Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Survived A Wild One

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they discuss an impressive Sunday morning win by the Canucks that was not without it's share of controversy (3:00), plus they chat the Blue Jays forcing a game 7 versus the Mariners in what has been a fantastic ALCS thus far. (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-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. And Garland's got a right corner in from. For Lius Patterson, he scores. A hard wrist shot for the right circle. Off the stick of Elias Patterson. Pop-up, Buckela, for game seven tomorrow and up.

I'm born ready. I'm born ready. And I won it all for the city. You know, I'd give up one of my children's for a f***win, so you'd step over your own mother just to get one. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It's Alfred.

It is brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live. from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Can I just tell you what I'm doing right now at 601 in the morning on October 20th, 2025? What's that?

Arguing with someone online about the Aaron Rome hit. All right. A decade and a half later. We are so back. Jason, good morning to you. A dog. Good morning to you. And Lattie.

Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford, in Brub in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two much lower payments in three financial peace of mind. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. It promises to be a very interesting show.

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 the Mid-1170 Powell Street. Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step.

We have so much to get into on the show today. Apparently the Aaron Rome hit in 2011 is going to be on the list of things to discuss. But maybe before we do any of that, we'll run through our guest list for today. First hour, all Halford and Brough, first half hour, all local. We're going to do all three of our Vancouver-based teams that were in action over the weekend. So we don't get to our first guest. There's no seven. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone is going to join the program.

Another wild Sunday in the National Football League, including an all-time historic comeback by the Broncos against the Giants, if you missed it yesterday. And we've got a Monday night football double-heder tonight. And a good one of that, bucks lions at four, followed by Seahawks, Texans. At seven, Mike Tanier is going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk about all that. Then it's 7.30. SportsNet Associate Editor and Blue Jays writer,

Zach Worden is going to join us on the program. And here it is, folks. It's game seven. The American League Championship Series between Toronto and Seattle will be decided tonight in a one-game winner-takes-all match to decide who's going to go to the World Series. Laddie is resplendent.

Jay's gear head-to-toe jacket, hat. I'm assuming there's some sort of Blue Jamey pants on. Under what didn't need to know that part, but the rest of it, very, very fitting for a day in which the Jays and or the Mariners will win the first game seven in franchise history. A reminder, you can hear that game seven right here on SportsNet 650, beginning at 5 p.m. tonight.

Zach Worden's going to join us at 7.30 for what should be a classic baseball game. 8 o'clock Satyar Shah is going to join the program. Connect Central and Connock's Postgame host here on SportsNet 650. Speaking of eventful games, it was a very, very eventful game for the Vancouver Canucks yesterday in Washington, a 4-3 win, their third win on this five-game road trip,

which is great, but the team is also now very, very depleted it forward after a bunch of injuries and absences on Sunday. There's two games left on the trip, Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Thursday, in Nashville. We'll talk to Sad about all this stuff at 8 a.m. We've got a lot of Canucks talk on the show today, obviously, as well.

There was a lot that happened over the weekend. Working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, it's Satyar Shah, 7.30, Zach Worden, 7 o'clock Mike Tanier. 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'm losing. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies.

the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca. We're doing Canucks, White Caps, and Lions in this first half hour, and we begin with the Vancouver Canucks. Tyler Myers and Kiefer Sherwood scored 41 seconds apart in the first period. Elias Pedersen scored his first goal of the season, and Thatcher Demko made 28 saves for the Canucks in a very wild, 4-3 win over the caps on Sunday.

So let's start with the good news from the game, and then we can get into the concerning news. So when the Canucks finished that first period in Dallas, what was the score? They were down to nothing. Were they playing well? No, they weren't. They were playing horrifically. I would not have bet that they'd be 3-0 after the first three games of their road trip, including that game in Dallas.

They came back to win that game over the Dallas Stars. They went into Chicago, played a very entertaining game, a game against, I think it's got to be an improved Blackhawks team. Yep. And then yesterday they actually got off to a good start, which has been kind of rare for this team. I've come back a lot in games, but they got off to a very good start against the Washington Capitals and hung on for a win.

And a lot of guys deserve credit from the players to the coaching staff, but for me it starts with Thatcher Dempco, who's been as good as he's ever been through four-star. starts. And I can just hear Rick Dollywell saying to me, like, you don't think the Americans are watching, bruff? You don't think the U.S. Olympic team is watching bruff? Then you're an idiot, bruff. I never said that, Dolly. No one said. I never said. I didn't think the Americans would be watching Thatcher Demko. I think everyone around the league is watching

Thatcher Demko right now. If you go to the advanced stats at a site like MoneyPuck, MoneyPuck, Now, Laddie, I don't know how much you think of money puck stats, but you've got Thatcher Demko with 6.6 goals saved above expected, which is pretty good through four starts. That's really good. I mean, there actually been some goalies that have played better, apparently, Spencer Knight. He's been good. For Chicago, Shasturkin for the Rangers and Jet Graves for Columbus. That's kind of out of nowhere, but Thatcher Demko is playing very, very well right now. And Halford, you always bring up the start of last season,

and you're sure to tell everyone that CLAVs was, what? Unplayable. Unplayable. Well, Thatcher Demko is not unplayable right now. Other guys that deserve extra credit include Connor Garland, Kiefer Sherwood, Elias Pedersen, and I would say the Abbey line of Carlin. Carlson, Sasson, and Baines, when they've been together, they've been very good. Hughes has been very good relative to most players in the NHL, but I'm not sure he's been

as good as he was last season. He's still been good, though. I'm not worried about him. You know, Garland has led this team. You know, you can just tell, right? like and who's the guy that the coaching staff put with leas peterson to try and help him get going at five on five it was conar garland who's a guy that's made a number of great four checking plays picked off passes and either scored them himself or in the case of the washington game pass them to leas peterson for a goal

it's it's been connor garland who's playing in nearly every scenario for this team including five plus minutes on the power play and four plus minutes short-handed yeah Connor garland Kevin. Kiefer Sherwood. You know, if Rick Dolly Woe was here, he would be relaying some sort of message through Kiefer Sherwood's agent that, Chiching, Sherwood's going to get paid. Who cares about that stuff right now? Kiefer Sherwood is playing really, really well right now, you know, scoring goals, impacting the play physically as he always does. And Elias Pedersen, you know, was the own goal that he scored against Dallas in that first period. I know we've tried to try to identify

rock bottom 2.0 before like please let this be rock bottom 2.0 and the original rock bottom was in Carolina maybe it was I thought you know he made a really nice play on the power play later in that game against Dallas where he actually got his feet moving along the side

boards with the puck you know and that's the thing like it's all about Pedersen with the puck I know he made those great blocks

against the capitals and that's awesome but he's been doing that yes like that he's been doing that forever you know that never stopped the hitting you know

that never stopped he was never not like physically engaged he was he was trying his best to be physically engaged the concern is 100% when he's got the puck

on his stick. Does he want to make plays? Can he make plays? Is he going to move his feet to make plays? And I thought, you know, that play in the Dallas game was good. And then the Chicago game was really good. I thought he gained confidence to the point where I thought he was going to score in overtime. Yep. Because he made a play with the puck, right? On his stick. He's moving his feet. He's attacking space. And then in the Washington game, you know, that line of Garland, Debrusk and Pedersen. Really good forecheck. All three of them contributed to that.

Pedersen gets the puck on a stick. Boom, it's off his stick right away. That was key, and that looks like a guy that is gaining some confidence. And I know if you want to listen to 32 thoughts today, I think Frege and Kyle break down the Canucks' recent run of good play and also Elias Pedersen's return to form.

Have we got PD joking about I think this is with Who's the interview? With Olivia He got jokes He's got jokes He's feeling funny now He's even got confidence in his humor game

He's got yeah That's returning as well Here's Pedersen Speaking with Olivia after the win in Washington No it felt good I mean I scored on Demer against Dallas But it's good to score on the other side today Here's Adam Foote

he played great. Now listen to this quote. He had more pace in his game going at guys, had more confidence, going at guys. What does that mean? Well, he's not looking around to pass the puck. He's like, I've got the puck. I'm going to take it at you.

And that's what he did in the Chicago game. Man, I thought he was going to score on that. Yep. And then Footsett on the defensive side, we saw him with the two big blocks. So I really liked his game, especially in a not-a-friendly environment. it could have gotten really physical

and he didn't seem to mind so let's talk about the physical nature I was going to say it didn't it couldn't have gotten really physical it did get really physical out of foot and in a bad way for your hockey club yeah the other side of the coin is

that the Canucks finished minus three forwards against the caps Heidel Leckermackie and Blugger we'll get into the heat in a sec foot suggested that Brock Besser who missed the game for personal reasons should be back pretty soon

but if Hedel and Bluger are out that means the connects down the middle are Pedersen Sasson Ratu and Nils Amon who's down in Abbotsford right now that seems like what it could end up being they were no updates after the game by the way on the health of any of the players that exited

against the capitals and those three of course as Jason mentioned were Heidel, Lechromackie, and Blugher. There are two games left on the trip. The Canucks will play in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. They flew right after the game into Pittsburgh, so they got in last night. So they'll be there. I don't know what they're going to do in terms of practice.

I haven't checked with their PR staff yet. But there is, I would assume, safely assume, that there's going to be some type of recall from Abbottesford, because there are still two games left on this trip and they don't play again until Tuesday. Yeah, unless the guy's magically. appear. I would say right now, although there's obvious concern

with Lechromackie and Bluger because they exited and I think Lechromackie was on a hit with Matt Roy and then Blugher happened late in the game. I didn't see exactly what the incident was, but we all know how Philippeal got hurt and it was on a very big, very

loud, very late and very controversial hit from Tom Wilson. Under normal circumstances where the Jays and the Mariners weren't going into a decisive game 7 to see you could go to the World Series, and we didn't have a million other things to talk about, the entire three hours of this show would be dedicated

to the Tom Wilson on Philip Heedal hit. That's just, I mean, part nature of this market. And the other part of it is a league in which Tom Wilson's been able to get away from this stuff for a long time. Let's turn our attention first to more audio from Adam Foote. A bit of a longer clip Laddie, if you want to grab it. Adam Foote talking in the aftermath about the hit on Heedle and his club's response

or lack thereof to it because that was another talking point as well. Here is Adam Foote following a 4-3 win over Washington in which Philip Heel exited after taking a very big, very late hit from Washington Capitals forward, Tom Wilson. Well, I saw it once after

on the bench and looking at an intermission. I mean, it looked like from my first view that it was a clean hit. Like, I'm going to look at it again. I mean, he's a big guy. You know, so I like the way I like the way our players

and you get caught in of the lead like that getting caught in the trap of a hit like that running after them and trying to get them and we have to get the two points first and then you know that other stuff takes care of stuff later down the road

if it needs to be taken care of which we'll view it and I don't know it was a clean hit or it was just a bad timing for heats there but I really like the way you know they're smart they're trying to get us off our game

And we held it together. We didn't want to go four and four with a team like that, you know, and get in the box with being down guys. You feel for heat, although? That's right. You feel for heat a little to leave that fashion. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's an awful feeling, right?

I think we're all human. And whether it's a guy on their team, our team, I think everyone feels that. And, you know, he's being evaluated and we'll see where he's at, yeah. So you already kind of touched on this, that we could probably spend an entire show arguing about the Tom Wilson hit on Heedle all the different angles whether it was a legal hit we can drag up Aaron Rome's hit on Horton

from a decade a half ago as many people have and I got sucked into the argument online at six in the morning not you yeah I know I know I haven't been arguing much online and now I'm back for something because I don't know the hit was body to body it's just late we're not doing this we're not doing this well that's the issue right

debating whether Evander Cain should have challenged Tom Wilson or, you know, talking about Heidel's responsibility in keeping your head up in a game that was, you know, a 3-0 score line and Tom Wilson was on the ice. Tom Wilson nearly already took out Connor Garland, so you know he's looking to try to do stuff. But, like, I'm not saying those discussions shouldn't be had, but I want the focus, you know, in this segment to start with Heidel, because I don't think you could drop a worse possible scenario for him than getting caught with a massive open-ice hit by Tom Wilson.

Legal or not? Like, remember we went into the season and we were like, if Heedel can stay healthy. Could we have imagined a worse possible scenario than what was a game, seven is it game seven or eight or whatever game six like him him getting hit not looking by tom wilson going as hard as he can into a hit like i just i could not i could not imagine a worse thing to imagine for heel no but this has been the recurring storyline throughout his career maybe the circumstances were different in other scenarios but it's always been yeah um and for a multitude

reasons. Who hit him before he came to Vancouver? Is it a Dallas player? I'd have to go. I'd have to go back. Yeah. I don't have it at the ready. But I think the, the overriding sentiment is this is a player that due to his style of play, on occasion, his situational awareness or lack thereof, his history with head injuries, which as you know can have a cumulative effect. And after you suffer one, you're more prone to suffer others. All of it adds up to a guy that was balancing that very fine line between being healthy and not being healthy. Now, we have absolutely no update on the player right now. Adam Foote did not issue any sort of medical update in the aftermath of the game. We don't know what the

injury suffered was at the time. It should be pointed out that it wasn't a clean pick headshot from Wilson. He did hit him through the body. So maybe there's some hope that this isn't necessarily a head injury or something related to a concussion. But the facts remain that a player who came into this season with the number one narrative surrounding him about his health and his ability to stay healthy, as you said, six games in, is facing those questions again. And that sucks.

Because you saw flashes this year, and I think we talked about it a lot through the first six games of the year, what Heidel could be and could mean to this team if he's healthy and if he's contributing as a 2C. Okay, I kind of feel bad that the Lions and white caps are being overshadowed by the return of the Canucks, obviously.

We can try our best. We'll try our best. And by the baseball, you know, it just, it is what it is. Like, we're not even going to, we're going to talk to Mike Tannier today about the NFL,

but we're not really going to talk about the NFL. I don't even know if we're going to talk about, like, Shohei Otani's incredible, incredible night. Like, they're putting up. The latest postseason performance of all times.

Yeah, it's like, It's like, yeah, it's like Don Larson's perfect game, Reggie's three home run game. It's like, yeah, we might not have time for that. Yeah. The Lions are on fire and will host a playoff game if they beat a Saskatchewan team

that has nothing to play for on Saturday and Regina. And the white caps are heading into the MLS Cup playoffs with their best chance of winning a title ever. Yes. Despite a tough loss on Saturday at home. to Dallas. Yeah, so they needed a single point from Saturday's game to finish tops in the West.

And if they got the full three points, it might have done wonders for them if they were to advance far into these playoffs and maybe have, even have a chance of hosting the MLS Cup final if they were to get there. But ignore all that now because the white caps lost on Saturday, as you mentioned. And it was an 11th minute red card to centerback Matthias Laborta that threw the whole game into complete disarrures. MLS had camped out a couple of their national writers in Vancouver as they did their Decision Day thing

it was supposed to be a big big thing because Dallas the team that they were playing was fighting for their playoff lives and needed a win to get into the playoffs well guess what happened white caps get red carded they fight valiantly but ultimately lose 2-1 to Dallas Dallas at the final whistle explodes into celebration that they not only

snuck into the playoffs but snuck in as the number seven seed in the West. And guess what that means? Dallas booked a first round matchup with your Vancouver White Cap. So as it sits right now, Dallas and Vancouver will again do battle. Next Sunday, it's a 4 o'clock kickoff from BC Place,

a best of three series to decide who will go on to the next round of the playoffs. And it's a Dallas team that at one point this season was sitting 13th in the Western Conference. Do we know when that series is? Like, do we know when the games are? Yes. Okay.

Did they just announce that? Because of yesterday, I was, like, looking at the schedule. I couldn't find it. Sunday, October 26, 4.30. The first game is going to be at B.C. place. Okay. Then the second game will be Saturday, November 1st, at Toyota Stadium, and Dallas. So there's going to be six days between games.

And it's a best of three. There's no aggregate. There's no home goals. There's no away goals. Every match has a winner. So if you're tied at the end of regulation, you go to a shootout. If a third game is required necessary, It will be back at BC Place Friday, November 7th.

No motocross, nothing. Nothing. Okay. BC Place has the dates available. They are ready to go. Ooh, we got Monster Truck. Sorry, guys. So I will see a lot of things with this White Caps team in the coming week.

Weeks, sorry. We will find out the health of all these players that have been out for an extended period of time if they'll be ready for the playoffs. Laborta is obviously going to miss the first match now because of his red card and they needed him at centerback. But it was kind of an unfortunate end of the season, if we're being honest, because they sold out the lower bowl at BC Place. People were expecting this team to have an opportunity to finish tops in the West. It was kind of ripped away from them. What did you think of the red card?

I didn't think it was a red card at all. I thought the referee who gave it a yellow on the field clearly had the opportunity to give a red and then rescind it, but he started with a yellow. I thought that was the right decision to begin with. The VAR took over two and a half minutes, and it felt like one of those video reviews where they were looking for a reason. to make a call as opposed to it being clear and obvious. And then what happens?

He gets called over to the replay screen, and then he makes, does he make the call? But he's kind of under pressure, right? If he's called over there, bingo, right? Then he's like got the hint that, oh, someone thinks that this deserves an extra luck.

The fourth official thought it was more serious than the yellow card. That's what happens. So the ruling wasn't necessarily like the viciousness of the hit, because it wasn't a vicious hit. It was that an obvious, scoring chance was taken away. Dogscoe, denying obviously goal, denying obvious

goal scoring opportunity. Okay, he still, didn't he, it wasn't like he had a breakaway there. There was going to be white caps that were going to cut, that were going to run in there and cut it off. The debate was that Laborta technically could have been considered the last man and that he was past Laborta. He could have been considered the last man

if the assumption was that the white caps would give up. Well, if you look at, look, the forward was behind Laborta, for sure. Like, I'll give him that. Like, Laborna made a tackle from behind. I thought it was reckless because, as you mentioned, if you were to look at the match unfold, there would have been players in cover.

They were tracking back furiously to get there. But it didn't feel like a tackle he needed to make in the 11th minute of a match. I mean, even if you don't think it was yellow, and I don't think it was, it was risky. It was risky because he knew that he was one of the last defenders. And you put yourself in a situation where you leave it up to the officials. Okay, white caps, lions, we will do our. best later in the week to catch up with you. But there's a lot of other stuff going on. We haven't even mentioned the baseball. We've been through the first segment. We decided the

first segment's going to be Vancouver teams. We made the executive decision before. We're going to go Canucks. We're going to mention the White Caps and Lions, even if we don't talk about them a long time. And then we're going to talk about the baseball game seven of the ALCS coming up today. And we will also dip into the Dunbar Lumber Text line, 650-6-50 Metro Vancouver's Trusted Choice for contractors and runner Warriors for over 50 years.

Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com. Huge show, crazy show. Lots of stuff to discuss on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to remind you and tell you that this segment of the show is brought to you by the chat room at Tyrant Studios.

Join Joe Leary and special guests this Sunday afternoon at 12 noon for Vancouver's coolest talk show. The chat room at Tyrant Studios here 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 postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. The kick in the 1-1. Swing and a laser Left field and deep

seeking toward the ballpan Good! Placotta Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 5-0-0-Blu-Jays in the fifth. 634 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody.

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We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. This is the 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Okay.

I have a trivia for for you. Okay. How many Blue Jays have at least 10 hits in the postseason? Hmm. I know Ernie Clement's one. Ernie has out hit the Brewers

from last round. The stat specifically, let's just be clear. The stat is that over the course of this postseason, Ernie Clement has as many hits, right? 14 as the Brewers had in the entire NLCS, which is shocking. Anyway, Ernie's one. He has 17. I

I think the Brewers have 14, something like that. Ernie's one, Vladdy's one. Yeah, that's two. Nathan Lucas? Yep, he's got 12. Two more. And by the way, there's three guys with nine hits. Like, that's how, that's...

Hold on, hold on, hold on. I should have said at least nine, because then there are eight of them. Who else, Laddie? Jump in here. Help me. Springer. Springer. Springer has 10 hits. Yeah. Yeah.

And then I'll give you the last one, Dalton Varshot. I was going to say maybe Varsha. And then like, Barger. Jimenez and Captain Kirk have nine hits. And this just comes from the reason I looked this up is Mike texted in an early what we learned. He said the Mariners pitching was supposed to be their advantage, but the Jay's bats from top to bottom don't seem to care who is pitching.

I've never watched a baseball team and felt like anyone in the lineup can get a hit. And this is without Bo Bouchet. The bats have not been an issue for the. the Blue Jays, aside from game one of this series, which, by the way, has been the only close game in this series. And despite that, it's still been an amazing series. So let's recap here. Yesterday, Game 6 in Toronto, one of the guys with double-digit hits, Vladimir Guerrero

Jr. hits his sixth home run of the postseason. Trey Yassavage strikes out seven, and the Blue Jays forced to game seven in the ALCS by beating the Meriters 6-2. Here's the final call from Dan Shulman, putting a bow on game six and setting up tonight's unbelievably exciting game seven. Popped up.

Flamant is there. And there will be a seventh and deciding game in the American League Championship series tomorrow night after the Blue Jays play a great game in all aspects of the game. led by their 22-year-old rookie, Trey is Savage.

They win 6 to 2, and it's one game tomorrow night to go to the World Series. Tomorrow night is tonight, and take a moment here just to appreciate what we've been able to do, both like on a work level, but also from like sports fandom, that aspect. Just being able to go through this series and watch it and experience it, because you know you watch sports long enough and the older that you get you're like I kind of seen it I've seen everything right every game feels like the rest like it's another

death march for the Canucks but every now and again yeah something pops up where you're like wow I'm actually witnessing history and you know what it became official yesterday when my mom texted me go Jays there you go it is official

and past the mum threshold you know I was in hockey rinks uh over the weekend watching the boy play and we had a game last night at 5 o'clock out in Richmond, Minoru, good arena. And, like, everyone was there to watch their kids, yes, but they also had a phone there. Sure. Watching the games. And by the way, we ran into the lagging problem again.

Like, everyone had different feeds going on. I was slow this time, and I had guys sitting behind me. So how many double plays did the Mariners hit into? Three. Three? Three. Like, and key double. plays too so all I heard behind me was like another one they did it again anyway like

I think to your point like this series whether you're cheering for the Mariners or the blue jays or you're a neutral observer has really caught the attention of basically everyone absolutely delivered absolutely it has been awesome it's almost like wait a minute like is this for the world series no it's not It's not because the Dodgers are very much waiting. Can I also point out that it's been super dramatic, super intense, super theatrical, despite the fact not a single game has been decided by less than two runs. Yeah.

Outside of game one, none of the, like, ends of the game have been particularly close. I know Friday night and there were late heroics from the Mariners, but that was in the eighth and then the ninth kind of went. They were done. this is the first time the Mariners and the Jays have ever met in the playoffs. This is the first time that the Mariners are going to play a game 7

in franchise history. It's the second time the Jays are going to play a game 7 in franchise history and the last time they did it was in 1985 against the Royals, which means, and I mentioned this off the top, one of these organizations is going to win a game 7 for the

first time in its history. And their history predates when I was born. These teams are older than I am. and they've been around for a long time. So to be able to witness it and work through it and watch the games and live with the highs and the lows, it's been so much fun. I'm so glad that it delivered because the NLCS was awful.

It was boring. Well, the Otani game made up for it. That will be remembered forever. That'll be remembered forever, but it also came against an opponent that was DOA when they showed up for that game. Yeah, for sure. I'm not trying to take away from what Otani did.

But the Brewers were mentally and physically done. going into that game. They were cooked. Even they were like, that's a long home run. That was pretty cool. This guy is pretty good. Serve him up another meatball.

See if he can hit three. So this has been great. Tonight is theater. Like, you've got to understand. This is a rarity in baseball. My buddies and I were texting back and forth last night. There have only been 21 game sevens

in the history of the ALCS and the, NLCS. This doesn't happen that often. You got to go back and you look at some of the great, great, you know, iconic. Well, they were Best of Fives, weren't they? Up until 1985. Yeah, yeah. And it was. And then they changed the rules to screw the Js

because in 85 they blew a 3-1 series lead. They'd already won a Best of Five. That was an incredible postseason as well, by the way, because the Royals went down 3-1 to the Js in the ALCS, won it, went down 3-1 to the cards in the World's

series won it. Yep. That was the Don Denkinger series. He was the first base umpire with the controversy he'll call in 85. Anyway. Clearly an out. Yeah. So this is great.

Like you go back and you look at some of the great memories that have been forged in like the ALCS like Aaron Boone in 03 at game seven, 11th inning walkoff against the Red Sox. And then the year later, the socks come back from 03 down and they force the game seven in the ALCS to go to the World Series. I'm not trying to over-hype because there is a possibility that tonight's game could be like the rest of them where it's not this really tight finish or you get the dramatics at the end. It could be really one-sided like some of these other games. But overall, for a series in which we had always wished what happened but never thought we'd get to see, it happened.

And then the two teams were like, we're going to force this right to game seven. No, the Jays and the Mariners did play in a series, but it wasn't like this. It wasn't the LCS or wasn't the Bust of 7. Not like this. This is the first real time that these two have played in the playoffs. I mean, I know that they faced off in the wild card. And I'm sure people are texting in right now. But this is the first time they played in the Besta 7.

First time that they went head to head in the ALCS, first time that these two rivals, especially here in Vancouver with how unique the situation is, that they were facing each other with a shot to go to the World Series. Yeah, Tyler the Pepper guy is all over you. Tyler the Pepper guy? He's got a little pepper. He's got a little pepper in them this morning.

Can we talk about Vladdy for a sec? Because I went into this postseason And this is just kind of old-manish to say like I don't know if Vladdy's a winner You know and I and I just you know Is he the guy that's going to step up in the big moments Is he a serious ballplayer We all know he's talented

Incredibly talented We all know he seems to be a pretty good guy But is he a winner and Laddie, you'll remember how Vladdy was looking down the stretch and then Bobauchette went out and you're like, ooh, you know? You're just saving his bullets. But the rest of the lineup is going to have to step up. No, but like two things happen for the Jays.

The rest of the lineup stepped up, but also Vladdy took off. And he really set the tone with the home run and his first at bat. He now has six home runs. and two strikeouts. That's incredible. Yeah. That's incredible. The first strikeout was like three feet outside.

He got rung up. He's been. So he's been pretty locked in, I'd say. He's been phenomenal. Their bats have been really good. So you mentioned earlier all the guys that have 10 plus hits, right? The 7-8-9 hitters for the Js in this series have four home runs, 12 RBI, and eight extra base hits. Now, a large part of that was Barger hit seventh yesterday.

And he showed up. Like, he had had a tough postseason, I would say. prior to this but he was very good and I okay now the Mariners part of this they had to be so frustrated with how they played yesterday because that was

really sloppy ineffective baseball they got to look back on game six with major disappointment but you know what like this whole I think we talked about this with God who do we talk we talked about it with someone last week and I asked the question is like is the upper hand

almost a bad thing to have in this series? Think about how it started. Game one, the Jays had the upper hand because they were hosting, they were arrested. The Mariners had just played that 15-inning clincher against Detroit. They had a perceived upper hand, though. They had a perceived upper hand.

They felt like everything- The upper hand is always perceived. That's what I'm saying. In reality, you could have made the argument that the Mariners going into that game one, like they were riding on adrenaline. And game two, they were riding on it as well. And they were playing with a level of confidence.

in those two games that I haven't seen replicated really in the rest of the series. I know that if you're betting on this series, if you're betting on this series and just in terms of perception, because that's what you do when you bet, you don't have crystal ball. It's all perception. How many games would have gone as you expected? I would have said maybe yesterday. Maybe yesterday. Because the Js were the desperate team and they were at home.

Yep. Right? That's offensive. That's a very good call. Maybe yesterday, but the other ones, I mean, four of them that started out with four straight away team wins. So maybe you would have gone game five and game six. That's like, okay, that's the way it'll go. However, speaking of game five, the decision by John Schneider and the way he handled his bullpen.

Yeah. What did you think about that? Because, I mean, you talk about the upper hand, right? How were Jay's fans feeling after game five? I know there were a lot of people like, Schneider just lost them the series. Well, it's not lost. They got a game to win it tonight. But the feeling of Jay's fans after that game was low.

Not only because of the loss, it was like they felt that was a completely avoidable situation that they found themselves in. Um, it was a, it was a bad call. Laddie, do you want to weigh in, you're nodding. Do you want to weigh in on this one? Well, I wish to think about how that. As the Jayziest fan of all of us, the Jays fans, what did you think? Well, it just, it made me kind of angry after, when the dust settled after yesterday, because it was like, well, if things went better in, right, game five, then that's a close-out game.

That's the way it should have been, right? The Hoffman comes in, gets through the exact same part of the order. It kind of left a bad taste of my mouth. Still, even after the win yesterday. Okay, that's interesting. Because I was wondering if yesterday was going to alleviate some of the anger and erase some of the frustrations. No, because there's still so much left hanging in the air with this game seven.

Schneider got really defensive too. He was like, he was pulling the like, I don't come to your work and judge you. I'm like, I don't think that works like that. Actually, that one time, John. Yeah. I mean, you're a baseball manager. And you just made a decision that, look, it wasn't even. hindsight.

I had a text thread with a buddy who was a huge Jay's fan at the game, and he was like, what is Schneider doing? And there are all these anecdotal evidence of, or anecdotal stories of people saying, like, you know, Jay's fans and Mariners fans talking to each other at the game, and them going like, when Little came in, they're like, congratulations, John Schneider just handy to you the game. And the Mariners fans were like, what? Like, is this guy bad?

It was like, yeah. I was watching the game with a buddy, and I vividly remember they came right back from a commercial, and he goes, okay, Hoffman time. And they cut to the pitching mound, and it was Brendan Little warming up. And we both kind of turned to each other, going, what is this? And it was before anything it happened? Why do you think he did that? Do you think he did it almost as like, was he trying to prove a point?

Was he trying to, because he kind of made some comments after he's just like, I trust all my players. I'm like, yeah, but you shouldn't. It was his guy. He made the call. And what a move it was. And then there's all the conspiracy theories is like, did John Schneider really make that call?

There was the explanation. I don't believe any of that. I trust all my players. Even the bad ones. Yeah, yeah, right? I trust them all. It's like, it's like the lie that parents say, I love all my children equally, right?

We know that's not true. After the game, it would have been a great story. Some of them don't deserve the love. It would have been a great story. John could have been like, I had a hunch. I went with my guy and he got it done. And that's kind of what he was going for, but we all saw how it worked out.

The explanation was not have worked out to work. His explanation was he wanted that part of the lineup to see different guys. That was the, because Little hadn't pitched since game one. So, no, I'm not. We should have brought you in, then. Yeah, that's your different guy. Hadn't seen me all serious. It's got a bit of an unusual delivery.

47 mile hour of meat. But you know what? We'll give him a shot. But, like, I'm not buying these. I'm not buying that explanation. I think it's ridiculous. Like, we just wanted to give him a different look. It's like, why don't you give him a different look with a better pitcher?

Hey, there's an idea. Yeah. But so it's funny now. Game five, the referendum on game five happens tonight because win, nobody cares. Everyone laughs about it. They're like, ah, remember when you put in Little? Well, you managed to escape that.

Lose. Do you think he'd be after, if the Jays win tonight, he'll be like, yeah, that was a huge mistake. I got a little defensive about it, but we're on to the World Series now. I don't think he'll be saying that. Yeah, he waits until after they either win or lose the World Series to say that.

Little tear down, Little's eyes. Little tear for Little. I just love this time of year, though, how every decision is so scrutinizing. We get it in hockey, too, and it's the Stanley Cup final and every goal that goes in just gets hyper-analysed and every decision in baseball

when it gets to this point in the year. And there's so many of those little decisions throughout a game and they all get hyper-analyzed and it's great. I love it. Did you even watch any NFL over the weekend? Oh yeah, tons.

I did not do a lot yesterday. Oh, yeah, I did not do a lot yesterday. I got up nice and early, watch Manu in Liverpool while also watching me. Liverpool. Four losses in a row. Yep. Arne Slote is in trouble.

And I also watched the early game because I was up, the Rams and Jaguars. I don't know if you saw that. Rams pumped them, didn't they? No Pooka Nukua and Matt Stafford still threw for five touchdowns, which is amazing. Anyway, so I was up. I was watching a bunch of NFL, and it was, it was an okay morning slate, nothing great. The Broncos comeback, and we'll get into this with Mike Tanier on the other side.

The Broncos comeback in their game against the Giants on Sunday afternoon was one of the most improbable things I've ever seen in sports. They went three quarters, having not scored a single point. They were being shut out. They were down 19-0-0 in that game, and they scored 33 points in the fourth quarter. They were down 19. They were also down two with 37 seconds left. It was unbelievable.

It was a tough day to be a Giants fan because Daniel Jones keeps winning games for the Colts. That is something that I think we're going to be forced to pay attention to. We've had 10 here on the show before. I've asked him, I was like, are you buying stock in Daniel Jones? He's like, no, not yet. Very dismissive. He's been very dismissive. Should we follow up?

Should we every week? Should we just be like, okay, do you believe in them now? We got the receipts, Mike. We got the receipts. We should also probably at some point try and spend a little bit more time talking about what the ABC Lions did over the weekend. We did, you know, run down the Caps thing pretty thoroughly. And in part, the caps are a little bit more front of mind because their playoffs start next Sunday, as opposed to the Lions. And there was a controversial play.

Yeah. But the Lions have won five straight. What Nathan Rourke is doing at. quarterback and what the defense is able to do now too. I mean, five wins on the trot, going in with this kind of momentum, you've got to put them maybe not necessarily at the top because there's some very good teams at top the West standings, right? Yeah.

One in particular, I think they're second best easily right now. And who knows about Saskatchewan. The CFL is such a funny league because you mentioned this time and time again. It doesn't necessarily matter what you're doing the first half of the season. if you get hot late and you go into the playoffs on a run, you almost become a more dangerous team because you've like saved your good football for the second half of the season. Do the Lions win the Grey Cup one year when they started at 015?

Yeah, and that's a thing. This year, there were times where I'm like, there's no way you can win a Grey Cup with that defense, but that defense has slowly and steadily approved to the point where now they're looking pretty good on a five-game win streak going into next week. Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough show on Sports Night 650. I mentioned the Lions because this segment of the show is brought to you by the BC Lions.

It's another season of hard hit. hits heated rivalries and nonstop entertainment. For tickets, visit BCLions.com and get ready to roar as one. Hour one of the program is in the books. Hour two is on the horizon. Mike Tanier is going to join us at 7 for some NFL talk. And then at 7.30, Zach Worden, SportsNet Associate Editor and Blue Jays writer is going to join us as we look ahead to tonight's massive game seven in the ALCS. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.