Halford & Brough in the Morning - Some Good Goaltending News For The Canucks

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they hear from Rick Dhaliwal who has an update on Canucks star goalie Thatcher Demko (6:00), plus they look ahead to Week 1 with NFL.com's Nick Shook (29:53).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Ralph. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Regular Zach, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Ralph of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And we

are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Let's go to the guest list, shall we? Begins at 6.30. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us on the program.

We are now just one day away. One day away from the start of the National Football League season. Thursday night football. It's the Chiefs. It's the Ravens. And then we'll look ahead to the Brazil game as well. Between the Packers and the Eagles on Friday night. All of the Sunday games.

And then Monday night football as well with the 49ers and Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. Nick Shook will join us at 6.30 to talk about all that. 7.30, Jack Michaels. Play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers, is going to join the program. The day after Leon Dreisaitl agreed to an eight-year, $963 million extension. He is the highest paid player in the NHL. Jack Michaels is going to join us at 7.30 to talk about that. So I did the research yesterday.

There are a lot of people, media people in Edmonton that were puffing their chests out a little bit yesterday. No. Why? Yeah. I think they had a little bit of, see, told you so, to the puff chests. A little bit of that. To the puff chests? I thought they were the puff chests.

But that energy was emanating off the chest. Are you sure it wasn't just jackets? Nope. Oh, okay. Maybe they were just wearing really heavy, thick jackets. No, it was a little bit of... But about what? There was a little bit of, see, I told you so.

That Gia Sato re-signed. Yep. A little bit of, now just wait and see what happens next summer. And that's when McDavid's going to re-sign. Were there a lot of people out there that were predicting that those guys would go elsewhere there was a lot of people out there trying to i don't know if it was legitimate or just like wanting to will it into existence that dry dry saddle was going to go to san jose or boston or boston yeah but no he will be in he will be an oiler for life are people in edmonton just like see they choose to live here that was

the other energy that was coming off those puffy jackets. Is that what happens a lot? I guess the city's not so bad after all. People want to live here. There was also some of that energy. Right. There was a lot of that energy coming out of Edmonton yesterday. He got a really, really big West Edmonton Mall gift card.

Like lifetime. Unlimited. So Jack Michaels is going to join us at 730 to talk about the dry saddle extension and what's next for the Oilers and GM Stan Bowman. 8 o'clock. Very cool guest. Excited to have him on the program. Rick Bonus.

One of the longest serving head and assistant coaches in NHL history. Three decades behind the bench. Of course, he served some time here in Vancouver. Now it's happy trails to Rick as his coaching career has come to an end. He'll join us at 8 o'clock. So that's going to be a theme for today's show, just coaching in the National Hockey League. We'll talk a lot about Rick Tockett,

who will need a contract of his own probably in the not-too-distant future, you would hope, if you're a big fan of Rick Tockett and you like the job that he's done for the Vancouver Canucks. And then we'll talk about some of the other coaching, the intriguing coaching stories across the NHL. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to our chat with Rick Bonas. One of the most popular assistant coaches to ever come through Vancouver. He started coaching in the early 80s.

Yeah. And he just retired. And I think it's going to be a really interesting conversation just about how not only the game has changed since the early 80s, but coaching has changed since the early 80s, but coaching has changed since the early 80s. He is 69 years old. Nice. Nice.

Yeah. A-Dog's not even paying attention. Nice. Yeah, okay. So Rick Bonas is going to join us. A-Dog, get on the mic and say nice. A-Dog, do it. For God's sakes, the man is 69.

Do the thing. So Rick Bonas, who is 69 years old, is going to join us at 8 o'clock. Jack Michaels, thank you, at 7.30. Nick Shook at 6.30. A reminder, early entries for what we learned. Get them in. Dunbar-Lumber text line is 650-650.

The best what we learned, assuming you put a ticket emoji into the text, will get a four pack of tickets to see the Vancouver Canadiens in playoff action. It's a week yesterday, September 10th, Tuesday against Spokane. Four pack of tickets to see Northwest League playoff action. Canadians, Spokane, next Tuesday. Best what we learn gets them.

Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. That is what's happening on the program today. Zach, 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...

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For the first time in a long time, the Vancouver Canucks got some good news on the goalie front. This coming courtesy of Czech TV's Rick Dollywall. He of the Donnie and Dolly Show, also a frequent contributor to Sportsnet 650. The big news, Demko resumes skating. The archer's sea lo's injury is not serious. There's also a tidbit about who the Canucks

might be making an offer to of the free agent goalies. For more, let's turn the audio over. Zach, let's hear now from Rick Dollywell yesterday on an update on Demko, Seelov's, and the Canucks' goaltending. Just wanted to give a bit of an update on the training camp goaltending situation. Some good news, I am hearing that Thatcher Demko is back skating and working out on the ice this week.

That's a very good sign. Many thought Demko would not be ready for training camp and preseason. His rehab this summer was a little bit slower than most wanted and expected. But Demko skating in the last few days has got to be a major boost to the Canucks and a sign of progress as well. So we'll see how it goes with him in training camp. But he's back on the ice. It's major, major good news for the Canucks.

Canucks continue to pursue UFA goaltender Kevin Lankanen. The club has made Lankanen an offer, but it's not good enough to get a deal done right now. But the pursuit of Lankanen continues. We'll see where that ends up. Rick then went on to add an update about Archer Seelovs. He said he's dealing with inflammation in his knee, although it's not expected

that it's a serious injury. What's more, Seelovs is now en route from Latvia to Vancouver, should arrive here soon and will get checked out by Canucks doctors. They don't expect that to be anything too serious. So good news on a Wednesday for Canucks goaltending. The first bit of good news in a long time. Yeah, it's good that he's

skating. I still have a lot of questions about what happened and what's going on. I want to know, did he have an operation? Did he not have an operation? And if things are so great, why are they still pursuing a goalie? So that would bring them to four, right, with Patera, which is a very, very crowded crease, right? And I suppose it could be something along the lines of bringing him in on a PTO,

but the way Rick worded it seemed to suggest that they needed to make an even better offer than the one that they were making, which means that it wouldn't just be of the, hey, why don't you come for a couple weeks, have a couple of pillaments at the hotel, and then take off after that. Well, I don't see how they could offer him much more than league minimum. But Kevin Lankanen is out there, I think, because he's been a tough negotiator,

and he wants to get paid more than the league minimum. And maybe, I don't know if he got any bad advice from his agent, why he's still a free agent at this point, because you talk to guys like Laddy and Kev, and they're all like, this guy's a good goalie. He's better than a league minimum goalie, but he doesn't have a job yet, so he might have to accept one soon. Yeah, so that was the news from the Canucks goaltending front from yesterday.

The other big news from yesterday across the National Hockey League was Leon Dreisaitl's extension in Edmonton. So there were a few major takeaways from Edmonton media yesterday as they met with Leon Dreisaitl. Stan Bowman also met with the media as well, and countless media members went up and got their two cents in on the deal. As we kind of joked about in the intro, there's a lot of people in Edmonton right now that think that this isn't just, like you said, Leon Dreisaitl choosing to stay in Edmonton.

And, you know, people are no longer wanting to leave Edmonton. They want to come to Edmonton because it's the place to win a Stanley Cup. And this is all a precursor to Connor McDavid signing an equal deal in length, although he'll probably get more money than Leon Dreisaitl next summer when he's eligible to sign his deal. So I want to run through some audio here. The first is from Sportsnet's very own Mark Spector. Speaking about how things have changed in Edmonton, that with McDavid and Dreisaitl there, you're starting to see a city that people actually want to go to to play hockey as opposed to trying to flee like they have for the last 25 years.

Here's Speck on the Dreisaitl extension. Well, the one thing I want to say is we've always thought this was sort of the canary in the coal mine for Karn and McDavid. Leon Dreisaitl signed for eight years. Karn and McDavid signed for eight years a year from now. And I don't think we should let this day pass, Gene, without saying like this was a franchise that all the great glory years

Oilers left when they were still somewhat in their prime. This was a team that for the next 25 years, couldn't get a great player to come here today. You've got a top five player in the world, Leon Dreisaitl signing for the rest of his career here. You've got Karno McDavid fully expected to sign here. They're a Stanley Cup contender. And now players are coming here and I'm not hearing any wives saying,

we're not coming to Edmonton because it's too cold or it's too far away. I'm hearing a lot of pretty good players saying, I need to pack your bags. We're going to Edmonton. We're going to try to win a Stanley Cup. Mark Spector apparently talking to all the wives in the NHL. He then up his article. It's an interesting beat. Between that hit

and then his article, he upped Dreisaitl from a top five player in the world to a top four player in the world, just so we're clear. His podcast, NFL Livecast. I just need McDavid to leave now. It's not a matter of wanting. You know when you're trying to, when

your kids want something and you're like, yeah, but you don't need know when you're trying to, when your kids want something, and you're like, yeah, but you don't need it. Sure. And you have to, and they're like, well, what's the difference? Between wanting and needing. Now I physically and mentally need McDavid to leave after all this. First question for Jack today has to be, okay, so when the Oilers miss the playoffs next year,

where does McDavid request a trade to peter and cloverdale text in if the canucks had beaten the oilers would that have changed dry sidles mind about staying in vancouver and then peter assumes says we were super close to blowing up this version of the oilers we'll never know we didn't know because the canucks i mean the oilers were a better team than the Canucks. They deserve to beat the Canucks and they nearly won the Stanley Cup. And that is obviously quite a pull for Dreisaitl and it's going to be quite a pull for McDavid. But the Oilers are not without their challenges

going forward. They're going to have issues because they're paying so much to Dreisaitl and McDavid. And that's not a mistake to pay those guys. I'm not saying that they should trade one of them or those guys are overpaid. If you've got good players, you got to pay them.

But the challenge then is don't waste money elsewhere. They're going to have to move Darnell Nurse's contract somewhere unless he, I don't know, gets a lot better or develop some sort of injury that they can put them on LTIR. That's going to be a challenge. They don't have a lot of youth in the organization.

So, listen, I get that there's a new culture there and they've had some success there. They got a new building there that probably helps. You know, we poke fun at Edmonton a lot and they poke fun at us and that's part of a sports rivalry. So, this thing all of a sudden, you know, like I just hope the Canucks, I hope both teams can maintain their end of the bargain and beat good teams next season. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.

Do you know what I mean? Because it is fun, and we've had a few texts in. We had a few yesterday where people were saying, man, it's good to have a rival again. 100%. It's great, right? Remember when we were talking, we've it's good to have a rival again. 100%. It's great, right? Remember when we talked about this to death, but when Seattle broke in, we were both, you and I,

very eager at the prospect of having a natural geographical rival, that close, the I-5 rivalry. And it hasn't manifested or taken off. And it's kind of, not kind of, it's very disappointing. This rivalry with Edmonton right now is great because it looked for of not kind of it's very disappointing this rivalry with edmonton right now is great because it looked for the longest time like it was going to be the battle of alberta 2.0 with the connoisseur knocking on the door like can we come too but now you know with with the direction that calgary's gone in edmonton's chief rival in the division

given the proximity and everything and last year's playoff is vancouver well let's talk about calgary now sure um now calgary is going to have a candlelight vigil for um johnny goudreau and that is going to happen today is that's going to happen tonight tonight um 4 30 our time that's going to be 5 30 local sorry the one in calgary is going to be at seven o'clock our time the one in um columbus is going to be at fourth there's going to be candlelight vigils in Calgary and Columbus for Johnny Goudreau. Everyone grieves differently, and I think the family is going to grieve.

I just still can't imagine what that family is going through. The fans, you know, they need a place where they can get together and, you know, maybe it helps them to have this vigil. You know, it reminds me of, you know, the stories when, you know, when Diana passed and you had the royal family just like, why do these people need to be so public about their grieving and that sort of thing. So everyone grieves differently.

I think it's going to be a really touching tribute to Johnny Goudreau. And by all accounts, the family appreciates all the gestures that have been made towards them. They're going to have to deal with this a lot longer than most fans, but they're going to have that vigil in Calgary and Columbus tonight, and I think it's going to be really special to see. As for the Flames, and we talk about the Edmonton Oilers making big news

by re-signing Drysaddle, the Flames are kind of going the opposite direction. They are apparently open to unloading pretty much everything they got. So let's walk through the chronology here of events that unfolded yesterday. So on our Sportsnet network of radio stations, 960 in Calgary had Frank Cervelli on the show yesterday, and Frank dropped the nugget on Pat Steinberg's show saying that Tyson Berry sounds as though he's going to go to Calgary on a PTO now in a vacuum you're like well that news doesn't really mean all that much where are we where are

we connecting the dots here well uh shortly thereafter there was a report out there from the fourth period Dave Pagnano who's on this station quite often, talking about the Calgary Flames have taken calls on a multitude of their veteran players, specifically defensemen Mackenzie Wieger and Rasmus Anderson. Going into the season, if there's a team that wants to make an upgrade on the blue line, Anderson and Wieger are apparently available to be shopped. So a lot of people started connecting the dots that maybe Barry would be a cheap replacement to play on the blue line for one year for one of these guys that might be going out the door in that same report from the fourth period.

There was an additional report that the St. Louis blues were among the teams interested in McKenzie Weeger at the NHL draft. Now they couldn't get a deal done. Now, why does that matter? Because yesterday, the St. Louis Blues announced some defensive news of their own. Torrey Krug is going to be out for the entire year after undergoing ankle surgery. Now, the Blues have already made one move to try and fill that gap by getting the Broberg deal done with the offer sheet from Edmonton. But there could be another move on the horizon.

So I think what we're starting to see here is teams are getting into what do we have going into the preseason mode? That's the first domino that usually falls if you go through the chronology of the NHL. The second one is before the start of the regular season, they've seen what training camp and exhibition games look like, and then teams will be like okay now we really need to make a move because games are about to start for real so we're getting

inching closer and closer to that that those two or three weeks prior to the start of the regular season where teams make deals i wonder if they'll be able to move cadre he's 33 he's got four years left seven million dollars i don't know how much they're going to get for him. We'll see about that one. McKenzie Wieger, they're probably thinking, well, let's move on this as soon as we can, because he's 30 years old and he's got four years left. So this is going to be max value for guys like this. Rasmus Andersen, good. And both these guys are right shot defensemen and we all know how hard those guys are to acquire uh he's got two years left before he's ufa four and a half million dollar cap hit

he might be the prize in all this and for calgary um there might be some thinking well we should try and keep this guy but then rasmus anderson might be thinking you guys are gonna be awful for a while I'm not gonna sit here and stay here for a while Weger actually has uh seven years left on his eight-year deal oh sorry so that I am not used to puckpedia yeah I'm not used to puckpedia so Weger is Weger's a good defenseman and Weger was a big part of that deal that sent Matthew Kachuk to Florida that got them Huberto and Uyghur back. Khajiit might have five years left. Yeah, they've got the guy, the one that is the most movable

and probably the most prized asset, you're right, is Anderson. He has two years left on his deal. He's got a $4.5 million cap hit. He's got a modified no-trade list hit he's got a modified no trade list he's got a 16 no trade list so there's lots of places you could move him he's also only 27 years old um and i know that there's a lot of canucks fans out there right now that are nodding their heads why didn't they move quicker on this in calgary i don't know what what i don't know there was what's going on there why didn't craig conroy why is this all coming out now no one has any space

i was shopping i was shocked that they didn't make more moves at the draft. Because they looked at a team at that point that was ready to turn the page and go on to the next generation of Calgary Flames. They had moved Jacob Markstrom, and this came after a regular season in which they moved. I mean, we don't need to go through it, but Hannafin, Zdorov, Lindholm.

I mean, they moved guys out. And you're looking at the team and you're saying okay well what's next what's just weird that we're getting reports right now that the flames are willing to listen on some of the players like yeah no i am surprised i don't want to swear on the air at 6 20 but of course they are i mean it is it's interesting that they didn't maybe the deal that Craig Conroy Craig Conroy wanted didn't like you know work out yeah and they were ready to circle back on it but I mean we have seen this before we have seen teams get to training camp and get through the regular season or get through the preseason and realize we're not ready to go or we don't have the right makeup of guys that we thought we were going to I mean the Vancouver Canucks did a lot of remodeling prior to the

start of last season and they were the only team for the first couple of months to make a move. You can find... I like how Huberto's name never comes up because people know that's just a bridge too far. I mean, they're stuck with that. Well, the Flames don't seem to like to retain salary either. And that's going to be a problem. Not that any team does, but some teams are more willing. We love to retain.

Some teams are more willing we love to retain some teams are more willing than others to retain salary yeah and i just i i do wonder at a certain point when conroy has to look at this and say are we actually going to be too good and not good in the traditional sense but good in the race to the bottom sense with guys like anderson and weger and cadre and huberto playing because if you're going to bottom out you may as well bottom out good in the race to the bottom sense with guys like Anderson and Weger and Kadri and Huberto playing, because if you're going to bottom out, you may as well bottom out.

You may as well not try and tread and be the 10th place team in the Western conference. You need to get to the bottom as quickly as possible. And we got to text it into the Dunbar Lumber text line. And I saw some discussion of this online yesterday. And the question is how does dry sidles contract make you feel about Petey's contract? And I saw some people saying, what a bargain Petey's contract looks like now. And yeah, if he holds up his end of the bargain.

Yeah. Drysaddle showed up in the playoffs. He was hurt. And he played well in the playoffs. Drysaddle's a top. I mean, I up in the playoffs. He was hurt, and he played well in the playoffs. Dry Settle's a top. I mean, I laughed at the Spectre thing, but Dry Settle is, I think, a top five player in the National Hockey League, I think.

I think you could slot him in maybe right below, like, McKinnon in that neighborhood with Kutcheroff. Where's Petey when he's at his best? He might be a top 10 player when he's at his best. Right. That's why I'm so hard on the guy, by the way, guys. You're hard on Petey?

Yeah, because we've seen how good he can be. And then when he was as bad as he was down the stretch and into the regular season, we're going to talk about Rick Tockett and what his priorities are. Sure. This season, and it's going to be later in the show, and getting the most out of Petey is

1000% one of his priorities, getting through to him. And I'm going to read a few quotes from Drance's article interview with Rick Talkett, which was earlier in the summer, but I want to, I kind of want to come back to it because there's a part where Talkett says, I've got some wisdom for Petey.

And it almost sounded like he needs to listen to it. And also there were some allusions to Petey working with the Canucks strength trainer, which is, I think we all know that Petey needs to get a little bit stronger. And I think we all know, well, not all of us, but people that have been through tendinitis,

a lot of the times it's an issue of strength. Sure. And it helps to get stronger to get through tendinitis. So how does it, so to the question, how does dry sidles contract make you feel about PD's contract? Nothing.

Like I don't, I don't, I'm going to swear again, give a, about, about dry sidle. I care about PD's contract? Nothing. Like, I don't, I don't, I'm going to swear again. Give a, about, about Dreisaitl. I care about PD, right? If PD lives up to his end of the bargain and he lives up to his contract, then the Canucks are in a good spot. If he doesn't, they're in big, big trouble. There is one, you know what?

There was one comparison that I would take from last year's playoff. You kind of alluded to the tendonitis thing. Like Dreisaitl was in no way healthy during that playoff run, especially against the Vancouver Canucks last year. I mean, he was laboring at times. Found a way, though. Right, and he finished with 31 points in 25 games. And I know some people said that in the second half of the playoffs, he slowed down a little bit, which I think is understandable,

given how banged up he was. But again, 31 points in 25 games. And what did he do? You just said it. He found a way to get it done. That's another thing we like to yell at the television, right? When we're watching hockey, we were talking about that yesterday. You got to find a way.

You got to find a way to win battles. You got to find a way to produce points. No one's really interested in the excuses afterwards. They're more interested in how you solve the problem in the moment. And that's what Dreisaitl did. You finish with 31 points in 25 playoff games. You end up making $14 million a year when it comes time for your next contract because you've proven everyone that when the going gets tough,

you're going to find your way through it. And that's what separates. That's playoff hockey. Yeah, that's what separates the elite from the good and what separates the good from the average. Okay, before we go to break, I need to tell you about Seeker. That's S-E-E-K-R. Canada's...

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Find the radio, podcast, news, and sports you love. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 6.32 on a Thursday. Wednesday. Atta boy. I just looked at my notes and I'm like, oh, I got the wrong notes up. They're Wednesday's notes. You know what the problem is? I just want it to be Thursday because I want the NFL season to start.

Oh, okay. Yeah. That's why. Yeah. It is a Wednesday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & 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, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. I also think I want it to be Thursday because Nick Shook's going to join us

in just a moment here to talk some NFL as we get closer and closer and closer to the start of the NFL season. I know some sports have already started. I know we got excited about the start of the Premier League, and I know we watched a lot of college football over the weekend, but let's be real. Let's get real here, okay? Like, the NFL is the first, and then even that is just a small appetizer for the start of hockey season.

But I am excited for the start of the NFL season. Weirdly, though, weirdly, I'm not that excited about the Seahawks season. I don't know why. Neither am I. We can talk through it if you want. I don't know why I'm not. Do we have Nick on the line? Not yet?

Okay, we're still looking for Nick. I don't know why because theoretically I should be. It's the start of a new era. There's a new young, cool head coach. They're not winning the Super Bowl. But they weren't winning the Super Bowl last year. Yeah, that's true. Or the year before.

That's true. And I was more interested in it. But didn't they, but hey, okay, they made us interested in it. I guess. Do you remember the first game against Russ? And this was two years ago. So they traded him. And do you remember what we said about that

season? We said, we'll watch the first game and then we're probably not that interested. And actually what I might've said, I think I did say it was, I hope they win that first game and then lose all the other ones because I wanted them to get a high draft pick and, you know, no one, I certainly

didn't expect Gino Smith to have the season that he did, but then they beat Russ and I was back in it right away and I wanted them to win and I wanted them to make the playoffs. They did. And I think that carried over into last season. And then at the end of last season, I just, I wanted, I wanted a house cleaning.

Yeah. And I loved Pete Carroll. I really did. Likewise. I was super skeptical when he came up from SC, but he won me over. And this year with Mike McDonald coming in, I still feel like I don't know what Mike McDonald is all about. And until I watch some games, then don't i'm kind of i'm with you i'm not super pumped i mean pete carroll was a great hype guy yeah you know if you had told me

um the end of the pete carroll era was going to be um more intriguing than the start of the mike mcdonald era i'd be like what are talking about? I want to see what the next generation is going to be. I want to see the new look of the team. He seems very understated. Maybe that's it. And the only real interesting thing was training camp. It was that huge brawl that they had that one day. And it's very similar pieces. I guess they didn't really add that much.

It is sort of the same group of guys coming back, minus some players on defense. But it's bizarre. I can't even put my finger on why but we'll try and figure it out i think there's probably so many other compelling well that could be it as well too right so joining us now to talk about those other compelling stories from nfl.com nick shook joins us now on the halford and breath show on sportsnet 650 morning nick how are you i'm good are you guys uh we're all right we're trying to feels like

therapy we're trying to understand and talk through why we're not excited or not all that intrigued by a Seahawks season, which on paper and logistically speaking should be intriguing. It's a new regime. It's a new era. It's a new head coach. The long Pete Carroll era is over, and now they've got new beginnings, new chapters, but it's just not grabbing us.

Can you help us, Nick? Are you similarly not so excited about Can you help us, Nick? Can you help us, Nick? Or are you similarly not so excited about the Seahawks season? Well, I just think a lot of people don't know who they're going to be. And that's kind of the case when you have a new head coach. And that's really the determining, I think, factor that kind of drives your uncertainty. Because you know what you get,

you know, you've gotten from the Seahawks peak care, you know, the peak kill Seahawks over the last decade. Right. But, and you know, that sometimes you can compare that with the roster and think, well, you know, maybe they're missing a piece here. They're missing a piece there. You don't know how Mike, you know, team is going to operate. You don't know what his, you know, what his strengths is, which is defense obviously to tell you how the job, but you don't know how he's going to operate. You don't know what his, you know what his strengths are, which is defense. Obviously that's how he got the job,

but you don't know how he's going to operate as a head coach. You don't know what they're going to just kind of look like every week. So you're staying on the fence. You're, you're being a little cautious and you're saying, you know what, I'll wait and see, let them prove it to me first before I get excited. It's also, you know, you're, you're coming off a year in which they didn't quite meet expectations. And, you know,

that's part of what usually leads to a coaching change and a retirement. And there's some legitimate questions about the long-term future at quarterback, which understandably so. And you also had a defense that couldn't stop a nosebleed for most of the year last year. So you should hope that the change in head coach produces a better defense.

But right now, you guys have been burned before, I'm sure. Everybody pretty much has at this point. And you're going to wait and see. It's totally understandable and totally within your right. Okay, so I know you recently did your NFL season preview ranking all eight of the divisions. So this is something that we haven't talked about either. It's the Seahawks, where they stack up in the NFC West,

and how good the NFC West, or bad, is going to be this year. So let's start with, where do you see the Seahawks stacking up in this division before we get to a breakdown of the division as a whole? I think it's tough because a lot of that depends on who the Rams are. We know what the Niners will be for the most part. They've established that at this point the rams were one of the bigger surprises kind of like the the way the seahawks were the year before that and um and now it we go to this weird spot where you know they're they're kind of

similar in the fact that they've both done that they are in somewhat different areas in terms of trajectory because you know the seahawks changed their coach, whereas the Rams still are hanging on to Sean McVay, no matter how much they like to flirt with television. And, and so because of that, I feel like I know more about the Rams at this point. I know that Matthew Stafford played the first portion of last season healthy for the first time in ages. And we saw the results of that. We, we know how Puka Nakua had a great year.

And I'm frankly looking forward to how they can continue to build on that side of the ball. But they also lost Aaron Donald, and it's not an easy position or player to replace. It's essentially impossible to replace that player, although they've made some additions in Braden Fisk and Jared Versch. I'm really excited to see play for them up front. So I feel a little bit better about them than I do about the Seahawks,

solely because of the quarterback. I hate to say it, but because of the quarterback, provided he's healthy. You know, Geno, he had that renaissance year a couple years ago, and it's not that he was really that bad last year. In fact, statistically he wasn't that bad, but he wasn't that far off from the year prior. It's just that they weren't as explosive. They just didn't seem to be the same team,

and oftentimes they just couldn't quite get into a rhythm to really string together wins and only finish the game behind them. But because I feel like I know more about the Rams right now than the Seahawks, and I know the Niners are going to be the best team in this division, I see them finishing third and maybe second, and maybe third gets you a wild card spot. It just depends on how good the NFC is right now. But that can all change.

The turnover from year to year on playoff teams is insane in the NFL, and it's part of what makes it so popular as a sport. And teams like the Rams tend to be teams that make playoffs one year, fade out the next, just like the Seahawks did two years ago. Just like on the AFC side, I could see the Browns do it so you know projections tough at this time of the year because so many factors go into it but as it stands right now I just I need to see the Seahawks be better than the Rams for me to imagine them making the playoffs is losing Mike McDonald a big deal for the Ravens who are in action tonight uh or sorry tomorrow night

Halford confused me because he said it was Thursday today. I got excited. Tomorrow night, Ravens at the Chiefs. How big a loss is Mike McDonald for the Ravens? I was going to say you almost made me panic there. No, I think it's not just Mike McDonald. I think it's also the loss of

Anthony Weaver, who was essentially his first lieutenant. They've lost about three or four significant names on the defensive staff to off-season jobs elsewhere, and that's what happens when you win. So I think it's going to be somewhat concerning just because a former player in Zach Orr who was on the staff but was not the defensive coordinator and now running that defense, I don't think it's just going to be like, all right, we're going to pick up right where we left off,

but there is still some semblance of continuity there because of his history working under Mike McDonald. We'll have to see over time. But I do think it's going to have some sort of impact on them. How much, I don't know, because they still got the players. But there will be an impact for sure. When it comes to coaching, how much is it these guys' schemes? Do they have these secret plays and schemes that nobody else knows about or is it more their ability to teach those schemes

oh that's a good question um you know i i use the browns as a good example of this because the year prior uh before 2023 they, they were bad defensively. They were bad. They were disorganized. They were pointing fingers at each other after blown coverages in week 15. I mean, that shouldn't happen that late in the season, and yet they were. Their defensive coordinator that year was Joe Woods, and then they went and got Jim Schwartz,

and suddenly it was like they had the most expensive makeover in history, and they really didn't. They didn't change many personnel, you know, members. For the most part, a lot of those players, some people knew were talented but just weren't being used properly. They stuck around and were used properly, and they became, you know, the best defense in the league in terms of yardage last year.

So I do think that the coordinator has a lot to do with it because a bad coordinator can ruin good talent, whereas a good coordinator can elevate at times, but I think you still need the talent regardless. It's just the difference can often be, can that coach put them in the right position to make a play or not? We're speaking to Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Health and Breath show on Sportsnet 650.

NFL season kicks off tomorrow night, which of course is Thursday night. It's the Chiefs and it's the Ravens. The Seahawks get things underway on the weekend against the Broncos. And speaking of the Broncos, there is some news out of the NFL this morning. Patrick Sertan II becomes the highest paid cornerback in NFL history with a monster deal. Close to $100 million over four years. $77.5 million guaranteed.

We should focus on this Broncos team a little bit because they will be taking on the Seahawks this weekend. What to expect from our Broncos team that has Bo Nix at quarterback, obviously a very good player on the defensive side of the football, and Patrick Sertan, but a sort of unclear outlook for what expectations are in Denver this year. Yeah, you know, when it comes to these types of situations, I'm always kind of looking for who were, who were the,

who are the teams that are going to become the 2020 Seahawks, the 2023 Rams, you know, who's going to be that, that version this year. And honestly, I kind of like the Broncos for this. And you can call me crazy if you want. And I understand why, because they haven't produced very much the last couple of years, but Sean Payton's crazy if you want, and I understand why, because they haven't produced very much the last couple of years. But Sean Payton's also ridden himself of Russell Wilson, and he's gotten a quarterback in Bo Nix who I think he loves

because he's exactly the type of guy he wants and can operate this offense and everything else. Not the Drew Brees comparison that's been made a lot, but I don't think they're the same type of quarterback. But it's kind of in that same vein where, look, I have a quarterback I can trust so I can work with. And, and this is a guy who's, I'm going to be able to kind of mold as he comes to the NFL.

He's also experienced enough to play right away. He looked the part in the preseason. He was sharp. And he's, he played a ton of college football at Auburn and Oregon. And I'm excited to see them because I think that he does kind of elevate them to a degree. They've got some talent in the receiving core.

They've got talent in the backfield, and the defense was kind of their calling card last year, last couple years. So I think they're going to be pretty solid. I don't know if we're going to see it right away, though. I think that any time you get a rookie quarterback, it takes a little bit for him to hit the ground running. Even C.J. Stroud didn't come out and light takes a little bit for him to hit the ground running. Even, you know, even

C.J. Stroud, you know, didn't come out and light it up. They lost week one against the Ravens last year in pretty lopsided fashion. So, what can we expect from them in week one? It's going to be interesting. Also, I don't know why we're making this, like, a bit of a, like, a tradition here between Denver going to Seattle

for week one. It's happened to the last three years. I understood the Russell Wilson storyline, but that's obviously been, you know, gone for, you know, six months now, but here we are. I am very curious though, because there was a period, I think last year where I thought, man, Sean Payton might be in the middle of his Mike Dick Saints run. Whereas, you know,

I took this job and turns out I'm actually ready for retirement. Now I need to know, because like I have a feeling that he's invigorated by all this. I need to know. Are we going to actually see results or not? We're going to obviously start to unpack that with week one. Well, hopefully not week one. That is a tough assignment to go to Seattle for a young quarterback,

a rookie quarterback. It does get loud in there and there's going to be a lot of noise in there because everyone will be optimistic inside the stadium. Do you think the tough assignment, and I'm looking at the New England Patriots schedule, and it starts in Cincinnati, then they host Seattle, then they got to go to New York to play the Jets, and then San Francisco, then home against Miami. It's a pretty tough start for the Patriots. Is that why Drake May isn't starting for the Patriots?

I think that's a fair assumption. And I also just think that while he made up ground in the preseason and during camp, it didn't seem like he was really that close entering the camp. The narrative was like, well, we've got to wait and see. We do have Jacoby here. That's why you get a bridge quarterback and a veteran who can end up being a backup when you do want to make that transition. It's obviously not the first time we've seen a situation

like this. Schedule could play a part. I just think that they've got to play the long game in New England because this is not going to be the year in which they go win a ton of games. There's not. Roster-wise, it's not bad, but you've got a new head coach, you've got a new regime in there

and you've got a rookie quarterback who has not impressed everybody at the level that Jaden Daniels may have or the year prior C.J. Stroud or Caleb Williams. He's been better, I think, in the last week and a half of preseason. He was better than most people probably anticipated. But again, week three of the preseason, how much can you really go off of that? So I think it's smarter to avoid, you know, tanking his confidence and throwing a rookie right into the fire

and going with a guy who you know can handle the situation for the first month, month and a half, maybe two months, and then eventually work in Drake May. We'll see him at some point, but I think it's just easier to kind of work him in at that rate because you have the option of Jacoby Brissett. What's going to be the toughest thing about taking over for a guy like Bill Belichick?

Winning? I don't know. You can do it in your own way. You know, Gerard Mayo, he's kind of tied to Bill in some ways because he played for him, but he can also do it in his own way. But yeah, ultimately it's results. It's as simple as that.

You could be more personable to the media and probably win some friends that way, which they were forced to deal with Bill for 25 years. He never wanted to talk to them really. But ultimately it comes down to results in this league and really in any league, but especially this league. So winning is the way that you can replace him properly. How difficult is the AFC North going to be this year?

I have it listed as the toughest division in the NFL because I frankly don't know who's going to win it. I have the Ravens winning it as of now, but I could see a scenario in which the Bengals win it by a couple of games. The only team that I think is not going to win it but is still going to weasel their way into the playoffs is the Pittsburgh Steelers because of Mike Tomlin as their head coach

in the defense that could potentially get them there, even with bad quarterbacks. And they got a weasel at quarterback, so that'll help them weasel. Sorry, that's a Seahawks fan to me. Pacific Northwest thing, yep, I get it. But I mean, they just did it last year with Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph. So, yeah, they got did it last year with Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph. So yeah, they got

Russell Wilson and Justin Fields now, and then yeah, you know, say what you want about both of them, because I thought Justin was going to be the better option, and now I don't feel good about either of them, but they just did it last year. They just made the playoffs without having any stability quarterback last year, so at the same time, I just know they're not going to win the

division. And I don't know what the Browns are going to be, because it all comes down to their quarterback, Deshaun Watson, and whether he can actually earn some of the money that he's fully guaranteed to make. It's also going to be the division that we watch on Hard Knocks in season this year, which I think was a perfect choice. They're going to beat the crap out of each other

as they do most years, but especially this year. We'll see who makes it out alive. Well, the Steelers, correct me if I'm wrong, came into Seattle late in the season and absolutely ran the ball down the Seahawks throat yep and it was a pretty actually impressive performance by the Steelers we were busy being angry at the Seahawks but the Steelers they did look like a team that if they had just competent play from their quarterback they could be a pretty good team yeah and that's a late season mike tomlin bump right there um you know when when the times become trying or you know the sense

of urgency is raised his teams just always respond and it's a huge credit to him as a coach and that was what their strength needed to be last year because they knew they couldn't count their quarterback and it also was probably pretty revealing for the seahawks, who then responded by moving on from Pete Carroll and adding Mike McDonald and trying to say, hey, look, we need to be able to stop the run, because we haven't been able to do that for most of this year. We're like a bottom third and bottom fourth team against the run. We've got to be better.

We can't be manhandled by a team like this, especially one that's got the playoffs in line, because you had the playoffs in the line, too, and just didn't perform. But that is who they are. That's who the Steelers are late in the year. That's part of why the division is so tough, because you never really know what you're going to get from teams in the AFC North in November, December, January, except for the fact that they're prepared to play that cold-weather

football or that less-than-ideal-weather football. 202 yards on the ground for the Steelers that day. I remember doing a lot of yelling at the TV. Just somebody make a tackle. The crazy part was they ran the ball 46 times. It was like watching Nebraska in the 90s. It was amazing. And they just grinded it out.

And everyone was like, is this the Army-Navy game? What's going on here? And they were like, try and stop us. And see, I was like, we can't. Please stop running. That's how that game went. Anyway, Nick, we got to get going.

We're right up against it for time. Thank you very much for doing this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the start of the NFL season, which, of course, is tomorrow. And enjoy week one. We'll do this again real soon. Definitely. Nebraska in the 90s was a great pool.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Yeah, have a good one. See you, Nick. That's Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I'm actually more excited about a bunch of other games this weekend than I am about the Seahawks-Broncos game. I feel bad about this.

I mean, we're like a pseudo-rights holder. The games are played right here on Sportsnet. We are the Seahawks station. Yeah. I'm not really looking forward to this season. You know what? If I am nothing but an honest podcast. Prove me wrong, Seahawks.

I can't fake enthusiasm. No, you shouldn't. I know. You shouldn't. But I also think that this is maybe reflective of how I'm an athlete. And weigh in, please. If you're a Seahawks fan, I would love to know where your intrigue and excitement levels are for the Seahawks.

Not for the start of football, because I'm excited about the start. I want sports. I want the NFL. I'm very much looking forward to doing nothing on Sunday. The man loves his couch. Yeah. I got fantasy football starts up. There's like pizza to be eaten and beer to be drank.

Like I get it. However, I don't know why, and neither of us have been able to really put our finger. I think Nick might have hit it at the very start where he said, nobody knows what they're going to be yet. And that's identity, but that's also if you're going to be a good football team or a not good football team. And that's a big part of it too.

I think a lot of it's Mike McDonald. He's come in and been understated. He hasn't really said a lot. Well, I'll throw one thing too. There was a lot of hate watching last year. I did not like the team. Right. I could not stand the team. Right. That was a big part of it.

I could not stand Jamal Adams. There were times when I could not stand DK Metcalf. Some of those games. I did not like the run defense. Obviously, it was embarrassing to watch. Some of those games were very tough to watch. The Pittsburgh game where they needed to win desperately and Pittsburgh just came in and ran the ball down their throats.

In Seattle, too, remember? That was a big thing. That was a tough one to watch. They had that stretch where they played. Remember when they played the 49ers? They went San Francisco, Dallas, San Francisco, and they weren't even close to San Francisco. Maybe Mike McDonald's the new Rick Tockett

because remember we talked about the Canucks in a similar way and we use that word disdain we had a certain amount of disdain for the team and the way they went about their business the way they operated they didn't seem like a serious bunch well you know what else happened last year too now that I'm thinking back and remembering it they

were five and two remember they didn't really play anybody good and then they went into Baltimore and they lost 37 to three. Right. And we're like, Oh, that's what a good football team looks like. Oh,

you get the coach of those guys. Right. And it wasn't even close. They did not. And then that was the, the alarm bells went off big time. Right. Because it's like,

Oh, you're that five and two record is a mirage. And then the whole second half of the season, there was an element of hate watching it, which is tough. Okay. Uh, coming up on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650, we've got an open segment at 7 o'clock. So we're going to do some discussion on NHL coaching. Rick Talkett in particular with the Vancouver Canucks, what he's done, what he needs to do this season, what his contractual future has in store.

We'll look at some of the other intriguing coaching stories across the NHL. And the reason that we're doing that is because at 8 o'clock, longtime NHL coach Rick Bonas is going to join the program. Very excited to talk about Rick. And as you said earlier, he's sort of going to be this great narrator for how the game and how coaching has changed over the last three or four decades because he coached through all of it as a head coach, as an assistant coach

in a lot of different markets. Great guy to talk to about the evolution of the game, both on the ice and then behind the bench. So Rick Bonas at eight, Jack Michaels at 730 to talk about the Leon Dreisaitl extension in Edmonton and what's next for the Oilers. And finally, a reminder,

get your What We Learns in. There is a chance for you to win a four-pack of tickets. Vancouver Canadiens playoff baseball action next week at Nat Bailey. Best What We Learn gets it. Hashtag WWL. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports and put a ticket emoji into your text. Again, the Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650.

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