Halford & Brough in the Morning - Jack Hughes Decided To Kick The Canucks Hornets Nest

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they dissect Jack Hughes' comments about playing with his brother Quinn down the road, wherever that may be (3:00), plus they discuss the latest Blue Jays news with Sportsnet's Ben Nicholson-Smith (25:59), following a big comeback win over the Astros. 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.

You're listening to Halford and brough Dun-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-na-ha. You're listening to Halford and Brough. And a ground ball at first. They're coming home, and the Blue Jays win it. I kind of visualize it walking up to the plate. I'm like, I went to Pittsburgh for this hit right here. The two-want, swung-on, blasted, right field.

Massive bat flip is this one sails away. Goodbye, Josh Naylor. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is rough. It is SportsNet 650. And we are coming you live from the Kintech Studios

and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Lattie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. 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 get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech Footwear,

and orthotics working together with you in step. Big show ahead on a Wednesday, four guests and a ton of stories to get into, so let's not waste any time. Guest list today begins at 6.30. Ben Nicholson Smith, Blue Jays reporter for SportsNet, is going to join the program. What a win for the Jays last night in front of the Toronto Faithflow. Tyler Heineman drove in the winning run in the 10th inning, and the Blue Jays rallied to beat the hated Astros, those cheating Astros,

four three on Tuesday night. There was some bad news, though. Bo Bichette and his health going on IL. We're going to talk to Ben about all of this at 630. Big win for the Jays, but a tough one for Bo's health. Laddie's pointing at me, yes, Lattie? Beat those dastardly Astros. Good thing we have good boy, George Springer, on our side.

Never cheated a day in his life. Never cheated for one second. 7 o'clock. Sean Gentilly's going to join the program. NHL writer for The Athletic based out of Pittsburgh. The Penguins and Sidney Crosby very much in the news right now. We passed this along yesterday. Crosby's agent, Pat Bresson, said that a potential trade involving Sidney Crosby is always a possibility.

Then at the NHL's media tour yesterday in Vegas, Crosby addressed those swirling trade rumors with Elliot and Kyle in a recording for 32 thoughts, the podcast. We can also get into the potential sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So there's lots to discuss with Sean Gentilly from the athletic at 7 o'clock. 7.30. Very cool guest to get on the program. Former SportsNet 650 host, now podcaster extraordinaire. Scott Rintoul is going to join the program. That's right. Rinty, it's going to be on our show. His latest endeavor is a weekly podcast titled Better Sports Parents. It's about bobsled. No, it's about better sports parenting. I debuted yesterday featuring Canadian Olympic Alpine skier, Alison Forsyth.

So the focus of this, because there's obviously lots of ways you can go with sports parenting. He's talking to former athletes who have kids in sports right now. Very interesting angle to take. So we'll talk to Rinty about all that. We obviously talk a ton about youth sports and sports parenting on this show. So this is right up our alley. The key, I think, is to put a lot of pressure on them. Yes.

Every good sports parents will tell you that. Make it unfun. Yeah. How does it feel like work? Well, to put pressure on them early so they get used to it. Yep. And as Andy said, make sure it's not fun. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it can't be a, I don't want to see you smiling out there. A couple of the staples of good sports. And just make sure they know that we're counting on them to support the family at some point. That's true as well. There has to be a financial component to it. Yeah, yeah. How much money it's costing you in relation to how much you need to earn later on in life. Keep reminding them of how expensive it is and how many sacrifices you're making so that they can eventually support you financially.

And this is all stuff that Rinty'll go over. You better be. making money at this pretty soon because this hockey gear is expensive. So Ritoul's going to join us at 730 to talk about his latest podcast Better Sports Parents. 8 o'clock. Sorry, 805. Someone

needs a five minute buffer after he gets home from the gym. Satyar Shah is going to join us at 805. Sportsnet 650 Canucks Central hosts. Some big news from the Canucks yesterday from a guy that doesn't even play for the Vancouver Canucks. Jack Hughes, brother of Quinn Hughes, had some very

interesting things to say at the NHL's media tour in Vegas yesterday about how much he hopes to one day play with his brother, not Luke, but Quinn. We'll talk to Sat about that and a bunch of other Canucks-related topics as the team preps for its prospect journey in Seattle this weekend. So working in reverse on that guest list, 8 o'clock, it's 7.30, it's Rinty, 7 o'clock it's Gentilly, 630 Ben Nicholson Smith. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? 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.com. With everything going on in the National Hockey League and the sporting world, we are going to start with the Vancouver Canucks and the Canucks adjacent news from yesterday. So in Vegas, during a interview with various print media types,

including Pierre LeBron, Jack Hughes decided to kick the Hornets Nest here in Vancouver. It opened up about his desire to eventually play with his brother Quinn Hughes. There's no audio of what he actually said available. So I'm going to have to do my best Jack Hughes impression. I'm not going to put on a little. little voice. I was thinking about doing a gabble voice, but I'm not going to do it.

When asked the question about eventually playing with Quinn, he did allude to the fact that this was a quote unquote headline question. He was stealing PD's bit about making a headline in Vancouver. This is the quote that caught everybody's attention yesterday from Jack Hughes about playing with his brother. Honestly, I'm not afraid to say it. Yeah, I would love for Queen. into, eventually I'd love to play with him. And whether that's in New Jersey or at what time that takes at some point, I want to play with Quinn. But yeah, that's the question going around.

They talk all day about it up in Vancouver, you know? Yeah, Jack, we know. Guess what we're going to be talking about even more now up in Vancouver. Hey, you confuse people. You have to put the shorty, end quote. End quote. My favorite part of Shorty's read It's like this is the part where I stop

Talking is another person You weren't supposed to read the quotation part there short End quote Exclamation point period End quote Okay let's let's parse through this And then we got a lot of other things We need to get to as well

Because this quote does kind of speak for itself The only thing I think that What a little stinker that Jack Hughes is by the way I've been a bad little boy You know Rutherford called him up and said hey that's my bit. Yeah, and it was Rutherford's bit for a while,

but now it's Jacks. So the only thing I'll say is that he very quickly caught himself when he said, I would love for Quinn to, he was going to say one day play in New Jersey, obviously, and then he caught himself and said, I'd love to play with him, and then wherever that would be in New Jersey or anywhere else. But there's no, I know that there's a visceral reaction

when people hear this. But, I mean, I don't know what to, I don't know what to say other than, you know, he's not hiding from it. No one's hiding from it. The general manager and the president of hockey ops from the Canucks isn't hiding from it. The brother of the player in question isn't hiding from it.

I think there's a bunch of Canucks fans hiding from it, like literally in their beds right now. You know what I'm just hiding, hiding from the idea and the thought. And I was not on social media yesterday, but I'm sure more than a few Canucks fans were like, isn't this like tampering or something like that? You know, just it's, we don't, this is why this season coming up

I think everyone's a little bit on edge because Quinn has thrown out there and I think the quote that kind of sticks with me is the interview he did with IMAC and he said who knows how I will feel at this time next year right? He can't say for sure

it all depends I think how this season goes I don't think Quinn I well I don't know but I wonder if Quinn even knows himself what he's going to do no like he although

I think it just goes look I think the only thing to be taken away from this is that the brothers playing together has been a lifelong dream it hasn't been extinguished and now we're at the point of the proceedings where it's close enough that everyone's just openly talking about it

there's nothing sort of shrouded there's no innuendo there's no you know subtle illusions to it it's just out there and I think that what happens next and Quinn Hughes is also down in Vegas at the media availability by the way

so I'm sure he will get asked about this as well this does put pressure on Quinn Hughes to either answer these questions, deflect these questions, or shut it down entirely. It'd be funny if he was like, I'd love it if Jack and Luke came to Vancouver. I mean, that's a possibility. I'll throw this out there.

Maybe, maybe Tom Fitzgerald and the New Jersey Devils will poison the Hughes well by screwing things up with Luke, because they're in a contractual standoff right now. Come on. Take that. Take that. Put it out there. Put it on the NHL's media tour. Why ain't anyone asking that question?

Huh? Huh? Anyway, we got other things we need. Because they'll get something done there. Yeah, right, because that's 100% getting down. But still, still. Let's not, let's not be desperate, though. Let's not grasp at straws like that.

I'm not. I'm throwing it, but I'm just throwing it right back. This is on the Canucks to solve as far as I'm concerned. This is a, this is on, you know, you know, what do they say? What do, what do people text into our show that's kind of annoying? Be better. Be better. Like that's what the Canucks have to be

If they want to keep Quinn Hughes And frankly, if they want to keep their fans Just be better Don't have another year like last year But you understand the issue with that now Is that they may get better And they may be better And it still may not be enough

To overcome the allure of reuniting the family I don't know if he honestly don't know If he's decided What he wants to do He's the captain of this team I don't think he takes that lightly. He does not. That's a good point.

I don't think he's gone at their competitive playoff team. If they're a competitive playoff team, I would be shocked if Quinn was just like, it's been fun, see you. But I think you have to look long term. I think you have to look long. That's what McDavid's doing at Emerson right now. It's not whether, you know, he just went to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals. And he's still looking at the organization and going,

and, you know, like, what do we have down the line? These players are getting a little bit smarter, right? They're not just like, yeah, we're good right now, so we'll be good forever, right? You know? Do you ever when, you know what I always think about? Was it Jerome McGinla when he signed in Colorado after they went on that little, they had that one kind of surprising year

and all the analytics guys were like this is not, this is you know, fools gold or whatever and they went and signed in Colorado and they were terrible. I do kind of remember this now. I forgot about the Jerome again Colorado chapter. Wow. I just woke up so I might have

dreamed that. I mean he definitely played there. Yeah, yeah. Like I remember signed a contract. Yeah, and I remember people thinking like, like oh because he was just like, yeah, they're good right? And went there and it's like, I don't know. I think these guys are getting smarter about holding the organization

not to account because the organization will know but just being like hey what are we doing right now but also how are we looking in three to four years? Public service address up there. There's multiple people texting in saying that we sound like a cross between Buffalo Bill and Barry White on various streams including the HD feed. It's definitely the feed.

can hear my voice. Brub's a little tired, but he sounds fine. So bear with us. What if we talk even slower? Maybe go to your traditional AM feed, maybe try a stream. I'm not sure,

but we will work through whatever technical difficulties that we've had since the beginning of time. Okay, let's go on. It should be fixed within the next four to five weeks. Let's go on. We'll see a big girl. Let's go on.

Please stop. I beg all of you. Put the lotion in the basket. I want everyone. I want everyone to stop. I want everyone to stop doing. it. It's just going to make things more confusing for the listeners. I want to go to the other trade rumors that are swirling in the present, maybe not necessarily down the road. Sydney Crosby

and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the swirling trade speculation around Sidney Crosby, as I think some people forget, he currently is beginning the first of a two-year contract extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He sat down with Kyle and L.A. yesterday for a recording for 32 thoughts. And he says that the trade rumors don't anger him because he understands it and knows that it's part of it, but he still doesn't love it all that much. Here's the audio. It's but a minute of the captain in Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby, talking about the trade rumors and his future as a penguin from the 32 Thoughts podcast with Kyle and Elliot.

That's the thing that sucks about losing because when you lose, it's that speculation. When you win, there's no speculation. it's like who they picking up or who's the deadline acquisition. You know, it's when you lose, it's like who's going. You know, like that's the crappy part about losing. The expectations are the other way. You know, they're not high. You know, there's a lot of noise as far as, you know, does he want to leave?

You know, where can he go? You know, everyone's got the team they want me to go to. I mean, it's a lot of that. So I think the challenge is, it's different in a way, but it's kind of the same. It's just trying to like, you know, just try to focus on the things that you control. And for me, like, I still go into every game, you know, wanting to win and every offseason and preparing to be the best that I can. And those other things aren't really in my control, what the expectations are,

whether we just came off of winning the Stanley Cup or we've missed the playoffs three years in row it's it's not something that you can really change at this point so this year crosbie talked about the expectations and he even acknowledged like they're not nearly as high as they've ever been over my course of time in pittsburg i think actually outside of his rookie year where expectations were high for him but low for the team because they were bad i'm not sure that he's ever gone into a season with as low as expectations so bookend your career like that in Pittsburgh. And then get out of there. Get out of there. I kind of forget

all the things that Dubus has done around Crosby. I forgot that they hired 43-year-old Dan Mews, my muse, as the head coach. Oh, yeah. Right? I knew that was going to catch him off guard. Everything in Pittsburgh is pointing to, we're not going to be good

and we're going to rebuild. I wonder if it needs to go, we're going to move Raquel, we're going to move Rust, and then maybe we address this thing with Crosby. I also wonder if they're going to kick the can down the road a year and wait for Malkin to play out his swan song and retire. But then I think about it. I'm like, but you're wasting a year of Sidney Crosby as he gets closer to 40.

I wonder how he felt about Pat Bresson. Great question. Throwing that quote out because, you know, I saw a lot of Pittsburgh media yesterday kind of doing the same thing that we do with Quinn Hughes. trying to make themselves feel a little bit better and was like Sid speaks for himself and he always has I don't know so

you know for Pat Persan to come out and say that was that just Pat's opinion that he only wants to see Sid on a playoff team or was he given permission by Sid to say something like that? It's a great question because that is, for Broussaint to say it now,

you know, like weeks ahead of the start of the regular season. To Pierre LeBron. And having never addressed this before publicly as Crosby's agent, it feels awfully strange. He would just one day decide, you know what, now's the time that I'm going to do this. He's like, Sid, you could ask for a bigger contract now. 8.7 million.

Well, I just, I do. I don't know if it was Crosby maybe, you know, kickstarting this thing or Bresan being like, hey, I'm going to put this out there in the ether. how do you feel about it? Yeah. Like who knows who the instigator was. But I find it like very, very, very hard to believe

that the longtime super agent of Sidney Crosby just went and did this as an independent agent. Like I feel as though this is probably a coordinated thing. I'm just a fan with opinions, right? Just an humble agent, just say it in what I think. I mean, maybe he did. Maybe he did. Maybe he's upset of the direction of the penguins.

I mean, could be. Yeah. Okay, I do want to finish this what happens segment. with the Blue Jays, because it was another very exciting win for the Jays last night. Laddie, another comeback victory for the Jays. What was the last season where the Jays had this many come from behind victories? They have tied the 1993 Jays, who I don't think they were very good. I don't know.

I wasn't, I was really young when that happens. I don't remember. Fell apart in the end. Nothing of consequence happened. Joe Carter, a big strikeout. And extra innings win over the Astros yesterday, 4-3 is the Jays' Rack. rallied to beat those cheating Astros. I'm going to play two bits of audio here.

The Jays were down 3-1 going into the bottom of the 9th before IKF stepped to the plate, drove in two to tie it. Here's what it sounded like, courtesy of Dan Shulman. A line drive in the left of base hit. Higman scores. Clement on his way to the plate,

and the game is tied. The throw to the backstop and the other runners advance. So once again, it's another random name doing the business for the Jays. This time, Isaiah Kind of Falafah gets the hit in the ninth to tie it up to send it in to extras. Now we go directly to the bottom of the 10th. Another household named Tyler Heineman gets the job done. Again, we go back to Shulman. Here's what it sounded like as the Jays win four three on a walkoff.

There goes Guerrero and a ground ball at first. They're coming home and the Blue Jays win it. Now, this isn't to say that the big guys didn't chip in and do their thing. Vladdy legged out an infield single and got that rally going. Great defensive play in the top half of the extra inning. The cross diamond throw to third to get out Altuve? Some tidbits about that. That was his second hardest throw of the season.

And when he beat out that infield hit, that was the second fastest sprint of the season for Vlad. So he was really busting down the line. So, like, they're getting contributions from their stars. but it's hilarious when you go through and you're like, who were the big stars yesterday? Well, it was Isaiah Kiner Folefa, who they just picked up off of Pittsburgh. And he had nothing good to say about Pittsburgh, by the way.

He's like, thank God I got out of Pittsburgh. What's his name? Isaiah Kiner Folefa. Because Untite. Thank you. Tyler Heinenman, also getting the job done. Miles Straw came across to get the winning run. All the classic players that you expect.

Right? It's their DNA. And at this point, you have to at least suggest that they are going to, going to be able to translate this to the postseason because the biggest question for this team right now is can you count on Isaiah Kiner Folefa? Bless you. It's

allergy season. Tyler Heimann, Miles Straw, all these guys in clutch situations when they need a run. Now they've done it throughout the regular season, but part of the regular season is you get to play against crappy teams a lot too. Not that the Astros are. Astros are a good team without question. So the Js have a three

game lead on the Yankees and remember they're going to make the playoffs, but they want to get that buy. I want to get that first round buy, and right now, according to fan graphs, they got a 74% chance of getting that buy

the Yankees are really, well, maybe the Red Sox are the only chance. How about that Yankees bullpen yesterday, Laddie? How many runs? They give up nine runs in the seventh inning. Yeah. Well, how about the Jay's bullpen? It's turning around a little bit. Hoffman got the win yesterday. Yeah, yeah. Are bullpen's

volatile, you guys? Yes. I get the sense. But you can't, when you're doing this on radio and you want to create a narrative, you have to really accentuate. Oh, come on. We're all going to still be nervous in the playoffs when the bullpen comes out there. Yeah. Laddie always act like he's so cool. He won't be nervous and he'll be like, oh God, Hoffman's coming out. It's not nervous. It's just I know that's how baseball is. My bullpen is always kind of a craps. Unless you have like a top tier best bullpen in the league. You can't, you never have tons of confidence in your boatback. As someone who witnessed the greatest closer in MLB history with my favorite team, the Oakland days back in the day.

Even Dennis Eckersley from time to time would blow up. Quite famously, I might add, in the playoffs. Yeah. But yeah, because were there two famous home runs off him, Al-Amar. Yep. And Kirk Gibson. And you're talking about one of the elite closers in history. So I'll give some credence to what you're saying here.

However, I don't think we were wrong as saying like Hoffman's August was atrocious by any closer standards, right? And that was something that's, especially because it happened late in the year, you look at it and you're like, what happens if we have to deal with this in October basis? What's Hoffman's record? It's like five and six or something. When you, Closer has a record like that. It's usually not a good sign. He's nine and six. Nine and six. Yeah, yeah. Which is the opposite of six and nine. Because they keep coming back. Nice. Nice. Okay. We got to go to break. When we come back, we'll get into more. I think 96 would be the same as a 69, though, right? Let me look. No. No. No.

because they'd be facing backwards. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no. This guy. It's early. This guy gets nowhere. We'll workshop it. What are we doing here?

We will not workshop that. To use some baseball parlons, he's stuck at first base, okay? We got to go to break. I'm not enjoying this. This feels weird. I need an adult. When we come back,

we're going to talk to Ben, Nicholson Smith. Not about this at all. We're never going to mention this again. Yeah, we were nice. In 2016 last night. It was great. Ben's like, I've canceled my hit somehow.

Ben Nicholson Smith's going to join us for Jay Stock. Also an update on the Bo Bichette injury situation. We got a lot more to get to on the program. Don't go anywhere. Assuming we're allowed to come back after the break. Tones texts in. That's called sleeping. Yeah, sleeping.

That is sleeping. That's a much better way to do this. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. It's another season of hard hits, heated rivalries and nonstop entertainment. For tickets, visit BC Lions. Lions.com and get ready to roar as one. No, 96ing of the BC Lions game.

You're listening to the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet, 6.50. Line drive and the left to base hit. Heinen scores. Clement on his way to the plate, and the game is tied. Kind of, like, visualize it walking up to the plate. I'm like, I went to Pittsburgh for this hit right here. 631 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Alfred and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Ben Nicholson-Smith, Blue Jays reporter for SportsNet, is going to join us in just a moment here for hour one. Hour one of this program is bought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. visit them in 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the Power West Industries hotline we go, Ben Nicholson Smith joins us now on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Ben. How are you? Doing great, guys. Yeah, how's it going with you? Hopefully enjoying the aftermath of the nice Blue Jays win there to open face up against the Astros. It was pretty great, and our producer, Greg astutely pointed out, did they match or break the record,

Greg? I believe they tied 93? For the most comeback victories in a season. and it's part of this team's DNA is being able to rally, especially late in games. The other part of the DNA that we talked about before getting you on here, everyone pulling their weight and everyone chipping in. And you astutely pointed out on Twitter yesterday that ICF gets the game-tying hit. Heinenen gets the game-winning RBI.

Miles Straw scores the game-winning run. All three started the night on the bench. So it's really, this is what this team is about is it's not just even guys one through nine anymore. it's the entire roster that has an uncanny ability to chip in and win ball games. Yeah, 100%. And to do that on a day that your starting shortstop goes down to the injured list, I mean, that just reinforces it further because before the game, John Schneider was talking about, hey, Boba Shatt goes down,

he's going to have to miss at least 10 days as he recovers from this knee sprain. And he said it's going to have to be the 14 position players to kind of collectively make up that difference. and then, lo and behold, you go out onto the field that very evening. And like you said, it's not just the one through nine. It's actually the guys on the bench who are there in the biggest moments. And at this point, it's not even surprising. I mean, I don't know that I would forecast this for, you know, the 2026 Blue Jays to be able to replicate this.

But what they have going right now is pretty special. And I'm no longer surprised when I see ICF and Heinemann coming through with the big moments in a game. Have they gotten to the point where they feel like they can count on? And it's funny, it's like not any one guy, but someone in the moment will step up because I guess the big question in the postseason is, as we've seen in recent playoffs, it's oftentimes big bats, singular moments, and star players kind of getting the job done, not teams waiting around for someone to step up, but the Js have done it with such regularity, it might work in the postseason? Yeah, I think there's something to that. And we know that this team can put the bat on the ball, which creates chaos and creates challenges for other teams. For some teams, they'll be able to handle it, and they're going to play really tight defense. But for others, like the Yankees, if you were playing the Yankees in a division series, which is very possible, then you can put a lot of pressure on them just by putting the bat on the ball.

Now, what a team like New York does better than the Js is they hit it over the fence. And so, especially with Bichet on the sidelines right now, you don't have quite as much homeland power as you would like to. But I think from the standpoint of being able to step up in a. huge moment with the crowd behind you and the nerves that go with that, we've seen that this team is really good at setting that aside, staying focused, and doing something to push their team's case forward. I do want to get to Bo in a second here, but you brought up the crowd. How much does that Toronto crowd affect things?

And, you know, I was listening to kind of Folef his walkoff yesterday with Hazel, and he was talking about how great it was to be back in Canada and in front of the Toronto fans and away from Pittsburgh, granted, where it was a mess this year, but how big a factor are they playing right now and could they play in the postseason? Yeah, I think the crowd has been great all season, especially since probably that Canada Day series early in July against the Yankees. That's when things really flipped for this season. It really became like, wow, this really could be a special year and the Jay's run in first place. So ever since then, which is two months now, and more than two months.

The crowds have been full. They've been really just excited about what's happening. And that's not the case everywhere around Major League Baseball. You know, I'm lucky enough to go on the road for a bunch of the games, and you'll see stadiums that are not nearly as full. So it is an advantage for the Js, and they've talked consistently all summer about how much of an impact that makes on them, how it helps energize them. So I think it's a good thing.

I'm sure that for the rest of the season, we're going to see sold out or close to sold out stadiums. And in the postseason, there won't be an empty seat in the entire Roger Center. So I think that that will help. And it's a great environment. You know, roof open. You have, you know, a nice kind of crisp day, late summer day here. And, you know, you have baseball that matters.

I mean, that's a pretty fun vibe to be at. If someone had told you before the season that, The Jays would be heading towards the playoffs, almost guaranteed to make the playoffs, and George Springer would be leading them in home runs. What would you have said? Oh, man, I don't know. I think there's so many things about this season that would have surprised me, and that definitely would have been on the list when you think about, you know,

just the trajectory that he was on, and it wasn't just one year. This was a multi-year decline that we had seen from George Springer consistently, whether you look at on-base percentage or slugging percentage, he was in decline. And at age 35, turning 36, you don't usually forecast a big bounce back. So I would have been very surprised. And I think, too, like, yes, the Blue Jays believed in George Springer, and it's to their credit that they've been able to get so much more out of him. But even at the beginning of the season, they were hitting him like six.

been talking about benching him a couple days a week and no one saw this coming. Maybe George Springer did and maybe some of his friends on the team did and you have to have that belief that you can succeed in that way but I would have been stunned.

I really would have been. Is he the fan favorite in Toronto? He's up there. Yeah, he really is. I think you know, Vlad, Beau, those guys have a ton of support and rightfully so.

there are a lot of fan favorites right now with this team but Springer's up there he really is Kirk I think is another one and if you were to try to determine you know kind of a team MVP you'd have a lot of choices right

whether it is Kirk or Beau or Vlad or Springer they've had great pitching from Kevin Gosman lately you know Beaver's been good not that he'd be the team MVP but they've had a lot of players really step up and of course the fans are responding to each one of those guys so how does our schedule look down the stretch because we were talking earlier

just have been talking for a while now about just how important it is to clinch that by? Yes, so important. And after yesterday, they're in a slightly better position to do that, just given the Tigers beat the Yankees and, of course, the Jays one. The schedule looks okay. It's not easy. I mean, they have to play the race twice. They have to play Baltimore this weekend, and the Orioles have struggled,

but they're by no means a doormat, and the Jays will face Trevor Rogers, who's been a really good pitcher. for Baltimore in the last six weeks or so. So then you throw in who else do they have? The Red Sox at the end. So that's going to be tough. That could be a very high-stakes game. And then Kansas City is their other series.

So it's not going to be easy. Some of the teams that are chasing the Js have easier schedules, including the Yankees. But, yeah, I mean, with each passing day, just bank some wins, right? 18 games left if they go 9 and 9 they're going to be in a very good position but you know it's it's majorly baseball winning nine games is not easy you still have to go out and do it all eyes going to be on burrios tonight to see how he bounces back from there's been a couple a couple bad ones but uh yeah wasn't great against sincy and i think it was

texas maybe a little while ago that he struggled against well yeah it's it's been tough for Burrios, and they're definitely, I mean, they need him. So I don't think that his rotation spot is in jeopardy or anything, but they need him. They probably want to have Eric Lauer ready behind him, just in case tonight. And it's just been a weird stretch for him where coming out of that Miami game in late August, I want to say August 23rd, he had an extended rest. So then when he started in Cincinnati, he pitched only two innings. pitch can't off pretty high.

He only actually covered two innings. So, you know, dating back now to late August, Berrios has only pitched two innings. So it's really been a weird period of time for him. This is someone who's been so consistent in his career. And it's on him to adjust. It's on him to figure out, hey, it doesn't matter what the schedule is.

I have to produce. And that's Major League Baseball. You don't almost get it, you know, on the timeline that you want. You have to go out there and adjust to the needs of your team. and he's done that a lot over the years he's done that a lot even this year but has not done that much in the second half

so they do need to see a turnaround there Ben I know we get to let you go but real quick I didn't promise we'd ask about Bo and I know you wrote a very lengthy piece about what the future has in store what his injury is about and what the future looks like so can you give us a quick rundown of what's going on with Bo before we let you go yeah for sure so basically on the injured list now

and my read there is if they thought he was going to be ready in five or six days, they probably wouldn't have put him on the IL because then you just run a shorter bench for five or six days and then you get Bichette back on day seven, and then, you know, you're good to go. But at this point, he's going to have the rest of this week just resting. He won't do any baseball activities. Presumably at that point, he would need a few days to ramp up, test it on the bases, test it at

shortstop, test it in the batters box. You don't want to ramp up too fast. So you're probably looking at minimum two days, probably three, four days to, ramp up and then he could return. So potentially on the road trip coming up in Kansas City would be an option for a return. But in the meantime, they have to rely on probably Ernie Clement at short. That probably moves Addison Barger over to third base a little bit more. It probably means we see a little bit more of Joey Lopofito in the outfield. And, you know, we'll see where it goes, but it's a big, you can't replace Bobachette as much as the Jayes like their depths

and should like their depth, there's no replacing a player of that caliber, even if it is just for 10 or 12 days. Ben, this was great. As always, thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of this series against the Astros. Should be a lot of fun.

Thanks so much, guys. Have a good one. Yeah, you too. Thanks. Ben, Nicholson Smith, SportsNet, Blue Jays reporter here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Okay, some other things that I wanted to get to, because it was a busy day yesterday in the world of sports. Canada's 1-0 victory over Wales

in their second and final friendly of this international window. This was coming off a very emphatic 3-0 win over Romania in Bucharest on Friday. So they go into this match and we were talking yesterday about how the Welsh team and their manager, Craig Bellamy, were all kinds of fired up

even though this was just a friendly. They saw this as a huge test for them because, one, Canada's ranked ahead of Wales in the FIFA rankings. Canada's 28th. Wales is 31st, if I'm not mistaken. And two, Wales is right in the thick of trying to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. So all these matches really matter for them. So I'm just trying to set the backdrop for what happened yesterday because Wales was trying to put its best foot forward, but also because it's a friendly, try and work some of the younger players in that they might need for next year's World Cup.

It all just made a very nervy match for what was a friendly. There was a ton of yellow cards in the match yesterday. It was very, very physical, and it was very intense for a friendly. The only difference between the two on the day was one goal, and we're going to listen to it now. An absolute cracker from the centerback for Canada, Derek Cornelius, on a free kick. They call them Galazos. They do call them Galazos, Jason.

And here's what it sounds like when Canada scores one. Derek Cornelius in the 41st minute, the only goal on a one-nil victory over Wales. the face of the crossbar now to safety David Brooks the draft excluser it's good range this

you know for Cornelius he's got enough space to get it up and down here over the wall 25 plus yards out former Marcy men on it ranges oh wow

you said it Stevie perfect distance perfect finish Derek Cornelius Take a bow son I was the TSN play-by-play crew on the call including Stephen Caldwell

with a great foreshadowing there talking about how this was an opportunity for Cornelius he might have been the only person watching that knew Cornelius had that in his bag because I followed the national team as close as anyone. I had no idea that Cornelius could hit free kicks

like he's a centerback by trade and I've never really seen that from him because he doesn't really take any like corner set pieces. Anyway, the Welsh keeper looked a little surprised too. So Craig Bellamy after the match, the Welsh gaffer

indirectly, but also kind of directly called out his keeper about that free kick because the, I don't have this audio at the ready, so I'll just paraphrase it. The interviewer asked Bellamy about the free kick and then while he was responding said, of course it was an amazing free kick. And Bellamy said,

eh, I thought we could have stopped it. Now, the royal wee there was odd because I'm like there's really one guy in charge of stopping it. That's your keeper. I don't know if you're trying not to throw him under the bus. But it was interesting because it kind of set the stage for how irate and angst-ridden he was after the match. He took his shots at Jesse Marsh. And I want to play this audio because while I don't necessarily think this individual moment will get a lot of publicity,

it only adds to a big, big, underline, big story for Canada going into the World Cup. And that's its manager and how he's perceived. and the way that he acts. And we've talked about it a lot. This is Craig Bellamy talking about his counterpart, Jesse Marsh, after Bellamy's Wales lost one-nothing to Marsh's Canada yesterday.

Well, defeat in Swansea was the first time Wales have lost at home under Bellamy, but post-match, the focus quickly turned to his disapproval of the Canada celebrations. I really hate losing more than I like winning. And there's a big difference in that. And I see him celebrating at the end. I'm like

I hope I see you in a war cup I hope I see you again but I have to also as well be gracious thank Jesse for shaking his coach's hands before the final whistle I have to get used to that

I don't want to get used to it but yeah I have to take it on the chin Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here. He sounds a little salty. Do we have a rivalry with whales now? I don't know. I don't know what you've got a rivalry with whales now.

I love it. Do you know I went to soccer camp at UBC when I was a kid? Uh-huh. And they used to do this World Cup thing. Yep. Classic. Yeah, yeah. Youth soccer camp thing.

And you had to draw a flag. Oh. And I was on Wales. Did you draw the dragon? Do you know how hard that thing is? Wales has a complicated flag. That's a tough flag. It is.

And I'm like looking at my buddy is like, I got Japan. Yeah, I'm like, come on, man. It's just a circle. Anyway. So, do they have a rivalry with whales? I don't know. Is Jesse Marsh maybe the story and in turn too big of a story? Because he's not a player going into the World Cup?

Absolutely. he has been rightfully so credited with really revitalizing this program after some downtimes following herdman and he has implemented a style and gotten results let's make that clear they've gotten some very good results they've now beaten their last three European opponents they beat Ukraine Romania and Wales Jimmy from North Van just texted that in it's remarkable what they've done at the same time Marsh has I don't know if it's consciously or just by the way of his personality

but he's put himself in the crosshairs a lot Yeah a lot He's run afoul of tournament organizers Opponents Take your pick Concaf in general His own players Ismail Okone getting subbed off

in the Romania match And there was a clash between the two of them I think I got to be honest with you I don't know what to think of him because I like the results on the field but I also feel like he's putting a target on Canada

that we don't really need and it's kind of giving me like remember F Croatia yeah you know like that that kind of thing um okay but but I know you're you're a you're a fan of him I'm a fan of him because he's backed up a lot

Like his whole MO is we're going to be brave and we're going to be on the front foot. But then they play like it. The issue with Hurdman was he talked to the talk, but they couldn't walk the walk because he didn't have the tactical acumen to do it. He couldn't implement a style where they could go in and go to toe to toe with Croatia.

Look at the results Marsh has got on a high level. The Copa America was unbelievable, right? They went down in hostile territory and went to the semifinals on a third, fourth place game. against some of the powerhouse teams in South America. He's gotten results against some European countries that are fighting tooth and nail to get into this world. Teams that are top 30 in the world.

They are playing at a level that a lot of other teams have taken notice from. And I think that if you're going to, if you're going to get the Jesse Marsh experience, you have to buy into all of it. And unfortunately, that comes with a lot of the side show stuff. I think he mostly lost me with the poisoning accusation. That's another one I forgot about.

Like he's very bra... You're just brazenly accusing... You know what I'll say about him? You know what I'll say about him and the difference between him and Herdman? You always got a sense of Herdman that there was a bit of a sales job going on or that it wasn't necessarily

him being who he truly was. Right. You know what I mean? It always felt like he was putting something on for whoever was listening or whoever was watching. I think Marsha's flaws are he's really genuine in earnest and he's naturally that overzealous. But I think it's fair to wonder how Canada is going to perform under this pressure.

Yeah, 100%. And I think sometimes he adds to it. That's all I'm saying. That's totally valid. That's all I'm saying. It's all part of it. He's not a guy to sit. I haven't made up my mind, but I'm just.

He's not a guy that's going to sit back and say, we're going to allow everybody else to dictate things. narratives, pace, style, expectations. He wants Canada to do all of that. It's a brave and bold new world for Canadian soccer. I really like it because I like the style that they play. If you listen to Bellamy talk after that match yesterday, he was talking about the way the Canadians play. They were like, I was joking with you.

Like it was the 1994 Brazilian national team. I know. I still can't believe some of the quotes. He's talking about the pace the Canadians play at and the pressure they put you under it. And I'm like, this is the same team that I, remember a few years ago was like losing to Haiti in the gold cup and now it's the end we still never won a game at the World Cup

no but you can only do with what the opportunities that you present well Mike text in and he said I like the aggressiveness from the coach and the team Canada for so long quiet reserved and garbage I want this team to feel cocky and play cocky but they did that at the gold cup and it was a disaster yeah Marsh

and this is a lot fell on the man He wanted to show everyone how great the program was. Look at the depth that we have. Look at all the players I can play. Look at the squad rotation I can throw. You know what he did in Romania and Wales. It was almost the exact same starting 11 both matches, except for the keeper flip.

In the Gold Cup, it was let's change guys every game. Let's show how many players do that. I think he's getting his group down. Yeah, but he should. I felt that was an opportunity wasted at the Gold Cup. He could have done this at the goal cup and won the goal. Cup. I thought that should have been the priority because remember what they said at the beginning of the tournament? We're here to win the gold cup. Yeah. So I thought that this like

lovely we want to show that we're 26 players deep thing should have been pushed to the background. They should have been like, let's go win. Well, if he hadn't said the win thing, you probably would have been fine with it because you're like, yeah, you got to see what you got what you have in terms of depth. Because like that's what Wales is doing right now. Yeah. But I mean, it's like, I mean, let's go back and tie everything back to the Canucks. When the president of hockey ops says that we got to go out and get a second line center. We're going to do whatever it takes. You expect them to do whatever it takes to get them, right?

So you say stuff and expectations. Sure. Yeah, yeah. They're going to follow, right? Okay, hour one in the books, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up on the other side, we're going to dive back into the NHL talk. Sidney Crosby is now one of the main characters.

He always is, but with the trade rumors swirling, we're going to go to Pittsburgh. Sean Gentilly from the athletic, NHL writer, in Pittsburgh is going to join us to talk about all that. Then at 7.30, Scott Rintoul is going to join the program. Yeah, Scott Rintel, formerly of Sportsnet 650, now doing a variety of podcasts, including his latest better sports parents. It's the topic that Bruff and I talk about a lot on this show, so we're excited to get Rinty on and to promote his latest endeavor.

So that's the 7 o'clock hour. It's all coming up next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. I see him celebrating at the end. I'm like... I hope I see you in a wool cup. I hope I see you again. You might say the extra ingredient is salt.