Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/14/24

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they talk Friday's Canucks loss to the Flyers, plus they look ahead to tomorrow's clash versus Tampa. 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.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Hilly scores! Hilly! Dashing the home to the Whitecaps! Morgan Frost beats Kevin Lankanen, and the Flyers win their first game of the season. We just now got, you know, it's two overtime losses now.

We need to make some big plays here. I wouldn't last five minutes, I don't think. Which, I know, me not lasting five minutes is no surprise to anybody. Good morning, Vancouver. Seven o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Alfred at his brow, fit his sports net 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Happy Thanksgiving, fam.

Happy Turkey Day. What up, fam? The Halbro fam. Hello, hello. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Happy Thanksgiving, fam. Happy Turkey Day. What up, fam? The Halbro fam. We're all together. Stop saying fam. Have we all had our dinners and whatnot? Mine's tonight. Mine's yours tonight?

Okay. Yeah, I have overeaten. Yeah. I might be a little sleepy today. I think most people are in the same boat. Okay. The same gravy boat, if you will. Oh, okay.

I'll stop. Halbro. Halbro in the same boat. Okay. The same gravy boat, if you will. Oh, okay. I'll stop. Halpern Rub in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff

that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program, hour one. It's actually hour two. Hour one is hour two.

Hour two is hour three. Hour three just disappeared into the ether. Hour one is hour two. Hour two is hour three. Hour three just disappeared into the ether. Wait, you're you and I'm me? Don't get smart with me, kid. Hour two of this program, the hour we're in right now, is brought to you by Jason Hominuck from Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

That's Jason.Mortgage. It always throws me off when, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. That's Jason.mortgage. It always throws me off when I say, don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. And then I look up and I see you, because I think I'm talking about you, Jason, but I'm talking about Jason Hominick, Jason. I wasn't going to do it anyway. There are too many Jasons. Then I would seriously not let Jason shop around. This one looks fine. Yeah. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands

of five-star Google reviews. So, what are you waiting for? Kintec. We're rambling along here and making light and having a jokey good time because the guest list is going to be real quick today.

Cal Bukaskis. That's the guest list. Yeah. He's going to join us at 7.30. Co-host of the 32 Thoughts podcast. Can you run that down for me again? Sure. 730.

Cal Bukaskis. Can you work it in reverse? Yeah. Now do it in reverse. 730. Cal Bukaskis is going to join the program from the 32 Thoughts podcast. They dropped an episode overnight. We'll do almost all. Actually, not almost all. We will do all of the Canucks stuff ourselves. Me dropped an episode overnight. We'll do almost all, actually not almost all,

we will do all of the Canucks stuff ourselves, me, Brough, and the dogs. Sat was going to join us this morning, but he's a little bit under the weather, so he's going to rest up for Canucks Central later today. So we will run you through everything that happened on Friday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Saturday's practice, the Canucks flew yesterday,

and I can confirm they arrived in Tampa safely. And everything is set to get underway. Still, the game is a go for Tuesday against the Lightning in Tampa Bay. So that's your Canucks update there. We only have the one guest today. We've got a lot to get into. We've only got two hours today on the show, but we have a million different things to get into.

Canucks, Whitecaps, Lions from a local perspective. We will get into it. All of them great. It was not a great weekend for local sports. There's a spoiler alert and we'll get into the NFL story if we can. Lots to get into from the NHL as well. If you're freaking out, if you're freaking out about the Canucks start to the season, just

think. It could be worse. You could be the Edmonton Oilers. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

You missed that? What happened? What Happens Brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Okay, let's dive right into it here. Morgan Frost scored the decisive shootout goal for the Philadelphia Flyers in the fifth round the decisive shootout goal for the Philadelphia Flyers in the fifth round

of the shootout. Vancouver Canucks lose 3-2, their second shootout loss to start the season on Friday night at Rogers Arena. So if you got any texts or comments, text them into the Dunbar Lumber text line about the Canucks start to the season. Two games, two losses, but also two points.

The Bridge Street, Dunbar-Lumber, and Ladner has moved progress way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at Dunbar-Lumber.com. The text line is 650-650, and we had a few texts in already. Is it time to panic? No, it's not time to panic.

It has not been a disastrous start for the Canucks by any means. They could be and probably should be 2-0. The problem is they're not. That is also right. Against Calgary, they should have been able to protect a 4-1 lead, but couldn't. I think you can hang that on Archer Seeloffs, personally. Now, the team in front of them made a few mistakes, but

with competent goaltending, I think they should have won that game. Now, I guess Archer Seeluffs is their goalie for, or at least he's one of their goalies for who knows how long. So that might be reason for worry. But against Philadelphia, Kevin Lankanen started and played much better. The problem with that game was they couldn't convert on some of their early chances, and they had a lot of early chances. And the Flyers stayed in the game, and the Flyers played pretty well overall. And the Canucks ended up losing in a shootout. So overall, you're looking at this team and going, are you happy with how they started?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But are you panicking about how they're starting? No. And I think there are reasons to think that some of the new guys will get acclimated to the group. And I don't think you should expect that type of performance from Archer Seelovs in every start.

I don't know how the Canucks are going to do the goaltending down in Florida. Now, the easy response would be like, well, just give Lankanen all the starts. I thought he was good against Philadelphia. Well, he was good against Philadelphia, but Rick Tockett said, listen, if I play Lankanen in Tampa and then Florida on Thursday, then Seelovs hasn't played for 10 days. Yeah, that's fair. Right?

So it is a challenge right now after the way that Seelovs played in his first game, but I imagine he's done some work with the new goalie coach, Marco Terranius. Yes. Which is... You're better than Dollywall already. Dollywall, better at Dollywall, better than Dollywall. I will say, though, that this is not me.

This is not me making it. I was very quiet on social media this weekend. Good for you. Very quiet, didn't say a thing. Two games into the season, and the pressure on Petey is officially on. IMAC was writing about it. You know, like he basically wrote the story about Saturday's practice where Elias Pettersson spent 20 minutes chatting one-on-one

with assistant coach Yogi. I can't do his last name. Svejkovski? Svejkovski. Yeah, that's a tough one. Why are there more Smiths on the team? Come on. Okay, Don.

It's just easier to say. More Canadians, too., it's just easier to say more Canadians too. There it is. It's so talk it after the practice said it's one of his better practices today. And I think there's some reasons for it. I think today going out early, working on his game, I think he's going to have to have that

approach now for a while, and that'll get his confidence higher. So, yeah, we have a plan with him, and he will just chip away at his game. Tons of things leap out at that statement. Number one, the Canucks have a plan with this guy. Normally when you hear we have a plan with this guy, it's, this guy's been hurt for six months.

It's like a recovery and return to action plan. Or it's like, we're trying to just get this guy back and running for some reason. That's when you hear, you know, we have a plan with this guy. And also,

I don't think you have to read between the lines anymore to deduce that the Canucks want Petey to work harder on his game. Rick Tockett said on our show last week that he wants Petey to be obsessed with hockey like Sidney Crosby is. And when you're the fifth highest player in the league, making more money than Sid, by the way, the Canucks should not expect anything less from this guy. Get on the ice early. Stay late.

Do whatever you have to do to get yourself out of this. Because right now, I don't think Petey played terribly in games one and two. I think he was better than he was in the playoffs. But I don't think he's been good. Okay, let's see if we can parse through some of this. Because we're going to go back to Friday's game. And on one of the Philadelphia goals, Petey was the culprit. And in a move that when you're talking about things that jump out at you from

Rick Talkett's statement, let's just play the audio from Friday because Rick Talkett was direct, forthright, and took dead aim at what the issue was on coverage on one of the Philadelphia goals. We'll let the audio speak for itself. We'll pick it up on the other side. Here's Talkett following the 3-2 loss to Philadelphia

in the shootout on the coverage of one of the Philadelphia goals. Let's hear it. Pedersen was fat-flooded. He's got to gap up, and he's got to be on the wedge guy. And then we played the rush wrong. So when it's a 3-on-2, I think our D got to just protect the guts of the ice, let the shot on the outside. So it's a tic-tac-toe for you.

So a couple of detailed mistakes. We'll correct it. And had a bit of a different look on their second goal. You had a different line out on the ice than you usually have switched up Sprung. And where was the defensive breakdown there? Yeah, Sprung overplayed the rail guy if he just stays back like in this spot that's where the puck went that's where he's got to be he just overplayed um that side so we'll correct that again so patterson you're at fault for the first

goal sprung you're at fault for the second talk it does not sound thrilled did you see he does not did you see how mad Taka looked? Yeah, he looked very – On the first goal against, it was the short – it was the Canucks were – it was when Pedersen got caught flat-footed, although it sounded like Taka said fat-footed, which would have been kind of funny too.

Yeah, Pedersen tried to knock a puck down. He couldn't knock the puck down. He was just standing there and then they went in on three on two and then the second goal which was uh on sprung sprung for some reason starts floating all the way over to his off wing totally left his point man point man wide open and then the point man walks in and has a nice shot and scores i mean you know the sprung one was like what are you doing man right like what what are you thinking could be the benefit of you the off winger coming over to like what do you where are you going where are you going and

that's and that's and that's the book on sprung Gets lost on the ice. And coaches don't trust him. The reason I played the clip was because, and I'm glad that you brought up how frustrated talk it looks. Now, we should mention that when television cameras pan over to the bench, they're doing it in the hopes of garnering a reaction or catching a coach in a frustrated moment.

I don't know how much of Thursday night football you watch with the Seahawks, but they cut over to Mike McDonald approximately 9,000 times during that game because the Seahawks were getting gouged on defense, and they're like, let's see what the defensive guru thinks about this camera, right? They've done it with talking a lot over the first two games of the season because... He's looked very annoyed.

Yes, and they've done it because the Canucks have, in case you haven't noticed, blown two third-period leads, Something that when you talk about identity, their identity last year was we don't blow third period leads. They were 42-1-4 when leading after two periods last year. So what's going on? I think the talk gets frustrated with what he considers their identity. I know that he mentioned talking about having to start going through people and not battling hard enough. And the third one is I don't think he's going to couch individual criticisms anymore. And I think that that starts with Elias Pettersson.

I don't think that he's afraid of talking about him. I don't think he's afraid about criticizing him. And here's the important one. I don't think he's going to be afraid about calling him out if he's underperforming. Because we talked about it at length over the summer. Petey, you got line mates. He's got even more new line mates now, too. Yeah, because Sprung.

Sprung, you're done. Right. They're like, you know what? We'll get rid of Sprung. Do you want us to get rid of Sprung? We'll get rid of Sprung. So they put Heinen up there now with DeBrusque and Pettersson. And I do wonder if this is about, hey, we're not going to let any, I won't use the swear word, any crap slide.

Like, it's not happening. We are on a trajectory upward. We want to be a better version of what we were last year, and we feel like we should be. And that means holding a higher standard across the board. But when you're talking about identity and you're talking about standards, I mean, let's be real. You have to look at your star players and your highest paid players to set that bar

and set that identity. Petey doesn't seem like one of the leaders on the team by any means, does he? He's the financial alpha. Yeah. But, you know, you got Hughes as captain and we all know that he's done a good job in leadership. Miller is the emotional leader.

And then basically it's not good. It is not good when the Canucks give Pedersen that contract. He's two games into that contract and they're talking about how they want him to work harder. For example, when we talk about leaders and alphas, which I hate talking about how they want him to work harder for example when we talk about leaders and alphas which i hate talking about alphas but it's the terms of the the day like i have to use it quinn hughes played quinn hughes played 31 minutes and 30 seconds against philadelphia that's five minutes more than anybody else on the team it's the second game of the year we should mention that tyler myers got hurt early yeah that game. Yeah, no, for sure.

And that was part of the reason. But you could have given one of those minutes to another defenseman. Could have had him closer to 30. I mean, there was a concerted effort from Tuckett to be like, that guy's my leader. He's my best player. And I'm going to put him out there to make a difference in this game because some other guys might not. I honestly think the Canucks' best forward so far might be like Teddy Bluger.

Teddy Bluger's been awesome. Teddy Bluger's playing well. And by the way, Talkett was asked after Friday's game why Pedersen's line didn't play very much at five on five. Talkett's simple response, Bluger's line deserved the time. Yeah. Bluger's line deserved more minutes. And they did.

Did you watch them? They looked good. They scored. I thought Bluger was – I think Bl them? They looked good. They scored. I thought Bluger was, I think Bluger's been very good. Very good. And I'm kind of waiting to see a little bit more from some other guys.

You know, game one was sort of the JT Miller show and then game two, I guess we can call it the Teddy Bluger show if you want to talk about the forwards. But that's why

it's an interesting dynamic because I think you're, when you came in and you're 100% right, there's no time or reason to panic. There's not. They haven't played terribly. No, not even close. They have not played terribly.

Like I said, I don't even mean, I would have taken this step further. Like, if you have almost any other goalie in net for that first game against Calgary, with a 4-1 lead going into the second. Yeah, you're winning. You need to lock down a 4-1 lead over 40 minutes against a Calgary team that only had like five high danger chances. Yeah. If you had flipped it and Lankan was in there, you're probably winning that game. Philly was fine.

I thought they were a decent test. I mean, they're an okay team. They're nothing great. They're probably not going to be a playoff team in the East. And the Canucks should have been up 2-3-0 after the first. But here's the thing. In both those games, they didn't do the things that good teams should do. Get out to the lead against Philly.

They didn't do it. Finish the job against Calgary. They didn't do it. And that's probably what's driving Talkett nuts right now. Because he knows. Good teams do these things. And I don't think he has the patience that he would have had last year. And it's interesting because one thing I noticed about Talkett last year and it's interesting because one thing i noticed about talk at last year he's very

cognizant of how his words can be taken out of context or what he how he says has gravity right gravitas if you will yeah he's also very cognizant of the market he's in he's also very cognizant of not um like being too demonstrative on the bench because he knows the cameras are on him do you remember he got caught last year pumping his fist when they won a big game and he was upset about it he was upset because he got caught on camera like celebrating i'm like dude you won like but that's that's who he is so he knows the cameras are on him constantly and he's still very visibly annoyed on the bench that tells me something yeah that he's like this is not how i want it to look and maybe there's a bit of i think he might be a little bit frustrated with himself because he's like, this is not how I want it to look. And maybe there's a bit of,

I think he might be a little bit frustrated with himself because he's mentioned it a few times that what they focused on in training camp weren't the staples, weren't the trademarks of the team. And maybe that's why their identity slipped a little bit. But there's a definite sense of frustration there, for sure. It's not panic time, but there's frustration there, for sure. I bet they're glad to be going out on the road, to be honest. We got to talk about the other two local sports teams.

Aw, do we? The BC Lions are a disaster. An absolute. They got destroyed in Saskatchewan. What was the final? 39-8 in a season with very several lopsided scores. The Lions suffered maybe their worst of the season at Mosaic on Saturday.

39-8. So they will not host a playoff game. Nope. They won't host the West final. They won't even host the West semifinal. They will host the Grey Cup. If they're going to host the game this postseason it'll be the gray cup so in case you didn't watch the game against the riders on saturday the loss was not

all on work and his first interception wasn't his fault at all but he has not delivered elite quarterback play i'm not even sure he's been average. Maybe he's been average. I'll give him that he's been average. It's the CFL. Yep. They got one game left. It's a home game against Montreal and it is essentially meaningless, but I'm still very curious about it because you got to wonder if they're going to give Vernon Adams some reps in that last regular season game. Again, a meaningless one based on the standings. They're either going to go to Saskatchewan or Winnipeg for the West Semi.

Sasky's still got a chance to finish first. Yep. The Bombers are in the driver's seat, but it could happen. Or do they use that game against Montreal to give Rourke more practice and hope that something finally clicks with him and his receivers? And it just hasn't worked.

I mean, the defense obviously didn't play well either, but turnovers were the story against the Rough Riders. Most likely? Six turnovers. I'm going the Rough Riders. Most likely? Six turnovers. I'm going to tell you what's most likely. Not a guarantee. Most likely. This team is just broken, and this season will not be salvaged.

No. Let's face it. I'm with you there. The odds they can win back-to-back on the road in the playoffs in Regina and Winnipeg and get to the Grey Cup at home are pretty darn low. It's the CFL, so there's always a chance. I've seen the BC Lions do crazy things.

I've seen them get off to a horrible start to the season and win the Grey Cup. I've seen them go into Calgary and win a game they shouldn't win back in the 90s and go on to win the Grey Cup. Part of the charm of the CFL. I would sooner bet on Rick Campbell getting fired though.

Like if you're honestly, if you're talking honestly about this and I know that sounds harsh. There's no way. I do not like Rick Campbell's chances of surviving this. I think it would take a Grey Cup, I guess, appearance at minimum.

No. But we are on the verge of one of the most disappointing seasons in BC Lions history. And I feel badly for the owner, Amar Doman. Given all the excitement this season started with, given the investments made to bring back Nathan Rourke and Matthew Betts, the potential of hosting a great cup with Nathan Rourke at quarterback, no less, and it is all just like, it's like gonzo right now. Like, I don't know what the point spread would be. Let's say they go play Saskatchewan in the West Semi.

What's the point spread? Riders minus 10? I was close to 10. Maybe Shaden closer to a touchdown, just 7, but whatever. I get what you're saying. The Lions since that 5-on-1 start have had one terrific game and that was the one in Montreal. Yeah. And that was

the one we all thought, oh, they turned the season around. But that is looking more like a blip than anything else, because then they came home and they had that horrible game against the Argos. And then it's gotten worse. Yeah. Look, we talked a lot about the Lions this year. A lot.

More than in the history of Halford & Brough and Curtain Blog on the air we ever have. And it was with, I was justified. We were excited about what ownership had done. We were excited about the possibility of having the Grey Cup in Vancouver and the BC Lions playing it. All of it was justified. So the scrutiny was going to be higher because of that. And now I think whatever negativity, however you want to spin it,

pessimism about this team, that's all justified too because there are late season collapses and then there's whatever the hell the Lions are going through right now. And this is, like that game meant a lot on the weekend. And they lost by 31 points. Like you can't go into a game late in your year with the playoffs on the horizon with something of significance at stake and lay a complete egg

and put up eight points of offense. Did you see what? Turned the ball over six times. Did you see what Jacksonville head coach Doug Peterson said after the Jaguars went to London and got blown out by the Bears? Paraphrase. It looks like a lot of quitting. And he was saying, we've got a culture problem here.

I mean, I was thinking in the second half against the riders like do you guys have any pride what's going on here the one thing that will always befuddle me about this season is that in a year where doman was pulling out all the stops no expense spared no price tag too high to get the team over the top why there wasn't a coaching change to try and salvage this thing as well because the wheels had come on way before this i think it was right around the time they went to remember they lost 25 nothing to winnipeg in early august yeah that was a warning sign who gets shut out in the cfl what do you do if you're rick campbell don't make a joke here don't be like yeah get some resumes out yeah right i'm just gonna preempt that halford joke update my linkedin what do you do

in the game against montreal do you have to pick do you use that game against montreal and montreal i don't think has much to play for so i'd have to double check that but i don't think, has much to play for. So I'd have to double check that. Montreal has nothing to play for. Okay, so Montreal might not even be playing all its starters. But do you give equal reps to Rourke and Adams? And do you make it almost an audition? No, because you already made your choice. Do you think you've already made your choice? You've already made your choice.

Or Rourke's your guy? You've already made your choice. If you go now and you flip in the final game of the regular season, then you're not even a coach at that point you're just you're flip-flopping you're just on the whims of like yeah let's just try something it was interesting that va didn't even come into the the the it was and you know why campbell said because he didn't get enough first team reps during the week and i was like it wasn't a problem the last time you put him in he had no first team reps and you threw him in so that doesn't hold any water. Yeah, man. He's lost right now

as a head coach. Yeah. And it's hard to watch. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Here it comes. 8 o'clock on a Monday.

Holiday Monday, Thanksgiving Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford and Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program.

Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. What are you waiting for? Kintec.

So it is a holiday Monday. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. If you're doing your dinner tonight, good luck. Best of luck with the fam. If you did it over the weekend, congrats on surviving. It's over. It's over. You made it.

You can eat a turkey sandwich and just take a deep breath. Think about all the times you got triggered. How much I had to drink. It was amazing um we do several things of tradition on this show several traditions and one of them is anytime we're coming in on a holiday monday to work we want to share in the moment with all of our listeners who are doing the same they're out there working they're grinding their grind set on Like Laddie Laddie how many games Did you call last night?

Can you tell from my voice? How many games did you call last night? Five in a row And what time did you get home? Last night I got home after 11 o'clock Last night When did this all start?

I started at 10am I was supposed to have a break I was only supposed to do four games But I gave up my break To do another game And I ended up doing Five straight games With 15 minute breaks

In between the games What games were all these? This is the JPHL Showcase, which was out in Chilliwack. There's also the BCHL Showcase, which is in Abbotsford right now. It's sort of a split event. But you can't do both. You can only be in one place. There's only so much laddie to go around.

I was the one. And also, I should add, no color commentary. Just me. Just play-by-play. For five straight games. I apologize to everyone. Sat missed the show today because he was feeling a little under the weather. Sat in some of that laddie grind set.

Anyway. Now I can't talk. I want to make sure that all of you. So this is a shout-out to David from Kelowna, Steve from North Saanich, and his son, Jonathan, who's got that laddie grind set. Jonathan reffed seven games. Seven games this weekend. Yep.

Woodrow, the eligible bachelor. Chris from East Sook. Sook? We never really came to a conclusion on that one eligible bachelor. Chris from East Sook. Sook? We never really came to a conclusion on that one. We did. It's Sook. Tyler on the Mountain. Justin in East Van.

He calls it Sook. I just did. Colin in Tawasin. Aaron, the assistant cruise director in Marcus and Gibson. Just some of the people who are out there grinding away on a holiday Monday listening to the Halford and Brough show. Sook. Sook.

We definitely went over that. Shout out toough show. Sook. Sook. We definitely went over that. Shout out to Sook. Sook. Sook. We tried to get through all of the local sporting squadrons in the first hour of the program. By the way, download hour one of the Halford and Brough show if you want to catch a scintillating recap of the Canucks, the Lions, and then

we kind of mentioned the Whitecaps. The Whitecaps played yesterday. Their final home game of the season, regular season version anyway. 30,000 people in attendance at BC Place. A 2-1 loss to LAFC. Okay, so how did that loss happen? The Whitecaps give up an early goal. 90 seconds into the match.

So that's a good start. Barely had my tequila soda in my hand, my cold tequila soda. Boom. Goal. Back of the net. But they pulled themselves together and managed to tie the game. Remarkably so with all the guys that they were missing. So this match, let's be clear, should not have been scheduled for this weekend.

Aside from being on a holiday Thanksgiving Sunday where most people are, you know, doing Thanksgiving, this match was also rescheduled smack in the middle of an international break. So if you look around the globe, not many club teams are playing games right now. As a matter of fact, none of them are, except for LAFC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. And that was because... This is one of the things about MLS that drives me crazy, by the way. It was such a hastily, like, ah, we got to make this one up. Ah, just tack it on.

But they even schedule, regularly schedule, right through international breaks. So this one wasn't originally scheduled. No, I know, but they do. They do. They do. They just plow through. They're like, whatever.

So among the guys missing, Ryan Galt, who played for Scotland in their heartbreaking loss to Croatia on the weekend. Fafa Pico. Two of the Canadians, Ali Ahmed and Sam Adekube. Kubas and Vita, all gone. So getting back to yesterday's match, Whitecaps valiantly fight back. They get a nice goal in around the 70th minute. It looks like they're going to scratch and claw a well-earned point against the second best team in the Western Conference, LAFC.

Remember Kai Kamara? Yeah. He got subbed on, played a very integral role. 93rd minute sets up the game-winning goal. What was going on right before Kamara's setup when there was one LAFC guy who danced through two whitecaps? Hey, Meg Utvik. That was bad, man.

It was very bad defense. The whole sequence was bad. There was actually a very questionable non-call on a foul at the other end of the pitch that the white caps were insensible. It was right in front of me. So I was out there yelling. Did they forget how to play defense? They did.

They forgot how to play defense. Just like that. And it cost them a very crucial time. Anyway, the ramifications are, I think the white caps are going to be in that wildcard playoff, that one-game playoff against Portland. Whether they host it or not remains to be seen. Can we power rank the three local teams? The Canucks are clearly at the top right now in terms of their form,

and they have yet to win a game. So they're number one. Yeah. And then it's, I don't know, man, the Lions are so bad right now that I would even have them below the Whitecaps. I would go Canucks, Whitecaps, Lions, which is crazy. To have the Whitecaps ahead of anyone given their current form. The Whitecaps are 0-4-2 in their last six MLS matches,

and yet I would agree they're still ahead of the Lions because while they're losing, they're not getting blown out. Yeah. The Lions are getting blown out. They lost by 31 points on the weekend. But hey, 30,000 people were at BC Play. Where do the Warriors slot in in that hierarchy? They haven't started yet.

So, that's tough. They had a good offseason. Come on. You can have some expectation. They have not started yet. But when they do, number two. Good answer. Good non-answer.

Yeah, number two. Good job. Yeah. Anyway, so two. Good job. Yeah. Anyway, so that's the local story. Let's focus on the Vancouver Canucks here, though, because they will be back in action tomorrow in Tampa Bay and then Thursday in Florida. I kind of said prior to going to break in hour one

that they might actually welcome the early season roadie just to get out and get some of the new guys, you know, into the mix, have a team dinner. Like Sherwood, you're paying. DeBrusque, you got the other half of it, right? You know how it works. And, you know, it could be a good thing because while it hasn't been a disastrous start to the season by any stretch, you can definitely sense the frustration. I think and I'm not I don't think we're putting that on for clicks as people still accuse us of,

even though there's no clicking. We're just looking at the landscape and say, hey, where's the frustration level between Talkit and his audio, Talkit and his expressions on the bench. Pedersen for sure. iMac wrote a piece about it. If you want to go check it out,

it's sportsnet.ca talking about two games in and number 40 is already under the microscope. And, you know, in writing that piece, IMAC actually asked to speak to Elias Pedersen, put in a media request, and it was, I guess, denied by either the player or the club. But either way, he didn't get a chance to speak with him, which probably says more about where Pedersen is at in terms of just wanting to focus

on getting this right i just had a 20 minute interview with yogi yeah right he did a lot of talking i'm sure they are do you think the connects know what they're doing when they do that when they have yogi out there talking to him for 20 minutes in front of reporters connects are on high alert with um petterson yeah i think i think everything right now like they did to when talk it says we have a plan with him yeah i think they do everything right now like they did to when talk it says we have a plan with him yeah i think they do it includes a bit of pr doesn't it uh yeah because i don't think they're gonna let him speak no no in terms of just like making sure that everyone knows that they're working with them but that's part of what i'm saying is they're not gonna let

petterson go out and say like i'm i've got a plan but or like i'm working on things but they're gonna control that they're going to control that. They're going to be like the visuals. Spend time with Yogi. Yogi just writing on a whiteboard, we're not going to win a cup unless you're good, an underlining good over and over again. Do you follow this? The audio that we played following the loss on Friday to Philadelphia.

Sorry, yeah, Friday to Philadelphia. Or sorry, yeah, Friday to Philadelphia. Very specific and very direct in calling out who made the coverage mistakes. It wasn't just Pettersson, it was Sprong as well. But there's just, I said it earlier, and I'll reiterate it for those that might have missed hour one of the show. It definitely seems like Taka is not interested in giving a long leash or being

patient with anybody right there's a reason that daniel sprung was bumped off the pedersen line in the first game of the season right and those guys and now sprung is down and heinen is up yeah and those guys really didn't play all that much five-on-five against the Flyers because the Bluger line was playing so well. I don't think it was pure coincidence that DeJarne got dropped from the lineup after one game and was replaced by Noah Julesen. I don't think that patience is in a lot of the Canucks coaches and executives' vocabulary right now. I don't think they're interested in waiting for things to happen.

I think they know that they're good, and they know that good teams get down to business and get down to the business of winning early. So at Canucks practice on Saturday, Garland wasn't there. Garland has been a little, I think he's dealing with something, although he's playing very well. So these were the lines at practice Saturday. Note that Garland was not there.

DeBrusque and EP40 were still together. Heinen was with them, and he'd been with Miller and Besser before. Hoaglander gets the bump up to play with Miller and Besser, and Hoaglander, man, that was a nice goal that he scored. And a great pass by, I think it was Garland, right? To just get it to him really quick. When we said who the best forward was so far, I think it was Garland, right? To just get it to him really quick. When we said who the best forward was so far,

I think it's Bluger, maybe Hoaglander's in that conversation. And Garland's in there too. Yeah, and Miller had a really good first game. Not as good in the second. The third line was Suter. That was Bluger between Suter and Sherwood probably filling in for Garland there. And then the fourth line was Amon, Ratu, and Sprong. Sprong is no guarantee

to get into that game because what if Garland comes back into the lineup and then Sherwood's dropped down to the fourth line with Amon and Ratu. Now Amon could be a healthy scratch. Who knows? But, you know, it's funny. A lot of the stuff we talked about heading into this season, the challenges that they were going to have, a lot of it's kind of coming to fruition. Like getting the new guys acclimated was going to be tough.

The things, what I called the natural progression of the team from a team that played very structured, conservative hockey into a team that still wants to play with structure, but also wants to create more off the rush. I think that is a work in progress. We talked obviously about Petey and the pressure that's on him and two games into the season, two games into that giant contract extension, by the way, the pressure is fully on. And we talked about the good things and the bad things about Daniel Sprong

and some of the reasons why he's bounced around in the NHL. Yes, he can do things offensively, but he also gets lost when he doesn't have the puck. And you could argue that it costs the connects the tying goal against the philadelphia flyers like that was dreadful defending by sprung he was serving no purpose where he was on the ice he gets sucked over to his off i don't know what he was thinking leaving his point man like that the puck finds his way to the point man sprung can't get back there and then okay because you score right you laughed you laughed at me when i was saying like i'm really intrigued by sprung

and you were like who are you looking for and i'm like i want to see sprung i want because i wanted to see exactly what the deal was and you know what and i tweeted this out on the weekend good on daniel sprung for wasting no time in giving everyone in Vancouver the full Daniel Sprong experience. He's like, you want to see what I'm all about? Here it is. Yeah, he scored like the first goal of the season with a nice little snipe. Yep. And then he's just running around on his own end,

just doing his own thing, freelancing on defense, right? Speaking of defense, do you think the Canucks will bring up Brandstrom? Is that who it was at some point? He scored. He looked really, really good in Abby the other day. Like, really good. We should do a Tyler Myers update as well. I don't even know if we've done that yet. So, Myers got hurt against Philadelphia.

Left in the first period. They left him shorthanded on the blue. Did not look good. Sounds like he dodged a bullet, though. Talk had confirmed that Myers underwent imaging right after the loss to Philadelphia. Kind of hinted in his media availability on Saturday that they think they dodged a bullet and listed him as day-to-day.

It is obviously... And he's going to go on the trip, which is good news. Yeah. So, I mean, all signs point to, like, a big exhale. They managed to avoid a pretty serious injury there because you don't want to have to go into the depth of your defense right now when you're still trying to get Forbort who I think had a pretty decent second game actually.

I think they were pretty awesome. Made a great play on the Bluger goal. Do you think they might bring up Brandstrom and sit Desjardins maybe for a game to see what he could bring? I mean obviously very different kinds of players. No, I don't think so. Not right away. I think these were the

pairs that practiced on Saturday. Hughes and Hronik. They would have called them up already. They're off on a four-game road trip. Yeah, that's true. Hughes and Hronik are still together. Soucy was with De'Arne. So De'Arne filled in for Myers.

Well, not filled in. He's probably replacing him, at least for the game in Tampa. And then Forbort and Juleson were together. That bottom four right there, that is... Dicey. That's dicey. I said that from the start. Well, everyone said that from the start.

When you lose Zdorov and you lose Ian Cole, who had a totally hard luck playoffs, I realize that was tough to watch. That was almost slapstick comedy comedy what was happening to Ian Cole in the playoffs but you lose him and you lose Zdorov and you essentially replace those two with Forbort and De'Arne the latter of whom especially is a real project it's gonna be a challenge for the Canucks and the Oilers are in the same situation with their defense, right? I mean, they lost De'Arne, who was a fairly regular for them.

And then the guy that replaced him in the playoffs, Broberg, was the guy that left on the offer sheet to St. Louis. And now everyone's looking at that Oilers defense and going, well, that's not deep enough, right? They're in very similar situations right now. De'Arne's like Juleson to me. Like, he's a fine 7th D. I don't know if he should be in a top six. he's like julson to me like he's a fine seventh d i don't know if he should be in a top six so i here i'll tell you this right now i would not

get your hopes up about seeing brandstrom like anytime because the knock on him is that all the stuff that people are seeing in the american league right now like he's the expected goals is off the charts he's making all these great plays he's making he's you, driving place is because he's playing with the freedom of a guy who like, isn't terrified of losing his spot in the NHL. Right. Cause he's very, very soft defensively. Right.

That was part of the reason why he got drummed out of Ottawa. Yeah. They actually played him on the wing a little bit. They probably want to teach him a lot. I want to teach him a lot about how the Canucks play. I know he kind of plays like a rover sometimes and I don't know if that will work for Rick Tockett. I just don't think it's a

roster fit right now for what they want to do. They want to get back to their identity. You hear it time and time again. Rick Tockett has said, we need to re-educate ourselves on our identity and I don't think Eric Branstrom is a fit. I want to hit some people. I want to smoke some people. Brandon and Langley text in,

Rasmus Anderson should be their number one target this year and next at four and a half. Brandon, I think you texted this in last week. The way the Flames are going right now, they're going to the playoffs. Keep Rasmus Anderson. Brandon, go download 32 Thoughts. Fantastic podcast.

Listen to it after you've downloaded the Halford and Brough show, of course. Because Elliot and Kyle, who who just had on the show talked about this for a fair length of time saying that one calvary's not going to do anything and they'll be keen to try and re-up with anderson because he's not old if he keeps playing like this and they aren't as bad as they think they're going to be they also said like he might end up being a guy that, because of the style that he plays, and then he might have a few more years left on the odometer or whatever, he's a guy that you sign and then helps you get through this sort of rebuild.

He's still in the players. If they do decide to move him, the price is going to be sky high. This will not be a, oh, we managed to snatch Zdorov out of there for under market value. There's going to be know snatch the door off out of there for under market value like there's going to be teams across the picks that none of them being a first yeah like if that's a first round draft pick and a top prospect type of player and every team going into the deadline that's a contender will be like frothing at the mouth to get him right because he's on a reasonable cap hit very good defenseman a nice little dangle last night against the oilers

that's like i get what you're saying, Brandon, but that's going to be a real tough one for any team to pull off, let alone the Canucks. What was the big story for you over the weekend in the NFL? Well, I mean, this one's pretty easy. Any time that a team gets blown out as badly as the Dallas Cowboys did on Sunday, it's the Dallas Cowboys. I know.

47-9 in Dallas. It was a score, Gummy. By Detroit. It wasn't all good news for Detroit, though. Unfortunately, they lost Aiden Hutchinson. The dreaded Tib-Fib break. Oh, man. And it was kind of an ugly injury.

I think they only played the replay once. Yeah, they did. So he's got to be done for the season um so good news in that detroit went in there and basically played with the dallas cowboys like played with their food it was they were ben johnson was was not that ben johnson the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions was dialing up his creativity. I didn't love that. I didn't love it. The one to Penae Sewell was the one where I was like,

this, you might- I loved it because it's Dallas. I know, but like- Dallas was missing a lot of players too. It's just like, you already had a guy hurt in Aiden Hutchinson. It's like, why would you, Penae Sewell's like- No, I know.

I was just like, maybe you're taking it to me. But anyway. Regardless. I love the gadget plays. They ran a flea flicker. They're doing everything outside the box, which is great offensively. They scored 47 points on the road. To beat the Cowboys, though.

And yes, the Aiden Hutchinson thing is terrible. And it's six to eight months recovery for a tip-fib break. So his season's done. When you beat the Dallasallas cowboys at home by that kind of score um you're gonna get like a lot of runoff and a lot of like secondary stories and one of them was right away afterwards because jerry jones always does media after home which is always crazy and again i'll take a brief pause here to like, we are going to, when Jerry Jones passes, like everyone will, um, it's going to be a sad day because we're going to look back one

day and we're going to say there was a time that the owner of a team would come down and would answer questions from the media, not the general manager, not the coach, the owner who spent the entire game up in his press box, schmoozing with people and, you know, having a good time, maybe knocking back a couple cocktails. And they come down and be like, OK, who wants to talk football? It's never going to happen again. Anyway, Jerry Jones did his. By the way, he's also the general manager. I know.

But you know what I mean? He's the owner. He's the owner. I mean, I know he's a GM, but anyway. Also the president. He's everything. He's going to be the head coach soon if this keeps up because he was asked, you know, are you considering a coaching change? And he is sage and he is wise.

He's been around for a long time. And he looked the reporter dead in the eyes and he's like, no. And he's like, I'm not considering a coaching change. He's like, I'm not even sure I want to answer this question because I feel like I'm getting set up for a soundbite. Oh, attaboy, Jerry. He gets it. But McCarthy's on such thin ice there in Dallas.

He doesn't have a contract beyond this year. This is the second sort of really embarrassing loss that they've had in the previous one. So they've had these games at home where they've gotten blown out in the first half at home. Against Baltimore, they were able to rally and come back and make it reasonably close. Against Detroit, they didn't.

They just got killed. That game seemed to go on forever, too. I think it went up four hours. It just wouldn't stop. I own Dak Prescott in fantasy. Minus .74 points. He actually took food off the table of my other fantasy producers. So a bad day

for Dallas all around. Other than that, it was kind of a ho-hum week. I'm not going to lie. It was, not a ton of things jumped off the page.

I know that they're still talking about benching Deshaun Watson in Cleveland because it was another sort of horrific outing. And way to go, Nick Sirianni,

for throwing it in your own fans' faces after beating a very lowly Browns team. The Seahawks got a nice result because the Cardinals lost to Green Bay. Yeah. So it's still the Seahawks got a nice result because the Cardinals lost to Green Bay. Yeah.

So it's still the Seahawks and the 49ers. Three and three, baby. The Seahawks to me are... I watched Daniel Jones and the New York Giants yesterday. And all through the game, all I kept saying is... Lost to these guys? How did this team put up 29 points on the Seahawks? And control the game, too.

Seven! They scored seven points yesterday against a Cincinnati team that was one of the worst defensive teams in football. That was a big win for the Bengals, though. Yeah, but it was ugly. It was gross. They won it with their defense. But I'm like, how did this Giants team come in into Seattle and put up 29?

How? It's unbelievable. It made me feel worse about the Seahawks season watching the New York Giants play football yesterday. Because now I'm like, the Seahawks defense is even more problematic than I thought it was going to be. What's your curiosity level for Bills and Jets tonight? After all that's been happening with the Jets.

Huge. First game after firing a coach. Yeah. At home, too, for the for the jets put it this way if aaron rogers has anything left in the tank and that's still to be determined but if he does he's putting up 400 yards tonight and like six touchdowns if he doesn't he's quitting right because this is this is like there's a handful of statement games for a guy that's 40 years old and coming off an Achilles. And the first one is your first game back for real,

which he played in and they lost to the Niners. He's coming off an Achilles and he said himself, like, I've got an ankle sprain. Right. And he played, he's had a good game this year. That second game after they lost to San Fran, he had a good game. It's been really bad the last two weeks, but he understands the optics and the business of the NFL better than anyone.

If you get rid of the head coach and you change play callers, if you've got anything left in the tank, it has to be tonight. You have to have a game where there's some hope left. Prime time, everyone watching. These games are meaningful. If you throw for 167 yards and one touchdown and two interceptions, you're cooked, I would say. So they've got a new play caller.

They've got a new head coach. And Buffalo's got that clunker that they were coming off the previous week where they just made horrific decisions down the stretch in that late loss. So we'll see what happens. Well, the AFC East, there's a bit of an NFC West feel to it because the Bills would be, I don't know, the 49ers? Yep, that's fair. They are now expected to win that division because you got the Jets,

Dolphins, and Patriots, the latter of whom are dreadful, even though Drake May, I guess, threw a nice touchdown pass. Yeah, two nice touchdown passes, actually. Yeah, he got picked off a bunch, too. Yeah, he was sacked a few times. Don't worry about that. He was the sling of the ball up. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.