Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Lions & Whitecaps Both Move On!

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Too Deep Zone NFL insider Mike Tanier (2:25) about a busy Week 9 that saw the surprising Seahawks win a big one over the Commanders to move to 6 and 2, the boys talk big playoff wins for both the BC Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps over the weekend, that sees both squads move on to the next round, plus they also dive into a disappointing Canucks loss in Minnesota on Saturday. (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.

7.5 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody, Halford, Brab, Sportsnet, 650. This track, courtesy, Greg Ballack, who says the vibes need to be higher on a Monday. I don't disagree, Greg. Been too low today. I don't know why. Don't know why. You're doing remarkably well.

Are you in some sort of denial or what's going on? I've been paying, you guys. I've been paying. You are listening to the Halperd & Brough Show on Sports Night 650. Halpernbrough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are now in our two of the program.

Mike Tanny, our NFL insider from the two-deep zone is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Our two is brought to by Jason hominock at Jason dot mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason Dow Mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, footwear and orthotics working together with you and step. We're kicking off hour two with some exciting news as well. A concert announcement, everybody, not just an announcement, but a Halford and Brough classic contest. Guess who's coming to town? Thursday August 16th of 2026. The answer, ACDC. That's right. They're back in Vancouver. Thursday, August 16th at BC Place.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday, but we here at the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650 are giving away a pair of tickets every day this week to see ACDC next August. How do you win them, you might ask? Easy. Be caller number five at 8 a.m. this morning. The number 604-280650. That number again, 604-280-0-650. If you want to win tickets to see ACDC next August, that's Thursday, August 16, 2026, be caller number 5 at 8 a.m. We're going to be doing it every day this week. Let's go now to the phone lines, as mentioned.

Our next guest is our NFL insider from the two deep zone. Mike Taney, you're here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you? I'm doing great. ACDC. It sounds phenomenal. They've already been through town and it was

then they're coming back. When we got the concert announcement, I was like, is this a repeat from the last back? Yeah, they're coming back. It's amazing. And they're just going to keep doing it and doing it. It is great. Yeah. A reminder, 8 a.m. is the call on this morning for all of our listeners. Where are the Seahawks now on your power

rankings? Because I wonder if a lot of people watched that game last night and we're like, wait a minute, these guys might be legitimate Super contenders. Right. I think a lot of people might have been seeing

the Seahawks were the first time or maybe for the first time since the San Francisco opener and that was a different team so to speak and getting the dawning reality that these guys are for real

and on a week where the Colts didn't look for real and some other teams didn't look for real. The Seahawks did. So I'll say this. I think the bills are the best team in the NFL

and I think most people would be like, yeah, yeah, that's a pretty safe pick. The bills are the best team in the NFL. I think the Seahawks might be second and I think they're definitely the best team in the NFC right now

better pound for pound than the lions better pound for pound than the Eagles because of their physicality because of the way they execute and because they can win these games in all three phases offense defense and special teams I think the question that we had a lot over the last few years

whether it was Gino Smith at quarterback or would you bring in Sam Darnold you're like yeah those guys are like they're not bad I mean Gino wasn't bad for the Seahawks. He was a good story for them. And then they bring in Sam Darnold and you're like, yeah, he's, he's good. He's fine, he's fine, but is he good enough to win a Super Bowl with?

And he kind of turned into a pumpkin in the playoffs last year with Minnesota. And I guess Seahawks fans are just kind of, I don't know, I personally like, I like him. He's been very good. But then I wonder, like, is he good enough to win a championship with? what are your thoughts on Sam Darnold? Well, you know, there's a couple questions folks could ask, like, how good is Jalen Hertz really

for the Eagles? When you look at him day and day out, he's not Patrick Mahomes, he's not Josh Allen, he's not Lamar Jackson, there's a different tier, and he wins. And then you could go back

and ask another uncomfortable question, like how good was Russell Wilson, really back then, how much of it was, you know, him making plays, but you had Beast Mode and the Legion of Boom

and everything else like that. There's other ways to win the Super Bowl if the quarterback is good enough. Now, for a guy like Sam Donald, we always talk about quarterbacks of football outsiders, we would say there's the quarterback you win because of, like Mahomes, there's a quarterback you can win with, and I would say that's like a Jalen Hartz.

And then there's the quarterbacks you win despite, and despite quarterbacks might have been like Gino Smith late in his tenure last year when things weren't going as well. Donald is in that win-with category. you can win a Super Bowl with him, just like you could win a Super Bowl with Jared Goff. It's just a matter of you have to see it to recognize it and for it to be manifest.

So Brock Purdy is another guy. He almost won a Super Bowl with Brock Purdy. How good is he right now? Mack Jones seems to be able to do the same thing. Donald's in that category. He can take this team that far. It's a matter of Jackson Smith and Jigba and the offensive line

and all the guys on defense and Witherspoon playing around him to give him the supporting cast he needs. Is this also maybe a thought, exercise or maybe proof of concept, even go that far, that it has a lot to do with the quarterback, sure, but when you find an offensive coordinator that can tailor a game plan to a quarterback's strengths, these are the kind of things that you can get. Right. You need the scheme in place.

You need a coordinator like Kuback. And I was watching Kevin O'Connell with McCarthy yesterday. And these coordinators who make it easier for the quarterback, there's going to be two tight ends, there's going to be play action. You're going to have a rollout. We're going to do that a lot. It's going to be common. It's going to be what we do.

I think Stuyken has been doing that with Daniel Jones. Now, it helps when everything's in coordination. The defense is getting stops. So guess what? You've got the lead. We don't have to go into like emergency mode and have four wide receivers on the field and be throwing downfield. You know, we're getting positive plays on first down.

Hey, it's second and three. You can do anything. We can hand off. If you throw the ball away, we have third and three. It's fine. All those things working in harmony are what you. you need. The Seahawks have that right now. But a lot of times, like Donald's Jets a couple years ago, like all these bad teams, you never get those pieces in place. So the quarterback

looks terrible, even though the quarterback might have the skills he need to succeed, given a better environment. You know, I was watching that game or the end of that game yesterday, and it kind of brought me back to, actually all the way back to, I guess it was 2012 when the Seahawks beat Washington in the playoffs. And that was, was that RJ3's rookie season, right? and he had the injury in the playoff game. And at that point, you know, Washington fans were really excited about their team for the first time in a while. And now I'm thinking about the Seahawks just put a drubbing on Washington in Washington.

And the commanders fans were really excited about Jane and Daniels. And, I mean, they made it to the conference final last year. And now things are, I guess, kind of back to Washington. I mean, I feel awful for Jane and Daniels. Daniels with that injury. What can you say about the commanders? Thank you, because I was literally writing up things about the similarities between Robert Griffin and Jane Daniels,

and I forgot that injury happened against the Seahawks. Yeah. In Washington, in that game, the field was chewed up. I don't think the field was shoot up, but it was a situation where he was left out there too long, where I think it was clear that nothing was getting done. And you have a quarterback that was coming off injuries anyway. I look at that. I look at how Carson Wentz was like, you know, used to the point where he was just,

his body was destroyed because they didn't want to put the third stringer out there a couple weeks ago. I'm watching Jackson Dart go out there and take hits. And Brian Dable, of course, was poking his head in the medical tent a couple weeks ago. The league has to hit some of these coaches with like $250,000, $500,000 fines. They've got to warn these coaches. It's like, if this is a lost cause game, if you've got a banged up quarterback, we incentivize you to get that backup out there because we're watching.

year. Now, in this case, I wouldn't be surprised if, say, Cliff Kingsbury, the office coordinator, loses his job at the end of the season, because he lost Daniels in this game. Quinn might be safe because Quinn has a good representation, but I think guys like Dable, he's going to lose his job pretty soon, and part of it

was, well, you didn't protect Dart well enough. That's how the coaches are punished for these mistakes, but I think it has to be more than that because they're getting a little cute with, hey, backup quarterback, hey, injured starter, keep going out there, keep going out there, keep going out there, what happens, and they're rolling dice, and they're impacting careers.

Takeaways from the Bill's 28-21 victory over the Chiefs. You know, it was the Bill's 28-21 regular season victory over the Chiefs. We have one every year, don't we? I think it was 30 to 21 last year. You know, it was 28, 24, something like that the year before. And obviously, the bills are great. And it's silly to say nothing matters because we have. have to wait till mid-January, but nothing matters.

You have to wait until mid-January and see if it's Bill's Chiefs again and see if the bills are there, who has home field advantage, et cetera. And that's a blessing and it's a curse. It's a curse because I think those fans look at that game and say, what can we really take away from that? We do this every year. What can we take away from it? The blessing is, you know, it's great to be able to say, hey, most of the regular season

doesn't matter because we're going to be in the playoffs anyway. Let's get there. And I think that's where we are with the Buffalo Bills. They look like they look in this time of year. They've erased their upsets a couple of weeks ago, and now they have to keep building because we know they can beat the Chiefs in the regular season, and it doesn't seem to matter come January.

We're speaking to Mike Tanier, our NFL Insider from the Two Deep Zone here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Mike is a presentation of the Clayton Public House. This league makes no sense. I just want to get that out there right now, that every week there's about four or five results to make no sense whatsoever.

The Vikings beating the Lions, despite being a nine and a half, 10 point dog. The Panthers beating the Packers, despite being a two touchdown dog. I mean, it just... Panthers are five and four now. I know. And they got absolutely destroyed last week.

Like, none of it makes sense. I do want to start with the Vikings, though, because the story of the week was, well, Carson Wentz is done with a season-ending injury. Now we go back to J.J. McCarthy, what to expect. McCarthy lives, as you wrote. Walk us through it here. Vikings 27 Lions 24. McCarthy lives and he plays a good game.

Kevin O'Connell calls a really, really good game. You know, quietly, and the no one was talking about the, all of the Vikings' offensive linemen who've been hurt for weeks got healthy. Left tackle Darisaw, who's been in the other games, he was healthy. Right tackle O'Neill was healthy. The rookie Donovan Jackson was healthy at guard. So McCarthy had the full compliment around him. He had a good offensive line.

He had Justin, Jefferson, Jordan Adams, T.J. Hawkins, and Aaron Jones. It worked, and it worked the way it was supposed to work. And he looked good. The flip side of that is I was stunned for a Lions team coming off a by with Dan Campbell as their head coach looking as unprepared, unphysical, and like out of sorts as they did in that game. Committing penalties on both sides of the ball, execution errors on both sides of the ball, third and eight, they're running screen passes, they're taking sacks, they're making all kinds of fundamental mistakes. I know that Campbell is showing some guys out this week for what happened. but all credit to the Vikings, they're in a position where they could make a run. The Colts, let's go there.

They're three-point favorites against a Steelers team coming off a disappointing loss. And then all we've seen from the Colts this year is good, sound discipline. Football, they don't turn the ball over. And then Daniel Jones, three picks, two strip sex. I think they turned the ball over six times yesterday, which is wildly uncharacteristic from what they did all year. So my question here is, like, is this the first sign of a weakness or a little bit of a dent in the armor for Daniel,

Jones and the Coulter, could they make this one an aberration and get back to their winning ways? You know, it's a dent in the armor. It's a course correction. You know, it's seven and two, and you can look at that and say, okay, now we have a good sense of what might happen. They face the Chiefs. When they face the Seahawks in 15, in Week 15, they're probably not strong enough to go out there against those opponents.

What I saw was they were playing very well early, then they had a muffed punt, which led to a score. Then they did have one strip sack by T.J. he's going to do that sometimes, and it leads to a score. And it looks like the Colts as a team had a little bit of a crisis, confidence crisis. They stopped handing off. They started rushing on offense. I think the play calling got into crisis mode.

I think the execution got into crisis mode. Next thing you know, Daniel Jones is having flashbacks to playing for the Giants. And so what I think the Colts need to do, we know that when they're cruising with a lead, they can stay balanced, hand off the tailor, throw short passes, maintain that lead, control the clock and win. They've done that against bad opponents. They've done that against pretty good opponents. They've got to show, what can we do if we're trail on 14-7, 14-3?

If Daniel Jones, that guy who can elevate us, or is he going to go back to being the guy who hands a lot of strip sacks and interceptions over to the defense? Do the Denver Broncos ever win a normal game, or do they just constantly have to have these kind of last-minute wins? I'd love to get your thoughts on the Broncos.

I haven't had a chance to watch them much. Their games are often low-scoring games. I've got a great defense. Just your thoughts on the Broncos. You know, their defense is phenomenal. They lead the NFL in sacks on defense, and they give up the fewer sacks on offense

because they play that super conservative offense. So it turns these games into really boring, really weird, you know. And then in the fourth quarter, things do go haywire like they did against the Giants. But I think they're a strong team overall. I think they've proven themselves on some pretty, tough test. The Texans are a pretty tough test. Eagles are a pretty tough test. They've won

some games along the way. They're not going to be in first place. By the end of the season, the Chiefs are going to come up and take them. If the Chiefs keep stumbling, the Chargers might come up and take them. But this is a fundamentally sound team. Their defense is going to keep them in every game.

They're going to find ways to win a few more games. It's just, they're one or two players on offense away from really being a serious challenger to the top teams in the IFC. Well, the Broncos next opponent, is the Las Vegas Raiders and I mean does Pete does Pete just walk away from this probably not but like like did could he could you say I mean what you walk away midseason no no he's not he's not going to just walk away in those air marks or whatever he's got and just

just to jump I'm done just to jump in did you so after the game they went the end of that game was they scored a touchdown late they went for the two point conversion to win as opposed to tie by kicking the extra point. In the post game, they threw back to the panel, and Julian Edelman was on the panel. And like, what did you think about the call? He's like, well, I'm not surprised Pete went for it with a pass at the goal line. And everyone

was like, oh, man, like there's another dagger right now. That was right there for him. Yeah. So I don't know, take it away, Mike. What does Pete Carroll do now? I'm picturing, like, the desert in Vegas and Pete Carroll's hitchhiking out of town. I'm picturing that like the old Incredible Hulk show with the

music, da, da, da, da, da, and he's like hitchhiking out of time. But I can see Pete Carroll walking away from this at the end of the season, you're absolutely right. When he talks after the games, he sounds disheartened, he doesn't like the way this is going. You know, he's going to get phone calls from LSU and Penn State and places like that. And it's like, I could take college, you know, acting like a king and then like doing Rawa-Raw-Rash speeches, these guys.

Why am I going through this? It's a tough situation because that was the winnable game. game where the Raiders played pretty well against the mistake prone opponent and if they're not going to win a game like that no they're not going to beat the Broncos moving forward and it's just could be more misery for Gino for Pete Carroll and they keep bringing they brought Tyler rocket back in it's like they keep bringing in I know the old Seahawks so go on guys don't do this to yourselves don't retire go go open a you know a bar someplace don't do this to yourself Mike thanks buddy that was that was a lot of fun

We were kind of inundated with the World Series and up in Canada this weekend. So I appreciate you watching the NFL for us. I watch you. You don't have to. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. You got to take care and enjoy your week. You too. Mike Taney, our NFL Insider, from the two deep zone here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.

Okay, so the first hour was all baseball. And then we had Mike on, as we do, every Monday, to recap the NFL. We got an open segment on the other side before we, we get to sat in the 8 o'clock hour, talk a little Canucks. So in this next half hour, we're going to go through the local teams, okay? At the beginning of the show,

we had to perform a bit of sports radio triage, and we gave the Blue Jays the whole first hour. But the Lions had a big win. I thought they were going to blow it, but they came through in the end. The Whitecaps had a big win. and the Vancouver Canucks had a loss in Minnesota

and they play again tonight in Nashville. Quinn Hughes was back at practice yesterday so I expect we'll see him and back in the lineup. Not sure about Connor Garland. It doesn't sound like he's going to be back. But the Canucks, they got some issues. So we'll get into that on the other side

of the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. And before we go to break, I do need to do the one to watch tonight, brought to you by Limitless AV, Vancouver's most trusted audio visual integration experts. Jason kind of tipped us off to who tonight's one to watch is going to be. It's going to be Quinn Hughes, assuming he draws back into the lineup. He did return to practice yesterday in Nashville,

and everyone assumes that he will make his return to the lineup tonight after missing the last four games. You have to go all the way back to October 25th, that Saturday game against the Habs of 4-3 loss for the last time that Quinn Hughes suited up for the Vancouver Canucks. He did have a pair of assists in that one, and they could use those tonight because the offense has dried up to a certain degree. So Quinn Hughes, your one to watch tonight as the Canucks get back into action, 5.30 puck drop in Nashville

against the Predators. One to watch, as mentioned, brought to you by Limitless AV, Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts, specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid workspaces. Book your personalized tour of their experience center today at limitlessav.

You're listening to the Alfred Inbrough show on Sportsnet, 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 732 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody, Halford Brough, SportsNet 650. Halford Brub of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start.

Visit them online of sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour two of the program with the midway point of the show. Open segment here on the Halford & Brub Show on Sportsnet 650. Our two is brats by Jason Hominock at Jason. Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around and find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Dot Mortgage. We got a text into the Dunbar Lumber text line. Nick in the Ridge asking what was your sports hierarchy over the weekend with all the games? And Nick says, for me, I watched the Lions game

and then right into the Jays where I flip between that and the white caps. game all of this while I forgot there was even a Canucks game on um that was that was mine I would say like I was uh I watched the Lions game okay um and then I had the caps game on a tablet and the Jays game on the TV and I once in a while flipped back to the Canucks game to see how they were doing but I mean look that's that's the way it should be I mean it was game seven of the World Series, and then you had the lines in a playoff game, and the White Caps in a playoff game, and

the Cinnocks were playing a game in Minnesota. Yep, Cinnocks fell into the four hole for me. They were batting cleanup. Yeah. They were batting fourth, and that's just the stakes involved. Yep, right? Jay's World Series, game seven, which I had asked for, by the way. Laddy's glaring.

You also ask for a Hoffman moment. We won't go there. I didn't ask for a Hoffman moment. I just kind of knew that it was hanging out there in the ether, and it might happen. I kind of ask for it. Before we move on, I do want to say that I think at some point, everyone will, and you might not like enjoy it or savor it, but you have gone through the apex of sports fandom.

Because sports fandom isn't always fun. It's not always supposed to be good and happy and joy. Right. I mean, here's the thing. It's like one of those things where it's like you can't hate someone unless you like in some way have like loved them or had the emotions high enough to go low. Right. in that game

you could not get any closer and I said this in the start you could not get any closer to winning a World Series it's not like they went back home and got absolutely dog walked in six and seven inches away

not making it feel any better but it's the pure fan sports essence of it all right that's what you live for and when you get that close it stings and it cuts like a knife and that's why you come back

in February for pitchers and catchers well the BZ line's very nearly blew it against the Calgary stampeters. And they win it on a walk-off field goal on, I would say like a weird drive, winning drive, because they started with a running play. And they had like 30 seconds left. I'm like, are they, what are they doing? Are they going for overtime? And then Nathan Rourke, I don't know if the plan was to try to trick the stampeters or maybe catch them napping, but like then they they threw two complete passes long ones and got themselves into field goal range and won the game but after the game Nathan Murrick I think echoed what a lot of people were thinking watching that game is like you guys are going to have to be a lot better if you want to go into

Saskatchewan and beat the rough riders because you know the stampeters are fine they're not they're not a bad team but they're not a great team and you had home field advantage and you didn't look you didn't look good you got to remember you don't look great you got to remember both those teams basically they mean they did they had identical records now they were going in different directions going into the playoffs that was the lion's seventh consecutive victory and the lions did have a 13 point lead midway through the third it was at that point I wouldn't say it was comfortable but they had enough of an edge where you're like it's going to take something remarkable from

calgary which they almost managed to pull off you're right though and I think the sentiment coming out of that game was good job you won and at the end of the day no one's going to argue with that but now you no longer have home field advantage you're going to play a I would say far superior opponent and the deck is going to be

stacked against you I don't know if the lion's already out on that game the betting line on that but I imagine the lions would probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of a I don't know five or six maybe get to a touchdown I don't know Nathan Rourke right yeah and Rourke was fine the numbers didn't jump off

the page by any stretch. Threw for 223. Accurate, but didn't throw the ball a ton. 16 to 23 passing. He scored a rushing touchdown. They did it in a bunch of different ways. Mazzoli got a touchdown. Robert Carter had that kickoff return touchdown.

White kicked a bunch of field goals. So it was kind of one of those games where they did enough things, good things to win a football game. But it was hardly like this, wow, look out for that team in the next round. The riders are three and a half point favorites. Yeah. Interesting. We're going to have a BC Lions guest on tomorrow.

So we'll start ramping up for that game in Saskatchewan as the week progresses. The White Caps dispatched of Dallas in a game there, I don't think they played very well either. Nope, but they got the job done. Yeah. And they did not have to play a third game in the best of three series. Thanks to Ralph Pryso, the heroics late, the third minute to stoppage time. He scores the equalizer on a scramble. a corner and then of course the white caps went on immediately to participate in a shootout because

that's how it works in mLS they won in the shootout they dispatched of dallas it was not a good performance but enough on the road to move on to the western conference semifinals and i think more importantly not have to play another game although i'm sure some fans would have loved to have seen another game at bc place they are going to get one because the white caps now take on and this is an incredibly formidable foe and what is going to be a star-studded mLS matchup uh lafc featuring their dynamic duo of denny bewanga and son up front i think they might get 40 000 at bc place for this game uh there's going to be a lot of people there to watch son so yesterday lafc punched its ticket late lafc was probably getting through they had led uh with one win at home they went to austin yesterday

and dispatch of austin 4-1 so once that was finalized the white caps put out some messaging including the fact that the upper bowl had already been opened yeah there'd already been 23 000 tickets sold Now that game, unfortunately. I think they're going to get a huge crowd for that game. Well, Jason, they're going to have a lot of time to build up that crowd because they don't play until November 22nd. Well, this schedule, the MLS Cup schedule is bizarre because I believe that after that there's an international break. Or are we on? Is the international break now?

Is that why there's a big break? Yeah, there's three weeks between games is because it overlaps with the international break. So they'll come back. It's not great. It's not great. But it does allow time for tickets to be sold. Like the Lions game, watching that game on TV, I was kind of like, oh, why did they open the upper deck?

Because it doesn't look like they needed to. Yeah. There's a lot of empty seats in the lower bowl. But they didn't have a ton of time to sell those tickets because the Lions only clinched home field advantage in the final week. And they ran up against a pretty tough weekend, if we're being honest. Oh, totally. You know?

Yeah, yeah. That was through. Like, are you going to go to the Lions game or you're going to stay home and watch the Jay's game? Right. Or the Canucks or the Caps or the Caps or? whatever else. Also, like, maybe you've got some sort of candy hangover from Halloween. You don't feel like venturing out in the middle of the afternoon. 2.30 kickoffs are never ideal. Whatever. Point is, they didn't have a ton of lead up time. The white caps do. Also for the caps,

this does give an opportunity for a lot more guys to get healthy. Yeah. Because they're not going to play for three weeks. So could we see the return of Brian White to the squad who hasn't played in forever? Does this mean that Tristan Blackman will be readily available? Because you are going to need help. at the centerback position with the way that L.AFC can attack. Would they go into this game as underdogs against LAFC even though they've got the... They're going in the favorite? I think because of the seed, because of the home field advantage, and the fact that... But a slight favorite, right?

A slight favorite. It'll be interesting to see where... I mean, I don't know how much MLS handle there is at local sports books. I'll be curious to see where the money would come in because you would oftentimes say, well, the star power would kind of lend itself to L.A.F. But the Whitecaps have that star power now. The Canucks had an optional practice yesterday in Nashville ahead of tonight's game against the Preds.

The big news at practice is that Quinn Hughes was back. I don't know if he's been officially given the nod to play tonight, but I would expect he is. So that's obviously great news for the Vancouver Canucks. They need more players back. Here's the bad news. The Canucks have scored five goals in their last three. three games.

Three by Kiefer Sherwood and two by Drew O'Connor which is great for those guys but bad for the guys who are supposed to do the scoring. Ilius Pedersen is pointless in his last three games and it certainly seems like he's missing

Connor Garland on his line he has eight points in 13 games. Eight points in 13 games. Yes he's good defensively. Okay? The Canucks pay him to produce offense as well. He has four points

at five on five. That's fewer points than Drew O'Connor has at five on five. Now, he's not alone among the laggards at five on five. Besser and Kane only have four points each. Jake DeBrusk, I don't know what's happened to that guy.

He has two assists at five on five. That's it. Listen, this is not entirely unexpected. This is exactly what we wondered about this Canucks team. I know they've had injuries. I realize it.

But we knew going into the season that the Canucks had two players that could drive play. We were confident in Quinn Hughes that he could drive play and Connor Garland that he could drive play. I'm talking about guys that consistently get the puck going in the right direction. I'm not talking about good finishers or even good passers. I'm talking about guys that make it happen out there. oftentimes these are guys that have talent but also a motor and they got the legs in the past peterson has done it and j t miller did it when he was here and at his best you cannot win with a bunch of complimentary players and that's what the canucks have right now especially up front bessor de brusk and cane are all complimentary players they're not going to thrive by themselves frankly peterson has become a compliment

offensive player at five on five. He still has some very useful skills, but he doesn't, for whatever reason, have the engine to drive play anymore. If you want to call it juice, you know, if you're Thomas Drance, you know, it's just, you just watch the games.

And now, if you put him with Garland at five on five, he can be useful with touch passes or when Garland turns pucks over. in the offensive end and feeds him for scoring chances. He can finish those. Pedersen's also been useful on the power play this season when the play slows down and he's got time with the puck. Is that combined with his defensive ability enough?

I think the Canucks expected him to be a lot more. And you can say you guys keep beating a dead horse. But the Canucks were banking on a return to form this season. And we're now 13 games in, and he's improved a little, sure. And we all go out of our way to celebrate the times when it looks like he's making progress. But let's be real here. This team, as it stands, is not going to keep Quinn Hughes in town. Yeah, I'll go in a similar tone, slightly different direction.

I think the next few weeks are going to be real fascinating not about the team and what they do on the ice but the response to this team in this market because I do not remember a time where there has been this much apathy around a start of a season for a Canucks team and I mean apathy in the most truest sense

where people are like, sure and just kind of shrugging at it. it seems like there seems to be a sense of fatigue that people can't even get worked up about the mediocrity or submediocrity of what's going on and the Pedersen thing and you said beating a dead horse I think that that's got to that point where the people that are in his corner are firmly in his corner and the people that are upset have almost like you know like a pooched out tire they're just they're flat and they're like I can't do it anymore like I'm not what's the point my heart wasn't in that what's the point and we are at a time

locally where somehow, somehow the white caps have vaulted into relevancy and have become an interesting, new, engaging, intriguing team that also has title aspirations. And the Lions are also there. The Lions have won seven games in a row. And consider the context. Like, we're kind of poking holes in the fact that the Lions hosted a Western semifinal and won it, where in the beginning of this year, the middle of this year, We would have been thrilled if they had done that. They've raised the bar in terms of what their expectations are. And then I'll circle back on the baseball only as a bit of evidence to this.

People now have a taste for what it means to be emotionally invested in a team that has a high ceiling, that has the chance to win something that is likable, and that is going out there to play the higher echelons of the league that they play in. And that's what you're looking at with the caps, with the lions. And for those that are Blue Jays fans, what you saw from the Blue Jays. and then you circle back to the local hockey squadron and you are, what are they, six and seven, right? They're 13 games into the season

and the most passionate talking point so far came from four dudes talking about a rebuild on this station. 13 games into a new season that we all coined as the referendum season for Quinn Hughes, whether he's going to stay or not. So what does that say? What does it say about where people's an emotional investment are in the team?

Even the people that are texting in for us to talk about talk about the Canucks. They're half-assed efforts at the best of times. One of them was like, can you talk about Tom Villander? I guess. I guess we can. But what is it going to do in the grand scheme? Now you're making a nice progression.

I'm happy that one of their draft picks looks like he's on the right trajectory. But I got to be dead honest with you. It doesn't feel like it matters. Yeah. It doesn't feel like it matters. There's a lot of... That's a problem. It feels like rearranging deck.

chairs on the Titanic when you've got Quinn Hughes who could make a decision to leave this team and Elias Pedersen, you know, not performing up to his contract, even though, yeah, he does some good things. But like the Canucks don't have a one seat right now. They don't. Look at the bar for one C, right? It's Nathan McKinnon. It's Connor McDavid. You know, you don't quite have to reach that level. Like, I don't think we expect him to reach that level, but. You know, I mean, I saw an article written over the weekend as it was about like, does Elias Pedersen deserve some Selky talk? No, he doesn't.

He's good defensively, but like don't even dare to put him in the conversation with a guy like Barkoff or Bergeron or Datsuk. He's not there. And it's, it all just feels really hollow. Like these conversations, you keep wait. A lot of it is talking yourself into like this team, you know, maybe they'll catch lightning in a bottle. Maybe everything will work.

And it's a lot of maybe. Dem go. And then you go, maybe. And like, I got it. I mean, I know that this past Saturday was a unique confluence of massive sporting moments where the Canucks would take a backseat. But I don't remember a time in the last decade where a game like that, a Saturday night game where they were like just irrelevant in the grand scheme.

And I watched some of that game. And it felt like a game that didn't really matter that much. You mentioned likable when it came to the Toronto Blue Jays. Okay, I'm just going to jump in. Sparky Stephen and Imo said, do you guys understand the injuries? Yes, Steve, that's not helping. But I don't control whether they're healthy or not. If they're sending out a team that's banged up by injury,

I'll watch and I hope they do well. And some of the guys are fighting tooth and nail to try and get it done. But keeping your head above water is noble in the sense that you're keeping your season alive. It doesn't offer a ton of inspiration that, When everyone gets back, things are going to be dramatically different and better. And if you believe that, Sparky Steve, who I guess is an electrician, that's great. I just don't, right? They're there and they're out there and the guys are working as hard as they can.

But it was at best a team constructed to be above average when it's healthy and going at 100% and when it's not, it falls below average. They will get guys back. They'll probably make a run. Maybe they'll come within a handful of points of making the playoffs. What I'm trying to say is that whatever the circumstances, right now, there are a six and seven team, and it feels like a six and seven team. It feels like you're following a six and seven team. So the likability factor, let's put this a positive way.

How much has Thomas Mueller improve the likability and watchability factor of the Vancouver Whitecaps? because I remember when they got him, I was like, you know, I'm not as big as soccer fans as you, right? I don't know as much. And I was like, yeah, I know who he is, but like... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I was kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, like, that'll be interesting. I really didn't know that he was so active on social media.

I didn't know, right? Okay, okay. But since he's come here, and maybe the White Caps expected all this, but I certainly didn't expect him to be, as much for the white caps as he's been and I'm talking about embracing Vancouver getting to know Vancouver showing

the leadership that we all want from the star players in this town and it's like that he's so comfortable in the spotlight and sometimes I watch the Canucks and they're not comfortable in the spotlight. They see the spotlight as a burden, right?

They're like, oh, that's a good point. We got to deal with this again and this market. I was like, this might stop complaining about the market, right? Embrace it. Well, there's other teams. And Thomas Mueller, he does it. He does it. And I know things have been pretty rosy for Thomas.

So like, it's been easier for him to embrace the spotlight. But he just seems so comfortable in it. Well, they're also, they're, they're thirsting for this, right? The white caps. And they want the attention. Yeah. like all like we'll take that attention like we order it like that kind of thing they I mean they very much want this to be a moment and for Mueller to be able to because let's be honest this is a end of career chapter I don't want to call it a footnote but he's accomplished things at the height of the sport that only a handful of people have and a serial serial winner trophies galore right MLS Cup is not going to define his legacy by any stretch but for him this is an exercise to see if he can, if his abilities, all of them, the personality, the magnetism,

also the tremendous play on the pitch, can it turn a place that has traditionally not really cared about a team into caring? And that's a big thing to ask of one individual athlete. This game against LAFC is going to be huge. Yeah. I mean, they need to win that game too, right? If they lose that game, it's kind of like, yeah, that was a fun season, I guess. but like did it a lot of there's a lot at stake and it's awesome for the white caps to have a game like that

where there's a lot at stake and part of Mueller's thing throughout time has been like he's very cognizant that you become identified with what you do in these massive moments because he had them with Byron

and he had them with the German national team and he had countless opportunities where it's like okay spotlight couldn't be any bigger 2014 World Cup in Brazil playing the hosts I mean it doesn't get any bigger than that. And he was part of that German

team. One of the most famous victories in the history of the sport, demolishing Brazil. Yeah. In Brazil. And that is something that stays with you forever. So he was on the pitch for that. He understands. He understands what it's like when you get those opportunities and the stakes are high and everything. And we are in a great moment

for sports right now because it feels like everything that's going on has these huge stakes involved with them. And it's fun to see a couple of local teams diving head first to say, let's go. Let's try and win something. is significant. Let's own the summit. Let's own the summit, Greg.

And Nathan Rourke, I think, has started to show his personality, right? He's been opinionated. He's out there saying things that he knows are going to create controversy, but he still says them. He's not worried about creating a headline. He's just doing his thing out there. And he made two big plays to get the Lions that win against the state. A bunch of parents driving right now are, like, cursing my name because I kept saying that the Knoch's record is six and seven.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sorry, what is it? Six and seven. Our pumpkins for Halloween were six, seven themes. Six, seven. I still don't know what that means. Good.

See, that's the whole point. Yeah. Okay. The kids have outsmarted us. I'm still working on how you called Mueller a serial winner. Serial winner. That's what he is. A dog's also a serial winner.

Right. Right. The best kind of literal. Okay. We got to go to break. We got a lot more to get into on the final hour of the program. More Kinext talk to come.

If I didn't get you amped up for that, Saty R. Shah is going to join us. Of course, the Kinecks do play tonight, 5.30. It's going to be in Nashville against the Predators, Sat. In addition to being on our show is going to host Kinex Central and the pre-impost game show.

Tonight, one final hour to go. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford-embrob show on Sportsnet, 650.