Halford & Brough in the Morning - Canada Is Going To The Semis At Copa

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

In hour one, Mike looks back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), he chats Canada going to the Semis at Copa America versus Argentina on Tuesday (6:00), plus he talks an impressive weekend of wins for the Blue Jays over the Mariners, with Sportsnet's Zach Worden (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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Happy Monday everybody It is Alfred It is Bruff Without Bruff And we are coming to you live From the Kintec Studios In beautiful Fairview Slopes In Vancouver

I am flying solo this morning But I'm only alone On the desk In spirit And behind the glass I've got the dogs with me Hey dog Good morning to you

Good morning And Laddy Good morning to you as well Hello hello Alfred and Bruff of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in Hour 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 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.

I mentioned we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec is Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. If you have sore feet, what are you waiting for? Go to Kintec right now. How you doing, dogs? I was going to say Kintec. You get to do it tomorrow. Adog gets to for? Go to Kintec right now. How you doing, dogs? I was going to say Kintec. You get to do it tomorrow. Adog gets to do it Wednesday.

Kintec. I called shotgun. We got a big show ahead on a Monday. Because I am flying solo and because there are so many things to get into today, we have five guests. Count them. One, two, three, four, five on the show. Beginning at 630. Zach Worden, MLB Network for Sportsnet

or sorry, MLB writer for Sportsnet is going to join us. We'll talk to Zach about the Blue Jays' big series win in Seattle over the weekend. All the traveling fans went home happy yesterday after a 10 inning victory over the M's to capture the series. We'll talk to

Zach about that. You know, leave it to the J's to beat the M's when it really matters. You know, this is the time of the year where teams that are eight and a half back of the playoffs really start to clutch up. You know, we didn't need those wins in the playoffs or anything against the Mariners. It's the wins like this past week that really, really matter. Those

early July wins. Zach Worden is going to join us at 6.30, 7 o'clock. Esfandiar Baraheni is going to join the program. He is a basketball writer for Forbes and for Raptors Republic. Canada's group at the Olympics is set. And folks, let me tell you, it is the group of death. You have Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Greeks.

You have the Australians. You have the Spaniards. Australia and Spain ranked fifth and second in the world, respectively. And of course, Canada have the Spaniards. Australia and Spain ranked 5th and 2nd in the world, respectively. And of course, Canada's in there as well. We'll talk to Isfandiar about that. We'll talk to him about what happened over Canada's camp over the weekend. They're making cuts slowly. Zagidi left, took himself out of consideration.

So a little hoop stock at 7 o'clock with Isfandiar. 7.30, Ian Joy is going to join the program. CBS Sports Soccer Analyst. We will talk to him about an amazing performance from the Canadians at Copa America on Friday and their penalty shootout victory over Venezuela. We'll also talk to Ian about everything that happened at Euros over the weekend.

Speaking of dramatic shootout victories, England exercising some demons, although they have actually been pretty good in the shootout under Gareth Southgate. They get past the Swiss. They move on. So the semifinals of the Euro are set. It is Spain versus France.

It is England versus the Dutch for a spot in Sunday's final. Ian Joy is going to join us at 7.30 to talk about that. On the footy tip, the footy talk continues at 8. The all-time leading scorer for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Leading score in MLS-era history. Brian White is going to join the program. The Caps got a 1-1 draw away at Montreal on Saturday. So we'll talk to Brian about that and about him rising to the top.

Surpassing Camilo is the all-time leading scorer for your Vancouver Whitecaps. 8-15, Sheng Peng from NBC Sports, California. San Jose Sharks writer. Big hockey news over the weekend. Macklin Celebrini decides not to go back to Boston University. He will, in fact, go pro. He signs his entry-level deal on Saturday, so he will be a

night one opening night starter for the San Jose Sharks at center along with Will Smith. Not the guy that smacked Chris Rock. The other Will Smith. There's too many Will Smiths. There are a lot of Will Smiths. Does he still play for the Dodgers? I think there's two in the MLB.

There's too many Will Smiths. There's a pitcher Will Smith. That's my hot take for the morning. We need new names. No more Will Smiths. So working in reverse. On the guest list. 8.15, it's Shang Pang.

8 o'clock, Brian White. 7.30, Ian Joy. 7 o'clock, Esfandiar Baraheni. And 6.30, Zach Worden. Big show ahead. A lot 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? You missed that?

What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We are not just a footy nation now, Canada. We are not just a footy nation. We're a footy show. Several people have already texted in to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650.

By the way, get your What We Learns in now. We'll be doing them all day. Hashtag it WWL. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Canada claimed a 4-3 shootout victory over Venezuela on Friday night to reach the Copa America semifinals in their first time ever participating in the tournament. Canada soccer, baby. We show up, we advance, we go to the semifinals.

Canada has advanced further than Brazil at a Copa America. Just let that sink in for a sec there. Was this expected? The win over Venezuela was certainly in the cards. It was a team, and I spoke about this last week at length, that it's a Venezuelan team that had played well in the tournament and well in the lead-up to the tournament, but historically and traditionally,

one of the weakest South American countries. Of the 10 countries that make up CONMEBOL, that's the federation of the South American countries. Of the 10 countries that make up CONMEBOL, that's the federation of the South American countries, they were the only one not to have qualified for a World Cup, and they hadn't had a ton of success at COPA previously. This was, I don't want to call it a golden generation, but the best run of form that they'd had in a long time. So it was in the cards.

And then when the match started, it became pretty apparent that they were going to attack it differently than how Chile and Peru had gone up against Canada. There wasn't incessant fouling right from the opening whistle. There were no red cards like there were against Chile and Peru. Venezuela seemed intent on pushing forward and trying to create chances. And what they found early in the match was that Canada was more than happy to attack in turn. And I think Canada probably in the first 25 minutes might have had more quality chances

than they had had in the Peru match or the Chile match. They really got on the front foot as it was. And the Maritime Messi, the new hero of Canadian soccer, Jacob Schaffelberg. And the Maritime thing comes in because there was a pretty prominent guest in the Canadian dressing room afterwards. Ooh. I'll tell you later. From the maritimes?

That's true. Jacob Schaffelberg scored the lone Canadian goal in the shootout. It was Ismael Kone burying a stone-cold penalty on the final kick to win it. Two tremendous saves from Max Crapo after a pretty serious gaffe during the match, where on a throw-in for the Canadians deep in the Venezuelan end,

there was a quick change of possession. Venezuela played it long. Max was caught napping a little bit, was caught way too high up the pitch, got lobbed from a good 40 yards out. Jesse Marsh, everyone's favorite gaffer and the manager of the Canadian team, fell on the sword for Max as a member of the goalies union I really respected it he said that was on me for telling Max to push show high he was under instruction to play that high up the field I have a soccer goalie question oh my god Greg has a soccer I saw a photo that was going around Twitter or X the

other day uh-huh uh the England goalkeeper during the the shoot or the penalty kicks had every player on the roster of the team that they were playing and what he was going to do for their penalty kick. Yep. Dive right, dive left.

It's a pretty standard practice now. Is it? Yep, it happened. The first time I remember seeing it was at, I want to say it was the 2014 World Cup. It was Tim Krul,

a keeper for the Netherlands who was really good at stopping penalties. He got subbed in for penalties against Costa Rica and then very crudely on his water bottle had gigantic pieces of tape with all the shooters' tendencies on it. So the Pickford one was a little bit more refined. It was like refined.

It was typed out. It was very clear to see. But yeah, it's a pretty standard trade. So basically what a lot of the managers will do is defer to the goalie coach of the team and then they'll have they go through like i've seen guys do it before they go through pretty painstaking hours of research on just individual shooters and all it is is tendencies likes to go here well my answer to that would be wouldn't the answer for the shooter be to just ensure that

every time you take a penalty kick you're doing something different right okay so the thing is is that there's a pretty simple fix their shooting history uh goes to like their club team as well so i think honestly a lot of shooters probably don't keep a mental track of like where they go consistently because they i mean the guys that shoot probably take a fair amount of penalties broad sample size right and a lot of them in very pressure-packed moments will just go what they know. Like, I have scored on this before. I feel comfortable doing it here. Interesting either way.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, all it is, it's like moneyball stuff. It's just like a numbers game where they're saying, well, percentages say he's gone left 61% of the time, which means 39% of the time he doesn't, right? Who is this Maritime Messi? Like, what's his... Obviously, I'm not a soccer guy, but I've never heard of him.

My soccer knowledge is Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David, and that's... Wow, Jonathan David, good for you. Sort of ends there after those two in terms of the international play. Jacob Schaffelberg is... Yeah, who is this guy? There's two players in the history

of the Canadian men's team. Great name. From the Maritimes to have played for the Canadian men's national team. It is not like a hotbed of talent that's coming forth to play for Canada and to represent them at all these competitions. He's from Nova Scotia. He played at Toronto FC

and I don't know if you guys remember this or not, but Toronto FC has made a bunch of big prize signings, including the Italians, often at the expense of these younger homegrown players. Schaffelberg got loaned out to Nashville and he kind of burst onto the scene down there. People love him because he's very he's got all the Canadian attributes. He runs all match. He's just grit and speed and tenacity. And he's kind of like scattered when he plays

he's taking all these bumps and bruises he's getting knocked constantly just gets back on his feet and goes i think that that's part of the reason why everyone loves him so much he's also very talented he was just making things happen throughout the tournament then all like throughout the 60 plus minutes he played against venezuela so um he'll be very interesting to watch moving forward because he's young and he's a pretty unique player. There's not a lot of guys that play like him. Where was this guy at the World Cup? He wasn't on the team.

I know. That's what I'm asking. Why? Because two years ago, he was basically playing, like, loan matches, short-term loan matches. He was floating between playing for TFC's regular team and then, like, their feeder team, like Whitecaps 2. Oh, okay.

He was playing for Toronto's version of Whitecaps 2. Who gets the credit for propping him up? Is it Jesse Marsh already doing stuff, or is this more of an organizational? To be fair, Herdman started playing him a bit at the Gold Cup, and he scored a big goal for Canada at the Gold Cup against the U.S. to send it to a shootout. So they kind of understood that they had something on his hands.

It was the move to Nashville where he got to play more and started becoming, they're like, whoa, wait a minute. He's not just this sort of like little energy burst guy. He's really changing matches for us. And his confidence grew and he started to grow with more profile. He's very popular in Nashville, right? He's got the floppy hair and the howdy doody boyish grin and all that. And then he goes out there and he's making things happen constantly.

So the reason we're talking so much about Jacob Schaffelberg is that there's a lot of people paying attention to footy right now. The dogs, countless texters. Yeah, my dad watched. He hates soccer. Right. Really? He's like, I watched a soccer game. He won Adog's dad over.

Really, you did? I got a lot of those messages sent to me. They're like, Halford, I'm watching this only because I watched the soccer game. You won Adog's dad over. I'm like, really, you did? I got a lot of those messages sent to me. They're like, Halford, I'm watching this only because I listen to the show. And then they were like, I still hate it. And I'm like, okay, well, we're making progress like you watch. But a lot of prominent people were watching that match. One of them was in attendance for the Copa America semifinal. Sidney Crosby, also from Nova Scotia.

And when he walked into the Canadian room afterwards, Jacob Schaffelberg's face lit up and all the guys, everyone to a man, like whether they knew anything about hockey or not, seemed to understand the significance of who Sidney Crosby was. Plot twist, Crosby's playing next match, which is interesting. He's going to start out right. Apparently he's really good. He's probably not too bad, honestly.

He's going to start up front. For more on this, let's go now to the Canadian gaffer, Jesse Marsh, talking about how cool it was for Sidney Crosby to be in the room with the Canadian men's national team after their win over Venezuela. It was really cool. I had him speak to the team. He was amazing. He said he loved being here, and the penalty shootout was amazing.

I mean, incredible, right? What a legend to have on our side. So this is important for us in 2026. We want to feel the power of the entire incredible, right? What a legend to have on our side. So this is important for us in 2026. We want to feel the power of the entire nation, right? So I was asking if Wayne Gretzky was around or anyone else, but for now, that was pretty amazing to have Sidney Crosby there. So two jumping off points here. One, was this the most important win in Canadian men's soccer history?

I think it is. And I'm talking specifically about the victory itself. To this point. Qualifying for 2022 in Qatar was maybe, in terms of an accomplishment, was as big, but I couldn't do a single individual victory that meant as much as this one. The win over Mexico

in Edmonton at Ice Teca was probably on par. That was huge. But this got you to a semifinal of a major tournament where that match was like, win and you move on, lose and you go home. That Mexico match, all due respect to it, it wasn't the decider. The one that Canada clinched, the win over Jamaica,

was pretty much fait accompli at that point. Canada was advancing at some point. Fait accompli. Fait accompli. I want to play audio from Alistair Johnson, another guy that's really kind of warmed the hearts of Canadians for the way that he approaches

the game and how well he played. He was fired up. Just listen to the excitement in his voice and listen to him talk about what this means for the program and what this means for the country. Alistair Johnson, the Celtic fullback, speaking after the big win over Venezuela on Friday. We came in over a month ago, new manager, new system.

No one really knew what was going to happen. Everyone just thought you got a lot of really difficult games coming up. Let's see what we can get out of it. But man, again, just so proud of this group. What a special, special team. And we're going to a semifinals, man, against Argentina. Copa America semifinals. If that doesn't get you going, I don't know what will.

Oh, it got me going. I was fired up on Friday. Now, the tail end of that quote leads us into the next big talking point. Do they have a shot against Argentina? So you'll remember, those of you that followed the tournament, for those of you that don't, a quick history lesson. Canada opened this tournament playing against Lionel Messi and Argentina in the first match of Copa America. It was in Atlanta.

Canada lost 2-0. It was a very frenetic, very energetic game. The Canadians did create some chances, but they also gave up a lot of chances. Were it not for some goalie Max Crapo heroics and some poor finishing on the half of the Argentinians, it could have gone in a very different way. Do they have a shot?

Yes. How big of an underdog are they? Well, according to most sportsbooks, they are a pretty massive underdog. Plus 850 to win at most books. Some have it lower, some have it higher, but it's an in and around that plus 850. Argentina is minus 310,

so the odds are stacked heavily against canada love a good dog love a good dog that being said jesse marsh did lay out some pretty interesting keys to victory here ways that canada can be successful one on that to do with the fact that maybe they will be a little bit more comfortable against messi and company having seen them once already here's the gap for for Jesse Marsh on what to expect from Argentina. Yeah, right now it's not about motivation. It's about clarity. Right. So it's about making sure they understand what's going to be important, what to learn from the last game, what's going to be important for this game and how to clearly put a plan together and and honor our development to understand what this game, what we want

to be and what we want to look like in this match. So I think they're clear. It's helpful that we've played against Argentina already, so there's less of an unknown. But if you know good teams, the closer they get to titles, the more they're able to kick it into another gear. So I expect

Argentina to deliver their best performance yet on Tuesday. Okay, other news and notes from the weekend. The BC Lions got a massive victory against the lowly Hamilton Tiger Cats. Noted Hamilton resident Greg Ballot could barely come into work today. Former Hamilton resident. Vernon Adams threw four first-half touchdown passes, 44-28 over the Ticats. The Lions jumped all over Hamilton early they had a 34 to 11 halftime lead Vernon Adams who is having a MOP caliber season

pretty much put this one to bed in the first half and the Lions sort of coasted from there the Lions have won four straight over those those four straight wins, Vernon Adams has nine touchdown passes and no interceptions. Lions defense also helped bury this one early. They didn't allow Hamilton to get a first down until their fourth drive of the game. So it was over early in Hamilton. Now, the question here is how good are the Lions? Because right now the record says, hey, we're 4-1.

We got the third best record in the CFL. The only teams that we're trailing are Montreal, who's a perfect 5-0 and look very good and look like they're going to be the class of the East. And then Saskatchewan, who's 4-0. And I'll remind you, the 4-1 BC Lions will host the undefeated Saskatchewan Rough Riders this weekend at BC Place. That's going to be on Saturday. It's an early kickoff.

It's a four o'clock. The Lions victories since losing that opener against Toronto have come against the Calgary team that is basically 500. Two winless teams in the Edmonton Elks and the now 0-5 Hamilton Tiger Cats and a Winnipeg team

that got off to an awful start. They were 0-4. They were winless at the time that the Lions beat them. They've since recorded a victory. So my thoughts here that the jury's out on the Lions really until Saturday. That's when they're going to get their first significant opportunity and test of the season. Look, I know you can only beat the teams that are scheduled

and you can only beat the teams that are in front of you. We all know the cliches. I get it. And aside from a sort of sketchy win over the Elks at home where they had to win it on the last second field goal by Sean White. By the way, brief aside, how about our guy, Sean White? He did it. He really did it.

He did it. Yeah, rough dodge to bold there. So for those of you that don't know, last week we had Sean White on the program. He had a consecutive field goal streak of 28, dating back to last season. So we had him on our regular Tuesday hit with a Lions guest, and the first three questions that Brough asked Sean White all were about his consecutive field goal streak. I don't think he loved it.

I don't think he cared for it. Each time he asked it, you could tell Sean was getting more and more perplexed and annoyed at the same time. Why are you doing this to me? Hey, you know what? Only the best kickers clutch up when questioned by Jason Brough. Not once, not twice, but thrice. Speaking of threes, Sean White hit three field goals on the weekend.

So he's at 31 straight. He is now the BC Lions all-time leader for consecutive field goals, passing Paul McCallum, who I think set the record back in 2011. Anyway, back to the Lions. How good are they? It's fair to say that they've got the CFL's most outstanding player in Vernon Adams and best quarterback in Vernon Adams, and that goes a long way when deciding who's going to be the best team in the CFL.

This is all due respect to Cody Fajardo and what the Owls are doing in Montreal right now. But this test on Saturday, it is going to be exactly that. It's going to be a real test to see where the Lions are at. It's going to be a pecking order game. It's going to be for first place in the West. It's going to be against a very good opponent that does not have a loss on their resume yet. So we'll be very interested to see how the Lions do.

Speaking of the Lions, Rick Campbell, head coach of the Lions, is going to join us tomorrow to look back on the win in Hamilton on Sunday and also look ahead to that Riders game on Saturday. I'm very depressed by the way about that loss.

Are you? They did drop them to 0-5 on the year. Bo Levi Mitchell's doing well at quarterback. Does that brighten your spirits? While you were talking about the games, I was just looking over the year-over-year Hamilton Tiger Cat records. Man, it's sad. Five winning seasons in 22 years

in the CFL. Yeah. Are they one of the worst franchises? It's been a real... I'm talking all sports here. Well, the Elks have the record. Currently. Right, because the Elks are a disaster of a football club.

It's hard when you're put up against that. A couple things that we can get to before we go to break. Real quick, I did want to mention that we're going to have Shang Peng on the show from San Jose at 815. Big news from the NHl over the weekend is that maclin celebrini has decided to go professional it took him a grand total of eight days since he was taken first overall at the 2024 nhl entry draft shortly after participating in shark's prospect camp he said he came to the realization that it was time to go pro so he was not for me no. No, he's like, you know what? Boston University was nice, but I no longer need to go there because I'm a professional hockey player.

He did kind of wait and have some conversations, which I believe were token conversations with Mike Greer and the rest of the. You're going to give me the money. Yeah. OK. And then he went. So the Sharks kind of become an interesting team to watch now because they're going to have the first and fourth overall picks from the last two drafts in Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith. Two of the top collegiate players in the country might enter the year

as the Sharks' top two centers. That to go along with the guys that they've acquired in free agency, including names like Tyler Toffoli. I don't think that they will be good, like traditionally good per se, but this was one of the worst teams I'd say in the last 20 years in the National Hockey League. It'd be worse, yeah.

Right? It would be hard to be worse. They're still projected to be the worst team in the league this coming season. See, I got a feeling that they might actually climb out of the basement and be better than Anaheim as we look towards what the Canucks

will be facing at the bottom half of the Pacific Division. At the very least, I think they might be more relevant, and that's why I wanted to get Shang on the show later, because there's been some reports out of San Jose, like jersey sales are way up, and people have really glommed on to this Celebrini thing

and his connections to the Bay Area, because his dad is so prominent with the Golden State Warriors. So we'll ask about Celebrini going pro, but I also want to know about what kind of energy this has brought to a team that, let's be honest, must have been an incredibly difficult watch last year for season ticket holders. And you saw some of those attendances in San Jose. It got pretty grim last year.

Barracuda-type crowds. I did not mention in the intro anything about the Jays other than the fact that they won a series. And it was that very important series, at least from a fan perspective, down in Seattle there. I was watching it over the weekend. Countless Jays fans and attendants who made the trip down to Seattle.

Zach Worden is going to join us next. MLB writer and Jays writer for Sportsnet.ca. We'll talk to him about the series, what it means, if anything, and then get closer and closer to the trade deadline and what the Jays might do there. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. well hit ball high and deep to right center field and it is gone 6.31 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Although it's only me, Halford. Brough is still on vacation.

Gallivanting through the European countryside. Is it galloping? Galloping. Galloping through the European countryside. I'm galloping? He's galloping. Galloping through the European countryside. They're going to be so free. Back with his people. No fences to hold him in.

That rain just blowing in the wind. He took the blinders off. Yeah. Run free, boy! Bruff's on vacation. I'm flying solo. Halifax.

Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax.

Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax.

Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax.

Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax.

Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax. Halifax.'m flying solo. Halford and brother in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for.

Sales financing service or parts. We are in our one of the program. Zach Worden from sportsnet.ca is going to join us in a second for a little Jay's talk. Uh, our one of this program is going to join us in a second for a little Jay's talk. Hour one of this program is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Zach Worden joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Zach. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing well, thank you. How are you? I'm good, thanks. And thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So we played the clip coming back from break.

George Springer goes yard in the series finale against the Mariners yesterday. Three-run Jack cuts the lead from 4-1, evens it up at 4-4. The one thing that stood out to me was that Springer was super fired up. Really fired up. He actually said in the aftermath, felt like I blacked out for a minute there. For a team that was like eight games under 500 going into this series and whose playoff chances are gone, I did think it was

pretty telling that Springer was real fired up helping his team claw back and they eventually get that 5-4 win to win the series against the Mariners on Sunday. Yeah, I think the atmosphere really kind of contributed to just, I think, how fired up all the Blue Jays were to kind of come away with the series win. I mean, you look at Chad Green kind of showing some emotion,

Genesis Dubrera showing some emotion, Brendan Little, George Springer, all these guys were super excited to kind of get that win on the road and come away with that series win in front of, of course, all the Western Canadian fans down there. I think with Springer specifically, just kind of seeing how his season has gone so far, like I can't imagine how good that this recent stretch for him has felt. Just being able to kind of turn things around and be one of the main contributors for the

team that he's supposed to be. It's been a really great stretch for him. And I think that just that emotion was almost just him kind of unleashing just everything that he's probably built up on himself this season. So I was reading a piece from your cohort at Sportsnet.ca, Arden Zwelling, talking about where the Jays are at. And he wrote, in a Blue Jays season that every day

becomes more and more about evaluating what's in place for 2025. These are welcome signs, but I'm not really sure exactly what they mean. What does it mean for the Jays moving forward now? Because I think the playoff chances are at like 2.4%. So wins are great.

They're exciting. But what does the rest of this season really mean? And what does it look like for the Jays? Is it all about next year now? I think so. You want to believe that there's a chance that they can come back and you never say never.

But the way that they've played and the way that the bullpen looks right now, the rotation looks a little bit old. I do think that they're in a spot where they have to start prioritizing 2025 and obviously with the trade deadline coming up you probably start with your expiring contracts and then they have to make some really big decisions on their future i mean they have a bunch of aging pitchers in the rotation um they need to decide whether they believe those guys can kind of return to the form that we saw from them last

season or if maybe you want to move off a Chris Bass or a Kevin Gosman right now, where, when their value is going to be higher than it probably will be down the road. And of course that leads into the conversation with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Boba Shett and what you feel like your future, if those two guys, if you're able to retain them long-term, or if you feel like maybe you want to move off them now or

kind of what if you do want to make that decision to to push that decision to to the offseason it's really i think the rest of this year we're going to see them start prioritizing some of the young guys we've already seen that with spencer horwitz getting a ton of time uh david schneider has kind of turned into a full-time player obviously his struggles recently have moved him kind of out of that a little bit, but it's going to be interesting to see how they prioritize playing time going forward, especially once they do move off some of those pieces at the trade deadline.

You know, all the trade deadline pieces, they get a lot more grabby when you've got Vladdy and Bo in the headline. And I understand that, you know, it does get a little bit more attention given two players of that profile are out there, but what's the actual likelihood bow in the headline and I understand that you know it does get a little bit more attention given to players of that profile are out there but what's the actual likelihood that either one of them gets moved by the deadline I think it's pretty low um I think that looking at kind of what's been out

there from Ross Atkins and some of the stuff that's um maybe been whispered from the organization is that they do want to take that core into 2025 and give them a final shot. I think that they want to, I don't think that they want to give up on this core. And even if they do end up trading them, I think that'll be more of an off season decision when perhaps there's a different person at the helm making the decisions there. I think that you,

it's really tough to make a trade of that at that scale in the middle of the season when these two guys are probably players that you, if you can, extend, that you're going to want to take that shot. I think Bobachet is probably more likely to go than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at this point, but I think that either of them, it's pretty unlikely that we'll see them moved. So with that said, who is the most likely candidate to be moved,

assuming that the Jays are going to make at least one move of significance? Yeah, I think we'll see them be pretty busy. I think that Yusei Kikuchi is probably the most high-profile player that will be moved. Danny Jansen, it's interesting with Danny Jansen because you don't really see a lot of high-profile catchers move, so I'm kind of interested to see if they do decide to move him and what that package will look like.

But then, of course, Jimmy Garcia, Trevor Richards, Kevin Kiermaier, Justin Turner, all their expiring deals, I expect them to look to move. And even if they can't find an ideal package for any of them, just getting anything for these guys who are very unlikely to be back in 2025, I think is the way to go for sure. We are speaking to Zach Worden from Sportsnet.ca

here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Another percentages, odds, likelihoods question for you here, Zach. What's the likelihood that John Schneider finishes the season as the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays? It's an interesting question. I think it's pretty good because I think that the front office

really does like him and he's in a tough spot for sure. I mean, if they do feel like they're going to go down with the ship, I think that he might get fired. But, you know, GMs in baseball rarely ever

get four managers and at this point ross atkins um fired john gibbons fired charlie montoyo and i just feel like firing john schneider would almost give him um you know he it would almost be him signing his resignation papers saying that i failed at hiring two managers and i need a third uh what about atkins and shapiro because my usual co-host jason brough who's on vacation his resignation papers saying that I failed at hiring two managers and I need a third. What about Atkins and Shapiro? Because my usual co-host, Jason Brough, who's on vacation, he's been harping on this for a while, that changes might just need to happen at the top, and it might come from fan unrest and the fact that this core in this group that Atkins and Shapiro built obviously hasn't got it done in the playoffs. And now this might not just be a blip season where they can get back to it.

It might be the sign that it just ain't right. And the architects might have to walk your thoughts on the longevity of Atkins and Shapiro and where that might go. Yeah, it's, it's a really tough question. Just with the way that the team is set up for 2025. I think if you look, they have so many questions on the roster for next year, but they do have at least kind of the bones of a team that you can see at least bouncing back or being competitive. And I mean, there's just so much that they have to do. There's so much

heavy lifting that they're going to have to do in the offseason to fill out the bullpen, to find some offensive pieces to kind of reach that point in 2025. So as far as those two go, I think that if the season does continue on the track that it's on right now, I think that it's tough to bring back Ross Atkins. As far as Mark Shapiro, I mean, obviously he's done a lot of great stuff at the top there with the Rogers Center and the complex in Dunedin and kind of making everything great for the players. The product on the field just hasn't lived up to that yet. roger center and uh the complex and then kind of making uh everything great for the players the

product on the field just hasn't hasn't lived up to that yet so i think he probably has a little bit more rope than ross atkins at this point and as far as ross goes i i mean it's tough to to move on from him in the middle of a season um i i believe that if even if you do fire him and replace him from somebody within i mean it's kind of the same regime, the same group there. So I think that that wouldn't really achieve all that much and that if you really do want to have some significant change by firing or moving on from Ross Atkins, that you would need to bring in somebody externally.

And I think that would be really tough to do in the next month before the trade deadline and the draft and kind of all this super busy time for, for baseball executives. We're speaking to Zach Worden, Sportsnet Blue Jays analyst here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I asked this question when we had Adnan Virk on the show last week, I want to ask you as well,

who's been the Blue Jays MVP this season? Oh, that's a tough one because there's not a lot of uh people that stand out there i mean i'll go with vladimir grow junior i think um that's maybe a little bit of recency bias but he's been so good for a couple weeks now and i know obviously that this weekend wasn't great especially he hasn't you know totally stayed on fire since getting hit in the hand by gary cole but but i'll go with him i i think his um kind of returning or uh looking more like the hitter that we saw a couple years ago has been really good for the team and at least has given you something to tune into every day

when things have not been going great across the roster. You mentioned that things haven't been going great. And I'm curious to get your reflections on the fan sentiment right now because our producer, Greg, Big J's fan, I would say disenchanted is a fair word to describe. We had another, I was watching the games with a buddy this weekend, and he's a Big J's fan, and he was just sort of, I don't want to say fully apathetic,

but he was definitely teetering on apathetic. What sort of reaction and response are you getting from the fans that you interact with on a regular basis? Not great reactions. I think disenchanted is a really great word for it. It's just been such a disheartening season. I mean, you tune in and it feels like you're watching the same game every day. If they go down early, there's no feel or you don't feel like there's a chance that they can come back at all.

Obviously, this weekend, the spring home run is great. And that's something that you wish that you would have seen more of all season because it just hasn't been there. And even when they take a lead into the late games now, you know, they're running guys at the bullpen that you have absolutely zero confidence in being able to get outs and get big outs and find a way to take a lead and finish it off. And I just think that the reaction has been very poor. And it's just, I think, a product of the way that the team has been unable to inspire any confidence in the ability to hold a lead, get a lead, score runs. It's just been a very boring brand of baseball, and it's tough to do that, especially when they're losing games.

That's a really interesting point there, the boring brand of baseball, because that's the other thing that I've heard from people. Even over the weekend, they were saying, like, the games were close in Seattle and there were some good finishes, but it wasn't exactly the most scintillating baseball throughout.

Sunday's game was entertaining, for sure, but it wasn't that sort of brand of baseball that made you thought like, Oh, there's something here moving forward or, this is a team that's on the verge of competing. And that's why I wonder about the notion of running it back or staying the course, how big a risk that might run to the people who are with the eye test saying

this team isn't up to par. Yeah. I think it's a huge risk because they basically did that. They made that bet last season on internal improvement. And realistically, they haven't gotten that internal improvement

from anybody not named Vladimir Giroud Jr. And for them to do that again in 2025, I think would put them at further risk of alienating fan base even further. And especially the way that the pitching is kind of

aging a little bit i think it would be a huge risk if they um completely ran it back like like i said you know there's there's a ton of heavy lifting to do for 2025 and if they don't address the offense in some way uh a significant way i i think that there is a is a great chance that they are kind of the exact same team that they are this year, next year. And, you know, you can have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hitting 40 home runs. I don't think that that would make much of a difference with the rest of the way that the rest of the offense is played and how the bullpen is built right now. I just think that they have so much heavy lifting to do. And if they really do lean on Dalton Bargeau, George Springer, Boba Shett having great years next year,

I don't think that you're going to see much of a different team. Zach, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. So the West Coast swing continues on Tuesday. Three-game set in San Fran, then a three-game set in Arizona. Enjoy the next couple weeks. Should be a lot of fun, I hope.

Thanks so much. I appreciate you guys having me on. Yeah, thanks for three-game set in Arizona. Enjoy the next couple weeks. Should be a lot of fun, I hope. Thanks so much. I appreciate you guys having me on. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. Zach Worden, MLB and Jays writer for Sportsnet.ca here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I mentioned that the Jays are on their way to San Francisco. Speaking of the Bay Area, I wanted to circle back on the Macklin-Celebrini thing for a

moment. I wanted to play some audio about the type of game that Celebrini is bringing to the NHL because over the weekend, there was a lot of excitement around the Sharks that they had got him signed to his entry-level deal, that he was officially going to turn professional, that he wasn't going to go back to BU. I'm going to be keeping a close eye on this. Obviously, it's got such a local connection, given his dad's ties to the area, given his dad's high-profile job with the Golden State Warriors,

given the fact that he was a North Shore Winter Club kid, and that this has become this sort of hockey hotbed now. You've got two first overall picks back to back coming from this province. I'm curious about what his game is going to be like, because I think there's been the obvious, I don't want to say comparisons, but the narrative has been like,

Oh, Connor Bedard, he's going to be good. Yeah, right. They're obviously different players. I think it's fair to say that Celebrini isn't as dynamic and as skilled and as breathtaking a talent

as Conor Bedard was. You didn't hear generational talent thrown around like you did with Bedard. The word two-way has been described. Words, laddie. Well, it's got a hyphen in the middle. We can account it as one word. I think for the purposes of this conversation,

we will. This is Celebrini on Spittin' Chicklets on what kind of game he is bringing to the National Hockey League. Coaches growing up, they'd always preach on playing the right way. And like, there's a right way to play and a wrong way to play. And they had John Calvano, who coached me since I was six. When we went to the Brick Invitational Tournament, he came into our locker room and he's like,

if you want to win the scoring record, that's fine. We won't win the tournament, though. Like, you can't play that way. Play selfish. Play the wrong way. So like, that was something that stuck with me. You find yourself in better positions when you're playing the game the tournament though. Like you can't play that way, play selfish, play the wrong way. So like that was something that stuck with me. You find yourself in better positions when you're playing the game the right way. Like if you're trying to chase those points or chase the goals, it feels like sometimes it can bite you. So I'm going to be very curious to see

what they look like. And that's the first time I've said anything interesting about the San Jose Sharks. Were there any goal chasers on the Sharks last year, Mike? Oh my God. It was one of the worst teams in the last two decades last year. It was a collection of players, that's for sure. I don't think everyone remembers but when the Canucks went there and hung 10 goals on them,

they promptly gave up 10 goals the next game against Pittsburgh. The poor kid who was his first game. They were the first team since 1966 to allow 10 goals in consecutive games in NHL history. They were putrid. And everyone in the division feasted on the Sharks last year. They had 19 wins.

To not get to 20 wins in an NHL regular season, you have to be pretty bad. That means you didn't squeeze a couple in the shootout. 82 tries to get to 20. You didn't get one into overtime and get a fluky goal. You just couldn't get to 20 wins, right? And that is a horrific total. For an organization that for the longest time was built on consistency,

familiar faces, veteran presences. We go to the playoffs year after year after year. There are five years on the trial. We don't do much in the playoffs, but we go to the playoffs. Right. And this is sort of the cyclical nature of the NHL, right, is you get bad, you stockpile draft picks, you get better. But my concern would be you've got Smith and Celebrini going into a team that was historically bad.

Not just bad, like stink lines bad. Reeked up the league. Had got their coach fired in a year where they were supposed to be bad. I mean, think about that for a second. They fired David Quinn after he went out and did exactly what he was supposed to do. Too well. Steer the tank right into the first overall pick in the draft. You're supposed to make it look like you're trying, though.

And then Mike Greer said, hey, we can be bad, but this was too bad. We stunk too bad. And it can't be this ugly. And I get it. You can't bring two top four picks, the fourth overall pick Smith and the first overall pick Celebrini, into an atmosphere

and an environment like that. They'll crater. They'll be absolutely terrible. They'll finish like minus 50 on the year. Their confidence will be shot. They won't play hockey anymore. But they are going to be still a pretty bad team. You know what?

As it pertains to the Canucks, I'm actually really curious to see how bad the bottom three teams in the division are going to be next year. Well, I just told you who their goaltending tandem is. Who's their goaltending tandem again? Kenzie Blackwood and Kapo Kakanen was the guy they went out and acquired. And acquired. Isn't Vanacek there too?

Sorry, I said Kakanen. It's Vanacek. Yeah, right, I said Kakanen. It's Vanacek. Yeah, right. They had Kakanen and he left. Vanacek, the guy that was run out of New Jersey, is now the other goaltender. So consider this if you're a team in the upper echelons of the Pacific Division.

By that, I mean, we're all counting. Edmonton's going to be there. The Canucks are going to be there. Vegas, I would imagine. I don't know what to think of Los Angeles right now. Their offseason has been pretty underwhelming as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure Darcy Kemper is going to solve what ails them. He's coming off a great season.

But you're going to be able to feast on the Sharks are going to be bad. Although they got Jake Wallman now. He'll gritty his way to another couple wins. Anaheim has, I don't even think they participated in the offseason. I think Pat Verbeek just looked at it and was like, nah, we're good. We're just going to go out. The schedule is just, there's too much going on. We changed our gear.

So that's going to get us some buzz. But otherwise, we're just going to roll back with the same team that got us like 27 wins last year. We just did the draft and now they want me to sign guys? Like, get out of here. I wonder how bad Calgary is going to roll back with the same team that got us like 27 wins last year. We just did the draft, and now they want me to sign guys? Like, get out of here. I wonder how bad Calgary is going to be next year. They're bottoming out big time. Well, I mean, the amount of departures that they've had over the last 12 to 16 months has been pretty staggering.

If you go back and look at the roster of the final game of that series that they lost to Edmonton before Edmonton went to the conference finals against Colorado in 2022, it's a shell of that team. Nobody is around anymore. And if you look at it, you're coming into this season, and the two big-ticket guys are Hubidor and Kadri. You're almost wondering how long they are for the job, because at this point, why would Calgary be motivated

to keep them around other than the fact they couldn't move them like their anchor contracts for sure but I mean just go through the list of guys that have gone out right and it's the most recent one is Markstrom who's probably been their best player the last two years has performed above expected on a team that was giving up a lot of chances and didn't really play great in front of them. Their blue line is not good. It is not going to be good at all. I wonder if they could sink into the less than 30 wins, hovering around 65 to 70 points, like that level of bad,

because you would think that where they're at as an organization, they want to start getting into, let's try and get top five picks. Let's see if we can, not as bad as the Sharks were last year. No one wants to be that bad ever again. Well, they're going to let Dustin Wolf run with it, right? Who's the young goaltender. He could struggle and, you know,

calm down though. If he has struggles, then they can just go to, oh, Dan Vladar as their other goaltender. So I don't think things are going to go too well for Cogre next year. Even if Wolf stands on his head, like you said, the defense there,

he's just going to get peppered all year long. Yeah, it's just there's such a disparity in the division between the good and the bad because you could make it. I mean, look, the Western Conference champion one game away from the Stanley Cup is in that division. A Vancouver team that won 50 games

and had plus 105 points is in that division. The team that won the Stanley Cup the year prior to the Florida Panthers, the Vegas Golden Knights, are still lurking there. And I don't know what to make of Los Angeles, but it's top heavy. There's no real sort of mushy middle. I guess that would be maybe LA and maybe Seattle. And I have no idea what to expect from Seattle. I expect they'll be better than last season, although I don't know how much.

New coach, few new players. But Calgary, Calgary bottoming out makes it very interesting. And Anaheim doing nothing of significance going with a team that was really bad last year.

And if not for San Jose being historically bad, it would have been right down there in the basement. I'd be very curious to see what that looks like. Anaheim hasn't even done

the house cleaning stuff that we expected them to do. Like the Gibson trade, is that still happening? They didn't do anything. They didn't do anything. They barely participated in the offseason.

I think their big acquisition was they got Robbie Fabry from Detroit. Yes. And they were like, okay. Because Detroit was like, who can we trade Fabry to?

Oh, Anaheim, okay. They were like, well, this will solve everything. Robbie Fabry is in the door. Okay, coming up on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650, 7 o'clock hour, Esfandiar Baraheni is going to join us

from Forbes and Raptors Republic. He's an NBA and Canadian basketball writer. We are going to talk about this Canadian team going into the Olympics, which, again, started the end of this month. Canada found out their group mates over the weekend because the qualifying tournament happened in Europe. They got a really tough group. They're going up against Spain.

They're going up against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Greeks. They're going up against Australia, who's ranked fifth in the world according to the FIBA rankings. It is a very difficult group from Canada. We will talk about it and what the Canadian team will look like going into the Paris Olympics. That's all coming up next on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.