Halford & Brough in the Morning - What's With Adam Foote's Deployment Of EP40?

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they preview tonight's Canucks matchup at Nashville (3:00), plus they talk MLS playoffs with AppleTV studio analyst Dax McCarty (27:14), as the Whitecaps get set to take on FC Dallas this Sunday. 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-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. As it takes Madison scores. You're right on with a sound of Madison wins it. And much sure I'll keep their role going. Back-hand shot, Mark and Stoke by Ellis. That's the second breakaway he has stopped. They're all-famers on the Yankees, too, and the Blue Jays just beat them.

There's a really good starting pitching on the Mariners, and they just beat them. There's a lot of crows pecking at our neck, but all you can do is spread your wings. Keep flying high until those crows fall off and suffocate from the inability to breathe. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Broughton, and Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought for 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 an hour one of the program.

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. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech, footwear,

and orthotics working together with you in Step. We got a big show ahead on a Thursday here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I have a big lengthy rundown, that's right, rundown to go through here. So give me some time. I got a lot to get into here. Just in the rundown for today's show.

Guestless today begins at 630. Dax McCarty is going to join the program. MLS Legend, now a studio analyst for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Hey, in case you missed it, the MLS playoffs are underway. Last night, Portland beat Salt Lake, Chicago beat Orlando. And then, of course, this Sunday, the white caps, your white caps, are going to host Dallas at BC Place in game one of their first round series. Dax is going to join us to preview that match and everything else that's going on

at MLS at 630. 7 o'clock, Adna and Verk is going to join the program from MLB Network. We are now just one day away from the start of the world series. Everything is about to happen. this weekend. The Blue Jays will host the Dodgers in game one tomorrow, Friday, 5 p.m. From the Rogers Center in Toronto. A reminder, you can hear the game, game one of the World Series, right here on Sportsnet 650, right after Canucks Central was Sat and Dan. Well, reading a lot of articles about how SportsNet gets to create its own broadcast for the World Series as well. And, you know, the last time the Blue Jays were in the World Series, it was CBS doing everything and there were

a few complaints about that. It was a long time ago and we had Dan Shalman on the show and he was pretty excited and he said you know when he took the job he knew that this was a possibility but you know I think honestly the viewership in Canada is going to almost match what it is in the United States

it's going to be crazy it's going to be crazy millions and millions we'll be watching and this is with a million things going on too because we will get into this on the program what we're looking at this weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday in terms of sports, it's a beauty weekend. So we're going to talk to Adnan at 7 o'clock about baseball, and then

at 8 o'clock we're going to talk to the drancer from Canucks' talk and Athletic Vancouver. Thomas Drance, of course. Canucks are back in action tonight as they wrap up their five-game road swing. Speaking of this weekend, the Canucks got a very enticing back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday against the habs and the Oilers.

Tonight, though, 5 p.m. Puck drop from Nashville to take on the Preds. Hey, check out this line. up of Canucks coverage today and tonight on SportsNet 650. You ready for this? 11 a.m. Canucks brunch with Josh and Lena. From 12 to 2, Canucks Talk with Dransson Dodd. From 2 to 4, Canucks Central with Sat and Dan,

4 to 5 Canucks pregame show also with Sat and Dan. It's too much Canucks. Nope, but we're not even done yet. Oh, okay. Then we have the actual Canucks game. Oh, wow. Five o'clock with Batch and Rand Depot. on the call and then if you think it's over

it's not it's not over it's not over post game show immediately following that's going to run all the way until 10 o'clock that's 11 hours and 10 as well you got Knucks after dark of course that's my favorite and still someone's going to text in it at 630 and be like oh mLS talk

get to the Canucks I'm like I'm sorry we only have 11 hours of broadcasting dedicated to the Vancouver Canucks today okay now I'm not done yet with the rundown this show loves you the listeners so much. We got two awesome giveaways today on the program. The first is a pair of Canucks tickets at 7.30 this morning. Caller number five at 7.30 is going to get a pair of tickets to see the Oilers and the Canucks this Sunday at Rogers Arena. That's a 7 p.m. start. 604-280650. That number again, 604-280-650. Don't worry. Not right now. Don't call now. Don't call now.

I'll announce it before 7.30 so you can all line up. You get to talk to Adog, too. That's part of the prize. That's one of the giveaways. Canucks tickets. Pretty good, right? Well, we're also giving away a pair of concert tickets today and every day next week for a concert yet to be announced.

Well, Monday to Wednesday next week, not every day next week. And Monday to Wednesday next week. Close enough. We haven't even announced a concert yet. And we're not going to until 7 a.m. It's a special announcement live right here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 6th. At 7 we're going to announce the concert, then at 8, we're going to give away the tickets. And can I just say I'm very excited about this concert.

You can say that. I won't say obviously what it is, but the lineup is awesome. There you go. What a show, eh, Jason? Two giveaways, three guests and a whole bunch of sports to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

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 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.ca. Now, we had the first half hour of the show all planned out, but every now and again in the world of sports and sports news, we'll get something breaking very early in the morning. And boy, do we have a big one coming from our good friends in the U.S. and specifically the National Basketball Association. Portland Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat Guard, Terry Rozier, were arrested Thursday as part of a pair of investigations

related to illegal gambling, sources told ESPN. Rozier was arrested Thursday morning at a hotel in Orlando. The heat had lost their season opener to the Magic on Wednesday when Rozier did not play due to, to a coach's decision. Billups arrest in Oregon was made as part of a separate but related illegal gambling case linked to an illegal poker operation tied to the mafia, according to an ABC News report. Billups is expected to make an initial court appearance later Thursday.

Okay. The Eastern District of New York and FBI director, Cash. Patel. That guy does everything. We'll hold a news conference Thursday morning to announce the arrest from the investigation. How does he do all this stuff? It's incredible. So the Rosier investigation stems from, now this is crazy because the game was in March of

2023 to give you an idea of how long this investigation has apparently been going on for. Sports books, and I'm just going to read this directly from the Associated Press. story. Sports books in multiple states flagged suspicious betting interest on Rozier's stats ahead of a game on March 23rd, 2023, as I mentioned. An unexpected surge of bets, including 30 wagers in 46 minutes, came in on the under on Rozier's points, rebounds, and assists to the point where sportsbooks had to halt betting on his player props. Now we've seen this a handful of times before Jean-Tay Porter was another one

where quite frankly at first blush and I know there's probably more research to go into this seems like wildly irresponsible illegal betting like if you're going to do it you have to do a better job

of covering it up than placing 30 wagers in 46 minutes like that's obviously going to be flagged that's a lot of bets on Terry Roseers under and I know like I don't know

how much you wager now. I know we we kind of dabbled in it from time to time for fun. Like we know what neither of us are really heavy sports betters. I do it from time to time. I mean, but again, the stakes are so low on my bets. I'll throw like 10 or 20 bucks down on a game here and there.

I do know that the rise in, especially the prop bets, has taken, you know, sports betting in North America once it got legalized to unprecedented heights because people put together these crazy parlies, crazy parlays. Okay.

So Rozier was kind of this sort of gambling scandal we're starting to see more and more of I'm interested in that but I'm also interested in Billups arrest part of a separate related illegal gambling case linked to an illegal poker operation

tied to the mafia so let's just recap what's been going on in the NBA for the last year Yeah. We've got now, you know, these are two separate kind of, separate but related. I don't know how they're related, okay? But that's the way it is. That's the way it's been stating.

Separate but related. One of them's sports betting. One of them's an illegal poker operation. So this is all kind of a form of cheating. You've also got these allegations against the LA Clippers and Kauai Leonard for cheating the salary cap. Much cheaters. Allegedly.

But, I mean, that's kind of overshadowing what are some pretty incredible stories in the NBA. Did you watch Wemby last night? I did. That was a ridiculous performance by, while speaking of illegal, it looks illegal

what he's doing out there. It looks like, should they raise the hoops for him or something? Because that doesn't look fair. That doesn't really look like professional basketball. It looks like an adult playing basketball. basketball at like an elementary school gym. He did a reverse dunk yesterday and he jumped,

but it was very obvious that he didn't need to jump. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He could have just reversed dunk, just standing and reversing. That was it. You actually had a good line about it, but it reminded you when you used to play on your little mini-nerf hoop. Yeah, yeah. You could just-in-my bedroom.

I had it up on the door. Any sort of dunks. Man, I would, there were some big dunks. So the NBA kicked off two nights ago. Last night was sort of its really big night because the first night, of course, there was only the two games. it was the Oklahoma City Thunder

in their ring and banner ceremony having an amazing game with the Houston Rockets which we didn't talk about at all yesterday and then last night there was a ton of games across the association including the Raptor season opener and this fantastic Wemby game by the way that Wemby game was also Cooper Flagg's NBA debut

because it was the Mavericks and the Spurs playing last night but all of that is now about to be overshadowed because this story again which kind of broke about an hour ago basically right when we were getting prepped to come in for the show that is going to dominate, dominate headlines, in part because it's another gambling scandal to hit the NBA. So it went Jonte Porter, Malik Beasley, and now Terry Rozier. But having a coach involved and his prominent figures, Johnson Phillips, who had a very storied career, worked in broadcasting and now is now a coach. Now, again, it's not sports betting. It's an

legal poker operation. So I'm going to throw you on the spot. What's going on here? Well, I was going to throw you on the spot. When it says it's separate but related, I have no idea. Feels like those terms work against one another. If it's separate, it's not related. And if it's related, it's not separate. I don't get it. It's very strange.

It could be part of the bigger, larger. Did the FBI just be like, we're hitting the NBA? Could be. I know the Jonte Porter thing. Maybe there was like a tip given or something. Was it the 30 bets in 46 minutes? Was that the tip? Who's to say?

Who's to say? Anyway, we'll keep our eyes on that. Maybe we can get a guess either on Friday, Monday show. So the Canucks practice yesterday in Nashville, and we had kind of joked yesterday, but this was true. We did have a guy in Nashville, a media guy, who's going to ask Adam Foote some questions about the deployment. And there have been issues or questions about Foote's deployment pretty much all season, but I think they really peaked in the Pittsburgh loss where you had

Elias Pedersen, Jake DeBresk near the bottom of the list in Even Strength Ice Ice Time and guys like Atu Ratu and Evander Kane and Kee for sure would plan big minutes even strength. So... Joe to bait? Yeah, we were just like,

hey, you know, what's going on there? Now, Foot did not do media and I was told that he had something to do after practice, so they were going to make assistant coach Kevin Dean available instead.

Okay. But then the one, the only media member who was going to attend the availability, Our Man in Nashville. Your guy. Didn't even go to that availability because he wanted to talk to Adam Foote, not Kevin Dean. Sure. So not even Kevin Dean spoke to the media.

What's happening? And, you know, it makes you wonder, how do the Canucks handle all this? crushing media scrutiny when zero people show up to talk to the assistant coach show up to talk to the coach or whatever anyway I kid a kid the only guy that did speak for

public consumption yesterday was Kiefer Sherwood who chatted with team reporter Olivia McDonald and he said that it's been a next man up mentality on this road trip before saying that the Canucks need to bring

a defense-first mentality into their game against the Preds. And you just won't get a better quote than from a hockey player. Which mentality is it? He was then asked what his favorite color is, what movies he's seen lately, and how the weather is down there right now.

Yeah, actually, that's a good question. Which mentality is going to be more important for the Canucks? Is it the next man-up mentality? Or is it the defense-first mentality tonight against the Preds? Also very important. There's two clashing mentalities

if you want to think about it. The internal struggle, one-man's struggle, Kiefer Sherwood. Anyway, the Kinnock's did practice, and according to Murph, who, I don't know, was watching from afar or something, no Besser or Bueger, but it has since been reported that Besser is expected to play tonight for the Canucks. He's been away for a little bit with a personal leave, personal absence. Hironic was absent as well but apparently it was just a maintenance day for Hironick. Thank God for that.

Thank God. Murf reported that and again Murf reported the club is hopeful Besser will be back to play against Nashville tonight. Kind of begs the question though on Besser like where does he slot back in if he does play? Because I'm not sure Garland is going to come off

the top line with Pedersen and DeBrusk. Garland and Pedersen have been a good duo and we joked yesterday that I don't think Adam Foote even trusted Pedersen and DeBresc out there without Garland. Nope. And we all know how much Foote loves his trio of Kane, Ratu, and Sherwood based on how much they played

against Pittsburgh. Are you going to break up the AHL line? It's been one of their best lines. No. Imagine if they were like, Brock, welcome back. You're going to replace Joe LeBate on a line with Nils Oman and Drew O'Connor. I mean,

I, here's the thing. So everything that he just... He's like, I lost my plane ticket. I'm stuck somewhere else. Can't make it. I actually couldn't make it. Brock, you're standing right in front of me talking to me. The way you explained it, I'm like, maybe?

Maybe that's what ends up happening? I don't know. You can't. Why? What about Adam Foote's deployment so far? Here's the thing. You can't put Brock Peserwood, Nils Oman, and Drew O'Connor. What about his deployment so far would have you rule anything out?

Anything. It's been very unpredictable. that's a nice way of putting it so far I think it'll be Cain, Ratu and Besser and Sherwood will drop to a line. But then you've got Sherwood who's playing 21 minutes a night either going to the AHL line

which you don't want to break up or then he goes to play with. Amman and O'Connor. Like I don't know. Maybe there's no room for Brock Besser could you imagine? Well you did miss those two games. I don't know. I mean we're going to wait and see and that's kind of been the

that's been the phrase for this the majority of this road trip because so many things have happened and we've had no answers to anything. Like what's going on with Heidel? Well, we're going to wait and see. We didn't know. It doesn't sound great. It doesn't sound great, but we've had no update. No official update. Just sort of around the edges reporting.

The injuries that have befell, take your pick, Lecormackie, Blugher, the absence from Besser. Heronic missing practice yesterday again, reportedly just going to be a maintenance thing. But this road trip and it does come to an end tonight, somewhat mercifully, despite the fact that the connects have thrived on it. There's a lot that's gone on. There's a lot that's happened.

And we haven't even got into the deployment and the minutes totals for guys yet. And we just haven't had a lot of answers to any of it. Okay. We started the segment with a betting story out of the NBA. Let's do our own betting here. What is the over-under

for Pedersen Ice Time tonight? I think, I'm the book. Okay. I think I'll set the line at 19 minutes and 59 seconds, will he be over or under that? 1959. So he's only broken that twice this season.

Yeah, and once was in an overtime game. Yes. Still, I'm going to take the over because I think Foote is going to be well aware that he's getting ripped for not playing him much. Okay. It'd be funny if he went way over. The old pendulum swing, hey? Yeah, right.

He played 28 minutes tonight. He looked a little tired by the end of it. 1959. 1959. You know what's crazy? Last game. It's like, is like, that's a pretty conservative line to set for a guy who's supposed to be a 1C, paid like a 1C, plays all special teams. Like he's been out there on the power play.

He's been out there on the PK. And the other Canucks centers are Atu-Ratu, Max Sassie. and Nils Oman. If you just took it, if you're like, this is your one C, and then your other centers are all from the American League, how much would you play your one C? And you're setting the over under at

1950. 1959. I mean, if he plays under 20 minutes in this situation, that is, that is, I don't know what that says exactly. I can't make the conclusion, but it says something extremely significant about this team.

So now I'm doing it even deeper dive as I get ready to set my wager with this illegal sports book, the Brough book. He's had some really low ice times this year. And I know we're only, what, seven games in, but the opener against Calgary, he played 1539. Then the next game against Edmonton, 1638,

then the next game against St. Louis, 1536. So the first three games of the season, Pedersen didn't eclipse 17 minutes. And then you go, yeah, he had a nice bump the first couple games of the road trip in Chicago and Dallas got over 20 there. But then he was right back to 18 and just under 17. So yeah, it's a good total that you put on that.

I think I'll go over as well in part because maybe there's been a little acknowledgement or recognition that he isn't playing enough. But I don't know if he's going to go way over. I'm only going to smash that total. It goes under. That's wild. Well, it's going to lead to a lot of questions when the Canucks come back this weekend.

Because not only do they return home so they'll face a larger media scrum than the zero people that showed up yesterday. They're also going to play two Canadian teams coming in that are going to have their own fairly significant media throng in the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday and the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday? Can we just talk about the upcoming sports weekend in Vancouver? I know it's Thursday, not Friday.

Nah, do it, man. But we need to, because I think everyone needs to plan their weekends accordingly. if you've got other things in your life this weekend you're either going to have to lie or you're going to have to miss some good sports stuff ignore your family okay the Canucks play twice at home as you mentioned

Saturday versus Montreal that is a 4 p.m. start okay Sunday versus the Oilers at 7 o'clock okay speaking of Sunday the White Caps host Dallas in their first playoff game of the MLS Cup this season and I'll be there

The upper bowl is open, so they're going to be expecting a pretty good crowd there. That game starts at 4.30. So you've got white caps 4.30, Oilers 7 on Sunday. So you could actually do the double in that. Going to be busy. If you want to go to both those games, ooh, you're so rich. But you could do that. The BC Lions, they're not local, but they play in Regina is what I mean.

Saturday at 4 o'clock. So that's right up against the Canucks game against the HABS and if the Lions win that they will host a playoff game the following weekend. And oh yeah,

the World Series between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays starts Friday and continue Saturday. You know the sports bars are going to be busy for those games both of which start at 5 p.m. hour time. Yep.

Thank God the Seahawks have a buy this week. I think I'm going to have an NFL by week myself. I'm going to, I don't have time. I don't have time to watch the NFL this weekend. Halford, how are you going to plan this thing? So right now, I've got tickets. You just completely ignore your family. I got, yeah, no family.

No family. Like, I'll be like, I don't know what you guys are. And I'll call them you guys. I'm like, I don't know what you guys are doing this weekend, but it doesn't involve me. Sianar. I'm going to, yeah, going to go to the Whitecaps game. on Sunday. I already got tickets for that. Probably going to dart home after the game

so I can watch the Canucks game in its entirety and then prep for work, which I love to do. My favorite Sunday night activity, nothing like that. Saturday is going to be interesting because Dodgers, Blue Jays at 5, pretty much, like, that's the number one priority focus

on Friday and Saturday nights, right? That's going to be a huge viewing opportunity. But Canucks at 4 on Saturday so they're running up concurrently against one another and it's the Montreal game do I dare do I dare put the Canucks game in the background yeah but but the Canucks play Sunday here's the thing for the purposes of this job when we come in on Monday Saturday's game doesn't even matter like it doesn't even count because there's a Sunday game and don't text in about PVR and stuff just don't I can't do it I have two TVs in the same room so I can watch both at the same time the question is which one gets the big green and which one gets the sound and it's the world series man the jays haven't been to the world series in 32 years i haven't been this interested in the world series in a long time okay um the the white caps have kind of been overshadowed by uh the world series story the blue jays the mariners the the vancouver connect start to the season uh so we're going to give them a little lover

over the next few days dax mccarty is going to join us to talk about uh the white caps and maybe a bit of like who's to beat in MLS in the MLS Cup this season. We'll talk to Dax for about 10 or 15 minutes. And then we'll return to the Dunbar Lumber text line. Any texts you've got, text them in. Dunbar Lumber text line, 650, 650. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance.

We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 633 on a Thursday, happy Thursday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford in Brough of the morning is brought to you 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 at sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Max McCarty, studio analyst for MLS season pass on Apple TV,

is going to join us in just a moment here to preview this Sunday's match between the White Caps and Dallas, 430 kickoff from BC Place. We'll get to Dax in just a moment. Dax played for Dallas. Boo. Hour one of this program 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. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To a nicer intro to our guest. We go. Our next guest is an MLS legend. Third all time in appearances, nearly 500 of them over a 19-year career. As mentioned, now is studio analyst for MLS season pass on Apple TV. Dax McCarty joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Dax. How are you?

Hey, morning, guys. I'm doing very well. Pretty early over there where you guys are, huh? Very early, but it's not ever too early to preview this particular White Caps team in this particular season, because suffice to say this one's taken us by surprise and it's been a super enjoyable run. And I wanted to start there with you because you like many of the MLS season past people prior to the year and rightfully so

did not have the White Caps finishing very high in the standings. I think you had them finishing at 11th. And that was one of the higher ones, to be honest. You were actually on the optimistic side of things. So at what point this season did you kind of come to the realization that this White Caps team was a lot better than you thought and a real contender for MLS Cup? Yeah, it was pretty early in the season

that I started to realize that this team was legitimate. First of all, that's the most difficult part of transitioning from a player to an analyst is you have to give these preseason predictions, which inevitably will make anyone look like a moron when you're trying to predict MLS. So hand up, I also had San Diego finishing last in the West. you know, who would have thought how well they would have done. But I digress.

It comes with the gig, so, you know, it's good to have fun with it. And when I watch Vancouver play, I was just blown away by the confidence with which Yesper Sorensen just instilled in every single one of his players in this team. They have one of the deepest rosters in MLS, but you wouldn't have known it if you were just analyzing them in preseason. Yesper Sorensen is an easy coach of the year candidate. I have absolutely no qualms if he wins MLS coach of the year. Him, Mikey Veras, Bradley Carnell, they've all done a wonderful job.

But Sorensen, to be able to come in and replace a very likable coach and a very good coach in Vanie Sartini and get even more out of this group, make this team even better, I've just been so impressed with everything that he has been able to do. And you can see that his coaching filters in. throughout the rest of the team and the players. Everyone plays in a confident way. They want to dominate possession. They're elite defensively.

They've got so many different options in attack to beat you with pace. And look, the addition of Thomas Mueller has taken this team from just a contender to a real threat to win MLS Cup. Yeah, maybe talk a little bit more about Thomas Mueller and what he's added to what was already a team that was having a great season. well it's it's kind of impossible to put your finger on a vibe meter right but if there was a vibe meter in vancouver i think the addition of thomas muller basically took it through the roof i just i've enjoyed so much the way that he has embraced the city the way that he has embraced his

teammates uh the way that he's been a one club man for the entirety of his career you know one of the best German players of all time, one of the most recognizable names in world soccer, and he decided to bring his talent to Vancouver, which was pretty random. I think everyone can agree. And the way that he's just embraced everything about MLS, the culture, the unique, I guess,

nature of how the league is operated when you compare it to Europe, he's just been worth the price of admission and then some. And he's brought that natural goal score. scoring ability with him. And let's be honest, because Ryan Gould went down so early in the season, it was a concern of mine that how would they, how would Vancouver make up for the loss of goals and assists that Ryan Gould provided? And Brian White has been his usual excellent self up top. But other than Brian White, and he's had some injury issues as well, you know, Vancouver hasn't really been able to rely on that secondary and third goal scoring. You know,

they've gotten some contributions from a couple of the wingers in the attack, which obviously have been important, but Thomas Mueller adds just such another dynamic goal scoring threat to the attack. And with the balance they have in midfield and in the back line, his addition has been an absolute home run. Who's the favorite to win MLS Cup in your mind? Well, I would say you have a couple. It's really hard to say that there's one team that kind of stands out above the rest just because of how close the supporter shield race was all season long. The Eastern Conference was a gauntlet. I think that there are a number of very good high-quality teams in the East. A lot harder to predict the East than the West. In the West, I see three teams with a realistic

chance of making MLS Cup. The Vancouver White Caps, L-AFC, and the Seattle. Sounders. I think those three teams coming out of the West, it's going to be one of those teams. You have LAFC in Seattle who are kind of the incumbent battle-hardened, playoff-tested teams. Sun and Bawanga with LAFC are the most dangerous dynamic attacking duo in Major League Soccer right now, bar none. That's no disrespect to anybody else in MLS. But those two are in such great form right now that they almost look unstoppable. But, I really like the collective ethos of everything Vancouver is doing. Seattle has that institutional know-how, how to win trophies.

They've already won a trophy this year with League's Cup. So from the West, I see those three teams. And then from the East, it's really hard to bet against Leonel Messi in the form that he's in right now. He is far and away the best player in the league, and he still is even at his elevated age. So I would say inter-Miamy, Philadelphia, coming from the East are absolutely teams that would, I think, like their chances to make a TMLS Cup. I thought it was interesting that you omitted from the West, the number one team in the West in San Diego.

He's disrespecting them again. You know, guys, it's funny. I've absolutely been in love with San Diego all year long and everything that Mike Evers has done. But I was also disappointed with how they played down the stretch. They won their last two games by convincing fashion. Excellent. But they lost out on the supporter shield

because they drop points to some poor teams and some teams they really should have beaten. They dropped points to an Atlanta United team that was very bad all season long. I'm really concerned about the Chuckie Lozano situation and the reports coming out of San Diego right now that he's got a little bit of a disciplinary issue going on with the team. And then I love Anders Dreyer.

He's been the second best player in Major League Soccer all season long. I just don't know if San Diego, Their lack of a bona fide number nine, it makes it really difficult to trust them in the playoffs. And they've got the number one seed, so they've got home field advantage essentially throughout the West all the way up until MLS Cup. But they've actually been better on the road than they have been at home. So I just, as an expansion team, I just, I don't think San Diego right now has that experience to go and win big playoff games that the other teams in the West have. We're speaking to Dax McCarty here on the Halford and Breft Show on Sportsnet 650. Dax, of course, an MLS legend, now studio analyst for MLS season pass on Apple TV.

Okay, let's take a closer look at this White Caps Dallas matchup. And it's very unique because these two teams played on Decision Day in a unique match itself. The White Caps had a red card to Laborda in the 11th minute. That really threw the game as skew. Huge result for Dallas. So let's focus on the opponent here for a minute. This was a team that at one point was 13th in the West. think in mid-July, and they went on a great run down the stretch to get into the post-season.

I know we already got one look at them, but it wasn't even that full Dallas team. So over the course of these next two, possibly three matches, depending on how long it goes, tell our listeners what to expect from Dallas. Yeah, Dallas is an enigma, and they were very underwhelming all season long up until that point, kind of where you were talking about in the middle of summer. and what happened was a little bit of addition by subtraction. They ended up selling one of the best number 10s in MLS history in Luciano Acosta. It just didn't fit.

It just wasn't a good fit with Eric Quill and that FC Dallas team. And once they sold him down to a team in South America, they got better. They got significantly better. They were more organized defensively. They were much tougher to break down. Logan Farrington has come up top to, to partner with Pet Tar Musa, and they form a really dangerous strike partnership.

Now, Vancouver fans wouldn't have seen them play in the Decision Day game because they were both suspended, but they're very good players. And Pet Tar Musa is one of the most underrated attackers in MLS. And so I would say that, you know, Vancouver fans should absolutely look at that Decision Day game with a grain of salt. Laborta, his sending off, completely affected the entire game.

and if I'm a Vancouver fan I definitely need to be wary about FC Dallas at full strength they can absolutely punish you but I've got no doubt in my mind that Vancouver at full strength 11v 11 in that environment up there in

Canada is going to be very difficult to beat Vancouver is the overwhelming favorite even with 10 men guys they completely dominated the game FC Dallas was up a man but they struggled in possession their game plan was pretty clear

just try to use their pace to get in behind that Vancouver backline, hit on the counterattack, stay compact, and it worked. You know, it worked, and Vancouver's going to be down their top three or four centerbacks. And so I've got some concerns about them being able to contain Petzar Musa and Logan Farrington, but even if FC Dallas scores a goal or two, I just don't think there's any way that this FC Dallas team can keep Vancouver off the score sheet for as long as they did the other night. yesper sorensen has this team playing with such fluidity and such confidence in the attack one thing to keep an eye on is the matchup between these fc dallas outside centerbacks they play in a back three going up against these really quick tricky wingers from the vancouver white caps i really think that's a big advantage for vancouver with sabi and ali ahmed and even jaden nelson coming off the bench all three of those guys in a one v one scenario with these outside centerbacks with fc dallas and

it's a mismatch. And that's how the penalty kick came. I just think there's no way that FC Dallas is going to be able to contain a full strength 11 from Vancouver. And then you add in the fact that you could potentially be getting Brian White back from injury. You have Ryan Gould, who hopefully is getting fitter and fitter by the day. There's just so much attacking firepower with Vancouver. Yes, be wary of FC Dallas, but I really think Vancouver is the overwhelming favorite in the series.

Well, the excitement for this series is pretty high, into the weekend. They've already sold out the lower bowl at BC Place. They're going to open the upper bowl so you could have an attendance eclipsing 30,000 for the opening round series against Dallas, which would be pretty cool. Hey, Dax, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. We're hoping that the white caps will go on a nice long playoff run here, so we'd love to do this again if you get the chance. I'd love to join, guys. It's been a pleasure, honestly talking about the white caps all season long. No matter how much crap I get for my preseason predictions from the fans

and the supporters. They are some of the best supporters in Major League Soccer. And you have a fan in me. We love talking about the White Caps in the studio on MLS 360 and Countdown. They've truly been one of the stories of the season. So best of luck in the playoffs. This has been great, Dex. Thank you very much. Have a good one, guys. You too, thanks. That's Dax McCarty. MLS legend. And now, of course, an MLS analyst for season pass on Apple TV. White Caps 430 on Sunday

against Dallas FC. Best of three, that one. No goals. four no goals against like aggregate doesn't count no home goals no away goals every match has a winner okay there's another name to this uh NBA gambling scandal that's going down if you're just joining us um Portland trailblazers coach chauncey billups and Miami heat guard Terry rogerer were arrested Thursday as part of a pair of investigations related to illegal gambling Rozier was arrested. I think that's a sports betting thing. But Billups was arrested as part of an illegal poker operation tied to the mafia. Yes. According to an ABC News report, also former Cleveland player and assistant coach, Damon Jones,

was arrested Thursday on charges that he provided inside information about NBA games to co-defendants who used. used it to play sports bet, co-dependent, co-defendants, co-defendants, that's interesting. So those guys are singing, apparently, telling the feds. Man, this is, this thing could, this could, I don't know, I wonder if there's going to be any more names tied to this. The NBA season started with a bang, man. This is crazy, crazy.

And you know, and you know the FBI, you know, there's a timing issue to this, right? NBA is underway. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Everyone talking to NBA? Now you're going to be talking a little bit more. You like putting those Wembe highlights out there on your Shilsomedia channels, do you? NBA? Yeah. We got something for you. Speaking of betting, the Halford & Brough show itself, an illegal gambling operation,

has set an over-under on Elias Pedersen's Ice Time for tonight. I am the bookmaker. Yes. I have set the over-under at 19 minutes and 59 seconds. And you're going... I'm going over. I'm going to go over as well. Because I think the coaching staff is going to be so well aware of this topic of conversation.

And also, it just makes sense with the centers that the Canucks do have since Heedle went down. God, even with Heedle, even if Heedle was healthy, that Petterson plays more than 20 minutes. But remember when I'm... I said that if Pedersen plays, like if it goes under, if he plays less than 20 minutes, that I say, I said like it says something significant and I'm just not sure what it is. There's a good text. Unsigned. Good morning, guys.

On this deployment issue, whatever happened to the players producing and playing well, they get the most ice time. If PD DeBresk and other top players were producing every night, I'm positive they would be getting more minutes. if this was just a slump I would agree with playing them more but in PD's case this has been going on for over a year when does a coach do what's best

for the team instead of what's good for individuals not playing well I just think that Pedersen has been playing slightly better in the last few games like I thought he had a very good game in Chicago especially I thought he had a good game in Washington

and then the next game was in Pittsburgh you know Debrusk, let's take him out of the conversation for a bit. You might have time for, you know, Evander Cain playing more than him or Kiefer-Shirwood playing more than him. Fine. It's Jake Debrus. It's not Elias Peders.

It's not your number one center. And you're not, you know, this is a situation where the connects are dealing with a very serious injury to their second-line center. And they got three guys that, I mean, look, Atu-Ratu, Max Sasson, and Nils-Amon, being your three other centers, and Pedersen not playing more than 20 minutes? That's just wild to me. It's incredible.

But, but, you know, this texter does make a potentially good point. What's that? Maybe Foot doesn't think Pedersen's very good. My response is to the tech. There's two responses. One, like, okay, you might be on a proper road here in your line of thinking. But we don't know. it's also it's also been thrown out there that this was a load management kind of situation so there's no clarity on exactly what's being accomplished if you're saying that this comes down to a better players earn more ice conversation that's great but it might not even be part of the conversation this could be entirely about managing minutes and rest and when we played audio after the five one loss in pittsburgh on tuesday adam foot talked at length about the tank being on e and his guys running out of gas and

being tired so it's fair to infer that the minute distribution could be all about rest so there's one part of it the other part of it is in order for players to get going sometimes they need to play more like rolling four lines is great and evening it out is fantastic but your best players need to be on the ice more than your i don't want to say worse players but not as good players And this is very basic, amateurish analysis. But every coach in the NHL knows, like, more often than not, you're going to win with your talented guys. I watch Calgary play last night against Montreal. And that is a team bereft of talent that doesn't score goals right now.

And Huska, their head coach, Ryan Huska, in the post game, said, hey, look, we're a hardworking team. And our fourth line and a bunch of our forwards, our identity is we grind and we crash and we bang. we crashed the net. But then he said, we're not going to score goals unless our top guys do it. He said it clears day. And he's like,

part of it was one, he doesn't have a lot of top guys. And two, when they're not going, they don't score. And can you look at Calgary scoring over the last little bit? They've got one goal

in each of their last four games. So this is a sort of a small sample, size and team of what I'm talking about, but your best guys need to play more. You need to give them an opportunity to get going, early in the season. There's nothing in the numbers so egregious to suggest that Pedersen should be playing nine or ten minutes at even, nothing. He'd need to be getting

caved in, caved in on a regular basis to have his ice time decrease that much. It's so funny because I think that there's still a very big disagreement within the fan base about how Pedersen is playing. Some people are encouraged and some people are like, yeah, he still looks like last season. And then we've got Luke who says, who cares what you and other entertaining idiots are saying. I hope to God there is more method to what they are doing than that, which he's basically saying, you know, there's a point to that. He's like, I hope Adam Foote isn't making his decisions based on what he's hearing in the media. No, but I think coaches are pretty well, well aware of the criticism and I don't know maybe it maybe there's some second thought like maybe

maybe he looks at the at the sheet and goes maybe we shouldn't be playing peterson so at all that's what I think it's not like I think it's that more like you know it's like not so much like well I'm worried I'm going to get criticized so I'm going to play PD 25 minutes you know we get criticism on the show all the time some of the criticism we actually like look at and be like, well, maybe we should do something a little bit differently, right? I wonder if it's less about the criticism and more just you get caught up in a game. He's still a relatively

new, inexperienced head coach. So maybe he didn't even realize how little his top guys would play. He could have been like, yeah, they're not playing a ton. But it is well within the realm of possibility that he could have looked at the sheet afterwards and been like, ooh, that's less than I thought, right? Well, I mean, we get caught up at the moment

of the game, the adrenaline's flowing, all that stuff. It's complicated running a bench sometimes too. Sure. And In the Pittsburgh game, I mean, we were joking yesterday that Pedersen and DeBress weren't allowed to go out at five on five without Garland. He was like the guy that walked them up to a... Yeah, we were joking about it. Up to a busy street and be like, all right, you can cross this street with me,

but not without me. And sometimes when you've got a guy like Garland that plays a big role on the PK and a big role on the power plate, it gets complicated running a bench. And you might think, well, that's ridiculous because he's an. NHL coach. He should know how to run a bench. How many times has he done it? How many games did he coach in the dub? 50? Something like that. The tenure wasn't long. Like sometimes it gets complicated. You're like, oh, wait a minute. Okay, Garland isn't ready to go here. So I got to get Pedersen de Brusk out there with another winger. Who's that going to be? Now maybe if Foot heard this,

he'd be furious. He'd be like, I don't want to run a bench. I've been sitting on one. I know how this stuff works. It's, it's, it's not that complicated. But here's the thing. We are just trying to figure out this coach right now. Sure. He's never coached in the NHL. He is relative to other coaches around the league, very inexperienced. Like he has barely any head coaching experience at the junior level, none at the HL level, none in the NHL level, none in the NHL. So we're like, okay, is he still learning how to run a bench? Does he not like Pedersen? Does, you know, like, is there some other reason that we're thinking about?

And we're just trying to figure it out. That's all. And hopefully our man in Nashville will be able to ask some questions of Adam Foote after the morning skate in Nashville. Adam Foote is definitely going to get some questions over the weekend. So it is a conducts game day here on SportsNet 650. Canucks game day coverage is brought to you by Panago. Go for the win by two medium Panago pizzas and score free cheesy bread. Use code Canucks deal at panago.com. You should pan go for it. Restrictions apply game day only. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.