Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Start Their Season With A Bang

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk yesterday's big Canucks season opening win over the Flames (3:00), plus the boys talk some more 'Nucks, they look at a wild night of MLB playoff action as well as some Thursday Night Footnall (27:00). 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.

Whoa. Wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a fucking Canucks? Da-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Out the right-wing side into the lot. What time are they scored? Jonathan Licker-Macky. Pretty close game. And we were able to kind of wait around and break it open in the third there. Swing at a broken back. Combacker. Kirkring knocks it down. Picks it up. Threws wildly home to the backstop. And the season is over.

What are your feelings when it comes to Ryan Kirkering right now, seeing that happen on the other side? Oh, it's brutal. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough at Is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Gladdy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford in Brough in 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 the online at Sands-trustee.com. We are an 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. Visit the Middle 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. Well, that was a night. That was a night of sports, everybody. I had countless texts from all my friends, all three of them. And they all said the same thing. I'm jealous that you get to work in sports right now because this is the time of

year where literally everything is happening so much so that we're not going to have a guest on the first hour of the program yet again it's all hell bro as we go through what happened with the vancouver canucks last night what happened in major league baseball last night what happened to philly sports that's a tough one for them that's a tough one you know talk it's probably like nobody cares about the flyers and that's not such a bad thing today they lost two one and they had the best performance in Philadelphia sports last night. Yeah. It was amazing. Connectney missed an open net that would have tied it.

And they're like, it's okay. Yeah, yeah. That's not even the smallest, or the biggest mistake that happened today. Defending cup champs on the road. We were never going to win this anyway. Yeah. You guys covered the puck line? Good job, Philadelphia. We got a lot to get into in the program. Today starting at 7 o'clock when the guests get underway. AJ from AJ's Pizza is going to join us at 7.

A reminder, a $100 gift card. Goes to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best. Ask us anything submission on a Friday. Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650, 650. Start getting them in now. Hashtag it, AUA and put a pizza emoji into your text. At 705, right after AJ, Zach Worden, who's basically a part of the show now,

is going to join the program, Sportsnet Associate Editor and Blue Jays writer. So who do the Blue Jays want to face when the ALCS gets underway on Sunday? Laddie, your choice is? The Detroit Tigers. Is it going to be Detroit or Seattle? Because they're going to find out tonight.

I think Seattle's a better team. I do too. When the Tigers and the Mariners play their decisive game five in Seattle at 5 PMR time. Yeah, and you would get scoble later in the series, too. Not until game three. Like max. In a seven game series, you can make three starts, right? If it's a seven game series and you start game one.

If you start game one. Yeah. Right. Okay. Well, you won't be able to do that. Right. So we will find out who the Jays are going to play at 5 o'clock, beginning at 5 o'clock tonight. And then by Sunday morning, we'll get answers to the other big questions.

We'll ask Zach about this as well. Who's going to be on the ALCS roster? Is Chris Bass is going to be on it? Is Max Scherzer going to be on it? And the big one is Bo Bichette going to be on it? We'll answer all these questions with Zach or try to get some answers with Zach at 7.05 this morning. 730 Bob the Mojvaj Marjanovich is going to join the program. Yes, the B.

PC Lions are on a buy this week, but that's okay. There's still plenty to talk about with the Moge. We can look ahead to another big Seahawks game this weekend, and I'll use this opportunity to remind everybody that Moge is doing the pregame show on SportsNet 650, beginning at 8 a.m. Sunday morning. Early morning, Moge, how do you like your eggs, Moge? We'll find out at 8 a.m. Are you going to make them eggs or something?

I'm going to tune in and listen. So at the 10 a.m. kickoff in Jacksonville on the weekend. Pregame show starts at 8. Moge is going to join us this morning at 7.30. I also heard that Moge was on press row for the Canucks game last night. So we'll talk to him about that as well. 8 o'clock Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. As per usual, I now turn things over to the official Rick Dollywall handler on the Halford & Brough show.

It's Jason Brough. He said, let's just talk about the game. And then he goes, this is a classic Rick. Let's just talk about the game and morph from there. Morph. Sure. You know, the conversation will morph. will morph.

Yeah. You know what? We'll allow it. Go to the judges. Judges are good with it. We're going to allow it. You're going to ask, is it morphing time, Rick?

Working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall, 7.30. Bob Marjanovich, 7 o'clock, Zachward, and then 7. AJ, 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? Miss that? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best of tools or resources and safety training,

visit them online at BCCSA.ca.c.a. Despite it being the widest breadth of sports, I could imagine in a single night last night, we had it all. We are going to begin with the Vancouver Canucks. Of course we're going to begin with the Vancouver Canucks. Where else would we begin? Philip Heel scored twice, and the Canucks opened their season with a 5-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night at Rogers Arena. Big Keith Chief, Kiefer-Shirwood, Jonathan Lachromacki, and Brock Besser, also scored for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko, 17 saves nearly a shutout, and the Canucks got the win for their head coach, Adam Foote. His first ever win as an NHL head coach after three seasons as an assistant. Canucks win, 5'1.

Yeah, Demko and Heidel were the best players for the Canucks. Thatcher Dempco, pretty good goalie. Hope he stays healthy. He had to make a couple of big stops when the game was still within a goal. And the Canucks did look a bit rusty, maybe nervous or whatever, or just not great to start the game. And I think it might be fair to wonder in the other net if Dustin Wolf would normally stop that shot by Kiefer Sherwood

that opened the scoring in the first. It was a nice shot, and we all know Kiefer Sherwood has a good shot. Pretty telling that Dustin Wolf did get the start last night. Not a lot of trust in the backup in Calgary. It was a back-to-back night, Edmonton, and then Vancouver, maybe... So is Dustin Wolf going to just play all 82 games? Or like, what's the plan? Not only was it a back-to-back.

It also went to overtime, and he also faced eight rounds in the shootout. Yeah. I think there's probably an understanding in Calgary that Wolf is going to have to carry them if they're going to have any chance of making the playoffs this season or even any chance of getting close to the playoffs like they did last season. But I'd rather talk about Thatcher Dempco because he didn't have a ton of shots, but he did have some really tough saves to make. And probably a good time to remember, considering the opponent, who was in goal last season in the opener and how that game ended

and maybe how that set the I don't know it just set the everything's going wrong vibes It set a tone for the Canucks The answer to his question is Archer Silovs by the way Who started this year much better than last year With a shutout for the Pittsburgh Penguins

But last year no great When the Canucks did stake out to a three goal lead Like they did last year in the opener against Calgary I did have a brief moment of Oh no Yeah I It was brief. Yeah, it was brief, right?

As for Heedle, he put the game away with two goals in the third. The Canucks did get the bounces on, I would say, both of his goals. The first, obviously, not a good bounce for Kevin Ball, concerning it, bounced off his head, and he went down. Ball took it off the head. And then Heidel was able to pounce on the puck, and I think maybe some of the flames thought, shouldn't you blow the whistle and blow that?

Referees, and they didn't. And then Heel was like, how about I just shoot this into the open net because Dustin Wolf had kind of fallen. The second, the only reason I say the Kinex got a bit fortunate is that the flames had a golden opportunity in the slot. Was it Matt Coronado with that? It was Matt Kornado. Yeah, he shot that wide.

And then, you know, the Kinex did make some, they pounced on that opportunity. It was some good awareness by Baines to hit Heedle on the breakaway goal on the breakaway and then a great job by Heedle to bury it. And then that was game over, right? It was 3-0 Canucks, and even though you had that brief moment of, uh-oh, I think everyone else in the building, including the flames. The flames probably like, we are not going to win this. The prettiest goal of the night was the fourth one. Beautiful passing play from Garland, who played, I thought, really well on the night, as he normally does.

He's kind of in that, like, you expect good things from Garland position now. He passed it to Kane, and Kaye made a great pass to Lecker-Mackie, who found a spot between the Flames defenders. I think it was like three of them, and he was like, I'm just. just going to scoge in here, got it from Kane and fired it quickly past Wolf, who was probably about done with this game. As for the top line, I thought they looked a lot like they did in the preseason, which is to say pretty solid defensively, not giving up much, but not very dangerous offensively until about three minutes to go when Besser fired one home

after taking a drop pass from Petey. PD made a nice play on that because he took out the defender He went out there A little pick play A little bit of a pick play And the defender was like How about I cross-check you

And Besser was like How about I rip this past your goalie? Jerk Hopefully that'll get the top line going For the next game Because it's getting it a little bit tougher Saturday in Edmonton Where that line will probably be matched up

Against McDavid and maybe Drysidal too Depending if those two play together I will remind you that that Calgary team did beat that Edmonton team. So how much tougher is it really going to get, Jason? It's a good point. The Oilers are not a good team.

Thank you. Thank you. You make a good point that the Oilers are not very good. The best team. Special teams. Power play went 0 for 4. Not good. Looked way too familiar to last season for my liking. But the PKK. Oh, the PKK.

A little bit worried about the Peky when the likes of Pew Souter left and Teddy Bluger got hurt. But it was 4-4-4, so it was a soft. Baines made some great blocks on the P-K. And we've talked about, you know, these young guys, they got to find somewhere where they're needed. You know, and if Baines can be a good penalty killer,

if you can go out there and make plays, that's great for his spot on the team because the Canucks need guys to step up and play in those rules. But what about the hits? What about the hits? probably texting into the Dunbar Lumber text line. So you know what? It's been eerily, I mean, there's been a couple, but there's not been the

onslaught of text that you would expect. Well, they won't. Right? Yeah, but two hits of that caliber and controversy, I might add. One of them, by the way, on the postgame show, the DPD hit on Connor Zeri, got named the Kermak Collision Collision of the game. So I was listening to it. I'm like, maybe you should pick a legal hit next time. I don't know. Yeah, that was far worse than the one on

RPD, like the, of the two. Like the DPD one was far. I thought the hits were different. And I think Elias Pedersen, after the game kind of suggested, yeah, it wasn't such a bad hit, it was bad timing. I think the Canucks were a bit fortunate that DPD's got called a minor, while I think it would have been pretty unfair for Weger to get a major. On the Weiger hit, PD was clearly aware that Weiger was there and might have even tried

to engage the contact. I don't think he tried to make a reverse hit, but I think he, tried to brace himself and maybe put Uyghur off balance at the same time. I don't think Zeri, I don't think Connor Zerry tried to engage anything with D.P.D. Like, D.P.D. went in there on a mission to hit. And maybe there's some history there. Well, yeah, there is some history. There's Zary concussed him last year with an elbow.

So that probably doesn't lend itself favorably to the Pedersen defense. But that being said, both were rescinded upon review. and, you know, the NHL getting with the modern version of, like, the rest of sports. Like, it's good that they've got these tools at their disposal, and they're using them, and they're making these calls, and they're going through them and saying, hey, you know, I think we've seen. Why do they have to go through the ridiculousness of like, okay, we're going to call this a major and then look at it. You bring up a good point. The rigamarole of it is a little ridiculous.

It's so stupid. Like, well, why don't they just say, like, why don't they just say, like, hey, there was a pretty dangerous hit there. We're going to take a look at that. No, it's the mechanism in place, for those that don't know, is if you basically have to call it a major in order to take a look. Yes. And then knock it down to a minor. Why not just say the play is under review? That would be a great way to do.

I think the problem is you open up a Pandora's box where you can just review anything, right? But now the inverse is like now officials are always going to call the majors. Yeah. Because that gives them the opportunity and the leverage to go look at the monitor. Well, it's like the linesmen have started to be like, I'm not sure about that one. I'm just going to let that one go. With off sides. With off sides.

Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. All in all, a positive start to the season. As Shorty put it after the game, Rome wasn't built in a day, but a win is a win. Yeah, 5-1, put it this way. If you were to tell me that the conucks were going to get a 5-1 victory at home in the opener, in which Demko looked great and their 2C looked great.

How do you feel about him as 2C now after last night? One game, Andy, one game I'm all in. Yeah, you got to go all in. I'm all in. I'm all in on Philippeal. I'd say, great. Like, that's a great end result. And I think at certain times during the year,

we are going to look at the result rather than the process and say, that's fine, right? It's an 82 game season. Sometimes what matters is the win and not necessarily how you got there. First two periods, not an oil painting by any stretch of the imagination. I went old school last night. I listened to the game. I listened to the game.

I listened to Batch and Randipe on SportsNet 650 to really get the essence of what was going on. Were you taking a bath or something? No, I was at a soccer practice, but I was a spectator, so I walked. Oh, okay. I walked and I listened to the game. You know, like a transistor radio or something like that? That's right. I had a big boombox up next to my ear.

Playing AM radio, which you don't see very often. Anyway, so sometimes when you're listening to someone call the game that intricately, you can almost get a sense of where the level of intensity, style, excitement. is at just by the tone in their voice. And this isn't to say the batch was flattering. We can just tell when someone's talking. In the first two periods, it was a slog. Now, I do think some of this had to do with Calgary,

coming in on the second of the back-to-back and the way Calgary plays. And this is where I want to turn our attention to what Adam Foote had to say post-game. Adam Foote's first post-game media availability and presser as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. And I was trying to look for, you know, cues and tells and, you know, traits that he might bring throughout the year. And one of the things that he said in the preseason that stuck with everyone was about how the Canucks

weren't necessarily going to tailor their game to the opponent, but they were going to try and change certain elements of their game based on what the opponent was doing. So Adam Foote talked at length about what Calgary was bringing to the table last night, in great detail, which I'm going to say, you don't often get from an NHL coach for a multitude of reasons,

but, you know, foot went pretty deep into the weeds on this one. Here's Adam Foot on the opponent, from last night the Calgary Flames and what they presented in a 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. I think it was confidence. I mean, you know, they're a hard team to play. I say they're always, you saw last night in Emerton, they don't quit. They play a grinding game. They wanted to get us after the whistles. That's the way they do it and slowed the game down. I felt like we tried to avoid it, but we got into it a little bit too much, in my opinion. But that's what Calgary does to you. And, you know, you can't really blame our players when they're playing their first

real game and the emotions are all over the place, but we were able to gather them and not play their style for the most part and play our game. So it's interesting because I think there were a lot of things that you could take from last night's game that were good. I think there's a lot of things you could take from last night's game where you're like, that's going to need improvement. The power play was too similar to last year at times. Yeah, I thought at times the second unit was snapping the puck around better than the zipping it real nice

than the first unit yeah there was that there was one instance where lecrimacki I can't remember who the flames player was that broke his stick that was defending lechromack and he wasn't shooting it was all this zipping around the perimeter

and it looked good because the puck was moving quickly but the end result of course was no goal on that power play no goals on any of the power plays and the style of play that foot wanted to implement I remember I think a lot of people were joking like where's all this run and gun we were promised because it was a slog

for parts of the two periods. But in the third, if you want to turn this frown upside down, if we are delivering a frown on the morning show, the third period was very much what an NHL team needs to do in certain instances to be successful. One of them is when you have a team on the second

of a back-to-back and they are tired and the game is hanging in the balance in the third, put your foot down and take care of it in the third. And that's what they did. It doesn't matter how you do it, they outscored the flames emphatically in the third, and they had some breaks go their way. The Coronado one, and this is funny

because the other head coach, Ryan Huska, mentioned this in the post. He's like, we lost that when Coronado missed the net and the Canucks came was over that. It was over then, right? And you could feel it. Well, broken. Yeah, you could feel it in the building,

even though I was like, ooh, 3-0 lead. That's not great, but it was over. And that entire sequence had to do with the fact that Coronado didn't just blow the opportunity. He missed the net entirely. He didn't even force Demko into a save, ricocheted off the endboard. Baines picks it up, boom, other way, they're gone.

So it was a mixed bag in terms of things to like and not to like last night. But at the end of the day or the end of the morning, a 5-1 win in your first game is so much, so much better than how last season started, which was a 4-1 lead furthered away into a 6-5 loss against that same Calgary Flames team. Nate and Richmond, Texan, Baines looked better, but there's still too much high risk in his game. Turn it over the blue line on the Coronado chance that should have made a 2-1. and turn it over the blue line on Calgary's loan goal as well. Fair text. Are we going to be fighting about Baines and arguing about Baines for, like, what, is it,

until Houghlander's back or something? Yeah, I don't. It didn't play a perfect game, but it seems to be like the one guy that everyone's focusing on out there. I guess that, I don't know, that happens sometimes. Yeah, I mean, I guess it was good and bad from Baines. I'm such a positive person, so I prefer to look at the good things he did, especially on the power play,

and I know his teammates were very quick to point it out, and Thatcher Demko called them some big boy blocks from Archdeeb Baines. Now, on the goaltending front, it is game two Saturday in Edmonton, and we were already discussing, who should start that one? Demko. Because Demko looked. Demko looked great. Because Demko looked great, but, but,

do you want to how would Lankinen feel about that? How would Lankanen feel about that? Fine. There's lots of opportunities in this first month of the season where you're going to use both. Is he, would you consider Lankanin

the Canucks backup? Yeah. Yeah, I would. Would Lankan... Would Lankan consider Lankan in the Canucks backup? He would not. No, he wouldn't. He'd consider himself the one B

to the Lankin'clock. 1A. Yeah. But he's not. But he's, Demco is a lot better though. Has the whole, hasn't the whole thing with the Knoch's point it comes to Demko is like, we got Lankan and we invested in Lankan and they made a big

investment in, like that's not a typical backup goalie contract. No, no, no, no. It's not. No. And it was, it's, and they invested in him, why? Well, you know, we came to the conclusion as an organization that we want to be really solid in goal and we want to you know we want to keep Dempco fresh as possible and we don't want to

overwork them so I'm with you like I think they should start Demko but I think the fact that it's been one game and we're already like who should start who should start game too even though Demko played really well that this is a bit of a unique situation but here's the thing I don't think it's a bad situation I think that I didn't say it was a bad situation Didn't say it was a bad situation. Like in terms of... Said it's a unique situation.

Yeah. No, I know. I'm sorry. I shouldn't project you saying something negative. That's very... Not what Jason... I haven't said one negative thing this morning. No, I took...

You're the one projecting negative. Yeah, yeah. It's actually freaking me out a little bit. Yeah. You look ugly. Oh, there we go. There we go. Wouldn't Lankan just start every third game, like, just make it as simple as that?

And the back-to-backs? I would assume right now... No, all games are different. I know, but I'm just saying if you want to, like, give them, like, a percentage of how many games they play, like Lanken is probably going to play a third and Demko plays two-thirds. I don't know. Or maybe 60-40. I think it's one of those good problems to have.

Oh, totally. You'd be kind of cruel to give them all the back end of the back-to-backs, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You go Lankan. Enjoy. Edmonton would, I mean. Yeah, that's for like a $900,000 backup, really. Yeah, right.

And you'll be happy to get them. But it's the Oilers. And Lincoln is a very, very, very good goalie. Like, he's not really a backup. He's probably a starter on a lot of teams. But Demko's also like Vesna Calibur and Lincoln is. So would you not play the Vezna caliber guy on a team against the Oilers?

All I'm saying is that the Canucks went into this season talking about the tandem. Sure, yeah. Not the one guy. They talk, we have the best goalie tandem in the league and they went in with the intent of we got to keep Demko a little more fresh. I agree with you guys.

But I guess I'm just setting the table for these sorts of conversations because I think we're going to be having a lot of them. Yeah, and as long as both. And as long as both guys are playing well. And healthy. Yeah, it's great, right? It's like, well, which really good goalie are we going to throw about there?

I suppose within the inner workings of the dynamic. Until it tears the team apart. And that's a thing, right? But we're not there yet before attempt going Lankin and start loathing each other for stealing each other's starts. But it's, you know what? The interesting part is that if you were to ask the layman, who's the starter and who's the backup on the team, I think everyone would have the same answer. Three-putch Shane texting in. I wonder how many calls Alveen will get about.

Lankan in this season. Game one, Dunbar-Lumber text line, let's trade a guy. There was some stank I'm just kidding three-pudshade. But first 72 hours of the season there's been some stank goaltending out there. And there was one late-

Happens every start of the year. That goals for for game is way up. Okay. Texts any questions or comments into the Dunbar Lumber text line 650-650. Halford and I will be back to talk more about the Canucks and the rest of another very busy sports day. You're listening to the Halford

Embruff Show on SportsNet 650. 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.

I mean practice rings. Like we didn't have it back in Vancouver. Yeah, we don't have it. It's like we're skated in the university. at UBC but here it's like you know

it's your all locker room you don't have to move your things all the time you're going to skate and do your stuff like improve and that thing's like a huge bonus

for a team 632 on a Friday had to get that one in there eh love it Halford Brough SportsNet 650 the voice you just heard

was that of former Vancouver Canucks goalie Arters Seelops being asked about the differences between the Canucks practice facility here, which does not exist, and the Pittsburgh Penguins practice facility in Cranberry, Pennsylvania.

Now, as already pointed out, there is a place in which the Canucks practice at UBC. Yeah. It's not quite a practice. Beautiful campus. Not quite a practice facility, though, that has, among other things, as already pointed out, walkers. You know what? UBC has great showers.

It's true. They do. They do. Hockey players will know. You go to the UBC showers after a game. Elite showers? Elite. Oh, is there hot water?

Elite pressure. Yeah. Wow. It's really good. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on sports. So why don't these spoiled professional athletes? You are listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford in the Morning is brought 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 dash trustee.com. Still an hour one of the program. It's uninterrupted Halbro for the first hour. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

Dive in here to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket, 650, 650. Lots of feedback from last night's 5-1 win for the Vancouver Canucks over the Calgary Flames in their home and season opener. Eric, with an early text, pointing out some positives in case there weren't enough. I thought we had a good amount of positives from that first segment. But Eric texts in, who said this team would have issues with secondary scoring? Pedersen just one assist. Quinn Hughes, not a single point.

And they still managed to put up five goals. Yes, 12 different Canucks hit the score sheet last night, of course led by Philip Heedle. Five shots, eight shot attempts. So it was a good volume night for Heel. He was all over the place. And if you want to talk about the two of many positives from last night, for me, the two were Demko in that, not just the performance, but he looked solid.

He looked solid. Adam F called him a wall in his postgame media availability. And then Heidel. If big capital I, capital F, if, if he can, can stay healthy this season, the opportunity and the potential is kind of limitless because nobody's ever really seen him put together a full 82 game regular season at this stage of his career. When he was healthy, he was still kind of learning the ropes as an NHL. He always came in with an immense level of talent. That's what got him to be a first round draft. And you can see

the talent. It's obvious. And in those early days in New York, he did play more because the concussion problems hadn't set in yet, but he was also blocked by a variety of centers there, more veteran guys, more established guys. So he didn't really get, and quite frankly, never got an opportunity to play the kind of role that he's going to get right now. It's always been about health with Heedle. I think everyone can understand that. He needs to be able to stay on the ice.

And the unfortunate part is, I think you can at times draw a correlation between the way that he plays and the reasons that he gets hurt. He's a driver. He likes to go to at times, some. dangerous parts of the ice. But he does it to make plays. He does it to make things happen. He's a good player and the potential to be a 2C on a team that needed it so desperately.

After one game, I know there's 81 of them left, but after one game, very positive development. What is your favorite negative narrative of the season so far? Lekormacky get him on P.P.1 and get Kane off of there? Yeah, and that's just more. That's positive, though, because you're like, we have a solution for PPP one. I agree with that, by the way. And it's less about Cain and more about just lechermacky's feeling it. Get them out there.

Yeah. You know, some people have pointed out that the first two periods were a slog. You were playing against a tired Calgary team. Actually, that's part of the reason why I played the foot audio was I do think that Calgary, let's just get this out there. When Calgary plays its brand of hockey, it's an effective style. It's not aesthetically pleasing. And it doesn't result in a lot of end-to-end rush.

and a lot of shots on goal. As a matter of fact, if you watch Calgary's opener against Edmonton, at the midway point in that game, they had nine shots. Now, they were able to rally through some, I mean, it wasn't beautiful hockey the way that they scored their goals to even it up against Edmonton,

but they grind. Do they have enough grinders on that team to play that hockey with the fact that they're trying to bring some young guys in? That Matt Fay Grideen guy, he's 19 years old, he was minus four last night. Yeah.

And he scored in the opener. He had a good game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not blaming them. No, but last night was probably what happens with a young player who's learning the trade and learning the ropes. And on the second of a back-to-back, maybe, you know, there's some nuances to your game that need to be tweaked so you don't go minus four, right?

They're just going to really, I think they're going to have a really rough season. Unless Dustin Wolf is incredible, and let's face it, he wasn't last night. No, but for the most part, he has been for them. It's going to be tough for them to replicate everything they did last year. No question. It's going to be tough to replicate the win totals, the point totals, all of it, because they massively overachieved last year. Can we talk about Philly Sports's horrible night? Sure, we may as well get into it now.

I know all of you are clamoring to talk about the Vancouver Connects, but we would be remiss as a sports show, not to mention one of the all-time baseball gaffes. What happened last night between the Phillies and the Dodgers is going to go down alongside. side in Philly's lore and the bad part of the lore, Mitch Williams in the 93 World Series. And it's going to go down right alongside Bill Buckner in the 86. Do we have audio of the play that we can bring up? Because I would love to imagine a Philly sports bar with all the Philly loud mouths and the Philly dirtbags assembled in a bar watching their beloved Phillies in a very tight game with the Dodgers. With their season on the line, I would love to imagine what it would look like when this happened. No balls in a strike.

Ahas breaks his bat, Kirkring, got to find it, throws to the plate. Oh, my goodness, it throws it away, and the Dodgers have won. The Dodgers win, and they are moving on to the NLC. at a most improbable finish. Pandemonium at Dodger Stadium. And your heart breaks for a Ryan Kirkring. So he didn't just throw that away. He threw that about five, six, seven feet wide of home plate.

and the catcher actually did a good job since his foot was stepped on the base the runner didn't hit home plate and the ball was thrown away so badly that the runner was able to be like oh I think I missed home plate and came back and touched it came back and touched it

that was an all-time panicky fielding move and I feel bad for him but that is no way way to end a season. Orion Kirkering goes down in the annals of baseball history now. It's right up there with Buckner in 86.

It's officially the first time an error has ever ended a series. Buckner's was in game six, if you remember. And also the Donaldson Dash against the Rangers wasn't technically an error to end the game. They didn't call it an error. It's the first time an error ever ended a series. To end a series. To end a series.

And what an error. See, now there's great debate about that, right? Because according to Elias Sports Bureau, that was scored an error. The Odour play? Yeah, the Ronette Arduer play. Jason Stark is wrong. Where Josh Donaldson raced all the way home in that sort of now famous slide. Well, I always thought you couldn't assume a double play, right?

Because it was the second out in the sequence. What you could assume is that Orion Kirkring was going to make the simple play yesterday. You thought you could assume. Two outs, bottom of the 11th base is loaded. Any bag, any bag, any bag. Even home plate will do. Did you see Real Motto? Real Mutto is pointing to first.

Point net first. And that was the, I mean, there's no other way to put it than he froze in the moment. And you know what? I watched Orion Kirkring's interview after the game. There was countless reporters around his stall. And he was crestfallen, heartbroken, all of it. He stood there. And I know sometimes it's a cliche to say he took, you know, he stood there.

And he answered the tough questions. Like, that's what he's paid to do. But he did it. And he didn't shy away from how terrible he felt. I know the Phillies manager, Rob. Thompson took to the podium afterwards and said, you know, we feel awful because he's shouldering the loss and this isn't on him. I will remind you that through 11 innings, the Phillies had only scored one run. Yes, you know, so too. Did the Dodgers. It was a one one game going into the 11th. But the Phillies had lots of opportunities to cash and runners and they didn't do it. But this is like saying, you know, when people always talk about all the things that led up the Buckner's error, the one thing they remember is Buckner. And the one thing that they're going to remember is Orion Kirkering and that play. still had plenty of time to go to first, right? J.T. Realmuto, the catcher for the Phillies,

was gesturing quite emphatically to go to one. Did you see the guys, like the infielder's for the Phillies after he threw that away? Like there was a TV camera that showed pretty much like all the players on the field.

And they were all in that like hands over their heads couldn't believe that that's the way the season ended. It got worse. for Philly sports fans because the Eagles the defending Super Bowl champs

lost to the New York Giants impressive performance by Jackson Dart I didn't watch any of the game but it sounded like it was an impressive performance I saw Russell Wilson got in there for like two plays and they were like get that guy out of here so a lot to unpack there the Eagles lost for the second time

in five days on Thursday night at a 3417 loss to the New York Giants. So in the span of five days, the Eagles went from being one of the NFL's lone remaining unbeaten teams to having lost two in a row. In the story last night, the two-headed backfield monster of Jackson Dart and Cam Scataboo, who rushed for three touchdowns yesterday. Dart also rushed for one. The incident that Jason is talking about is when Dart, who is going to be knocked out of the game, at least one game this year, permanently with a concussion, the way that he plays. That is a guarantee. He went under the

tarp for a concussion spotter, which meant that Russell Wilson had to be re-inserted as quarterback, albeit briefly. And there was an amazing shot from the sideline where after throwing an incomplete pass, Brian Dable turned around and started yelling at anyone on the Giants medical team to get DART out of

the medical tent and back into the game. He did return to the game. The Giants now kind of been probably or two and four. And if you want to talk about the blown opportunity last week against the Saints, they could be three and three, given how badly they're season started. It's quite remarkable. Philly has to be bitterly disappointed, allowing

34 points. That offense doesn't really pass. Like, between Dart and Scatabo, they run. Yeah. Like, that's what they do. And you would have thought that Philly's interior line would be able to deal with it, but they got gashed for 34 points yesterday. Also, Philly's offensive line got beat up yesterday. Jalen Hurts got sacked three times. He got picked off. It was a very impressive performance. Another defensive player of the year candidate, Brian Burns, now leads NFL and Sacks was seven. Is Scadabo's first name Joey Jojo Jr?

No, Cam. He is a hilarious individual. He's 5-9-205. How do you say his last name? Scataboo. Skat-O-J-J-J-O-G-O-E-G-T-E-B-O, it's only one. It's Katt-A-T-E-B-O, so it looks like Scatabobo, but it's pronounced Scataboo.

Okay, the Flyers also lost in their season opener with Rick Tockett behind the bench. Watch a bit of this game. The Flyers are not a good team. And they were playing the defending. Oh, no, really? They were playing the defending Stanley Cup champs And frankly they were They probably did well to keep it close

As you said The Flyers were the best of the Philly sports teams Taki came out Given what happened last night Taki came out looking like a champ Do you think Tuck is going to regret his decision Before the end of the season? Ah, we'll see

We'll see Pie for the Ice Trees of Vancouver I have a question for you Shoot Who had a worst night Kirkring or Nadelcovic Okay because of the stakes And by the way

this is how much people don't really understand or how the story has changed and evolved over time. Someone texted in and said Bill Buckner's Gaff was way bigger than Orion Kirkrings. And I wanted to respond. I'm like, you do know that there was another game

in that World Series after Buckner's error, right? Yeah. Because a lot of people... But it was in the World Series, right? It didn't lose them the World Series, though. It was pretty huge. It was huge. Yeah.

But there are people out there, and I bet this texter is the same. Now I'm projecting. but they think that that cost the Boston Red Sox the World Series. Totally. I bet there's a lot of people that don't know that there was a game after that.

Yeah. You know? But that's the way that the Buckner Err has sort of lasted in our memories. And you know what happens with memories. They change over time and everything. Anyway, there's no question that

Kirkering had a worse night because it was a bigger moment, a bigger stage. But what Alex Nadelcovich did last night, and I doubt a lot of people saw it because it was late at night and it was a Sharks Vegas Golden Knights game. But what he did last night,

I don't think I've ever seen a goalie lose an NHL game in such a fashion. It was unbelievable. So in the closing minutes of a game in which the Sharks led three to two, William Eklund went in, and that's the Sharks forward, on an empty net,

because obviously Vegas had the goalie pulled down three, two. And had not one but two opportunities to score in the empty net, including a wraparound attempt, a jam play at the near post. Now, normally those go in because there's no goalie in the net. You do your wrap around with a no goalie is pretty easy to do. But kudos to the collective Vegas Golden Knights defense. They piled into the net and they were able to keep the puck out. It was right there.

Like it was like on the post kind of. And so I'm watching this game on my second screen. And shout out to everyone that yelled at me who thought I was watching the shark's game instead of the Kinnock's game. I'm watching on the other screen. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. They didn't score on the empty net. I wonder if that will come back to haunt them. well seconds later

and do we have the audio from this one seconds later Jack Eichel enters the zone for the Vegas Golden Knights he didn't even enter the zone did he do behind the blue line he was at the red line when he was flipping it in he was flipping it in

he was trying for a soft dump and it resulted in something other than a soft dump here's what it sounded like is the Vegas Golden Knights and probably tied this game up 3-3 and came out ticked just wide oh Eklund

in front again and it stays out how i don't know sharks cannot come any closer to icy in the game as iko scores from the blue light are you kidding me iko a weird one and we are tied it's reed can you believe it so that was wild on its own so i'm on twitter and i'm like You guys got to see what happened at the end of regulation between Vegas and San Jose. Thinking like, nothing could top this. This has got to be the craziest ending I've ever seen. It wasn't even like a weird bounce or anything either.

Like it just went. You don't think it was? Well, it must have been. It must have been a weird. The way it looked. It was a little funky, but it was not one of those gigantic carams that took it in a totally opposite direction or anything. It just was a bit of a whiff on a bit of a weird bounce.

Now at that point you're thinking, well, Nadelcovich, that's a tough way to end regulation. but at least you can make up for it in overtime. In the overtime session, we don't have the audio from this one, which is fine. Nadelkovich came way out of his net with the teams at three on three to try and play a loose puck around his own blue line, very far out of the net. Now the issue is that he hesitated almost right before he was going to play the puck as if to say, oh no, I appear to be out quite far. Yeah, I shouldn't be out here.

Who skated out here? And in the worst possible situation for Alex Adelkevich, the puck carombed off of Vegas forward and directly to another Vegas forward, Riley Smith, who was staring at a wide open net with the goalie behind him at the blue line. And he was like, I better score this one. Smith skated in, deposited the puck into the empty net, and the Vegas Golden Knights somehow, somehow won that game 4-3, despite having no chance whatsoever.

I don't have the metrics in front of me. I would have loved to have those, like, likelihood of winning percentage meters that they have. But when, who was it that was? Eklund. When Eklund had the puck had the puck into the M. Or even the first one. He had two chances at it. It's not even like they generated scoring chances either.

Like, they flipped one in and the goalie just passed it to them on the second goal. I'm not, this is not hyperbole just to get everyone fired up on a Friday show. I have never seen anything like that. in the NHL. I've watched countless NHL games. I've seen a goalie make one gaff to cost this team,

but to do it so quickly one after the other. I don't think I've seen it in Beardley. I don't think so. I don't watch a lot of Beardley. That quickly is a session. Honestly, it was minutes apart that these two plays happened.

A couple other games that I watched last night. Minnesota, man, they took care of St. Louis. Five-nothing over the blues. I did watch a bit of the Rangers Sabers game just to see if the Buffalo fans were getting upset, but because there's always so many Rangers fans

at the Rangers Sabres game and it was like, not really. It was a good crowd who was sold out. Sabers get shut out on home ice. So how many teams have been shut out on home ice so far this season? Because the Rangers got shut out by Archer Silovs and the Penguins

in their home opener. That's correct. And then the Rangers went to Buffalo and shut out Buffalo in their home opener. And I think that Minnesota St. Louis game was in, St. Louis last night. Three games. Just those three games.

It's been two games of play. Of 21, 21 games. Three home openers. Out of 21. But that's crazy. Crazy work getting shut out. And in the case of St. Louis, could you imagine? Like, you've got the excitement of a new season.

It's the first game at home. And you get skunked 5-0. The King's almost got shut out. They scored a late one. How about Detroit didn't get shut out. But John Gibson era did not get off. to a good start. They lost 5-1 at home to the Montreal Canadiens.

Who were playing on the second of a back-to-back. Like, that was a bad one, too. That is not a good start for Gibson. I know you can't overreact to the first game of the season too much. That's why we're trying to temper our enthusiasm for the amazing Canucks performance last night. The Ottawa senators have nicely removed themselves from the trio of Ottawa, Detroit, and Buffalo. They had a big win last night. Yeah.

Five-four. I mean, the playoffs last season and. they got off to a good start. I'm really curious to see what the lightning are like this year. On paper, they still have a very good team. Basilowski might be kind of done. Is he getting a bit old? Five goals conceded last night.

It's injuries. It's injuries. He's been banged up and he's just not the same as what he was when he first came in. By the way, quick look at the early standings. You see who's atop the Eastern Conference? The Red Hot Pittsburgh Penguins. Two and O to start the year, baby. Sid's going to the playoffs in Pittsburgh.

I'm sure it'll last. Just throwing it out there. Okay, hour one is in the books. What a first hour it was. We will continue to talk more Vancouver Canucks on the show. For all of you that tuned in between 645 and 7 o'clock and are like, why are they talking so much about Philadelphia sports? Why are they talking about the Sharks game?

Look, it's a sports show, and it was an amazing night in sports. But we're going to get back into everything Canucks. 8 o'clock, Dollywall is going to join the program. Sure, we'll do some on what we learns as well. We'll talk some Canucks with Moj at 7.30. He was at the game last night. 7 o'clock. We're going to talk to Zach Word about the J.

though. The Jays will find out who they're going to play in the ALCS today. Five o'clock tonight. It's game five between the Mariners and the Tigers from Seattle. It is a huge game. We're going to try and find out who the Jays are going to have on their ALCS roster as well. A reminder, it's Ask Us Anything Friday. So get your text in. Dunbar Lumber text message in Basket is 650, 650. Hashtag him, A.U.A. and put a pizza emoji into your text. I should remind you that this segment of the show is brought to you by the BC Lions. It's another. season of hard hits, heated rivalries, and nonstop entertainment for tickets. Visit BCLions.com and get ready to roar as one. And finally, all NFL coverage on this show is brought to you by

the Clayton Public House. From pregame to post game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online to the Clayton Pub.com. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.