Halford & Brough in the Morning - Not Quite Enough Versus The Swiss

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including Canada's World Cup loss to Switzerland (3:00), plus they discuss the Mike Babcock era in Edmonton and what it was like covering him in Columbus with The Athletic's Aaron Portzline (32:01).  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. You know, I'm real comfortable with the group we're going to have here surrounding me. I'm real comfortable with the management team. I'm comfortable with the interaction I've had with the players. Okay, America, inspire me. Always mess with happiness. Because you could be happier. Okay, look, I have a problem with hopes and dreams, okay?

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Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford and his broth. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Addo, good morning to you.

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Big show ahead. It begins with our guest list. The Duke Morning Drive brought to by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 6.30 air and Portsline's going to join the program. Columbus Blue Jackets writer for the Athletic in wake of everything that's going on. with Mike Babcock and everything that's going on with Zach Wrenski. We figured it was a pretty good day to check in with our old buddy Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Portsline. He'll be on the show at 6.30 this morning.

7 o'clock, Adnan, Verk, MLB Network. I checked last night and yep, still playing baseball. The Js wrapped their season in Houston or series in Houston last night. It didn't go great. They lost 3-1. They lost the series. We'll talk to Adnan about the Jays and the rest of the league at 7 o'clock. Then it ate Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk is going to join. Happy NHL entry draft Eve, everybody. The draft goes tomorrow. Canucks GM Ryan Johnson is going to meet with the media today at 930R time.

His scheduled pre-draft media availability. Drance is going to join us at 8 o'clock, an hour and a half before you will most likely hear Ryan Johnson on these airwaves. So we got a lot to get into on the program without further ado. Zach, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by? ATS traffic. Safety is not a shortcut you want to take. From design to execution,

ATS traffic is your full service traffic safety provider. You can visit them online at atshtstraffic. We are going to begin. I think we're going to spend the entire first. segment of this show on the Canadian men's national team, both in terms of what happened yesterday, what happened last night in terms of who

they'll face in the round of 32 and then a very funny and interesting development that we will not start, that's a tease, pretty interesting development specifically for one of the hosts of the Halford and Breffield, but we'll get into that at the end of the segment. We do need to start. Stay out of Johannesburg.

We do need to start with what happened yesterday. Canada only needing a draw to remain in BC place through the round of 32 and to win the group, we're not able to get it done. They lose 2-1 to the Swiss at BC Place on Wednesday afternoon. And as a result, they now go on the road for the round of 32 match against South Africa, which we'll get into in a second.

The Swiss stay in BC place for their round of 32 match, which will happen in eight days time. Okay, so I have a question for you and the listeners if they want to weigh in. Let's answer some questions. Which statement is more true? Number one, Canada had too many injuries to win. Number two, Canada couldn't handle the pressure of the moment or three, Switzerland is simply better than Canada. All right.

Even if you agree with all three statements, which one do you agree with the most? Again, was it injuries for Canada? That's one. Was it the pressure or was it the fact that Switzerland is simply better than Canada? You know what? I'm going to work through all these. Is the listeners text in? You got to pick one though.

You got to pick one to start with. You can work through all three. But just pick one. One. You believe the most. Canada had too many injuries to win that match. When the starting 11 came out, so I went to the match yesterday. Yeah.

Had an awesome time. We can get into the experience of BC plays later because I think it's a backstory at this point. when the starting 11 came out, I was with my kid, and I turned to him and I said, this ain't happening today. Yeah. It's too tall of an order. Yeah.

When I saw that in addition to missing Ishmael Kone in the middle of the pitch, that Stephanie Yustakia wasn't going to start either, I said, this is way too big of an ask for Natanzibah and Matthew Schwanier to not only be thrust into their first starts of the world. World Cup, but to do so against by far the best opponent Canada was going to play in the group stage. It was almost the perfect confluence of circumstances where Canada just wasn't prepared to do this. I went back and looked at some of their lineups for when they were playing in the Gold Cup. Yeah.

You remember when Jesse Marsh was trying to show off and boast the depth of the program by not relying on his usual starting 11 and playing guys? Because a lot of the guys just didn't play in the Gold Cup. And that was guys like Natanzibah and Matthew Schwanier. They were out there in a starting role against a top 20 team in the world in Switzerland. Yeah. And here's the thing. Schwanier was in over his head. I almost feel bad criticizing Schwanier because he put in a shift.

He gave everything that he had. He was working his tail off. But there was a certain part of that first half early on where the pace of play and the level, of play required he wasn't up to and he and you know what he just reverted to he just dropped deep and he's like i'm just not going to get beat and that's fine but canada had nothing in the midfield and very little an attack and you know what to a certain degree celiba did the same thing in the first yeah you here's i mean eustachio there's oftentimes when i'm watching canada play and i'm like and this isn't all the time but sometimes i'm like eustacio is their best player eustacio plays with a confidence

yeah and he's a pro a fearlessness that, and you saw it when he came in, he's like, I'm just going to kind of start bossing things to a certain degree. I didn't think he was as unbelievable as some suggested coming in off the bench, but he was certainly a different. But he was a difference maker. Here's the thing you could say. Yesterday, with their starting 11, no Bombito, no Davies, no Eustacchio, no Kone, you could make the argument that Canada was about four of its top five footballers. If you're going to say their best five players are Jonathan David, Bombatio,

Davies, Eustachio, Kone, that's four of your top five players in your most crucial World Cup match. Yeah. Here's the, do the exact same exercise to the Swiss. Take away four of their top five players, completely out of the starting 11 and ask them to go out and get a result. It would be a lot more difficult than what they faced yesterday.

Okay. So you're choosing that one as the most true, that statement. Do you also agree that Canada couldn't handle the pressure of the moment. Yeah, all three of your questions are very good questions, by the way. And the other one was just that Switzerland is simply better than Canada.

You were at the match. I watched at the fan zone. The city was alive yesterday. And the country was alive. I, you know, I hope you had a great experience at the match. I had a great experience at the fan zone.

It was fun. I had a great time. And and and, but the, the pressure of the moment, Canada did look a little jittery. And I know that Jesse Marsh afterwards said that they were too passive. Did they play a little bit scared? So Jesse Marsh tried to manage his, uh, press, the high press. He had the guys in one of those weird, you know, half in, half out kind of zones where, felt like that too. where we're going to apply pressure,

but not as much as we normally do, but enough so that we're not totally relenting. They never really had, and I could go into a diagram breakdown of how they really like to press when they're guns ablazing and everyone's running and they're really aggressive. And it was almost like a hybrid version of a press,

but also being conservative enough to make sure you're not being totally exposed to the back. And as I mentioned, once Salaiba and Schwannier decided that dropping back deep was the safest way to play, they were dropping back deep. Yeah. That, in part, was pressure.

But I also think that this is Marsha's weakness as a manager. The in-match tactician, he is not. He is a motivator. He's great at drawing stuff up ahead of time. He's great at raising the energy level of his team to play the style that he wants to implement. But when it comes time to steal a call or Robinson line, the fine lines where you need to draw in that match and you need to see it through, his biggest undoing might have been

at the start of the second half where in his post-match media availability Jesse March openly acknowledged that he should have gone to five at the back to try and maintain that nil-nil result which would have won them the group and kept them at BC place because here's a thing

and I'm going to go deep in the weeds here. Okay. The Swiss manager, Yaquine, he's done a tremendous job in this tournament of having the Swiss prepared coming out of,

breaks. He's been lauded tactically for what he's done, especially against Bosnia. Right. He saved a bunch of his subs. These hydration breaks have added a new element. They're calling the momentum breaks now. Right. He he saved his substitutes. Normally you'll see substitutes come on

in the 60th minute, which is it gives him a third of the match to kind of get their legs and make an impact. He kept his subs on the bench against Bosnia until that final hydration break. They came on and then they exploded offensively. And he said, I have strategically started to reevaluate things on breaks. Because we're almost like in a four-quarters match now.

So what did the Swiss do coming out of the halftime break? They put pedal to the medal. They scored two goals in 12 minutes coming out of that halftime break where Canada looks sluggish coming out. I know Marsh read him the riot act. At least that's what promised David said. His message was to them to come out, you know, and wake the F up. Yeah.

But they did not. As a matter of fact, their worst spell of the match, I thought, was the first 12 to 15. minutes of the second half, where they became completely unglued and completely undone. That is management, essentially. That's a tactician on the other side, finding an opportunity to pounce and maybe making some tactical or structural adjustments.

And that's Marsh, regretting in the aftermath that he didn't put five at the back. Okay, what about Switzerland simply being better than Canada? Like, they're just, even with the injuries, this is not a minnow country. The top 20 in the world.

And I know when the group came out, we went over the teams pretty extensively and we concluded like Switzerland's the favorite to win this group. They've been in a lot of World Cups. They've had a few guys retire, but a lot of those guys yesterday have played together for a long time and they are tournament tested.

The most disappointing part of the match for me yesterday sitting there watching it was that Canada felt like they were second best in chasing the match the entire match. It never really felt like Canada was giving a, and I mean a serious threat to where the Swiss were like these guys can play

with us. It felt like the Swiss in terms of defending we're comfortable with everything through Canada threw at them for the majority of the match and let's be clear here the end of the match where Canada fought valiantly and had a lot of VIM and vigor. Sure.

a lot of it was long throws from Alistair Johnson. Yeah. Speculative long throws into the box and crosses into the box. And those are things that the Swiss were, one, willing to concede. Totally. And two, capable of defending. It felt like Canada was just a notch below. But this goes back to your first question.

Could Canada ever be at the level of Switzerland without their four of their five best players? No. No. No. That was kind of the best you were going to get from Canada in that circumstance. and you saw how inferior it was at times. Okay, I want to bang through a bunch of other questions. Yeah, man.

Did Canada reach expectations in the group stage? Because to their credit, despite some key injuries, they avoided the ultimate disaster, and they did qualify for the knockout stage. That was always in the back of our minds. Like, oh, we're like, okay, could lose to Bosnia, could have lost to Bosnia and Switzerland. Then you're on three points.

And then you're on three points. you're hoping, right? There's a bunch of teams out there right now with three points that are hoping that three points will be good enough. I mean, they could have drawn with Qatar, right? Switzerland did. They also, Canada, also notched their first draw and first win ever at the World Cup.

I think it's enough to say, I think they did enough to say that they reached expectations. But you wouldn't say they exceeded them. And that's fine. yesterday to me felt like a reminder that Canada is still so new to tournament football at the top level on the men's side. Switzerland was like the Wiley Vet that's been there and done that. No superstars, but this is a country that's qualified for the last six World Cups and made the round of 16 in the last three of them. granted in Qatar they got blown out by Portugal

in the round of 16 but they got there. They were in the round of 16. Canada wasn't in the round of 16 in Qatar. Canada didn't even win a game. Okay, so expectations. This is going to sound weird, but work with me here.

I think going into yesterday, a lot of people felt that Canada were on the verge of something potentially big and so the expectation became to exceed expectations. I think that's what yesterday was. Ultimately. Sure.

Yeah. Yesterday was ultimate. The bar got moved when they had the opportunity against Switzerland. And the absolute destruction of Qatar. You know? So yesterday going into that match, the energy around BC Place and in BC Place was very much, you have a very difficult task ahead of you. But the opportunity is so large and so big.

And look, everyone there knew that a win meant they were staying at BC Place for that round of 32 match. the expectation became to exceed expectations. And then when the match started, it turned very quickly because you could see how composed the Swiss team was and they just weren't phased by the pressure, the speed, the aggression of Canada like Bosnia were and like Qatar were.

And there was a big difference in the tone and tenor and the energy of the matches. I think Qatar got really rattled by the crowd and just the situation that they were in. But they just weren't capable of, they just weren't able to have seen all that. Well, like, okay, for example, Nathan Akanji, who plays at the back for Switzerland,

he's played in the Premier League, he's played in SETI, and I laughed at one point. I'm like, he does not seem phased by Tejohn Puganan in the moment. He didn't. Like, Buchanan's a very good player and he plays in Spain and La Liga,

but he was unbelievable against Qatar. Because the Qatari defenders hadn't seen someone of that caliber before. Yeah. Nathan Akangy had. And it was just, one of those things where the more that they tried to go out of, the more he's like,

hey, but this is what I do professionally. I deal with high level attackers and I know how to deal with them. And, you know, at a certain point, I'll go to even further down the road here.

When you really started to see the injury set in, was in the 11, but also in the end, when Canada was going to its bench, and it's Liam Miller, and it's Jacob Schaffelberg. And like,

Schaffelberg, I joke, like, he's the most Canadian footballer of all time. Like he's there to get in on the forecheck, right? Like get pucks in deep, get Schaff on the forecheck. Good energy guy. Good in the room, too.

This is going to sound super harsh, but like high level football in countries don't play Jacob Schaffelberg in matches that really matter. He's not a guy that you bring off the bench when you're trailing by one. Okay. This is going to bring us to my one of my final questions. What is going on with Alfonso Davies? So that would have been this Davies'B. So Shaffelberg was the final sub. Shaft came in for Lurea and it was like you're going to play as a left back,

but you're just going to be up the field. You're just going to attack from that. So with Davies, we were told by Jesse Marsh that he was going to play. He didn't. Marsh explained afterwards that he was never going to play and that he intentionally lied to use Davies as a decoy so that Switzerland would waste time preparing for him. Fine.

Switzerland did, by the way. So is it as simple for Davies as not being ready to play and his coach decided to use him as a decoy? Because it does feel like those jackals in the media are insinuating there is something more there. Yeah, well, there's something more there. And it's the Byron influence. And I don't have a firm read on what to what degree that is,

but it's absolutely there. You can tell, okay, here's what I think is happening. I don't think Davies is healthy. Right. Okay. All right. I don't. And furthermore, I'm not sure he's ever going to be healthy.

I think that is what we might be dealing with. Because if you look at his last calendar year, the one thing that keeps happening is he keeps coming back and he keeps getting hurt. Yeah. Okay. So put that. And he keeps coming back for buyer. Yep.

And he keeps getting hurt. Yeah. So put that in context. he's not healthy and he might, there's a possibility he just might not be healthy. Secondly, like one of those guys that's just constantly injured. I mean, we've seen them countless times.

Sure. Seen them in the National Hockey League. Even the NFL, you see him in every major sport. Happens to guys' bodies, especially the ones that are as elite as Davies. It's like the, you know, super fancy F1 cars. Yeah. They tend to break.

Now, the Byron influence is there. What's compounding this right now is two additional things. one, Marsh just can't accept that a negative is a negative. He's always one of those guys. It's like you can turn any situation into a positive. And he's trying to do it here by using Davy's lack of availability as a decoy. And there's two issues with it. One, it's not working.

And two, he's creating a distraction and creating an unnecessary narrative. Yeah. Now, the other part of this is that... And fans sometimes just don't, like, even if... Even if you say there's a reason we lied to you that the fans... You know, I'm sitting there at the fan zone, and I tell him the boy who's getting upset that Canada's losing. I was like, don't worry, we got a... We got a few cards up our sleeves, first of all, you know?

Yep. We're going to make some subs. We'll bring some energy guys on. Alfonso Davies is going to come on. So he got excited for that. I got excited for that. That was my expectations. And look,

it wasn't like devastated by it. You know? I'm not saying we were like, that's outrageous. I, he lied to the boy, right? You know,

like I'm not taking it that far. Sure. It is kind of like, you go to the game and you're like, when is Davy's coming on? When is Davies coming on? I imagine there was a lot of people, but he didn't even pretend that he was going to play yesterday.

I don't think he warmed up at all. There was a we want Davies chant in my section. Okay. Just to put that in perspective. Okay. So there's another part of this too, and it's that Davies now has been thrust, and I put this on the gaffer, to be honest, he's thrust into a situation where people want to talk to him and want to figure out what's going on. Right. And he's not willing to do it.

Can I read a paragraph that Patrick Johnston wrote in the province yesterday, and Pete was there covering the game? And, you know, it was writing about all these questions that we've got about Alfonso. Davies and he writes, we'd ask Davies, Canada's captain, about all this, but he didn't stop to speak to anyone in the mix zone after Wednesday's match. He simply had his phone pressed to his ear. Whether he was actually talking to anyone or not didn't matter. The message was clear. He didn't want to talk. First of all, if... I do that trick all the time. If Davies used the fake phone call to avoid talking to the media, I got to respect it. Big ups to Alfonso Davis for that.

I use it throughout my entire life. Great. I used it yesterday. But it doesn't make me overly optimistic about his chances of playing on Sunday. And that's another thing about losing that match to Switzerland. Yeah, Canada advances, but two things. Number one, they don't get to play

at BC Place. We all knew that. Number two, they lose some days of rest because you got to play right away on Sunday. Switzerland doesn't pay until 30. Thursday now. It's a bunch of extra rest that they get and they don't have to leave the city. Okay, I did a lot of this prep

at around 5 o'clock yesterday and here's a question that I threw in there. This was for Halford to address. What are Canada's chances against South Korea a team that Halford called

his dark horse before the tournament? Forget about that last part about the dark horse before the tournament. Classic house. Alfred. But they're not going to play South Korea because another team from the South. South Africa beat South Korea last night in Mexico. And so Canada will now play South Africa, which is something none of us saw coming in L.A. South Africa is ranked well below. they're in the 60s.

Well below South Korea. Well below Canada. And here's another factor. There are, I think, 300,000 people of Korean descent living in Los Angeles. Okay? Most people know that. They were going to have home field advantage. It's essentially over Canada in that match.

Even though, you know, Canada is pretty close and we can all travel down there. No. They would have had a significant advantage. And now tickets on StubHub, I'm noticing, like last night, the ticket prices were $1,500 to get in the door. They're now down to like $900. Because there's people just like, they're unloading their tickets. So tell us about South Africa.

What they did yesterday was the biggest and most improbable victory in the country's history at the World Cup. Nobody expected them to pull off that result. Consider what they went into this match with. They were largely outclassed in their opener.

Now granted, they were playing the host Mexico, but they also received two red cards. They lost 2-0. They didn't look great. By all rights, they should have lost to check it, but they managed to pull an equalizer back late. Their first goal of the World Cup in their second match to get on one point and keep

them alive going into the final match of the group stage. Had they have lost that match to check it, they would have been out. That would have been it. And they were minutes away from being out. They go into that match with South Korea yesterday. And for reasons still unexplained, the Korean gaffer called it a tactical decision. They did not start. They benched Kiyunmin Song for that match.

He was healthy. He was healthy. came on as a substitute. He was not in the 11 and it looked like I don't know whether they were confident that they were going to get a result against South Africa and move on or if this was just the Gaffer Galaxy braining it but they didn't put him in the 11 and they looked off.

They looked nowhere near the team that dueled with Mexico in the first match and beat the checks in the second. I don't know what was going on. I didn't do a super deep dive into it. but South Africa took full advantage, scored the only goal of the match, defended like crazy in the second half, and managed to escape with the most famous victory, and they move on to the knockout stage for the first time in the country's history.

So Canada is moving on to the knockout stage for the first time in the country's history, and so is South Africa. Now this happens at the World Cup sometimes. Luck of the draw has these two minnows going up against one another into the knockout stage. So crazily enough, the final start, 16 of the World Cup is going to have one of Canada or South Africa in it, which is wild. Do I have time to tell my little funny story? Sure.

We're completely screwed on the clock anyway. So first of all, after this match, I tweeted something fairly diplomatic. I tweeted, Canada shouldn't feel overconfident versus anyone, but on paper, that is a massive break. Yep. You know, not controversy at all, right? And then J-Pat, bloody J-Pat throws out a tweet and it shows that South Africa will play Canada. And then the winner of that will play probably the Netherlands or Morocco. Now, the Dutch are getting screwed in this.

Yep. Okay. So they've only played two games, but they're probably going to finish top of the group. but regardless, I think, they're going to either get Morocco or Brazil. Yep. It's most likely Morocco. So Morocco, very good team, as we saw in the last Morocco.

I think it's clinched Morocco's clinch in that spot, and the Netherlands are the mostliest to be in there. But regardless, get on. But I think if even Netherlands finished second in their group, they're going to play Brazil. Yep, right? So that's pretty tough, right? You do well, you win your games in the group stage,

you clinch, you clinch away through the, into the knockout stage after two games and you're getting either Morocco or Brazil. And then Canada and South Africa get each other, right? So I tweet out, the Dutch got screwed and Canada got a gift. Somehow, while I was sleeping, somehow my tweet went viral in South Africa. So there's a radio DJ name. Mo Flava in Johannesburg. Yes.

And that was the one that kind of kicked this off. He's got close to a million followers on X, and he found your tweet, and it's gone super viral in South Africa. And I got to say, the South Africans are reasonable. Honestly, they are. With their responses,

they're not as bad as so many HL fans. They'll be like, woo, we've bookedmarked your tweet for Sunday. I'm like, oh, that's fair enough. But this tweet has 1.2 million views. should have seen. 1.2 million views. I was like, I was like, what the I looked at it this morning. I was like,

what the hell happened here? You should have seen Bruff's face when he sat down this morning, opened his laptop, and looked at his viral tweet from last night. Now one of the most polarizing figures in South Africa, AM Vancouver radio man, Jason

Brough. Never what I thought has seen the day. But here we are. Welcome to infamy, friend. Sometimes I would like, I'm going to lean into this. but I'm like, I don't really want to mess with South Africa. With the opposite of leaning into this. Okay, before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro.

Not satisfied with your current cleaning service. Jan Pro delivers consistent results and responsive customer service. Start clean, stay clean. Visit them online at JanPro.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcast.

You basically said, you know, this was, and within a few days, when the PA looks into things, you know, you're essentially exiting that scenario and John Davidson and saying you made players very uncomfortable. Mike, what happened in Columbus and why did you choose to walk away? Well, I chose to walk away, really straightforward. And I appreciate the question here. It was very evident before the year started. I hadn't benched anybody. I hadn't talked to anybody.

I hadn't sat anybody out and it was evident that we worked together as a staff right from the get-go. 637 on a Thursday hard fade there. You're listening to the Halford of Brough show on Sports 9-650.

Halverd. Inbrough of the morning is Bradts you by Sands and Associates. They're open seven days a week and they're open late to help you get debt-free. But no judgment or upfront fees visiting today at Sands dash trustee.com.

Still an hour one of the program, Aaron Portsline from the Athletic in Columbus is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one is brought to me. 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. So with the news of Mike Babcock being hired in Edmonton and the news of Zach Wrenski possibly being traded out of Columbus, we thought who better to get on the show than our next guest. We go now to the ABLE Auctions hotline. Aaron Portsline

from the Athletic joins us here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Aaron. How are you? Hey, good morning, guys. How are you doing? We're great. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We always appreciate it. Let's start with Mike Babcock. So you're sitting there in Columbus,

and I'm assuming you're either watching or seeing the comments that Babcock is making during his introductory presser. When you hear him, as we just played, explain what happened in Columbus. What was your response? Well, his sort of his initial preamble before you, really gets to the answer is first he says, I'm going to be really straightforward with you. And I go, okay, he's not going to be very straightforward here at all.

And then he says, I appreciate the question. And you go, he really doesn't like this question, right? That's just such a chicken bleep answer. And, you know, the blue jackets are right to be completely angered by that. That's not what happened at all. He didn't, his wife didn't tell him to resign here because he wasn't aligned with the coaching staff. He did some things. He shouldn't have been doing.

He acted inappropriately, which is the consistency in all of his NHL stops. Hell of a coach. No one's going to deny that. But there are behavior issues there. Way beyond people say, hey, John Tortorella's top on player. he taught torterella does not do the things that mike babcock is accused of having done and zero ownership of it that's not a surprise but to me the biggest concern if i'm an edmonton player if i'm an edmonton fan that this guy seems to have learned absolutely zero other than how to blame

other people yeah well speaking of that what did you think of his statement about the staff not being aligned. Like what, what did, what did that even mean? Well, that means they didn't have its back.

Right. That means you're supposed to, you're supposed to stick up for me. You're supposed to say, no, no, he does what he does, okay?

Because he's a good hockey coach and we're going to win. So all of these control issues that he has and the, the abuse that that can inflict on other people, you got to put up with it and we're here to support him in that.

well no right I mean come on and that's what that's what that means and again that's not what happened in Columbus he did not say I got out of here because the people around me aren't supporting my coaching style he did some some things that way step over the line and that's why he resigned before he would have been fired I imagine that given how long you've been on the beat and how embedded you are and how the sort of that you have that you, there's probably a lot that you know about the story that you either can't report or can't say out loud. Appreciating that, what can you tell us about what you know about what Babcock did and maybe

how everyone's glossed over it a little bit too much because it seemed like part of the presser in Edmonton was to put Columbus in the rearview and make it sound like this investigation that the NHL and NHLPA did cleared him or absolved him from the things that happened. happened in Columbus. Yeah. You know what? I'll be honest with you. This is a weird one because from the moment it happened,

there's four days before training camp when he resigned. The players had a press conference. They talked, I mean, a little bit about it, no detail. And then after that, and ever since it has been, I'm not going there. We're looking forward. The former GM, Yarmou Kekelina, is now in Buffalo. Right.

John Davidson, who was in charge. Both of those guys apologized to the players, to the fans, said all the right things when Babcock resigned. They've all moved on now. Davidson is essentially retired. He still does some broadcast work. He's still a member of an alternate governor, but not in the day-to-day operations of the team. But it has been so quiet to the point where I've wondered and asked if there are nondisclosure agreements that have been signed. because no one's talking.

Like zero people are talking. I think there are players still afraid to talk because they don't want to be seen as the one who let stories from the room get out. And I think that's especially a caution that young players have. And a lot of the players have moved. I think there's 10 players left from that team. It's just crazy because it doesn't seem like it's been out really that long ago. It's just the story a ton of people have moved on from. there were reports that there's some other act that Babcock did here that was worse than the cell phone

privacy invasion and again being honest with you I have zero proof of any of that and this isn't me holding back and not saying something I don't know I have not been able to unearth anything that would fit that criteria so I know this is probably what you're talking about and I don't expect you to answer with yes but do you because it was reported by Andy Strickland Do you, have you heard anything about an incident between Babcock and Patrick Linae? So he is the name, yes, that has come up, but I can't put this on him. And again, I'm not holding back. I seriously am not.

It's been so quiet, Linae has moved on. He's on the other side of the world right now, not responding to messages, or at least my messages. Right. So you did reach out to him about this. I've asked, yeah, he hasn't responded, which by all means is right, especially in June. I think the feeling among a lot of these guys is to just rearview mirror this. But maybe it's a story that in five, ten years, when guys start to move on, retire, care less about what other people in the league think about them.

Maybe it will come out. Maybe there is some other stuff here. But, yeah, I'm not, I'm certainly not withholding. any deucey tidbit that just can't be confirmed. It's pretty quiet. We're speaking with Aaron Portsline, longtime beat writer for the Columbus Blue Jackets now. Aaron, we here in Vancouver have experience with a Norris trophy winning defenseman

who no longer wants to play for the team in our city. Do you need any advice on what's going on with Zach Werenski? Because it sounds like he doesn't really want to play for the, Columbus Blue Jackets anymore. What do you know on that situation? Yeah, so as I can say at this point, does not appear that he has asked for a trade. And it's murky out there. The Blue Jackets have not been told, to my knowledge, directly, that he is not going to extend. So both of those, if you're a Blue Jackets fan who loved being able to watch Zach Werenczi play in the sweater, would appear to be short-term.

positives. But there are teams around this league who do believe that Zach Horensky is on the move, either before the end of his contract, either this summer or next, and understandably they'd like to be in on that.

Don Waddell who's going to meet with the media here in Columbus at noon our time. Nine for you. He has a meeting with Werenski after the draft. Not sure if that Saturday evening, Sunday, when that is, the lack of urgency there tells me that there's nothing imminent on that front or that it's not something that they are anticipating doing this summer.

That's my read on this. Things can change. If I were faced with my Norris trophy defense and saying, yes, I want out, I would want to know that before Friday's first round. Yeah. I would want to know that probably before today, certainly before tomorrow. So that's my read on the situation. We may get more details from what else today. A lot of this is speculation.

I would say it's informed speculation. And you would have to be naive, I think. If you're paying attention to this league, if you've seen what so many Team USA players have done here in the near term, to not be at least concerned. if you're a Blue Jackets fan, that Werencki is in that same thought pattern. But until we hear it from him, until what else is anything concrete or perhaps Werenski's agent, Judd Moldaver, shed some light on this.

People are putting two numbers together and coming up with an answer without really knowing exactly sure what that math is. Okay, let's go bullet point style here. and we'll go through some names just real quick because we don't have all that much time. Boone Jenner, long time Columbus Blue Jacket. Is he going to be playing elsewhere next season? I do believe.

Yeah, my sense is he hits the market. He's looking for a long-term deal. I don't think he gets to here. Okay. Adam Fantility, is there going to be any issues signing him to a new contract? He is an RFA? Yeah, I think it'll be difficult.

I think all of those guys, Bidad, Carlson, maybe put Gotea in there, Antilly. They're all waiting for somebody to go first, those guys. They're waiting for the market to reset both short-term right now, and I also think they're wondering if they want to go short-term or long-term because the numbers are skyrocketing. Okay, Marchenko, he's got one year left before he's RFA.

Has there been any talk about locking him up long-term? Yes, there has been. I think he is a player that the Blue Jackets consider is close to, I want to say untouchable because everyone's untouchable or everyone's touchable in the right deal. But he is a big part of this. His name is coming up in trade talks, according to many, which tells me that the Blue Jackets are going big game hunting and he would be part of a return. But that's not a player that they want to move.

I think he's one of those guys that falls under the headline of not off limits, but certainly not a guy they want to move. Okay. Kent Johnson, local kid here. Do you expect him to be a member of the Blue Jackets next season? I do because I think he's a tough guy to trade right now. If you trade him, you're trading, I don't want to say pennies on the dollar, but maybe quarters on the dollar because he's coming off a horrible season. They've seen what he can do.

I think they see enormous potential there. Frankly, they need his playmaking in the top six. They need him to be a player just like Varancov. I will say it like Marchenco, not untouchable. everyone's available. When you're in this situation, you're trying to go big game hunting, but he's not a guy that they desire to trade. Okay, and one final. Connor Garland, he played well when he first arrived in Columbus.

Did he fall off? What happened down the stretch? He, like so many others, went through the floorboards. Yeah, the last two and a half weeks of the season, he looked lost. I'm led to believe he looked as lost as he was in Vancouver this year. I didn't see all of that, of course. So many players were completely lost here. Just look at their schedule and results. They were as high as second in the metro, fifth in the east,

and then just absolute free fall, the final two weeks of the season, to miss the playoffs for the six three years. He was one of them, certainly not alone. There's about six, seven guys that fall into that category. Jason lied. One more before we let you go. The reported interest, and I believe it's your reported interest, that the Blue Jackets have on Jake DeBresk.

Can you expand any further on that? I'm sorry. On who? Jake DeBresk. Oh, yeah, for sure. So the Blue Jackets are looking for a top six slash top nine improvement. DeBresk, I think, is a player who's going to move.

The Blue Jackets make a ton of sense for him. I think he would come to Columbus. I think he'd fit in very, very well here. Mason Marchman's moving on. So there's the spot. There's the opportunity in the top six for him. Probably would battle with Dimitri Verum. Foronkov to see if he's a fit there.

There's space here to be a productive player. I think Debrust makes a ton of sense. There's other guys, too. I thought Tyroo would have been a player that they considered to. He's moved on, of course, already. But, yeah, put Debrus on the list for sure. Aaron, we just got a text in from Scooter in Port Moody, and he said, the guest you have on right now is great. And I agree you're one of the best beatwriters in the league.

It's always fun to catch up with you, and we really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Well, tell Scooter, I said thank you, and I thank you guys. It's always good to be with you. All right. Take care. I appreciate it, buddy. Yeah. Thanks, guys.

Aaron Portsline, one of the best in the business from the Athletic in Columbus here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Okay, we got a couple minutes here. I just want to circle back on the Canada soccer story. So the next opponent, South Africa. I doubt many listeners, one, anticipated that it would be South Africa against Canada in the round of 32. not one of the permutations I had even going into last night we were sitting there

sat down at 6 o'clock I was that the boy was all jacked up from watching you know going to BC place and watching World Cup and he's like we gotta watch this we got to see who Canada is going to play and I was like but it's like a 70% chance that it's going to be South Korea like I don't really

they've already got three points in the group I think they're going to finish second don't get your hopes up too high well prove me wrong Buffana Bufana Bafana it was an impressive performance from South Africa and here's the thing.

That was, as of right now, an outlier in terms of performance, if you go back and you look at their form, even in the lead-ups to the World Cup, very, very uninspired. Yeah, they got beaten by Panama and a friendly. They drew with Panama. They drew with Nicaragua.

Drew with Jamaica. That result against South Korea yesterday was the first time that they've won a men. match in about six or seven matches. It was a stunner. There's no other way to put it. South Korea had a ton of players playing in high

level European top five leagues. 19 of the 26 South African players play in the South African domestic league. They are not a country that has a bunch of great footballing exports all over the planet. Like it is a it's a bit of an

unknown for sure in large part because a lot of these guys play domestically and you don't know a ton about the league but they're a 60th ranked FIFA team they are in terms of caliber and quality they're a lot closer to Qatar and Bosnia

than they are to Switzerland. Here's the thing if Canada wins yesterday or draws yesterday and they stay in BC plays for the round of 32 correct me if I'm wrong. Do you have the thing in front of you from the athletic? Right now, the most likely opponent is either Algeria or Austria.

I think it's a, yeah, Algeria is up there for sure. Those are top 30 teams in the world. Like Algeria is one of the dominant African teams and a top 30 FIFA rank team. So too is Austria. Yeah, 36% Algeria, 24% Austria and Egypt and Iran are both at 13% followed by Belgium at 5% and Senegal at 4%. I don't, I, you know, all of those teams are better

than South Africa. At the risk of going viral again in Johannesburg, I've got to say, Canada got a easier road. And I think this is what you were trying to put out. South Africa is also thinking this though, right? They're like,

we're finally into the next round. And so they should. And all we got is Canada. So they should. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I'm just saying, if you want to look at it objectively

and like facts only, Canada, despite having to travel to L.A. has a less talented opponent than they would have if they stayed at B.C. place. Yes. I think they have a... And by the way, they are favorites in this match. And I would almost go on to say significant favorites. It's the only round of 32... According to the bookmakers.

It's the only round of 32 match. It's officially booked, by the way, right now. Canada, South Africa. All the rest are still up for grabs. There's not a single other one booked right now. Yeah. There's a few... There's a few that are very likely... Like the United States is 99% chance going to get Bosnia. But it's not locked in yet. It's not locked in now.

By the way, I would love, love to see Bosnia pull the upset against the U.S. In the round of 32. Yeah. I think it's a pretty tall order. Me too. But the Americans have looked good. If Bosnia can replicate what they were able to do, the one that really, and it's a pre-world couple, what they were able to do against Italy, where they were able to defend

and I know Italy was reduced to 10 men, but they were able to stifle and stifle and stifle and stifle and hang around. And now you have the opportunity to stifle and stifle and stifle and get to penalties. Yeah. That's kind of the key. Yeah. You know?

Anyway, I got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hour 1 is in the books. I need to remind you, by the way, that the Doick Auto Group is the official automotive sponsor of Halford & Brough. Find out why nobody beats a Duke deal and why nobody has since 1926. Visit Doick. GM on Marine Drive, visit them downtown, visit them in Richmond, visit them online at

the duikato group.com. Adnan Verk's going to join us on the other side. We got another open segment at 730. We can get to your questions in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. We can do some more Canada soccer talk. And we can get into all these signings and trades from the National Hockey League yesterday, including a busy day in Buffalo and a busy day in Washington. You're listening to the Halford-Inbuff show on Sportsnet 650.