Halford & Brough in the Morning - Thatcher Demko's Unprecedented Injury

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk Ohtani's incredible and historic 50/50 game last night (6:00), they talk what other insane sports records have the chance of getting broken sometime soon (12:00), the boys hear from Canucks players from yesterday's training camp Day 1 (16:00) including Thatcher Demko on his unique injury, they set up Sunday's Seahawsks game versus Miami with ESPN's Brady Henderson (27:10), plus the boys debate if Jonathan Lekkerimäki makes the opening night roster for the Canucks (45:00). 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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The weekend Good morning Vancouver It's 6 o'clock on a Friday So higher expectations, it's going to be hard. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. It's 6 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. This is Alfred and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddy, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And Arash. It's our final day together.

Good morning to you as well. Good morning. Alfred and bruv of the morning is brought to you by Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. Get a rash. It's our final day together. Good morning to you as well. Halford and Brougham for the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service or parts. We are in hour one of the program.

Hour one is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. 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. 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, we've got a big show ahead on a Friday. We have a lot to get into. Our guest list begins at 6.30. Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN, is going to join us, talk about the Seahawks game on Sunday. Seahawks are going to look to run their record to 3-0 against Skylar Thompson.

Skylar Thompson and the Miami Dolphins. Seahawks are four-and-a-half point favorites at home. Don't know if Kenneth Walker III is going to play. Kenneth Walker III. So we'll talk to Brady about all that at 630. More Jose Charbonneau, I guess. That's a good pull. A deep cut. Not a lot of people are

going to know what he's talking about, but I do. And that's the important thing. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We will talk to him about this upcoming weekend. I'm going to go by AJ's on Sunday. We're going to watch the Cowboys game together. His beloved Dallas Cowboys.

Who are they playing? They are playing the Baltimore Ravens. Oh, that's an interesting matchup, actually, because the Cowboys just got pumped by New Orleans, and Baltimore's looking for its first win. They're desperate. Desperate Ravens. Thanks for the invite.

Appreciate it. Would you like to go? I can't. I'm busy. Oh, God. 730 Bob the Moj Marjanovic is going to join us on the program. No Lions game this week, but we will still talk to him. We haven't really had a chance to catch up from last Friday's

debacle against the Argos. Yeah, we can talk Canucks too. Moj, remember, he's like a beat reporter. I wonder if he's in Penticton. I don't know. We'll find out. Moj is everywhere. That's true. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere you want to be. Eight o'clock,

Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. Did Dolly send you the talking points for this? He doesn't send them to me. Yeah. Him and Brough have an interesting relationship. They fight.

They're itchy and scratchy. They argue. But then they love each other in the end. Love might be a strong word. Yeah, believe it or not, Dolly wants to talk about the uh dakota joshua situation and the thatcher demko situation okay there we go we now know what we're talking about with rick dolly while he actually clock he actually

i think he might have a little tidbit or two on vilmer okay so vilmer all rrichson. Yes, but. Oh, God. How do you spell it? Please tell me. Is there a Q? Wilmer Arklesson. Arklesson. Arklesson. I guess not as bad as I thought it would be. He's a different player. Arklesson.

How this kid improved to get noticed by Talkit. Yeah, but not enough to have his name spelled correctly. Demko spelled right. Joshua spelled right. Honestly, this is surprising. Talkit has spelled right. Atta boy. Three out of four. Rick. It's a passing grade. It's getting better. Yeah. How old is he? 60? All right. Honestly, this is surprising. Taka has spelled right. Atta boy. Three out of four.

It's a passing grade. He's getting better. How old is he, 60? All right. And we got Dolly Wall at eight. We're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's. We mentioned AJ's going to join us at seven o'clock. For the best, ask us anything.

The concept, as always, very simple. You ask us something, we answer it. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Send them in as well as your What We Learns. We'll do all of those in the final half hour of the program. Working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, Dollywall. 7.30, Marjanovic.

7 o'clock, AJ630. Henderson. Brady, that is. That's the guest list for today. Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, training visit them online at bccsa.ca so if we're not going to start with the vancouver canucks uh on day two of training camp with all these stories and narratives and big news items you know something special had to have happened And if we're starting with baseball, you know, something very, very special must have happened. And Shohei Otani is very, very special. Shohei Otani etched his name into major league baseball history on Thursday, becoming the first and only member of the 50,

50 club against the lowly Miami Marlins. Otani earlier this year became the first guy in recent memory to get to the 40-40. And then yesterday, he got there after stealing two bases and then hitting his 50th home run in the top of the seventh inning. Here's what it sounded like. Shohei Otani making history. On a one-two, Otani sends one in the air. The other way.

Back it goes. Gone! history. So you could make the argument here that Shohei Otani had the best and most efficient single game offensive performance in MLB history in a year where he might be having the best offensive season by a player in MLB history. And that's not hyperbole. Do you think Big Papi was watching that game? And like, damn it. He tipped his cap. He's like, to you, Shohei. Fine. Six for six.

You can be MVP. Six for six. Three home runs. 10 RBI. He drove in 10 of the Dodgers, 20 runs on the game. And of course, he swiped a couple bags as well. Only 50% of their runs? Come on, Shohei. It's unbelievable.

You know what I was happy about? I'm just glad that it happened in such a special place and that 15 000 people in miami were able to witness that another tip of the cap to you miami when i saw that final home run ball sailing into the empty seats out in right field that was truly a special moment you see the guy that almost caught the ball no oh yeah he wasn't gonna catch that he going to ricochet off his hand. There was a dude hanging over the railing, and it nicked his fingers. The 50th? Yeah.

Not the final. Not the BP one? No, that was stupid. The 50th was the one that everyone was going for. And then Darren Revell was right there on his calculator anticipating how much it was going to be worth. Where did the ball end up? It ended up... So there was a...

Like a table section. Yeah, it looked like some sort of picnic section in the outfield at ground level. So did a fan get it? Yeah, a fan got it. There was a wrestling... Massive dog pile. Massive wrestling match ensued.

So we should point out that the Dodgers also clinched a playoff. It'd be funny if Otani's translator got it. No, he can't because he's incarcerated. No, I know. Yeah, it'll be tough for him to do things. He has like a day pass. You know he's getting 33 years in prison?

Ipe? Remember Ipe? Mm-hmm. The answer is no, nobody does, but your show, he's killing it right now. Poor Ipe's sitting there. What does Ipe think of all this? I don't know. No one's going to find out either

because the show, he's going to the playoffs, baby. That's the great part of all of this. This isn't just a regular season exploit. We're going to get to see him in the postseason. Probably rewrite some more record books. Because at this point, I am not putting anything past Shohei Otani. And he might pitch in the playoffs, too. Did you hear that?

That would be remarkable. He is maybe... Well, he's certainly the best natural athlete I've ever seen in baseball. Yeah. And so I'll be like, what about the kid? I was like, mm-hmm, better than him. He is, he is, I was having this conversation with some guys on my hockey team, and it was like,

you just watch him running the bases or swinging the bat or doing whatever. It's like, he's perfect. It all looks too effortless. He's perfect. It does, it does. It looks too, he's just like, he's just made for this. Yep. That's perfect it all looks too effortless it does it does it looks too he's just like he's just made for this yep that's exactly it he's built for this he's perfect and i don't know i mean there have been some great natural athletes that we've all seen over our lives but uh he is up there it's incredible and the way he hit the 50 5050 was... It sounds like he won the 50-50. That's true. It was reminiscent of, for me,

when Gretzky had five goals in his 39th game to hit 50 and 39. It's a really good... It's a good pull. The people showed up to the game and they were like, nah, he's not going to do it. What do you think the people that had tickets to Otani's next few games were thinking watching that?

They're like, come on! You couldn't save one of them? Like, you could do it. Walk him! Yeah. Walk him! When Gretzky hit five goals to hit 50 in 39, there was a sense that he understood what he was doing.

The closer he got to it, he realized. Well, the game was in Edmonton, too, which was kind of cool. But his fifth goal was into an empty net. So there was that moment, too, right? Things broke his way. Yeah, the Flyers didn't play very well in their Cooper Halls that day. They did not at all. How did he score five goals in a game that required a goalie poll at the end?

What was the score of this game? It's the 80s, man. Was it 9-8? Probably like 9-8. Yeah, 9-8. It was a tight one. Tight defensive affair. So there are certain superstars.

When we talk about generational athletes, this is maybe how we should talk about them. That they do the really, really rare things and have a sense of occasion and moment.

Like you can't. And I know that there's been not allegations, but they're like, it felt like the Marlins were grooving them after a while. Cause some, some people said, and astutely pointed out, like if a guy's going like that,

maybe just pitch around him. Maybe don't let him hit the baseball. Maybe don't let him drive in 10 runs against you. Like that seems like a good baseball strategy. They said, no, you know, and actually the manager said, we're not going to mess with the baseball gods. We're not going to go against this.

Like, we're going to try and go after him. And then he put a position pitcher, a player up there. Anyway, I digress. With Gretzky, there was a sense of moment. It was like, this is the time to do it. And it's very difficult to actually follow through and have this kind of performance. Because like you said.

That's why the comparisons to McDavid weren't, that's what McDavid didn't have those moments. Yeah. Until I suppose you could say this year when they went to the Stanley Cup final. Right. But all these greats had these moments. Exactly. Lemieux in 87 at the Canada Cup, Sid even in 2010, like he had these moments. Exactly. Lemieux in 87 in the Canada Cup. Sid even in 2010.

He had these great moments, and that's what we were waiting for from McDavid. I don't know if he had that signature moment, though. Right. Did he have the signature moment in the playoffs? He had some great games. One defining moment? I don't know. Probably not what we're talking about. Mario had that goal in the Stanley Cup final against Minnesota, too.

Super Mario. Yeah. Yeah. And that was like an 8-0 game, too. And that's why McDavid isn't very good. Yeah. That's how we wanted to turn this. We wanted to reignite, somehow turn Shohei into the Vancouver-Edmonton rivalry.

No, but like Shohei could have very easily done the two stolen bases last night and got to 50 and then done the homers like the next game. Yeah, spread them out a little bit. But he understood the assignment and he understood the moment. So very cool. By the way, if you want to weigh in on the Dunbar Lumber text line, something we're going to try and do throughout the show. Other individual sports records that could fall in the next decade that we never thought were going to fall single season or otherwise because i i'm going to be honest i did not think a couple years ago that the 50 50 was attainable i didn't remember the stolen base had gone like completely out of vogue and it was not happening there were steals were not happening with any regularity the 40 40

seemed really difficult the nerds took stealing away from us. Right, and now it's back because we pushed the nerds in a locker and we're like, steal those bases. And Shohei was like, all right, let's do it. G-Maz asking, can you explain to some of your listeners what the 50-50 means? And it was like me asking to Greg yesterday, explain this in hockey terms.

So he wants to know what the action is. So you know when David got 100 assists, he's like, well, imagine if he also got 100 goals. See, I saw that. I'm not sure that's even right. No, it's not. There is no hockey. There's no hockey equivalent.

Because it's the mashup of strength and speed that has not been seen before. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like you're the fastest guy and you're the strongest guy. You hit 50 home runs and you stole 50 bases. 50 goals and 50 fights. Yeah, that would be it. 50 goals and 50 fights. I'm not even sure.

The old 50-50 club. That's a good and that's a hard one to get into. I bet Taka came the closest to anyone to doing that. Yeah, Taka's like, I did that. I was doing that in the 80s. So records that you think might fall over the next little bit. I mean, we all know the one that we're keeping an eye on, and that's Ovi catching Gretzky.

By the way, Ovi's had kind of a painful start to the season, hasn't he? Had to miss a few days of skating yes um so we'll monitor that he's got uh 41 goals to go to catch gretzky's overall 894 he's gonna break it i don't think it's guaranteed i think it's i think it's 90 i think it's guaranteed i think it's a 90 guaranteed 90 but but i never thought that would be broken likewise and i think a lot of it has to do with just well everything has to do with um the game has goals now so all of a sudden you know the things that we're seeing mcdavid do in terms of point totals in a season and goal totals, things seem possible again. Now, I don't know. It's going to need to take maybe a further step

of the scoring evolution in order to really ramp up again. But I would love to see someone take a legitimate run at the 92 goals in a single season. That would be crazy. Or get back to maybe someone has a run at 200 points. 92 goals in a single season that would be crazy or get back to maybe someone has a run at 200 points 92 goals in a season would be uh can you imagine the pressure on that player down the stretch because gretzky when he was sending that he had blown the record out of the water so far that it was just kind of like whatever i'll just keep scoring here so so the one that's on this there's

a list here that we they kind of like scraped off the internet. And there's one market. Actually, I doubt a lot of people even really know it. And I think it's the one that's probably always going to be unbreakable. It's Wilt Chamberlain averaging a cool 50.4 points in 1961-62. You don't think that can happen in basketball? No. No? No, I don't.

The scoring is going way up. I know, but I mean, look at the scoring leaders from last year. What are they? I don't even know. They're still in the 30s, right? And this is with, I mean, how many more points can we jam into a basketball? How many more threes can you conceivably shoot? Yeah, that's true.

I mean, we're not at maximum saturation for threes, but 50.4. Like when a guy scores 50 right now, it makes the top of ESPN.com. What was that Adam Sandler bit about Wilt's 100-point game? He does the impression of the coach, and the coaching against Wilt Chamberlain is like, hey, someone get on that guy. He's on pace for 100. Pay a little more attention to him seems to be having

a pretty good game so again if you want to weigh in on any of this we'll go back to it throughout the show it is ask us anything friday and what we learned as well dunbar lumber text line is 650 650 okay uh canucks training camp day one on the ice thatcher demko was on the ice he stopped all the shots that goalie coach marco Terrania shot at him. So that's a positive. Ooh, goalie coach shots. Those are the best shots. Hey, be positive. Obviously, the big story of the day was

Thatcher Demko addressing the media about his quote-unquote rare and unique injury. For more, let's just turn everything over to the man himself. Here is Thatcher Demko, about a minute 48 of audio that we've compiled, talking about this rare and unique injury that's going to keep him sidelined for the time being.

Thatcher Demko from yesterday. Yeah, definitely been a little bit frustrating at times. You know, I think, well, I mean, when I first injured myself in the playoffs there, there's such a rare case, such a unique injury that we didn't really have a lot of readily available research or case studies or really any information to have a concrete timeline. And, you know, we were told that this might be a situation that we might find ourselves in, the one that we're in right now. And, you know, I've been able to rehab a ton this summer.

And, sure, it's taken a little bit longer than obviously I would have liked. But, you know, especially the last couple weeks on the ice, I've been feeling a lot better. And there's definitely some light at the end of the tunnel for me now. And, you know, full confidence that I'll be back out there. When I first felt the injury, obviously I wasn't too sure what it was. And as we kind of dived into, you know, some research and things, it was a little ambiguous and, you know, it's been, like I said, a little bit of a frustrating summer just trying to get some

answers and obviously we've talked to all the specialists that we can around the world and North America and even overseas and, you know, this is the information that we've kind of gathered. And, you know, myself and the staff and the organization are fully confident that we're on the right track. It's been wild. You know, it's been part of the frustration is just not having a ton of information. And you're kind of just going into it blindfolded. And, you know, it can be scary at times. And I think we've done a good

job handling that as a group with the medical staff and the organization and doing the best we can in that front um but yeah it's we haven't found a single hockey player we've found you know maybe less than five soccer guys uh you know just just random things like that you know it's not too concrete okay so yesterday when it was announced that uh demko would speak or two days ago when alvin said i'm not gonna say anything but thatcher is gonna speak i actually didn't take that as super bad news a dog was freaking out he's like oh my god he's gonna retire or something like that you were freaking out a little bit yep really yeah i felt it was unusual and I don't like unusual

when it comes to the character. I thought, here's how I thought. I was like, if it was super bad, they probably wouldn't put him out there at all. Sure. I'm talking about at all. Right.

Right? Just keep him under wraps. Alvin wouldn't say anything about it or he would tiptoe around it, tap dance around it. Still pretty bad. And Demko, hold on a second. And Demko would just be like,

because he didn't have to talk because he's not participating in camp. He wasn't obligated to do it really. And yes, A-Dog, thank you for stealing my thunder. It's not great. Reading off my tweet, gotta love it when your star goalie gets an unprecedented injury that no goalie has ever had before.

But he sounded confident. He did. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, he was like, I'm 100%. I'm going to get back to full health, except for all this stuff that I just said. Sure, it's unprecedented. Sure, no goalie's ever had it before.

Sure, we don't know what it is. Sure, we had to travel the world to talk to doctors who had even heard of it. Sure, it might get named after me, but no big deal. It's unprecedented. Sure, no goalie's ever had it before. Yeah, sure. Sure, we don't know what it is. Sure, we had to travel the world to talk to doctors who had even heard of it. Sure, it might get named after me, but no big deal. It's fine. There's like five soccer players that had it. Soccer guys, too. And I don't even understand, and obviously he's not obligated to go into a full explanation of what it is.

It'd be funny if he pulled down a chart and had like a little pointer. Yeah. Prepare some slides. It's like the guy from the game Operation. Yeah. See that part? Every time I go in there, it goes. It's a weird injury.

I mean, I don't like even joking about this because Halford and I were talking about it last night. And even if he does, and I think he will, get back to a point where he feels he can play this season, and it might happen in a couple weeks, who knows, how many of us are going to feel comfortable with this guy? Do you know what I mean? It just seems the whole thing is just weird.

And if you don't know, it's like typically these injuries they just have tried and trued methods of getting over them right it's like it's like you do this you do this you do this you do this you're good right and that's why they're able to give these timelines they're like yeah it's four to six weeks or it's six to eight weeks. We've seen this before. Even the most serious injuries, like the one that Mikheyev had, you have some sort of timeline where you're like, yeah, you can probably play when you get back, but you're not going to be 100% for 12 months to 18 months, whatever. That wasn't encouraging when we heard that about Mikheyev,

and I think we saw the Mikheyev, that whole thing. But at least there was this timeline with Demko now because it's so unprecedented for me and I don't know maybe I'll just be able to push this out of my mind but you know and especially going up to the playoffs we'd be like come on man like just stay together okay you know and i think it i mean i think very much i think it very much could affect the decision the canucks have to make about whether or not they re-sign thatcher demko i'm gonna read a text from a doctor mike the urologist from brockville uh this is a very very timely important and i think relevant text as to what we're talking about. It's what we learned. Mike writes, I've heard from sports medicine doctors that professional athletes can be challenging to manage.

They expect perfection, understandable, because that's how they got to where they are. But medicine isn't black and white, and sometimes they have to play through nagging pain or residual discomfort and that's life for the average person it can be hard for players to wrap their mind around that and figure out how to adapt to that i do wonder if that might be what we're talking about here is that hey you got dealt a bad hand You got an injury that's super rare, and you're right. There's not a lot of case studies and medical journals

and history and treatment plans because it's very rare. You might have to live with it as opposed to the usual course of action for a hockey player, which is, doc, get me fixed. Where do I need to fly? What clinic do I do? Is it the Mayo Clinic? Go there.

You'll get it fixed. I'll rehab, and then I'll be back to 100%. That's the goal. Well, when you're mindful of every movement you make, as professional athletes are, you don't want to feel any pain in any sense because it might get you slightly off your technique. He might

have to change how he plays his game because he has to play with this injury now. Yes. And that's a big thing, especially in going into the playoffs. Well, not just to play through, but also prevent it from happening again. He won't be able to use his knees. It's going to be real tough. Another one through the five.

Now, are they important? We'll find out. Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the program. Brady Henderson is going to join us next to preview the potentially 3-0 Seattle Seahawks. We are so jinxing them right now. I'm having a hard time. The Dolphins are coming. Skyler Thompson's the quarterback.

I'm not ready to go there. So I watched Thursday Night Football, and I saw the New England Patriots last night, and that really took some of the shine off the Seahawks win in New England on Sunday. And by a little bit of the shine, I mean a fair amount of it, because that was horrible last night. Some would say all of it.

The New England Patriots looked terrible. They got picked apart. Picked apart by Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. Yeah, because the Seahawks showed the Jets the way. Yeah, I guess. It was a blueprint. So we'll talk to Brady Henderson next. I got a lot of questions about this.

Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. Brady Henderson coming up next for some Seahawks talk here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I'd like to do an impression for you. This is the four other fellows on the team would wilt during a timeout.

Hey, I'm open, man. What are you doing? Pass the ball. I got my family here. You got like 94 points already. Ed has two. That's because you bounced it off his head. Just to share the wealth a little.

Here's my impression of the coach on the other team. Who's covering Wilk? Well, stay on him. I believe he's hot. other team who's covering will 6.32 on a Fiesta Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Alfred Brough, Sportsnet 650. Alfred Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff.

They can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. The Seahawks are in action this Sunday. It's a 1.05 kickoff from Lumen Field. The Miami Dolphins are in town. The Tua Tunga Vailoa Les Miami Dolphins. Skyler Thompson will be a quarterback. Seahawks are four and a half point

favorites at home. Joining us now for more on this game and the Seahawks at large, Brady Anderson from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Brady. How are you? Good morning, fellas. How's it going? Good to talk to you again. We are well. I'm glad you're well.

We're looking forward to this game, chance for the Seahawks to move to 3-0. Some obviously good breaks, very fortuitous breaks that they're going to get Skyler Thompson, a quarterback, and he has not started a game since 2022. Has that been the majority of the

talk going in? I know you normally focus on the Seahawks going into a game, but it's hard not to look at this one with all the coverage that Tua has gotten over the last week as it relates to Miami Dolphins. Look at this one saying that the Skyler Thompson thing is kind of the biggest story going into Week 3.

Yeah, because I think it really has to change Miami's game plan. Miami, Mike McDaniel, he was always known for the run game, but that has that has been a team that you know they're throwing the ball and they're throwing it deep and they're you know really using the NFL's fastest wide receiver core and Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle and so um you know Skyler Thompson just doesn't have the same you know kind of downfield ability that Tua has and so I think this really has to change their game plan.

I think especially coming off a week in which the Seahawks struggled against the run in New England, even I'm sure knowing that New England was really going to try to attack them that way, I think that has to change the game plan for Mike McDaniel and knowing that if they're going to win that game or if they're even going to be competitive with Seattle at Lewinfield, it's really got to be with the run game and Devon Ashane as opposed to a backup in Skyler Thompson, who's not a young guy.

He's 27 years old, but that's because he was pretty old coming out of Kansas State a couple years ago, and he's only made, I think, three career starts, only like nine appearances over his first two-plus seasons. And so I think it's going to be a very different game plan than what Miami would prefer which is you know obviously the case with any time a backup is stepping in there. So Brady I just want to take a step back to last week against New England Patriots was that one of the most impressive games you've seen Geno Smith play for the Seahawks in terms of the clutch plays that he did make and maybe some of the frustrations that he had to deal with with some of the drops and also the fact that he didn't

have his number one running back to turn to? Yeah, and there was no room to run, no run game really. I know they had the rushing touchdown, but it was just very tough sledding. And yeah, that was a game where, as DK and Metccalf said he put them on his back and you know I was interested to see the QBR numbers when they finally came out a couple hours after the game just because you know QBR I think it's such a better metric for evaluating quarterback play than passer rating because it takes into account things that passer rating doesn't and it takes into account drops for one thing rushing yards by a quarterback it waits your play you know later in a game uh when it really matters and so um but even then like the qbr was not like a remarkable

day for geno smith but i think the eye test and the way he actually played it was remarkable given everything that was working against him and you know i mentioned earlier the idea of, you know, how with the offensive line challenges that that really, I think, forces them to play a certain kind of way, which means it's a lot of rhythm throws, getting the ball out quickly. And, you know, not surprisingly, through two games, you know, Smith has one of the fastest time before throws, average time before throws in the NFL. And so, you know, the other point I'll make on that game is it really brought me back to the comments, you know, where it was revealed over the summer that Geno Smith was unhappy about his deal. And I continue to think and I feel strongly about this in my intuition is that, you know, when he missed that time, those four days in training camp after he got hurt and he, you know, he took his time getting back, I continue to think that that was contract-related,

that he was expressing he wanted to get his knee and his hip checked out, but he was also, I think, kind of making a statement to the team that he felt underpaid and that, hey, this is what life is like. You can go watch Sam Howell practice and be in there without me and see what life is like. You can go watch Sam Howell practice and be in there without me and see what life is like without me. Going back to this game, I think there's no better way for a quarterback to show his value to a team than by putting it on

his back like he did in that game Sunday. I want to go back to that game on Sunday as well. The Seahawks ran for 46 yards against the Patriots. A 2.4 yards per carry. It was not a good day on the ground. Was this a byproduct of Kenneth Walker being out? Was it a byproduct of bad blocking and bad offensive line and bad scheme,

or was it a combination of both? Yeah, it was a combination of both, but I would say it was much more the blocking. In other words, I think if you put Ken Walker in there, maybe a couple of those runs, he'd get something more out of than Charbonnet did just because Walker is so good at making something out of nothing. And we've seen that time and time again where he'll run right, there's nothing there, he bounces back to the left

and turns a loss into a nice gain. So maybe that would have happened a couple times, but I think he still would have run into the same issues, which was that they just weren't getting any push, and there just was not a lot of room to run. So I don't think they're going to get Walker back this week because he didn't practice Wednesday or Thursday, and I think it's hard for a guy to just show up on Friday

and all of a sudden be ready to play on Sunday. So my gut tells me it's going to be another week, but I think a difference this week is I think they're going to work in Kenny McIntosh a little bit more. And Charbonnet, he played, I think, all but a couple snaps. I think he played 97% of the snaps, which you just don't see a running back do. You usually see a team mix a couple guys in there. And, you know, Kenny McIntosh might have played one or two snaps but didn't get a single touch in that game.

I don't think that's going to happen. I think the Seahawks coaching staff, they really trust Charbon. We always hear about how professional he is and how prepared he is. I think they trust him way more than they trust McIntosh. But even then, you've got to work in the number two guy, at least for a few snaps, and I think they're going to do more of that in this game. What have you liked about this new look Seahawks defense, and the follow-up question will be, what still needs work?

Well, I think the tackling consistency needs work, and that was an issue in that game. There was that 45-yard Antonio Gibson run in the fourth quarter where Boye Mafe whiffs on him in the backfield, and he gets to the second level, and two guys miss him there, and it turns all of a sudden like a play that should have been a 3-4-yard loss turns into a 45-yard gain. And so the tackling was really good in the opener, but it wasn't like the first guy brought the ball carrier down every time. I think, you know, they missed a few tackles, but the saving, you know,

the key for them was that they had so many guys flying to the ball that when the first guy missed them, you know, the second, third guy was right there to clean it up. So I don't know if that was as much the case in this game. So I think the tackling is one thing, but, you know, they've done a nice job at otherwise limiting explosive plays, you know, aside from that 45-yard run. You know, they didn't really give up a whole lot of chunk plays in that game. Now, look, it helps when you're facing the quarterbacks you're facing. And, you know, when you're facing Bo Nix and he's not really pushing the ball downfield,

then you're not going to give up a whole lot of deep plays. And when you're facing Bo Nix and he's not really pushing the ball downfield, then you're not going to give up a whole lot of deep plays. And when you're facing a Patriots offense with a very young, very inexperienced wide receiver core, you know, the same thing. I know they had some nice games to Hunter Henry, but, you know, they were able to contain that offense pretty well in terms of limiting big plays. It's going to get harder when you start facing teams with big name quarterbacks uh and big name wide receivers the lions next week obviously you know miami has the big name wide receivers but the quarterback is an issue for them this week we're speaking to espn's brady

henderson here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 i know we shouldn't do this we're not supposed to do this but i it's hard for me not to look. Do it anyways, do it. It's hard for me not to look at what happened last night and how inept the Patriots looked on both sides of the football and make me relitigate how good of a win that was for Seattle on Sunday. It's not fair. I know it's not fair, but did you do even the slightest of the same? A little bit, yeah. I mean, that was a Patriots team that scored, what, three points

to a Jets team that, what three points to a jets team that you know i guess we the jury is out on what the jets are i mean they got blown out in week one in san francisco looked a little better uh you know last week against tennessee but you know even they needed a late drive to beat a titans team that's considered to be one of the worst in the nfl so it's just so early and it's so hard to know with such little data on teams of like how good each team is and thus how impressive each win is or how bad each loss is. But yeah, I'll admit it. I had the same thought. I mean, I think the difference is that, you know, that was a long road trip going West Coast to East Coast, you know and uh so maybe that is maybe that makes

some context for that win but um you know i don't think in that building i don't think those guys are you know sitting high on the hog and thinking that yeah they're two and oh and you know that they're one of the best teams in the nfl i you know i bet that tell the truth monday i don't know that they're not calling it that under Mike McDonald like they were under Pete Carroll. I would guess that film study, whenever they did that, I think they did that on Tuesdays now. I guess there was some hard

truths being told that, yeah, they won that game, but they did not play all that well in certain facets of the game. Well, hopefully they don't start looking ahead past Miami and just assuming it's going to be okay because Tua's not playing. Because it would be tempting to look ahead to week four where you go Monday nighter into Detroit. And I know me as a fan, I'm allowed to look ahead and I'm allowed to be irresponsible with my thoughts.

But I'm sitting there going, they're going to be 3-0 heading into Detroit on Monday night. That's a pretty good start. Have you heard any talk from the Seahawks just about remaining focused and taking advantage of the situation? Because there were a couple of games last season where you look like, I remember when Pittsburgh came to town late, okay, win that one. They don't have a quarterback either, and then the Steelers ran the ball down their throats. I'm hoping things are going to be a little bit different this year.

Yeah, I think that this early in the season, I don't know if there is as much of a risk of that as there is later in the year. I mean, everybody I think so early in the season is still on their P's and Q's. They're still trying to get comfortable in their defense. They don't know how good certain teams are or aren't. And, again, I think that this team realizes that, yeah, they're 2-0, but, you know, they had to kind of skate by in both of those games. I mean, they beat Denver by, what, six points in the opener.

That's a Denver team that, you know, may end up, you know, having a top five pick next year because they're so bad and they're still you know in a in a total rebuild after the russell wilson trade and all that and then again a uh you know a three-point overtime win uh over a patriots team that also is considered to be one of the worst in the nfl so even if there was a temptation to look ahead i just don't think this team is really in a position to do that. And they've got a head coach in Mike McDonald who is very demanding and is very hard on these guys and is really holding them to a high standard.

And so I can't imagine that's an issue, at least not this week. It is the Seahawks hosting the Miami Dolphins this Sunday, 105 kickoff. A friendly reminder, Sportsnet 650 is not just your home for the Canucks. It's your home for the Seahawks as well. Brady, thank you very much for doing this. As always, we really appreciate it. Enjoy the game on Sunday. We will do this again next Friday.

All right, sounds good, fellas. Talk to you then. See ya. Yep, thanks, Brady. Appreciate it. That's Brady Henderson. Our NFL insider for an NFL preview brought to you by the Clayton Public House. Pre-game to post-game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online at theclaytonpub.com.

We're going to move right back. As I mentioned, this is your home of the Canucks. The Vancouver Canucks, day two of training camp gets underway in a few hours. Day one now in the books. We already went through the Thatcher Demko story at length. I'll tease in the 7 o'clock hour, we're going to play some hot audio, hot clips, guys, of the latest 32 Thoughts podcast. I bet a lot of you haven't even heard this yet.

Freed has a lot of good information on Thatcher Demko and Brock Besser, and Jason Brough makes a cameo in 32 Thoughts as well. So that's coming up at 7 o'clock. What? I haven't heard this clip. I will say no more. That's a tease. You'll have to listen to 7 o'clock.

Is there an update on my health? Yeah. It's not good. It's not great. Brother, it's not good. Jason Brough has an unprecedented injury. We don't know what it is. No one's ever had it before.

It's not great. It's not going to be good. Being old. Don't say any more. You got to make everyone tune in at 7 o'clock to listen to it. The other big news from yesterday that we haven't got to, and A-Dog is going to perk up at this, Jonathan Lekromacki.

Two biggest stories on the opening day of training camp were Thatcher Demko and Jonathan Lekromacki. For those that missed it, he opened on a line with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusque. I feel like the Canucks are just kind of toying

with everybody right now. This happens a lot at training camps. I put the young guys with the veteran guys. Sure. But you know what? He looks really,

really good with them. I'm going to ask you to hold your enthusiasm for just two minutes. Did you watch the line rushes that they were doing? I did. I did. What line rushes they were.

Oh, man. These guys are so good against no defensemen. I know. It's amazing. This is how moves he was able to pull off. Snapping that puck around like professional hockey players. He's like, man, you've got to cover that guy. This is so open there in front of the net.

I asked for one thing. I said, hold your enthusiasm until we got the story. He brought fault. He egged me on. Okay. Calm down. Okay. Okay.

We made mention right from Young Stars that the Canucks were really talking up Leckermackie, right? You pointed that out very early on in the process. I think they started talking him up at the end of last season. Right. And then when there was that IMAC had that story that said that they were seriously considered putting him in the playoffs

when Besser got knocked out. So you started saying like, oh, maybe this guy is actually a little bit closer to being a legitimate candidate than we first thought. So again, first day of camp, you want to raise some eyebrows. You want to make a statement. You want to boost the kid's confidence.

You put him alongside Elias Pettersson, your franchise center, at least he's paid like one, and Jake DeBrusque, your big, shiny free agent acquisition. Now, seems as though Jake DeBrusque got the memo as well because he decided to talk up Jonathan Lecker-Omakie as well. He was on Canucks Central with Sat and Dan yesterday, and he decided to take it even a step further when promoting the canucks former first round draft pick from 2022 here's

jake de brusque on his new liney jonathan lecker amaki i said it earlier i can't pronounce the young kid's name on the right lecker lecky yeah um he's got a shot on he's a pretty good player too and that's someone that i didn't obviously really know about. And I fed him for one pass today and he sniped it. So I might do that a lot more as camp goes on. It might make me look good. He's one of those guys, like a bit of a head turner with the way that shot comes off his release, right? Yeah, it reminds me a little bit.

And this might be a stretch. And I'm definitely, you know, he's going to love that I said this. But in a way, kind of like a younger pass to shot. Where it's a quick release off the stick. I don't know about his one time, I haven't seen him one time, but I would assume he has a lethal one. But the way that he gets the quick wrist shot off, it's just such a quick release that it kind of reminds me of guys

that can just quickly just get it in the spot and just kind of find their target like a true sniper. Oh, we didn't get the DeBrusque part in there with the Pasternak. No, he said it. Yeah, I missed it. Yeah, he said it. I thought he did it at the end of the clip. No. I remember he did it with the pasta knock. No, he said it. He talked about pasta. Yeah, he said it. I thought he did it at the end of the clip. No. I remember he did it at the end of the clip and then he was laughing with Sandman. Oh, okay. This is why it's important to pay attention.

No, I remember it being at the end of the clip. Anyway, Andy, how excited are you? It reminds me a little bit, and this might be a stretch, and I'm definitely, you know, he's going to love that I said this, but in a way, kind of like a younger pasta shot. Okay. It was at the end where he said, oh, Pasta's going to kill me for this. Anyway, okay, never mind.

How excited are you? And he's younger than Pasta, too. Pasta's over the hill now. How excited are you that the Canucks have David Pasternak, younger version on an entry-level deal? It's honestly incredible. I wasn't expecting us to get David Pasternak 2.0, so this is pretty amazing.

I think the Calder nomination is all but locked up at this point. I would expect him to start on the opening night roster. Well, unsigned texting here, and it actually, it's a good point. Who is actually going to play in that spot that Lekker and Mackey had at training camp anyway? Not like there are any options. I mean, there are options, but this person's list, Hoaglander, Sprong, I think this is the whole point

of starting them in that spot. It's twofold, actually. Number one, and Rick Tockett explained, you want to have your veteran players sometimes at training camp playing with some of your younger players just so the vets can show them the way. For example, I think DPD was playing with Hronik. If I'm wrong on that, correct me,

but it was like one of those things where, or he was playing with some veteran. And I think, you know, he just wants, and he pointed out that Pedersen at one point told Lekermackie, you know, a few things like, hey, go here, go there. So that's one thing, but the texter makes a good point. We went into the season and we're like, well, who's going to play with those guys? There's no obvious answer. Hoaglander,

we all know that he had a good regular season, but he didn't have a very good playoffs. We don't know what he is. We spent half an hour the other day trying to figure out what kind of player he was. Daniel Sprong has bounced around the league you're not going to just sit there and go oh yeah he's a top six guy right i mean there's a there's a reason he has bounced around the league and it's because defensively and without the puck he hasn't been trustworthy now that might make sense on a line with um petterson and debrusk especially if rick tocket tries to get them away from the harder matchups but um lecker mackie is being given an honest shot here and i i think it makes sense to do it

because you might as well try it because there isn't that obvious other yeah option now i've said earlier don't rush this kid right just don't don't do that don't because i always remember those words from willie willie de jardin he's like sage advice from willie de jardin the league gets hard the league gets it's like it's you know embrace the gets, it's like, it's, you know, embrace the hard, but it's like talk. It says, if you think it's going to get easier, it won't. The whole point is that it gets harder as the season goes on and the expectations are high.

The Canucks are not the Canucks of a few years ago when they can just be like, play the kids, play the kids, play the kids. They're not in that situation. It has to be undeniable. Like, that's the thing. Like, it has to be undeniable that he can play can play he's got chemistry he's got the great shot but can he put together an NHL game versus real players my point is that it it was undeniable with some of the young kids

that they played anyway it was undeniable in October it was more deniable in like January yeah right that's kind of the well that's thing. Even if he starts the season with them, there's no guarantee he stays up all year. I mean, but I would say... But how do you want to deal with that, though? Well, I mean, maybe they give him a couple games to start the season with DeBrusque and Pedersen, assuming he looks good in the preseason.

And then, I don't know, you put Heinen on line one with the guys or... And then you eventually have to send him down? Yeah. Well, it just depends on how he does. But as you said, give him an honest shot. Well, he's going to get an honest shot, but I think in the preseason,

Hoaglander should get an honest shot, and Sprong should get an honest shot. I'm sure they will. All these guys should get an honest shot. I imagine they will. I'm less interested. By the way, you were right. DPD did get paired with Hronik yesterday,

so good job. They'll probably alternate through all those guys, would they not? I'm less interested in what they should do as opposed to what they will do. I'm more interested in trying to figure out where management is on this because I brought this up a couple weeks ago. This is the same management group, and especially Rutherford,

who in Pittsburgh was pushing a then 18-year-old Daniel Sprong to be on the opening night roster under Mike Sullivan because he liked the shot and the physical tools that the guy had. And there was something about he possessed a kind of shooting prowess that other guys didn't have, and he would be a good trigger man with some of the veteran playmakers that they had. Now, how did that work out? It didn't work out well at all.

So I don't know if it's one of those things it's like we learn from our mistakes or but this time it might work. But they're not the same players. No, but it's just the case study. They're different people, in fact. Extremely different people. It's just the case study thing, I think. No, I agree. It's interesting that Daniel

Sprung is now competing for one of the spots. Sprung's going to go like, don't rush him. I'll take the spot for now. Yeah. Smoking a dart in the dressing room looking like hair mask. You should stay in the line. I got stores for you.

Okay. We're up against it for time. We got a lot more to get to on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. First, I need to tell you about Janpro, the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment, contact Jan Pro for a free no-obligation quote. Visit them at JanPro.ca. Coming up,

AJ from AJ's Pizza, he's going to join us at 7 o'clock. We're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best Ask Us Anything, so get those in. After AJ, we're going to play some of this hot audio from 32 Thoughts from Elliott Friedman

on Thatcher Demko and Brock Besser. 7.30, it's Moj. 8 o'clock, it's Dollywall. 8.30, we're doing what we learned, and we're giving away that $100 gift card to AJ. So there's lots more to get into. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.