Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Did Not Have A Sprong In Their Step On Saturday

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk Saturday's loss to the Oilers that followed a Daniel Sprong trade to the Kraken (6:00), plus they chat Week 10 highlights with Too Deep Zone NFL insider Mike Tanier (29:46). 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.

Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? No, no, no, no. You're listening to Halford & Brough. Kulak waits, shoots, scores! Greg Kulak along the ice. I think that went between the legs of Kevin Lankan and the Oilers are running it up now. We lost, you know, juice.

McDavid started, he started to go in the third and we just couldn't match it. Daniel Sprong. Placement is down. Let's just kick, it's blocked! It's blocked! It's blocked! The Chiefs blocked the kick!

They're going to stay undefeated! Good morning Vancouver, 7 o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Bradford. It is Sportsnet 650, and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

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rain, listening to the Halford and Brough show, we're here. You're here. Text us. Dunbar number text line is 650-650. Drop a line just to let us know that you're in it with us today. I'll do some shout outs and hellos in the back half of this show. We're lonely too.

Yeah, we're here, but we're here together, guys. We're all here together. All four of us back in the studio. Greg's feeling better. Jason, not so much. A-Dog, he's still A-Dog. We've got a lot to get to on the show today. What's happening? Guest list, just two guests today. Mike Tanier, our NFL

insider from the two deep zones. Substack is going to join us. We'll talk to him about everything that happened in the National Football League yesterday. What a crazy Sunday of results. There were some awesome games. It was actually a great day to be sick. Somehow.

Great day to be sick on the couch. Somehow the Kansas City Chiefs are still undefeated. Somehow the Detroit Lions won a football game despite their quarterback throwing five interceptions. There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened yesterday. So we'll get into all that with Mike Tan here at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Satyar Shah is going to join the program. Very appropriate time to get sat on the

program because, as you will see in the first half hour of this show, there was a ton that happened for the Vancouver Canucks over the last 72 hours. Friday was busy. Saturday was busy. Sunday was busy as well. So the first half hour of this show it's going to be all Canucks and then from 8 to 8.30 with Satyar

Shah it's going to be all Canucks as well we will try and get at everything else that happened over the weekend a reminder text in your what we learned get them in now Dunbar Lumber text line is 650 650 hashtag it WWL and tell us what you learned

over the last 72 hours of sports. We will try to get to it in a very action-packed two hours of Halford & Brough. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened?

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Visit them online at bccsa.ca. It was an extremely busy weekend for the Vancouver Canucks. And the news started not long after we got off the air on Friday. On Friday, Canucks General Manager Patrick Alvien announced that the club traded Daniel Sprong to the Seattle Kraken for nothing. Future considerations. There you go. Which could end up being nothing,

but Daniel Sprong on Friday traded to the Seattle Kraken. How many games did he last? Nine. Nine games. Nine games. Okay, well let's, before we talk about this, let's go immediately to Patrick Alvien's explanation on why Daniel Sprung was traded. Because I think a lot of people were taken aback a little at how quickly the Canucks cut ties with Daniel Sprung. You know what, I think I give Daniel Sprung a lot of credit.

He came in here with a great attitude, worked hard, played hard for us. And we said all along that we want to create internal competitions, and the coaching staff felt that we had players that fit the style of how Rickick wanted to play uh more in-house and i believe daniel deserved a chance higher up in the lineup and and it didn't work out um so when this uh came up i i felt it was a good opportunity for daniel to move on and we were thankful and wish him all the best so i've got a couple thoughts. First of all, I think we need to remember how this was all framed when Daniel Sprung was signed by the Canucks.

And we all said, this is a low risk move that probably wasn't going to work out. There was a little bit of excitement around Daniel Sprung because the guy, as you saw, honestly, in terms of hockey tools, he has them all. He has a great shot. He's a has them all. He has a great shot. He's a good skater.

He's a big dude. But again, we said earlier on, the reality is that Sprong has bounced around for a reason. This probably won't work out, but it's worth a shot. Well, the Canucks took a shot and realized very quickly that it wasn't going to work out, but it's worth a shot. Well, the Canucks took a shot and realized very quickly that it wasn't going to work out. Um, I think trust was lost almost immediately.

It was in that Philly game. I think when Sprong lost his man, uh, was it the Philly game? I think it was the Philly game at home when he lost his man, um, and, and lost it badly, you know, like he was kind of wandering over to the side boards and the flyers point man was open and the flyers point man ends up getting the puck and scoring and that tied the game. So in a way that costs the Canucks a point. So they tried it and it didn't work out and they cut their bait. If a coach does not trust a player to play the system, that player isn't going to be much use because

that player won't play. The other thought that I had was I thought it was pretty interesting that this trade happened right after Brock Besser got hurt and it was Nils Hoaglander, not Daniel Sprong, that took Besser's spot on that line in the game. Remember? Like it was Nils Hoeglander, not Daniel Sprong, that took Besser's spot on that line in the game. Remember? It was Hoeglander that bumped up, and then Patrick Alveen said, I think he deserves a shot in the top six somewhere,

but it wasn't going to happen under Rick Tockett. Yeah, and I think what you said about low risk low reward is probably pretty accurate the other thing that i think is interesting here is that it follows in a pattern albeit a speedier pattern this time around where this management group is not afraid to like hand up it's not working and cut ties and like you know just cut their losses that you know it happened with kuzmenko it happened happened with Mikheyev. It got a little more extrapolated in those cases, probably because there was a larger financial investment in both guys. But in this case, it does show that this group is not afraid to cut ties when it's not going right.

And I think more importantly, has the ultimate, like they back Talkett 100%. Like Talkett is their guy. And if Talkett tells them this isn't working, I don't think there's going to be a ton of disagreement or pushback. They're going to say, you're our leader. You're our guy. We trust you implicitly. If you don't want him here, he's not going to be here.

It is crazy, though, by the way, that the guy that scored the first goal of the season for the Vancouver Canucks is now a member of the Seattle Kraken. And if the Canucks ever have a time where they're struggling to score, people will bring up, maybe you shouldn't have given away Daniel Sprung. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. The other factor, of course, is Jonathan Lekromackie in the Daniel Sprung trade. Let's be honest. We'll get into that in just a bit though, because we have, we're doing this chronologically.

So Friday, Daniel Sprong gets traded. Saturday, I have to admit, even before the Canucks game against the Oilers, I'm checking social media, I'm texting some people about what's going on with the Canucks and it all felt a bit chaotic heading into this one. First, there was all the hype around the game, a Saturday night rematch of the playoff series against Connor McDavid and the Oilers team that had eliminated the Canucks.

I think a lot of Canucks fans were pretty excited about it. Those going to the game, those planning to watch with friends. Then there was the uncertainty around the lineup that added to the chaos. Sprong was gone, so he couldn't play. Besser, it turned out in the morning skate, was still hurt. So maybe people were thinking that meant Lekkeramacki would play. Alas, it turned out that Lekker Amaki had tweaked something, or at least that's what Patrick Alvien said Saturday morning.

So he wasn't an option. Then the Canucks started the game and for whatever reason felt the need to dress seven defensemen, scratching beans in the process. Again, it all just felt a little chaotic. Yeah, and then it proceeded to be pretty chaotic on the ice Vancouver Canucks got absolutely torched by the Edmonton Oilers Connor McDavid a goal and two assists Matthias Janmark you can only hope to contain him had three assists a seven to three victory for the Oilers more appropriately for our audience a seven to three loss for the

Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena. Yeah, and once again, the Canucks surrendered the first goal of the game. It was the seventh straight time that's happened, and it happened early on. Seconds after a first-minute penalty to Quinn Hughes had expired. I thought the penalty was a little tough luck on Quinn Hughes because he kind of got put in a position where the ref was eventually going to call something. And then Leon Dreisaitl puts one home. Nice hands by Leon Dreisaitl. I've heard he's pretty good.

He's good. Then the Canucks allowed the second goal and then the third. And it looked like it would be another long night for the home team, which, remember, had lost 6-0 to New Jersey the last time they played at Rogers Arena. So there was like a 9-0, you know, nine unanswered goals for they played at Rogers Arena. So there was like a nine nothing, you know, nine unanswered goals for the opposition at Rogers Arena in the last like, what, one and a half games? Not great.

So I suppose you can credit the Canucks if you want to. They did show some life in the second, getting goals from Petey and Hronik to make it a one goal game. But the third was all Edmonton. And it started out with another quick Canucks penalty in an Oilers power play that saw Petey and JT Miller get caught out on the ice for a

long time. And JT Miller looked absolutely gassed and we'll get into that in a little bit. Four unanswered goals from the Oilers leading to Lankanen's departure. Suter made it 7-3 with a meaningless one, but most of us had turned the TV off by then. Yeah, four very quick goals in the third period and just sort of the crumbling of Lankanen,

who at that point I assumed, like many of his teammates, as Rick Taka alluded to after the game, was just exhausted at that point because he had pulled out a variety of highlight reel saves in the first and second period. His focus was gone. The Kulak one through the five hole that was a tough one. That was a very tough one. You managed to isolate that one on Twitter

I noticed. Yeah well how else can you sum up the game right? It was just one of those cast it aside move on. Taka was very quick to jump to the defense of Lankanen afterwards which is the only thing you can do in that instance, because in no way are you hanging it on him. But in the third period, he ran out again.

And yeah, the Kulak goal stunk. It wasn't any good, but no one's putting anything on Lankanen, who is, that was his first regulation loss of the season. He's still 7-1-2 on the air. There's too much praise. People were, I saw too many memes where he's like, you know, stats were all over it, where he was undefeated. You flew too close

to the sun, Canucks fans. So between the sort of pregame chaoticness and then the actual game itself and then the postgame where Tuckett wasn't hypercritical of his team,

just said, Dreisaitl and McDavid were playing desperate, were playing on a higher level, we looked tired, and we got the doors blown off and we went home. And we got to get to our game earlier.

Right. Because, you know, seventh straight time surrendering the first goal. It was all well and good when they were coming back and winning those games. But people start bringing it up when you don't. The home record, too. Yeah. The home record is definitely a problem. We can get into that a little bit later in the show when we talk to Sat as well.

But as we fire along chronologically here, so now Saturday almost becomes the midpoint of two big days of transactions and noteworthy movement on this team. You want to talk about roster flux right now. You've got Besser knocked out of the lineup. You've got Sprong traded. You go play

Edmonton, and then on Sunday, all kinds of news is there's five players either going up or down, a a five player transaction day for the Vancouver Canucks. And we start as we work through these individually with the biggest one. Everyone anticipated it. The club made it official on Sunday. Swedish prospect Jonathan Lekaromaki recalled from Abbotsford to the American League and promptly put into practice on Sunday, skating on a line with JT Miller and Pugh Suter.

So Lekker and Mackey up, presumably ready to make his NHL debut on Tuesday when the Canucks take on Calgary at Rogers Arena. And Dakota Joshua. Well, we're waiting on Dakota Joshua. It sounds and looks as though he could also be making his season debut because a couple other roster transactions also went down. Vancouver Canucks sent Archdie Baines back to Abbotsford and also sent Nils Oman back down to Abbotsford. They are making the bounce back and forth with regularity now.

In another interesting move, as we continue to add on to everything that happened over the weekend, the Canucks also sent down Arthur Silovs over the weekend. He Canucks also sent down Arthur Seelovs over the weekend. He got the win last night for Abbotsford. Good for him because he needs to play games. He did get four saves in relief of Kevin Lankanen in that 7-3 loss. He's up over 800 save percentage now.

The arty party is back, baby. The arty party is back. Your joke is dead, bruv. You can't make that joke anymore. So, the reason that the Seelovs demotion was interesting is because the Canucks had to call up another goalie. They called up Ty Young, who actually hasn't even played in the American League this year. He's played in the East Coast Hockey League for Kalamazoo.

Okay. So everyone's saying, well, why would you do that? Well, the rules state that you have to have two goalies that are healthy on your active roster. You can't have Lankanen and Demko because Demko is still technically on IR. But there's no chance that Young is going to play any minutes of significance. In fact, I don't even think he's going to. He might dress on Tuesday or they might just recall. That's an injury.

However, all of this goalie rotation coincided with the fact that in addition to everything else on Sunday, Thatcher Demko took part in a full practice for the first time this season. So if you want to look at what the recap of Sunday is, Besser out, Lekaromaki in, Baines and Oman out, Joshua in, and it looks as though Thatcher Demko's return is inching closer and closer and closer to being a reality. A very busy weekend for the Vancouver Canucks. How much concern do we have about Brock Besser's injury right now? Because that line did not look the same, obviously, without Brock Besser. I know a lot of people call it the Miller line, but Brock Besser is a big part of that

line. And I do want to talk a bit about the Oilers game right now, because I thought it was one of the worst games of the season for JT Miller. But at the same time, I thought it was the best game of the season for Elias Pettersson. He did his best game. I don't think anyone's going to argue that. Scored a goal, hit a crossbar, got an assist, made some great defensive plays. And you could sense just watching him. And a lot of this is eye test. At least it is for me, uh, that he was playing with something more. And Kevin BX had noted that right after the first period. And that's what he focused on in the intermission. And he was right to do that. And hopefully that is the reason we'll remember this game. The point in the season where PD really started to take off as an opposed, as opposed to an embarrassing loss to a division rival. Yeah.

I thought it was interesting that DeBrusque was back on a line with PD as well. I think the organization would really like to make that duo work. I agree. You know, people, I know people were wondering like, why, like what, why take Garland off that line? What's going on here? But I think they want to make that, that, that

combo work. And if Petey is playing up to his level, I think that combination can work. It was just the way Petey was. And I, you know, I hate to steal Tuckett's line here. He was moving his feet out there and, you know, people will be like, well, what do you mean moving his feet?

It's just like actively trying to get by guys as opposed to dishing off the puck every time. And I thought that was encouraging. And, you know, Petey said afterwards, he felt pretty good out there, but he also recognized that he's got a long way to go to get back to where he wants, which is a recognition that he is nowhere near close to where he wants to be. Um, but you know, I, I thought the Miller line

really struggled and I know they had a tough assignment out there, but Miller on the PK early in the third period, um, him and Petey got caught out there, but it was Miller that looked like he was really struggling out there. Yep. He was like, I've got like a six foot, uh, circumference here where I'm going to move.

Like, and, and that's it. He was, he was just absolutely out of gas. And I think that led to the Canucks really failing to get much going in the third period, and the Oilers took over. It was that early penalty against them that really hurt, even though the Oilers didn't score on it. It was a really tough evening for JT Miller on Saturday against Edmonton. Dash three, because I'm a big plus-minus guy, zero shots on net.

It's actually, you know, people have said, if you guys are going to be as critical of Pedersen as you are make sure that you're as equally critical whenever anyone else isn't performing or living up to stuff miller's been it's been a struggle uh that so the game against carolina where he was strong in that comeback where they managed to force ot and then lose 4-3 on the 28th of october He had two assists in that game. I thought he was strong. Since then, it's been a struggle. And you look at the sheet especially. He's had, I think, three of the five games since then. He's been pointless.

He's been a minus in a couple of the games. The Edmonton game was tough. I don't know if he's still playing through something or if it's just maybe fatigue at this time of the year, but it's been a struggle for them the last few games. And look, with where the bar is for this team and where they want to go, if someone is having a tough go of it,

it's going to be exacerbated because mediocrity is not going to be sort of accepted anymore with this team. Like right now, I would say my level of concern about the home ice performances this year is starting to rise. At first I just kind of brushed it aside. It was all tied to Seelov's, especially

the two games where they allowed six goals against Calgary and New Jersey. Well, Lankanen was in on Saturday and despite how bad the third period went, made a couple of five alarm saves in the first and second period, and they still allowed seven. I went back and looked at it last year.

Through 41 games at home last year, the Vancouver Canucks allowed six goals on home ice once. Once. And they've already done it three times this year through six games. I thought the Oilers did a really good job against Quinn Hughes, and they've got a lot of practice against Quinn Hughes.

And, you know, we all know how good Hughes was against the LA Kings and we came in here on Friday I guess and we're just you know blown away with how he was skating against the Kings and how he was walking the line and and how he was using his edge work to, you know, open up shooting lanes and passing lanes or skating lanes, whatever, you know, the Oilers watch some video on that. Yep. Because they went straight to Hughes at the point and they put a lot of pressure on him and he was less effective. And, you know, look, he got the day off at practice and I think there's a reason for

that, but Hughes is not a concern. You know, look, he got the day off at practice, and I think there's a reason for that. But Hughes is not a concern. The bottom four is, and especially the bottom pair. Well, I'll tell you what, though. I don't know when they're going to solve this, but they're going to have to solve this at some point because if we're going to go down to, like, the biggest issue with this team, it's the defensive depth.

It's the one thing that Adog constantly brings up and he's right to do it and a lot of people bring it up. Beyond that first pair, it's problematic. At this point, I don't trust De'Arne. I don't trust Juleson. I think Soucy is starting to bounce back a little bit. He's had some strong games recently,

but I'm not entirely comfortable with the Soucy-Myers pair playing as much as they have to with a third pair that doesn't get as much time. I'm with you. I think in an ideal world, Soucy and Myers are your third pair and Brandstrom's your seventh defenseman. Right now, Soucy are your three, Soucy and Myers are your third pair, and Brandstrom's your seventh defenseman. Right now, Soucy are your three, four, and Myers. Sorry, Soucy and Myers are your three and four, and Brandstrom's your five.

So it's almost like they've got two or three guys that are two spots elevated in the lineup, if you can follow my math on that one. It's always the problem. And it seems like you're stating the obvious here, but I think sometimes people forget this. And we saw this for years in Vancouver in the last decade. When you ask someone to play in an elevated role,

they can do it for a little bit, but then eventually it catches up. Yep. And that's what they're asking a bunch of defensemen to do right now, and it's becoming a problem. Well, and the thing I was going to jump in with earlier when you're talking about quinn hughes is that um the double-edged sword when you talk about we need to elevate quinn hughes and promote him and accentuate the fact that he shouldn't just be a norris trophy candidate he should be a heart trophy candidate the problem with all of that is that sometimes the extra attention can work

negatively in that every other team is now acutely aware of not only do we know this guy's really good but he might be the heartbeat of the team and if you know you can use whatever analogy or adage that you want you know you cut the head off of the snake or you go after the number one guy i'd be telling my guys 100 we got to contain this guy the entire attack of this team starts and ends with 43. So go make his life a lot more difficult. At the expense of maybe you could, you know, shy off another guy on the team.

Maybe you don't need to focus on Miller and Patterson so much. Maybe you can leave an assignment there to go chase a hit and put an extra body on Hughes. Those are the kind of conversations that are going around the NHL right now. It's because he's so talented and because he's so good, but this is also a league where everyone's paying attention to what everyone's doing, and when there's an opportunity to try and neutralize someone, you're going to take advantage of it.

You know, Muskoka Mike texts in, how much time do we have for a Branstrom-Susey second pairing? No, like, it's just, that's asking too much of Branstrom. You know, let's, let's, you know, the, the thing is that this is a problem for management to solve. Yep.

I just don't know when they're going to be able to solve it because they have to accrue enough cap space to actually make a move. And then they've got to decide whether or not they actually want to pull the trigger. Because if you're asking them to go out and get a number three or even a number four defenseman, like a legit top four guy.

Yeah. Then you're asking them to give up a lot of assets in the process. And I think for me, you know, hopefully I've said there are two major concerns for, well, three actually with Dem there are two major concerns for, well, three actually with Demko. Two major concerns for me. Pedersen, the defensive depth.

Hopefully, that game against the Oilers represents a bit of a starting point for Pedersen because I saw something that I didn't see all season from him. And I think he was feeling good about his game. So hopefully that game isn't just a blowout loss to the Oilers. Hopefully it represents something more and something positive for Elias Pettersson. Mike Tanier is going to join us next. We'll talk a little NFL, but then we'll get right back into the Canucks talk with Sat at eight o'clock.

Lots to discuss with Sat. And then we'll get into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650-650 with your What We Learns at 830. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canuck Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m weekdays and on demand

through your favorite podcast app waiting for the snap placement is down the Kansas City Chiefs blocked a 35-yard field goal attempt. Kansas City wins this game on a blocked field goal. The Kansas City Chiefs are 9-0. You know what's funny is I actually missed that because I was flipping back and forth between that the Chiefs game and the end of the Bucks 49ers. It was like crazy finishes on both sides. I was a little

disappointed that Baker Mayfield didn't get it done for Tampa Bay because as Iron Blair texted into the show his stiff arm of Bosa was unbelievable, and for him to hold off one of the best defensive players in the NFL and make a great throw, I think was fourth down, too. Yeah. Baker Mayfield is like a little fire hydrant out there. It's great. Yeah. My favorite quarterback. I love the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They didn't get it done, though. Did you notice last year when I should have been on the bandwagon and I wasn't, and then this year when I shouldn't be on the bandwagon, I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really good at this folks.

You are listening to the Halford and breath show on sports net six 50 Halford and breath in the morning. We are an hour two of the program. I totally missed this off the top. I thought we were an hour one, but we're not technically we're an hour two hour. Two of this program is brought to you by Jason hominic from Jason dot mortgage.

If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you visit him online at jason.mortgage this entire show the whole shebang is brought to you by vancouver honda vancouver's premier destination for honda customers they have a friendly knowledgeable staff they can help with anything you're looking for sales financing service or parts before we get to mike Tan here, our NFL insider, so you missed Leo Chanel's blocked field goal at the end to keep Kansas City perfect. So we played the very

excited Kansas City Chiefs radio call. That was exciting. Okay. You want to hear what it sounds like from the Denver side of things? Yes. Decidedly less excited. Here is the other end of the spectrum. The Denver Broncos radio call.

They got a 35-yarder to win. All he's got to do is kick it through the uprights. It didn't happen. Here's what it sounded like on Denver Broncos radio. An attempt at 35 yards for the win. Snap, placement, kick, on the way, it is blocked. I don't even know what to say i really am at a loss for words 35 yard field goal blocked with one second to go and kansas city is going to get out of here with a 16 14 win over the broncos it looked like the chiefs had like four guys that could have blocked it too

that was that was how much they ran over the Broncos. I don't know if this was Andy Reid just playing up to the crowd, but in the postgame remarks, he said that they saw something on film that they were able to exploit. And I was like, okay, Andy, just take your win and go home, all right? You don't have to brag about it. Yeah, I think Leo Chanel saw something. What a block, though.

Anyway, big Sunday of NFL action. Joining us now to break it. Yeah, I think Leo Chanel saw something. What a block, though. Anyway, big Sunday of NFL action. Joining us now to break it all down, our NFL insider Mike Tanier from the Too Deep Zone here on the Halford & Ruff show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you? Blocks. That was amazing. It was like you

hear the heartbreak between the syllables of the word. That was phenomenal. You know why you should be on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers bandwagon, though? Why? You should stay. Okay. After the bye, they're obviously on a bye this week. Here's the schedule.

Giants, Panthers, Raiders, who just fired all their offensive coaches, Chargers, Cowboys, who should fire all their everybody, Panthers again, Saints. Okay. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to finish this season 9-8. They could be a playoff team. They're not good. Also, they're going to get Evans back at some point along the way,

which helps. But you listen to that schedule. There are five wins in that schedule, and that makes them a nine-win team. They're plucky. They're resilient. They lose games in dramatic fashion, but you bring up a good point. They've got a soft schedule down the stretch. The team that beat them on the weekend, the San Francisco 49ers, I want to start there

because it's the NFC West and the NFC West is getting more and more intriguing by the week. And it's funny because Christian McCaffrey made his much anticipated return to the lineup, a fairly muted return, in part because it's like 10 weeks into the season. He's just kind of getting going here. But it's interesting because you wrote this on the 2 Deep Zone, and I agree with you 100%. It felt like the 49ers were just waiting for him to come back, and that was going to fix everything that ailed them this season. And then he came back, and they still had a bunch of the problems

that ailed them this season, including a new one now, which is an inability to kick field goals. Oh, I thought you were going to say Debo Samuel fighting with his teammates. That was a problem as well. But I think it's a good point to bring up here, Mike. Christian McCaffrey might not just automatically fix everything that's wrong with the 49ers. Exactly.

And to clarify, neither missing field goals nor Debo squabbling with people is new. These are not new problems. They're two of the preexisting problems I was talking about. Right. And, you know, for them to make the emphatic statement that, you know, I kind of thought maybe they were going to make is that they were going to go out there against a very injured Buccaneers team.

They got hurt as the game went on as well. And they were going to win by 24. And they're going to say, okay, here we are. That's our Super Bowl statement. Well, they're not the team that made the Super Bowl statement. Other teams made their Super Bowl statement. They squeaked out a win against, like you said, a plucky team with

Baker Mayfield stiff-arming Nick Bosa to get a pass off and things like that. This is a 49ers team when you look at their schedule ahead. Seahawks are coming off a bye. I think that's a Niners win, but I'm not 100% certain. That's a tough out there. Then at Green Bay, at Buffalo,

they can really position themselves behind the eight ball here. They can't say, well, now that we've got McCaffrey back, we're the team you saw last year and two years ago. They've got to say, where's our run defense? Where's our red zone offense that we have to settle for all these field goals? What is going to solve these problems? Because we're not going to beat the Lions.

We might not be able to beat the Eagles. And we've already proven we can't beat the Vikings based on what we're throwing out there right now. Speaking of the Lions and the Vikings, which one was more improbable? The Lions winning a football game when their quarterback threw five interceptions, granted two touchdowns, or the Vikings and Sam Darnold winning a football game where he threw three interceptions and no touchdowns? Well, when you're facing the Jaguars, anything is possible, especially when they have their backup quarterback, Mack Jones, out there. And, you know, that was one of those a win is a win is a win-win

for the Vikings, and good for them. You look at that Vikings game, that was like this weird playground touch football, just throw the ball in the air and see what happens game. And, you know, by the third quarter, the third quarter the Texans still looked like they were in control of that game. I'm looking at the Lions and say, well, you know what? It's a non-conference game on the road,

back-to-back road games, coming with a strong opponent, division-leading opponent, coming off a loss. And these things happen. These things happen to a team like the Lions, and they're not catastrophic. Then the Lions turn around and win.

Okay, who are these guys for real? Who they are, they are the prohibitive favorites in the NFC. They are very likely a Super Bowl team. They're definitely a conference championship team. And we're still discovering some of these things about them, like what they can overcome adversity-wise and what they can do both offensively and defensively against a quality opponent when the chips are down.

The other team involved in that Sunday night are the Houston Texans, who went scoreless in the second half, got outscored 19-0, and blew that big lead. They're now 6-4 on the year, so it's hardly a disaster. But I think everyone assumed that progress was going to be linear with this team. They had the great year last year where D'Amico Ryans was an up-and-coming star coach, C.J. Stroud is an up-and-coming young star quarterback.

And they're young and they're good and they're going to get better. Is this just a case of maybe a little bit of the sophomore slump or that progress isn't always linear or are there bigger issues you hear for the Texans? I never assume the progress will be linear. But I think I did too in this case because, remember, they added Daniel Hunter. They added Stephon Diggs.

They went out there and really made big upgrades. And then you look at their schedule, their division, and you say, well, this could be a 14-win team because they're going to smoke all these bad opponents. And they probably will still smoke all those bad opponents. But the loss of Nico Collins is significant. They're without a couple other guys. But you're right that we're just seeing growing pains.

We're just seeing they are not who we thought they are yet. And I think that really came to a head both last week against the Jets where they just didn't have a solution to one problem and it sabotaged them for the whole game. They couldn't block Quentin Williams. And yesterday when there were so many opportunities, just stick the dagger in. Just run the ball.

Just get some first downs. Just make a tackle. Just don't get physically manhandled by that Lions offense over and over again, third quarter, fourth quarter. They weren't able to do it. Do you think the Arizona Cardinals are for real, or do you look at their competition and go, hmm, still need to see something there?

A little bit of both. They beat the 49ers. I mean, we're now looking at the Jets as this pushover, but the Jets on paper, like, pushover, but the Jets on vapor should be a tough opponent. So I look at the Cardinals as a legitimate playoff team, and I think they're a team on the rise. I think that if they don't – I think the 49ers will wind up with the division,

but the Cardinals could be in there with a wild card. Watch out how good that offensive line is. You know, Kyla Murray is playing well. Marvin Harrison is playing well. They've got a few pieces on defense. It's that offensive line that allows them to run the ball consistently, forces Murray. Murray really only has to run when he feels like running.

He's not running for his life anymore. And that's an equalizer for them against some of the second-rate competition. Speaking of second-rate competition, they've still got a Patriots game, a Panthers game on the schedule coming up. So they've got a path to 9-10 wins this season. Speaking of bad offensive lines, I think they've got two games against the Seahawks as well. I was being polite. Let's call that a split. And we're going to 9-10 wins.

It must be nice to have a good offensive line. I think it's important in football. I don't know if that's a hot take or not. I feel like it's important. The Jets you mentioned or the Cowboys you haven't yet mentioned, who is having the more disappointing season? That's a tough question right there. Yeah, okay, the Cowboys get the excuse because now Dak's hurt. And for weeks before that, Micah Parsons was hurt

and Tank Lawrence has been hurt, and they have these injuries. So they kind of have a little bit of a built-in excuse. I don't know who's buying the excuse, but you can kind of look at that. And I'm sure Mike McCarthy is selling that all over the building right now. I can't do anything with what's left here. The Jets don't have that many injuries. The Jets have been adding guys. The more the Jets add, the worse they get.

It's subtraction by addition at this point. I understand why the Cowboys quit late in that game because Cooper Rush was fumbling all over the place and he's a backup quarterback. The Jets quit in the third quarter when Aaron Rodgers fumbled. Rodgers

quit. The defense quit. I don't even know what they did in the fourth quarter. I think they went three and out, handed the ball back, and just let the Cardinals run the clock. This is a demoralized team. This is a disinterested team, and it starts with the top, and at the top I mean Aaron Rodgers. I don't know how they proceed from here,

but, like, I don't know who else there is to fire, who else there is to cut. They're just bad. And the Cowboys will obviously be making big changes in the coaching staff this offseason, right? That much is clear? Yeah, that much is clear. So I don't know what the trigger is going to be for Jerry Jones.

Maybe he's just going to wait until the end of the season. But I'm checking the news, you know? I'm checking my text messages every half hour this morning to make sure I don't miss out on anything. So I remember when mike tomlin made the decision to go to russell wilson and we all went really okay and then we watched russell wilson for what was it like a half a football or maybe it was a quarter of football and we're like this is a bad call turns out mike tomlin was right don't you think yeah it's almost like

mike tomlin who's been coaching for 20 years and took you know great teams to super bowls and took bad teams to the playoffs knows what he's doing and a couple of factors that become more and more clear one is that whatever justin fields was running was sort of an offense that kind of like half speed there you know everything was kind of scripted up to make things like easy for him to find his targets, give him his running opportunities, run the ball. So they were in power saver mode with Fields. They had results, but you're going to have results with that defense. You can win a game, you're 13-6 when you have that defense.

The other thing is that Pickens, the wide receiver, I don't know what was going on between him and Fields, whether it was they don't like each other, whether it was a disconnect on the field. Pickens is a different guy with Russell Wilson getting him the ball. Maybe it gets to him faster, more on target, more often, whatever. But now you see him not jogging through routes, but making his one-handed catches and stuff. And that's a huge difference for the Steelers.

What's your outlook on the Steelers? Because if you look at their schedule, it's tough schedule still. I know that they've got their divisional games and the Browns stink, so there's those. But they've got two games left against the Ravens, they've got a game against the Eagles, they've got a game against the Chiefs, and two more still against Cincinnati, so there's still

a lot to play for there. They're 7-2. They're around, I'd say, a top-four team in the AFC. I'm just not sure where, quite where yet, because I mean, all due respect to the seven wins, but they had the Jets in there and the Raiders and the Broncos, and I'm just not sure in there and the Raiders and the Broncos. I'm just not sure exactly where they are as far as a contender.

I think we'll find out real quick, including next weekend when they play the Ravens. But right now, all you can really say is they're the best team in their division, at least record-wise. Best team record-wise, the Ravens are a better team. I have the Steelers. Right now, I have, and in just no particular order right now, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, and then the Steelers, and then the Tex, and there's no particular order right now, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, and then the Steelers, and then the Texans.

So I have that there. You're right about the brutality of the schedule. There's five road games in that group, and the road games include at Philadelphia, which is a tough one, at Cincinnati, at a lot of these other teams. They're going to make the playoffs, because if you look at the AFC, the bottom has

fallen out of the AFC. There are playoff spots available for those who seek them. The Chargers are going to be a playoff team. The Chargers aren't particularly good. They're going to be a playoff team because the spots are available. So I don't know what the exact numbers are, but the Steelers are all but guaranteed to make the playoffs this year. Can they move beyond that?

I don't think they're going to be able to do that with that offense. We've seen them for years kind of be the playoff team with the great defense that loses in the first or second round. I think that's them again, but I think that's definitely what they are, and I'm not going to count them out in any of these games coming up. Next Sunday, the Buffalo Bills will host the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bills are two and a half point favorites right now is that a good line is that a good point spread at buffalo two and a half yes i think everybody sees what we all see about the chiefs that they are a little bit of a smoke and mirrors thing and yeah i i think the uh the bills are an eight and two team on merit and i think the um you know the chiefs are an eight and two team it's not enough

so i need to see injury reports. I haven't done breakdowns now, but I would be leaning. I need to see a weather forecast, but I would be leaning on the Bills right now because this is the kind of game where the course correction will come into play for the Chiefs. Before we let you go, let's set up Monday Night Football tonight. And we have not talked really at all about the Miami Dolphins

and Los Angeles Rams game. We've focused on so much other stuff. But it'll be interesting because with everybody healthy, these two teams can actually put up a lot of points against one another. So I'm anticipating, I think he over-enters at 48.5. At the very least, a good show for Monday Night Football offensively because everyone's healthy and both teams can sling it pretty good. Absolutely. I'm considering that over.

And yes, Puka Noko will be back. Obviously, Tua is back. The injury reports look pretty good. Absolutely. I'm considering that over, and yes, Pukinokua will be back, obviously, too. The injury reports look pretty nice. I really think the Rams are a team trending in a positive direction right now because they've got so many young players coming around because of the McVay factor. Because they've gotten guys healthy,

I still don't know what direction the Dolphins are trending in. They played the Bills tough last week, but playing your division opponent tough when you're like 3-7 or whatever they are isn't going to get it done. I'm leaning toward the Rams tonight. Mike, you're the best, man. Thanks for doing this.

We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight and all the games next week. We'll do this again next Monday. Absolutely. Take care and enjoy your week. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Mike Tanney, our NFL insider.

From the 2 Deep Zone sub stack here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, without looking too far ahead, next weekend is going to be awesome. So it kicks off Thursday night football for the week of the NFL. Washington and Philly. Great matchup, right? You got Jayden Daniels, although he's coming off a loss now. Going to give it to the Philly team that's won five straight. The Sunday games, the 10 a.m. slate, Baltimore-Pittsburgh.

Going to be awesome. The two top teams in the division, Lamar Jackson going up against Russell Wilson. What a ballyhooed quarterback matchup. The afternoon game. Moonballs. He throws moonballs. The afternoon, you've got Seattle and San Fran, once a proud rivalry. I'm not sure where it is right now.

But, as you mentioned, KC Buffalo. So you got an awesome game on Thursday night. You got an awesome game for the morning games on Sunday. And then the afternoon games, you got a great one as well. Now the primetime games, they're not great. Although Chargers-Bengals, you could have a worse game, I suppose. Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, and the Chargers are actually playing some pretty good football lately.

The Monday night, you can throw in. The Chargers defense is ridiculous in terms of how many points they give up. It's crazy. Hard ball, man. Is there any team close to how few points they give up? They are, I'd have to go check the stats on it. There's got to be someone relatively close,

but stingiest in terms of points allowed. All of their lines are like in the high 30s, low 40s, every game that they play in. If they play the Steelers, the over-under is six. The Steelers are there in terms of points allowed as well, by the way, with the Chargers. I don't think anyone's close to the Chargers. In nine games, they've given up 118 points.

So it's not exactly a team that you're thrilled to see on primetime in Monday Night Football, but their offense has been steadily getting better. It seems like Jim Harbaugh is slowly allowing that they don't have to run the ball 40 times a game. They can run like 35 and let Justin Herbert throw a little bit. I mean, he's a good coach. We all know he's a good coach. He had success in college.

He's just in three. He's just kind of weird. He's different. He's a unique guy. Yeah. I mean, he's a good coach. He's a unique guy. Yeah. But I mean, I,

he's a good coach that I enjoy making fun of. Yeah. Is that fair enough? Yeah. They've won three straight. Yeah. Granted their wins came against terrible teams and the saints, the Browns and the Titans,

but that's, you wins are wins. You can only beat the teams that are on the schedule, Jason. And with that. So, so I've got a question for you. Go ahead.

Which side are you leaning on when it comes to the Kansas City Chiefs? The one where you're like, they're just showing that they know how to win games, or they're just showing that eventually this is all going to catch up to them. Okay. The former. They know how to win games. I mean, I know people have given me grief because I've said, I think Baltimore is the best team in the AFC and that Kansas city chief games are boring to watch because it's

such a slug fest. And I think part of that is that I yearn for the days of where they were prime Travis Kelsey, Tyreek Hill, and Patrick Mahomes just blowing team, doing crazy things on offense, you know, doing little like circle dances in the huddle before they snap the ball and getting fun and creative. So here's my follow-up question to you. Who is more likely to win the Super Bowl this year, Kansas City or Baltimore? Kansas

City. The king stays the king until otherwise dethroned. Even though you say that Baltimore is the best team in the league. Yeah, sometimes the best teams don't win. I think Baltimore, their biggest flaw, well one is their pass defense, but two, it feels like they play with their food a lot. They toy with teams too much.

And I think it's because they're like, well, we can run it with this beast running back, or we can just run it with our quarterback, or he can throw it and do pretty much whatever he wants athletically. He can make all the throws. He can run whenever he wants. He can pass out of the pocket, or he can scramble and go and if that doesn't work we got a great ground game i don't think people are giving the buffalo bills enough attention maybe it's a maybe it's a matter of you know once bitten twice shy we we you know in the in the josh allen era we've gotten excited

for buffalo teams in the past right you know and rightly so. And every year we've been like, could this be the year that the Bills actually win the Super Bowl? And we talk about the four straight lost Super Bowls. And when we go over that, maybe people are just tired of doing that. Well, you know, part of the reason why is the Bills have been the class of the AFC East for so many years in a row. Now, it's crazy to say. Have you class of the AFC East for so many years in a row. Now, it's crazy to say. Have you looked at the AFC East standings?

I know. They really don't have much to play for. I mean, they have seating to play for, though. Do you know who the second place team in the AFC East is right now? It might be New England, isn't it? It's the Jets by way of the tiebreaker. Yeah. They're three and seven.

So the second place team in the division is 3-7. And the Bills are 8-2. The Bills won the AFC East two weeks ago. And they're the only team with a plus-point differential, obviously. But the other ones, like the Jets are minus 37, and New England and Miami are minus 60 and 63. It's a bad division. So part of it is, it's hard to get excited about a Bills team

that cakewalks its division. And they're very much like one of those NHL teams where you're like, well, we're just waiting for the playoffs. Previously it was the Edmonton Oilers, and it's perennially been the Toronto Maple Leafs. The regular season is going to take care of itself. You're going to get to the postseason.

It's what do you do in the postseason. I think Josh Allen's in that conversation right now. Okay. We are going to get to the postseason. It's what do you do in the postseason? I think Josh Allen's in that conversation right now. Okay. We are going to stop the NFL talk because we're going to talk to Sat. And if we talk about his NFL team, he will start to sob. They are also two and seven. His team is the Cleveland Browns, sadly. We'll talk to Sat about all the things happened that happened over the weekend

with the Vancouver Canucks. It started Friday with the trade of Daniel Sprong. It went on to Saturday with the big loss to the Edmonton Oilers. And all the things that kind of happened before that game too. And why they ended up going with seven defensemen. And it just seemed like a chaotic day for the Vancouver Canucks. But there was some positivity, and that was the play of Elias Pettersson in that loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

And then on Sunday, yesterday, at practice, Lekarimaki was taking line rushes with the Miller line in place of Brock Besser, and Dakota Joshua was on the fourth line taking regular rushes. So we could see both of those guys in the lineup Tuesday against the Calgary Flames there was also Thatcher Demko continuing to make progress and possibly just in time because I'm not going to suggest that the wheels are falling off Kevin Lankan after one poor showing, but he's never done this before in this type of pressure situation. And, you know, I think what he's done so far is incredible for the Canucks. He's almost salvaged the beginning of the season for the Canucks and the addition of him from the management was a great move. But I think now

me personally, I'm starting to turn my attention to, okay, when is Thatcher Demko back? How is he going to look? And is he going to be able to stay healthy? So tons of things to discuss. Thanks for joining us on this holiday Monday. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.