Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 10/28/25

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss a Game 3 World Series classic that saw the Dodgers take out the Jays 6-5 in the 18th inning, they preview tonight's Canucks home matchup versus JT Miller's New York Rangers with analyst Landon Ferraro, plus the boys tell us what they learned. 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. Fire there comes down on a crossbeat, up top, one time across, and redirection, score! The goal of us! But for Sidney Crosby, it's 1,700 points. The captain flies to Rar a Friday. There's a spot here in the bottom of the seventh.

And a swing and a drive. Deep left center, can you believe it? He did it again, and the game is tied. I fly to center. Varshow back. Game over. Rattie Freeman walks it off. With a home run to straightaway center field.

The Dodgers win, and they take a two-to-one lead in the World Series. Good morning, Vancouver's 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halpert, it is Brough, it is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog.

Good morning to you. Good morning. And Elon, in for the ailing, Greg Ballack. Good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Scoray, Def Freedom, Hatrick. One, no more interest, too much lower payments, and three financial peace of mind.

Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. they recycle you get paid visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver we are coming to you live barely alive from the kintech studio kintech footwear and orthotics working together with you in step kudos to you the few the proud the bleary eyed this morning if you're awake and you're listening

and you stayed up late enough to watch an all-timer epic world series game we welcome you to the program today we have a lot to get into today because the sports do not stop it's another amazing day in sports, specifically in hockey. We've got a huge guest list ahead on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Guest list today begins at 630. Greg Wischinski is going to join the program. Our NHL insider from ESPN, it is NHL Frozen Frenzy tonight. 16 games, all 32 teams in action to give you an idea of what's on the horizon.

First games start at 3 p.m. our time today. Last games begin at 8 p.m. Our time tonight. And that first game is the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Philadelphia Flyers. We've got to ask Wish about these penguins. So hot right now. There's 7-2-1. Watch them last night.

I thought they were, weren't they Gavin McKenna, Tank, Sid leaves, no. You know who looks really good? Eric Carlson. It's like a pointy game guy this year. It's unbelievable. Malcolm as well. Yep. We'll talk to Wish.

We'll talk to Wish about that. All the games, huge night of hockey. 16 games, 32 teams. Greg's going to sit it all up. at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Jim Cernie is going to join the program out of New York. He's the executive editor for Forever Blue Shirts. One of the games tonight, obviously, Canucks Rangers 7 p.m. from Rogers Arena, J.T. Miller's return to Vancouver after his trade to New York last season. Rangers are not playing especially good hockey right now. This is a big emotional game for them,

and the Canucks will talk to Jim about all that at 7 o'clock. 7.30. Buck Pierce is going to join the program head coach of the BC Lions Elon's wearing his old school starter BC Lions throwback I like that that's pretty good BC Lions will host the Western Semifinal this Saturday November 1st against the stamps kickoff is 2.30 on Saturday

BC took care of business against the stamps during the regular season we'll see if they can do it in the playoffs Buck is going to join us to set up the Western semifinal at 730 finally at 8.10 Landon Ferraro is going to join the program some Canucks pregame stuff there as we look ahead to tonight's game. Canucks Central tonight goes from four to six.

Pregame show goes from six to seven. Batcham Randeep have the call at seven. Post game show immediately following. Canucks do skate this morning at 10.30. So we'll get a better sense of who's in and who's out tonight for a team that is really banged up by injury. Landon Ferraro is going to join the program at 810 to preview tonight's game.

We have giveaways again. We are giving away a $250 gift card to Golf Town at 7.30, and then at eight Foo Fighters tickets. Foo Fighters, going to Friday, October 31st, tickets go on sale. That's this Friday. But we're giving away tickets

today and tomorrow. So tomorrow's the last day. I will announce throughout the show when we're going to do these giveaways, so don't worry. I'll give you all the information as we get closer to the actual contest. Okay, there's a lot going on. There's a lot to get into. So without further ado, Elon, 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?

I missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training, visit them online at BCCS.a.orgia. Where else are we going to begin? After midnight, our time last night, after six hours and 38.

minutes of baseball. It was an 18th inning walkoff home run from last year's World Series MVP Freddie Freeman as the Dodgers beat the Blue J 6-5 on Monday in an 18-inning thriller. We played the Dan Shulman call in the intro. It was a little muted, a little sad. Understandably, I want to play the Fox Call now of what is going to go down is one of the greatest home runs

in World Series history. Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the 18th matching the longest game in World Series history, Here's what it sounded like on Fox. Los Angeles. Foreman sends a fly ball to center field. Our show's going back before the catch-strike. Foneman has ended it.

It's a repeat hero with the last word on a game three classic. So that game obviously took on a life of its own. And it got to the point, you know, late last night. where it was kind of like, okay, this game is mostly just about how long it's gone on, but that game was not just about how long it went.

There was a lot in that game. A lot of stuff happened in that game. My notes are so janky and so out of place and there's a million different thing. Halford, you know what I was thinking about? I was like, you remember when we used to write? Occasionally.

Okay. I always knew that like we were okay writers but we weren't great and it's games like that where I know that I was never born to write about sports because I would have been like I don't want to do this this is a nightmare I don't want to tackle this this is too much I don't have the talent to recap that game in written form so instead I'm going to go on the radio and just kind of like stumble my way through that was crazy when that happened right it was really long yeah it was a long game right Springer got hurt.

How do you adequately capture the spirit of the thing? Maybe it is about the length of the game because that was an 18-88 game, as I mentioned, six hours and 39 minutes, 44 players used, 19 pitchers used, 609 pitches thrown, 29 strikeouts, 153 plate appearances, and 37 runners left on base. Both teams emptied the tanks. as much as you could go. By the end of the game, in case you missed it, Yamamoto was hand up like,

I will come back into this game, having only pitched two days prior. I'm ready to go. Clint Kirscho was like, I pitched a inning. Nope, he pitched a batter. Right. I pitched a batter.

Shane Bieber, who's going to start in a matter of hours tonight, almost had the warm-up hoodie off just to try and get warm to potentially get back in this game. And if you want to talk about storylines, what do we say about poor Brendan Little, who's absolutely nightmarish postseason just added another nightmare

as he was brought on as the last option really like the fact that they had to bring them on to finish that game kind of give you an idea of where they were at in their bullpen and it was Brendan Little who gave up solo jack

I was hoping he'd get some redemption there too like he looked like his stuff was okay he was throwing strikes it was the opposite of okay in the end though because it wasn't even that the Dodgers manufactured a winning run it was that he served up a meatball.

It was a meatball to Freddy. And let's be honest, prior to that, Eric Lauer, who deserves a ton of credit for what he did in relief, he had given up a bunch of long fly balls, deep fly balls into various parts of the outfield. Farshal kept on going back to the track and he was just like, yeah, got another one. You could say, you'd almost see him start to like giggle a little bit. Like you can see a little bit of a smile on its face. And you can see the Dodgers approach at the plate was, we're probably going to end this

with one swing. The Blue Jays, they did not have that option. available to them. You can go down the road of wanting to criticize some of the moves that John Schneider made and the lineup that he was left with by the time they lost that game. And I think it's valid because by the end, they had Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and then eight guys that were just up there trying to do anything. And I don't mean in that scrappy Blue Jays baseball kind of way. I mean, guys that just weren't, they were never going to get a hit in that situation. It was tough to watch because they went 11 innings, 11 innings without scoring a run.

Did the Jays really lose it in the 10th inning? Is that where they lost this game? This is the most controversial part. Why don't you tell everyone what happened and then everyone can kind of have their say? The send. The send herd around the world. Bottom of the 10th inning,

Thai France gets aboard. They pinch run with Davis Schneider. Nathan Lucas stepped up. up, rips a double into the right field corner. If France is running, he's not being sent. No. There's no chance. But Davis Schneider, a slightly better base runner with two outs, gets the round, around third, and is then dead on arrival thanks to a really, I mean, to Oscar Hernandez played that perfectly

in the outfield. Relays in, Schneider's DOA at the plate, Jay's challenge in the hopes that there might have been a blocking call on the catcher to no avail. So in the 10th, in the 10th, top of the 10th, I think I said bottom of the 10th, it looked like it was their opportunity to take whatever lead they were going to get. The issue, of course, was that standing in the on-deck circle was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Now, several people astutely pointed out in the aftermath that let's say they hold up Schneider at third and let's say Lucas either goes to second or first, whatever, right? Lucas ended up on first. They're going to walk Vladie to load the bases.

Sure. At which point you've got Isaiah Kyna Folefa at the plate with 2-0 with the bases loaded. Is that the situation you want? Or is the likelihood better that you're sending Schneider on the hopes that that amazing relay

from outfield to infield the catcher isn't going to be picture perfect. I think that's what happened because they sent Vladdy earlier in the game and I couldn't believe they sent him. But he was safe because the throw was a bit off. The throw was actually quite a bit off. Yeah.

And I think he probably had a – Vlad is actually a pretty good base runner for a guy's size, right? He's very aggressive. And here's the thing. Aggressive is an important part of this because the J's mantra throughout these playoffs is be aggressive, stay aggressive. We've seen countless times where they've been thrown around the basebats, trying to take extra bags, trying to be aggressive.

So if that's your M.O. And that's your mantra, fine. The other part of it, though, is that – and you know, Buck Martinez says this time and time again with Blue Jay baseball, it's get guys on, move guys over, and then bring them home. And put the other team under pressure. I would suggest that there is some, there's some merit and there's some validity to saying bringing a guy up with the bases loaded with two outs is going to put the Dodgers under pressure, right?

At that point, kind of fluff is trying to put bat on ball and it's trying to make the defense make another play. And you live to fight another day. I don't know what the right call was. To be honest, I don't think we ever will. Yeah. You know, I understand. Well, I mean, I think we know what the wrong call was, sending him. But I don't know.

I honestly don't know. It was out. It didn't work. But it had to be a perfect, perfect relay from the outfield. It did. Can we also? Okay. I think that I think he was out by a mile.

Yeah. So I think there is a little room for error there. When that ball got hit, I was saying there could have been a hop off the wall in the outfield. Yes. Toe Oscar fielded that bare handed. Perfectly. And whipped it in. Yep.

And then the relay was perfect as well. And I mean, think about it. Even if the relay skips and the catcher misses it by a beat, anything. But none of that happened. And the Blue Jays missed their best opportunity to take a lead in that game. Can we talk about Otani? Because he is pitching tonight against Bieber. And I've never seen a guy intentionally walked four times in the World Series

after he's already done a bunch of different. damage at the plate. Two home runs, two doubles, and then a bunch of intentional walks. He was on base nine times yesterday. He reached base nine times in a single baseball game. Schneider intentionally walked. He was he looked like he was giving like the check please. I'll take one of those. Thank you very much. They asked Schneider after the game. So if you didn't watch the presser, that's fine. It was very late. So they walked, they got Schneider to walk the media through what he was thinking with the intentional walks. I mean, he gave all the stock answers and cliches you would expect.

Well, his fourth, the fourth at bat was not intentional. It should have been, it should have been five intentional walks. A lot of people would say. Right. And so the Sir Anthony Dominguez one was the one, the home run, the meatball down the middle where they were finally waived the white flag and we're like, we're not pitching to Otani anymore. They then issued three actual intentional walks and then they kind of pitched around them for the last one.

So Otani reaches base nine times in a game, which is just an unbelievable statistic. In the aftermath, Schneider's asked about what they were thinking, and he's like, we're trying to take the bat out of an exceptionally good hitter's hands. And then the reporter asks not to give away trade secrets or your strategy moving forward, but is this what we can expect in future games? And Schneider says, yeah. So I wonder if we have reached the point where they're just not going to pitch to Otani for the remainder of this series,

Either they're going to pitch around them and just throw stuff away outside the zone and make him chase or they're just going to issue him first. You know what I'm talking about though, right? His second home run. Yeah. And everyone was like, you should walk him now.

I texted. I texted everyone I knew, just walk him. Everyone was saying that. Just walk him. Why? Because he'd already had a pretty good game up to that point. I understand. There are so many decisions made last night.

The Jays were winning the game at that point. I understand not putting the top. tying run on base when you're up 5-4 in a baseball game. I know these are extenuating circumstances because it's Otani, but I was like, even though I was like, don't pitch to them, I'm like, I get what they're doing here. You don't want to put, because here's the thing, the guy behind him in the order, Mookie Betts,

and the guy behind him, Freddie Freeman, are dangerous hitters. Yeah. So at 5-4, when you put the tying run ahead, you get the go-ahead run at the plate. You're like, if you do something bad here, you are going to get eviscerated. In John Schneider's defense, Dominguez could have taken that at bat

and maybe not delivered one and grooved it right down the middle for that home run because it was an awful pitch yeah right I mean you could have done a lot of different things What's the opposite of an intentional walk I don't like that was it like do what you want with this show hey

and show hey did exactly what he wanted with it I don't know what happens after this by the way there has been a game of this length in the world series it was actually the 2018 World Series between the Red Sox and the Dodgers and it was Max Muncie quite famously that walked that one off. Those series to me, they don't really stack up

because I felt like the Jays needed that one and it would have been more of we stole one and they needed to steal one in L.A., right? If they want the series to go somewhere, they got to steal one in L.A. I thought that might have been the opportunity last night because you look at it now and you've got Otani coming on the bump tonight

and then you've got Blake Snell, who I would suspect would be a lot better than his first start, and then you've got Yamamoto again. So it is not going to be any easier for the Jays right now. I do want to talk a little bit about the Canucks, but just one final note on that game. That would be one of those games where you could put just a list of, like, 20 crazy things that happened last night in Los Angeles

because we haven't even mentioned some of the base running mistakes, or we haven't even mentioned some of the great defensive plays, like two amazing throws. by the Blue Jays, Barger, and Vladdy. I mean... Oh, a couple amazing defensive plays by the Dodgers, too. That stuff just like, it's like, oh, yeah, and that happened. That was one of the most incredible, fascinating baseball games I have ever seen,

and I'm glad I was able to watch the whole thing. Pedro fell asleep. Everyone I knew. He was my dog, just I need to keep saying that. The real ones, by the way, and I know people listening right now, who watched the game and stayed up. The real ones are the ones that texted with you right until the end, where they were looking for snacks at 11 o'clock at night,

trying to get a healthy snack out of the fridge, talking about what's going to happen moving forward. By the way, another thing, and I know you mentioned it briefly, but the George Springer injury that happened, I think it was in the seventh inning, where it looked like he did some sort of oblique or back strain. John Schneider said after the game that it was right-side discomfort

and that Springer was getting treatment on it. if they don't have Springer in the lineup, that is such a massive bat for them moving forward. Well, Kirk, Kirk didn't look 100% either. I didn't, I know he was hurting. I really, really did not like that lift there where they put Tyler Heineman in for running purposes. Like I know Kirk's not a burner,

but guess who isn't either? Heineman. You lose Kirk's bat. You lose him behind the plate. I felt like... But I wonder if he might be a little... He might have been banged up because he was wincing at the plate.

Springer and him both pulled love handles. Potentially. It happens in baseball, you know, those guys, I'll tell you. Okay, I think, you know what? I think we actually did a pretty good job of covering almost everything in that game. It was a wild one. If you were there, either like watching it on your phone and bed or on the couch and television, you want to weigh in for your thoughts or how tired you are this morning. Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 650, 650. It was an all-timer. And it's very cool that we are working in sports media for the game that tied the longest one ever in World Series history. But we'll pivot now to the Vancouver Canucks.

Oh, we've only got a couple of minutes here. So we'll have our big discussion at some point later in the show. Wish is going to join us in about 10 minutes here. It's the return of J.T. Miller to Rogers Arena tonight. Now, Elias Pedersen and J.T. Miller have played actually in two games against each other since the trade there was the meeting in the four nations that

didn't really deliver I think Pedersen only played like 10 minutes at that point in Sweden had already been eliminated I don't really remember much from that game but you know I do remember thinking and Wilf Pedersen is

not in a good way right now he really at that tournament frankly he looked like he didn't even belong in that tournament he's playing better now though. The other time they met was in Madison Square Garden and I actually like I kind of

forgot about this. Do you remember he got hurt on taking a face off in March last year? It was like any Trocheck. For Trocheque who's also hurt and not playing for the Rangers tonight but yeah so the two meetings

between Miller and Pedersen have amounted to nothing really in terms of fireworks works. Now, will something happen tonight between Miller and Pedersen? I don't know. But I have trouble believing that tonight's game will just come and go without something significant we'll be discussing the next day. Maybe it'll be the crowd reaction. Maybe it will be like, wow, I didn't see that coming. We've discussed every possible scenario from competing,

let's go PD J.T. Miller chance to, I don't know, some sort of like, is there going to be a video tribute or no video tribute? What's the reaction going to be like that? Will the camera pan to Elias Pedersen? What will he be doing then? Maybe it is a moment between Miller and Pedersen. Maybe they'll hug it out. They won't hug it out.

Probably not. Or maybe it's just who wins the game and what the fallout for the loser will be. It's not like either team has had a super comfortable start to the season. I know vibes are somewhat higher around the Canucks after the weekend where I played a pretty solid game against Montreal, although they lost, but then got a very gutsy win over the Edmonton Oilers. The New York Rangers, meanwhile, come into this, I mean, they're not playing well at all. And they're coming off a performance in Calgary where the flames, I think heading into that

season or heading into that game they were the worst team in the league beat the rangers and beat them handily and the game before the rangers lost to san ozay yeah the rangers are in a bad way there were some talk from their room and i think miller might have been one of the guys who was saying like they feel that their underlying metrics and maybe some of their chance generation is better than the results show but the results are the results and that game in calgary i think it was the calgary game specifically i think they had the old classic it didn't feel like a 5-1 game to which I responded, but it was still a 5-1 game to an absolutely awful Calgary team to start the season. So the vibes are not great for the Rangers right now. I wonder if

this will be a springboard to better times for the team or if this could even get worse for these guys somehow because there's a lot of frustration with this team too, including from the head coach, Mike Sullivan. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. This is one that people already know, but I think just saying it out loud will, I mean, it's incredible. Here are Shohay Otani's last 13 plate appearances at Dodger Stadium. So this goes back to game four against the Brewers and the NLCS.

Home run, walk, home run, home run, home run. Double. Home run. Double. Home run. Intentional walk. Intentional walk. Intentional walk. Intentional walk. Good old-fashioned regular walk. The most cowardly. That is incredible. That is incredible. Nine of those were last night. Just so we're clear. He got on base nine times last night. It was remarkable. Now, the real question is, do you pick to him again in the series. Like, ever? Yeah.

Like, I know maybe you don't issue him the actual intentional walk. There is something different, I got to say, with John Schneider holding up the four fingers and just giving him the base. And then actually making the pitcher go through, I'm going to throw four pitches,

but they're going to be nowhere near the strike zone. And I don't know which is the better one. Because you do waste four pitches. Like, the pitcher actually has to throw it. But I don't think they're going. Well, you can also make a mistake. I don't think, yeah, like, I don't think they're going to let him hit

for the remainder of the series. Like even like first inning? I don't think so. Like he leads off. I know. You put them on? Maybe not that. Maybe not that.

I don't think you can do that. Okay, here's a good question. Has a game ever started with an intentional walk before? Actually, that is a good question. Has it ever happened? Probably not. It sets the tone of cowardice

for the remainder of the time. Okay, Landon's joined us early. So we're going to go to the phone lines now. That's the tone of cowardice. The cowardice tone. Throw the remainder of the World Series. Joining us now. He is a Kinex analyst on SportsNet.

Landon Farrow here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Landon. How are you? Not too bad. How you doing? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. How excited are you for what could be a very intriguing evening at Rogers Arena when J.T. Miller makes his return to Vancouver.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's just like everyone else just kind of wondering what the reception is going to be. But more importantly, like, you know, it's funny. you have all these separate storylines, but at the end of the day, the Canucks need to find a way to get skating and have a good game and try and get in the win column again. Like, at the end of the day, you could say it's just a game because it is, but I mean, there's going to be a little extra emotion in it for sure, but the Rangers aren't in a great place either.

Like, it's two teams that are looking for a win. As a player, how do you balance between understanding, that this is a big moment and a big night and a big spotlight for certain players but also trying to keep your cool, be collected, and understanding that at the end of the game it's we're 10 games in and the most important thing is two points.

I think at the end of the day it's just you focus on your own game and you know that it's going to be a little more emotional but really it just makes you get more focused. You want to make sure that you're on the winning side of the extras tonight

and obviously J.T. coming back in and the history that's here and all the good work that he did while he was here and not the best way or best exits, you know, like if you're the Kentucky, you just want to show especially the new guys that they made the right decision and this is the team that's going to get the win tonight. Does Pedersen get the J.T. Miller matchup and vice versa? I kind of imagine that that's how it's going to be. And to be honest, that's what everyone wants to see anyway. I think it's awesome of the fact that, you know,

Pedersen has had his best two games in a long, long time, especially last game. Like, that is the most Pedersen-like game that we've seen in a year and a half, really. So he's in a good place right now, and can he continue that, knowing that the JT's sitting on the other side. Yeah, what are you seeing from Pedersen? Why would you call that game against the Oilers

the most Pedersen game we've seen in a year and a half? He clearly wanted the Pock. He wanted to make plays. He knew what he was going to do with the Pock once he got it, where over the last long, long while here, it seemed like every time that Pedersen got the puck, his feet would stop moving and he'd be looking

for the next play. Last game, and even the game before, like I keep bringing up the Garland goal because to me as simple as that play was for Pedersen, the play doesn't get made the year before. Because as he moves that up

to Hughes and he starts sliding across, Pedersen wouldn't really work to get up and then once he got the puck, his feet would stop moving. this time he throws it up he does the work he gets up higher so now he's already coming downhill once he gets it back he takes that

one two step right away now that freezes all the defenders and garland's got his stick presented perfectly like it's just little things like that he's engaged even you know not that we want him running around and trying to hit everything but you know

every time he'd throw a hit in the past long time here it was always that spin around and hit with his backside. You know, Montreal, he goes right through, I always got a mix up now, either Suzuki or Carrier, because Garland and Pedersen both had beautiful hits that night, but like he goes straight through his chest. Yeah. And things like that, like he's, he just seems more into it and wanting to be the difference maker. I think the key is, you know, what you just said was he wants the puck on a stick.

And I think there have been so many times we've watched them in the last year and a half where you're like, do you want it? Like just the way you take the puck, for example, on the power play, and you can tell, like if someone wants the puck or if they just want to hand it off, you know, I'll ask you, did you ever, did you ever have a time in your pro career where you're like, man, I am just not feeling it with the puck on my stick. And I'd rather just give it to someone else who might be able to do something better with it right now because I have no confidence in myself right now.

Oh, 100% and one of, I mean, say one time it happened, one of the multiple times it happened for me, but it was playing in Minnesota's system and, you know, I had scored a good amount of goals at the American League level and, you know, that's kind of what I was supposed to be doing at that point and I couldn't function. And I just kept telling myself of, like, you scored, you can do it again, you can do it again, and it was Brett McLean, the assistant for the Canucks now, was one of our assistants there, and it was him having a pretty good conversation, just a real, real conversation with me of, like, yes, you've scored, and you have that ability, but right now that's not there, and we need to find a way

to get you back to it, and it's just having that honest look about your game and not trying to mask things. Like, it's the only way you ever get through anything is, facing it head on and not pretending to yourself. Okay, what else will you be watching for tonight? We're not expecting Quinn Hughes to play. That's not officially yet. The connects are going to skate this morning. And they might have either Kudriatzov or Tom Velander in the lineup

if Victor Mancini isn't ready to go. Landen, the injuries just keep piling up. for this team? They really do. And it was great to watch the other night against Edmonton. It was, you know, the start of the game, I mean, I'm sure you guys had the same feeling when they ice the puck a multitude of times. They were like, okay, this might be a long one.

And from, they took that first penalty and they had the best chances out of it, like their feet were moving. They looked engaged in. and guys realize their best players out of the lineup, and they need to do that little bit more to try and give their team a real good chance of winning. It's going to be the same tonight. It's, you know, it's the cliche line that you hear so much now of Next Man Up,

there's no replacing Quinn Hughes, but what you can do is have a roster that's filled with some good players that are committed to the system and are really focused on that extra effort, every single battle, not just kind of throwing a stick in there, but getting body position and making sure they get the puck and just being really focused. Like, that's what you want to see out of the team that you're watching

is attention to detail and a ton of effort. And when you have those things, you have a chance against any team, really, especially with the goalies that Vancouver have. We're speaking to Canucks analyst Landon Ferraro here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sports Net 650. a quick note and question about Kiefer Sherwood here who's now up to six goals and ten games and of course this comes after a year

in which he scored 19 times in 78 so we knew that there was more offensive upside for the player than I think anyone envisioned when they first acquired him via a free agency from Nashville I guess my question would be is like where is Sherwood's offensive ceiling right now because he's getting more minutes than he ever has

in his NHL career he's scoring at a clip better than he ever has at his NHL or HL career and I think the most important thing here Landon is it doesn't seem

any signs of slowing down if anything he seems like he's relishing the opportunities and finding new ways to flourish in

those opportunities I completely agree with you that he's kind of rising to the occasion I mean he's shooting I think it's at a 30% clip rate 31.6 which feels

a bit unsustainable but still probably a job to 28 or something like that you know yeah that's it's that'd be a pretty decent year

if you can keep that up But at the same time, like, you look at his goals and, you know, like, I've played with guys that have their career years and some of the goals they score. Like, how did that find a way in? Right. Like, it's just, you're on that magical run, and it just, it just goes for you. But you look at Kiefer Sherwood's goals, and none of them really, you're looking at, they're like, wow, you got really lucky on that. It's, everything comes out of, out of hard work, being hard on the puck. I mean, that disallowed goal that he had the other night,

that was a snapshot from, you know, a few steps above the tops of the circle. He shot at 92 miles an hour, right? Like, his shot is very good, but he just looks like a guy that, you know, he bloomed late. He got his start in the NHL a bit older than a lot of guys do. And it's like he's making up for lost time. Like, he knows the opportunity that's in front of him. he'd be crazy to say he doesn't realize it's a contract year for him but that's the best part of keeper sherwood is i don't think it matters that it's a contract year for him you see him

score you see the pure joy that comes out of him like that's a guy that wants to be the best that he can for himself and his team and and it rubs off on the other guys so for him like it's just continuing the work he never takes the take the shortcut on the ice so he puts himself in really good positions. Lucas Reichael. What a crazy weekend that was for him. What did you think of him on a line with Kane and Besser? We were talking about his skating ability,

which is obviously elite and maybe being a good fit with a couple of guys that don't move super fast, but have obvious skill as well. Yeah, I think Reichel had a great first weekend. I mean, he hasn't even really been playing much center. He's been playing a lot of wing. He gets

traded to Vancouver here, and not only is he playing center, but he's the second line center. So he's getting some pretty good matchups. And like you said, his skating ability is strong. He's got nice, long, smooth strides, and he gets around the ice, but he's a player

that is really smart, and he gets to the right side of the puck a lot. had a decent amount of chances this past weekend that he could have easily had one or two. I think as, you know, the next over the next month or so, I think he's going to keep taking steps in the right direction of finding more offense off of his stick. You know, he was in a completely different situation in Chicago and he gets to here and he has all this opportunity in front of him, which is great, but you also need to get yourself into that mode as well, of playing more minutes, being expected to be on the score sheet a little

bit more and helping to provide that offense. I think he had a really good weekend, and I'm happy that they got him here. He's an old teammate of mine, and when he was in his draft year, and he's a great kid, and talking to him, he's really, really excited about the opportunity in Vancouver, and and the fact that he's going to have a more prominent role and for the foreseeable future here that role is his and he needs to make the most of it and he understands that

I was listening to you talk about the first time you ever saw him and he was wearing the full cage and you were like are we skating with a peewee team today or what's what's going on here what was it like to to play with Lucas over and it was in Berlin right?

Yeah, I was in Berlin and yeah, it was different. I didn't know that, you know, technically kids could play in the men's league and over in Europe, if you're not 18, you can't wear a visor, so he's out there in a cage and I had

no idea that he was on the team and then you quickly realized like, oh, this kid's pretty good and I remember there was a few games in, we played Mannheim and there's another kid in a cage on the other team and I'm like, what is happening here? like I just wasn't used to seeing that many young guys

and then all of a sudden he just starts looping the offensive zone it was Tim Stutzla he was a pretty good player himself yeah and that was that team had Maxim Lappierre didn't it yeah and Luffy really took Lucas under his wing that year he was awesome to him they sat next to each other and at the practice rink

and game rink and they're always chatting and, you know, Max, I'm just making sure that Lucas was ready to go and teaching him, you know, how to be a professional. Max had a great NHL career and finished off in Switzerland and then Germany that last year with us. And, you know, I think that, I mean, I know that he was his number one supporter. Bax was saying from the few days in of me getting there that, like, this kid in Reichel is going to be a first rounder, like his vision on the ice,

the way that he can move and the fact that he was a pretty like he was tall but really skinny and yet he could still find ways to make plays some nights were harder than others obviously when you're 17 but he was he was a big advocate for him

and I quickly realized as well getting to play on his line for a bit that yeah if you get open he's going to be able to find you somewhere he's smart enough to find the play you know I will say with all the concerns about the center ice position and it's not like I'm saying

they're over, they aren't. Adding a guy like Lucas Reichol and Max Sasson, it's added some speed down the middle to this lineup and do you think that was an area that needed to be addressed? Oh, for sure it did and even before

everything got going here injury-wise you know like Heedle was, you know, at that point Pedersen, we didn't really know what we were going to have yet and it's great to see him carry the puck through the neutral zone and carry some speed. But in saying that, like, Heedle was really the only puck mover up the ice.

And the one that you know who would do it all the time, all of a sudden, you know, I saw Max Sassen do it in the American League playoffs all last season. And he's got a ton of speed and he knows how to use it. And he makes some pretty good reads of how, you know, when to use his speed, when to protect to puck things like that. But like you said, now you add Reichel into the mix, and that's another guy that is moving through the middle of the ice. And the more speed, obviously, you have in the middle of the ice, it gets the defenders backing up a little bit more because it's not on one side. It's not easy to kind of fold the ice in half and hold everything to one side. So, you know, the fact that

Reichel pops in here as well, I really like how it looks. I completely agree with you. It doesn't solve all the problems by any means, but it definitely adds another layer to this team that needs more speed. This game moves fast these days, and you've got to be able to play through the guts of the ice with speed. Landem, this was great, man. It is the Canucks. It is the Rangers 7 o'clock tonight. You can hear it right here on Sportsnet 650. Thanks for doing us today by we appreciate it. Yeah, I have a good one, guys. You too, thanks.

That's Landon for our Canucks analyst here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. We're going to do some what we learned from our side of the table. By the way, the conversation about intentionally walking Shohei Otani, it's not just one that we're having. The entire baseball world is having it right now. In case you missed it, in his post-game media availability yesterday, John Schneider, the Blue Jays manager, gave a length of the explanation when asked about walking Otani, right? He said that when he let Sir Anthony Dominguez pitch to him, which of course ended with a home run, he said that he trusted his reliever and he thought that he would be able to

locate the ball where Otani wouldn't be able to do major damage. He wasn't able to do it, but he also said part of that is because Otani's such a great player and he's such a great hitter. I don't blame the pitcher. It's an amazing hitter. Schneider was then asked as a follow-up question if the strategy to walk Otani will extend to the rest of the series

and all Schneider said was yeah you know who had an embarrassing game yesterday Mookie Betts I think he was like one for eight I think it messed with his head and I mean they intentionally walked him once as well to load the bases

back to back intentional walks the ultimate cowardice they're like can we walk the other guy they're like no a run will come in they're like fine we won't do it But, I mean, Mookie Bet's a pretty good player. You know, he just couldn't, I mean, I think that the relief pitchers for the Jays, non-Brendon Little Division, deserve a ton of credit for what they were able to do yesterday,

especially Eric Lauer. Yes. That being said, there was a lot of opportunities, I'll say, thrown at Mookie yesterday, and he didn't exactly deliver. I wonder if that's- Didn't deliver. I wonder if that's going to change moving forward. If the Dodgers would have lost that game

There would have been a lot of heat on Mookie There would have been a lot of heat on him But anyway, so I don't know if this is going to keep up I also can't believe That there's another baseball game In like, what is it? Nine hours Like no rest for the weary here

I don't know what everyone's going to feel like yesterday Because Otani's going to pitch Yeah And that was one of the storylines from yesterday Is the second base yesterday He looked like he might have tweaked something They had to do a little bit of a time out He had to take a little jog in the shallow

outfield. Which is amazing because I didn't think anything could go wrong with that body. It's just perfection. He is. Is he the most... Seriously, I tweeted this out. I think he's the most perfect athlete I've ever seen. Right now? Yes, there are some that are like Bo Jackson would probably be the of an earlier iteration. Is he the greatest baseball player of all time already? Otani? Yeah. Because I mean, you hear that.

Longevity matters. Longchemy counts. Longevity counts in baseball. But if you were to say, at a given moment, was he the most transcendent elite unicorn type baseball player even in a small sample size I think yes I'm not really talking about that conversation you're just talking about like you just look at him yeah I mean is there anything physically wrong with him or unusual like he's just he's like a robot he's perfect yep he's like Ivan drago a little bit you know a little bit he's like made in a lab or something like that

I mean, watching him do everything on the baseball field is remarkable. Just watching him run. Yeah, he's a good, it was a good, although he got thrown out yesterday. Although technically he didn't get thrown out. Yeah, yeah. He beat the throw. He was just too fast. Yeah, yeah.

Momentum took him. He's like, I have this problem a lot. I'm just too fast. Okay, Mooko out that. I think that was a lot we learned. And now it's time for Elon. You have a what we learned. Yeah, so country singer Brad Paisley sung the national anthem last night.

saw this. Yeah, so this wasn't the first time he sung the national anthem at the World Series before. If we want to go back, game two in 2017, it went 11 innings. Game three in in 2018, which was the other record breaker, went 18 innings. Game one in 2024 went 10 innings, and he sung the national anthem last night. He's also a Dodgers fan. That went 18 innings. What the hell is Brad Paisley on? There was the meme. It said, he can't keep getting away with this. Yeah, someone said stop inviting this guy. Why is he singing it? Wasn't there Was there a questionable Canadian anthem yesterday? There were some people complaining about the Canadian anthem,

but maybe it wasn't on the broadcast. Did he, sorry, I wasn't watching at that point, but was it the American anthem he sang? Yep. Okay. I heard there was like a questionable Canadian anthem, but we will move on. I'm sorry I can't, I did not see it.

Okay. Okay. Muckow that, very good. I was listening to Ben Shulman's call in the car. And Ben, by the way, like absolutely nailed that hit with us. Like from the, remember I asked, I was like, okay, where do you see an advantage for the Jays? And he was like, well, defensively, I know, they made two incredible defensive plays. And then the Dodgers looked a little shaky.

Tommy Edmund had an eventful night because he booted the ball around a couple times, but also made two unbelievable defensive plays. So, but I'm with you. So Ben did say that. I think if you were to say who was the better defensive team last night, you'd give it to the Jays. I also asked him who the X factor might be, classic sports radio question. And he responded with Mason Flewhardy in the moment.

Who had a big moment. I know. But when he said it on our show, it's like, oh, come on, like, pick someone cooler. And then sure enough, he was like dead on right. Because Fleurdy got tagged by Shohei. Yeah, yeah. Well, he went, he was brought in to go,

Otani and then did he stand for Freeman too Otani Betts Freeman Yeah yeah Like get them all out That's your job It's a tough job But you gotta do it Keith the water guy saying

He changed the words To Home on Native land From our home and native land Oh To home on native uh land Oh okay I didn't see either of the anthems I saw the Paisley thing in the aftermath though

So he's not allowed back No more Brad Paisley And Mookow Jason's Oh, Elon's followed up by Jason. Mookout. Fire the dot matrix. I like Dan and Vancouver. Humanoid submissions for what we learned,

brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. You got to try the bar pie. 14 inches of cracker thin crust topped with tomato sauce, matza and cheddar only at AJ's pizza. Order online at AJ's. ita, what we learned. Dan and Van, come on,

you know very well there was a change to the anthem. Call it out. You have a platform. So it was a political thing. Honestly, did not listen to it. And then we do, Dan, text right away. Nice. Nice.

He's like, you called it out. All right. All right. Okay, let's dip into the Dunbar Lumber text line. Mike with what we learned, Kiefer Sherwood is obviously on a heater right now. It's a good time, given the injuries and turmoil in the team. But let's not overstate what he's getting paid or whether he needs to be resigned amidst a heater.

Let's revisit when he comes back down to Earth. Yeah, there's obviously going to be concerned about. you know, you have this, you have this debate. It's like, you can't let them go. You have to bring them back. It's like, but we don't want to overpay him. God, I hate the hard cap. Yeah, I know.

I think maybe, maybe the, the speed and expedition in which they used for the Drew O'Connor might give them pause. Like, let's just wait on every deal now. Like, let's not get too excited. Let's not sign a guy. Well, I think the Drew O'Connor thing was different. I think Drew O'Connor just got, there's like, we know them from Pittsburgh. I know it's different.

I think the point should be like you should exercise patience with everyone from now on. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.