Halford & Brough in the Morning - How To Save A Sports Franchise

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Michael Arace (1:45), former Columbus Dispatch journalist and current writer of The Disrespected about how the MLS' Columbus Crew was saved from relocation by a grassroots fan movement, and how it pertains to the Whitecaps, plus the boys discuss the Oilers going down 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks with Sports 1440 Edmonton's Jason Gregor (29:05). 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.

702 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford, Brough, SportsNet, 650. I like this track. This is good. I was letting a breathe there for a little bit. But then we had to come back. Because we have business to do.

We got a show to do. I know. We are an hour two of the program. This show is brought to by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? Sands and Associates can often reduce that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visiting today at sands.

that's trustee.com. That brass part was perfectly telling like, are you drowning in taxed? Boom. You could reduce the drowning by up to 80%. Boom. We are in hour two of the program, as I mentioned. Hour 2 is Brad to buy Jason Homonock at Jason Dow Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find

the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason Dow Mortgage. We're coming live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech. guests on SportsNet 650 call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline, email sales at A-B-L-E-Octions.cai to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. So I've mentioned this a couple times. I'm going to reiterate it. We're now going to Columbus to talk about the white caps. Don't worry. It'll make sense. I swear. Joining us now, formerly of the Columbus dispatch now, Disrespected Media. Michael Arras joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, Michael. How are you? I'm doing fine, gentlemen. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on to take the time to do this. We appreciate it. So I'll set the table here for the listeners. It was about a decade ago that Columbus's MLS team, the Columbus crew, faced serious relocation worries where they were potentially going to move to Austin.

Just so we can get the comp out of the way first. Can you let our listeners know just how close was Columbus to losing its MLS team? Well, the original owners of the crew and the co-founder of the company, the league. Lamar Hunt, his family Hunt sports group owned the team. And it was the league's first chartered franchise. So there's some history there.

Lamar Hunt passed away. His HSG down in Dallas ran the team as absentee owners. It was sold. So original price to get in the league was $5 million. It was sold to a gentleman named Anthony

Precourt in 2014 for 67.5 million dollars. So first of all, you can see in parentheses here, why billionaires by pro sports teams, they went from five to 67 million in a span of, you know, just over 15 years or whatever. So anyway, pre-court and the sales agreement, the crew was sold to the league, and the league sold the team to pre-court. And there was a clause in the sales agreement that he could move the team to Austin. Those weren't, that wasn't the exact wording. But that was, um, that was in there. So when Precourt bought the team in 2014, he always had designs on moving it and specifically

to Austin. So that's what started bubbled it up in 2017. It was a really dirty thing where, you know, the league was in concert with this owner really from the start since he bought it to move the team. You know, they had a really good team and stuff and they got too many kids. They did a lot of stuff like they let the stadium go to hell and so on and so forth. And when they announced that they were exploring quote unquote parallel paths in 2017. It was within a couple days that the fans rose up and said, no, wait a minute here. This is not a failed market, as you claim.

This is a very good soccer market. So that was the birth of Save the Crew. And Save the Crew, the grassroots movement led mostly by Morgan Hughes. You guys should have him on. I'll give you his number. but that in combination with a couple of things saved the team. And the other things that saved the team was there was a law here in Ohio written after the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996.

It was called the Modell Law. And that said you couldn't move a professional sports franchise out of Ohio City or municipality, whatever the governing body might be involved. if they had accepted public tax dollars. So if you took 20 bucks to help build your parking lot, you had accepted public tax dollars. And if you wanted to move your team, you had to, one, give the local authority six months to find local buyers,

or two, come to an agreement with whatever the governing body involved was. So basically, you have to come to some sort of agreement to get out of the state. or out of the town. Now, geez, I don't even want to go here. It gets, it gets weirder there, currently. But so to make a long story short, the Modell law gave, was a stalling action because the league didn't want to go to court. They didn't want to go to discovery. And other major leagues didn't want to go to discovery. They didn't like, they didn't like this case. They didn't like this law. And at that time, they were scared of it. And so that was enough of a delaying to actually find a new ownership group and keep the team in Columbus.

The league extracted a lot from Columbus and the new ownerships to keep the team here. They said, all right, they let three court go to Austin and not pay an expansion fee. Essentially, the new owners from Columbus paid the expansion fee at the time, which was $150 million. and it was incumbent upon the new owners to build a new stadium in a ridiculous time frame and they accomplished all of this but really what made it all work was save the crew which was an organic grassroots movement that that basically made this into an issue and punched holes into every argument that the league and the owner that wanted to move the team made so I don't know when you talk about who saved the crew there's a

a lot, there's sort of a lot of things to talk about, but really central to everything was the fans. What, they saved the team? What was the power that the fans had, though? I mean, they had no investment in the team monetarily. You know, I, I'm just curious how, how they were the key and not the new owners, whoever bought the team. Well, essentially, they mobilized, and what they did was they, they, they, they, they, they, they,

They kept such a close eye. They built their movement to get big enough to where they got the attention of powerful people in Columbus, notably the Columbus Partnership, which is a consortium of business leaders in the city. That was their, I guess, their biggest accomplishment. Really, they were just a gigantic pain in the ass. And gigantic, I use that word. with forethought here, it was a very big thing. I mean, within a couple days, there were people demonstrating on City Hall.

And like, when you're an owner trying to get a team out of town, you want to do it like Robert Irse. You know, you pack the trucks up overnight with the Colts to Indianapolis, you know? So that was part of it. The other half is they were so big and so effective that, you know, there were powerful people in Columbus that actually joined hands with them. And it was actually a leader of the Columbus Partnership that had the Haslam family connection that, you know, they went back together to Tennessee. And so you also had the local doctor, the team doctor, who'd been the team doctor since the start. He had built a kind of a network of orthopedic facilities all over the state. He had some money.

His family had a lot of money, their construction business. And then when they finally got hooked up with the Hasman family, which is, you know, you're talking Garth Brooks money there. Something north of $10 billion or whatever. That's what did it. So the question is, what did the fans do? They made it possible. They made it possible through their actions.

and by getting the powers involved here, including at the state level, because it was the Attorney General, now governor, but the Attorney General at the time and the city attorney that sued the League and Anthony Precourt based on the Modell law. So that all this stuff came together, and it came together because the fans rose up. So did that network of orthopedic clinics, did that turn into a sponsor for the team?

No, no, no, that's like small potatoes kind of thing. I mean, like, again, Pete Edwards, who is, he became a minority owner. So he went from team doctor from 1996 to 2018 to minority owner. Okay. And, and it's, and, and, and, uh, the majority owner is Haslam Sports Group. They own the Browns, uh, a chunk of the Milwaukee Bucks. Um, and there's, you know, some other stuff. So, you know, and the crew.

So, so, so what was it? convince them to invest and to keep the team in Columbus? Well, it's kind of where I started this discussion. If you own professional sports teams, you do it for two reasons. You're not going to make money. Usually you don't make money. It depends on the market. You do it for tax reasons because you can write off everything.

I mean, you can cheat if you own a pro sports team like crazy. And the other reason you do it is for valuation. You buy a pro sports team because it was where. worth $5 million in 1996 and then $67.5 million in 2017, $150 million in 2014, it was $67.5. But 2017, it's $150 million. And right now, the cruise valuation is just under a billion dollars. So that's another reason why people with money in Vancouver should be attracted to owning

the white caps. if they're up for sale, especially if they could get it at a good price. Obviously, the stadium's a problem, you know? And that's something that took a lot of sausage factory to fix here as well. But it did get done. So, I don't know, you need the fans, first of all, doing what they do. And you need people that have juice in the city that can find solutions to the problems the team has now. Because here's the thing is, like, guys, I was the last whale.

is Beat Rider in Hartford. I know how this stuff works. And Save the Crew is an outlier. Soccer teams in other parts of the world don't move. Here in North America, we have teams move well frequently enough so that it really doesn't make anyone bad an eye. And so these guys will get away with it if they can. And I understand the team needs to stay in Vancouver is what I'm saying in so many words.

Well, you got to hang on to it. I do want to ask about MLS and specifically Don Garber's role in all this, because I know he sort of became public enemy number two. I guess Precourt was number one, but Garber was right there. Like, I remember, I think it was the statement that they issued that was co-written by pre-court and Garber. And, you know, his conversations around Vancouver have been much more, like, vanilla. There hasn't really been leaning either way. Like, he's not happy with the stadium situation.

But I think he's been very cautious in what he said. How big a role did MLS play in the looming relocation of Columbus? And how much was Garber front and center during that process? Okay. What Garber would tell you was that he was integral to the team's saying that the city had to go through this horrific process and come out on the other side. That's what he would tell you. as far as this role goes, again, the sales agreement between the league and Anthony Precourt when he first bought the team in 2014 said you can move the team to Austin.

So thirdly, I'd say that after the crew was saved in the first press conference to announce the new ownership group officially, Garber talked about how involved he was in the process. I guess both ways you'd say and how pleased he was as how it turned out and how much he cared about Columbus. And then I asked him, Don, when was the last time you were in Columbus? And he didn't know. So and then the other thing, the last thing, and it's about any commissioner, I'll tell you this, in any sport, is that they serve at the pleasure of their board of governors. So, Essentially, he's doing what the board is going to tell him to do or what they vote on doing together. And they do it for the money. How bad was the stadium situation in Columbus while this was going on?

Well, it wasn't as bad as they made it seem. And that was one of the great functions of Save the Crew. You know, the old stadium here was the first soccer-specific stadium built in MLS. It opened in 1999. and it was cheap. It went up for like $18 million. I remember that stadium. It was bare bones.

Right. But what it did was it sparked the building boom eventually in MLS, where everyone played in a football stadium, American football stadium, pretty soon based on the business metrics and the plan of building the game that soccer-specific stadiums. became integral. And as a league expanded, I think this became one of the prerequisites was, you know, unless you were Arthur Blank and you had Mercedes-Benz Stadium, if you came into league, generally speaking,

sooner or later, a soccer stadium for the team is going to be required. And if you notice, NWFL is now doing this too, even with practice facilities. It's not an absolute deal breaker, but if you want an NW National Women and soccer league team, as Columbus just got one, the commissioner is going to lean on you

for separate practice facilities and preferably a separate stadium as well if they can get it. So that was what the stadium did. At the end, to get a long way around to your answer is they stopped taking care of it to make it look bad. And they did stuff like a playoff game,

what year was it? It would have been 2017. playoff game, I think it was against Toronto. ESPN is here. Big game, Eastern Conference final first leg, I want to say. And they closed all the gates but won so that they could show on ESPN like, look at this line out the door

at this terrible stadium. And then Michael Bradley said something. When Michael Bradley said something like, yeah, maybe this team should move or update. Oh, God, he got absolutely roasted here. And I might have had a little part in that. Okay, Michael, we want to thank you for taking the time to do this today. Really interesting, really insightful stuff.

And I'm glad that you mentioned the fans part of all of this, because this weekend in Vancouver, we saw it. I think for the first really big and expansive way about what the fans can do and what they're probably going to need to do as this saga drags on. So thanks again for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Guys, no problem at all. Seb Berhalter's father was coach at the time. And it was a really interesting time.

He might be able to shed some insight on all of this for you too. Oh, beauty. Thanks. We appreciate it, man. Enjoy the rest of the day. All right, peace out, guys. Yep. That's Michael Arras from the formerly Columbus Dispatch, now disrespected media.

I forgot that. He was also the last ever beat writer for the Hartford Whalers. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah. We should have them back just to ask about that. Hey, remember the Whalers? Yeah, that was awesome. So, look, a couple of people texted in and rightfully pointed out

that there is an apples to oranges element comparing Columbus to Vancouver. And also, I would say the time that's elapsed because there was, it was less money to invest in an MLS team back then. It really was. You didn't need as much as you need now. I mean, there are MLS clubs that are valued

at over a billion dollars now. That was not the case back then. I know. It's crazy. And the white caps are valued at a certain number in Vancouver, they're valued a lot more in another city. And I think it's possible that some of the ownership group says, listen, our franchise value in Vancouver has a ceiling. And maybe now is the time to cash out.

And that's why they, that's why they want to sell the team. I mean, the team is for sale. I think we all have to remember that. The team is for sale. And a lot of people forget that when they're having this conversation. And they won't they, they, they've got investors. They've got a minority owners, majority owners. And they might just feel like, listen, like franchise values are getting crazy.

But, you know, also operating expenses are going up more. So why don't we cash out now and not have to take the annual hit of losing money. And for some of the minority investors, that would include cash calls. Like, hey, guys, we lost this money, so you all got to put up your share. So write me a check. You know, guys get tired of doing that. Yep. I want to talk a little bit about what else happened in Boston besides the Bruins laying a massive egg against the sabers.

Do you mean the firing of Alex Cora? And his coaches. Yeah. The Red Sox, man, they are, they're quite an interesting story right now. So their ownership, John Henry, also owns a bunch of other stuff, including Liverpool. And their fans want to hear from John Henry. And John Henry has not spoken in Boston for a few years now. I think the last time he spoke was at a press conference after the Mookie Betts trade,

which was in 2020. Yeah. And really that Betts trade was a turning point with this Red Sox team and the fan base. Remember, they won the World Series in 2018. And then ownership seemed to shift. And they went into, let's make money mode. And let's focus on that. They trade away a guy like Mookie Betts instead of paying.

him. And by the way, like a year earlier, they had fired Dave Dumbrowski, who was a kind of a guy that you'd want as your GM if you were willing to spend lots of money. He was kind of a shoot from the hip guy. And instead, they turned the team over to a bit more of a process-oriented group. Yeah. So the triumvir right now in Boston is the chief baseball officer, Craig Breslo, who nobody likes. Yeah. There's the president, Sam Kennedy, and then there's the owner. And John Henry actually did deliver the news along with his two affiliates in the front office, his associates,

and delivered the news to the players. I heard he didn't talk much, though. Yeah. I heard John Henry was mostly pretty silent and that the players afterwards, after they got the news that they were moving on from Alex Cora and a bunch of his coaches, and the players were very fond of these coaches,

they were like, that's not, that's not, we don't, that's not a good enough explanation. And then when the Red Sox did their media availability following the core dismissal, John Henry was not present at the news conference. So basically you're making this big shakeup. Early in the season, you've got the worst team in the American League East. The fans don't like the way the team is being managed. The players don't like the fact that the coach got told to walk the plank.

It's a dysfunctional organization and the owner isn't speaking. Did you see the quote going around, the anonymous quote from one of the players from one of the beat reporters? It's like crapping your pants and changing your shirt. Yeah. Yeah. I saw that one. It kind of sums it up if the players are thinking.

Yeah. Well, it's the reason I wanted to bring it up is because everything on the show, most things on this show, come back to the Canucks. Sure do. And we had, we had a few texts last week when we were mentioning that Francesco Aquilini would not be part of the press conference or has not spoken to the fan base for a while. And people were like, no sports owners talk to the team. This is such a Vancouver thing. I'm like, mm-mm, no.

Red Sox fans want to hear from ownership. Because like the Canucks in Vancouver, the Red Sox in Boston are more than just a sports team. And they are very important to that region. And the people in the city have a lot of pride in that team. And for years, remember, these guys were the lovable losers,

couldn't get it done. the Babe Ruth curse. And then they finally got over the hump in 2004. They win the World Series. And it kind of kicked off and had this incredible run of success in Boston with the sports teams. And I think people on the outside

might just assume like, oh, everything's going to rate with all the Boston teams. These Red Sox fans hate the ownership now. And they feel like they are, playing second fiddle to Liverpool and that the ownership almost uses the Red Sox like a bank account. Like they know they're going to make money, right? So they take all that extra money that they make on the Red Sox and they plow it into Liverpool. For reasons I don't know, maybe they see, maybe the ownership just sees more value in Liverpool,

more potential franchise value in Liverpool than they do with the Red Sox. Who knows? all I know is that Red Sox fans are sitting there going, we're one of the biggest teams in Major League Baseball. We're a big money team. Why are we kind of cheap now? Well, the Betts thing wasn't a one-off, right? Like, I mean, Lattie and I talked about this last year.

When they traded Rafael Devers, I remember everyone saying, like, this is another instance of the Red Sox trading a star player. And you remember the Devers trade came after they made the playoffs in 2025. and you're looking at an organization saying like, are you committed to winning or is it always going to be about the bottom line and winning is a nice secondary prize if you can either money ball

or put your way towards a team that doesn't necessarily have the star power that you're willing to pay for but a team that's greater than the sum of its parts, right? And that's never been the Red Sox. Red Sox have always been a marquee team, a top five revenue team and a team that goes out and acquires star players, get star players, grows, homegrown,

players. But the point is that they've got difference makers. And now you look at this is, and you know, Alex Cora, after he was fired on social media, one of the first things that he did was repost a video from the Mooky Betts trade. I can't believe the Red Sox trade of Buckey

bats. It gives you an idea of where the players and the managers are at saying, what are we as a franchise? Because... Yeah, that's something Pittsburgh does, not the Red Sox. Because Cora had to walk the plank for a team that traded away during his tenure, some very talented ballplayers and guys that help you win baseball

games. And then they stuck him on a bus that said coaches for hire. That was rough. That was almost as bad as Gerard Glant's taxi photo. Yes. That's what it reminds me of. Very similar to that. That was a deep cut for anyone that can remember that. Anyway, we're way up against it for time. We're closing in on the midway point of the show. We're going to get back into the hockey talk, specifically the Oilers talk. Coming up on the other side, Jason Greger, Sports 1440 in Edmonton is going to join the program after an absolutely wild game. game. Ducks win, take a 3-1 series lead in overtime in Anaheim last night, and the goal that should have counted, should it have counted, it did count, did it count, all of that's

going to come under question coming up next. Before we go to break, though, I need to remind you about the Shark Club, the place for Vancouver Sports fans with 72 TVs showing every hit, put, free kick, and Grand Slam. Whatever you crave, find it this summer only at Shark Club. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on SportsNet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. Pailing in front.

That's underneath Jari. It's popped underneath. So that after review, the puck completely crossed them. I can't see it going in. I can't see the line. You can't see any space. You know, they don't have the absolute proof of it. I thought that was going to be the call today also.

735 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford, Braves, SportsNet 650. Halford and Brubb the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Got debt. If you do, reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours. And they'll get back to you within 20 minutes. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com.

I have a question for you. Yeah, what's up? And then Jason Greger. Okay. Okay. if the call on the ice last night had been no goal. Yep. Okay?

That's the call on the ice. Yep. Then they go to review what would have happened. Would it remain no goal? I'm not so sure. You can't say that anything in that video was conclusive. You can't if you use your brain. I know, but that's not how the NHL works.

Well, did they think that the puck was maybe like oval shaped or something just for a second? I think the way. Like it had hands and it was just going to hold on to the red line? You know what the one of the biggest flaws in all of this is is there was no explanation from the officials during the game There was no explanation given to knob block And there was no media availability after the game So we don't I'm not even there's never

There's never media availability Did you see it? Yeah yeah let let it The statement was the call in the ice was a goal The video crew reviewed it and determined it was a goal Oh I could that was the announcement from the NHL Yeah I think that's what everyone's wondering Right now because I think Oilers fans would probably feel a lot better if they knew for sure that if it was called no goal in the ice and then they went to the review and people were like,

the league was like, yeah, that's obviously a goal. So it's a goal. They would almost feel better because right now they feel like they've been screwed by process. Yes. You know? I think they have a right to be. But I think it was a goal. But I think the process was fundamentally flawed.

Before we get to Jason Greger, I need to tell you about another Jason, Jason Omnick. from Jason. Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.orgia. Let's go now to the Able Auctions hotline. Jason Greger Sports 1440 out of Edmonton joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Good morning Jason. How are you? Some good fellas, you? Good guess three guesses where we're going to start today's conversation. Yeah, on the on the Tampa game, I'm sure.

Yeah, that's where we're going to go. We're going to go right to Montreal for the Tampa game. No, like, okay, I guess the first question I would ask you is, do Oilers fans have a legitimate reason to be upset and angry with the way that the events unfolded last night in overtime? If we remove emotion, which is impossible to do, I think, when you look at how much of the puck you see under the blade, common sense tells me, I think, it's across the line. But I don't know 100%.

So if the ruling, like my question is, How do they call it a goal on the ice? That's my only question. Because they never signals that there was a goal on the ice. And where you're standing at that angle, the refs comes in there. He's got his hands up in the air. He's not really saying anything. Now, maybe he saw the puck and he's like, well, I see the puck.

I know, like, you've been refereeing for how many years. You know the circumference of the puck. We all knew, right? Like, it's not like it changes. Every puck is the exact same size. I saw Jeff Merrick had a good point. He said, why not just paint a line? so you measure the puck.

To be fully across the goal line, if a part of it touches the other line, it's in, end of discussion. It's not a debate. Everybody knows the puck's the same. That's something that would be simple because they can't, I know everybody says,

well, get the technology for tennis. Yeah, but tennis doesn't have goal pads and it doesn't have skates. Like, look at last night. Last night's a prime example of, I see it, but I can't 100% know. So I, honestly,

if they called it no goal on the ice, I don't know how you could say, well, it is a goal because the wording of the rule always says you need conclusive evidence. Now, maybe they say we know the conference of the puck, we're going to measure it, and we do it. Like, I think it was a goal. I do think it was

a goal. The process is flawed, and I think everybody's going to get mad about it, but regardless of whether the process is fault, if we all just step back and say, okay, is the puck across the goal line, yes or no? I think most people would say yes. So then all the other stuff kind of becomes white noise, right? And it

overlooks the fact of the Hamilton orders in this series cannot hold a lead and suck in the second period. And their penalty kills brutal. That's what's killing them. Like the rest of the NHL is 19 and 8 when they score first. The orders are 1 and 3. That's the difference in the series.

They can't hold the lead. I said earlier in the show that I actually think the ducks have just been the better team in this series. And it isn't one of those things. Look, are the Oilers getting amazing goaltending? no, that's why they went to Tristan Jari but I also think that I'm not hanging a lot on the

goaltending I'm I just think the ducks have dominated the Oilers at times and for me that's a huge surprise did you expect anything like this no I thought Emmington's you know experience

what they did last year to Vegas and Dallas and L.A you know I thought hey Anaheim younger teams come in. And Anaheim, like, their top pair defense is good. And after that, like, their second pair is okay. The third pair is, you know, got very little experience.

And Eminton hasn't been able to take advantage of that. I just think, like, Eminton's penalty kills atrocious. Now, they really miss Adam, Henry. There's no doubt in my mind. They miss them. Just on face off, lots of other little details of the game. And that's why I always chuckle when people say, oh,

power plays don't matter in the playoffs. I'm like, are you clueless? Power play matters. of times in the playoffs. I'd argue it matters more because usually there's fewer goals. Now, this series obviously is the exception, but like, Everton has no problem scoring. They're just, their power, their penalty kill is so bad right now that you just, you can't win a series when you basically, the other team is, what are they, 55%?

I don't even know what it was after the last night. They scored again. It might even be 60 still. So that's, to me, being the issue. Now, I know the orders are banged up and, and I've heard that there's more guys like, you know, David's banged up. and Hyman's banged up and Henrique's out and Dickinson's banged up and I hear there's a few

others, I haven't got the names, but to me, okay, so you're playing banged up. But you can still play better defensive hockey. You can't. And right now the orders have allowed, the games have basically been how the ducks play. No one knows if the ducks can play a defense of two to one game.

That's not how they won all year long, right? They got outscored in the regular season. But they can score and they got some young guys who are quick and Cutter Goce on the power play, man, he's one of the best shooters in the league. So I give Anaheim credit that they've definitely, they've beaten a team who, so far anyway,

who I think has underachieved in their consistency. What's at stake here for the Oilers? Well, hey, every year, you know, like I, and this is a tough one because it's not me, but Connor McDavid is wound so tight, the only thing that matters is the Stanley Cup. And I get it, but that, he's not the only player in the league

that's the only thing that matters. Okay? Lots of teams want to win. And like the Emmington order, so if they lose this series, you know, their owner, like a lot of owners in pro sports.

You know, people have talked, oh, Chris Knoblock, you got to fire the coach. Like, okay, fire the coach again. Great. So, you know,

you can fire the coach and oh, you can blame the goalie again. They're doing that for a decade, right? The Eminton orders, Matthias Eckholm said it best. When they decide,

good defense of hockey is a commitment. And most of it comes from between the ears. So the order is down the stretch their last 10 games. Second best goal is against Avergen League. And now in the playoffs, they can't defend a save their life, right? In the regular season, December 1st of January 25th or whatever it was, 25 games stretch, third best goals against average in the NHL.

Right? Last year in the playoffs, after two terrible games against Vegas, or sorry, against L.A., their next 14 games, 12 and 2, they're hard to give up anything. So now, has the system changed? changed. Did the goalies magically change? Sure, you're right. Like, I thought Tristan Jarvie's actually pretty good last night. Yeah. I didn't see, I didn't see any bad goals. Like, the fourth goal goes in off of nurses skate. Like, you're not expecting that. It's kind of impossible to defend. So I didn't have an issue with the goaltending at all. I thought he made a few big saves,

especially on the power play, and an odd man rushes, right? Like, my one complaint for the orders would be, I don't like to break up. They got the, they got guys, they're trying to stretch pass all day long. And the second period, it's killing him. So I would probably maybe bring my wingers back and have at least a board outlet deeper than at the blue line. That would be my only, you know, criticism of it. But good defense comes down to a willingness when you have the ability. And Eminton has good enough defenders, right? They can defend.

You don't get this back-to-back Stanley Cubs by fluke. Right? So I think to me, I think there's a lot of guys, management. They're going to look and say, what about the Tristan Jari trade, which is valid, right? That trade hasn't worked. There's no question that trade hasn't worked. you know, the Murphy Dickinson's trade, they look really good.

Now, obviously Dickinson's injured, but even when it's injury, he's got three points and two games, right? The only game they won was when he scored two goals, so can't tell me he's not a contributor. So I think there'll probably be a big off season if they lose this series, and obviously it's going that way.

Teams have come back from 3-1 before, but it's obviously rare. So I think they'll be significant. I could see significant changes, guys, because that's kind of what they do. There's lots of pressure. McDavid's in his new contract, they're going to want to win. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you that that some of the trades have worked out,

and I think Matt Savoy has looked better and better as the year goes on, and I think him and McDavid have some nice chemistry at times. I just keep coming back to the Stanley Cup final last year when we're sitting there going, is Calvin Pickard healthy? Is he ready to go yet? And then this year, going into a very important playoff run.

And we're all looking around like, is Connor Ingram really going to be the starting goalie for this team? Nothing against Connor Ingram. But like, look at his career. He's not a starter. He's not a starter in the NHL. And all of a sudden he's been forced into this situation where a team with maybe the most pressure on its shoulders in the league is relying on this guy.

You know, I know it's hard to solve the problem. When you don't have a goalie and you're trying to get one, it's really hard to solve the problem. But Stan Bowman hasn't solved this problem for a long time now. Yeah, well, it's been an issue. There's no question like that. Like you could look at it because it's like anything. If a guy, if you make more good plays than bad plays, people probably accept it. But the goalie position is fairly important.

So if you get a good Colton doc and you get a Murphy and a Dickinson, yeah, those are really good deals. Like Pod Colson trade has been unbelievable. for the orders. Like make no mistake. He gave up a fourth round of the guys, you know, could have what he scored 19 goals, probably going to score 20 in the future. Good trade. But, you know, cap and in for nothing. So they've made lots of those moves, but

maybe the most important one was to get a consistent goalie. Now, the problem is you name the consistent goalie who is available. Yeah, I know. I've gone through it a bunch of times, right? Like, Thatcher Demko would be a huge risk with his injuries. He couldn't last two months in the playoffs.

Like, every Canucks fan knows that. Exactly. And I mean, it's not like we haven't, even people outside of Edmund and haven't, haven't racked their brains. So it's tough. Is there a goalie on your mind right now? Let's say do Oilers lose this series to Anaheim? And regardless of who's the GM, like they're going to have to address it because I don't think you could come back with Tristan Jari being your guy. Have the Hullabuck? Have the Hullabuck rumors started in Emerton at all? No, haven't at all. But, hey, I could, you know, if Hullabuck wants to get traded, I'm sure the Emitton orders would stand at the top of the line to say, yes, please. Like, hey, what can we do? Right.

And if you're Hullabuck, you'd probably waive to go to Eminton because there's McDavid and Drogson. So, you know, but again, like, we say Hullabuck, and what the hell's he ever done in the playoffs? Oh, I would take him. Come on. Come on. I mean, you'd have to. Yeah. But he's gotten, like, his numbers were worse than Stuart Skinner for three years, right?

Yeah. Now, Winnipeg didn't play great defense at times. I get it, but the goalie, like, guy, I said last year, I would have just claimed Michael DiPietro off of waivers from Boston. Cost me nothing. And I brought him in. Yes, I would have had to send Calvin Picker to the minors. And Calvin Picker's a great guy.

Don't get me wrong. But I know what he is. So I would have tried DiPietro, and I would have kept Skinner, and that would have and hey, maybe DiPiatro takes over. Like, look, I know what's American League numbers, but there's lots of guys who have good years in American League, men get to the NHL, and they're pretty good. Like, look at Brandon Busty and Carolina, right?

Now, he eventually wasn't the start in the playoffs, but he played a major role in them winning in the regular season. And I think that's the orders, there's my one big criticism of the organization. At times, I think there's an arrogance about the lack of importance of the regular season. So if all these guys are banged up that, you know, some of the sources are telling me, I look and say, well, if you hadn't screwed the pooch in October, November, and December,

you could have rested some of them down the stretch rather than fighting for your playoff live because you couldn't get any sort of consistency. Right now, I get why you have a slow October. I've looked at the history of teams who lose in the Stanley Cup. Outside of Boston, you know, in the last 12 years, none of them are very good, right? Like it's an emotional, I get it. Like, it's devastating for players. So to do it two years in a row, I wasn't expect them to have a good October.

but you can't just have good 20 games out of your first 60 and be like, well, as long as we get to the playoffs, well, you know, the playoffs matter. More so health seems to be the deciding factor for a lot of these teams than anything else. Right. If Emmonson's healthy, do they win one of the last two cups? We'll never know, but they have a better chance. Florida might have beat Vegas when Kachuk and all those guys were hurt in 2023, right?

Like health matters. And so the orders, the regular season, I strongly argue anybody, who claims it doesn't matter. It freaking matters for a lot of reasons. The number one is, if you put yourself in a good position, then you can arrest your guys down the stretch. You don't have to force them to play banged up like they were allegedly, and we'll see

if that comes to fruition. So, there's lots of factors where the orders, I think, have to re-examine a little bit how they view the regular season. Like, it's a joke, guys, an absolute joke that they've never won the division under Connor McDavid. They haven't won the division since

1987. Like, give me a break. Well, the series is not over yet. There's still a game to be played. It is game five. It goes Tuesday. It's back in Edmonton. And the Oilers will see if they can stave off elimination and do, I mean, not to the same degree, but what they did against Los Angeles last year rallying from 2-0-0 down in that series.

So, Jason, we will see what happens on Tuesday. Thank you very much for taking the time to join us today. We really appreciate it. And enjoy the game on Tuesday and however many more games there are left in this Oilers season. Yeah, well, the order is winning three in a row, guys. We've seen the last two years in the playoffs. That's actually not unheard of. So it wouldn't shock me.

But like game five, I don't think Evanton loses at home. It's the game six won in Anaheim. It's going to be the tough game for sure. Okay, buddy, thanks for this. Have a good one, fellas. You too, thanks. That's Jason Greger from Sports 1440 and Edmonton here on the Halford and Breff Show on Sports 965.

What up, Greg? Can I just point out that Connor Hallibuck in 58 career playoff games, 903 safe percentage? Okay. I think the Oilers could go with that right now. And that's with the struggles that he's had in last year. Can we continue this conversation with Kevin Woodley on the other side? Because we got a goalie expert coming in.

Go on right here. Well, I need to do one thing as it relates. I need to do one thing as it relates to goalies. And it's the smart decision brought to you by Crow. I'm also going to eat some crow with this one. Okay. Smart decision over the weekend was the Pittsburgh Penguins making a change in goal. And going to Artie Seelops as their starting goalie in the playoffs,

benching Stu Skinner in the process. This comes from the same guy. Should have done this before. Who said that RDC Loves was unplayable and not an NHL goalie and he wasn't going to pan out in Pittsburgh. Well, he got them their only playoff wins so far. And you know what? When you're down three, nothing in the series, some will say it's an easy decision to switch the goalie, but it was a smart decision to go to RDC loves. That is your smart decision brought to you by Crow. You're trusting accounting and tax advisors for over 55 years. Crow, smart decisions lasting value. Learn more at chromakai.com.

Okay, I wanted to share a report from our friend Thomas Drance who just published an article on the athletic and he said that the Canucks are expected to finalize a short list of general manager

candidates over the next 40 hours, 48 hours. So over the next two days, they will pare down the list to, I don't know how many, but less than the 50 or 20. Short list one, short list two. And you have shortlist three.

Yeah. And it goes shorter. So the list one is the tallest and then the medium height, the list two. We're hearing there's a secret fourth short list. Yeah, yeah, which is actually quite tall. It looks short, but it's actually quite tall. Okay, because I've been wondering, when is the new GM actually going to be decided? The draft lottery is next Tuesday, but it's not. like they absolutely need one for the draft lottery.

As long as Jim Rutherford is still employed, he can participate in that if they need someone. The draft lottery may determine some of their thinking on the coach, though. Yeah. Which is, which is, which is, which is, which is odd circumstances. This is, these are odd circumstances. Because if the Canucks win the draft lottery and they're going to pick first overall, I'm pretty positive that they're going to go with Gabby. McHenna. I'm pretty sure that they're going to do that. I don't think, for example, that they would go with Caleb Malhotra first overall. And I think that means they could, in theory, make a decision on the coach and say, if you want to bring in Manny to coach next season, you could do that. There have been some rumblings that they don't really want Manny to be the head coach if they're

pick Caleb Malhotra. Now, here's the thing. Jim Rutherford has said, well, my new GM is going to decide on the coach. This is like pressure time for the, this is their playoffs, right? The pressure's on for them to roll out this process in a way that makes sense and everything is explainable afterwards and people aren't like, what? why did you do it that way or you know whatever and then they've got to go boom we got to make some decisions they got eight days it's fine if if they don't if if they don't name ryan johnson the

gm if i was johnson i'd be like okay well i'm going to go to another organization because obviously all the time that i put into this organization you guys don't see me as capable of being a gm so i want to go to an organization that um where i can reach what I think is my potential. That's fair. But I think the same could hold true for Manny Mahhotra. If they don't name him the head coach, wouldn't he want to move on? Sure, you don't want to snagate, right?

He could, you know, let's say there's some vacancies in coaching. Like, he could be a strong candidate. But right now, it seems like the Canucks are keeping their paws on Johnson and Mahalotra and saying, like, hands off before we make our decisions on these guys. Okay, we will continue this conversation in the final hour of the program. Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingole magazine is going to join us next. After that, we're going to do what we learns. Get them in now.

Dunbar-Lumber text message in basket is 650, 650. Tell us, what did you learn over the last 72 hours in sports? Hashtag at WWL. It's your chance to be on the radio and it's coming up next in the final hour of the Halford and Breff Show on SportsNet, 650.