Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Aren't Dunn Yet

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00) including an OT Canucks win at the Kraken (6:00) as well as Team Canada getting eliminated from the World Juniors ahead of the medal round for the second year in a row (15:00), they look ahead to the final game of the Seahawks season with ESPN's Brady Henderson (27:08), plus they hear from Elliotte Friedman on the Petey Miller situation (41:03). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Here are the checks on Canada's hopes at the World Junior Championship. A 4-3 win sends them to the semifinals. And Canada fouls out of the quarters for the second straight year. I mean, we're only guessing at this point that the news is Patrick Demko's gone down the tunnel into the Canucks locker room. Nothing can possibly go wrong. Possibly go wrong? That's the first. Nothing can possibly go wrong. Possibly go wrong. That's the first thing that's ever gone wrong. Good morning Vancouver 602 on a Friday. Happy Friday everybody.

It is Halford. It is Ralph. It is Sportsnet 650. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios. The beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. And regular Zach, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Brough for the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And 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, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we've got a big show ahead on a Friday. Guest list begins at 6.30. Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN. This Sunday, season finale for your Seattle

Seahawks. 1 p.m. kickoff in Los Angeles against the Rams. Well, technically most of the Rams backups. You can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650 on Sunday. No playoffs obviously for the Hawks, but we will talk to Brady about what could be a 10-win season for the Hawks and what it means for rookie about what could be a 10 win season for the Hawks

what it means for rookie head coach Mike McDonald that's all going to be at 6.30 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's Pizza on his Broadway is going to join us a reminder it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the program we are giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza to the best Ask Us Anything

or what we learned hashtag them both AUA or WWL. Dunbar-Lemmer text line is 650-650. You can start getting them in now. 730 Bob the Moj Marjanovic is going to join the program. NFL Week 18, last week of the regular season. Two,

count them, two playoff spots up for grabs as well as the number one overall seed in the NFC. You want to know, I want to ask Moj if his plans are solidified for Super Bowl week. It's Moj's big event of the year. Going to Super Bowl, Radio Row. We'll talk to Moj at 7.30. About all that, 8 o'clock, it's Dollywall.

I have no idea what we're talking to Rick about today. Jason is the official Halbro Rick Handler. Yeah, just the usual stuff around this team. Petey, Miller, all that stuff. Maybe Demko. Yeah. Speaking of the Vancouver Canucks, big win last night in Seattle. The usual stuff around this team. Petey, Miller, all that stuff. Maybe Demko. Yeah. Speaking of the Vancouver Canucks,

big win last night in Seattle. No rest for the weary. They're right back in action tonight, 7 o'clock against Nashville at Rogers Arena. A reminder, Canucks Central, 4-6. Pre-game show, 6-7. Then the post-game show right through to 11 p.m. You can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650. Zach forgot some of the administrative nonsense on this team.

Detroit blogger. Have people mentioned that in the Dunbar Lumber text message I'm asking? Yep. Canucks won last night. We have a clip that suggests the Canucks won. Does Zach not know about that, or did you just forget about it? I'm learning right now. Okay.

Well, that's on a dog hey dog you're fired goodbye sorry you had a good run yeah it's been fun and by good i mean fine and by fine i mean mediocre okay without further ado zach let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the game last night no what happened i missed all the action because we know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What happened is always brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. JT Miller scored the only goal in the shootout in the Vancouver Canucks.

Recovered. Recovered in a good way this time. A 4-3 win against the Seattle Cracket at Lemon Pledge Arena on Thursday night in Seattle. Yeah. So, before we get to the game, what was up with Thatcher Demko? What happened? He got hurt.

He had to leave the game. Kevin Lankanen came in for people just waking up and maybe they didn't know. They went to bed. What happened? Thatcher Demko exited yesterday's game at 7.49 of the second period after making a save. And then upon a few replays and Shorty and Ray walking through it on the broadcast, there was also a bump that appeared that happened in the first period.

So there was a bump. Yeah. What's a bump? He took a little bit of a bump and fell to the ice. Oh, yeah. So no different kind of bump. Not that kind the ice. Oh, okay. Yeah, so. No, different kind of bump. Not that kind of bump.

This is a much cleaner bump. Anyway, Demko exits midway through the second period. Everyone starts panicking, and rightfully so. The former Vezna finalist obviously missed a ton of time this year recovering from his popliteus injury. And immediately, I think a lot of people, the red flags went up that, oh, my God, he's from his popliteus injury. And immediately, I think a lot of people, the red flags went up that, oh my God, he's hurt the popliteus again.

Fear not, Canucks fans. Post game, Rick Talkett said that Thatcher Demko was merely experiencing back spasms during the game. Don't worry, guys. He's got a bad back.

It's not the popliteus. He's got a bad back. And those heal quickly. So Talkett said it's not believed to be serious. Hopefully it'll only clear up after a day or two. But just to reiterate, it was not a re-aggravation of the knee injury, at least this according to Canucks head coach Rick Tauket following the game. Thatcher Demko suffered back spasms during the game yesterday,

exited in the second period, made way for Kevin Lankanen, who I thought performed pretty admirably given the situation he was thrown into. And I guess you can expect Kevin Lankanen to be back in action tonight when the Canucks take on the National Predators at Rogers Arena. Yeah, it's right back to action for the Canucks tonight. So this is going to be a difficult turnaround, considering how undermanned they are. And maybe Kevin Lankanen was hoping to get some rest during the game yesterday

but had to come in and play. The Preds are playing a little bit better, aren't they? They are not. They have lost three in a row. Really? Oh, I thought they were playing a little bit better. Well, whatever. They're having a real tough go.

Okay. And they're actually allowing a lot of goals now. Instead of losing low-event games, they've given up, what's my math here, 15 goals in their last three games. Oh, okay. They're not playing better. Okay. It was an important two points

for the Canucks last night who did blow another multi-goal lead to the Kraken, but were able to get it done in the shootout this time. Right early this season. We don't see many shootouts anymore, but the Canucks won it in the shootout.

JT Miller scored. Kevin Lankanen stopped all three Seattle shooters. I thought Connor Garland was excellent last night. He scored a goal. Tyler Myers was a workhorse. He scored two on a nice passing play that saw JT Miller and Jake DeBrusque pick up assists. Brock Besser did some good work on that goal too. I thought Hoaglander had a good game. I thought he was going to break through last night. He even got a shift in OT, so Tuckett must have felt the same way

about Nils Hoaglander. And as you mentioned, you got to hand it to Lankanen who had to come in cold for Demko. The tying goal was a stinker. He didn't see it. It was a long point shot and it went in with, I don't know,

like a minute left. And I was like, oh my God, this has not been a very good sports day. see it it was a long point shot and it went in with i don't know like a minute left and i was like oh my god this has not been a very good sports day but he did stop all three cracking shots in the shootout so good for kevin lankan and good for the undermanned canucks look seattle is bad man they're not good that's not that's not a good hockey team. The Canucks blew that three-goal lead to them the other night at Rogers Arena, and the Canucks were the far better team that night for 55 minutes, and then they completely fell apart. And I guess you got to credit the Kraken for coming back, but I thought that was mostly the Canucks falling apart. And then last night, the Canucks are able to build

another lead with, again, like just, they're missing Quinn Hughes. They're missing Philip Peronik. They're missing Elias Pettersson. Their goalie gets hurt. And Seattle still can't win that game. JT Miller, although I think

he was named first star of the game last night. I would have probably given it to Connor Garland if I was picking that. But a lot of other players, JT Miller did make, there's three plays that, that stood out for me for JT Miller. Uh, one was the very nice assist that he got a nice pass to Tyler Myers. He made a nice play in the corner, got it to Myers and Myers shot and scored. So that was good. Um, at the end of the game, Miller was on the ice for one of his very quick shifts that he took last night,

and he made a nice play along the wall to get the puck out when the Canucks needed it. Now, Seattle still tied it, but JT Miller made a nice play there. And then the final play would have been in the shootout because he was the only one they actually scored. So, you know, those are three good moments, but I thought it was just like a it was a weird night for jt miller he he didn't play

all that much i don't know what his final ice time was might have been in like 15 something which was uh 15 41 yeah which included uh near almost two minutes in overtime so it was closer to 13 during uh right during. So at five and five, he didn't really play all that much. Neither did his line mates, Besser and DeBrusque, certainly at five on five.

So that was a bit of an odd night. He also took two penalties. Yep. And I think the second one was, you know, the first one was a cross check that he was just trying

to make a play on the puck and he did get a scoring chance. And Ray Ferraro on the broadcast mentioned, he's like, yeah, I get why that's a penalty. But if you're going to call that, then you've got to call about 15 penalties in the game for cross-checking. So that one you give him a pass on. But the second one, you can't take an offensive zone hooking penalty.

And the Kraken scored on the power play too. So it was a weird up and down night for JT Miller and JT Miller guys whether you like it or not his name is still in the news because Elliott Friedman has been talking a lot about JT Miller and essentially he's saying that JT Miller will not go to the Canucks for uh to ask to be traded but if the Canucks want to trade him and they present something to him he will consider it yeah I mean that's going to be out there I think until the trade deadline passes at this point I'm fully prepared for the next two months to be inundated with this and it wouldn't be the first

time that we've had incessant JT Miller trade speculation going into a deadline. Feels like it's a biannual rite of passage here in Vancouver. And it's going to happen again this year with the added wrinkle of the issue with him

and Elias Pettersson. Just for some context on last night, Miller did get regular shifts last night. As a matter of fact, he had 28 to Connor Garland's 26. It was the shift. It was the super short shifts. 30 second shifts. It was just an odd night because

if anyone kind of likes taking a little extra on his shifts, it's JT Miller trying to make something happen. Shorty and Ray actually made mention that there was a power play that the Canucks had and Miller got off the ice after 30 seconds with the power play, and they were kind of like, that was a bit of an odd shift for JT. But I think, for the most part, Talkett was rolling four lines, and we've seen that before, and maybe he's taken into account

that the Canucks have to play again tonight, so he's not going to play the wheels off of any player, really. And, you know, they got the win, so we'll see how Miller looks tonight against the Preds. Yeah, so now that was, so the talking points last night, Demko, which we've already covered, JT Miller's very curious night, Kevin Lankanen, a pretty impressive performance in relief coming in cold off the bench.

So in the postgame, Lankanen told Murph that he had some quote-unquote communication with Thatcher Demko after the first period that he might be making an appearance in that game last night. So it wasn't as if it was a complete shock to him. He had an idea that Demko was laboring a little bit. And I would assume, unless there's another plan out there that none of us are aware of, that Lankanen will be right back in net tonight for a chance to play against the national predators um now there's also another and andy brought this up you know prior to the show and i think we've talked about

it a lot and like this is what life looks like now for the vancouver canucks without petterson hughes and haronic in the lineup is that It's probably not going to be all that aesthetically pleasing. It's probably not going to be all that pretty. They are in a dogfight for points right now. I think we can say with this two-game mini road trip in the books, they come home tonight against Nashville. Now, starting Monday, they head out on an Eastern swing, which starts with a Montreal team that's playing better, no doubt,

but still outside the playoff picture. It gets very difficult after that. There's a lot of incredibly tough games, including a back-to-back against Carolina and Toronto. They're going to have to continue to scratch and claw and fight for points. Do you think Hughes will be on that trip? Do you think Petey will be on that trip? You'd hope so, right?

You would hope so. I mean, Hughes was week to week with Tockett saying weeks out of the lineup. Patterson was singular week. What that led me to believe was that neither was going to make this mini two-game trip through Calgary and Seattle. Maybe one of them gets back for tonight, although that doesn't seem likely either. And then starting Monday, it's like, okay, it's a fresh start. We're going on a road trip. It's a new week in this week-to-week diagnosis.

Maybe. I got a feeling, I know you kind of hinted at this yesterday, that maybe Hughes pushes to get back in the lineup early because he's dying of boredom right now. He just doesn't like sitting around not doing anything. He's read too many books. He's tired of reading. He wants to go play hockey because that's what of boredom right now. He just doesn't like sitting around not doing anything. He's read too many books. He's tired of reading. He wants to go play hockey because that's what he likes to do.

Well, his team needs him too. What did you think of the decision for Talkett to bring in Breezeball and take out Brandstrom? People were losing their minds online. Clearly, the coaching staff isn't as big of fans of Brandstrom as a lot of the Canucks fans are. Foot and Talkett are not bullish on Brandstrom. Pretty fair to say.

In the shows that I did with Drance earlier in the week when he was talking about the fact that you can't replace Quinn Hughes and how you're going to try and deploy guys to do more. He was pushing for Brandstrom to have a more elevated role. And he didn't understand why at the end of the Seattle collapse last Saturday, why wasn't Brandstrom out there at the end when he had played very well during the game and he was able to move the puck.

And I kind of looked at him and I'm like, I will tell you why. I don't think the coaching staff has any faith in them whatsoever. Yeah. I think that their idea is... People will push back. It's like, how can they have faith

in some of the other guys? It's a valid pushback. Yeah, totally. I mean, I got no problem with people pushing back against that. I think it's a bit of an old school mentality where it's like when you've got a lead to protect, you play the big boys, right? And you get Forbort and Deharnais and Juleson and Myers and Soucy.

Everyone not named Brandstrom. We got this guy named Breezeball over there. Do you want to give him a whirl? I did not expect to see Breezeball in the lineup this year. If you had told me that at any point preseason, that at any point this season, the Canucks would be winning a game with Kevin Lankanen in net and Breezeball on the blue line and Max Sasson at forward,

I'd be like, what happened to the team? It feels like Breezeball has been with the Canucks since the Messier era. Breezeball is the second longest tenured guy on the blue line and Max Sasson it forward, I'd be like, what happened to the team? It feels like Breezeball has been with the Canucks since like the Messier era. He's been, okay, so Breezeball is the second longest tenured guy on the team. It's him and Brock Besser. Yeah, I asked you last night. Yeah, and Breezeball made his debut amazingly six years ago with the team.

It was in 2019. It was almost to the day. It was February of 2019. We're in January of 2025. I won't bother playing the clip because I can paraphrase it. Talk It had a lot of praise for not just the fact that Breezeball came in and played well in the limited role that he had

but he hasn't played an NHL game in close to two years he's been out of the mix he's been dealing with some pretty serious issues from the concussion and to have him come back it says two things one, it's a great story it's very good on the player. Kudos to him.

But two, it does speak to just how thin this blue line is right now. Okay, so we're going to talk a little bit of Seahawks with Brady Henderson in about 15 minutes. I want to talk about the other hockey game that all of us were watching yesterday, and that is Canada bombing out of yet another world juniors, this one at home in Ottawa. They lose to Czechia 4-3. bombing out of yet another world juniors. This one at home in Ottawa. They lose to Czechia 4-3.

They had to climb back, and it was actually quite similar to the Canucks game. They were the Kraken. And they came back, and they did tie Czechia, but they lost late in the game. This was the difference between the Canucks and Kraken game is that this one ended in regulation on a power play goal. That's kind of fitting by Czechia, and Czechia wins it 4-3. I'm not sure it's time to panic and get all existential about hockey

in this country just because of this tournament, and also given that Canada is still producing really some quality young talent in Bedard and Celebrini. That being said, two straight years without a medal is cause for, I hope, some reflection at the very least at Hockey Canada. The story that a lot of people are talking about after this game is all the penalties Canada took. 55 penalty minutes yesterday. All the penalties.

And that's in the tournament too. You can say the Canadians were undisciplined. I think they were. Or that the refs were too harsh. Or that double IHF rules are, you know, they're not the same as NHL rules or major junior rules. Penalties were definitely a factor for Canada in Ottawa, and I'm not going to deny that, but I have to say my main takeaway for this year's tournament was how difficult it seemed for Canada to create scoring chances. That should not be the case for a Canadian junior team, which is essentially an all-star team,

right? I mean, we have a lot of really good young hockey players in this country, and I don't know if it was this group never quite gelled or if they left too many offensive type players off the roster because they were chasing guys, you know, he has a good motor and he'll skate hard and he'll play the system, whatever that was. But it was tough to watch Canada have to grind so hard to score. And we're not talking about like they were had to grind to score against some of the the minnows of the tournament as well you know they just never looked dangerous to me they they never clicked even when they had momentum like they got momentum against Czechia their third period they had they were in control of the game,

but it still looked really difficult to translate that momentum into actual scoring chances, which is why I think there was a lot of pushback against the head coach, Dave Cameron. Why didn't you practice more during the tournament? And he said, well, we didn't practice because the guys were exhausted. And a lot of people were like, they were exhausted? These are young players.

They're playing their dreams out, playing for Canada. In this short tournament. In this short tournament. And what, are you tired after playing Latvia? You're tired after playing Germany? Well, maybe that says something. I thought you chose all the guys with the high motors. They should be able to practice.

At any rate, I would also like to know how Hockey Canada will respond to what was clearly, clearly a disastrous coaching performance by Dave Cameron, highlighted by one of the most ridiculous goal challenges I've ever seen, which ultimately Canada tied the game. But they had momentum, and they were looking for a tying goal, and then it didn't look like they had just scored. It didn't. No one watching that game was like, yeah, that's probably a good goal.

And he calls a challenge, and the refs look at it for like five seconds. They're like, no, that's probably a good goal um and he calls a challenge and the refs look at it for like five seconds they're like no that isn't a goal and you've got a penalty that had the potential to completely kill any momentum canada had had let alone chucky you could have scored on that power play at any rate um my main takeaway is that this Canadian team was just not very creative. And we haven't fallen so far in the world that we don't have creative offensive style players. And maybe that injury to Schaefer, one of their best puck-moving defensemen, hurt them early on. But, man, it was a tough watch. It was like watching, you know, everyone was making the connection to the Canucks, right?

It was like, oh, we're going to watch this grinding Canadian team followed by a grinding Canucks team. Team Canada should not be a grinding team at the World Juniors. They should be a dominant, creative, dynamic team. Yeah, it was a tough watch from the very first game of the tournament to the very last one. And it is a big, big black mark on the program when you finish fifth at consecutive tournaments, especially when you're hosting.

And I mean, go back and people were saying when they were doing the Canada's best three players of the tournament in the aftermath. And I think there was a lot of people jokingly, but not jokingly saying like, this is going to be tough to pick three. Outside of the goalie, Carter George, there just wasn't a lot of standouts. There wasn't a lot of standout moments. And I know that there's other teams in this tournament. I know that people are going to say, I can't wait to see Tom Willander and the Swedes play. Like, that's great if you want to. But the tournament for a lot of us has been predicated on Canada taking it more seriously than everyone else,

being better than everyone else, and winning more than everybody else. Playing in a gold medal game. And none of those things have happened in two consecutive tournaments. And it's just lost its luster. I know that Jeremy and Suri, I think it was Jeremy and Suri, said, you know,

don't start pretending like you care about the tournament now that Canada is eliminated. So, Jeremy, I will follow your directions and your orders and I won't pretend. Like, it wasn't a compelling team going into the tournament for me. They lived down to every expectation that I had, which was they weren't very entertaining and they weren't very fun to watch,

and they made an early exit from the tournament. Well, the best description I saw of it is Team Canada, and they've done this before too, but Team Canada has this thing where they try and construct a team like they're trying to win a Stanley Cup and going on this long, grindy playoff run and every line has its role, as opposed to just picking the best talent available. And they've done this before as well.

Yeah, and they've won a lot of gold medals, A-Dog. I don't profess to know the talent that they've left off very well, but it's just like, just pick your best players and hope for the best, hope everything works. Yeah, but that's not how a hockey team works. Like, I'm not, listen. They needed i'm playing the i'm playing the devil's advocate that they didn't bring in right yeah i'm but they've done that before and they've won gold medals well you have to have roles you have to have roles on a team but they've done it before

it hasn't worked either i agree with you that watching that performance, the entire tournament, I was like, where are the creative offensive style players? You know me, I love Tyler Mott when he was here in Vancouver in his role. To me, it looked like a bunch of Tyler Motts out there trying to score goals. They had the Mott factor. Like Gavin McKenna started to show a little bit as that game wore on on but he looks very young

he's not draft eligible for two years that should not be your most dynamic player like where Canada lost this tournament was with their 19 year olds which is that that's where you're supposed to win a tournament with your 19 year-year-old, with your older players, not the guys that are draft eligible in two years, not the guys that are even draft eligible this season. And I can't think of a 19-year-old player, not counting any of the goalies, that stood out for me for Canada. Okay, before we go to break,

I'm going to be doing a lot of reads today and I'm going to be doing a lot of conversation about Rogers Xfinity TV. For example, did you know that Home and Garden TV, HGTV, has a new address? It's true. All the latest HGTV shows are now available on channel 409 on Rogers Xfinity TV. Coming up on the other side of the break,

Brady Henderson's going to join us for some Seahawks talk. You're listening to the Halford and breath show on sports net six 50. It's Canuck central with Dan Rachel and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks exclusive interviews inside info, and even the post game show listen four to 6 PM weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 633 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

It's Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Brady Henderson from ESPN, Seahawks Insider, is going to join us in just a moment here.

Hour 1 of this program is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler, pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Seattle Seahawks season finale this Sunday, 1 o'clock in LA against the Rams. Meaningless game for everybody involved. A reminder, you can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650.

It is back-to-back years for the Seahawks with no playoff appearance. First time since 08-09, but I feel like the vibes are a little more positive than back then, which of course, in 09 was the infamous Jim Mora year. For more on the Seahawks, let's go to the phone lines now then, which, of course, in 2009 was the infamous Jim Mora year. For more on the Seahawks, let's go to the phone lines now.

Brady Henderson, ESPN, joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Brady. How are you? Good morning, fellas. Good to talk to you again. It feels like it's been a while. It has been a little bit of a while. Happy New Year, by the way. I should get that out of the way.

You as well. You guys celebrate New Year up in Canada, right? We do. We do in October. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Which is the appropriate time to do it. Okay.

The Canadian calendar, I never know how that works. Going into this game, I kind of prefaced it by saying it's a meaningless game for everybody involved. Even though the Rams could jockey for some playoff seeding, they're going to start Jimmy Garoppolo quarterback, and they're going to rest a bunch of their guys. The Seahawks, obviously the season's done, but it sounds like Mike McDonald is pretty keen on trying to get to 10 wins. What did the first-year head coach have to say about getting a win and getting double-digit victories this weekend in L.A.?

Well, he's made a few mentions of 10 wins being sort of this new um you know kind of benchmark and i i really think that mcdonald is in a position where what else can you do at this point you you obviously for the last you know seven eight weeks the playoffs has been you know the carrot it's been and they've been talking about being in the death zone which was their way of saying like you know they dug themselves such a big hole that they're every week, you know, sort of on the brink of, even if not literally, they're sort of playing for their playoff lives every single week. And when you no longer have that to try to motivate guys,

you've got to find something. And I think he's kind of used the 10-win benchmark as that motivation. And I think really beyond – it's really for them, I think it's more about 10 wins. It's less about getting to a certain win total. And I think for this week, for them, it's more about living up to a standard. And you've also heard Mike McDonald talk about the standard that they want to live to, and they're not just going to be a team

that kind of rolls over when they don't have a playoff spot to play for. I think they're going to go try to win this game. I still wonder if there could be some personnel decisions that, you know, without the playoffs on the line that maybe they, you know, they make a few personnel decisions. Like I'm curious to see if Abe Lucas plays just with all the injury challenges he's had. And, you know, maybe there's some other guys where, you know,

if the game is, you know, kind of determined at a guys where, you know, if the game is kind of determined at a certain point, then maybe you pull those guys out. You know, Geno Smith has his $6 million escalators that are on the line, which I think is kind of a fascinating situation. But I don't think this game is meaningless for the Rams. And I thought it was a fascinating decision by Sean McVay to start Jimmy Garoppolo when you consider that if they win, they can get the three seed, which as opposed to the four seed, which would avoid a situation where they've got to play, you know,

a 14-win Vikings or Lions team in the first round. So I was really surprised by that because I think you do everything you can do to avoid having to play one of those teams. I guess in this case with Sean McVay, with, you know, an older quarterback, some older pieces on that roster, I guess rest trumps that. But I found that to be a surprising decision by him. Brady, who will be the biggest name that won't be back with the Seahawks next season? It can be a player, it could be a coach, it could be a general manager. Yeah, the first name that comes to mind is Ryan Grubb.

And I'm not saying he won't be back. I'm just saying that is definitely a name to keep an eye on for the exact reasons we've talked about. I think if it was just, and I don't think it's just about the results. I think if you just looked at this team and said, okay, they're one of the worst rushing teams in the NFL, passing game is okay, I think you could have just excused just the results and say, all right, okay, they're one of the worst rushing teams in the NFL. Passing game is okay. I think you could have just excused just the results and say, all right, look,

it's the first year of a new scheme, and there's going to be some time that it takes. And you had a bunch of offensive line challenges that certainly didn't help. And they did okay despite all the moving pieces on the offensive line. I just think with Grubb, they might view it as the issues going deeper than that. I think I'm curious as to how aligned McDonald and Grubb are philosophically, just when you have an offensive coordinator who clearly is and I think wants to be a pass-first guy and a defensive-minded head coach who obviously wants to run the ball a lot.

And, you know, I don't know if personality wise, there's a great, if it's a great fit there, just based on some of the things I've heard. So I'm not telling you that Ryan Grove is getting fired. I'm just saying that that is going to be a guy I'm keeping an eye on. And then, you know, there's some of the kind of obvious names just personnel wise, like Draymond Jones is making a whole lot of money.

Cannot imagine that he's going to be back next year, at least certainly not on the contract he's currently on. And then Tyler Lockett is the other big one. And there's, you know, I would say there's virtually no way that either of those two guys are back, at least on their current contracts. And if that does happen, it's going to have to take, you know, a restructured deal. And in Lockett's case, that would be the second year in a row

that he would have done that. So let's go through some other names. Is John Schneider safe? Well, I can't say for sure, just because the fact that Pete Carroll was, you know, they made that move with Pete Carroll last year. I don't know if you could say that there are any sacred cows. I don't know if you could ever say that anybody's safe.

If they moved on from the most successful coach in franchise history, I suppose that they could do that with anybody. I would think that they would give, you know, that Schneider has built up enough kind of equity with Jody Allen, with Russell Wilson trade a couple years ago, and that great draft class that he had a couple years ago. And I would think that, you know, I mean, she basically decided to give him a promotion last season.

So I think that he is in okay standing. That would be my guess. You know, especially if they win 10 games. You know, in a normal year, 10 wins, that gets you into the playoffs most years. So I think just the fact that the NFC North was so good that they're going to send a 14-win team in as a wild card. So I would think that John Schneider is safe. And again, Ryan Grubb would be the guy that I would be keeping an eye on.

What happens with Geno Smith? I think they're going to have to pay him. Yeah. I mean, I still think that there are the questions about his, you know, long-term viability as the guy who's in his mid-30s and has been kind of up and down. I think they realize full well that he was, you know, had some challenges that he had to deal with this season and with the offensive line and also, you know, learning a new scheme.

And I think that they view him as a pretty good quarterback when he's not turning the ball over, which is OK. Like you could probably say that about a lot of quarterbacks. But I think the point is, like some of those turnovers are not like because the guy doesn't have a strong arm or because of whatever, like any sort of talent deficiency. He just he just gets a little, he presses in certain situations. And so, and the reality of the situation is, what is really their alternative? You know, they don't have, Sam Howell's not the guy. As much as they liked him when they traded for him, I think they realized that.

This draft doesn't really have that guy outside of, you know, maybe the top two guys, or you're just not going to be in position to draft. Maybe there's something you could, a cheaper alternative you could find on the trade market or in free agency if you wanted to sort of go that route. But, you know, if you start talking about sending big resources on either money-wise for a free agent or, you know, trade value-wise, then like, I know the idea of, the idea of could you make a trade for J.J. McCarthy now that Sam Darnold looks like he could be the guy in Minnesota.

Yeah, I mean, in theory, I think J.J. McCarthy could be available, but if you're sending your first-round pick and then a whole lot more, then what's your capacity to fix your offensive line, which is really the big problem. So I think the simplest solution here is that they give Geno Smith a short-term extension, you know, maybe a two-year deal for something in the neighborhood of, like, $35 million per year that gets his average up a little bit, makes him happy, but also still leaves them with kind of the same flexibility that they've had the last few years and And like, okay, this is not a long-term commitment

that really says he's their guy. It's really more so kind of a Band-Aid that, you know, still gives them the ability, would give them the ability to move on if they saw fit. Will they have to pay DK this offseason? I would think so. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Of of those two guys i just know that geno smith really tried to force the issue last year and and again i will say this again that i really think

that time he missed uh those you know four or five practices in training camp i think that was partly maybe a large part of a contract protest uh because he wanted a new deal and they had told him that they weren't giving him one because that's just, they don't do that with guys who have more than a year left. We didn't see DK Metcalf, you know, it didn't seem to be an issue, at least outwardly, that much. So, you know, I think it remains to be seen how much he would press the issue. I don't think he is as underpaid wide receiver-wise like Geno Smith has been, you know, relative to the quarterback market,

but yeah, I mean, most big time receivers who are in their, you know, mid twenties, you know, those guys want a new deal whenever they're eligible for one and he would be eligible one. So that, that is a, that's something to keep an eye on. I just, you know, they're, they're kind of locally, at least there's been this whole thought of, well, maybe you should trade DK Metcalf and use those resources to fix the offensive line.

My thought on that has been, okay, if you could get, like, a Jamal Adams-like package, then I would listen to that. But the idea that you could just trade DK Metcalf and then immediately replace his production in the draft, you could maybe, if you're lucky, if you hit on a guy, replace the production. What would be a lot harder is replacing all of the attention his production in the draft, you could maybe, if you're lucky, if you hit on a guy, replace the production. What would be a lot harder is replacing all of the attention that he commands from defenses

just because he's such a big, physical, fast guy. But I think that's the stuff that you don't necessarily see in the box score when you just look at how many catches and yards he has. He really frees up a lot in an offense because he commands so many double teams, and that's the part that I think the trade DK Metcalf crowd fails to account for. So Brady, I know you got to go here, but real quick, do the Seahawks have the capacity, the ability, the cap space, whatever you need to fix the offensive line? You know, I posed that question to Daniel Jeremiah on the radio recently, and he said that, yeah, he thinks that can get done in one offseason

because when you think about it, really, it's not so much the tackles, although I do think they need to find a younger, better swing tackle, more reliable swing tackle than George Fant in the event that Abe Lucas, you know, has another setback. But really, it's the interior positions, and those guys don't command premium picks. So I think you're going to have to find at least two upgrades, and maybe you get by with Olu, Olu with Timmy at center, and you upgrade both guard spots, and maybe you could do that in the draft.

You just, boy, if you're a team that's not going to spend big money and overpay for guys and for agency, that means you have to hit on draft picks, and they just haven't done a good enough job of that for the most part, and they certainly didn't do it last year with Christian Haynes. So, yeah, if you want to draft two guards, I think that might be the way to do it. Or maybe you draft one, spend a little bit of money on a free agent, and hope to hit on that guy.

But I think you need two upgrades at least. And you could maybe get by with one of those interior guys still there. And if I was picking which two guys to try to replace and what guy to keep if you had to keep one of them, I would stick with Olu, and I would try to find two replacements at guard. Brady, this was great. As always, thanks for taking the time to do it. Seahawks season finale this Sunday, 1 o'clock in L.A.

against the Rhymes. A reminder, you can hear it right here on Sportsnet 650. We'll talk again next Friday and put a wrap on the season. Thanks, bud. Sounds good, fellas. Talk to you then. See ya. See ya. Brady Henderson from ESPN, our Seahawks insider here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Brady, what's the presentation of the Clayton Public House pregame to postgame? The Clayton Public House is your home of football.

Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online at theclaytonpub.com. So it sounds like Ryan Grubb could be gone from the Seahawks after just one year as their offensive coordinator. And remember, he initially went to Alabama. He followed Kalen DeBoer, who took over in Alabama. He accepted the offensive coordinator job, and then he somehow got convinced to return back to Seattle

because he was already in Seattle at UW to join Mike McDonald's staff. But I don't know if Grubb and McDonald had any relationship whatsoever. And what Brady was hinting at was it was not only football philosophy differences emerged this season. It was also maybe a personality conflict. They need to get some consistency at that offensive coordinator spot. So 2020 was the last year of the Schottenheimer era. So if you move on from Grubb last year of the schottenheimer era so if you move on from grub you're talking schottenheimer waldron grub that's three in a five-year span

then you'd have a fourth coming in like that's a lot of change at a position where like i remember daryl bevel was the offensive coordinator for like eight years in seattle i just think that they need someone that's better aligned with the head coach. And that was always a problem with Pete Carroll, especially in the last vestige stages of his tenure, was that he seemed like he wanted to do one thing on offense and the OC wanted to do a different thing. So finding that continuity between coach and coordinator is important.

But also have a guy in there that stays for more than one or two years. Because, I mean, Waldron, I did not like. He was not good. I think a lot of people saw the issues with his play calling. But it was a short tenure. You know, you didn't get a lot of time there. And if Grubb's a one and done, that's even less time.

We've got some audio to play from Elliot Friedman, the latest 32 Thoughts. And it, you know what this is about. Is it about Shane Waldron? It's not. It's about JT Miller, and it's about Eli what this is about. Is it about Shane Waldron? It's not. It's about JT Miller and it's about Elias Pettersson and it's about whether one of these guys could be moved. And here's Elliot with the latest on the Canucks soap opera

from 32 Thoughts, the podcast. I think this. Miller, he has not asked for a trade he has no trade control would i do i think he would consider things if they were presented to him to go to him. He's not going to them, I don't think. At least not now. Who knows what the future is going to hold? He's not doing it right now. He's not asking to go anywhere, and he's not demanding to go anywhere.

Pedersen. So, one of the questions that's been going around this week is, are the Canucks really serious about doing this? He's a 26-year-old guy. Players like him don't come around very often in terms of being available like someone said to me the last player at this level to become available and i think there's a real comparison to be made about them in terms of where they were at the times of their careers was jack eichel you know eichel and pettersson I don't think they're the same personalities, but talent

wise, they're both great players. I think there's people who look at Pedersen and say, if this is for real, we have to jump at this. I think they would prefer to keep both guys. They've seen what they can do. And, but you know, they're listening. And these are two guys in alvina and rutherford who are not afraid not afraid but the price would be enormous i think in a perfect world what the canucks would love is for petterson to adopt a little more of mill's personality and Miller to dial it back a bit. So JT Miller last night was named the first star, but it was a weird night for him. We mentioned earlier in the show that he did do some good things,

including scoring in the shootout. Shootout winner. He had a nice assist on Tyler Myers' goal, but he also took a couple of penalties and the second one caused Seattle to bring the game back to within one goal and Seattle eventually tied it. He also didn't play very much. Now, Rick Taka was rolling four lines last night. The Canucks have to play again tonight. So let's not read too much into JT Miller's total ice time, but let's consider what his production has been this season. He's got six goals in 27 games. He's got one goal at five on five. Now JT Miller's a center and a lot of his strengths are playmaking.

And we saw he made a nice pass to Tyler Myers last night, okay? His 19 assists in 27 games. That's not terrible. But he's not playing as well as he was last season, defensively either. And the Canucks need more from JT Miller and Elias Pettersson at 5-on-5.

That's clear. Do you know how many combined goals Petey and JT Miller have at 5-on-5? Nope. Five. Yep. Goal scoring has been low. Do you know who leads? Goal scoring has been very low.

Who would you say leads the Canucks in goals at 5-on-5? Sherwood? Yeah, you got it. Yeah. Sherwood has 10 goals at five on five. Besser has nine, so he's doing his job. Suter has nine. Dabrowski has eight.

Hughes has seven. And then you go down to Connor Garland with five. So your stars, yeah, you know, like a lot of it, they're playmakers, but they also got a score, Four goals for Petey at five on five, one for JT Miller at five on five. That is not even close to good enough. The elephant in the room to me is still JT Miller's leave of absence. What was that all about? Not in my business, people will say.

But it still might impact what they do, and it still might impact what's going on with the team. JT Miller doesn't look like the player he did last season, and it's affecting the team right now. Now, I'm not saying trade this guy over that guy. I've actually said in the past, like, if you're going to trade one of them, I would trade JT, but purely for age-related reasons. JT's getting up there.

We've seen some players thrive in their 30s. Other players fall right off as soon as they get into their 30s. So there is that risk with JT Miller that doesn't necessarily extend to Elias Pettersson. There are other issues with Petey, of course. Yep. I mean, he also, and Elliot prefaced the entire clip by saying, JT Miller's got a full no move, right?

I mean, I love the speculative part of it because it's intriguing, especially as you get closer to the trade deadline about what you can do and what you might do or what you might have to do. But you've got to understand that there's probably a handful of teams that would be genuinely interested in bringing JT Miller aboard, just conceptually, right? There would be. Of course.

That's a team in the early stages of a rebuild that's like, could we bring on this guy who's going to turn 32 in March that's carrying an $8 million cap hit? No, guys that are in it right now. Teams that are in it right now. So you've already kind of whittled down your available dance partner pool. Then you've got to present the player with,

here are the options if a deal was to be consummated. It's tough. It's tough to do in season too. I mean, everything is just jammed up and stuck right now. The lack of movement that we've seen um and the prices that teams have paid for very like middling defensive help already kind of suggests that if you're gonna do a move of significance uh it's gonna be a big price tag and it's gonna be tough to pull off right we're still not really freed from the shackles of a low salary cap but it sounds like the the way that Elliot's phrasing it,

and I don't know where Elliot's getting his information, but it's kind of like, would JT Miller consider it if he was asked? Like, he's not going to go to the Canucks and ask for a trade, but would JT Miller consider it? Is that almost someone wants to see what's possible? I think it's someone. Rangers, Rangers.

I think it's, I don't think it's, I think it's the, that Alvin and Rutherford are pissed. Yeah. That they're not happy with the team.

Or maybe Chris Drury is offering something ridiculous and they're like, you know what? No, I think it's a shot across, I think this is all one big

collective shot across the bow. It's like, all right, you guys want to act like idiots or like children, or you guys don't feel like you're, we feel like you're not performing up to your level. We only have a handful of things available to us as executives,

and this is what it's going to be. That interview that Alvin did with IMAC, I think had all the answers to all the questions in it. It's like, hey, our best players haven't been our best players and we're closing in on the halfway mark of the season. We're at game 40. We're halfway through this season. We're barely in a playoff spot

and our best guys have not been our best guys. They need to be our best guys. It's as clear as day to me that this is all about telling these guys, enough. Start playing and start doing the things that we have paid you a lot of money to do miller makes a lot of money responded by getting hurt right miller makes a lot of money hatterson makes a lot of money they've been

compensated in a very very generous way from this organization. So I think the organization is well within its right to be like, hey, step up, start playing better. Right? Yes, it's great that we're getting depth contributions, and yes, it's great that Kiefer Sherwood is giving us huge, huge value for his contract. But in this league, and at the end of the day, your star players are the ones that are going to win and lose you games.

You can't rely on Kiefer Sherwood to continually outproduce his contract. What you should be counting on is the guy making eight mil and the guy making 11.6 mil to figure it out and to play better. And I, and I think that that's really where they're at now that they're halfway through the season. They're like enough, enough. We're going to talk to AJ in a few minutes, but we got an open segment on the other side. We need more Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650-650.

Text in on the Dunbar Lumber text line. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and reno warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. There's a $100 gift card to AJ's on the line here. Text in 650, 650 with your ask us anything's for the Halford and Brough show.

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