Halford & Brough in the Morning - Something Feels Off With This Canucks Squad

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss a tough road loss to Nashville (3:00), plus they preview Week 8 with NFL.com's Nick Shook (28:54). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Besser at the slot. He's robbed by Soros. The printer who's clear the rebound out to center, and that is going to do it. What a chance for Brock Besser. I would like a better result, and I think we're all just, ready to go home and have a good home set. I'm pretty tired.

I think I'll go home now. Russ kind of took over the game there and, you know, kudos to them for winning it. Ladies and gentlemen. Fool fighters. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford and his Brough. It is Sports Net 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Ada, good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford in front of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two much lower payments and three. Financial piece of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com.

We are an 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. Michael, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. Big show ahead on a Friday, big guest list, lots of giveaways, and an exciting weekend on the horizon.

Guestless today begins at 630. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join the program. We likely will not subject Nick to speaking about last night's very gross football game in which the Chargers beat up on the Vikings 30. seven to 10. Instead, we're going to look ahead to some of the marquee games this weekend. And unfortunately, for us, given everything that's going on this weekend, the best game of the weekend is also the Sunday nighter when many other things are going on. And that's when the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to travel to Green Bay. What does that mean? Oh, it's going to be the first time in his 18-year Hall of Fame career that Aaron Rogers is going to play the Packers. We'll talk to Nick about all that at 630. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to watch that game.

We were going to take an NFL by this weekend. I've got to be honest with you. Aaron Rogers' return to Green Bay is about number 78 on my list. But you understand why it's a big store. I understand. I understand. So Nick's going to join us at 6.30 to talk about that. 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway.

$100 gift card to AJ's today is up for grabs for the best ask us anything. Hashtag at AUA. Dunbar number text line is 650, 6.6.50. Do not forget. Do not forget to put a pizza emoji into your text. you'll be entered into the Grand Prize draw. It's a contest, actually. It's not a draw.

7.05, Yesper Sorensen, Whitecaps manager. It's going to join the program. Speaking of Sunday, White Caps begin their quest for MLS Cup this Sunday at 4.30 at BC Place against Dallas. It is expected to be a big crowd on hand for the White Caps as they look to surpass their single game record for playoff attendance. We'll preview all that with Yesper at 7.05 this morning. 7.30.

Bob the Moje Marjanovich is going to join the program. Oh yeah, the BC Lions are also in action this weekend. Saturday, 4 p.m. in Sasky to take on the riders. Here's the sitch, Jason. This is the sitch with a win. Tell me the sitch. With a win, Lions clinch second place, and home field advantage for the November 1st Western semifinal

where they will host. Calgary. Back to back. Playoff games at BC Place and consecutive weekends. Could happen. All the Lions guys guys. to do is win this weekend in Saskatchewan. And then at 8 o'clock after Moj, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program.

And for this, as per usual, I turn the microphone over to the show's resident Dollywall handler, Jason Brough. Okay, Dahliaw and I were texting a lot yesterday. Oh, good. He, oh, God. We're just going to talk about the game, okay? And stuff with... Game and stuff with Dollywall.

Nice. And the trade market. And, oh, and by the way, oh, he wants to talk about the Abbotsford. Canucks roster struggling and like I know I heard him on the crossover talking about that and everyone's like Rick nobody cares about Abbotsford right now like the big the big club has some issues so like I realize I realize that Abbotsford lost some players that's the point of an HAL team that's what they do that's what they do so you know what they won last year we're good with Abbotsford we go we got bigger fish to fry it's like team USA is looking at Abbotsford

right now. That's right. I can hear him like texting like, I know, I know. Tune in at 8 to hear HL updates with Rick Dollywall. Finally, before we move along here, we are once again giving away tickets to see the foo fighters. Foo Fighters. Okay, we're going to work on the timing on that one. I was no, you're going to do it there. That's what I said. This is when I do the rundown. We're going to go through it. When you hear the word foo fighters. Foo fighters. Foo fighters with Queens of the Stone Age

and gouge away. September 20th is the date of the concert at BC Place. Tickets go on sale on Halloween. We're giving away a pair every day

up until Wednesday. So yesterday today and then of course the first three days of next week. What are we going to do? 7.30. You want to do 7.30 again? No.

8 o'clock? Caller 5. Let's do call her number 5. It's like yesterday. Caller number 5 at 8 o'clock. What are you doing? Let's go. I want to get to the show, buddy.

Call her number 5. At 8 o'clock, it's a pair of tickets to see the Food Fighters. 604-280-0-650. That number again, 604-280-0-650. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

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

You know, when Dodd is in here, he just gets through that stuff. Like so much quicker. Okay. Just, just, you know, come on. I love to set up the show to lay it out. I mean, look, okay, am I in a bad mood because of the Canucks? Maybe, maybe. You're definitely in a bad mood, though.

But I just get through it. Come on. What happened is Brad to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance? Aaron Rogers Return? Like, nobody cares about Aaron Rogers Return right now. No one's not. No one here. There's 10 things that are bigger than Aaron Rogers return right now.

Maybe we need to focus. In locally. Maybe we need to focus less on the Vancouver Canucks. because maybe it's tearing us apart. Maybe if we leave them alone, they'll just figure it all out. Put them in the corner. All your best problems are solved by just. Leave alone.

Maybe we're the problem. Just ignore them. So Cole Smith, who I had no idea existed as a hockey player, scored a 509 of the third period yesterday to give the National Predators a very ugly 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night, wrapping up the Canucks five-game road trip with three wins and two losses for the local hockey squadron.

You know what else? Cole Smith did, by the way? No on that Pee-D play? There was a little foray. Was that him? That was Cole Smith? What's he talking about? That knocked him to the ice?

Well, knocked him. Did you see what the back checker did? No. He poked his leg out of him. Oh, I didn't see that. Spun him around a little bit. It was a good foray. It was adventurous.

Now, it wasn't a good foray at all. It was a good for him. But I think he did get his leg kind of poked. It just go away. Everyone listening, like, go watch the video again. Watch it up close. What it looks like is Pedersen is going in, on the defenseman, and the defenseman just, like, takes him out with a hit.

Yeah. I think he got his leg. But, like, I'm not really in the business of making excuses for Elias Pedersen, but you mentioned his name, and I was watching the highlight last night. That was bad last night in Nashville. I know the Canucks have some injuries, but they lost this game not because of their injuries, because it wasn't their depth guys that lost them the game. Their depth guys aren't on PowerPlay 1.

They lost this game because their power play was dreadful. I don't know what they're trying to do on the power play. I know at five on three, you shouldn't be setting up a point shot. I know at five on three, you can't just be standing there. I know at five on three, you want to be setting up like quality, quality looks. You know, you're not settling for shots on a five on three. And one thing I do know is that when the likes of Quinn Hughes plays over seven minutes on the power play, and Elias Pedersen and Brock Bessor

and Connor Garland play over six minutes on the power play and then at the end of the night your power play has scored no goals and it's actually a loud one that's why the Canucks lost the game last night. Yep, that's fair. Demco was good. Demco was good. 33 saves.

Max Sasson was good, scored another goal. They were badly outshot which is crazy considering all the power plays that they had. I know Nashville had a few themselves, but the Canucks had more. So Nashville, not a very good team, set a season high for shots on goal with 35, and also set a season high with shots surrendered, just 21.

So that's not great. That's not a great Nashville team. The Canucks, by the end of that, looked like a team that, as we played in the intro, just wanted to go home and just wanted to get off this road trip, which, by the way, if you want to go back on this five-game roadie, there have been a lot of things that have transpired over the course of the last seven to ten days.

Brock Besser leaving the team. Brock Besser returned yesterday, played over 20 minutes in his return to the lineup. Philip Heel getting hurt, Jonathan Lekker-Macky getting hurt, call-ups coming from the American League, and three wins to start, two losses to finish. Can we play the entirety of the Quinn Hughes scrum from yesterday? Queen Hughes, maybe the most tired of them all,

played 29 minutes and 26 seconds yesterday in the finale of a five-game road trip. How'd he look? not great. Is that fair to say? His media availability was a lot quicker than the ice time that he got in the game. Yes, that was 55 seconds. So the 29 minutes and 26 seconds he played. And I think it's fair to suggest that through the first eight games of the season,

if you were to ask Quinn Hughes what he's thought of his performance, he would probably say it's not up to par. It's not up to the standard that you expect of Quinn Hughes. Is that fair to say? Yeah, he's just been showing moments of frustration. And there's that. Here's Quinn Hughes, after last night's performance in Nashville. That ended the road trip with a three-and-two record, which doesn't sound all that bad.

But, you know, with what's ahead of the Canucks, and we'll get into that a bit. No rest for the weary. Quinn, I know it's been a long road trip and probably not exactly the way you guys wanted to end it. But what did you see from your group out there tonight? Yeah, I mean, obviously, I would have liked a better result. and I think we're all just ready to go home and have a good home step. What is the key to when you get home having a strong start with a back-to-back, especially? I know it's been tiring one.

Probably just getting our sleep tonight and taking care of ourselves tomorrow. And I mean, I think Montreal in Edmonton worried about them in two days' time and three days' time starting. Max Hassan gets the lone goal tonight. He's got three in his last five games. What have you seen from him? Yeah, it brings a lot of speed, happy for him. It's a nice move there to.

anticipate that and then go five oh yeah not what you guys were looking for on the shot clock but you get a quality look there at the end to tie it up with Brock Besserts. Is that kind of all you can ask for is a good look at that point? Yeah, I mean nine seconds left, just try to get some net. It's like you'd like a goal

when the question is, is that all you guys are looking for there? Like, well, I'd like to put it in the back of the net, but alas. I'm going to read some text here. D.K. in Squamish, does it feel like something is just off with this team and more than just the injuries? In my opinion, it starts with Hughes. His play is off, his demeanor feels off, and something just feels weird. Thatcher Demko is hiding a lot of warts for this team. Brian, Tom Wilson broke the Canucks emotionally and physically. Mike, I think Quinn Hughes seems even more tired of this team than I am somehow. That's

a pretty good text. Doug, I have said it before, but given how frustrated Hughes has been, I think he has one foot out the door. I wish the Canucks would trade him already to put him out of his misery. These are some dark texts coming into the Dunbar Lumber text line, and it's eight games into the season, but it's kind of like, you know, we were joking the other day. It's like, you know, there's 78 games left in the season.

But if you want to put it in another way, there's 78 games left in the season. I'm trying, and I will stress the word trying. I am trying to remain as open-minded. This is not like unbridled up. But you have to have an opinion after eight games. My opinion after eight games is that I think that they've actually, I think that the fact that they're four and four is probably,

and four and four is not a great record. It's a 500 record. I think the fact that their four and four might mask what's going on underneath the hood. if you want to be honest. What does that mean? I think that they probably could be worse, given the injuries, given the general and what we're calling and classifying as vibes around the team, and that they've probably been propped up by converting on a,

what's their shooting percentage? Probably dropped last night, but prior to that, it was a rather high shooting percentage. Is this an optimistic take? This sounds like a pessimistic take to me, but you're kind of like couching it with an optimistic voice. Yeah, I want to try and give it more. than eight games and I want to try and give it more than that's what what do you want me to say

I want to give it more than eight games that is my stance on this before I'm ready to write off a season that as you have astutely pointed out has a lot of games left in it I would like to wait so how do they turn it around uh that's a great question well it's the one for the coach yeah right how do you turn this around because he got asked another question yesterday too by the way yeah we play that on you a bit our man in Nashville nearly got his head torn off um so He sent him out into the field of battle. Yeah. I was like, you'll be okay.

Don't worry. He's a super friendly guy. Do I need a gun? No, you'll be fine. But like you say, um, I want to, I want more, more time to see if they can turn it around, which is fair. Mm-hmm. In theory. Okay.

Um, how are they going to replace Heedle? Heed could be gone for the season. Heel's career could be over. I was kind of waiting to see like what the update will be on Heedel. I'm not anticipating good news. Mike, there's centers yesterday. Yeah. We're Elias Pedersen, Max Sasson,

scored a goal. Nils Amon and Atu Ratu. Mm-hmm. And right now, that's what they're going to be. Yep. Like, it's not like, oh, Heedl will be back soon. No.

Even if he's back, it doesn't save their season. It's still Heel. Like, it's not like... Did you see what Elliot Freeman wrote in 32 thoughts? That was my next one. He said that he wrote that the Canucks for now in their search for a second line center are not willing to throw in their first round pick for next year

and then it was kind of like so far so far that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's the idea when he wrote it he should have had so far in all caps and bold they should not think about that at all it's the Gavin McKenna year I bet they're thinking about that is a really really really really risky thing well it'd be protected man it would have to be it would have to be it would just be like completely completely

mismanagement, criminal management if they were to throw an unprotected first out to address a second line center position that even if you get honestly,

here's the thing, even if you get a good second line center it might not fix this team. Forward depth is very thin. How many points this PD have? Not a lot.

And pretend pretend Heidel wasn't for a second. Is he the savior of the season? Is he going to be the one that turns it around? No. That's my point. So, like, it's not even, like, injuries at this point.

It's like, even if the team was completely healthy, they would not be good enough. Like, they just don't have the depth. So, this, it's, I mean, it's a tough conversation to have at this stage of the game, because we're eight games in. And to be quite honest, it's not a super entertaining or enjoyable conversation to have because the last two games on that road trip. and people are going to bake a bunch of I don't want to call them excuses

but they're going to bake a bunch of excuses into the recipe Depleted lineup end of a trip The captain is tired and he just wants to go home I texted you yesterday I said the last two games of that trip That's Calgary offense I watched both of the last two Calgary games And that's Calgary offense

Where it's a struggle to generate anything So what in your brain is Is forcing you to try and be I don't want to say like positive But like are you not watching these games I'm watching them through us true. They're not close. Like that power play yesterday. The five on three was bad. No, the everything was bad. The five on three was

particularly bad. Even the style is bad. It's ugly, ugly hockey. You know, you know, when we talked about the connects on their power play, they need to, they need to have like a go-to play. You don't have to go to it all the time. But I think every power play needs to have some semblance of an idea of what they're trying to set up. What are they trying to set up? It looked like half the time they were like looking at each other. It was like, you got any ideas because I mean that is when they actually got set up I think they need to zip it around more personally well or snap it around I suppose like Hughes ripping shots from the point is not the answer nope you know and and did you hear Adam foot give a little we got to get

our feet moving out there that was heard that a few times last year so so I maybe I was hoping that Adam Foote had some ideas on how they got those feet moving out there, but I guess he's not a miracle worker. I think, and you know, we did mention that Demko again was pretty spectacular last night, 33 saves on 35 shots in a game where it was tilted at times pretty favorably and heavily in terms of the Nashville Predators. It was interesting because the Pittsburgh game on this trip, when Lankan went in, you kind of saw what happened when someone doesn't provide you.

A plus great A goal. And like, we came in after that game, and I know we focused a lot on the deployment why that game was so janky and weird. But another one of the takeaways for me was Lankton didn't have a great game, but it was by far from a colossal like NHL stinker. Like he didn't let in egregious misplays of the month type goals or anything. He just wasn't razor. He wasn't razor. No, razor sharp. Yeah.

And when you're not razor sharp, you're on the wrong end of a 5-1 loss to a Pittsburgh team, which by the way, one again last night. They're off to a good start. So there's another thing, too. You look at this stretch coming up. We've talked a lot about this weekend at hand. There are three really big games, two of them in a back-to-back scenario, and then the third one, without a ton of rest, because they're going to go Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday. Demko and Lankinen are, again, going to have to perform to the highest of their abilities if the Kinnock's want to get anything out of the next three games, two of which are against opponents to play last night. We can get into that game.

some point because that was a very controversial and eventful game between Edmonton and Montreal and then they got the New York Rangers on Tuesday I mean if things were going a little bit better I'd look at these next three games as an opportunity like an opportunity to get some excitement I don't know maybe it's my personality but I look at these games as uh-oh like if these goes bad if these go bad and the way they've played in these last two games and just their lineup right now just their lineup right now and you're like how in what way are they going to go good biggest issue and you i know you were talking about well what difference is heedle going to make

now i will say this we had this very similar conversation after they lost to st louis and went out on the three game road trip and then they played well in the first three games of that road trip and rattled off three straight victories they had a good comeback against dallas and chicago and then they had a very good first period against washington The difference now is when you look at this lineup, Heedle's not there. So no, he's not going to be the savior, but he's going to make them a better team, obviously, when he's in the lineup. And, you know, part of the reason why they had those three wins after the St. Louis lost is because he was in there playing. You look at it right now and you can make a very, very valid argument that, again, I bring back the Calgary example.

Part of the reason Calgary can't score is because Calgary doesn't have the talent. They have one line that they rely on, and it's not giving them anything right now. Well, what does that sound familiar like, right? Look at Pedersen's point production over the last three games, and it's just not there. Okay, so to kind of put a closer on what happened yesterday, even before the game, we had a guy in Nashville. And, you know, look, it wasn't some secret.

It was Adam Vingen, who writes for Sportsnet quite often. He's been based in Nashville for a while. He used to cover the predators for a newspaper down there. So here's what happened. Adam texted me Adam Vingen not at foot Adam Vingen texted me a couple days ago

and he said hey it was after the Pittsburgh game and he said hey I'm filling in for IMac in Nashville and just wondering what I should ask like what should my story be and I said well

like the deployment was the major talking point after the Pittsburgh game so you know if you can get if you get Adam Foot to talk about the ice time and I kind of showed him some stats from the game

just like social media post it wasn't anything like go get him it was just like this is a story you can write about if you want so

he showed up to the practice day I guess which was yesterday two days ago sorry two days ago right

so that would have been Wednesday correct right and I think he was told then that Adam Foote wasn't speaking, right? But they would make Kevin Dean available.

Adam Foote had something to do. Sure. And, you know, there wasn't a ton of media covering the team anyway. So... It was Adam Vingen. Yeah, it was Adam Vingen, right? Like, whatever. And so I think Adam Vingen said, well, you know,

I'd prefer to talk to Adam Foote, like the head coach. So instead of that, I'll just wait for the morning skate. Sure. No disrespect to Kevin Dean. In the meantime, Adam Foote had been prepped on what's going to happen, right? You know, like he had been prepped on

what was the talking points and he sounded ready to go when poor Adam Vingen asked... He threw him into the field of battle with no help. Asked the question and Adam actually texted me he was like

he goes, he goes, I thought he was going to tear my head off. I thought he was going to tear his head off. I watch a video. And I'm like, poor Adam Vinginin he's like suddenly throwing thrown into the Vancouver Canucks Frey, you know, he's like, walks in there. It's like, well, what's going on with this crazy team? I like, it was like band of brothers when the guy sends the, the fresh-faced 18-year-old soldier

into battle, and he's like, go get him, kid. We got to play the audio, though. We got to play the audio of Adam Vingen, ask you, do you have it ready to go, laddie? Okay, here's, here's, I don't know if we have the question, but he, okay, here we go. Adam, Alias Pederson had the lowest ice time at five-on-five among your center room in Pittsburgh the other night. Why was that? Why did he have the lowest ice time five on five? Yes, I'm on your center group.

Do you, can you give me his ice time on the special teams? Do you remember it? Not off hand, no. You don't remember it? It was four in power playing two on the PK. Oh, he was eight minutes special teams. And probably two shifts in the last eight minutes because we're down five one, or the last probably six or seven minutes.

I don't know exactly. So when you're playing eight minutes on special teams, you know, mainly because of our injury. and those are harder minutes, you know, killing penalties, things like that. And then you take the three games in three and a half days where you look at Washington physical hockey and three hard row games and he played really good. So you try to manage, you know, hard penalty kill minutes, hard PK, minute, 20 shifts when, you know, you're getting eight minutes compared to the previous year he's probably,

my guess is he's averaging four to five minutes special teams. So when you're up an eight-minute mark and you're down 5-1 and you had three games and three-and-half days, you're trying to manage a guy physically, not putting him in a place to get injured either. You know, you're playing those hard minutes in a game and you're, you know, you want to win until the end and we're always in striking distance even at 5-1.

We're thinking about it, like we gave him a couple more offensive draws or things like that to see if we get a quick one. But I would say when you look at the overall statistics, it's harder to play. Harder minutes are, in my opinion, are going to be special team minutes, which his are up from last year. So if we really want to dig in it and we can, he's probably a minute on average less, five on five of the year, but probably two minutes if we really focus on the PK of the last three or four games compared to the first three where he's more of a PK guy. We wanted to get him in gradually so he wouldn't get caught where you have to

go learn it when you play it, then he's probably off a minute on PK, or sorry, five-on-five overall, but probably up two good minutes on special teams. So, you know, that probably explains how we're thinking. And he's going to have harder minutes five-on-five right now because he's the most veteran centerment. So we're going to have to put him probably a more starts in his end than we would prefer. But he's really good at finding his guy off, face-off, and things like that. So I gave the in-depth one, and I hope that answered your question.

So I think he was prepped for that one. It feels like he puts some thought into that. Yeah, just a little bit, I think. All right, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up, Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us. And before we get to him, I need to tell you about JanPro. From the boardroom to the break room and everywhere in between Janpro

keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected for a free quote, visit them online at Janpro.C. You're listening to the Halford and Breath Show on Sportsnet, 6.50. It's Canucks Central with Dan Richo and Saty R. Shaw, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.55 on 8 Friday. Oh, yes. Fiesta Friday. Halford, Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Alford and Bradford in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Only a license insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how. Visit sands dash trustee.com. We are in our one of the program. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us in just a moment here. Our one of the program is brought to you by Northstar. 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. Time now for our NFL preview brought to you by the Clayton Public House. For that, we bring in our good buddy and guests from NFL.com, Nick Shook, here now, live on the Halford and Breath Show on Sports 9-650. Morning, Nick, how are you?

Fantastic. Happy Fiesta Friday to you, too. Yeah, we're going to bypass terrible Thursday for Fiesta Friday. We're not going to subject you to having to speak about the Chargers Vikings game yesterday because it was pretty gross and there's a lot of other things that we can look forward to, including a bunch of really interesting storylines between quarterbacks and their feuds

and their rivalries and their markets. Now, we've already talked about the Aaron Rogers thing. We'll leave that for the end of the hit. I know that you wrote, and we talked about this midweek, the Russell Wilson, Sean Payton, back and forth. And we didn't get the final chapter of this. which was Sean Payton responding to what Russell Wilson throughout there on social media.

I know you wrote about this for NFL.com. What exactly is going on here? And is this one put to bed now? I mean, his attempt to diffuse it by saying that it was never intended to be a shot at Russell Wilson at all, I guess, is the final word or the conclusion to all of this. I don't think it's going to go back and forth. But it's interesting because Sean Payton's not a guy who runs from conflict. In fact, he often encourages it.

and one might argue that he encouraged it with his comments that he made after the Broncos unlikely, and yes, very, very unlikely and should be thinking their lucky stars that they pulled it off victory over the Giants. What's more shocking is that there's no animosity between Aaron Rogers and the Green Bay Packers, at least not publicly, and that Rogers at this point in his life has moved on, essentially, and, you know, he's learned and he's grown, and he's a more mature guy, he's not holding any grudges anymore. I don't buy that for a second, number one. But he said it all week, and Matt will for his downplayed as well and said, you know,

I think most of these guys didn't even play with them. I counted off top of my head at least a dozen Packers, key Packers all played with Aaron Rogers a few years ago. So I think that, shockingly, you would think that the upcoming game between the Packers and Aaron Rogers would gain more traction to have more animosity than Sean Payton and Russell Wilson, who spent his sideline, or Sunday on the sideline, on the bench for the Giants.

But, and again, the NFL, it's a super popular sport because you should always expect the unexpected. Yeah, well, the Packers and Rogers thing is weird to me because he has been really downplaying. I guess maybe it has to do with the fact that he's not going back to Green Bay. Like, this game's going to be in Pittsburgh. But for a guy that seems to love the spotlight and the drama and everything that comes along with it,

I do think it's a little odd that he's downplaying it. Maybe it's got to do with the fact that the Packers are a pretty good team and they don't need any more fuel to the fire. I think one element that really made me actually kind of believe what he's saying is he's in this, this is my last year type of tour, and he seems to be kind of cooling everything off, you know, chilling out a little bit finally at this age, as if he's now trying to savor his final moments in the NFL.

It would make sense, yeah, the fact that it's not in Green Bay, that he doesn't have to go back to Lambeau for it, everything else, which we're all being robbed of a great scene, I think. We once saw Brett Farage do it when he was the Vikings, and we can all think back to that very fondly. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Rogers knows his time to walk away from football is near. Because when he's still on the field, he's still the same kind of cranky old guy, like when Broder Jones is tackling him and, you know, during a celebration and stuff like that.

And so I don't necessarily buy that he's not still the same guy, but maybe he's just gotten better at PR. So looking ahead to this weekend, and we've been talking about this a lot, like there's a lot going on this weekend. The World Series gets underway tonight. Locally, there's two Canucks games, so we're kind of hyper-focused on that,

including one on Sunday night, which is going to run right up against that Packers and Steelers game. What are you most looking forward to from this Sunday slate? Because we were actually thinking, like, this might be the weekend where we pay less attention to the national football league. Yeah, we might have our bye week, Nick. Yeah, because the Seahawks are on a buy.

We're like, this might be our bi-week, but I'm being drawn in by Sunday night football. What else are you looking forward to for Sunday? Well, first off, I'd like to congratulate the both of you for even having the opportunity to have a bi-week or consider it by-week. I know, right? Because over here, we are an 18-week season. Yeah, it's a good question. First, and the other thing, too, is I noticed this as you were coming back from break. I was like, I don't think I've ever heard of Blue Jay's ad during an NFL hit.

Here you go. So congratulations to all of Canada for, first. seeing their baseball team, you know, make the World Series pulling for you. I mean, what am I looking forward to? The weird slate, to be completely honest. It is a weird slate. You get the Giants, Eagles rematch in Philly, and Philly's going to, you know, be getting after Jackson dart from the stands.

We'll see if they can get after him on the field. You know, are we going to get Lamar Jackson back to the Ravens, and are they going to be able to stand up against the Bears? Because the Ravens, real scary hours at one in five. Chiefs Commanders lost a lot of gusto when Jaden Daniels got hurt. Yeah, it's tough. What am I looking forward to? Another weekend of unpredictable football.

That's what I'm looking forward to your week. What about, Nick, what about Bills and Panthers? Like, how are the Panthers, how do the Panthers have four wins? Well, because Bryce Young's playing pretty good football, even if the stats don't show it. That's the first part. And they also, because they've been running the football really well, which helps your quarterback. You know, the early in the season for the Panthers, it was Bryce Young's basically just relying on Ted McMillan, and that's it. and now they've been able to open up their offense a little bit.

Rico Dattle, you know, has made waves with his big two games, and then he had, you know, a quieter game when they got Chuba Hubbard back this past week. But they're starting to play cohesive football, which is good. The defense has really come around pretty quickly for them. We'll see if it actually holds over the course of the season. But they also played three teams that can't stop a nosebleed. Let's not forget that. They played Miami.

We know where Miami is. They played Dallas, although Dallas did better against Washington last week, and they played the Jets. So they're going to get their tests coming up now with the bills and Packers in the next two weeks. And so, yeah, I guess that actually might end up being one of the most intriguing matches from the week. Is there anything more to say about the Jets? Like, what is going on with this team when the owners seems to be feuding with poor Justin Fields, who's like, I'm not even that good.

Like, stop picking on me. They haven't won a game. They're not close. I don't know. I mean that there was that viral moment where that kid was saying like I was born into this but I hate this team

and like I kind of felt like that and for other reasons but the question has been asked so many times how do they dig their way out of this? They just seem to be digging an even bigger hole down. I actually would like to push back against that a little bit

yeah the vibes are bad for them right now but they were competitive against some strong teams earlier this season. I mean, the way they lost to the Buccaneers, the way they fought back into that game, the way they lost to the Steelers. They didn't do the little things right, which is why I didn't produce a victory for them,

but they were competitive. I do believe that they have not found their quarterback, and look, man, maybe I'm the last guy to jump off the train, but I'm jumping off of the Justin Fields train. I'm abandoning ship. It's yet another situation in which his offensive line didn't protect him well enough, slash he didn't set a protection consistently enough for him to then trust them.

And it has, again, as it did in Chicago, broken down his ability to survey the field before looking to run. Now he's just stuck in a place between those two realities, and it costs him the opportunity to throw the ball to open receivers even underneath. It's an ugly operation. Now, the play that he took that big hit on was him scrambling. It was actually a positive play, and they had a little bit of that element in their offense. that seemed to be kind of unlocking them in this, you know, this past game against the Panthers.

It's unfortunate that he was in and then out and then in and then out. But I also understand entirely why, you know, the Jets would even be considering making a change in quarterback because they're just a terrible offense with him. Having said all of that, I don't think they're that bad of a team, and I think they have the right coach. It's just these things don't happen overnight. We can think back to the Lions, you know, when Danny Campbell first took over is the obvious example that everybody's going to throw up on the screen. So it's a tough watch right now.

and it's not going to get any easier for them because they're going to play the Bengals. They go into their buy. They play the Browns. One of the top, you know, defenses the NFL. I mean, the back half the schedule is certainly not friendly to them other than when they play Miami. You never know what's going to happen with that division game. It's going to be a dark, cold winter

in New York for the Jets, but I do not think this is the same old situation in which they have no direction at all. I think Aaron Glenn's the right guy is just going to take time. One more before they go, and I'll stay in the division. It's like the Jets haven't found their quarterback, but the New England Patriots sure have. I know Jason asked you a couple weeks ago about Drake May.

And since then, I've paid a little bit more attention. And he throws an unbelievable deep ball. He's one of the best deep ball passers in the NFL right now. Where is he at for you in terms of that hierarchy that you do every week in terms of the best quarterbacks in the NFL? I'm so glad that you are now on the Drake May train. Welcome aboard. Welcome to the exclusive club.

You are in on the ground level. And this is going to be a skyscraper before you know it. So congratulations. Drake May has climbed all the way into the top five. He is tier two at the top of tier two at number five because of everything that you have now seen. He just continues to improve. And he's a huge reason why the Patriots have the record that they do now, which is probably shocked most of the league and understandably so.

Now, I do have one admission to make while I'm on your platform. Yep. Baker Mayfield is still number one on here. That was my mistake. and I can't change it now because the graphics are out. It's my filing mistake. I simply forgot to move Baker one spot down and Patrick Mahomes one spot up. When I sent the blurbs in that go beneath, Patrick Mahomes is the first blur because he was intended to be number one.

So Baker gets one of those mulligans that you rarely see in the world of prognostication, criticism, and analysis. But that's where we are right now because of my own filing error. Like Sashi Brown and the 2007 Cleveland Browns who failed to trade for Asian. McCarran because of a filing issue, I have encountered the same problem this week. One, that's a wildly deep cut. Very impressive. The 07 draft with A.J. McCarran. And two, Baker needs to run with this opportunity.

He got the number one spot. He needs to retain it this week. Think of it as an opportunity, not a mistake, Nick, for the Tampa Bay, Cuba. You are. We'll go with that. Yeah, there you go. Okay, buddy, thanks for doing this. We really appreciate it.

Enjoy all the games this weekend on the Sunday night or we'll do this again next Friday. All right, thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah, have a good one. That's Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford and Bruff Show on SportsNet, 650. Let's do some Ask Us Anything. It's Ask Us Anything Friday, and be sure to include the pizza emoji if you want to be entered into the contest for best Ask Us Anything.

A hundred dollar gift card to AJ's is on the line. Steve from Burnaby, Ask Us Anything. Were you more worried about the Canucks prior to the start of the road trip or now after its conclusion? Really good question. The answer is after, because Heedle's gone. Because of Heedle. Yeah. You, and I would say a bit of Hughes, because here's another ask us anything.

Hughes's visible level of frustration seems excessive for a 500 team eight games into the season. What do you make of it? Is he saying he's done? I don't think we need to go that far yet, but I think his level of frustration is worth noting and worth talking about. and maybe we can look back to some of his comments from before the season where he said we need to get off to a good start. We need to be seven and three after 10 games. Well, they won't be that because they're four and four right now.

And I think he's looking at the same things as we are. I mean, that power play, which he's a big part of, doesn't look very good. Like who's a shooting option on that power play right now? well yeah and unfortunately I love his moxie but Connor Garland but that's the reason why a lot of us were saying like give Lechromack you a chance on this

yes you know because Pedersen had that one timer in the preseason we're all like okay maybe but you know they're still not you know first of all Quinn looks them off half the time and half the time Pedersen gets the buck he's not in a shooting position he's not ready he's not he doesn't want to do it You know, Besser doesn't necessarily play

Like a shooting role on that power play He's not set up for a one-time or anything like that And Lackermacky's hurt right now But I think if you're Quinn Hughes Maybe you're just tired, man Like that that Post-game interview that he had After the game last night

He just seemed tired There was a reason why we played the Forrest Gump clip And I was like, I'm pretty pretty tired. I think I'll go home now. That's what he wanted to do. You know, and that's what he was saying. He played 30 minutes last night.

29, 26. Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now. That was actually Quinn Hughes, not Tom Hanks. To answer the question, why does he seem so frustrated? This is a huge ear for him.

Remove, remove the looming, whatever you want to call it. move family reunion contract negotiation just remove that part of it this year for quinn hughes i think he really genuinely wants it to work in vancouver i i never question his dedication heart commitment investment into the team he's always spoken about how much he appreciates being the captain and being the captain of a canadian team in a canadian market okay i think he wants it to work also this is a big year for him he did not get to play in the Four Nations face off and represent his country.

And if you've heard him speak about that, you know that that's of huge importance to him. That's on the horizon. He obviously wants to be playing at his best and to be showing everything he can do and be at his peak going into those Olympics. And right now, let's be honest, that's not happening. So there's also an individual frustration with all of this

because I'm sure after these games, he's looking at himself and saying, what do I need to do to make this team better? What do I need to do to be better? And it's not to put blame on 43. That's not it. I don't think you can blame him for anything. He's trying his best.

But it's just not happening right now because everything looks janky. Breakouts look janky. The power play looks janky. It doesn't look like anything is coming easy for this team. And what's the one thing we've said about Hughes throughout the course of his crew? Sometimes he makes it look easy because it's so effortless for him.

Yeah, that's not happening right now. And right now it's not happening. Keith, the water guy, anything. What about this team gave you more optimism before than you have now? I mean, look, during the preseason, I was talking about the top line and just being like, this top line isn't getting it done. And, you know, we can be optimistic about, I mean, here's the answer, you know, certain guys not being there anymore. I mean, I didn't blame Rick Tocket for what happened last season, you know, and people said, ah, the media doesn't get.

it right like okay well that's my opinion i mean the one thing when when rick tocket um you know had his coach of the year's season with the knucks canucks had an identity they had an identity i know it wasn't the identity that some of you wanted because it was at times well certainly it wasn't a high-flying identity or anything but it was an identity and they all bought into it for one season and then the other guy that wasn't going to be here was going to be j t miller right And we all thought, okay, well, maybe J.T.'s not here. Maybe that gives him, Elias Petters, some breathing room, and he can rediscover his form again. Yeah, but the problem with that line of thinking was like, but J.T. Miller isn't here anymore.

You know, like, he made that, him and, him and Hughes made that power play work when it was, when it was working, right? I mean, you had Hughes doing his thing at the top, but you also, I mean, in some ways, J.T. Miller was the quarterback of that power play. off the left half wall. Just to follow up and piggyback off that, too, the removal of Miller was part of this like good times, good vibes thing that we were talking about going into the season.

It's the same thing in Toronto. People were like, thank God, Marner's gone. Oh yeah? Well, how are you going to place Marner? Sure. You know, like I'm not saying that Miller didn't have to go or that it was time for the Leafs to break up with Marner. Right? I think sometimes you do have to make these moves.

But then it's like, oh well who's a guy that got Matias Machelli or something like that's like oh what a surprise that he wasn't able to replace Mitch Marner one of the best players in the game no and Matthew Nyes too they're like well he'll just step up and elevate his game

and it's like you know part of the reason he was so good last year is because there was so much attention being paid to Marner like you know he was a second attacker not a first line guy but back to Keith's text what about this team gave you more optimism before than you had now they were healthier before one

going into the year Demko being back was big. Demko being back was big. We talked about the vibes. We talked about Pedersen bouncing back. Again, right? Petey's going to figure it out. Petey has one goal in eight games. He has four points in eight games. So he's on pace to being a half a point of game guy. And not playing a ton. Right? By the way, did he hit the over last night? We set the over. Jason set the over. Jason set the over. Yesterday for PDI's time at 19. 59. I got over it. Yeah. I don't know what exactly. I can remember what exactly, but it was like 12. 20 minutes and some sort of seconds. He got over it right at the end. But one of the biggest things that we had... He clutched up and got over 20 minutes of ice time. He started out well because he had like a two-minute shift to start and then the Kinnock's got a power play.

And he stayed out there. So yeah, he was like he played like the first three and a half minutes of the game. But Keith, I'm going to be dead honest. A lot of the reason that we had optimism. And me at times feigning optimism, which I'm still doing now because I'm holding out for the 20 game mark. was the talk about improved chemistry and improved vibes and a better feeling around this team.

And the guys gave lip service to it. It wasn't just Rutherford in his media availability. The players gave lip service to it. That they felt like there was a cohesiveness and a togetherness and that everyone made the decision to come back. And remember that narrative too, that everyone made the decision to come back. Brock made the decision to come back. Garland signed to stay on long term.

everyone wanted to write the ship and they wanted to write it together and in Vancouver and so when people are saying that and that's the messaging publicly at a certain level you have to be like okay there's your reason for optimism they want to do this the guys that signed on and ignore all of the

like you know the remarks you could make to counter those all the guys said it Demko said it Pettersons talked about it they've talked about they wanted to be the guys that turned his thing around from a disappointing year last year. Now they're going to have to go out and do it again because right now this season has been

started okay with the win over Calgary for sure. Two games after that, there were a lot of red flags. Go out on the road, bang off three straight wins and people are a little bit more optimistic, but then it ends, and it ended with a thud. Right now, was it a tired thud? Yeah. Was it a banged up and depleted thud?

Yeah, but it was also two goals in two games to end the trip. And that is not great. 21 shots against, it was 21, no, 22 shots against a Nashville team that isn't exactly a powerhouse last night. Okay, we're going to chat with AJ real quick coming up next. And then right after that, Jesper Sorenson, they call them gaffers and soccer. They do. He's like a gaffer. It kind of sounds like a killer. It's like gaffed them. Yesper Sorensen. The White Caps, what a great story. They've been.

this year and they start their MLS Cup run. Hopefully it's a long one this weekend at B.C. Place against Dallas and we'll talk to Yusper. Coming up next on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 6.50. This segment of the show was brought to you by the chat room at Tyrant Studios.

Join Joe Leary and special guests this Sunday afternoon at 12 noon for Vancouver's coolest talk show. The chat room at Tyrant Studios. You can hear it right here on SportsNet 650.