

and the calf and everything else i mean i think back to when aaron rogers obviously a different situation but i think back to when aaron ro Aaron Rodgers had that calf issue through minicamp into training camp, and then he tears his Achilles. Those things are usually connected. And I think that the 49ers are trying to avoid that as best they can. So they're going to be extremely cautious with it. And I don't think we're going to see him for a while now, even though we're now in week six.

What shot would you give the Cardinals of winning the division? Don't do this to me because I'm talking about a team that I really enjoy watching. They're fun, man. They're a fun football team. They are fun. It's tough. I would have to see a bit of a stretch like what we're seeing from the commanders right now to really believe. First off, Kyler makes them fun, but Kyler will be limited if they don't have a running game. That's part of what helped them beat the 49ers last week. In the second half, James Conner got going.

It balances out the offense. It's fun to watch them throw to Marvin Harrison Jr. Last week, they had two catches, two connections between them. One of them was huge. So it's fairly wide open, but I give the Seahawks and the 49ers better chances to win than the Cardinals at this point just because their offenses are a little bit more consistent. They're more of a consistent team so far, but man, it would be fun to see the Cardinals in the playoffs. You're in the Cleveland area, right, Nick?

Is that where you are in the Cleveland area, Nick? Yeah, I am. Okay. What are people saying about the Browns? Are they just throw their hands up in the air? What can they do about their situation with Deshaun Watson? They know that as long as Deshaun Watson is in the lineup, they don't have much of a chance, I think.

People here are very, very, very over it. You might find a few who are still hanging on and trying to defend Watson or say, I just don't know, but most people know it's not a good football team. It's not a good football team, and it starts with the quarterback. And they've kind of accepted that they're not going to be any better unless they make a change and because kevin stefanski has been so adamant that he's not they're all just kind of resigned to the fact that the team's not

gonna be good this year uh nick before we let you go um i know they're with all the great games on the slate this weekend including the can't miss colts tit game. I think everyone is going to be paying attention to Commanders, Ravens, Jaden Daniels. And I like that Jaden Daniels is trying to slow down the hype machine by trying to back off the comparisons to Lamar Jackson while the collective media is like, nope, we're doing this. You're in the middle of it. It is really impressive what he's done so far.

And he's going up against a Baltimore team that I think everyone expected to rally from that bad start, and they have. it seems like it's a really tantalizing affair I this is at the risk of hyping it up because I've done this before this season and the games have fallen flat but I'm fairly confident that Commanders Ravens is going to be a really exciting affair what do you say I'm extremely geared up for this game I love've loved to watch the Commander Slate football in the last month, but I've also sat back and thought, okay, who are they beating? You know, they beat the Giants without scoring a touchdown. They beat the Bengals who have a very soft defensive front.

That was the first game that made me really realize the Bengals had defensive issues. They beat the Cardinals. They beat the Browns. Okay, like the Browns have a good defense, but they have such a bad offense that they couldn't hold up their end of the bargain, right? So it became, like, it wasn't even a good day, a great day for James Daniels, and it was still very good, like, at least in the eye test.

He still dominated that game. The Ravens are in a different class than those teams that they've beaten so far. But then right after that, they get Carolina, and then they get Chicago, which would be a defensive test. Like, Washington can win a lot of these games, but people aren't going to really take them seriously unless they beat a team like Baltimore.

And I don't care about the Jane Daniels and Lamar Jackson comparison. There are some similarities, for sure. Daniels puts out efficient games, efficient passing lines, like Lamar Jackson does pretty frequently, but I think he's more capable in some areas than others, and Lamar is more capable in some areas than others. I can't wait to see this because I just want to see Washington tested. You know, Cliff Kingsbury has had such a good stretch over the last month.

And part of the back of my head, I'm just like, man, I've seen this with the Cardinals when he was head coach, and now he's just the OC. Like, can this last? Can they sustain this? If there's going to be a team that's going to have an answer for him, it's the Baltimore Ravens, and they're up next in the schedule. So this is the litmus

test. This is the measuring stick for Washington to figure out who they really are. So I can't wait to see this game. Yeah, with all due respect to tonight's game, that one really is the game of the week. Nick, thanks a lot for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight. Enjoy all the games on the weekend. Let's try and do this again next week. Yeah, sure. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Yep, thank you. Enjoy all the games on the weekend. Let's try and do this again next week. Yeah, sure.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Yep, thank you. That's Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet. 6.50. So the Canucks do have a practice today at 12 o'clock out at UBC. I wonder what they'll work on. Rush chances.

The power play. I think we're all expecting Kevin Lankanen to get the start on Friday against the Philadelphia Flyers. I wonder if there could be any other changes. I wouldn't be surprised if Suter, as long as he's 100% and ready to go, gets into the lineup for Atu Ratu. Certainly not. I mean, Atu Ratu was not a factor whatsoever.

He played eight minutes. In the game last night. Tuckett had talked about maybe getting Baines into the lineup against the Flyers. I don't know if that's going to happen. You know, I don't think Nils Amon really deserves to come out of the lineup. I don't think there should be a lot of changes. Well, no, I don't think Nils Amon really deserves to come out of the lineup. I don't think there should be a lot of changes, by the way. No, I don't think so either.

I think it should be a goalie change, get Suter into the lineup, and that's it. This defense, I know a lot of people might be like, why don't those guys sit there and get Juleson in there. These are the guys that those six are the ones they want playing you so you're gonna need to figure out figure figure it out you know to cut you off but you're gonna need to figure out what they can do what they can't do how many minutes you can trust them with and at what point you figure out which i think a lot of us are already kind of thinking

that you really have two third pairings trying to and one i'm trying to masquerade as a second pair you know what i mean like that's where they're at on a good team like a two and a half myers and susie when they're playing well they're pretty good on a good solid stanley cup contending team myers and susie are more like a third pair than a second pair or i don't know it's just they're not they're not you probably just wouldn't have a pairing like that wouldn't have a pairing like that right that's more that's a better way or the third pair because like we already got a better second pair myers looks at susie's like we already got a me we don't need a second one and susie's like we already got a me

we don't need another one on this pair yeah but they but that's not really how they're constructed they just want tall guys tall guys with long reach. Unfortunately, Soucy, he wasn't engaged enough last night. I mean, the goal that Huberto scored, Huberto's standing right next to him, and then all of a sudden he's in the crease just poking in a loose puck when Soucy, that's his job to box out,

and that's something that came up in the preseason. We've got to do a better job of boxing out speaking of this when day harney took the penalty on lomberg in the first period and he got an interference call i was looking at it i watched it twice i'm like isn't that just clearing the front of the net like we i thought i know talk it kind of had this look on his face where he was muttering and shaking his head i thought it was because of the call yeah because i was like they're just battling for position front of the net and day harney is like a foot taller than lomberg and he just kind of just pushed him down to the ice and i was like i was like that's what you want that guy to do like

you brought in day harney all six foot seven of them to you know knock guys out of the front of the net and that one was weird to me and then susie was probably guilty of the exact opposite where huberto just spun off him yeah on the is the fifth goal right he is the fifth goal yeah i had one one quote in my head when i saw that play what would you say you do here like well there were two flames in that area too because myers let his guy go too he didn't check either of them he just kind of spun around and puck was in there he's like oh someone should take this guy i'll throw out to the listeners do you know that you know the play oh, someone should take this guy. I'll throw it out to the listeners. You know the play I'm talking about, right? The

DeJarne penalty in the first period. I watched it twice and I was like, I'm not seeing I guess the Puck wasn't there. So technically... I don't recall the play. I mean, technically it's interference, but he just seemed like he was a big dude clearing the front of the net. The other thing that, and to circle back to what you're saying about potential switches

and we both kind of agreed don't make them. I mean, they got guys like Deharnais and Forbort for the postseason where you're allowed to get away with a lot more and you get physical. I'm sure they like parts of what they saw from Deharnais in the postseason last year. They got him for the penalty kill too because they lost some penalty killers. I think there's going to be some bumps along the way. The other part of this is like For Forborton, Desjardins specifically, are going to need to learn how to play with these guys. Like, what are the tendencies? What does Talkett want from us specifically? Like, if they don't get it in game one, that's okay. There might be some bumps along the way. You've also got to remember like Sprong, and I think Sprong specifically, Sherwood and Heinen and DeBrusque to a lesser degree,

they're going to need to know all those little nuances. When Tuckett speaks about being five feet away from where you're supposed to be or being late, that can be part of it because you've got

new guys in the system and it's going to take a couple of games to figure it out. Do you think Sprong will stick on the line with Petey and DeBrusque at practice today?

That's a good question. How short or long is the leash going to be with him? That's a good question. Because he didn't play much in the third period. So I would say the leash is short based on what I saw last night. I was surprised that Talkett moved him because

it was game. Put him back a couple of times with him when they needed a goal. But why were you surprised? He looked lost on. Because it was game one. Yeah. But they're protecting. I mean, at the time when he moved him off,

they were protecting a lead, not trying to come back. I mean, I'm moderately surprised. Like I understood why he moved him. I think what it was. I think he looked a little bit lost on. I can't remember exactly. There were a lot of goals last night, but there was a goal where Petey's line was on

and Petey was kind of directing traffic out there and Sprong or DeBrus both looked like they were like, where should we be here? I think it's what... Heading back to the bench because Calgary scored. I think it's what you suggested originally, which is the leash. Like how short is it?

I would not be surprised if the message coming in for Sprong from Talkit this year was, the leash like how short is it i would not be surprised if the message coming in for sprung from talk at this year was hey uh no more like loosey-goosey you play your style you're an enigma like if you want to stick here there are certain principles that we have and we're not going to afford you the luxury of when you were 18. Yeah. Like you're older now. You're 10 years older than that. Like you can't make those mistakes anymore. Rocket and Langley text in, I'm sorry.

Sealovs needs to be the backup goalie, and when Demko is ready, needs to go back to the AHL. It was one game. Sealovs had a bad game for sure. But I understand where you're coming from. Rocket and Langley. Rocket. And when – let's go back a few months.

Okay. And this was when the Canucks originally signed Yuri Patera. There was a sense that we'd go into this season with Demko being the starter and then those two battling for the rest of the game. Sure. And one of the nice things about having your farm club so close is that you can send guys up and down.

And there was a thought even, well, maybe the Canucks will carry three goalies at times, but Seelovs can go back and forth to the AHL as needed. I don't think the organization ever fully committed to having Seelovs as the for sure backup to Thatcher Demko because I think the organization realizes that this is still a young goalie, needs time, needs reps, has things to work on, like the long point shots that we saw in the playoffs

and then we saw, again, maybe even worse last night, there are things to work on. And then all of a sudden, everything was thrown into arrears, basically. Yep. Demko, we get the news halfway through the summer or more than halfway through the summer that this guy might not

even be ready for training camp or the beginning of the season. Then there's this mad scramble to bring in another goalie and they had to negotiate rather aggressively with Kevin Lankanen, but they got the job done. But still, because Seelov's, let's call what he did in the playoffs, like he was a gamer for them

right he was put in a position that he wasn't ready for and he did his best but at the end of the day the numbers spoke volumes he made a bunch of great saves he got the canucks some big wins but his save percentage was below 900 because a lot of the times he was letting in goals that should have been stopped. Let's be frank. Sure. Right? He was struggling.

He's learning the game. Yep. You know? And he needs more time probably in the AHL. This is not unusual for a goalie his age. The problem was he's been foisted into this role and it didn't go very well last year. And this is very Seelov's, I have to say,

from following his career. The highs are very high and they can go on for quite some time, but the lows are low. And he needs to mitigate those if he wants to be an everyday NHL goaltender. You can't have these runs where you just turn into the goalie

that we saw yesterday and expect to be given more than 20 games a year. You need to be more consistent than that, and he doesn't have that yet in his game. Another thing I do wonder, if you look at the block shots total from last night, Calgary had 21 and the Canucks had 12. I wonder if Taka and the coaching

staff are going to look at that and be like, if he plays, Silovs that is, that block shot number is going to need to be way higher. DeBrusque had a big one in the thirds that is, that block shot number is going to need to be way higher. DeBrusca had a big one in the third, I remember. Yeah, but it's going to need to be way higher. You can tell he was thinking about it, though. Yeah, like I can't let this go through because there's a chance that Silovs is going to be like,

where'd it go? Where'd it go? Oh, it's behind me. That kind of thing, right? And you play different in front of goalies like that, right? The team changes. Here's the thing. Make this abundantly clear. I'm not concerned about the goaltending. I'm concerned about Silovs. Does that make sense like i know he's a goalie and he plays a position but they did do a nice job of giving themselves another option with lankanen like if it doesn't

work out with silov's that's a concern for him and his trajectory in his career but it doesn't sewer the entire position right lankanen's still there it's a good security blanket he might not end up in the security blanket he could be guy. The listeners are in a feisty mood this morning. Which one? Well, someone, a bunch of them, but some of them texted in, he's learning the game.

Are you serious? LOL. Are you learning to broadcast, Bruff? Yes. Yes. But also, he's a young goalie. How old does that guy think he loves is?

He's learning the NHL game. So, are you serious? Are is? He's learning the NHL game. So... Are you serious? That he's learning the game? Deadly serious. At 35, Luongo will say he was still learning the game. So I don't think it ever stops for goalies. That was his 10th career regular season game yesterday. He had played in nine prior to that.

He's very much learning what's going on out there. He's 23, right? He didn't even play that many games in the American League, if you want to look at it. Right? I don't know. I mean, I don't know. People get upset.

I get it. But don't get that upset. We got more Canucks talk to come. If you want to get upset, get upset with our next guest, Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk. It's all right here coming up in the final hour of the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.