Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks' Strength Is Their Forward Group

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they look ahead to tonight's final Canucks pre-season matchup tonight at home to the Oilers (14:00), plus they set up Sunday's Seahawks home matchup vs. the Giants with ESPN's Brady Henderson (26:24). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Pretty well hit. Freeland back at the wall. He jumps. It's gone. He did it. He did it. Pete Alonso with the most memorable home run of his career. And they're going to gun it and it's caught to Darryl Hodge. 35-30. Take it, baby. 15-5. Drive home safely. Oh my goodness. Ladies and gentlemen,

the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. It's Alfred. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you. Good morning. Lanny, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Alfred and Brough in 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 pays 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. Pays 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. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, what a night in Sprott's. Man, was that something else.

Even though my beloved Milwaukee Brewers, who I've loved from day one, are now out of the playoffs. Day one of the postseason. Right. That's been three days ago. It was a terrific sports night. Amazing football game.

Amazing baseball. Great theater. It really wet the whistle. An amuse-bouche for the weekend because we got a lot to get into. Sports galore over the weekend weekend the NHL season starts in a matter of hours how about that we got a big show ahead here on the Halford and Brough show as well guest list begins at 6 30 Brady Henderson ESPN Seahawks insider is going to join us the Seahawks host Danny Dimes and the New York Giants this weekend the Seahawks are six point favorites

I got a question for Brady right off the hop. I want to know how upset defensive guru and now Seahawks head coach Mike McDonald was with his defensive performance on Monday Night Football and how they're going to fix it against the Giants. So we'll talk to Brady about that at 6.30. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. A reminder, it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the program. Best Ask Us Anything gets a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. It is the best pizza place in the world.

Get them in now. Dunbar-Liver text line is 650-650. Hashtag AUA. Throw a little pizza emoji in there too, okay? And make it a good AUA. 705, Vancouver's favorite son, not named Luke Gazdik, returns to the program. Frank Cerealli from Daily Fates Off is going to join us lots to get into with Frank news and notes around the National

Hockey League speaking of news and notes around the National Hockey League how about our 730 guest NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly is going to join the program big get he's going to join us live from Prague he's over there on a gap year. Just kidding. He's over there because the NHL starts trying to find himself. He's just he's exploring the world and himself. The NHL season begins again. I mentioned it in

four hours time. That is the Sabres and the Devils from the O2 Arena in Prague. Bill Daly is going to join us at 730. We will ask him about the Robin Lehner situation. We don't know what kind of answers we're going to get, but we will ask a couple of questions at the very least. We've also got some hot audio from 32 Thoughts.

Elliot Friedman, Kyle Bukoskis talking about what's going on in Vegas as well. We're going to play that at around 6.45. 8 o'clock. Yes, the guest list continues. Rick Dollywall, Canucks Insider. Jason, I don't even know what Dolly's going to talk about. That's your department.

That's a brough job. We call them Halford jobs and brough jobs. You're sort of like Rick's handler, sort of his agent. Yeah, he sends me what he wants to talk about for one of the situations. He deciphers the text messages. I mean handler in a very, very literal sense. So here's how Rick put it in a text yesterday. He goes, can the Canucks get Yuri Patera back?

There is a way. Oh. I was like, oh, is there anything more interesting? There is a way. That is exciting. Moderately exciting. It involves diving deep into the CBA. Oh, man. There is a way. That is exciting, moderately exciting. It involves diving deep into the CBA. Oh, man.

There is a way. Did he use the eye emoji? He probably doesn't know what that is. I would like to imagine that Rick used the eye emoji. So Rick also wants to talk about the goalie situation in Abbotsford as related to Yuri Patera. Oh, he's got all the hits this week. It's on the Patera beat.

He might also have something to say about when this actually is interesting, when Dakota Joshua might be back. Okay, so we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's guest list in reverse. 8 o'clock, Dollywall. 7.30, Daily. 7 o'clock, Sarah Valley. Or 7.05, Sarah Valley. 7 o'clock, AJ.

6.30, Brady Henderson. 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? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. So if you've listened to this program for any length of time, you know that I am a cradle to grave, diehard Milwaukee Brewers fan. I love everything about them.

The Milwaukee part. The Brewers part. I love it all. Spell Milwaukee. I don't want to do that right now. It's actually Milwaukee. Anyway, they're out. The Milwaukee Brewers.

Honestly, we don't normally start with baseball here, but what a game. What a game last night. Decisive, pivotal game three. Winner goes on. Loser goes home between the Mets and the Brewers. And I'm just going to fast forward right to the seventh inning because things were looking awesome for my beloved Brew crew in the seventh inning. I'm just going to fast forward right to the seventh inning because things were looking awesome for my beloved brew crew

in the seventh inning. I'm going to play you through the audio. Inning starts. Jake Bowers steps up, pinch hitter. I'm thinking, all right, whatever. Maybe he gets on board. Lead off guy gets a board. Maybe we can squeeze in a run.

Then Jake Bowers. We, yeah, we. Maybe we'll get a guy on board. Maybe we'll scratch a run. Then we get this. 3-2. Swing and high fly ball. Right field.

On its way. Goal! Pitch hit over. Jake Bowers. And the Brewers have the lead here in the 7. Amazing. It's 0-0. Boom.

Bowers goes yards. It's 1-0. We got Bowers goes yards. It's 1-0. We got a lead in this decisive, pivotal game. 3-0. Late, too, and the pitching staff's going crazy. So this is awesome, right? Then Sam Freelick comes up to the plate. First pitch after the Bowers' home run, top of the seventh.

This happens. So now it's Freelick. That one's out of here. Sal Freelick. Back to back. top of the seventh this happens just to further accentuate my brewers knowledge i called him sam freelock sal freelock goes yard amazing brewers are up to nothing i'm like okay this is good you texted me you're like this is amazing i just turned on the game at that point it was pretty great and it was like wow this game's exciting yeah i guess it really hadn't been up until that point it was kind of boring it was a zero zero game with a lot of good pitching so i'm thinking all right we're good no big deal we get all the way to the ninth inning. Hey, we're in good shape. Our all-star closer, Devin Williams, is on the bump to shut this thing down.

It's 2-0. No problem. Brew crew going to the next round. But then a couple runners get aboard, and then Pete Alonzo comes to the plate, and then this happens. The pitch. Swing and a ball drilled. Right field.

Freelink back. At the wall. Out of here. It's out of here Alonzo An opposite field home run And the Mets had the lead And then the Brewers Making their sixth playoff appearance

In the last seven years Yet again Still failed to win a series They lose 4-2 Because the Mets tacked on an extra run. And they are out. They have not won a playoff series since 2018, my beloved Brewers. Okay.

Say goodbye. So take your Brewers hat off for just a second and pretend you're not a Brewers fan. Pretend you're just a neutral. I was kind of pretending I wasn't. It's real easy to pretend. Yeah, okay. Keep more pretending there, pal.

Is this a bigger story for the Brewers or the Mets? The Mets. Yeah, the Mets were an incredible. Come on. The Mets were an incredible story this season. Halfway through the season, they were, what, around 500? Mm-hmm. And their fans didn't really like them very much.

Ever since Steve Cohen bought the team. They've been an unlikable team. Well, just because they've spent a lot of money and haven't had any success. There's nothing really like underdog or I can't believe these guys did it. They got a gigantic bloated payroll. They got really good players.

They just underperformed until Grimace. Until Grimace came. Grimace from McDonald's. What happened? Did he show up to a game or what? What's the story? Did he throw out the first? Did he throw out a pitch or anything? He did both those things. Did he story? Did he throw out the first, did he throw out a pitch or anything?

He did both those things. Did he really? Did he throw out the first pitch? Grimace? Yeah. Do you remember? We covered this in the summer when we had nothing else to talk about. No, I know.

I know, but I can't remember. I know there was a story about Grimace in the Mets, but I couldn't even remember exactly what he did. Like, did he fight someone or you just throw out the first pitch and then, and then sat in a seat, which is now the Grimace seat. He stabbed the Hamburglar. No, he, he, he was there. He came to the game.

He threw out a pitch. And then they sort of immortalized them with a purple seat at the stadium. Like, the Grimace mats are a thing. It kind of fell away. And then they also brought Hawk to a girl out to throw the first pitch. They did everything. Hayley Welch. They did everything they could to change the vibes this year.

God bless them at work because now they're on their way. They're on their way to the NLDS. They're going to play the Phillies. How many times do you think the Mets and the Phillies have played each other in the playoffs? They're on to round Hawk Tua. You tell me. You tell me.

Laddie. Get out. Turn your mic off. Just walk out. Okay, one. They are indeed on to round Hawk Tua. Keep going. How many times have the Mets and Phillies played each other in the playoffs?

Eight times. Never. Really? Never. Heated rivals. Two of the biggest markets. They've never played each other in the playoffs. Wow.

Yeah, this is pretty cool. I mean, this whole way of doing the playoffs hasn't been around for that that long. So it's not they're not surprising you just think like the Mets they used to be in the same division it'd be like

you win the division you go to the playoffs if the Mets win the World Series does Grimace get a ring yeah and Haley Welch they both do Haley Welch gets one as well

they get married actually that's the spoiler and then the Hawk Tua girl goes to Grimace she's like what's up hey you wanna get out of here?

So there's your baseball story. The playoffs take a day off now and everything begins tomorrow. Welcome to the Padres bandwagon, by the way. Yeah, so it's a real quick transition for me. Brewers, you're gone. Sad Club Brewers out. Sad Club Padres

still in, starting their series with the LA Dodgers on Saturday, and that is going to be a really good series. Okay, there's quite a bit to get to, so let's talk very quickly. Unfortunately, we have talked very quickly about that football game last night. Incredible finish, sloppy finish. I don't know if Al Michaels noticed how incredible it was. He sounded bored throughout a lot of incredible plays,

but the rest of us were pretty darn excited with how that thing finished because there was no excuse really for Tampa Bay not to be able to finish that off. Ridiculous. But they found an excuse and Kirk Cousins is now a primetime hero. Kirk Cousins won a dramatic game on primetime Thursday night football, which has never happened before. But he's starting to win in primetime now. He threw for 509 yards. He smashed the Atlanta Falcons all-time single game passing record in his fifth game as an Atlanta Falcon. And he beat Matt Ryan's record.

Matt Ryan went into the Falcons Ring of Honor last night. What a game. Everything happened. It was a 36-30 overtime victory. Let's just hear the audio because we're playing some good, exciting audio. This is not the Al Michaels version, correct? We have some actual excitement on the call here. This is the Atlanta Falcons radio network because

you were right. Al Michaels was a little subdued, a little demure in his call. now falcons win at 36 30 walk-off touchdown from uh kirk cousins here's mooney in motion with cousins and they're gonna gun it and it's caught to daryl hodge 35 30 20 15 10 5 drive home safely oh my goodness welcome to the game kaderaderil. Are you serious? A walk-off for Kaderil, Hodge, and the Falcons. So with less than two minutes to go,

and when Kirk Cousins threw a fourth-down pick and Tampa Bay had the ball at, what, the Atlanta 31 or something? 28. 28. The 28-yard line. Would you say half the Atlanta 31 or something? 28. 28. The 28-yard line. Would you say half the stadium would have left? Yeah, someone posted the likelihood for a Bucs win at that point. You know those ESPN lines?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like at 97%. Like it was crazy that they blew that. I'm actually surprised it wasn't higher than 97% because they ended up, what ended up happening was they went backwards to the point where. They went aggressively backwards. They went aggressively backwards. They had a couple small losses,

but they also had a holding, a penalty or something like that. A holding penalty for 10 yards. So they actually went from the 28 of Atlanta and had to go back and punt. Yeah. Cause they went all the way back to the 41. They had to go back and punt. Yeah, because they went all the way back to the 41. They had to go back and punt. Yeah. And Tampa Bay gets it.

They nail a field goal to take it to overtime. With no timeouts. Yeah, and then they win it in overtime. So you can get back on ripping Baker Mayfield again? No, I don't blame that on Mayfield. He was good last night. Okay, but if you know, if you want. I mean, it was a comedy of mistakes down the stretch.

Like, they were running the ball to run on the clock, the Buccaneers were, right? And there was a very costly fumble by Bucky Irving that gave the ball back to Atlanta. But if you look at the numbers, like, everyone's going to be talking about Kirk Cousins because he threw for, you know, 500 yards and four touchdowns. But Baker Mayfield had an amazing game.

Statistically, he was great. Okay, so you're still good with Baker. I'm still good with Baker. Baker's my guy. MVP Baker. Okay, let's talk about the Canucks for a bit in this segment because they have their – they had the day off yesterday. That's what happened to the Canucks yesterday.

But they have their final preseason game tonight against the Edmonton Oilers. And I know we're all kind of tired of the preseason. We're usually tired of the preseason about five minutes into the preseason, but there are some storylines to watch for tonight, and one of them is that JT Miller is expected to play. It will be his first preseason game, And, you know, IMAC noted that in the first 42 seconds of his chat with reporters on Tuesday, Miller used some version of

I've just been taking care of myself and not forcing it and I'll be ready to go Friday. So he's obviously been dealing with something not major but something that he's like, this is not worth the risk of me playing these preseason games. But I do think that he'll want to play one preseason game.

And I hope the Canucks get a few power plays tonight because I thought we'd spend a lot of time talking about the power play at training camp and in the preseason but other stories just took over uh obviously there was the Thatcher Demko situation that took over early on and then once we got used to that and Kevin Lankanen came in and we got used to the new normal with Thatcher Demko then it was the stories of some of the young players like Atu Ratu that took over. And, you know, the five-man first-unit power play has not been out at all together in any of the games because JT Miller hasn't played. But tonight, they should be all out there.

JT Miller, Brock Besser, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pedersen, and the new guy, Jake DeBras. So I'll be curious to see. Listen, I'm not going to determine anything, but I'll be curious to see if there's any new looks to it, any new emphasis on it, because this is important. The Canucks power play should be a good power play based on the personnel that they have.

But it wasn't down the stretch, and it certainly wasn't in the playoffs. And just because you've got good personnel doesn't necessarily mean that you're automatically going to have a good power play. Take a look at what happened to Pittsburgh last season. That was the main reason that the Penguins didn't make the playoffs.

And they got some power play guys on that team. The other top six line besides JT Millers, who he's going to play with Brock Besser and Danton Heinen. It'll be, I guess, interesting to see how those three look together. But I think the one line where I'll be most curious

to look at is Petey's line with DeBrusque and Sprong. Huge opportunity for Daniel Sprong. He needs to make the most of it and that line as a whole needs to be a major advantage for the Canucks especially given the financial investment for two of those players on that team

both of them made recently Elias Pettersson with his big extension and then Jake Dabrowski was the big free agent acquisition over the offseason And then there's also this whole idea of who's going to make the cut. It's possible. It's possible. There's only one roster spot for Atu-Ratu, Arshdeep Baines, or Nils Amon. The deadline for teams to submit their opening day rosters is Monday at 5 o'clock Eastern, so that's 2 o'clock our time.

Teddy Bluger is a factor in this. Is he going to play tonight? He's been a full participant at practice, but said Wednesday we'll see when asked if he'd play Friday and insinuated that it's not just his decision to make. It's possible. I could see this happening. It's possible.

And maybe we'll know when the Canucks have their morning skate at around 1030 this morning. It's possible the coaching staff could just say, Teddy, take the game off. We do want to look at some other guys, so just let's play this safe. Go sit with JT. He's also taking the night off. No, JT will play.

You can sit with Pew Suter, who will almost certainly not play tonight. He's day-to-day with an injury. So they sit Bluger, they sit Suter, and they go with the bottom six of say Hoaglander, Ratu and Garland so you get another look at Ratu and that line has been arguably the best line of the Canucks in the preseason Hoaglander filling in for Dakota Joshua Ratu filling in for Bluger and Garland where Garland normally is and then you could have a fourth line where Amon could center it,

Baines could be the winger, and then Sherwood could also be there. And Sherwood would be like, don't screw it up, Daniel Sprong, because I'm coming for your spot on the line with Petey and DeBras. Now, I'm just speculating there. They might want to get Bluger into the game. They might want to say, listen, Teddy, you haven't played yet either in the preseason because you had a minor procedure

before training camp and you had a lower body injury, but if they want to take a look, one final look at all three of those guys, there is a way to get them into the lineup. So those are the storylines to watch for. Which one are you most interested in?

Sprong, for sure. Because I think that that's the key to unlocking all of these offseason questions that we had for Petey is that you knew that DeBrusque was going to be in there, so that kind of ticked one of the boxes. And if you were going to try and eliminate, like I've said numerous times on this show, if you were going to try and eliminate one of the key narratives

as to why Pedersen struggled last year, one of them was, and one of them that the club could control is who he gets to play with. Right. It was always a baked in part of the excuse recipe, right? That, well,

you got to remember who was he passing the puck to, or who was he lined up with? And I understand that it was, I think a piece of it, not necessarily a big piece or a small piece, but definitely a piece that needed to be addressed. And they did. Now it leads you down the other narrative roads of,

well, what happens if this doesn't unlock or solve what was, you know, Pedersen's funk last year? It's a very concerning thing. I like to look at it glass half full. I'm very optimistic about this. You want to, I mean, I think Sprong's got the potential to be a real dynamic offensive force and maybe not be relied upon that much defensively,

which could be a good thing for him. Also, it's going to be a line that if they can score with regularity and they should be able to with DeBrusque, who's a career high 27 and Sprong career high 21, they should be able to score with regularity, meaning that you've really got to account for two lines when you play the Canucks now because you've got to account for the Miller-Besser line

and whoever their winger is going to be, probably Heinen. And then you've got to account for a second line that's got two much better scoring wingers on it than it did in previous iterations, especially in the playoffs. Honestly, I'll go not glass half full. I'll go glass entirely full with the Canucks forward lines if this works with Petey, DeBrusque, and whoever, Sprong. Let's say the Petey line is good.

Okay? I think you like all four of these lines. I mean, do you have potential to have the third line back or, you know, or at least a reasonable facsimile of it. Because I think Dakota Joshua will be back sooner rather than later. Now, whether Ratu is going to be the center or Bluger is going to be the center, I don't even really think it matters. If you got Joshua and Garland together, you like that line. And then the fourth line, I think the fourth line could be one of the best in the NHL.

We sure would there. And maybe Ratu, maybe Ratu replaces Amon on that line. And you've got some pretty good players on that fourth line as well. Now the only... Like Hoaglander could get dropped down to that fourth line once Joshua is back and you could

have a fourth line of, let's say, Ratu between Hoaglander and Sherwood. Yeah. That's a. That's a good. That's a good. It's good. I mean, that's not, that's not bad.

I think, you know, clearly heading into the season on paper because Thatcher-Demko is hurt, because we still have a few worries about the second and third defensive pairs, the forward lines, the forward groups on paper, that's the strength of the Canucks. But Petey's line has to work. Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up, Brady Henderson, ESPN Seahawks Insider is going to join us. We are going to look ahead

to the Seahawks and the Giants. 1-25 kickoff on Sunday. One of the key games of the afternoon slate. Seahawks are six-point favorites. Who's going to play? Who's not? Will Kenny Walker be back for another game to follow up on that three-touchdown performance he had on Monday Night Football? This is also a

crazy tough stretch for the Seahawks. They play three games in 11 days. So it's a lot for the team. They got the Giants this weekend. It's a short turnaround before Thursday Night Football when they take on the 49ers. And after we talk to Brady, we'll talk to Brady for about 10 to 15 minutes. We're going to play some Elliott Friedman audio. I don't even think this podcast has dropped yet, but because Dom's their producer, we sometimes get a preview. Elliott Friedman on the Robin Lehner situation. And I wonder if what Elliott has to say and the way he talks about it might make people think a little bit differently about the news concerning Robin Lehner and the Vegas Golden Knights yesterday. So stay tuned.

There's going to be some Seahawks talk, and then we'll play some Elliott Freeman audio. You're listening to the Alfred Abraff 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 Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Halford & Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are an hour one of the program. Brady Henderson from ESPN is going to join us for a little Seahawks talk here. Just in a minute, kickoff hour one,

highlight of hour one. 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. To the phone lines we go. Brady Henderson joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Brady. How are you? What's up, fellas? How's it going? We are well. My first question is one that I actually posed in the intro. I was so excited to ask you about this because I don't know how Seahawks head coach and defensive guru Mike McDonald reacted to his defense getting obliterated on Monday Night Football.

I know there were a lot of injuries. I think it was five starters by the end of it once Jordan Love got knocked out of action. So there was an excuse kind of baked into the whole thing. But throughout this week, how irate was Mike McDonald about how poor his defense played against the Lions? Yeah, well, I would say five starters and then another, you know, part-time starter, half starter, if you will, and Byron Murphy.

So, I mean, it was over half of their starting defense or half of the, you know, primary guys that they would have out there. And I think that you sort of have to throw that performance out. I mean, when you have a lineup out there that looks like the second half of a preseason game then you you really and you're especially when you're playing against a really good offense like that i i just don't think any team in the nfl would have done a whole lot better uh and i think a lot of teams probably would have done worse missing that much firepower on defense and so i i think as we view that you

sort of throw that performance out but you still say that the jury is still out on how good that defense is, knowing that they feasted on below-average quarterbacks, and then they had a hard time against Jared Goff while, again, they were missing half their guys. I think internally it's been interesting to hear Mike McDonald talk about it and the D.C. adding Dirty as well. They have not used that as an excuse and i think some teams would would do that uh or at least just to to you know provide the

context for that and they would acknowledge the fact that yeah it's going to be hard when you're missing that many guys i just think that there is a very high standard in this building and they're not going to want to go there even if they know, even if Mike McDonald knows that, yeah, you can't expect to sustain any sort of level of defensive play when you're missing that many players. But it's a very high standard, and I think he's trying to send a message to his team that the standard is going to be what it is no matter who is in there.

And so I think McDonald knows what happened, but he wants to send a message to his team that if you're a backup or a starter, you're still expected to come in and do their job. Right, because offensively, I mean, that was borderline brilliant from the Seahawks going into Detroit, putting up close to 30 points. Geno had a day. But, I mean, the big takeaway for me was that when Ken Walker III is back and he's in the lineup, they're just a different offense. This has meant there's no disrespect to Zach Charbonnet, but Walker ran for three touchdowns. It just looks like a different offense when he's in the lineup and going.

Is that an accurate assessment of what happened on Monday? Totally, yeah. I mean, he's the starter for a reason. Zach Charbonnet is a really good back. He's probably one of the better number two backs in the NFL. You saw him more than capably hold down the fort. I think he scored three, four touchdowns in the two games that Walker was out. But he's just a different style of back, and you don't have that burst,

that initial burst through the line of scrimmage. You don't have that cutback ability to where a play can start out to the left and then all of a sudden it's a 20-yard gain to the right. And you just don't have that extra gear that Walker has. And he showed all of those things. And, you know, there's that one play on the 21-yard touchdown run where he makes three – he gets by three guys. And that was another example of the cutback ability

because that was a toss to the left. And once he got to the second level, he turned it to the right. And the ability to cut on a dime and to make guys miss. I mean, he had three guys, you know, right by him, and he didn't even let any of them touch him. So he just has an elusiveness, an explosiveness that they really haven't had. And, you know, he scored three touchdowns in that game, and he had this monster game.

And then you look at the stat sheet and realize he only carried the ball 12 times so i mean they really couldn't lean on him because they you know that deficit forced them into a drop back game and geno smith ended up throwing you know almost 60 times drop back over 60 times so i think they've got the the luxury now of leaning on him in a way that it was good as good of a game as he had Monday night, they really had to kind of use him sparingly in the run game. Getting back to the injury situation that hurt them pretty badly against Detroit, Alfred doesn't want to hear any excuses, but... Not an excuses guy, Brady. Never been one.

That's a pretty good excuse. You're like Mike McDonald. Yeah. What is their health situation hanging into sunday's game against the giants the seahawks are six and a half point favorites in this one yeah it's it's always tough as you guys know to make these calls on um you know in between wednesday and friday when we hear from mcdonald and we just have the two days from the injury report i the thing i most i i would feel most confident in is that Byron Murphy is not going to play.

From what I heard initially, that it was probably going to be multiple weeks. So the fact that he hasn't practiced Wednesday or Thursday, that tells me that he's not playing Sunday. It looks like it's trending in the right direction for pretty much everybody else on defense because all the other guys who either missed that game or, in the case of Julian Love, who didn't finish it, you know, they have all practiced, or at least they practiced on Thursday. A lot of those guys were limited. And it does make me wonder, just given the timing of the next, you know,

six, seven days, what's going to happen here? Because remember, they've got this game against the Giants on a short week. They've got another even shorter week coming up after that against the 49ers. Part of me wonders if it's a borderline call with any of those guys. Like if they get to, you know, tomorrow and realize, okay, they're sort of on the fence about Leonard Williams or Yacine Nwosu or Jerome Baker or Boye Mafe,

part of me wonders if they might say, okay, this is, you know, you've got a game that you could, you should be able to win, even if you're not at full strength on defense. Meanwhile, four days later, you've got a much harder, much more important NFC West game against San Francisco. So I wonder if maybe if they're on the fence with a guy, maybe if they play it safe, give him this game off with, with an eye towards making sure he's healthy for again,

the harder and more important game Thursday night, knowing that again, this is a giant team without probably without Malik neighbors, maybe without its best running back in Singletary. And maybe there's a thought, not that they would ever publicly admit this, of course, but maybe there's a thought that, yeah, you don't need to be at full strength to beat the Giants, but you might need to be at full strength to beat the 49ers.

Counterpoint, Brady. They better win this game. They better not mess around and lose this game, because if they lose to the Giants somehow, and then they fall to 3-2, and then they fall to three and two and then they got San Francisco coming to town and then they go to Atlanta um you saw what the Falcons could do on offense uh last night and then they got to come home and face a very good Buffalo Bills team they have to take care of business on Sunday against the Giants correct they do and that's why they would never even if that is the plan they would never admit it because if it could blow up in their face if the Giants, correct? They do, and that's why they would never, even if that is the plan, they would never admit it because it could blow up in their face if the Giants end up beating them, and then it's clear that they, quote-unquote, looked past the Giants or thought that they could beat them

not at full strength. But, yeah, you're right. They have to win this game because you've got to make hay when the schedule allows you to do that. And the schedule, as we know, as we've been talking about, as you guys I'm sure have been talking about on your show, it gets a whole lot harder. And I mentioned that I think the jury is still out on this defense

and how good it's going to be. Well, the jury is going to start deliberating here in a week or so when you start to face all those quarterbacks that, you know, that you really are going to have a harder time against. Kirk Cousins, Brock Purdy, Josh Allen, Matt Stafford. It's a lot better than, I know Goff is in that category, but those guys are a lot better than the three that they faced early on. So, yeah, you've got to win the games that you know that you should be able to win,

knowing that there might be one of those games later in the season. Every year it seems like there's a game that you feel like on paper the team should win and they still lose it. So if you account for one of those later in the year, you don't have a whole lot of margin for error if you want to be a 10-11 win team that is going to get into the playoffs. So allowing that he did have a costly fumble against the Detroit Lions, DK Metcalf is off to a heck of a start to the season. Had a bit of a quiet game in week one, but ever since then, over 100 yards in his three games, a couple of long touchdowns.

I'm looking at the stats right now. Only three receivers in the entire NFL have more receiving yards than DK Metcalf's 366. This is the season that he wanted considering that his contract could be a fairly big topic in the offseason. It could be, yeah, and there's a lot of other guys who are going to be in that same position when you realize that, remember how great that 2022 draft class was? Well, you're also going to have Charles Cross up for an extension. Ken Walker III, who we just mentioned.

Boye Amafe, who, you know, if he has two straight seasons of, you know, nine, ten-plus sacks, whatever it is, then he's going to be in line for a big deal. Geno Smith would be in line for the biggest deal of all. So it's tough to forecast because, as we know, you can't pay everybody. And DK Metcalf is putting up you know 100 yards in three straight games and he's on pace for you know some sort of you know pretty monster season then you know it's going to be hard to not pay him uh so there's going to be

some tough decisions to face you know going back to the fumble that was definitely a costly fumble because that was you know an opportunity that was a promising drive where they could have tied that game instead he fumbles sets up a you know pretty easy lions touchdown to go down 14-0 you know DK since he entered the NFL in 2019 this is from our stats people at ESPN he has the most tied for the most receiving fumbles yeah in that span at seven I went back and looked at all of those and I would say that two of them were just careless, can't have them, no real excuse for mistakes. But the other five kind of reminded me of the play on Monday night where it's really a case of a guy fighting like hell to get extra yards,

and because he's still on his feet churning his legs, somebody comes in and hits him. You do have to take care of the legs, somebody comes in and hits him. So, you know, I think a lot of the players... You do have to take care of the ball, though, in that situation. Because guys are going to be doing that, especially if they know you've got a history of it. You do. I just tend to look at it like every time I watch an NFL game,

there's probably 20, 25 plays where, honestly, especially when you're it in slow motion, I'm just surprised that the guy doesn't fumble it. Like it seems like a fumble should happen on like every other NFL play to me, just based on how hard these guys get hit. So I don't know. I kind of think that you sort of take the bad with the good with DK knowing that he's a lot of those plays are happening because he's so big and strong and he's fighting for extra yards that other guys wouldn't be able to get.

So, yeah, you don't want him to fumble there. It was a costly fumble, no doubt. But I think you sort of take the bad with the good. The other interesting thing there, and I think another radio guy in Seattle mentioned this, I don't know if that play happens if he doesn't wear the loose-fitting shirt that the linebacker is holding onto to keep him up. He needs to get rid of that, by the way. He needs to get rid of the loose shirt.

I don't get it. Or cut it off and make it a crop top, whatever you've got to do. Just don't give a defender something else to grab onto. Brady, I imagine the next time we'll be talking, next Friday, we can have two games to look back on, and we probably won't talk much about the Giants game because the 49ers game on Thursday night will be top of mind. So I guess we'll talk to you in two Seahawks game time.

That sounds good. Yeah, well, this Giants game has the potential to be kind of a forgettable one when you talk about it. It better be. It better be. Yeah, not a very good Giants team. Short week. Potential for some sloppiness.

So, yeah, we'll talk after San Francisco. Sounds good. All right, Brady. Enjoy the weekend. You too. See you guys. That's Brady Henderson from ESPN's NFL Nation, our Seahawks insider, brought to you by the Clayton Public House.

Pre-game 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 at theclaytonpub.com. We promised it right off the top of the show. We're going to play it now. We're going to go right back into the world of the National Hockey League. The regular season gets underway in just about three hours' time from Prague, and there's some big news as it pertains

to one of the league's marquee teams ahead of the start of the regular season. The Vegas Golden Knights and the situation with Robin Lehner, we mentioned it on the show yesterday. Cole's Notes version, they are not going to be responsible for the cap hit of Robin

Lehner for the final year of his contract, a $5 million cap hit. That's going to be essentially waived. They're going to pay Lehner. Lehner's going to get a salary, but there will be no cap hit for the last year of Robin Lehner. That allows them to go into the regular season, not on LTIR. It allows them to accrue space in the regular season, like they have done over the last few years.

For more on this situation and why this special exemption was made, we're going to give you five minutes of uninterrupted audio from the 32 Thoughts podcast because it's important that we let Elliott Friedman explain this situation as thoroughly as he can.

So here now is Freedj on the Robin Lehner, Vegas Golden Knights situation. Take it away, Laddie. I know people are upset. My whole feed all day was full of people saying Vegas gets away with it again.

Vegas is the preferred child. Some people are calling them the Vegas golden childs. Step back for a second and really look at this. I know people are emotional, but step back for a second and really look at this. I know people are emotional, but step back for a second and really look at it.

If a player has to show up for a physical and doesn't show, who do you think has the odds for a better case in a grievance? Is it the team or is it the player? I'll take team for $1,000. And you would get the $1,000. Even though you didn't phrase it in the form of a question, you would get the $1,000. And that's it.

Vegas had a case here to terminate the deal because Leonard wasn't there for the physical. This is not, like, if anybody's getting just a financial benefit here, it's Leonard more than the team is because they could have tried to grieve it, and they would have had, at the very least, from a CBA point of view, they would have had to grieve it. And they would have had, at the very least, from a CBA point of view,

they would have had a very good case. Now, Leonard wasn't able to be there. The league knew that. The Players Association knew that. The team knew that in advance. It wasn't a surprise Leonard wasn't there. So what happened is he got help here from everyone involved. He's been through a lot. I think a lot of people really support him and want to see him be in a good place.

So I think because they understood the circumstances, they said, okay, we're going to find a way for Leonard to be paid and the team can benefit too. I know people get mad at this, as I said, but if you look at it objectively, from a purely legal point of view, Leonard got a bit of a benefit here as opposed to the organization did. I know people don't like to hear that, but it's true. And I hope that Leonard's in a good place. You know, I think the less that is said about it, the better, but I just hope he's in a good place and i'm glad that a solution was found where you know everybody could work this out okay my one follow-up then on this one elliot and understanding all of what you just said want to ask it carefully with respect to as you say all that lennar has gone, do you worry at all? I mean, the old line that you bring up from time to time from Colin Campbell,

the law of unintended consequences that could come from a new precedent being set with this, or is everyone involved kind of under the understanding that this is separate from what would be considered precedent? Well, it's a great question. One of the things that the League and the Players Association do is they agree sometimes to carve outs situations where because something happens, they work it so that it doesn't affect future situations. I think it's fair to say that this is a very unique thing. Like one of the things that happened in the summer is, you know, Nachushkin in Colorado is in a situation where he's in the program and he's getting help. And, you know, Colorado was told,

you don't get any cap relief. You know, he's expected back in the middle of the next season in November. And because he's in the program, you have to let it play out that way. So, you know, there was a unique situation here with Leonard it didn't allow Colorado any relief with a player who's been through his own challenges so what that says to me is that they are looking at this on a case-to-case basis and no two are the same And as long as the league and the players both agree,

they find a way to get things done. And that's what I would say, Kyle, that I don't think you're, I mean, number one, you hope you don't see more of these situations because it means someone's going through challenges. So you don't want any of that at all. But the way this one was handled, they've made it very clear using the word unique, which I've heard a lot of the last few weeks,

that this is just going to be about this particular case and it shouldn't be used as an example necessarily in any other case. So prior to playing that clip, we were hopeful that a lot of the listeners would take in what Elliot had to say in his thorough and lengthy explanation, and maybe it would shed new light and maybe give them a different outlook on the situation. That didn't happen.

People are not happy still. They listen to the entire five minutes and they're still really angry. I get it. And I get it. This is the most respectful way that someone asks a question and it's Corey the Carpenter. So why doesn't every injured player just not report

then? They still get paid and the team also doesn't have to use the cap space on them. The reason they wouldn't do that is because for the player, they're not gonna, they'd have to make up a real interesting story. My understanding was that there was another way they could have gone about this,

and that was to try and terminate the contract entirely. So Robin Lehner gets $0. Yeah, but Corey the Carpenter is asking, why wouldn't there be some sort of, like, behind the scenes, the team goes to the player and goes, look, man, you just don't report. You'll still get paid. Don't worry.

We'll make something up. We'll make up a story, right? And I think that's, yeah, you rolled your eyes at me, and I agree with your eye roll, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I suppose. It's a special circumstance. I mean, you could risk it if you wanted.

Right. And the reason that Corey. But there would be nothing in it for the player to do. You know, he'd be like, no, I'll just It's a special circumstance. I mean, you could risk it if you wanted. Right. And the reason that. But there would be nothing in it for the player to do. You know, he'd be like, no, I'll just show up for my physical. Oh, my knee doesn't work. Yeah. See you later. I'm getting my money still.

Right. I mean, unless he really wants to help out. Unless he really cares about the team. Yeah. I really want you guys to get this contract off the books. Yeah. Again, the reason that you read, I think, Corey the Carpenter's text is is because one it's the only one that doesn't involve swearing and two

there is a question of precedence here the NHL is trying to quash that entirely by saying this is so unique and so unprecedented it won't set a precedent

now that to me sets off a lot of alarm bells as to what's going on personally but to be quite honest and quite fair that's none of our business with laner there's obviously something going on that one probably shouldn't be disclosed to the general public and two is obviously pretty serious i'll say that yeah seems that way um here's the thing if this had happened to any of the other 31 nhl franchises it would have been received by the public a lot differently it happened in vegas it happened with vegas and that is why i understand that all of you, everyone's texting in right now,

just livid. I get it. And I don't think any explanation from myself or Jason or fridge. And when bill daily comes on it, and you're probably not going to have much time for that either. I get it. I'm not really going to change that dynamic. I think I'm in the business long enough to know that I'm not going to

change minds on this one. But Hey, I I'm, I'm not against these people minds on this one. But hey, I'm not against these people texting in. I mean, some of the ways they're doing it is a little aggressive for 6 to 55 in the morning, but this is the question we will ask Bill Daly. Is there a concern that this sets a precedent for other situations, for other teams to escape a situation with a contract that they don't want and the player still gets paid. We'll ask Bill Daly that question and we'll see what he has to say.

So we've still got a very busy show. We're going to talk to AJ real quick at seven o'clock in about five minutes and then Frank Cervalli is going to come on the program and we'll talk more about this Robin Lehner situation, Bill Daly at seven 30. So Frank and Bill in the next hour, and then Rick Dollywall with some big Frank, Bill, Rick, all your favorites. Uh, some, is there a way to get Yuri Patera back? Like, I haven't even thought of that, Rick, but apparently he's going to talk about that

and perhaps an update on the Dakota Joshua situation. So lots of hockey talk to come. Two hours left. Get your Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line 650-650. You're listening to the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.