Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks' Road Domination Has Fizzled

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

In hour one, Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk yesterday's Canucks road loss to Vegas (6:00), plus they chat with ESPN Seahawks reporter Brady Henderson (28:13) ahead of Sunday's home matchup versus the Vikings. 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.

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Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford. It is Brough. The Weekend. morning. Almost called him Jason. Adog, good morning. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough for the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by

North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you getcler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we've got a big show ahead, and it's not just because we're leading into the Cure Bowl today between the Ohio Bobcats and Jacksonville. Big pregame show. I love it. I love bowl season. Who kicks off at 9 a.m. on a Friday from Florida? The Cure Bowl.

The Cure Bowl. That's who. We got a big show ahead, though, in all seriousness. We got a lot of guests to get into. We got a lot to talk about from last night's Canucks loss 3-1 in Vegas to the Golden Knights. Guest list begins today at 6.30. Brady Henderson, our ESPN Seahawks insider, is going to join us.

It is now essentially do-or-die time for the Seattle Seahawks if they want to keep their playoff hopes in a good spot. They take on the Vikings this weekend. Sunday, 105 kickoff from Seattle. Vikings come in as two-and-a-half-point road favorites. We'll talk to Brady about all that. Seahawks trying to get a win at home where they have not been very good this season. Seven o'clock.

It's not AJ from AJ's Pizza Day. It's his lovely wife, Teresa, is going to join us. She will set up the weekend that will be at AJ's. It's a very, very busy weekend for them and set up their holiday hours as well in case anyone wants to go by and get some pizza over the holidays. 730 Moj is going to join the program. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. I, because Jason is on vacation, am the Dollywall handler this week.

So I got all of the things Rick wants to talk about. He wants to mention that there was no deal ahead of the Christmas holiday roster freeze. Breaking news. There has not been a deal. Repeat. There has not been a deal. Wait for it. No deal.

Nils Hoaglander, what does his future have after a healthy scratch last night in Vegas? And then Rick has Santa's wish list for all local sports teams. So we'll talk to Rick about all that at eight o'clock. We have two contests today on the show, not one, but two things to give away. First is going to be the PWHL takeover tour tickets. Last day,

we've given away every day this week, last day for a pair of tickets, the PWHL takeover tour on January the 8th at Rogers arena. Rogers is a proud partner and fan of the Professional Women's Hockey League. Caller number five. Caller number five at 8.15 this morning. We'll get the final pair of tickets to the PWHL Takeover. The phone number.

Yeah, we have an active working phone here. 604-280-0650. That number again. 604-280-0650. Finally, I mentioned AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We are giving away a $100 gift card today. To the best, ask us anything or what we

learned. All you gotta do is hashtag them AUA or WWL and importantly, put a pizza emoji into your text. You will be entered into the grand prize contest to win a $100 gift card to the best pizza place on earth, AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Okay, that's what's happening on the program today.

Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools or resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Wild Bill William Carlson broke a tie early in the third period. And the Vegas Golden Knights went on to beat your beloved Vancouver Canucks 3-1 at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday night in Las Vegas. And this was the obviously second leg of a back-to-back, but just like they did in Utah, Canucks opened the scoring again.

This time it was Teddy Bluger in the first period, scoring a nice gritty net front goal. And really the first 20 minutes overall, I think, very strong for the Canucks they didn't give Vegas much they were able to you know get the goal from Bluger had some other decent chances a lot of it was very hard working and I in fact I think that's probably something close to the template for what Rick Talkett wants to see from them on a consistent basis right there was nothing flashy about it they didn't look like all of a sudden this high-octane attacking team,

but they had their legs. They worked really hard. They were detailed, all of that, and they really limited what Vegas was able to do offensively that felt like an identity period, especially on the road in the second half of a back-to-back for the Canucks. But, of course, Vegas is a very, very good team. You knew it wasn't going to be that easy.

You knew they were going to push. And they did in the second in a big way with a 1-0 lead in the second half of a back-to-back. Canucks only managed two shots in the period. Vegas in control firmly. And eventually, Alex Petrangelo beat Kevin Lankanen with a slap shot. So, 1-1 going into the third. And still, you know, not a bad spot to be in considering the circumstances for the Canucks as you mentioned William Carlson wild bill scored early to make it

2-1 nice play from him going to the net Rick Talkett said after the game they kind of just lost their man on that one he makes it 2-1 and after that you know the Canucks had moments where they pushed a little bit they had a power play opportunity in there. Not a lot of really grade A scoring chances necessarily. And then it kind of fell apart in the last couple of minutes, right? First, Vegas was able to play keep away basically with, I don't know, two minutes left with a one goal lead for Vegas, an extended shift in the Canucks end where they weren't even really trying to score. It was mostly just about possessing the puck.

Then when the Canucks did get the puck, there was a whole bunch of confusion about getting Kevin Lankanen off of the ice for the extra attacker. We almost had a replay of JT Miller losing it on Colin Dealey in Winnipeg. He did that thing again. Well, he almost did.

Although this time, and you could see talking on the bench and it looked, I don't think he was motioning for Lankanen to come. He was holding up the stop sign, which was weird because there was just over a minute left and you're down and you have the puck in your own end. It was very, very strange. Finally, Lankanen gets

off, but maybe because of some of that confusion, they make a bad play in the neutral zone. Elias Pettersson turns it over. Brett Howden ices the game into the empty net. And the confusion with the empty net situation, I think it was especially surprising. And maybe it's telling about where the team is right now because under Rick Talkett, right?

The Colin Dealey thing, that happened under Bruce Boudreaux. Correct. Under Rick Talkett, I would say it's been a major strength of the Canucks is their six-on-five attacking situations, and even specifically how early they pull the goalie, how aggressive they are, and how sharp they are about doing it. I think it was you guys had the Hollywood watch party

for that big comeback against Nashville. That was two empty-neck goals late, and it was Archer Shelovs coming out in the build-up right not waiting until we get into the not waiting until we get into the offensive zone we're going to get the extra attacker on to help the breakout to help us gain the zone it was very clear they knew what they wanted to do they executed it it was really effective it was completely different last night they did not know what they wanted to do. And then when they figured it out, they didn't execute it. So to me, that is, it seems like a small thing,

but it's also maybe very telling about where the differences are from this team last year versus right now this season. And it ends with a goal and the insurance goal for Vegas in a 3-1 win. So we'll do the micro to the macro, what exists in a vacuum to the big picture. Excellent recap, Jamie. Thank you. Now, here's the thing.

As Laddie gives me the, it was okay. Come on, Laddie. I've just heard better. The game itself. Laddie's a tough critic. I know. The game itself was absolutely fine. The Canucks went on the road into a very difficult place to play, where

I believe it's now 12 wins out of 15 for the Vegas Golden Knights this year at home, and I think it's 11 out of 12 against Western Conference opponents. So, very difficult place to get a result. The Canucks went in, played low-event hockey, played the Vegas Golden Knights about as straight up as he can. The shots were almost identical.

It was essentially a one-goal game until the empty netter. If you want to look at all the metrics on that game it was pretty even so you'll say all right you didn't scratch out a point but you put in a decent effort and it's fine the big picture the macro the difficult thing to ignore when you're looking at small sample sizes and things in a vacuum is that i think we've officially reached the point of the proceedings where Miller and Pedersen overshadow every single thing that's going on right now. Like if we're talking about one thing, it's always in the shadows of this bigger thing.

Or if we break down an individual play, we're almost ignoring the elephant in the room. Does everyone understand what I'm talking about here? It just feels like everything right now is happening adjacent to this issue where Pedersen and Miller are not doing anything of significance on the ice with regularity. They're not producing. And you're leaving it up to your role players to try and get things done

in moments where you would look at your star players and say, you're the highest paid guys on the team. You're the two of the most valuable guys we have on this roster. You need to be difference makers with way more regularity than you are right now. And that's where I have a problem with the idea that it was a fine performance. And we'll hear from Rick Chalkin, and that's kind of what he said. JT Miller and Elias Patterson combined for zero shots last night. That's not fine.

You know what I mean? So, yes, you were still able to play Vegas relatively close, but you could have been in a much better position if your two best guys had shown up. And, by the way, at 5-on-5, you can throw Jake DeBrusque and Brock Besser in there as well. They each had a shot on the power play, but nothing at five on five. So your four highest paid forwards, Pedersen, Miller, Besser, to brusque at five on five combined for zero shots on goal.

It was guys again. It was the bottom six. It was Teddy Bluger, Pew Suter, Kiefer Sherwood. Connor Garland had an all right night. You can call him a top six player, but it was those guys, Danton Heinen, who were driving the bus,

and that's great, but they're designed to be complimentary players, right? They had nothing to compliment, though. They were the guys doing it. So, okay, hey, it's great that even you can try to do the positive spin and say, well, hey, we got basically nothing from Miller and Pedersen or Besser and DeBrusque, and we were still right there in the third period,

and we had a chance if we executed better to push and try to tie it up. That's fine, but it's a big problem that you're consistently getting nothing from your best players and zero shots from either Miller or Pedersen last night. It's really tough for me to sit here, and yeah, it's a tough place to play, and it's the second leg of a back to back and say, ah, well, that's fine.

Hey, we'll, we'll get them next time. Yeah. Zero points for Pedersen since Miller's return. It's five games now. Really? I hadn't seen anyone mention that.

Yeah, this is a, you're allowed to mention it until he gets a point. Yeah. I'll give you that. You're allowed to keep saying it until he gets a point because right now it's glaring and we can throw other guys into the mix right but at this point and yes it's an easy narrative and yes it's fun on a certain level in the gallows humor

of it all but this is this is pedersen and this is miller right now firmly in the crosshairs because it's not close to being good enough from either of them. Drance wrote a stat last night on Twitter that they have the lowest shots per 60 rate at five on five this season of their career, of their careers, Pedersen and Miller. Like when you watch them play at evens and we can get into the power play stuff in a minute, watch them play at evens and we can get into the power play stuff in a minute watch them play at evens

they are generating chances at a rate that would be commensurate with what i don't know your regular third or everyday third line player yeah and this is part of the reason why over the last 15 games or so, the Canucks offense has been so one-dimensional, so pop gun, and so limited in terms of creating quality chances. I know some people will point firmly at Rick Talkett and say this is the system and the style, but this system and this style does allow for individual players to show their individual brilliance and make things happen. It is a dynamic that is glaring, is super obvious, and most concerning, is not going away. It doesn't feel like it's going away anytime soon. It seems to be getting worse, arguably, right?

Like, Pedersen, in November, there were a lot of signs that, okay, hey, maybe it's still not, you know, elite, elite Pedersen, but he's having an impact on the game, he's producing, and that has really disappeared in December. Some people, like A-Dog, are tying into JT Miller's return, but it's also, I think, even been more noticeable because JT Miller's not producing either. JT Miller, I think, is on one 5-on-5 goal this year, and yeah, he missed 10 games. It's almost like they can't play together.

It's almost like there's something going on. Maybe. It's weird. And to the point about, well, it's Rick Tockett's system. Look, I think he prioritizes defense. I think that's the team's identity. But as you said, it's career-low shot rates for them, right? So it's like they were playing under the same system,

the same coach last year, and they were able to have a lot more offensive success than they're having right now. So it doesn't just come down to the system or the coaching or the tactics that Rick talk and you mentioned the power play. Yeah, I have a question for you. What the hell is going on with the power play? What a great question.

And maybe we'll get some answers on Saturday when they come back home to face the Senators and there's, you know, more than one or two media members. They're asking Rick talk at questions after the game, but to catch everyone up, I think everyone was wondering what it would look like. It was two games leading into this, right? Colorado and then Utah, where one of them, one of Pedersen and Miller had been on the first unit and one had been on the second unit. This time it was, he switched it up even within the game, right? The first opportunity, everyone's wondering, okay, what's going on on it was petterson back on the top power play unit miller demoted to the second

again right but then in the third they had an opportunity and he flipped it it was miller back up on the first power play unit and petterson on the third or petterson on the second and that's really notable because that was a power play when you're down a goal in the third period yeah right so if there's a time for saying okay hey guys i know we're doing this thing we're trying something new but let's get serious and let's go get a goal here i'm putting my two best guys out why is he doing that's the moment all right that's a great question nate why is he doing that as well we was seven words right they're trying out some different things okay yeah but that didn't work and he's still doing it so why is he still trying out the different things when some different things. Okay, yeah, but that didn't work and he's still doing it. So why is he still trying out the different things

when the different things aren't working? Well, let's hear from the head coach now. Yet again, we can play his press conference in its entirety because it lasted a grand total of one minute and 16 seconds, I believe. Rick Tockett facing the media after last night's 3-1 loss to the Golden Knights in Las Vegas. Seemed to be a ton of ice out there for our other team tonight. I'm sorry?

Didn't seem to be a ton of ice out there for our other team tonight. I'm sorry? Didn't seem to be a ton of ice out there for our other team tonight. No, I thought, well, it's a good hockey team. I thought we played well. Didn't give much. They didn't give us much. They capitalized and got the empty net goal. You guys got the start you wanted tonight, the opening game? Yeah, we had a good start.

Really liked our first period. You know, they're a good team. They had a little press. You know, obviously the second goal, we lose our man. And that's it. We tried to make a few presses, but goal, we lose our man, and that's it. We tried to make a few presses, but, yeah, we couldn't get that equalizer. You guys do get a power play in the third. At this point, you couldn't set up and get some holy looks on that one?

Yeah. You're hoping for somebody to get something going there. I think they're taking Quinn away a lot, so he's trying to dish it to some other guys. But, yeah, Petey had the one-timer and missed the net. I don't think we had much after that you take positives from this game yeah i thought a lot of good efforts from a lot of guys i really do um like i said one nothing game you know obviously unfortunate that goal and then we just couldn't get that second goal um and then you know a few chances there uh hiding on that shorthand with Sherwood. A couple of chances here and there, yeah.

But we didn't give him much. You've got to take the positive out of that. What did you think of PDG? He's only played a few games this year. He played hard. Yeah, I thought he did a nice job. That was PDG at the end, by the way, Phil DiGiuseppe. At first I thought he said PD.

I'm like, wow, he's asking a PD question, but no. Phil DiGiuseppe, who did draw into the lineup, along with Linus Carlsen. That was over Nils Hoeglander, which was a story, and we can get to that in a little bit. And Max Sasson as well. Max Sasson was out as well. When I listen to Tuckett there, I'm like, okay,

he's just trying to get through this, and he's not really in the mood too much for talking. I also didn't disagree with the genesis of what he was saying, because, again, I do think it was a fine okay performance on the road was it great no that's not the word i would use for that was it abysmal no now here's the thing a lot of people will push back on that latter part and they'll say offensively and watching this team struggle to generate chances it is kind of abysmal and i understand where you're coming from.

Listeners, I'm with you to a certain degree. I have a slightly different outlook about what's going on with the team right now, and it's that there's been a major struggle from the beginning of the year to implement that evolution of style that Taka wanted. You know, he tried to work on some things in training camp, and we're going all the way back to September here, but work with me chronologically he wanted some things to evolve offensively they wanted to get better on the rush they wanted to create more chances and be more

dynamic offensively because they fell short in the playoffs last year i think what happened was when it wasn't working and he saw the flaws both in terms of their ability to execute and the lack of talent they have on the blue line, especially after the chronic injury. It was a lot easier to just be like, we're clamping down, we're batting down the hatches, and we're going to grind this thing out. And that's exactly what they're doing right now. They are grinding games out right now.

And I think that kind of went out the window because of all the absences and the weird stuff right with Besser and then Miller you know Joshua taking a while to come back all of that then Ronick every so I understand that yeah every time she loves yeah exactly on the hatch that was tough I understand that but like you're almost healthy now yes Ronick's a big piece and I think we're seeing how much he helps use and all of that but still i mean what he's he's like your fifth fifth or sixth best player so okay you're missing your fifth or sixth best player that that's tough but that's something a lot of teams go through and if that causes you to completely throw out okay well we can't try to score then

we're missing our fifth best guy sorry like we got all we can do is completely throw that out and you know we're not trying to evolve anymore we're batting down the hatches and we're playing defense like that's an issue that that's why people that's a big problem that's why people are frustrated right now because these i mean these are not aesthetically pleasing games no the colorado win and the florida win were um textbook like they they played a very good suffocating style. But if you're looking for flare points, you want flare on your suspenders, it's not the kind of style that you want to implement at all.

Now, the big question moving forward is, does this team have flip-the-switch ability? Are they going to be able to show more wrinkles or at the very least more ways to produce some offense? That's the strategic on ice tactical stuff. Then we come back to and we're going to come back to this a few times. Whatever is going on with Pedersen and Miller, whether they have individual struggles that have nothing to do with each other or whether their struggles are a result of the fact that they just can't coexist with one another everyone's talking about it out loud now we're not talking about this in secrecy or in the shadows or behind the scenes because

when the play on the ice gets to this point where both guys are so ineffective everyone notices and everyone is trying to figure out why and And I don't think that Tuckett's weird power play deployment and then not really explaining it any other way than we're just trying to something new. I don't think that's going to appease anybody. I don't think it's going to help the players. I don't think it's going to help the team. The power play really needed that.

That third period one where Dorofeev took the high sticking penalty on Pettersson right after the Carlson goal, that was a prime opportunity for a team that if you're just trying to hang in a game and keep it a one-goal game, you're waiting for that exact opportunity. So you can't come out and do bupkis on the power play. You have to have something. You have to at least have a halfway decent chance. They had better chances on the penalty kill last night

than they did on the power play. Yeah, it's a good point, right? If you're going to play that, okay, we're going to really lock it down and play low event at five on five. We're not going to give them much. We know we're not going to generate much, but that's fine. You have to be able to take advantage on the power play and they did not look close and

maybe because they only had one of their two highest paid forwards out there on the power play and to the point about them having to change their style and throw out some of that evolution. Tone's texting in that's why they're looking for a top six winger and a top four defenseman look obviously if you go and get the right top four defenseman and top six winger yeah the team's gonna look a lot different but with the way they've played recently and we heard you know frank ceravalli earlier he told us this week. He told us that they might be getting closer to landing a top four defenseman.

We'll see what happens after the roster freeze on the other side of Christmas. This team's now on pace for 97 points. Yeah, that's a playoff team, but that's not a Stanley Cup contender. So how much and I'm curious to get listeners perspectives, your perspectives on this. I would be fascinated to know what Jim Rutherford's perspective is on this. At a certain point, your appetite for dealing what it would take to get a really good top four defenseman and what it would take to get an impact top six winger,

your appetite diminishes if the team keeps playing like this, right? If they cannot figure it out on the ice, if they're on pace for 95 points in mid-January, yeah, going out and making a couple of additions would help, but is it going to turn you into a Stanley Cup contender and can you afford to give up the assets necessary? I'm not saying they're at that point yet, but they've gotten a lot closer than they were a month ago

and it's only a handful of regulation losses away from them being on pace for like 94 points. And then it's a real conversation. So it's interesting because Bruff and I would always say you just defer that decision that you're talking about until Demko comes back and you see what you've got. Now, I know it's still early days for Thatcher Demko, but he's back.

And I would actually argue that at this current moment, their goaltending situation with Demko and Lankanen is better than anything they had last year. I know DeSmith had a nice little run at the beginning. I would say that Lankanen throughout this season has played better hockey consistently than DeSmith did at all last year. So the goaltending's fine.

They are playing with such fine lines and thin margins with this style of play that look last night lankanen lets in kind of a soft goal or a very soft goal depending on your analysis against petrangelo and they don't convert on a third period power play that's the that's the game for the canucks two instances in a 60 minute game that's how tight and how fine the margins are if lankanen makes that save which the majority of time he probably does. Yeah. And, you know, they score on the power play.

It's an entirely different game. But at the same time, it's like if my aunt had wheels, she'd be a bicycle kind of thing. Oh, you could have said wagon. It was right there for you. But the point is, if you're going to employ this style, you're always going to be in these coin flip situations. Yeah.

Right? You're in a position where it's like, well, if we had just gotten one more save, but the best teams win by two goals sometimes. You know what I mean? And it seems a little beneath the team that was supposed to be taking the next step in their evolution, right? That the goal was go further in the playoffs,

be a more complete, well-rounded team. So I get the angst, and it's piling into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket at 650-650. We'll read some of your texts as they pertain to the Vancouver Canucks on the other side. Coming up, though, we're going to spend about 10, 12 minutes doing some Seahawks preview. It is now crunch time for the Seattle Seahawks.

They have three games left in their regular season. This game against the Vikings on Sunday could very well be the last home game of the year for the Seattle Seahawks, depending on how it goes down the stretch. We'll talk to Brady Henderson from ESPN's NFL Nation, our Seahawks insider. That's coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, 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. 6.32 on a Friday.

It is a Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show featuring Jamie Dodd. Every day is a fiesta with Jamie in studio. Now, you're probably wondering. The mood's a lot better. How could a show that found thrash metal Christmas music not find fiesta Christmas music? It was a difficult task. Was it not, Lanny? We were looking for it.

We were efforting. It's all licensed, I guess. Feliz Navidad, licensed. Yeah, all licensed. Can't play it. There's got to be Latin covers of traditional... I'll keep looking. You know, public domain Christmas songs.

I'll keep looking. These belong to the people. If APM doesn't have it, it doesn't exist. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Brady Henderson from ESPN is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 1, the highlight of Hour 1. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

To the phone lines we go. Brady Henderson, ESPN Seahawks insider, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Brady. How are you? What's up, fellas? Good to talk to you again. How's it going?

Things are well. Thanks for joining us and taking the time. to you again. How's it going? Things are well. Thanks for joining us and taking the time. We appreciate it. Let's start with the big story of the week, Geno Smith's health. Is he expected to play on Sunday in this very big game for the Seahawks as they welcome the Vikings to Seattle? He is, yeah. And it seemed like that even before he told me yesterday that he expects to play.

The word from Mike McDonald was that he was doing better. He practiced on Wednesday as a full participant, and then we talked to him yesterday, and I asked him if he was expecting to play, and he says, yes, he is. He says he's feeling better every day. So I think the bigger question right now is with Ken Walker III and then, you know, Olu, Oluwetimi, and Zach Charbonnet. So it looks like Walker is trending in the right direction as well

because he was a full participant on Thursday, and then Olu and Charbonnet were both limited. So those are the question marks, but Geno Smith at this point, he's all but certain to play. So the playoff scenarios as it currently stands, Seattle has a 36% chance of making the postseason. That probability would jump to 52% with a victory. They do technically control their own fate, if I'm not mistaken.

If they win out, they're in, but it's going to be a difficult task because they've only got the one home game left. That's this weekend. And I should note, the Seahawks are just 3-5 at Lumen this season. It's just the second time since 2009 that Seattle has had a losing record at home. How big a storyline has that been, not just this week but this season, that the 12s and the home field advantage at Seattle just really hasn't been there this year? Yeah, I would say this season and even going back a few years,

just because this is not really a new thing. I think it's really been talked about more this season for whatever reason, but it's been going on for a while. I mean, I looked at it the other day, and I would say that the cutoff was you kind of throw out 2020 because there were no fans in the stands. You go from like 2012 to 19, you know, they had, I think it was the second best home winning percentage in the NFL. And then if you go from 2021 on,

I believe it's tied for 19th, and they're right around 500 team at home, which is crazy to think of, as rocking as that place gets. So it's not a new story, it's just been talked about more, and to me, it's just anecdotally, it seems like when I look out there for some of these games and I listen to the crowd and I watch the crowd, it seems like there are more opposing fans there. There's all the whole ticket resale thing that's going on.

Some people who are actually in the stands will tell you that it really has been going on for a while. It's just that when the team is winning, you don't tend to hear those fans as much because they don't, you know, when their team is losing, when the Seahawks are winning, you know, those fans don't make themselves heard as much. I mean, the Packers are a fan base that travels really well. They've had a number of games in Seattle, and I think that could be the case with them, too, that there have always been packers fans there they just you know the seahawks have

dominated that matchup at least when the games have been at lewin field and you haven't heard them the way you heard them on the third play of sunday night when you know the seahawks have the ball and there's a go pack go chant going on so um so it could be a little bit of both. It could be that in some cases this has been going on for a while. I would contend that, look, NFL tickets are very expensive, and when fans have an opportunity to sell, you know, one pair of their tickets, you know, and like pay for a good chunk of their season tickets just by selling one pair of those tickets,

like one of those home games per season, for a lot of money to an out-of-town fan that's willing to pay a premium for them, then yeah, I think you kind of understand why that happens. And look, if the Seahawks were a really good team at home that was not losing at home and that was playing really good defense and giving their fans uh you know a big reason to not sell their tickets then i think

that'd be one thing but they just i think it's kind of a chicken and egg thing like we've talked about and uh i think the seahawks not being a good enough home team i think to me that seems like the start of it and then you added all the economical factors and stuff. Like, I think it's asking a lot for Seahawks fans to not sell their tickets for a premium, you know, as opposed to selling them. I think you can sell them back to like Ticketmaster and to try to, to try to ensure that they get sold to Seahawks fans,

but you're just not going to make as much money off that. Like the, the reason I bring it up is because because you've got the media covering it and the fans talking about it anecdotally and that's one thing, but I was scrolling through your timeline.

I know that DK Metcalf specifically pointed this out. He was actually asking fans, please do not sell your tickets to the opposition. When it gets to that level, I feel like maybe it's a bigger story

or at the very least, maybe it's worth paying more attention to. Yeah, absolutely. And I think I maybe didn't finish the point. Like it's, I think this, what they're talking about has maybe been going on for a while. It's just, it's gotten to a point where, you know,

players have talked about it and there was a game, I think it was the Buffalo game earlier this season where Gino Smith said at times it felt like they were playing on the road because of you know how well Buffalo fans had traveled and and you know how loud they made themselves uh during that game now the the flip side of all this is you know if you're DK Metcalf and you don't want Seahawks fans to sell their tickets at Lumen Field to opposing fans it's it's hard I mean maybe you could have it both ways, but you won't necessarily have it both ways, meaning you won't go to Arizona and have a bunch of Seahawks fans at State Farm Stadium to the point where Mike McDonald said after that game

that they had them on silent count in their own building because there were so many Seahawks fans. I mean, there was a game in Atlanta earlier this season where there were so many Seahawks fans there that at one point, I think Atlanta missed the field goal. And I thought the field goal was good because so many people cheered for the miss. I thought it was Falcons fans cheering for the make. It was actually Seahawks fans cheering for the miss. And I had a bad angle and I thought the field goal was good.

So maybe you could have it both ways, but you won't necessarily, like if you, if there's, you know, if Seahawks fans, like it goes both ways is what I'm trying to say. Like, you know, that's part of, I guess, the whole ticket resale industry. So the Minnesota Vikings come to town this week, and the Brian Flores defense for Minnesota has been extremely effective. It has terrorized some quarterbacks and offenses this season. What's your sense of how the Seahawks plan to attack the defense

and try to put up some points against a very, very good unit that Brian Flores has in Minnesota? Yeah, that defense is going to do what they do, which is come after quarterbacks and blitz a lot. It's by far the most blitz-heavy defense in the NFL. And just to give you an idea of that, like, so in our, you know, database that we use at ESPN, they define a blitz as when you bring five or more pass rushers.

And they do that on, I think it's almost 39% of the time. And the next closest team is like 35. So they pretty easily lead the league in blitz rate. And I would anticipate that they're going lead the league in blitz rate. And I would anticipate that they're going to just stick to what they do. Gino Smith has been, I looked it up, I think he has the ninth best QBR against the blitz this season. Now that's mostly when he's been healthy and he's been able to, you know, escape pressure, which is, I think,

an underrated skill of his even at 34 years old. So you do wonder with the right knee injury, what kind of, I think, an underrated skill of his, even at 34 years old. So you do wonder, with the right knee injury, what kind of – I mean, he's going to play, but you wonder, you know, what kind of mobility and escapability he's going to have. But I think that, you know, Brian Flores is going to do what he does, which is, you know, blitz a whole lot. And that could go one of two ways for the Seahawks. That could be a case where their offensive line looks like it did last week

and when it couldn't block anybody. And you've got a quarterback whose mobility is compromised. So that's the danger, and I could definitely see that happening. But when you blitz, and especially when you blitz a quarterback who's really good at handling that from the pocket, then a lot of times there's green grass and there's opportunities for big plays. Hey, what did head coach Mike McDonald have to say about Reek Wallen after that game against the Packers? Yeah, he, you know, McDonald is pretty diplomatic with what he says about guys publicly, and he's usually not going to praise them too much or, you know,

be too hard on them publicly. But, you he was he was pretty frank and said it wasn't reek's best game um now he did say that the the dpi penalty was kind of a tough play and we see that a lot when an underthrown deep ball where a cornerback is you know he he might get beat and then the ball is underthrown and it looks like he's got a chance to make a play on the ball and then he runs into the defender it runs into the receiver and you get called for a pass interference so that's a tough play i think look i i don't fault the guy either for the uh the the first penalty which was the roughing the passer i mean he's not in a situation a lot where he's blitzing off the edge and i wonder if he just hasn't had enough reps to get the timing down of when you can you

know hit a guy and when you have to lay up on the quarterback. But I just think all in all, there's – McDonald said this too, like he's pretty good for the majority of the game, but there's a couple plays where he just doesn't seem locked in. And maybe that's a challenge that good cornerbacks face is you go a good chunk of game without the ball getting thrown your way. I think it can be easy to kind of lose focus but um you know the mcdonald said that something they're trying to coach him up on is um you know walking in on every play and look i think the bigger

picture conversation with woolen is what are you going to do with him because there's so many guys that are going to have to get paid this offseason, including every other stud player from that 2022 draft, not to mention your quarterback and maybe your stud wide receiver, Geno Smith. So I don't know if they're going to be able to pay everybody. And I think Rick Wolin is very much, you know, these next three games, he's got to show them that he's worthy of that payday because if you're in a situation like the Seahawks where you've got to make some tough decisions,

well, if I were them, I would be thinking, okay, if I can't pay all these guys, which of them could give me something significant in a trade? And if you're looking at who you're going to trade, I would look at the guy who's been up and down and there are some questions about the focus, the desire, all that. So I think Rick Wallen is playing for his future over these next three games. It begins on Sunday, a 1-0-5 kickoff from Seattle at Lumen Field.

It's the Seahawks, it's the Vikings. Seahawks, two and a half to three-point dogs at home, depending on where you get your Lionswood sportsbook from. Hey, Brady, thanks a lot for doing this today. As always, we really appreciate it. Enjoy the game on Sunday. It should be a good one. You bet, fellas.

Thank you. See you. See you later. That's Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. Now, while this is your home of the Seattle Seahawks, this is also your home of the Vancouver Canucks. So we dive back into the Canucks talk now.

Last night, 3-1 losers to the Vegas Golden Knights in Las Vegas. So that ends a mini two-game road trip in which the team only got one point, an overtime loss to Utah the night before on Wednesday night and no points yesterday from Vegas. A lot of people weighing in, courtesy of the Dunbar-Lumber text message in basketball.

They sure are. And as you would expect, Mike, a lot, a lot of text concerning either Pedersen or Miller or more likely both in the inbox. JD and Coquitlam text in. I no longer have any belief that you can win with Pedersen and Miller, but I don't think that you can appease one by trading the other in cases in case it reinforces bad behavior. It sucks, but I think you have to trade them both. They're both too emotional to win on this team. That's from JD and Coquitlam. So he's going from Team Miller, Team Petey to I'm team neither of them.

Get them both off of this team as the way forward. Look, trading one guy this early into massive long-term extensions, considering the success they've had here and the role they've played on this team, trading one of them would be a massive, earth-shaking decision for this team trading both of them is is hard to fathom that we would ever get into that point quite frankly impossible yeah quite frankly not going to happen but i do understand where jd is coming from simply because this is so far and away the biggest story around the canucks right now and whether we want to frame it as them versus each other or stick to the kind of more public factual thing of they're not playing neither of

them are playing well enough and they need to figure something out for this team to have a chance it is the story so I do understand the focus and the zeroing in on it and I threw this out on on Twitter last night right but we've seen Rick Talkett try the, well, I'm not even going to play him on the power play together. For whatever reason, I'm trying some things out, and the thing I'm trying out is splitting up my two highest paid players on the power play and rotating them through power play one and power play two. So that, I would say, qualifies as an outside the box idea

from Rick Talkett to try to get his two top guys going. Pretty outside the box. So that hasn't worked. It's been three games now of that hasn't really paid dividends what should the next step be for rick talk it what do you know okay so i actually don't think it's reunite the lotto line i do think the pendulum should go to the other end of the extreme okay i'm listening staple them together okay five on five power play pk they only ever see the ice together they are on the ice together at all times but take away brock besser do not put them out there with quinn hughes on a consistent basis put them out there with susieie and Myers or of a third pair.

Take away the guys that they've played with a long time that have helped them have success. Put them in a situation where it's just them. They have to figure it out, right? They can't rely on Quinn Hughes. They don't have a buffer. They don't have the Brock Besser buffer between them to smooth things over. It's just them and like Max Sasson or keifer sherwood or whoever so they have to rely on each other to figure it

out and you do that and they play every second of their ice time together in every situation i like think about you know if you've got two kids at school who aren't getting getting along what does the teacher do it's like well you're gonna sit together you're you're on this project you guys have to do this together you're going to figure it out we're going to put you in proximity until the relationship sorts itself out until you guys are able to come to an understanding i think that's the next step here i don't want to see the lotto line because then it's just like well it's familiar we've done this before we still have besser out there and hughes is probably playing a lot of minutes with us as well i want to put them on an island together on the ice to force them to come up with a way to play together.

It's a very intriguing theory. I definitely have time for it because I do think subscribing to the figure it out notion is an important thing. That strategy, that approach is great. Sometimes it's, you know, no one can solve this for you except you two and i do think there's something to it um here's another thing that keeps coming through the dunbar lumber text message in basket and i'll throw right back at you a lot of people suggesting that uh the outlier year isn't this year it was last year that when uh jim rutherford said prior to last year that if everything goes our way we

get all the breaks you know we'll be a playoff team we'll be in good shape and then it did for i'd say 90 of last year everything went great they were the pdo merchant thing there was a unbelievable run of good health up until demko getting hurt near the end of the year, everything was roses for this team, and everything did go right. They traded for Zdorov, and that worked out pretty well. They traded for Lindholm, and while it didn't have immediate dividends, it played great

in the playoffs. And maybe it was one of those years where an NHL team does see 80-90% of all the breaks go their way. And now they're seeing what the other side looks like. I have time for that. But at the end of the day, I still think that calling it an outlier isn't right

because there's too much talent for it to be just an anomaly. Yeah, I think there were elements to it that were an outlier, right? We all, you know, the shooting percentage early in the year and all of that and the health and everything. But I do think in some respects, you could equally say that this season is a negative outlier because of all the weird stuff that's happened and the weird absences and the significant absences to star players and all of that. Like, I think you could make a case for both seasons being outliers in different ways i do have a problem if you're writing off the whole team success from last year as smoke and mirrors or an illusion that i don't buy into like yes everything went really well and maybe they you know they ended up a few points higher in the standings than they should have but they were also an elite defensive team miller scored 100 points hughes won the norris right with an incredible season right like there

that was not nothing that was not vapor that was real that wasn't a mirage and you just look at the talent on the team as i said hughes norris trophy miller 100 point season 99 point season a couple years ago petterson 100 point season the year before that. There's a lot of talent on this team and that stuff, that record of production wasn't a fluke. It wasn't random. It was real and that's the most concerning thing because you can look at the

absences and say, well, hey, you know, they fought through and they managed to pick up points and they're still in a playoff position and that's pretty good considering all the stuff they've had to deal with. That's fine. That happens to really good teams. It's the lack of performance from two guys who are supposed to be

foundational pieces, right? Like the theory of this team was we have Quinn Hughes on the back end, we got Thatcher Demko in net, and we have one of the best, one of the best one-two punches at center in the NHL. And think about how many years before Patrick Alvina and Jim Rutherford came here, we spent lamenting the depth of the Canucks, right? Like, hey, wow, you've got Miller and Pedersen and Besser and Hughes, but man, they just can't figure anything out in the bottom six.

They're getting no production there. Now you are getting it. The bottom six is producing. They're playing at a very high level. They're playing at a Stanley Cup contender level, the bottom six. Yep. But the production from Pedersen and Miller

had disappeared. So this season, if you're zeroing in on the top guys, it is an outlier based on what they've done in their careers recently in Vancouver. Yeah, I think you also need to point out that in moments of adversity, general rule of thumb is you lean on your best players and your star players and your leaders to pull you out of it because you can't always assume that

everything's going to go as swimmingly as it did last year but the good teams are the ones that don't let these things cave them in the bad teams are the buffalo sabers who when the snowball starts rolling downhill and it starts getting out of control, no one's there to stop it. And that's how you end up with an 11-game losing streak punctuated by your owner flying up to Montreal to meet with the team for a moment of support. And then you follow it up with a 6-1 loss.

That's the hallmark of a bad team. They don't know how to dig themselves out of holes and they don't know how to figure out adversity because they don't have enough good players that have done it before. The Canucks are supposed to be the opposite of that because when it's a moment of adversity, you say we're going to lean on, as you just said, our Vezna-caliber goalie, our Norris-caliber defenseman,

and the two centers that give us one of the better one-two punches in the league down the middle right now half that equation is working out yeah you're not going to fault hughes although i think his game has maybe dipped a little bit recently but you're not going to fault him for anything he's done this year of anything he's done yeoman's work and might just be tired he might just need a nap yeah and i mean i think also maybe i among some other people underrated what haronic was bringing to the partnership, right? Because I think it has been noticeable in his absence.

But also, as you said, I mean, the work that Quinn Hughes is putting in, the load he's carrying for this team is off the charts. So, yeah, if he's having a slightly down, like, seven-game stretch, whatever. No one's going to jump on him. I will say this, and sometimes we overlook it, I think, because we've just gotten used to it, but the current construction of the blue line, I don't even think it's playoff caliber.

If you look around and you look at the top 16 teams in the NHL right now and just go man for man, dollar for dollar on how the blue lines are constructed, the Canucks don't have one. The Canucks have Hughes. I think I've said this so many times, I've committed've committed to memory they've got a top flight number one defenseman they've got a third pair masquerading as a second pair at times and then they've got three or four guys at times who might not be legitimate NHL defenseman it's really tough to win consistently

and it's really tough to move the puck and do the things you want to do when your blue line is that soft. I mean, I remember when Florida came to town and thinking how deep and talented their blue line was after losing Montour and Ekman-Larsen in free agency. And that's sort of the bar, right? I know that there's other contenders

that don't have that elite a blue line, but there's no contenders that have the equivalent of what the Canucks have right now. I'm pretty confident in stating that. It's just not. That's a roster construction issue that needs to be fixed. Now that the freeze is on, it ain't getting fixed until the 27th. We've got a lot more to get to

on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. 7 o'clock hour. We're going to talk to Teresa from AJ's Pizza. Get you set up for your pizza needs over the holidays. Also, we've got an open segment coming up. We can do some Ask Us Anythings. We can do some What We Learns. We can talk more Canucks.

We can get into some of the big stories from the National Hockey League last night. We haven't mentioned Thursday Night Football. What a great game between the Chargers and the Broncos. So we've got an open segment there. 7.30, it's Moj. 8 o'clockclock it's Dolly Wall.

And then in the final half hour of the program, we're going to announce the winner of the PWHL Takeover Tour tickets. And we're going to give away a $100 gift card to

AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best what we learned or ask us anything. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.