Halford & Brough in the Morning - The 4 Nations Face-Off Is Canuck Heavy & That's Awesome

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

In hour one, guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Israel Fehr look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they preview Week 14 with NFL.com's Nick Shook (26:44). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- I wish you could have seen Biz's face while you were scoring goals. He doesn't know what that feels like, so I'm sure it's exciting to watch. There will be meetings over the weekend, and it's that point Juan Soto will decide where he's going to go. Good morning! Welcome to the Halford and Brough Show here on Sportsnet 650. But, no Halford, no Brough today. I'm Jamie Dodd, filling in for the next couple of days here. And joining me is Israel Fair. What's going on, Izzy? Good to be here, Jamie.

Yeah, let's do this. Let's do this. We got three hours. Let's get through it, everyone. We can do it. A-Dog, hello. Good morning. Laddie, hello.

Hello, hello. Okay, see, that time I didn't ask you what's up and throw you off. Don't mess with our routine. Freeze you. Please don't mess with our routine. I'm going to say hello. So I noticed you put the air horns in there after the Juan Soto tease. I just wanted to end.

You're getting excited to be heartbroken as a Jays fan? I just want it to be over. Because we all know it's not happening, right? But maybe. After the Otani thing last year, we're all ready. It's not happening. He's not coming to Toronto, sadly. We're coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Half and a Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. And hour one of the show is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Pays the highest prices on scrap metal, North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid.

1170 Powell Street. Big show today. It was a pretty big day in the hockey world yesterday, of course, with the Four Nations rosters. The Four Nations face-off roster is officially announced. We had a pretty good idea of who was going to be on the team. world yesterday of course with the four nations rosters uh the four nations face off rosters officially announced we had a pretty good idea if it was going to be on the team i don't know why they told the players so far in advance and let it leak out there but anyways now it's official we know who's going to be on the team so lots to get into there on the guest list very good thursday night football game in the nfl tonight between the Lions and the Packers.

Big NFC North battle. Nick Shook from NFL.com will join us at 630. Let's talk about that a little bit. At 7, Dan Rosen from NHL.com. He'll join us to break down all of the surprises, the snubs, the news coming out of the Four Nation roster announcements yesterday. At 730, a little CFL talk with JC Abbott from Three Down Nation. coming out of the four nation roster announcements yesterday at seven 30, a little CFL talk with JC Abbott from three down nation. Of course,

the lions officially rolling out buck Pierce as their new head coach yesterday. And he had some interesting comments about working with Nathan Rourke, his vision for the team. So we can get into that with JC Abbott at 730 and at 8 o'clock. I'm not on Canucks Talk, so thank goodness we have him on the show. And your colleague as well. That's right.

We can't get away from this guy. Neither of us can get away from him. Or he can't get away from us. It's an ungodly hour. And hey, you know, your reward is more time with Thomas Drance. That's exactly right. So Thomas Drance will join us at 8. And well, it's because I'm his co-host.

You're his editor. Yeah. So it's like you're not his boss, but you have like power over him. I do performance reviews. So he's got a Mr. Thomas Trance. Wow. That must be a fascinating experience. Trance performance review.

So you you he's got to be on his best behavior is what i'm saying when he comes on the radio with uh with his editor is real fair uh at the athletic uh all right so it's drance at 8 jc abbott 7 30 dan rosen at 7 nick shook at 6 30 i also want to say we are indeed giving away tickets a pair of tickets uh to the acdc power Up Tour 2025 coming to BC Place April 22nd, 2025. Tickets go on sale on Friday, tomorrow, December 6th at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster.ca, but you can win a pair today. Here's how we're going to do it, and I've been told that this method has been arrived at to make it absolutely fair for both live radio listeners and podcast listeners and streamers call in at 8 15 today we're giving you the time in advance call in at 8 15 on the

dot not a second earlier and is it caller 10 it is caller 10 caller 10 uh will win the number is 604 we've erased the number from the studio here. 280-0650. That's what it is. 604-280-0650. Looks like we have our first caller. And I mean ever because this is not a call-in show. 604-280-0650. That's the number you call at 8.15 today.

Tenth caller wins a pair of tickets to ACDC in April at BC Place. Very exciting. All right, we got through all that business. 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 is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit bccsa.ca.

And as I mentioned, the big news in the world of hockey yesterday, the rosters for the Four Nations faceoff in February are official. From a Canucks perspective here, the Canucks have four players headed to the tournament. Quinn Hughes, of course, who we already knew, was one of the first six named to Team USA. JT Miller will be joining him on Team USA. We can comment on that quickly here in a second. Elias Pettersson, no surprise, especially with the way he's performed recently, gets named to Team USA. We can comment on that quickly here in a second. Elias Pettersson, no surprise, especially with the way he's performed recently,

gets named Team Sweden. And Kevin Lankanen, after a really strong performance for the Canucks in the early going of this season, he's going to have a chance to represent Team Finland, which is a pretty cool nod for him, considering he didn't have an NHL team until training camp, i mean we're close to it so maybe taking it a bit for granted but his story this year has been incredible he's

played great he's kept the canucks in a bunch of games and this is a nice nod i mean i think for players uh it's been a big discussion whether you know where this ranks compared to something like the olympics but the thing that you've heard from a bunch of players, and we've been hearing it since they announced all the rosters yesterday, anytime you get the opportunity to put your nation's colors on and call yourself a member of, in our case, Team Canada, that is the ultimate honor in sports. I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but I feel like the USA has the best roster.

Well, we'll get into it. Because I think you're onto something there. Definitely not a hot take. I but i feel like usa has the best roster well we'll get into it i think because i think you're on to something definitely not a hot i mean i said this before it was announced like i canada obviously has the better game breakers and the mcdavids and the mckinnons but overall if you look at the depth of the lineup i would say usa is the strongest well and i i do find it interesting that right now canada is still the betting favorite in the tournament because i agree with you i think you look at it and we'll get to the goaltending and all of that. But the Team USA roster is absolutely stacked. And look, again, we had heard reports that Team USA was looking at JT Miller's status on personal leave and wasn't concerned about it.

Right. They wasn't going to stop them from picking him to the team. Obviously, he deserves to be there. On Merritt, we kind of knew he was going to be on the team, but still good news, I think, for Canucks fans to see him officially named, right? That at least in the broader hockey world, they're not seeing his leave as something that should prevent him from playing at a high level as soon as February, right? They're counting on him being available and being up to speed by then. Yeah, by all accounts, that was, you you know there have been plenty of conversations around the league

about all the players considered but there were certainly going to be more conversations more questions about jt miller given his status right now and everything that that's been reported is that there there are very very few concerns about his availability and not just his availability like he'll be there that he will be ready to play exactly right not just that he'll be ready you know a week before that but he'll have had enough time to get back up to speed and as you say be playing at a high level um by the time the tournament rolls around in february so there's a lot to get into right we can dig into team canada some interesting selections there we can talk about the relative strengths of the teams and where team usa might have the edge over team

canada the first question i want to throw out i'm curious to get to hear from the listeners on this 650 650 is the dumb bar lumber text line if you've been on the fence about this tournament or not even on the fence just not interested because i know there's a large contingent of people out there who have taken that approach right and maybe they still have memories of the kind of gimmicky last world cup in 2016 and they're not ready to get fully on board with this but even though it is you know best on best albeit only with four teams not a full tournament like the olympics i've seen a fair amount of skepticism about this tournament so i curious, if you fell into that camp, are you starting to get more excited?

Because it starts to feel a little bit real here now, right? It's not just hypothetical. And we all knew, we're like, oh, wow, McDavid and McKinnon are going to play together. That's really cool. So that was already baked in. And we had a pretty good idea of what the rosters were going to look like. But now, I mean, these teams, they've started to make some big decisions, right?

They've started to shape their rosters. You can kind of get a sense of the identity they want their teams to play with. You can start to imagine, like, okay, how is Canada going to match up with what the USA chose to do? They had some interesting selections as well that are drawing some criticism south of the border. But I'm curious to hear people. Like, does this start to make you a little bit more excited? I don't know about you. I've already been on board.

Like I'm, I know I have full confidence that the intensity level is going to be there. The players really want it to be. They're going to make it a great event. Even if the NHL, even it's kind of a half baked idea, like the players are so hungry for best on best. They're going to make it a great event.

Are you, are you into it? Are you buying into it? Are you still on the fence? No, I'm into it. And I think that the two major factors for people who have been skeptical is one, it doesn't have the cachet,

the built-in cachet of the Olympics, which is a lot of hockey. We immediately go to those big Canadian hockey moments, but there's also just the olympic brand you know a hundred years of a major competition this is something that that's been made up that's obviously something that people will go at and then i think people feel like there's been just you know a lot of speculation on something that again is not necessarily seen as being the real thing yeah but now that the rosters are out i i am already starting to see a shift there because it's it's

real now some decisions were made some players were left off they will not be playing for team canada and i i've never really had the concern about like i don't think this is going to be an all-star game everything you've heard from the top top guys, and you hear this in other sports too, right? You hear this in basketball, for instance. Whether it is something like the all-star game or whether it's going to the Olympics or going to a World Cup, we see it with Team Canada, we see it with Team USA. When the top players in the program, the top players available,

come out and express how important it is to them, everybody falls in line. So when you've got Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon and Sidney Crosby talking about, and Sidney Crosby's played for Canada at the highest level for a very long time. He's got some of the signature moments for Canada. And they're talking about, McDavid especially being the top guy

talking about how vital this is to him and his career that you're not going to see the guys that just made the team that are on the fourth line going well you know McDavid's a bit of a try hard Jarvis isn't going to be low yeah I'm just going to mail this one in right like if the top guys are going to the tournament with the idea that something is at stake here that something matters uh then I think that's going to be huge and the idea that something is at stake here, that something matters, then I think that's going to be huge. And I think, look, we're not talking a lot of Finland. We're not talking a lot of Sweden.

I imagine that those players are going to be pretty on one to prove that, hey, don't overlook us. We can compete with Canada and the US at this tournament. Yeah, absolutely. I just think I can't imagine a world where the kind of generation,

and I'll just limit it to Canada and the US, right? But obviously the emotion is going to be there for Sweden and Finland, especially in that game, right? Because it's such a rivalry. But you just think about Canada and the US and the players who are going to be involved in that, right? And kind of this generation of top elite players who have been you know who are

at picked first or second in the draft right you've got McDavid McKinnon Matthews Eichel this whole group of incredible players who have never had the chance to represent to go against each other best on best for their countries on this type of stage, right?

It's just never happened. And I have a very hard time believing that those players are going to be in a Canada versus US game and not going all out, right? And that it won't be an intensive fair. Like they have been dying waiting for this. These are elite players of their generation and now they finally get the chance they're going to make the most of it they are going to buy in and that's always what it comes down to if the players buy in if the players take it seriously that's infectious we're going to get sucked into it so i was already on board

i was already excited i love best on best international hockey. So I was already hyped. Now I'm starting to feel even more hyped with the roster announcement. Are you worried about guys getting injured? I mean, that's my only concern. I mean, like Quinn Hughes, you mean? Yes, exactly. Or Elias Patterson, I guess. I mean, obviously it's not going to have the physicality level of an NHL playoff game,

I would assume, but I'm sure it'll still be physical. Yeah. As you said, it's not going to be an all-star game. No, it's definitely not going to be an all-star game. Guys will get thrown around. But that's, if you want best on best hockey, that's the risk. Cost of doing business. You know what I mean? The Olympics are mid-season. You just got to deal with it.

Yes, a player could get injured, and it could seriously hurt a cup contender's chances. That's it. If you can't accept that, then you can't have best on best hockey, right? That's just part of the deal. There's no way around that. I mean, what's like, what's worse? Quinn Hughes getting injured in a Canucks regular season game

or getting hurt playing for USA? It's the same result, right? He's missing time for Vancouver. If he gets hurt in the next like couple weeks for the Canucks, it's still this like, you're still going to feel like crap. Like it doesn't make it any better that he's hobbling to the bench wearing a Canucks jersey versus a Team USA jersey. No, absolutely.

So, yeah, I mean, look, will you be holding your breath a little bit, especially if Quinn Hughes is out there in key situations? Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited. This is going to be a lot of fun. I'm super stoked. Yeah, there's just no way around that issue, right? So, yeah, for Canucks fans, look, watching Quinn Hughes and JT Miller and Elias Pettersson and I guess Kevin Lankanen if he gets into games.

There'll be some nervous moments, but again, I think that is a small price to pay for the excitement that best on best hockey can bring. So I'll run through some of the interesting selections, let's put it that way, for Team Canada here. Some of the kind of

off-the-radar names that ended up making it. So at forward, one of the ones getting a-the-radar names that ended up making it. So at forward, one of the ones getting a lot of attention is Seth Jarvis from the Carolina Hurricanes, Sam Bennett of the Panthers. And of course, he's got that Stanley Cup winning sheen right now, brings that grit, those defensive elements, all of that. But I didn't see a lot of people picking him to make the team. Anthony Sorelli, another one, a kind of defensive center from the Tampa Bay Lightning, who I don't think a lot of people had,

had making it. And then on the blue line, Travis Sanheim and Colton Pareko, a couple of big physical defensive players make it on the blue line. And the kind of instant reaction I've seen to this Canadian roster. And I think it's the correct one from a lot of people, is the forward group is stacked. You really like Kael McCarr on the blue line.

The rest of the blue line and obviously goalie is a bit of a question mark. Yes, the old Canadian goalie debate is no longer confined to just the world juniors. It has come full force here in the last decade since we saw best on best where uh this is uh this is a real question uh jordan binnington has had some pretty high highs in the nhl he's had some pretty low lows as well aiden hill maybe doesn't have quite

the same track record or played like in the same number of games but he also is a guy that if you talk to goalie people they love him they think that he's he's a really really good player but there's not that there's not that trust of going into an olympics with roberto luongo or martin brodeur or martin brodeur or curtis joseph right it's not it's not the same conversation no it absolutely is not and i think even looking at the whole roster and even the forward group and look the forward group is really good right you know you look at what sam reinhardt has done over the last little bit right mitch And I think even looking at the whole roster and even the forward group, and look, the forward group is really good, right? You know, you look at what Sam Reinhardt has done over the last little bit, right? Mitch Marner's having a great season.

Brayden Point's an incredible player. It does feel like a lot is resting on the shoulders of three guys here, McDavid, McKinnon, and Kael McCarr. And, hey, if you had to have three guys who are going to have huge responsibilities, those are three pretty good ones to choose, right? Like arguably three of the five or six best players in the world are McDavid, McKinnon, and McCarr. But I don't know about the depth of talent,

especially on the blue line. It feels a little thinner than it has in other editions of Team Canada. We think back to 2014 at sochi or 2010 here uh in vancouver it just feels like more than those editions the top players are going to have to really really be great for this team to have a chance at this tournament yeah it does it does feel that way and i mean look you look at those those recent olympic teams where you've got pronger niedermeyer and then you throw in duncan keith right those are three guys that first ballot

hall of famers you're looking at at the roster right now kale mccarr trending that way alex portangelo has had a great career yeah but he's not chris pronger he's not scott niedermeyer he's not duncan keith and you know travis especially at this stage of his career at his peak you know a different conversation but very don't yeah a player that you love to have on the roster but yes you're right he's he's not that guy anymore and then when you go down to someone who is on the come up travis sanheim really good player he's had a nice year the flyers tried to trade him yeah that's before the draft in 2023 for Torrey Krug. Well, even Colton Pareko, and I know it's his contract,

but very recently he was looked at as a distressed asset. I was like, you'd have to pay him. I think one of the worst contracts in the league. Yeah, and I think there's a lot to like about the player, but it's not the caliber of player that we've typically seen. And I do think part of what we're seeing here is, well, I do wonder how much of it is a reaction. Some of these picks to man, our goaltending isn't great. So we better take some like really physical defensive defensemen to kind of make up for that and maybe leaning a bit into a defensive strategy overall.

Even you look at a pick like Anthony Sorelli on the fourth line, right? Sam Bennett down there as well like guys that you feel really confident about uh in their own end of the playing that defensive game because i just don't i don't know what they had like the complete defenseman to pick you know to take like the guys they left off are like you know evan bouchard yeah right who's a really good player but obviously comes with some defensive warts, comes with some decision-making concerns. I think they kind of had to choose more one-dimensional players than they have in the past,

and that stands out when you're talking about Team Canada, which is always an incredibly talented roster. Would you rather have Seth Jarvis over Conor Bedard? Well, that's interesting, yes. Conor Bedard has more points, not by many, actually, I think they might even be tied. But nevertheless, you'd rather have Seth Jarvis than Conor Bedard at this point?

Yes. You trust him more in those big moments? Yeah. And I think he's just, he's a more established NHL player. And yeah, the numbers don't jump out at you when you look at it. But Seth Jarvis, I think there's a little bit of a Conor Garland thing going on there with Seth Jarvis. Where he's just kind of that, wins a ton of puck battles, plays with a ton of jam, is always making plays below the goal line, all of those things.

I think he has a more mature game than Conor Bedard does at this point. I get the argument for taking Conor Bedard. You're trying to groom him, but this isn't a stepping stone to the Olympics. It's partly that, but they're also trying to win this tournament they're taking it seriously right they're not just saying okay we gotta uh you know we gotta give conor bedard some international experience here they're trying to put together the best roster and i think seth jarvis earns that spot over conor bedard yeah he's he's a fancy stats king right he's a guy that people love uh because of what what he does uh and then he can produce and look if conor bedard was on fire for chicago right now and scoring tons of gold i think it's a bit of a different

conversation but he's still such a young guy there's no guarantee because of that top heavy nature of the lineup it's not a guarantee that he would be a top six guy. No, not at all. And so if they're picking players, like Anthony Sorelli was a bit of a surprise because maybe in the years where the Lightning were winning the Stanley Cup, he was a guy that was getting that, oh, he's way better than you realize. He's not Sasha Barkov level underrated, but he's underrated. And that shine has gone away a little bit

as the team has taken a step back but clearly i guess over that time period and it helps that john cooper is the coach for team canada yes they feel like the trust is there that he can be a fourth line guy like conor bradar is not going to play that role seth jarvis 16 points in 18 games conor bradar 19 points in 26 games yeah so that is a fairly significant gap in points per game there. Yeah. Yeah. But again, it's not about... Also, Conor Bernard plays for the Blackhawks. That's part of it. I mean, yes, he's had an underwhelming season thus far.

He would even admit that. Obviously, he has admitted that. Yeah. He's had an underwhelming year thus far, but he also plays on, like, probably the worst team in the league. They're brutal. Yeah. And I just also think, I mean, Seth Jarvis, he's played in the playoffs, right, for Carolina. He has more of that high-level experience against really good players than Conor Bedard does.

And I do think it's interesting. I mean, if you could get Conor Bedard on truth serum, on record, how annoyed at the Chicago Blackhawks is he, right? Because if they put a better team around him and he's having a better season, he had a chance to make this team. He absolutely had a chance to make this team. Now, probably he'll be on the Olympic team when it comes around, and that's a a better season, he had a chance to make this team. He absolutely had a chance to make this team. Now, probably he'll be on the Olympic team when it comes around,

and that's a much bigger deal. And they haven't killed his chances at making that team yet, but they cost him this opportunity a little bit. Yeah, he wouldn't have had that problem if he was on the Canucks. That's right. Yeah.

A-Dog, you said you were more concerned, or you were very concerned about the Americans. Do you want to give us just like a quick rundown? What worries you about Team USA? Well, they're just deeper. They have better D, better goaltending. Obviously, they don't have Canada's game breakers, as I said, but if you look at across the lineup forward group,

I'd say that if they're not quite as good, they're very close. I just think... I just feel like they're just the deeper team their defensive group is nasty man yeah like quinn hughes and adam fox charlie mcavoy zach warrens he's aquarist he's having an incredible season jacob slavin like one of the best defensive defensemen in the nhl and brock faber who's like a fantastic young defenseman i mean that is a great mix that's an outrageous top six and just like almost a perfect mix of players as you said where you can if you want to go all offense at the top and have Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox and

then you have you know McAvoy and Wierenski and Slavin and Faber as your shutdown pairs that's your third pair like that's oh that's incredible so you compare that with you know Hellebuck and Ottinger and Swayman in the crease and it'll probably be Hellebuck and Ottinger uh fighting for the the starts there I mean that's gonna be very difficult to score and that's before you even get to you know Matthews and Eichel and all of them up front so I agree Team USA looks absolutely stacked I think this might be the best Team USA we've ever seen assembled at one of these so not your little finished fourth yeah that's right after we've said all that they'll choke okay we can get more into we can take some of your text about it 650 650 is the dumb bar lumber text line a little bit of

canucks news coming out yesterday as well which we can touch on later on in the show but uh up next we'll talk a little nfl we'll look ahead to the thursday night game and the rest of this week's slate in the nfl nook shook from nfl.com joins us here on Halford & Brough Sportsnet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Fresh Thursdays, I'm told, here on the Halford & Brough Show, Sportsnet 650.

Getting the energy up here at 630 on a Thursday morning. Welcome back to Halford & Brough. Jamie Sportsnet 650. Getting the energy up here at 6.30 on a Thursday morning. Welcome back to Halford & Brough. Jamie Dodd, Israel Fair filling in. We're live from the Kintec Studios. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and reno warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you

or online at Dunbar lumber.com. Half and a rough brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. And also by North star metal recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North star metal recycling. They recycle,

you get paid 1170 Powell street. Now joining us from NFL.com to talk about the pretty enticing thursday night matchup and a lot more he is nick shuck nick thanks for doing this how are you good are you uh we're doing very well so pretty great thursday night matchup on tap here between the lions and the packers uh what are you what are you you excited to watch for in this one? You know, I feel like, not from a prediction standpoint, but I just feel like the way the Lions have played the last couple of weeks, it almost feels a little bit like they're due for some sort of, I don't know if humbling is necessarily the term, but the way they played against Chicago in that game, which you got should give Chicago a lot of credit for playing good defense and limiting the Lions on their possessions to field goals.

It just feels like the Packers have been kind of ascending. The Lions haven't been descending at all. They're still the favorite, I think, at this point to win the NFC. But I think it's going to be a real test for them more than it is even a humbling. They maybe haven't run to the biggest challenges in some of these last few weeks, and this is going to be one that could potentially be a preview of some sort of rematch in the playoffs. Two quarterbacks who are playing very well. I feel like Jordan Love is also ascending.

He's having a nice last few games as well. It's going to be a battle. It's going to matter a whole lot in that division and for playoff seating and everything else. I think it's going to be a battle. It's going to matter a whole lot in that division and for playoff seating and everything else. And I think it's going to be a very entertaining affair. One concern with the Lions that has come up is the mounting injuries on defense. They've been able to keep the wins.

They've been able to have that next man up mentality. But at some point, we've seen it on really great teams. And the Lions have put themselves in that conversation as being the top team, one of the top teams in the league this season. At what point is too much too much when it comes to injuries on defense? That's a great question. I think that they're going to get tested in that regard

because we haven't really seen it. I guess it's hard to recall the example of a team blowing a tire down the stretch because of injuries and nothing more than injuries. I mean, we're seeing it happen in San Francisco right now, but that's on both sides of the ball. And the reason is that those teams aren't really remembered. When the dust settles and we look back, it's the teams that stayed healthy. That's a big part of winning a championship

and making a deep playoff run is locking out of the injury side by avoiding catastrophic issues. And we already know what they dealt with multiple weeks, months ago, when they lost Aiden Hutchinson. They replaced him with Zedaria Smith, a veteran who's more than capable of handling the job. But the depth is all but gone. They've had to look down the depth chart just to fill their starting jobs

because of all these injuries that they've suffered up front. The good thing is that their offense is still largely healthy. And I know that you don't necessarily want to sign yourself up for getting into a shootout every week because you know how, you know, that could just be a dangerous proposition. But at least they aren't banged up on both sides of the ball like a team like the 49ers who lost two running backs in one game and have lost a number of different players over the course of the season, and they're now paying for that as a result. You mentioned Jordan Love's had a really strong past a few weeks for the Green Bay Packers. What's clicking for him in Green Bay right now?

I think it's confidence. I think it's not trying to play outside of himself too much. He has that tendency. I thought he had broken it, you know, down the back stretch of last season when he really hit a groove in the Packers, kind of shocked the world for a couple of weeks there, especially when they beat the Cowboys in the playoffs. He had a huge part, you know, a huge hand in that

and essentially put his name on the map in the process. And then this season, you know, he's dealt with a lot of injuries. And I think that that might be the most important thing is health and confidence because, you know, he had the knee injury early in the season, you know, suffered in week one against the Eagles down in Brazil. And then he comes back and he has this groin issue that he was dealing with for a few weeks as well. He just has been limited for so much of the season

that we haven't really quite been able to see him at full strength or near full strength. And the game that they played against the Dolphins on Thanksgiving, it was a pretty impressive performance because he found success in a number of different ways. Short passes to set up screens and whatnot. It's rifling the ball outside the numbers along the goal line to Jaden Reed when you're inside the five already to score a touchdown. It's going deep to Christian Watson because the streak is open in one-on-one

um he's doing a little bit of everything he looks like he's in a good groove and the offense around him you know having josh jacob's back there really balances things out for him and makes his job a little bit easier so uh i'm really looking forward to seeing how he plays in the remaining five weeks because i want to know you know is he going to take that next step, which doesn't have to be a big one. Is he going to be consistent? Because that's the only thing we haven't really seen from him except for this last month or so is consistency.

Detroit and Green Bay, certainly among the top contenders in the NFC. The Philadelphia Eagles, they're 10-2, yet it feels like every time I log on to social media, people want to fire the coach, think the quarterback's overrated. It doesn't feel like a team that's been on this kind of winning streak apart from Saquon

Barkley having a highlight or multiple highlight plays every single week. Where are you at on the Eagles? Are they part of that group with Detroit and Green Bay? The record says they are, but it feels like the conversation around them sometimes isn't quite as positive as it is with some of the other teams.

And now you're understanding the mentality of a Philadelphia sports fan. This team is very much right there among the elites in the NFC. I mean, we know how long their winning streak is, but it's also the fashion in which they've done it. They kind of melted down last year because of organizational discontent, I think, but also more than anything was a lack of organization defensively. They couldn't get a stop to save their lives, and they had two different guys calling plays at certain points in the season,

and it just all got really chaotic and messy. That's not who they are this year. They're organized. They're organized, and Nick Sirianni has faded into the background a bit as a character. He doesn't have to be the main character anymore because of guys like Saquon Barkley. Jalen Hurts doesn't even have to be the near-MVP-level guy

he was a couple years ago because of Saquon Barkley. But it all really does come down to their defense. If they had this offense, it'd be fine and dandy and everything, but they'd be in shootouts. Their defense is playing lights out football and really started, I think, when they played the Giants probably about four or five weeks ago at this point. It's all starting to blend together, but that's when I first realized, oh, this pass rush is coming together and this whole defense is playing really well together. Part of that's the inclusion of guys like Nolan Smith, you know, a former high pick who took a little bit of time to get his feet underneath him.

But it's also, you know, a fellow Georgia guy as well, N'Kobe Dean, who's been playing very well in recent weeks. We know what they have in Jalen Carter. And even after losing Brandon Graham, I still think they'll be fine up front. So they just play really good complementary football. Like I have no qualms or no questions about them at all, as long as they can stay healthy. And they've already battled a bunch of injuries, as it is. They haven't had

Devonta Smith for a while. A.J. Brown's been in and out of the lineup a couple of times. You have to keep winning football games. I am a firm believer in this team. I think they're going to be right there and be a huge contender alongside the Lions. And I wouldn't be surprised if by the time I board a flight to New Orleans in early February, then I'm preparing to go cover the Chiefs again.

Or maybe not the Chiefs, the Eagles. The Eagles, yeah. Or maybe the Chiefs too. We'll see. Although, I don't know. Yeah, well, that's better. It's already in my head. Exactly.

We can't escape it. Does Saquon Barkley deserve legit MVP consideration in your view? He's my MVP right now. All right. We actually just did a segment on NFL Daily, the podcast, Greg Rosenthal. I believe it was on Monday night after the Monday night game where we just started doing MVP ladders. And Greg had Josh Allen and I had Saquon Barkley. And, you know, maybe I'm a bit of a romantic when it comes to football and the football that I grew up with.

Right. Mark Jackson meme. What happened to the game I love? I'm a bit of a romantic when it comes to football and the football that I grew up with. It's the old Mark Jackson meme, what happened to the game I love? Well, the game that I loved growing up was Marshall Falk on the cover of Madden 2003, pioneering the true pass-catching-back role and just dominating teams on the ground and through the air. That's kind of what Saquon has been doing, but at a more athletic level, I think, this year. It's one of those special seasons that I don't think we've seen in a long time. McCaffrey kind of close, but this just has another air to it. It's a point we're doing.

The Eagles are a point we're doing for me now, and a lot of it has to do with Saquon. It's the way he has finished games especially. He's really brought the hammer down on opposing teams with his performances. And it's been really fun to watch. It really also makes me wistful for previous years, only because I wish that he wasn't stuck in New York for all those years. Could he have been this guy for most of his career? And were those years wasted because he was at the Giants, or was it more injuries than anything?

All I know is he's really fun to watch, and I think he absolutely deserves top-tier consideration for MVPp right now regardless of the fact that he doesn't play quarterback yeah it's interesting you know you talk about how much the league and the game has changed over the last couple of decades and of course a big part of that is the way we view running backs and starting to see them as more you know interchangeable and you can't draft them high you don't want to pay them right and you know this year obviously Saquon Barkley going from New York to Philly but also you know Derek Henry going to Baltimore like two big name veteran running backs change teams and immediately really help their teams have success and we don't necessarily

we haven't necessarily seen that a lot recently do you think it has the potential to kind of change the conversation around how we value running backs and how teams value running backs i think it's an interesting thing to consider um i also expect people to point these guys out as you know outliers and anomalies because derrick henry at his age i mean when i watch him run now i about a year and a half two years ago i was like okay his age, I mean, when I watch him run now, about a year and a half, two years ago, I was like, okay, his age is starting to show. When he was still in Tennessee, there was a period, I think it was early last season, where he was struggling to get it going.

Even back in 2021, we only played half a season in 2021. But, yeah, so like early last year, I'm watching him run into brick walls up front, and he's not breaking loose, and I'm just sitting there thinking, no, no, no, no. There's father time's coming. He's showing up. And then I'm just sitting there thinking, oh, no. Father time's coming. He's showing up. And then he finishes with 1,100 rushing yards,

leads the league in total carries, again, 12 rushing touchdowns, goes out with a bang in Tennessee. Oh, and by the way, essentially when it's his age 30 season, because he'll be turning 30. Well, he didn't turn 30. He is already 30. He hit that wall already. And he's got 1,400 yards on the ground, 13 touchdowns.

I know that there's an advantage to playing in the Lamar Jackson quarterback offense in Baltimore, but Henry still looks just as good as he has over the last four or five years. Maybe not peak, but pretty close. But he's the outlier. I think Saquon's the outlier because he's a freak athlete who we probably should have had watched for many more years prior do these types of things.

The average running back in general there's kind of an elite class. It's kind of like quarterback to be honest with you. We can kind of treat it like quarterback in the fact that unless you know that guy's a slam dunk top five guy, he's probably not worth that investment. Now, there are some guys who I look at as being in that class that maybe aren't considered that way guy is a slam dunk top five guy he's probably not worth that investment now there are some guys who

who i look at as being you know in that class that maybe aren't considered that way right now like a bijan robinson like there is going to be some turnover because i worry about nick chubb he hasn't looked like the same guy and how could you after having so many knee injuries but a guy like bijan robinson that's first round pick team saw that you know hence the talent in him as being a first round pick and somebody who could end up joining that group uh but those guys don't come along often so i don't think that it will have a huge course correction on it but i do think that we won't quite have the complete tanking of the market that we saw recently at the position on sunday it's uh it's a really big game for the seattle seahawks they're going to arizona they've won three in a row and they beat

the cardinals a couple of weeks ago a win They've won three in a row and they beat the Cardinals a couple of weeks ago. A win here would put them in a position where they'd have a pretty decent stranglehold on the division there. The Cardinals are pretty good. They've had some strong moments

this year. With that game in Arizona, what's your read on where the NFC West is at the moment, where the Seahawks are clearly playing better. They've righted the ship after a bit of a come down from their great start. But they still certainly have a lot of questions, I guess, about kind of what their ceiling is as a team.

Yeah, and I'll get that out of the way right now because I have a hard time trusting the Seahawks, right? Because they, you know, went on stretches of three straight losses, two straight losses. They lost five of six between weeks four and week nine. But the way that they came out of that by a week has been impressive. You can question the competition that they've played, which has been a banged up San Francisco 49ers team, but in Santa Clara, the Cardinals in a low-scoring affair,

and then the Jets in a wacky game that included some of the worst special teams play I've seen in my life. It was bad. It was awful, and yet they still found a way to win. Now it gets a little tougher, and I think it starts with Arizona. I know you just beat them two weeks ago, but if you recall that game, it was more of a defensive effort than anything. That's the important part, though, about this.

Why you should believe in them is that the defense has come together when they hadn't earlier in the season, which kind of fits the Mike McDonald way. That's how the Ravens were last year, and that's part of what got them the job. They came together down the stretch defensively. So if you can, if that is, you know, going to be something that we can rely on with the Seahawks

going forward, then I think that there is some legitimacy to the fact that they're in first place in a division that doesn't want to sort itself out. You know, when it comes to this Cardinals game specifically, if the Cardinals don't run the ball well, they're going to have a hard time offensively. And that's just who they've been all year. If it's not James Conner and Amari DiMarcato and Trey Benson, you know, collectively breaking 150 yards,

they're going to have a tough time. When you put too much on Kyler Murray's shoulders, it tends to be a low-scoring kind of day for the Cardinals. But I think that they're, you know, the Seahawks have put it together over the last few weeks. They have a tough road ahead of them with Green Bay, Minnesota. Chicago, they're still a scrappy bunch, and then they finish at the Rams. They're in the right position right now,

I suppose. I think we'll learn a lot more about them in the next couple of weeks. We talked a little MVP. I think maybe the most interesting awards discussion right now might be Coach of the Year. I think it's pretty easy to find extremely deserving candidates across the league. Who would be your pick for the award right now?

I had somebody text me on Monday night, Sean Payton, Coach of the Year, and I was like, it doesn't feel right. I mean, he's going to be a candidate, but is he really going to win it? I don't know. I think Jim Harbaugh is probably in that conversation, although Payton's team is right behind him in the standings.

Dan Quinn's in that conversation as well with what they've done in Washington. You could maybe go Kevin O'Connell, honestly, because this is a team that, I mean, look, he's won 10 games with Sam Darnold. That deserves some credit. And Mike McDonald as well. Maybe Gannon on the outside as well. You know, 6-6, not quite as impressive as a coach that leads the team to

8-5 or even 10-2, but that division's been kind of a mess. I think it could be a number of those different teams. AFC side's pretty normal, other than Payton and Harbaugh, but that right there kind of explains it in a nutshell, which is pretty hard to pin down right now. I think we'll learn a lot more. Once you get

to Week 18, we'll have a better understanding of what's going on. But there are plenty of qualified candidates at this point, that's for sure. One team that's not going to be winning any awards anytime soon, the New York Jets. They took advantage of the Seahawks, as previously mentioned, the horrific special teams, but wasn't enough to get a win. Aaron Rodgers looks pretty discombobulated out there.

What is the future for the Jets and for Aaron Rodgers? Because this season has been, I don't know if anyone could have predicted it would have gone this badly. Even myself, as someone who spends most of the summer on this station, taking every opportunity that I can to take shots at the Jets because they are an abomination. Almost sounds like a little bit of self-hate there, like you had a background in Jets fandom or something. I'm kidding.

No, not at all. I just think they are that much of a joke. Well, you're not wrong right now, which I think that starts from the top down as it does with any organization. And I think that's going to be an interesting examination of, you know, how such an acquisition can fail in a relatively short amount of time. You know, we've we've talked a lot about, you know, how the Browns made the worst trade in NFL history for Deshaun Watson. Well, the Jets, you know, they've kind of made the worst series of decisions based around one guy who was, you know, 40, 41 years old. I mean, they've fired their coach.

They've fired their GM. They've done whatever their quarterback has wanted in season, including acquiring his best friend. It's been ugly. It's been very ugly, and I think that it's going to be – I would personally say that Rodgers is done there after this season and i think that for some reason he'll continue to play football but we'll see um he doesn't look awful that's the thing he's not the main or the only problem yeah he's missing throws yeah he doesn't look like the

rogers that he was before but he still looks like a semi-competent nfl quarterback like i've never put him at the bottom of the QB index, for example, because he hasn't had that bad of a game or a stretch of games this season. It's just that them as an entire team have just not been playing good football for most of this year. So I think that the whole dream scenario of Albini as a quarterback and their Super Bowl contender is officially dead. They still have a lot of talent on that team,

but it just doesn't have the look that we expected from them. So I'm curious to see where he goes to try to pursue playing next year and how teams view him, how they value him because he had a year off the year of tape this year. Not great. He's not young, probably still going to ask for a decent amount of money. How do you,

you know, reckon with all of that when you consider adding him? So Jets, meanwhile, it's weird because where do you go? You don't have another option. Are you going to bring Tyrod back again next year or what? So, yeah, it's not a pretty scene for the Jets, but they also have a coach and GM to hire, so I think that's going to be taken care of first.

Nick, really appreciate the time. Enjoy the Thursday night matchup tonight thanks for doing this yeah thanks for having me on guys. Thanks Nick that is Nick Shook from NFL.com and yeah his point about the Jets and I mean as he says like for some reason Aaron Rogers will keep playing but

not just the age and the pedestrian performance this year the baggage he comes with right and the pedestrian performance this year, the baggage he comes with, right? And the way he immediately becomes the focal point of your entire organization and you have to deal with so much. Some team is going to give him a chance, right? Because he's still, you know, multi-time MVP Aaron Rodgers

and teams are so desperate for good quarterback play. And, you know, some team will talk themselves into like, hey, he's had a year, a year to get better after the injury. The Jets are the Jets. We'll be a better situation. Some team will talk them into it. But how much upside is there really left in this? Do you have to hire Nathaniel Hackett also?

Do you have to bring in Alan Lazard as well? Do you have to bring his cast of friends along with him? Or is he going to have the humility to a you know, a little bit like Russell Wilson? I have the exact same thought. Didn't work in Denver. It's like, okay, I got to correct some things. And now he's playing well in Pittsburgh. Does Aaron Rodgers have that in him to go to a new situation like that?

I'm not sure. But he still needs to go to Minnesota to complete the full Brett Favre cycle. He can go and compete against Sam Darnold and potentially Daniel Jones. Great quarterback coach there and Kevin O'Connell, man, helping Sam Darnold. I just want that to happen for the whole storyline of how much

he disliked Brett Favre. And then it's like, you became Brett Favre, bro? What happened? Then he's just got to go perpetrate welfare fraud in his home state when he's after he retires from the nfl to really complete things man that would be wild i it's still in retrospect the fact that farve went back to that division yeah is insane well he wanted to go to the vikings yeah originally right when he left the packers were when he retired for the

19th time and then decided he wanted to come back and they said, no, we're good. We have Aaron Rodgers. And he wanted to go immediately to the Vikings

and they said, no, we'll trade you to the Jets. Started well. Did not end particularly well. And a year later, he showed up in Minnesota

and I mean, I don't think the reception was purely positive, but it was kind of one of those things where I was, and he actually had some good years. He was in Minnesota. His first year, I mean, they don't think the reception was purely positive, but it was kind of one of those things where I was, and he actually had some good years. He was in Minnesota.

His first year, I mean, they were in the, I think they were in the NFC Championship game, right? Yeah, through that horrible pick. He threw a big pick at the end of the game. Classic. Just a kid out there having fun, a gunslinger, throwing picks in big situations. Typical Brett Favre.

Maybe Aaron Rodgers will get a chance to do that next year for the Minnesota Vikings. Okay, we'll take a quick break here in just a second. Lots more to get into. As we mentioned, Dan Rosen from NHL dot com will join us in the next segment and we'll get his thoughts on the four nations rosters that were officially announced yesterday. How the teams stack up against each other. We can also just check in on some NHL stories with Dan, the Nashville Predators,

their season just continues to spiral. They lose again last night. Could they be on the verge of a fire sale of shaking things up in a big way? So we'll talk to Dan about that, about lots of other stuff happening around the NHL next here on Halford and Brough sports net six 50.