Halford & Brough in the Morning - Beetlejuice Isn't Highbrow Enough For Brough

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk some baseball and movies with MLB Network & Cinephile Podcast's Adnan Virk (1:08), plus they chat with The Athletic NHL's James Mirtle (24:35) about if the Leafs might underachieve this season. 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.

It's time to chat with Adnan, it's Adnan Berkey's on the show We're gonna talk some baseball and take a trip to the silver screen That's right, it's time for Red Nen. Yes, and then Berkey joins us now. We'll head out to the ball game and talk about all the films he's seen.

703 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff

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To the phone lines we go. Adnan Virk from MLB Network and the Cinephile podcast joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adnan. How are you? I'm doing great, Mike, Jason. I was back in our fine home and native land last week. My dear friend Randall Thor, RT, directed his first film.

He's been a director for 25 years, music videos, a couple of TV shows. Ty makes his first film called 40 Acres and it debuted at TIFF, the Toronto International

Film Festival, last Friday. So, shout out to him and to Porter Airlines. Hour and a half to get home and I knocked out a couple of French vanilla cappuccinos,

a couple of coffee crisps. Fun had by all. I was watching MLB Network last night. It was like a no-hitter and perfect game watch. So we talked a lot this morning already about Bowdoin Francis, so we can kind of table that one for us. There was also Brian Wu. I don't know how many people were watching this along with me last night,

but taking a perfect game into the seventh inning and then having it smashed, literally smashed, by Fernando Tatis. But a big night for MLB Network on no-hitter and perfect game watch. Yeah, and this may sound sadistic, but I honestly believe, Mike, if you're going to lose it, you might as well lose it with a bang, meaning there's nothing worse than if you're going to lose a potential perfect game or no-h on some cheap, broken bat blooper.

Like, I think if it's going to go, it's going to go. So the fact that Francis, the exact same thing happened against the Angels with Dan Schulman, 7-0 call, home run. The fact that he's nursing a 1-0 lead and Lindor just bashes it, I'm like, it's almost better that way. You know what I mean? I don't want to get the two outs and some crappy hit happen. It would haunt me for years.

I think for Don Francis, yeah, it's one bad pitch. And by the way, the offense should have scored more than one run, so we've got something to deal with. But this gets a stud, man. Our buddy Tim McAllister posted the other day on his Instagram, lowest whip through his first six career starts. He's at.40. For those who don't know, that's walks and hits per inning,

a very fastball stat among baseball heads. He's on a list with, like, Grover, Cleveland, Alexander, who pitched 100 years ago. So Don Francis has been great, man. You know, I know it's been a bad year for the Blue Jays and there's no question about it, but if you're looking for optimism, look no further than Bowden Francis. He's been awesome. Well, the poor guys who have to cover the team on a daily basis must be thankful that they have a story like this to talk about because you can talk about, okay, where does he fit in down the stretch? Is this a little blip or is this something uh that the blue jays can count on for years to come um i do agree

with your take on you know a bloop single versus a home run because if you give up a home run you can immediately just say well i didn't deserve a no hitter and then you can move on but I do wonder if it's now going to become a thing for him is he the next Dave Steve do you remember Dave Steve how close he would come and then and then he finally got over the hump and it was I remember that that was a massive deal oh you took the words out of my mouth Jason I did my buddy Tim Kirchner's podcast of the day and he was asking about baseball influences as a kid and he was internationally You took the words out of my mouth, Jason. I did to my buddy Tim Kirchner's podcast the other day, and he was asking about baseball influences as a kid. He was internationally born in Toronto and growing up in Ontario.

Which Blue Jays did you love? So I waxed poetic about Dave Steeve in two points. One, everyone talks about the sweeper today. That was Dave Steeve's pitch. It was a slider. They just changed the name. They went with the new pitch. No, Dave Steeve threw a sweeper for years in the Blue Jays. He was the second-winniest pitcher

of the 80s behind Jack Morris, and it was an unbelievable slider. Some people call the sweeper a combination of slider and curve, but it was an awesome pitch and a weapon. And then I said exactly what you said. I said, well, I'll always remember what Dave Steeb is, meeting him when I was 12, and he was selling his book. He was signing autographed copies, and it was called

Tomorrow I'll Be Perfect, in reference to all the virtual misses he had to no-hittersed copies, and it was called Tomorrow I'll Be Perfect, in reference to all the virtual misses he had to no-hitters. And I think it was the fourth time he ended up getting a domino hitter against Cleveland. I want to say 1990, if I have that right. I want to say September of 1990. But yeah, I mean, the amount of one hitters that Dave Steve had to endure, it was just

miserable. And I was so grateful when he finally got one. So Adnan, as the season comes to a close, what are we, 20 games away, maybe even fewer than that, to the end of the season, which are the teams that you're really

keeping a close eye on when it comes to either races for the division or races for a wild card spot? Who intrigues you? Yeah, really, there's only two, which I'm a little bummed by. I looked at it and I said, you know, as of Tuesday, we're three weeks away from the playoffs. And normally you feel

like, okay, there's lots to look forward to. But if we're being blunt, there's not a ton. In the West, the Padres and D-Bets kind of made their move. Now the Dodgers are five games up. I don't think they're going to get caught. The Brewers are running away with the Central. And in the West, sure, the Mariners are a few games back, but I don't think they're going to actually take this seriously. Even though Houston's lost six of

eight games, I think the Astros win. So there's two that I'm looking at. The Walker and the NL is awesome. That's a daily watch. Mets and Braves, because it's neck and neck and the Mets right now are one game up and they've had a sensational second half and good stories all over the place. I know we know about Iglesias and OMG, but

Lindor, ever since he became the leadoff hitter, has been a different player. And when he signed a 10-year, $341 million contract, initially he did not live up to it. As a matter of fact, he's yet to be an all-star as a Met, because he historically always gets off to slow first halves. But he's been awesome for them.

There's a legitimate MVP conversation. Ohtani's going to do it, because he's got 47 home runs and 48 steals. But Lindor could be an MVP finalist, which is saying something, the way his Mets tenure has gone so far. But he's been a real spark for them. There's not many short steps to play great defense, and they're going to hit you 30 home runs and drive in 100 and hit 260. So I'm really curious for the Mets and Braves.

And by the way, Atlanta, it's not like it's an Atlanta swoon. If anything, it should be remarkable they're even in the playoff race, considering the fact they lost Spencer Strattler, they lost Acuna, the reigning MVP. They you know they've lost other players you know for significant parts of the season um ozzy albies as well so the fact that we made it is good so that what i'm looking at and the alice to me is really cool because the yankees a game and a half up on the orioles it's not as cool because you know that like both are going to make the playoffs but i do think that the seating matters and i know a cynic can go, well, look at last year. The Rangers were a 5 seed,

the Bats were a 6 seed. Who cares? Yes. A wildcard team can run the table. But if I win the division, if I'm a 1 or a 2 seed, which the Yankees or Orioles, if they win the division, will be, it's one less chance to get tripped up. It's one less chance in a best-of-three wildcard series that I can get surprised by Bobby Witt,

the Royals, or Pablo Lopez and the Twins, or whoever it's going to be. So those are the two that I'm looking at. I wish there was more, but honestly, that's what I'm looking at. And I'll walk our ALEs. The Mets have a pretty tough schedule to finish off. They go into Philly now for three games. They also host Philly four straight games. And then their second-to-last series is in Atlanta against the Braves.

If they can get into the playoffs with that schedule and what they've already been through, do you think they might be able to make some noise in the playoffs? I really do. And again, just as I said, seeding is important. I'd rather be a higher seed. I can flip it to, well, look at the D-backs and Rangers a year ago. If you get hot late in the season and you carry that momentum forward,

you know, good things can happen. Sean Casey at 300 as a major league baseball player. I worked with him the other day, and he said to me, I know it sounds crazy, but if I had a choice of taking a rest or keep going, I'd rather keep going. And she said, you don't want five days off? I said, no way. Are you kidding me?

He goes, players are creatures of habit, man. Every day I'm in there hitting. Every day I'm in the cage. I can't just sit at home and watch TV for a couple days. That's not going to work. And you can't replicate that environment. So if the Mets, and you're right, Jason, that schedule's a fair. And I sort of look at it and I go, maybe the Mets are fair.

And I go, no, but have you seen that schedule? Oh, my God. They've got to deal with the Phillies. They've got to deal with the Braves. This is going to be hard. But if they get in, I absolutely think they can make noise. You know, it's too convenient to say it's going to be the Phillies or the Dodgers representing the NL and the AL, Yankees or Astros.

Are they the favorites? Sure. But things happen. And the Mets, I'll point out, specifically with their pitching, Sean Manai and David Peterson have been great. Luis Severino has had a massive bounce-back season. So those three pitchers can really carry you. And Edwin Diaz is back as their closer.

I already talked about Lindor. Alonzo's number is down this year, certainly, but he has power. And Iglesias, you know, beyond all the talk around the music and Grimace and all the rest of it, he's really hitting well. He was always known as a superb defensive player, but now he can legit rake. So, yeah, I do think the Mets could make some noise if they make it. Do you think it's confusing being a Mets fan?

Like, do you think you're like, well, should I be excited about this or not? Because it seems to me that they go back and forth between being excited about their ball team. I mean, two years ago, they won 100 games and then I think got taken out by San Diego in a best of three. I know they've been up and down with ownership, like really excited when Steve Cohen bought the team

because he was going to spend a lot of money. And then they've been like, well, wait a minute, this guy might not spend his money the right way yeah i'm completely with you i think what happens is you're used to being the second class citizen right the stepbrother in the relationships it's always yankees yankees or just the mets and yet they have these glimmers of hope because they do have these great seasons they didn't have 2015 when they made the world series they didn't have the potential to have what looked like the best rotation for years, anchored by

Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard, and that just didn't materialize the way they hoped. By the way, Zach Wheeler's still going of that group, and he just had his career high wins at the Phillies. He's been unbelievable. Who would have thought that a few years ago? And I think when Steve Cohen came in, it's obviously been good news. No question about it. He wants to win. He wants to spend it as a genuine fan,

but he's not going to be Steinbrenner. He's not going to spend $500 million. Do I think he might give a lunatic proposal to Soto and go $600 million in 12 years? I do. I think that's potential to be there. That's amazing. This guy will do it just to outspend the Yankees and to get their guy. That's awesome.

But you're right. He went from year one and we're going to spend and we're going to win and then last year wasn't working out and you know how rich people make their money? By not spending their money foolishly. They quickly realize, okay, this isn't working out. I'm not just going to make it a money pit. I'll trade Berlinder. I'll trade Scherzer.

I'll go get some prospects. I'll have a quiet offseason and pounce when I think we're going to be better. And I do think, listen, hiring David Stearns is great. He did an awesome job with the Brewers all those years. There's no question about it. So I agree with you. I think Mets fans are always curious how they should feel. And one of the surprises to me,

I told you guys I went to Citi Field last month. I think it's a gorgeous ballpark. It's a rotunda, Tom Turfick, receiver statue. They're only 17th in attendance. That blew me away. I'm like, wait, we're in the New York metropolitan area. There's a ton of people there and a ton of baseball fans. And I would think it's a robust market. You're a potential playoff fans. And I would think it's a robust market.

You're a potential playoff team. And as you said, you've got Steve Cohen's dollars to spend. And yet they're middle of the pack and attendance. Very weird to me. We're speaking to Adnan Berg from MLB, Adnan Berg from MLB Network and the Cinephile podcast here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. The title of this week's Cinephile podcast is Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,

and Bob Costas. Ah, nuts and gum, together at last. So, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Andy Wensot gave it a favorable review with a couple asterisks. What did you guys discuss on it? This movie that has taken over the Halford and Brough show, by the way. It's all we've talked about the last few days.

Well, I remember you telling me how fired up Andy was, so I'm glad that he liked it as did I. And I went, as you guys remember, very cynical and skeptical. This is just going to be a cash grab. But it's Tim Burton's best movie in decades, which when you consider he's made Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, that's a high praise. What works with it is, of course, the familiar elements.

Keaton is fantastic, as you would expect, and he's funny and entertaining and gets right into the ghost for the most, right in the role again. Winona Ryder is excellent, now all grown up, basically has the lead role, and of course, Canadian treasure Catherine O'Hara makes the most of her moments in comedic delivery. What I didn't like about it was the newer stuff. The Jenna Ortega subplot, don't really care about

some other characters, no. I adore Willem Dafoe, but he wasn't necessarily in the movie or particularly noteworthy, but at least they brought back the stuff that works. There was callbacks to the original while adding in new stuff. Like, I never liked a sequel where they just do the old jokes. But now I got that. I already watched Airplane.

I'm ready to watch Airplane 2 to see the same joke. So at least Burton recognized it to ingest more material. And what I liked about it, honestly, was it was so so weird which is truly his fashionable taste like there's a handful of obscenities there's some weird stuff I brought my 13 year old son who loves the first one and afterwards I was like what did you think and he goes I thought it was weird and strange I like the first one better

I started laughing and I said I kind of like that Tim Burton does that like he's not going to play it safe like he's just in his own demented mind he will be as imaginative as possible and as a movie geek, I watch it and go, oh my god, the production design's amazing, the costumes, the special effects. It really is a unique vision.

And towards the end, it just gets absolutely bonkers and bad-capped. So I liked it, especially more than I thought it would. Three Maple Leafs. What did Andy say? The basic gist of it? Yeah, you stole exactly what I was thinking, Adnan. You just said yesterday that it wasn't very good. No, I said I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. It was good. It was like, I mean, yeah, you stole, stole exactly what I was thinking, Adnan. You just said yesterday that it wasn't very good. No, I said it was, I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it.

It was good. It was like, I'd say maybe a six or a seven if I was being generous. My main issue was it was, there was just way too many subplots, like way too much stuff going on that didn't need to be in the movie. Like I agree with you with the Defoe stuff. Like there was, it felt like he had like four really good ideas for a movie and like jam them all into one film. And it would, if anything, it probably could have been a little bit longer

to flesh out the storylines, but outside of that, I really did think it was pretty fun. Yeah, I mean, the big answer, as you just said, is would you watch it again tomorrow? And the answer is no. Whereas the original BLT, I think we all collectively have seen it more than a few times. Oh, it's Jason's favorite movie.

Brough's all-time favorite film. I just love it. I love it when they say his name three times or whatever it is. We're slowly murdering Bruff's will to live with this conversation. Adnan, you know what I watched yesterday? It was a little more highbrow. It was on PBS, and it was an American Experience documentary about Roberto Clemente and his life. Oh, that's great, Bruff.

Yes, I am a little more highbrow than going to the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice show. No offense, no offense, but some offense, yeah. It got me thinking, like, what is the point of the Pittsburgh Pirates right now? This was an organization that had Roberto Clementto clemente won a couple of world series in the 70s and then had bonza bonilla and you know what a decade or two later and since then what so let me give you my clemente style because i can go 12 minutes on this but i'll make it quick so i you know it was not alive during Clemente's run, but I read a book,

which is exactly how you should discover these things. You read a book and you become immersed in it. And it's David Maraniss' book, which is called The Passion and Grace of Roberto Clemente, The Last Great Hero. And the book is unbelievable. So much like yourself, you read a book, you watch a documentary, you go, this guy's awesome.

So not like I know the general beats of his life, the two World Series champions, the four batting titles, obviously the incredible humanitarian and beats of his life, the two World Series champions, the four batting titles, obviously an incredible humanitarian and risked his life helping others and therefore remember him, especially on this Sunday. But I just went to Pittsburgh last week and the goal, I had two goals. One was to see PNC Park, which is a crown jewel,

arguably the best ballpark, we talked about that, but then I went to the Clementine Museum. And I'm like, this museum is honestly one of the greatest museums I've ever seen in my life because it's such a treasure trove of his memorabilia and just the pictures alone it was incredible like I bought a picture I'm going to get framed and anyways it's an amazing amazing experience so I'm happy that a you were indulging in some Clemente talk as we all should because again it's a Roberto Clemente day Sunday and I can't get enough of it whether it's the book or the museum or the movie with

regards to the Pirates as I was at that game which they lost 18 to 8 and I made sure I sat in the press row in seat 21 for Clemente. Wherever I went, I would sit in seat 21. I went to wait for the guy, and I would sit in seat 21. As I'm walking out, after the Pirates got dusted, more than a few fans were saying, sell the team. I said, this must be a common refrain for this Pirates team, because they have this gorgeous ballpark. They have this rich history of passion and winning. They've had good players. Of course they had. Andrew, Gary Cole has been there. Tyler Glass now. And they've discarded them. And now they've got the Wunderkind

and Paul Skeens. And yet, they never seem to have a motive for success. You almost forget, Jason, they made the wild card a few years ago, mid-2013, 14, 15. Again, maybe it was because the wild card wasn't a big enough deal. But I'm like, oh, they were a playoff team but then did nothing with it, right? A real Pirates memory would be 92 at LCS,

the Barry Vail, Bonds, Vance Lighting, etc. Long answer is they've got to spend. Man, you can't just draft well and then make moderate adjustments. You've got to go out there and make some moves. And I pray and I hope it'll happen in the next few years because you've got schemes for five or six years, and you've got Mitch Keller, who's a really good young pitcher,

and you've got Jared Jones. So you've got three pitchers right six years, and you've got Mitch Keller, who's a really good young pitcher, and you've got Jared Jones. So you've got three pitchers right now. You need some offense. Go out and sign some guys. And I get it. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not telling someone just to go spend $500 million on one solo, but they could do some moves.

Go look up free agent acquisitions. The Pirates have made the last 10 years. You are nearing to find anyone of substance. And, again, you can't even love this. The one time I met Michael Keaton, which is in the Jimmy Kimmel post-Oscar party. He's a huge Pittsburgh sports fan. I brought up Clemente because I know that's his baseball hero.

He started talking about how great the PNC Park is, blah, blah, blah, and he goes, oh, the team just stinks for so many years. And Michael Keaton's closing line to me was, I was in a much better mood before I talked to you. I'm still laughing. He's talking about how bad his Pittsburgh Pirates are. The Pirates are,

the Pirates would be the best case for, why should North American sports have relegation? Yeah, that's fair. You know, they don't spend any money,

they take advantage of revenue sharing, and they, and they don't win. Yeah, I mean, everything you said is accurate.

You know, you can be, it's funny, someone says, you know know what's the best investment in north american life like be a professional sports owner like no matter what the value of a franchise seems to go up as you said with revenue sharing you're always making money i mean the amount of money that fox spends and dollars and tbs etc if you just keep your budget a certain level like we're just gonna keep this at 52 million dollars and we'll just make incremental you know five percent raises every year like we're. Like, we're just going to keep this at $52 million. And we'll just make incremental, you know, 5% raises every year. Like, we're going to be good.

We're going to make money. And again, the 17,000 diehard Pirates fans will always show up. And sure, on Skiing's days, we'll bump up to 25,000. We win. So I'm with you. Relegation, it sounds so foreign

to Americans and Canadians. It's a European term. But when you put it that way, I'm like, yeah, if you're not going to win, sorry, you go to the other league. Perfect. Adnan, thanks a lot for doing this today. As always, great stuff. Enjoy the rest of the week and the

weekend. We'll do this again next Thursday. All right, Mike, Jason, thank you. And Andy, just for you, these guys are the hosts with the most with a nod to Beatles and Spinozzi. Very good. Thank you. Adnan Virg from MLB Network and the Cinephile podcast here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

A-Dog, what is the next movie that you're excited about? You know what? There isn't. Are you going to say it? Here we go. Are you going to share it with us next time? I am never going to talk movies with you again. Honestly, there's nothing. I guess I haven't watched Alien Romulus yet.

I'm just waiting for it to come on streaming. So maybe that. I don't know. Nothing in theaters, to be honest, in the next little while that I'm stoked for, which is sad to say. Okay, it is time now for the Canadian Football Report, brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL.

I've kind of turned this into the BC Lions Report, but hey, they play in the Canadian Football League, so it works. On Friday night at BC Place, the 7-6 BC Lions are going to host the 6-6 Toronto Argonauts with a chance for BC to extend its winning streak to three games. And that streak, of course, came on the heels of a five-game losing streak where the Lions looked like they were in a complete tailspin. So many people have pointed to the additions of Nathan Rourke at quarterback

and Matthew Betts on the defensive line as the major reasons for the turnaround. But we got to focus on guys, day one guys, who have been doing it all year. We're there at the start of the season, and they're there here right now. William Stanback, we talked a lot about him at the running back position. Terrific game last weekend in the win over Montreal. He leads the CFL with 938 rushing yards. Now, receiver, Justin McInnes.

He leads the CFL in both receiving yards over 1,000, 1,074 to be exact, and receiving touchdowns with seven. So those two guys, along with the rest of the Lions, are going to be looking for a fair amount of revenge on Friday when they take on the Argos. Because remember, the last time these two teams met, the Argos handed the Lions a 35-27 loss in Toronto way back on June 9th. So the Lions have a chance to go to 8-6 on the weekend.

That game is on Friday at BC Place. And that was your Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL coming up on the Halford and Brough show on sports net six 50, James Myrtle is going to join the program. We're going to go to Toronto to talk some Leafs with Myrtle. I guess they made a big move on overnight signing. Yeah.

Any hock and paw and his troublesome knee to a one-year deal. Will that fix the blue line brackets? I doubt it, but we'll ask Myrtle about that and the outlook for this team and how much Mitch Marner is going to overshadow everything the Leafs do over the next little bit. James Myrtle, coming up next, you're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 731 on a Thursday.

Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Ruff, Sportsnet 650. Some sad news to report from the Sportsnet lunchroom. The ongoing science experiment of whoever left the pot stickers in there since June. I threw them out. You did? I threw them out. It's ridiculous, man.

It's ridiculous. I don't understand how people so we have uh what is it a monthly fridge clean out i shouldn't like those is what you're saying i'm just i'm looking at them who leaves pot stickers and who does that what kind of animal just leaves them there and be like someone will eat these unless it's you get them out of there the pot stickers were so ensconced in, it looked like they were wearing little furry jackets. And I just wanted to see how long it would go for. I was never-

I only opened the fridge once a day to get some cream for my coffee. And it punched me in the face this morning they're aggressive and i didn't need it the smell of it just like whammo do you remember when uh ty domey punched olf samuelson in the face just like not that's what happened to me ty don't the fridge should be suspended frankly but everyone was cheering for it because you know no one liked olf and frankly no one likes me so ty domey was that moldy potsticker. Pow! Right in the kisser.

Anyway, the science experiment's now over. Yeah. You got rid of it. I didn't know you had a science experiment going. It'd be funny if you came back to mine. Oh, okay. It was also a social experiment, because I was like, why is no one throwing this away?

You know what? Prof comes back tomorrow, they're in the fridge again. I actually... You're getting rid of me? I find myself acting at work sometimes like I do at home. That's fine. Fine. I'll be the one.

I'll clean it up. I'll throw it out. Yeah. That's the social experiment part. Because other people just walk right by it. Like, they don't care. But you know what? You need to appreciate these times.

Because remember when we had to work remotely, you couldn't have moldy pot stickers just sitting in the fridge. No, they give you COVID. Yeah, right. So said science at the time. That's science right there. Okay, we've got a lot to get to on the program. Very excited to have our next guest on the show,

longtime friend of the program from The Athletic in Toronto, James Myrtle joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Myrtle. How are you, buddy? I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. So are we just talking about cleaning out the fridge? Is that what the segment is?

No, because it's done. He cleaned it. There's no postscript to that story. Yeah, it leads nicely into our discussion about all the garbage on the Leafs roster. I like how Mike's like, I wanted to see how bad it can get, and then Brough just cleans it up.

That's just the perfect encapsulation of your guy's marriage right there. It's true. So we like to have these dumb hot takes on our show. And Halford has had, how many hot takes do you think you've had? 64. How many have you been right on? Zero. Zero.

Okay. So he's 0 for 64 on the hot takes. The other day, I was talking about the Leafs roster and what Brad Treliving did in the off season. And I looked at it and I went, I'm not impressed. Like it's not all that much better. And plus, like, I don't know if Craig Berube is going to mesh with the team. I don't know if he has the team to suit his style.

And I don't know if the Mitch Marner contract situation is going to hang over the team and become a distraction, for lack of a better way of saying it. I don't know about their goaltending. It seems like a massive wild card. So I said, I don't even know if they're going to make the playoffs because at some point, you know, I see

and then I said, so as soon as I say something like, I don't I'm not even 100% sure they're going to make the playoffs. That automatically is a hot take that they are going to miss the playoffs. And then I finally just said, fine, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to miss the playoffs. then i finally just said fine the toronto maple leafs are going

to miss the playoffs now i threw this past justin bourne a couple weeks ago and he he scoffed like it was the definition of a scoff of a scoff and he insulted me he's like i hate it when people say this stuff i was like well i hate you so uh what do you think about it, Myrtle? I think my take is the least hot of all, which is the Leafs are pretty similar to what they were last year, and they're going to finish in a similar position. And the whole regular season, again, is just a dress rehearsal until the games that matter for the Leafs. This is just what they do.

They're too good to miss. They're too good. They were second in the league in scoring last year. They didn't really lose a lot of offense. The blue line's actually better than what they had last year. They had Girodano at 40 years old, TJ Brody, who couldn't play anymore, Joel Edmondson. The blue line was a mess. Klingberg, who was out of the league by November, the blue line was a mess last year. So getting in Tanev and Ekman Larson, who I know everyone there in Vancouver knows really well,

that's actually a pretty big upgrade based on what they had last year. So the biggest thing for me is, I think the two real unknowns are what on earth do you get from these two goalies who have barely played in the league and who have both had a lot of injuries and they don't have a really strong number three

because the number three is Matt Murray who's also had a lot of injuries. What do you get from those goalies? And yeah, how does the Berube thing work out? But I mean, Berube's got like a decent track record in the league, so I don't think it's going to be a disaster. I like Berube as a coach.

I think he did a great job with the St. Louis team that he had. Obviously, he did a great job. They won the Stanley Cup. That's pretty good. But do you think his style of coaching, I mean, there's no question that he kind of lost the room when the Blues, their mix started to change a little bit.

And the guys that played, for lack of a better way of saying it, a heavy style either got older or moved off the team, and then it was guys like Jordan Kyrou who were more front and center. Do you think his style is going to mesh with a Toronto Maple Leafs team? I don't think anyone describes it as playing a heavy style of hockey. Yeah, but they're also not, like, it's not a small team. It's not like a pure skill team. Like, I think, you know, I could see players like Nick Robertson

or Timothy Lilgren having a hard time under Berube, but those aren't like core foundational pieces. Mitch Marner is, like, he plays the PK. He's gotten selkie votes. No, he's not a big guy, and no, he's not physical, but he's a good two-way player. He's still going to be out there. I can't imagine that it's going to be Berube in Marner's grill the whole season.

That just doesn't make sense for the success of the team. Maybe Nylander can be a guy who comes and goes a little bit, so maybe there's some clashing there. But Berube is going to love John Tavares and Austin Matthews. And then there are lunch pail guys on this team. So I don't see some big blow-up happening here. I know, but I do know that people, when Brubé was brought in, I sort of canvassed around the league and talked to agents

and people who are kind of in the outer circle of the Leafs, and almost everyone said, this is what this team needs. They need someone like Brubé to come in. They need someone who's a former player with some clout who's won the Stanley Cup recently to come in and kind of clean up some of what's going on. What has Mitch Marner said and what has Brad Treliving said about a contract extension for him?

Marner has not said a whole lot. The Leafs golf tournament is on Monday and I'm assuming he's going to talk there. Essentially, there haven't been that many conversations. I don't think that that went very far in the offseason. So on both sides, it's kind of like a truce right now and they're going to wait it out. And I think what's going to happen is they're going to see how the season goes, which is a dangerous game to play, but I'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen is they're going to see how the season goes which is a dangerous game to play but i i'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen here we're speaking to james myrtle from

the athletic here on the half and rough show on sportsnet 650 i want to call back to what you said right at the start of this hit not about the fridge uh about um you know that the leaves are probably gonna go through this season as a dress rehearsal for the playoffs like they always do and it was you know maybe it's gonna be a little bit of a boring regular season. I bring this up because you've got to piece up at the athletic right now. How do you fix the NHL's boring regular season? It's a very good topic. It's sometimes it's an easy question to answer.

And then sometimes it's not when you realize that the NHL doesn't really want to change a whole heck of a lot. Well, how did it come up? Because a lot of people will be like, I don't find the NHL regular season boring. I can't wait for it to start. And you know what? That's an interesting question as well.

So take it away, Myrtle, because I've got a couple things I want to say here. I was going to say to you guys, like, is that a hot take? Like, where do you, like, do you think the regular, it gets talked about a lot in Toronto. So, like, I think maybe, I put out the call for questions from readers. I got a bunch of questions,

and there were a bunch of them that were about how they don't like the regular season or they don't care about the regular season. But it could be a little bit of me just living in Toronto for the last 20 years, and especially the last five. Fans just are like, why does this matter? Because the Leafs get locked into the second or third seed in the division every single year.

They play either Boston, Florida, or Tampa in the first round every single year. Their entire season is just judged on those games. Why do I care about this training camp, preseason games, 82 regular season games? Why do I care about that? I think that's a valid question, but I don't know if that's a valid question in other markets nearly as much as it is here. Well, it wasn't last season in Vancouver because it was such a shock the way the Canucks came out of the gates and managed to really not stumble all regular season. There was nothing boring about the regular season last year because it was a surprise. eyes, but I could see how in Toronto, you know, if, if, if you've, if you've come to the conclusion, yeah, they're going to make the playoffs and then they're probably going to lose in the first or

second round. Um, or even if you said, we don't know what's going to happen in the playoffs, you could see that regular season is kind of meaningless. And, you know, if I think hard back, if I think hard enough back, you know, a decade, it was kind of like that with the Vancouver Canucks. You know, we all knew for four or five years in a row or whatever it was that the Canucks were going to make the playoffs. The question was, what would they do when they got there? Yeah, so in the piece that I wrote yesterday, I look around the league and I'm like, how many teams are in that situation this year?

Like, if you look at the East and the West, how many teams are, if we talk about them right here on the show, like, yeah, they're going to make it, you know,

Edmonton is going to make it. Dallas is going to make it. Florida is going to make it. The Rangers are going to make it. There's a lot of teams. Like, I think you can make the case for six or seven in both conferences. So that to me, that's where part of like the boringness comes in as you look around the league and it's like, we know who the top teams are and maybe there's going to be a Vancouver or two, you know, Nashville had a year kind of like that last year, but I don interesting story, I think, league-wide last season.

It's why Rick Talkin ends up being coach of the year. When are some of these teams in the Leafs division, like Detroit, Buffalo, and Ottawa, finally going to get their act together and make the playoffs? I mean, I could see one of them getting in this year. You know, I thought maybe one would get in last year, but I think all three of those teams are locked into that kind of mushy middle group. And for me, the big question is like, when are they going to exit that group and like, you know, be one of the teams where every year you're like yeah they're going to be in the playoffs because i think even if a detroit or ottawa or buffalo sneaks in

they're probably out in the first round like they're not they're not the caliber of teams that's going to be able to contend with the people at the top of the conference so you look at them and you look at how long they've been rebuilding and how many good young players they have on their rosters and it's like you know what what are we doing here like when when is this going to like turn into something more and you know i i think that i think ottawa is probably the closest depending on how it goes with all mark and net like the senators last year were a disaster largely because net goaltending was a huge problem so i could see ottawa certainly getting in as a low-seeded team i like their young talents duzla and Sanderson,

and they've got a lot of really good pieces. They're a fun team to watch. Detroit, again, I don't know what they're going to get from goalies. They've got three guys there, and none of them are anyone you're really impressed with, but maybe if they have a great year. And then Buffalo's got someone like Owen Power, who I watch, and it's like, okay, this kid is going to be unbelievable. And maybe when that happens and they've got Power and they've got Darlene,

all of a sudden they take a step. But I have a hard time seeing them. I think they're going to be in that range of teams that's like 85 to 95 points, and I have a really hard time seeing them being better than that. What is the one driving factor, if there is one, that keeps those teams from getting into the playoffs? I wonder if it's just they have talent, but they don't have an Austin Matthews. They don't have a Pasternak, or they don't have a Barkov or a Kachok.

They have good players, but they don't have great players. Is that fair? I don't know if I would say that because like someone like Darlene is amazing. Like he's a top 10 defenseman in the league right now. So like they do, you know, I think you could say that about Detroit. I think the thing that Detroit might run into is that they don't have that, like who's their Uber elite talent that can carry them. You know, if you're going head to head, it's late in the game,

you need a goal or you need to prevent a goal, and you're putting them out against the Austin Matthews. I don't think that Detroit has necessarily the players up there. I think Buffalo potentially does with Darlene and Power. I think that Ottawa potentially does with Brady Kachuk and Stutzla and maybe Sanderson. Maybe if Allmark plays the way he did in Boston, it's just, I think we've all seen this many times

that goaltenders have big years in Boston and, you know, maybe Corpus Allo will go to Boston and be a lot better. But I think that to answer your question, I think some of it is they're relatively young teams and their cores are relatively young and some of the and and some of the details and some of the the detail-oriented stuff that comes defensively i think they don't have yet

either we're speaking to james myrtle from the athletic here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 i did want to circle back to one thing talking about uh that piece that i mentioned earlier and it is i here's the thing i think the boringness or not boring nature of a regular season is market dependent like what you were talking about with Vancouver and what you were talking about with Toronto I also think that universally across the board we should all agree that the regular season is too long and the season goes way too long i remember in june last year bemoaning the fact that we're watching a stanley cup game seven final and then in five days we're doing the draft like that to me is an asinine way to do business because there's all these great uh off-season events that you

could really drum up a lot of excitement for and the NHL crams them all into a 10-day window right after the Stanley Cup is handed out. And I know all the issues with shortening the season and curving some games. I don't think it's ever going to happen. I do wonder maybe if an expanded international window and competition might get some pushback to where we're playing too many games.

That's something that's going on with soccer right now, collectively on a global scale. But I do think that the regular season is way, way, way too long. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I've been saying that ever since I started working in the media, you know, 20 years ago. So I remember saying it to Bill Daly like a long time ago that the season should be 70 games. And he kind of just, you know, didn't say anything,

but the question is like, how do they get there? Right. Like, and I, the, what I say in the column is that, you know, if you're going to be expanding again, if you're going to have more international tournaments, if you're thinking of having some play in games for the playoffs, that's quite a bit of new revenue and new. So maybe you can take and the other thing i that i think you could do is maybe you just shorten the season slowly over time so maybe instead of 82 you have 80 games next season you know maybe maybe you can get it down to 76 or 75 or something and i think that would make a pretty big difference you know in the regular season earlier have fewer back-to-back games and you know you guys see this and i see it up close like

when you're when you're talking to the players and you're seeing them and they're they're coming off a back-to-back game in another city and they're coming in that night like they just don't have it yeah they don't have it you can see the look in their eyes where they're like they haven't hardly slept they were on a plane the night before until two in the morning. And it's just too physically demanding of a sport to do that. How many back-to-back games are there every season? Like 14 or something for every team? There's way too many of them. Well, I mean, we talk about the international soccer calendar all the time

and how it's like they just keep adding games. They don't take them away. And that's the issue. They see more revenue and they're like, well, we could make even more revenue. Why would we? We're not going to curb any games off of what we're already doing. We're just going to add more and more and more. And it's to the point where players have no time off.

If you're a Florida Panther this year, your season, or I guess the Edmonton Oilers because they went to seven, both of them. I mean, your season's ending in late June and you've know eight weeks basically before you're getting right back at it and you're begging that's not a lot of time off the season's basically a 10-month endeavor now yeah yeah and and during the season especially once they get the international calendar stuff coming in teams are playing close to three and a half games a week right like it's almost every second day for six and a half months and then the playoffs it's almost every second day for six and a half months and then the playoffs again and like i said i know these are like professional athletes and i know they're they're they're young guys and everything but you can see like the the toll

that it's taking on them throughout the season and you're not getting their best and i think it would be good for the game if there were fewer games because i think that the the competition level would ramp up and you'd get more playoff style games. And the other thing too, is if there were fewer games, we see this in the NFL, there are fewer games. Every game game means more. And I don't think you can say that about the regular season right now. Myrtle, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend.

Let's do this again as we get closer to the start of the regular season. Okay. Thanks guys. Thank you. That's James Myrtle from get closer to the start of the regular season. Okay. Thanks, guys. Thank you. That's James Myrtle from The Athletic in Toronto here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Text into the Dunbar Lumber

text message in basket. A reminder, get your What We Learns in. It's your chance to be on the radio. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. No one clamors

for a shorter season except media. I don't know if that's true no that's not true we've we've had a ton of texts into the dumb bar lumber text line over the years from people saying the season is too long and i always reply well if you want to make up that revenue somehow show us away i think the players are not always thrilled especially Myrtle was talking about the back-to-backs. That's where Jonathan Taves came up with the, now it's called the Taves schedule,

where instead of playing back-to-backs, you get those games against an opponent. You play like a mini-series, right? Make the season 72 games, starts October 1st, ends June 1st. Season starts October 1st, cups in Florida June 1st. You can do your preseason still, middle of September, whatever. That's another thing that people say, that the season goes on too late. Yeah.

Wait, are you giving the come out in July? What, are you kidding me? July? Although, be careful what you wish for, buddy. We all know how difficult summers can be in talk radio. This is true. You know? I just think that the NHL understands,

even though it says that fans aren't interested in things like cap friendly and all these like non-game entities, every other league really makes a spectacle of these things. I mean, the NFL draft is a behemoth. And the NHL is actually going to pare theirs down now. Yeah. I just think that you could spread these things out. And I always come at it from the angle of I've seen what's happened

internationally with soccer and its expansion. Too many games now. Bigger tournaments, more games. Can we make Champions League bigger? Can we make the World Cup bigger? What about a Champions League of Champions League? Yeah. What if we actually turned it into a real league instead of a tournament and and here's at the end

of the day i feel like pratt it's always about the money but it money there's so much revenue at stake because it's it's kind of a simple formula it's like well how do we make more money play more games teddy from north burnaby says good morning it's the players that push for more games the players know their limits it's not the league that's not true teddy very wrong it's it's it's but the players understand that their deal with the nhl gives them 50 of hockey related revenue they don't get a cut of expansion fees right they get 50 of hockey related revenue. They don't get a cut of expansion fees. Right. They get 50% of hockey related revenue. So if you cut games, your salary goes down unless you renegotiate that CBA and get a bigger

share. Yeah. And it's not going to change because 50, 50 is just, it's there. Right. Remember at the beginning when the, when they originally brought in the hard cap and Yeah. And it wasn't 50-50?

And we all knew that eventually it would just end at 50-50. The players said more, and we knew that the owners would eventually be like, they'll get it down to 50-50. But now it's just going to stay there because, you know, to make an argument on either side that you deserve more, it would just be really tough. Right. it would just be really tough right and to teddy's text players will do speak openly about the rigors of the current scheduling they can talk about it all the time i in a lot i mean in

this conversation you know kind of fractures off into a lot of different areas but one of them myrtle touched on is the sleep factor like there's guys that are like i don't necessarily want to be hopped up on caffeine and then gulping downers just to get my biorhythms to play a hockey game have i ever told you uh how many red bulls i've seen in nhl dressing rooms there's a lot there's a lot littered all over that place yeah i had a hockey game last night at 9 30 and this is not high level hockey right especially not the hockey that i play some of the other guys pretty good but i find it difficult to get to sleep after that can you imagine playing hockey you've taken you know you're drinking red bulls in the intermissions, and then you're also playing in front of 20,000 fans.

The adrenaline that goes. I'll be yawning on the bench because I'm tired. It's a long day. Just blowing through nap time. You don't really see a lot of yawning on NHL benches because it's so intense. Everything is so intense out there. And then you're going to fall asleep, possibly on a plane.

Right. And if you don't do that, then you're crashing for five and a half hours before you got to get up. And then you can play the next night. Yeah. And here's the thing, though. I understand how these conversations. Nobody feels sorry for these guys, by the way. Please don't be like, oh, they've got terrible lives.

Like, nobody thinks they've got terrible lives. We're talking about the product on the ice the product that you are you are paying quite a lot of money check the ticket prices yeah it's not four dollars to get into a canucks game right now you should you should expect high level hockey yeah because if you get a team if your team is on the second of a back-to-back, we just take it as commonplace. That's a scheduled loss for most teams. If you get anything out of it, it's gravy. But you're pretty much expecting not to win that game

because you're playing your backup. That minor and your guys are going to be bagged because especially if it's a back-to-back on the road. It's a scheduled loss. There's a lot of scheduled losses in the NHL. And for a ticket buying public, if you want to spin it in the way you just said, yeah,

it's a rip off sometimes where you're getting a team that's not even remotely close to being able to give its best because of the scheduling. Anyway, and it's a conversation that we can have at other times and throughout the show, we got to get going to break. I got a lot more to get to in the final hour of the program. As mentioned,

we're going to do what we learned. That's coming up at eight 30, get yours in the final hour of the program. As mentioned, we're going to do what we learned. That's coming up at 830. Get yours in. Hashtag them. WWL 650 650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Coming up next, we're going to go to Edmonton. We're going to talk to Jason Greger. He had an exclusive interview, a sit down with new Oilers general manager, Stan Bowman.

They sat cross-legged together. Yeah. They did Kumbaya maybe. I don't know. I don't know all the details. That's why we're having Jason Greger on the show. It was a picnic. It's been a picnic.

Yeah, a nice picnic. It's been a very eventful start to the Stan Bowman era in Edmonton, so Jason will tell us all about that coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.