Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Needed That One

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk a gutsy comeback win by the Canucks over the Dallas Stars, they discuss the Blue Jays tying up the ALCS versus the Mariners (3:00), plus they set up Week 7 with NFL.com's Nick Shook (31:18). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Haldan-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Colin Blackwell on the far boards, gave it away to Garland in the middle. Beautiful, Duke, to the back, and he scores! What a goal by Connor Garland! I don't want to hear your blue jade BS, okay? Climb on a right. He's hit it well. It is gone. Just enough to get it out of here. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.

Good morning, Vancouver. 6 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halpert in his breath, and his sports net 650. We are coming here live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adon, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning. to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Brother of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-dustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. This is the Middle 1170 Pile Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech, Footwear, and Orthotics, working together with you in step. A big show on a Friday.

We got so much stuff to get into. I know I've said this a lot over the course of October, but man, the sports are indeed going crazy right now. Laddie, would you like to? Yeah, I forgot the fan blogger. You forgot the fan blogger. Oh, my God. Does the wind still count if you forget the fan blogger?

Is it because you are just so into the Jays right now? No, it's because I was too worried about getting the weekend drop in there at the end. That's true. I can't think of two things at once. It's too much. It's not a great start to the show. It's not a great start, buddy. Listen, like, this is, this is big time right now, okay?

Nothing can make me feel sad right now, broff. Nothing at all. You're fired. Still feeling good. That's real. Still feel pretty good. I get to sleep in. So, despite the error at the onset of the show, we're going to roll on.

Yikes. We got a lot to get into on the program today. Guest list today begins at 630. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us. Lost in the craziness of fantastic sports Thursday yesterday. To a certain degree was the icy hot bowl. Did everybody watch it yesterday between a pair of geriatric quarterbacks? What a show Joe Flacco and Aaron Rogers put on in the icy hot bowl last night in Cincinnati.

We'll get into that and preview the weekend ahead. Mostly Monday night football, though, with Nick because that's the best night coming up in the NFL. So Nick Shook's going to join us at 6.30 for some NFL talk. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. 705 Joe Siddell is going to join the program. He, of course, Blue Jays broadcaster for Sportsnet. What a roller coaster this ALCS has been. Just when you think it's going one way, bang, goes the other way.

Last night, Mad Max Scherzer turned back the clock with a vintage performance as the Jays beat the Mariners 8-2 to even the ALCS at two games apiece. And the roller coaster keeps rolling today. 3 o'clock our time. The two teams are going to meet again in game five of the series. Joe Sittles is going to join us at 705 to talk about all that. At 7.30, Bob the Moge Marjanovich is going to join the program. BC Lions play-by-play man.

Lions are back in action tonight. 7.30 BC Place. The Elks are the opponent as they look to keep their playoff chances alive. Lions are already there. They've won four straight. They're coming off a buy. We can also get into that massive comeback win by your Vancouver Canucks last night with Moge. That's all coming up at 7.30.

8 o'clock. Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. For this, as per usual, we turn things over to our resident dolly handler, Jason Brough. Okay, there's a few things, but he texted me and he said, The Canucks have checked in on an interesting player. My, oh, my. I don't know who that is. I didn't text them back.

I'm like, I'll learn it at 7.30 or 8. Well, it's about time. They've been focusing on all these boring players. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bringing an interesting one. That is interesting. That was a meeting like, what if we checked in on an interesting player? None of these boring players.

Like Drew O'Connor. What do you think it is? Who do you think it is? An interesting player that's out there? I don't even know. I can't even harbor a guess. I didn't know what was coming out. I don't know who this is, but for some reason it just popped into my mind.

Did Luch sign with St. Louis? Oh, man. He's injured. Okay. They kind of suggested that when he was healthy, they'd convert his PTO to a contract, but it was very much up in the air. Maybe it's that Brennan guy who brought up yesterday.

Brennan Othman? I don't know if he classifies as interesting. What about Lucas Reichel in Chicago? He did have a good game the other night. Very interesting ideas. Now, this is very intriguing for the show. A lot of teases out there. There are a lot of reasons to listen to the show.

Do you want another one? Sure. We're giving away UFC tickets today. UFC's coming to Vancouver. This Saturday, is that correct? Addo, give all the details here. We're going to give away tickets at eight. Yeah, that's just nod.

Giveaway tickets. o'clock this morning caller number five is going to get tickets to see a UFC fight night tomorrow October 18th at Rogers Arena 604-280-650 is the phone number that number again 604-2800-650 will remind you throughout the show don't call now call it eight o'clock caller number five gets a pair of tickets to UFC fight night this Saturday October 18th at Rogers Arena de Ritter versus Hernandez yes that's correct de Ritter that's French for the Ritter. Riddle.

I thought so when you took the Rits out of something. You derid it. So we're giving away UFC tickets. We got a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway, and we got a bunch of stuff to get into on the program. So without further ado, Lattie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Miss it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies investing tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca. Despite a lack of fan blogger in the intro, we are still going to press on like Lee Nails and begin with Vancouver Canucks, who scored four goals, four goals in the second period, including three in a span of three minutes and 26 seconds, to wipe out a two-nothing. deficit and defeat the Dallas Stars 5-3 at American Airlines Center on Thursday night. Yeah, it didn't look good early for the Vancouver Canucks in the first period. They were outshot 14 to 6 and outscored 2 to nothing.

The first Dallas goal deflected in off Elias Pedersen, who was probably wondering how much worse things could get. You remember those commercials? Were they for Southwest Airlines? It was like, want to get away? That was his face, swim. And he was like, yes, I would like to get away. One to Cabo, please.

But the Canucks and Pedersen picked themselves up in the second, just like we all thought they would. We didn't. It started with a smart play by Evander Cain, who saw the Canucks with an odd man's situation up the ice. If he could just flip the puck up there. Now, I don't think he planned for the puck to bounce past Thomas Harley, who I thought had a pretty rough night for a team candidate defenseman.

That gave Heidel a breakaway. The play worked, and Heedle scored 2-1. Canucks tied it on the power play after Cain, once again, involved in the play, was chopped to the ice by Radic Faxa. Such a dirty player, Radic Faxa. Pedersen redeemed himself by making a nice play along the boards. And you know what he did? He got his feet moving.

Move those feet. Just a little bit, but they were moving all the same. And he drew the Dallas defenders down low before feeding it back to Hughes, who had a bunch of space because Pedersen had drawn those defenders down low. And then Hughes did some cool Hughes stuff. It does that dancing. I love it when he does that. And he did the cool Hughes stuff and before sliding the puck hard into the slot area for Besser to tip it past Casey DeSmith, who yeah, by the way, it was in goal for the Dallas stars. Not too long after the Canucks tied it, they took the lead. Halford, they took the damn lead.

I saw it. They were down two nothing. And then in second period, they're up three to. Max Sasson, to the lineup for Braden Coutts, used his speed to get behind the Dallas defense and scored. Nice pass up the wall by Tyler Myers for the assist. That's what speed gets you. He's fast. I like Seth. He is really fast. And not too long after that, Halford, Connor Garland, the best forward on the Vancouver Canucks, in my opinion. Picked off a risky pass by Colin Blackwell before making a great move to his backhand, beating both the Dallas defender and the goalie at the same time. So it was four goals in the second period for the Vancouver Canucks,

who you might recall scored in bunches the last time they visited Dallas. Yep. But how would the Canucks respond in the third? That was the question. They had only played two good periods on the season after that second period. Would they be able to hold the lead? Well, they look pretty good for most of the period. They actually came pretty close to extending their lead on the power playing.

You know what they were doing it out on the power play, Halford? Moving their feet? Nope, zipping it around. Oh, that's even better. Zipping it around. But it was still a two-goal lead when Myers took a penalty with two-and-a-half minutes left and with DeSmith at the bench for Dallas, meaning a six-on-four for the stars. Wyatt Johnston scored quickly to make it a one-goal lead with two minutes left.

Credit to the Canucks, though. Kane, who had a impactful night. Yep. drew another penalty right in front of the empty Dallas net and that was pretty much it. Hughes sealed the deal with an empty netter and it was a big win for a Canucks team that really needed a big win. They're in action again tonight against Chicago, a team that just pumped the St. Louis Blues, who you remember had pumped the Vancouver Canucks. So I don't know really what to expect from the Chicago Blackhawks tonight.

and hey, I don't know what to expect from the Vancouver Canucks either because I did not see that second period coming. No, no, I didn't either. And, you know, our text thread was somewhat skewing negative after the first period in which not only the Canucks trailed, but I would say rightly trailed. Like, it was not a good first period. And I know that in the aftermath, Adam Foote and some of the players were saying, you know, everything was okay and we weren't panicking.

But I find that somewhat hard to believe because it did not look good after the first 20 minutes of that game. There were no signs that this team had solved anything of the issues that plagued them in the previous two games. So kudos to this group. Major major kudos to this group because I threw this out on Twitter

yesterday and I'll stand by it this morning. It's called X. At the risk the everything up. Right, that's true. At the risk of hyperbolizing game four of an 82 game regular season that second period, that comeback and that ability to produce offense, it sure felt like it was pretty damn important for that team. And I think that if we're going to look at moments in the season where you say,

okay, that was a pretty significant one, I do wonder if that second period in Dallas might end up being one because everyone was saying the right thing publicly. You know, Thatcher Demko did his media scrum the other day. So too did Adam Foote and they were talking about sticking to the process and we're not panicking. We're not worried. We're only one and two. but it did not look good over the first three games of that season. You could say that eight of the nine periods were poor. And then you could have said nine to the ten periods

were poor after the first yesterday. But the Kinecks really showed, and a few different things yesterday. They showed a quick strike ability, which is very promising. They showed that they've got some team speed. Can you dive into, Lattie, the folder from last night,

where Adam Foote talks about players adjusting well to a new offensive system? Because this is part of the whole thing, is that the players were saying like we know what we have to do and when we've gone back and looked over the games, we see things that are correctable and we see ways that we can fix what's ailing us. Now, when people say that, I'm like, that's great that you feel that way, but we're going to need proof of concept at some point. Well, according to Adam Foote, the plan yesterday after

a lousy first period was stick with it. The offense is coming. You guys are starting to figure it out. And then they did. Here's Adam Foote after the game yesterday talking about how his players are now adjusting well to a new offensive system. Yeah, they just stuck with it. I mean, we had a plan, and just in a mission we're just saying, guys, I know it doesn't feel right, but we're doing all right. Like, hang in there, and, you know, they're transitioning from a man-on-man offense to a little bit of a zone when it's low

and when it's passed high, it's more of a man-on-man. But we were trying to get them to stick to it, and Garley found the ice down low with other learning a new system, that, you know, Edmonton plays in Vegas, and we kind of played the same thing, but there was times where Garley exposed that, and I think the guys picked up some confidence seeing him hold on the puckes.

It's always Garland. Garland to the rescue, every time. The three stars in the building yesterday were Thatcher Demko was the first star. Quinn Hughes was the second star, Amico Ranton it. Got the third star for Dallas. But I think you could make a case for Garland to be a star last night.

Kane you know Fish Dancer texts in and he said The Revenge Tour has finally started for Elias Pedersen I thought he was good he made some good plays out there Not really to say he's back yet Since we're doing that

Seems every game But I guess they will have to keep Pedersen and Garland together for now With Kane Do you like them with Kane I thought that looks good eh I thought that was the most impactful game that Amanda Keynes had through the force

Yeah he drew a couple penalties like that's the thing where there's been way too much people people use underlying numbers early in the season and when you do that you look ridiculous okay like Evander Kane had a good game last night his underlying numbers weren't good right you know you can have that sort of stuff that sort of stuff you have to look at after like 20 25 games

yeah I'm with you okay um Kane did some good things and it's not hockey isn't all possession stats That's not all it is. Kane made a nice play to flip the puck up. I love a good flipper. Love a good flipper. Well, he saw it. The Canucks had a two-on-one. Now, I don't think he expected it to go like that.

I think he was like, I'm going to flip this up and the Canucks are going to go have a two-on-one. Instead, what happened? And he flipped it, bounced a couple times. And Thomas Harley was like, he made like the Little League mistake. He did an O-Lay there. He's like, didn't get his body behind the ball or the puck. For you kids out there, though, they're too young to remember.

That used to be the entirety of the Minnesota Wild offense when they broke into the NHL. It was Willie Mitchell with a high flipper and Marion Gabbrick would skate onto it. And maybe there'd be a crazy bounce or something like that. And the worst case scenario is the puck's out of your zone. You're like, this is a win. Their offense was basically an onside kick. It was great. It was fun to watch. Wait for those bounces. You know who else is good at is Dowdy and Kopitar? They do it a couple. But you don't do with any regularity. Like, let's not get a twist. We had the HL line had a very good night. Good job by Adam Foote putting those guys together. And I'd like to see them get a run.

Now, the fact that Sasson came in, but also Linus Carlson came on, to play on a line with Baines, the three of them, which was a very good line for the Abbotsford-Kinnocks last year as they went on to win an AHL championship. That meant Lekker-Macky came out of the lineup. And we kind of floated that possibility. Like if Carlson is going to come in, then it's going to be Lek-R-Macky that comes out.

So I'm not sure when he's going to get back into the lineup. You know, I know a lot of people want him in the top six and they want him on power play one. I don't know if I want him on the top six, but I would like to see him on power play one. But if the power play looks like it did last night, then I've got no problem with the power play as it is. Do you think, do you think, do you think Dallas thought it was going to be easy after the first period? They were just like, hey, we're three and oh. we're up to nothing in this game the Canucks are kind of a disaster

we dominated that first let's just coast boys well I'm glad you brought this up because apparently this has been a bit of an issue with the Dallas Stars this year is that when they get out to Leeds they're either getting a little too lax

or a little too confident and they kind of tend to fritter them away it happened in their game a 5-4 win over the abs a little earlier they've gone off to so on paper They'd gotten off to a 3-0 start They'd scored five goals in every game So if you were just to take one blush at it

You'd be like, oh, they're playing pretty well to start the season I've got some audio here from Glenn Gulletson It might be a little hollow Because I think it was recorded in a sort of cavernous part Of the arena, but Oh, I thought you meant it like his comments rung hollow Yeah, that's what I thought I was. No, no, no, it was I think he was pretty, for a guy that's coaching a 3-1 hockey team

He was pretty blunt in his assessment that They have a tendency to flatline a bit when they get out to a lead and it happened last night against Vancouver Canucks. Here is former Canucks assistant coach Glenn Gulletson, now the head coach of the Dallas Stars following a 5-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks last night.

Yeah, you know what? This has been brewing. You know, it's been brewing. And if you want to take an objective view of our record 3 and 1, it's probably where it should stand. The problem we're getting into a little bit isn't so much, I don't strike. or anything like that, just managing the game and really we're, we need to manage leads.

Our challenge is to manage the game right now when we're up. You know, we came out, we started well, we look good, we were in control, and then it's these leads where we tend to flatline a little bit, and that's going to be our challenge. Well, Dallas's flatlining was good for Vancouver, and the Canucks took advantage of it. four goals in the second period again they're in action against Chicago tonight we're going to talk a little baseball now

we're going to talk a little NFL with Nick Shook in about 10 minutes and then we'll talk to him for about 10 minutes and then we'll come back to the Canucks game okay okay I like your roadmap we got to do a little we got to do some baseball Max Scherzer

last night like there have been some awesome and very unique pitching performances for the Jays in this postseason and none of them like it's not like Gossman has been bad but like none of the really interesting unique ones

to my memory have involved him like you Savage's performance very cool, very unique was awesome there was the bullpen game very unique I thought Bieber in game three the other night was

you know it didn't start out well but he hung in there and his manager let him work out of whatever issues he had early on. And Max Scher, who actually looked a little bit erratic to start the game, what a performance by the old man. It was a vintage Max Scherzer performance last night as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners 8, 2 to even the ALCS at two games apiece. You mentioned it did start a little janky for Max. He gave up three hits, one of which was a solo home run to Josh Naylor in the second inning. But he settled in from there. And in the moment that went viral, he didn't come out of the game until John Schneider's second mound visit of the game.

Because the first mound visit came with two outs in the fifth when Schneider came up before the Randy Orozzerana app bat and talked to Scherzer about potentially taking Max out of the game. Now, I don't know exactly what was set on the mound. but I could see Max's two different colored eyes and he was not coming out of that game and he made it very clear there was no way that he was going to come out of the game at that point. Now, John Schneider was actually asked about this in the aftermath. We've got the audio here.

Laddie, you were pointing towards me. By the way, for those that don't have a dog cam because there isn't a dog cam, Laddie is wearing an authentic J's number 31 Max Scher jersey today in studio. What do you want to say, Laddie? Well, I said his eyes were the same color at that point. and they were both just fire, I think, coming out of his eyes.

Let's hear the audio from John Schneider about him going out with two outs in the fifth for his first mound visit to talk about taking Max Scher out of the game. Given that it was your first experience with the Mad Max that we've been hearing about for so long, was it was what you expected? Yeah, it was awesome. I thought he was going to kill me. It was great. You know, he locked eyes with me, you know, both colors as I walked out.

and it was it's not fake that's the thing it's not fake you know he has this mad max persona but he he backed it up tonight so it was um you know the infielders had a good laugh too out there and he got the job done so he now becomes the third oldest starting pitcher to win a road playoff game in MLB history behind roger clemens and el presidente dennis martinez who did it back in 1995. He did it with the curve. The curve ball was really effective last night. The numbers on it were six strikeouts with his curve ball, which matches a career high. And you're talking about a multiple Cy Young winner who's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Being able to put forth one of the best pitching performances of his career with the curve at this advanced age,

unbelievable, unbelievable fine for the Js yesterday to get what they got out of him in game four to turn the tables in this series. This series has made no sense. No sense. And for those of you that are texting in, it's like, oh, you and your pro Blue J's rhetoric, we made a point of coming in here after the weekend and saying, we're going to make this two nothing lead that the Mariners have in the ALCS about the Mariners because they 100% deserve their flowers after the way that they played in Toronto. I don't want to hear your Blue J BS, okay. And now you get to hear some of that Blue JBS because what the Blue Jays have done in Games 3 and Games 4 is equally

impressive. The punch, counter punch in this series, completely unexpected, has been something to watch. This has been such a fascinating, intense, and drama-filled series, despite the fact that none of the games have been particularly close. We have not had

any late-inning heroics. We have not had any, like, huge high-leveraged save opportunities, yet the series has been super, super dramatic and entertaining. Here's a quick question. for you? Yeah. How many more Blue Jays fans are going to be in attendance today because I noticed on the secondary markets that the ticket prices were coming down because I think a lot of Mariners fans you know, we're looking forward to a potential clincher in game five and now they're like

fine, I'll sell them. I'll sell them. I just like this team and now is they're going to kill them. Like you can you can go on to stub hub and get. I mean, look, it's not cheap. And, hey, don't yell at me about, oh, go to the United States. We all know the debate here. I'm just telling you. Yes. You can get in the building for like $130 bucks plus $600 in fees from Stubhub.

But like it is, I've been monitoring them because I thought maybe I'll go down today. I'm not going to. But I just wonder what the atmosphere is going to be like in there today. I think there's going to be a lot more Blue Jays fans in there. Yeah, I think there will be. And I think that Mariners fans, there's two reasons why. One, obviously, is you had a two-nothing lead after taking the first two games on the road. But the second one is the way in which the Mariners have lost.

These games haven't been particularly close. Their bats have gone quiet. Here's the low-key and maybe even high-key part of this whole thing. After the first two games in which they played impeccably clean baseball, Mariners are starting to make mistakes now. Josh Naylor got himself thrown out at third base yesterday. trying to go from first to third in an inning where that looked like the one

moment where the Mariners might get back in that game to be honest, that looked like the moment where the Blue Jays were wavering a bit they were moving runners along, they were scoring runs, it was a mistake going from first to third. You could have held up at second, they could have kept that inning going, it might have been a different game. Let's not forget. They also

uncorked a wild pitch that scored a run. They also walked in a run. So the Mariner had a sloppy game and there's a lot of knives though for Dan Wilson right now. Go ahead. Well, I was going to say the base running particular. I wish I remember which pre series preview I read that said that the base running could become an impact in this series

because while the Mariners have faster sprint speed, they steal more bases, they're reckless on the base paths compared to the Blue Jays. And I think we've seen it a couple times in this series where there's been outs on the base paths that probably shouldn't happen. And that Nailor one was huge. Yeah, like I get the idea of like be aggressive, stay aggressive. But in that moment, you want that inning to keep going. Don't take the chance to take an extra bag. You were getting bats on balls and you were putting runs across.

Now, Dan Wilson's coming under a lot of fire too, especially. And again, you can debate managerial decisions all day if you want. And it's hard to definitively say these were mistakes. But there's a lot of criticism and consternation about Wilson. The early lift of Castillo yesterday following what some considered leaving Kirby in way too long in the game prior. And they're just wondering right now, it's like, we need a manager to have. the right feel for when to use our excellent bullpen and right now it's not happening two losses on the trot i don't know what to expect from today uh as far as i understand it it's going to be

some combination of miller i think woo is going to make an appearance today at some point for the mariners in a what will be a pseudo bullpen game with the three guys that they've got lined up gossman's obviously going to go for the jays but again i don't know how much momentum actually exists in these things but if there is any, the Jays have got a lot of it right now. Can one of our listeners do the math on what the Mariners record in ALCS games at home is? Because I think they've won, they've been to the ALCS four times. Right. If they've played, let's say, I don't know, eight or nine of those, I think they've won two.

Put a homework assignment out to the listeners? I'm putting a homework assignment out there for the listeners. they in my memory 2 and 8 2 and 8 at home how did you get that that quickly stat me search stuff like that yeah

2 and 8 at home that's like that's that's that's pretty tough yeah because I went to one of those losses back in the day like I don't know what is it now 25 years or whatever or the three teams they've played 25 2000

we're up against it for time we're bouncing around a lot here in the Halford and Bradshaw you don't want to hear about the Bernie Williams home run that I saw no no well you kind of said it yeah heck of a player he had a home run. Nice. Good anecdote. And I was like, who let the dogs out? I forgot. Did you ever that? That was the song. I'm glad you told that story.

Soda Mojo, baby. Good player, good song. Okay, before we go to break, it is a Canucks game day. So I need to remind you that Canucks game day is brought to you by Panago. Go for the win, buy two medium Panago pizzas and score free cheesy bread. Use promo code Canucks deal. That's all one word, by the way. at panago.com. Pana, go for it. Restrictions apply. Game day only.

You're listening to the Halford and Breft Show on Sportsnet, 650. The first Dallas goal deflected in off Elias Pedersen. This might have gone off Elias Pedersen stick and in. I was probably wondering

how much worse things could get. I'm so embarrassed. I wish there was a hole I could just crawl into and die. Okay, throw in the hole. It's Canucks Central with Dan Richo and Saty R.

Shaw, your destination for everything Canucks exclusive interviews inside info and even the post game show listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app rogers out of the gun trips left single back right in game with three seconds down two points rogers takes the shotgun staff he fades he rolls to the near left rogers steps into it he heaves a long parking effort into the end zone knocked out by the Bengals, and that's the game. DJ Ivy got up playing deep safety and swats it down. The volleyball finish at Cincinnati beats Pittsburgh, 33 to 31, and a Thursday night thriller.

He can still sling it. What a night for old men last night. Scher, 41? Flacco, 40. Aaron Rogers, 41. Adog, 14. You had a good night, too. And what did he do?

Eat some sugar. Yep. Just sugar, though, nothing else. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sports Night 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought you by Sands and Associates. Score a dead freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two much lower payments than three financial peace of mind. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com.

We are now an hour two of the program. No, we're still an hour one. You can jump the head there. I got excited. It's a classic Halifference. Yeah, this is the first hour of the program. I got really excited. What do you want me to say?

It's been sloppy so far, I have to admit. It has. Laddie for getting the fan blogger. What else? You. You being you? You just in general, you slob. Just the look of you.

Hour one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Nick Shook from NFL.com joins us. here now on the Halford and Brush Show on SportsNet 650.

What up, Nick? Oh, thanks for having me, guys. We'll talk about a great night for old men, a great night for nostalgia, for remembering that some guys who are in their 40s still have fantastic arms and on the perfect night in the perfect setting that can get them some great success.

So I'm assuming that Joe Flacco now vaults to number one on your QB rankings after that performance last night, right? now if only the QB index hadn't been submitted two days ago you can move up a little bit though Roger is almost in the top ten I feel like every game or most games are just like intended to make

Cleveland Browns fans feel bad about themselves like Baker Mayfield is in the running for MVP this year I would give them the MVP vote if I had one I do not for posterity's sake here but I know what you're saying. And I also actually want to dial it back because I was like, when the Flacco trade happened,

we kind of came on the air and I was like, people seem to be making a big deal out of this. And I've watched Joe Flacco in Cleveland this year, and he seems dusty at best. I don't understand how this is going to move the needle. Shows how much I know because he puts forth a performance yesterday. That period pretty much saves Cincinnati season, which is a weird thing for Cleveland to offer up midseason

to help out a division rival like that. but lo and behold, that's the scenario that we're talking about on a Friday morning. Well, it's a great illustration of how two teams can be in two very different places and be looking for different things in the short term. I agree. I thought Flacco, you know, he threw some accurate passes when the Browns played the Bengals in week one. And his receivers kind of failed him. And then eventually the offensive line got hurt in Cleveland.

And then they weren't able to protect him. and defense has realized all we have to do is stop the run and pin our ears back on third and long and just get him in third and long. And they did. And Flaco was immobile because he's older. And it just, it looked like a situation in which

they had maximized what they could do and that was already a pretty low bar which is why they turned to Dylan Gabriel. And it's not that, I think we can look at these things in two different lenses because the Bengals, I mean, they had Jake Browning. And they are a team that they believe is constructed to win and make the playoffs right now,

but they lost their most important piece in Joe Burrow. The difference between these two teams is the Bengals, while their opposite of line has been poor, I would say it's probably mediocre. They have two excellent receivers. They have two excellent receivers who have to win contested catch battles who run sharp routes, who all you have to do is throw the ball in their direction and they're going to make a play. That's something that the Browns lacked. and I think the Bengals did the perfect job of compiling the right game plan for their opponent

and for being able to move the football against the team that they know well that they know is going to try to get after the passer and and I mean 23 targets for Jamar Chase 16 catches man Joe Flacko's average time to throw is 2.44 seconds like that game plan is drop back throw to Jamar feed him throw to T if Jamar is not the the best option available and get the ball out under 2.5 seconds because we know our offensive line probably can't hold up over the course of an entire game. So, yeah, it's good for the Bengals.

It looks bad on the Browns, and, you know, you're right, Cleveland's been through a rough situation here. Baker Mayfield, looking like an MVP, and I agree. He deserves all that consideration right now. He just does. And you can even go back a couple weeks. Nick Chubb had a long touchdown run for the Houston Texan. Right.

for the old brown fans right now. You know, this is a bit off topic, but also on topic, because we watched Joe Flacco play last night. Where are you on this? As it gets everyday passes, a little bit more intriguing, the potential of the possibility

of Joe Flacco being inducted into the Football Hall of Fame when he's all set and done. I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think so either, but it's, yeah, I'm curious. He's created some really great moments throughout the course of his career.

You can think about the playoff run that he had when he was, the Ravens all the way to the Super Bowl. The whole is Flacko elite, you know, conversation. The fact that the Ravens had to pay him after that run, and that kind of led to, you know, them struggling to get back to where they were in the years that followed, which is a pretty common occurrence in the NFL.

It's why the Saturday Cap exists. He's been a quarterback that we are certainly going to remember for a very long time who produced a ton of fun moments. I think we did talk about this on NFL Day. late last night very briefly, and I think Hall of Fame, the acronym H-O-F, right? Let's put Joe Flack on the other H-O-F, the Hall of Fun, because he's delivered a lot of fun moments. So I'm looking at the slate of games

this weekend, and one that stands out for me is the Colts at the Chargers. The Colts are 5 and 1. Are these guys for real? Is Daniel Jones the guy they've been looking for? You know, I am kind of naturally a hater when it comes to teams that have unexpected success because I'm just, I'm a cynic, I'm waiting for it to all fall apart. Don't break my heart again, team that I want to believe in, but I'm having a hard time finding the cracks in the Colts right now.

I think this is a good test for them. There's been some scheduling inequities this season that has produced some records that I don't think are going to hold up over the course of a year. The Colts, week by week, just show me that maybe it will over the, you know, full 17 game, 18 weeks late. Shane Sikin's a hell of a coach, and we found that out a couple of years ago when they lost Anthony Richardson, and they had to ride with Gardner-Menschu

and keep them competitive. And they're in a much better situation now, a quarterback, but I have some concerns about their defense. I don't know if we'll necessarily see them truly tested to the max by the charters in a week seven game because the charters have their own health concerns. They hopefully will get Joe Alt back soon. And that should help things out a lot with pass protection.

We're still waiting on Amari and Hampton to come back from IR. They're just trying to survive and stay competitive and win games right now. So it's not going to be the full test that you could envision, but it will be probably one of the biggest games of the week. Because, you know, it feels like the Colts are finally going to face a team that we believe is in the same class or a higher class than they are. I mean, if you look at their schedule so far, they've really only faced two teams in their six games that have been, you know, taken seriously.

They beat Miami, they beat Tennessee, they beat Denver, and a game that Denver kind of handed them. They lost to the Rams, and they beat the Raiders, and they beat the Cardinals. So, and frankly, their schedule's pretty light. Like, it doesn't really get very difficult until after their buy week. You get Pittsburgh and Atlanta, then you get a buy, and then you get a buy, and it gets a little tougher there. So I think they're going to be in the playoffs, and I guess I'll just say now, sure, I am a believer. open my heart up to the Indian athletes. Oh, that's the kiss of death for him. Okay, one final question. If Cleveland beats Miami this week, does Mike McDaniel get fired?

Oh, I think there's a good chance of that. No team has looked more disorganized and uninspired than the Miami Dolphins. Now, they have kind of got it together in recent weeks, and I think that the whole Tua thing, the whole, you know, talking about players showing up late to players only meetings. I think there was a call for a desperate cry for, leadership help, as in our coaches letting us, you know, letting these guys get away with this, and there's only so much that I can do. But I also don't know if they're going to lose to the Browns because the Browns are a pretty rough outfit right now.

Mike McDaniel had to be shocked that he wasn't the first head coach fired this season. That was my thought there. It's like, wow, I made it. This is awesome. Anyway, Nick, we're up against our time. We've got to go, thank you very much for doing this today. As always, we really appreciate it. Enjoy all the games this weekend, including Monday, that game between

I know we're all looking forward to the Seahawks and Texans on Monday, but the Buccaneers and Lions is going to be an awesome game on Monday as well. So thanks for doing this, bud. We appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. It's going to be one heck of a way

to send out the Monday night football double header with that Bucks Lions game. Thanks for having me guys. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. That's Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halford & Bruff Show on SportsNet 650 in an effort to try and please all of our listeners

and thereby probably pleasing none of them. We're going to jump back to a different sport entire. Let's get back to some Vancouver Canucks stuff here. Also, if you want to weigh in, And it's been quiet this morning in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket, 650, 650, 650. Send us whatever you want. But also get it on that Ask Us Anything Action. Reminder, the best ask us anything today gets a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway.

650, 650 is the text number. Hashtag it, A, U.A, and put a pizza emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the contest. It's a contest to win a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway. Owen and Burnaby hasn't asked us anything. He actually says, I have two questions. What do you think the ideal lineup would be for the Canucks tonight? And who's going to win the ball game tonight?

I don't know who's going to win the baseball game. I'm not going to make predictions on this anymore. But I will answer the first one. And that is the same lineup that played last night in Dallas is the ideal lineup. And the only one that might be just like, I have a problem with that is Jonathan Lecker-Mackie, who doesn't get into the lineup. I think what happened in the last few days is the Canucks realized.

like, okay, it's been tough and we don't want to put any added pressure on to the young kids who don't have much NHL experience. So they get Coots out of there and they say, great job, go kill it in the WHL, go play in the World Juniors, we love what you did. Now you know what the NHL is like, go work on the things you need to do, and we'll see you next year. You know, I said in the last few days that having that line of Drew O'Connor, Coots, and Leckermacki was honestly dumb. Yeah.

Like that's a preseason line where you can get away with it in the preseason because you know what teams do in the preseason? They focus on themselves. They're not worried about the opposition. Once you get to the regular season, then you start scouting the lineups and you're like, okay, where's the weak underbelly of this team? Sure. And if I'm an opposing coach, I'd be like, how about the line with the 18-year-old center, you know, the rookie winger and Drew O'Connor?

Why don't we target that line? And they weren't the only reason that the Canucks got off to a tough start, not by any means, but they were a vulnerability. So I think what Adam Foote probably was thinking yesterday and maybe the coaching staff, I don't know, maybe they're thinking completely differently. But I think they were like, okay, Coots, gone, call up Sasson to replace him. You know, it's not like he's a wily vet or anything, but he has more pro experience.

He's going to add some speed to the lineup, so bring him in. And then let's reunite that line, the HL line or the Abbey line, whatever you want to call it. And that means we're going to have to bring him Carlson, who does play a heavier game than Jonathan Lekker-O-Mackie. and we're going to put those three together and kind of just be like hey guys with pro experience I don't want to say like veterans because there's still some young guys in that lineup

but it's more just like hey we got to get ourselves out of this and I don't think it's fair to put that at all on the shoulders of Coots or Lacromacki and here's another thing with when it comes to Lechromacki he's not on PP1

PowerPlay 1 and PowerPlay 1 and PowerPlay two doesn't play much. Right. So even if you do like him on the power play, you're not going to get much out of him on it. So do you trust him at

five on five if he's playing in the bottom six? No. No. The answer is absolutely not. He's not particularly useful there. I don't think we've probably done a good enough job of stating how big an impact the Abbotsford line made in light

of the line that they were taking over from. Because they went from having. Yes, that's a very good point. They went from having O'Connor, Coots, and Lecromackie being unable to keep their heads above water at five on five, getting caved at evens, caved. The numbers were so bad. Go look at, and Murph tweeted out last night, look at the numbers on the Abbey line last night. They didn't just go out and hold their own. They dominated their time they were on the ice. So that's a huge tilt in terms of puck possession, in terms of chance creation, where you're going from absolutely nothing

and conceding constantly to being on the front foot and it's almost in a complete 180. So that was a big reason why last night happened. That happens for the line deserves a ton of credit. Coaching staff deserves a ton of credit for putting him out there. With regards to Lechromackie, maybe there's a world where you could try and slide him into the top six, but it's not going to happen tonight, not after they won a game.

The only guy that, and I'm not going to say you could do a switch-in, switchout, the only guy that seems like he's a player without a home right now, and I mean like a guy that's on a line that works for him is Drew O'Connor. Yeah. It just doesn't seem like anything really makes sense for him right now. But he's like, he's like the opposite to Lecker-Mackie in that

he can, we all know what Leckermackie brings. He's got a great shot. Yep. Okay? And he's willing to use it and he can get in the spots to use it. He needs, uh, in soccer parlance, service. He needs good service. He needs someone to get him the puck because he's not particularly great at getting the puck for himself. Drew O'Connor is a guy that is big and fast,

and he'll get in on the forecheck. Right. Well, he's on the fourth line, is he not, with Bluger and Sherwood? But he started on the side. That's fine, though, because, like, you got... You watched the game last night? The fourth line was the H.L. line.

Yeah. Okay, so, sorry, third line. Well, you know what I'm saying. He's in that, on that line. Well, Drew O'Connor started with Petterson and Garland. I know, but what I was going to say is, like, it works that way because Garland, Pedy, and Kane seem to have chemistry together,

and that line looked good. And by putting that line together, that means you also have a really good second line with the Brusk, Heidel, and Besser. Who also looked like that. That's a really good second line? Well, they, I was going to say, they also look like they had chemistry together.

So suddenly you have two lineups, two lines that, okay, you're not going to be game breakers necessarily, but they both look like they have chemistry together. So all four of your lines all of a sudden match up really well. Even Drew O'Connor on whatever you want to call the third or the first line. With Ratu and Sherwood, you put the, yeah, okay. But it feels like O'Connor doesn't have a home. It feels like he just kind of ends up in places.

Yes. You know what I would agree with that, but I just don't think it's like it's, I don't know if it has anything to do with Lecker Mackey. Like, do you want Leckermackie on a line with Ratu and Sherwood? No, I'd like him on a line with Pedersen and Garland in the dream world. That, yeah. But Petit Garland, it can't look good. But you can't put them out there, but you can't put them out there for that much time as

if you were to deploy them as a first line. Petty Garland and Leckermacky. Well, first of all, you'd have to have someone move over to the left side. Yeah, like you'd have to have a guy playing on his off. All I'm saying is, like, from a fit perspective, like, where do you want Lekromacki to play? You probably want them to play with guys that are going to provide the service that you're talking about.

I don't think it's realistic at this stage of me. I think you also need to consider that Pedersen and Garland might get matchups. I don't know if you want to put Lekromacki on a matchup line. That's why I said, in a dream world. I think it's a tough spot for Lekromackie because he doesn't. Here's the thing. He needs, he needs softer matchups and a guy. who can get him the puck.

I think it's a tough spot for Lecker-O-Macki, but I think it's an easy decision for the Canucks coaching staff. Like when they dropped them yesterday, I was like, that makes sense. Yeah. That makes sense. You take your two youngest

and most inexperienced players out of the lineup and you rejig it so that suddenly you've got guys that aren't like getting continuously caved in and does it suck for Lechromacki? Yep, it does. He's got, he's a one-shot score and that talent is hard to find,

especially on a team that's bereft of offense. But look at the Vancouver. Knox last night offensively. They showed an ability with their speed and this slowly figuring out the way Adam Foote wants them to play with the puck that they can score. Sasson

speed brings a lot. You can stretch the ice when Sasson is out there and he made such I mean he was the one that made the read. I know Tyler Myers made the pass but it was Sasson that attacked that ice behind the

Dallas defenders probably called for the puck from Myers. Myers made a really smart pass off the wall and then Sasson just got going. Like he scored a goal like that in the preseason too, where he came in off the right wing and scored. That adds a lot. You know, if you can stretch out a team's defense, that makes a big difference as opposed to being like, you know, how many times have we seen the Canucks, the defensemen have the puck in their own end and they're kind of like just looking up the ice and almost standing still because they're like, all right, what are we going to do here? We look a little uncomfortable and usually it starts with a pass up the middle and then kind of like a one touch

pass to someone who's trying to create speed but even if you do that you've got five defenders behind the puck when you bring in speed and you're not waiting to make plays it adds a lot so I think they got to keep sassin in the lineup and people have texted in what is it going to take for a lecker mackie to come out of the lineup maybe it's an injury or just a poor performance by the get back into the lineup you mean sorry yeah get back into the lineup okay uh we got a lot more to get to on the halford and bruff show on sports net 650 hour one in the books hour two on the horizon a j's on the other side from a j's pizza on east broadway a reminder one hundred dollar gift card to the best best pizza place in the city is up for grabs for the best ask us anything today hashtag at

a ua put a pizza emoji into your text dumb bar number text line is 650 650 a j at seven Joe Siddell, Blue Jays broadcaster for Sportsnet at 705, and then the Moge is going to join us at 730. Big second hour on the horizon. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.