Halford & Brough in the Morning - Should Leagues Do Away With All Star Games?

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

In hour one, Mike & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk a memorable MLB Home Run Derby that saw a former Blue Jay win it all (7:00), the boys debate the NHL's Pacific Divison standings this upcoming season and where the Canucks might place (15:00), plus they chat the All Star Game format in sports, and if it's become antiquated (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Teo Oscar Hernandez! Oscar Hernandez is your 2024 Team Oklahoma Derby champ. And the Rockets spread glare. And the Rockets

spread glare. Uh-oh. I'm asking, can you see? Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is the Alfred and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650 featuring Jamie Dodd. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning to you.

Good morning. Hey, dog. Good morning to you. Good morning. And welcome back to Laddie. Good morning to you. Good morning. Hey, dog. Good morning to you. Good morning. And welcome back to Laddie. Good morning to you, Laddie. Hello, hello. I hope you're feeling better.

I'm feeling much better. Thank you. Half and Breath of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 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 you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet? What are you waiting for? Kintec, that's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews, sore feet. What are you waiting for?

Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. You know, some say that this is the slowest time of the year in sports. And they're correct. Because it's the slowest time of the year in sports. However, however, we have a pretty good show to put forth here. We have a few different things to get into. We have a good guest list. Shockingly, we have a great show for you.

As opposed to most of our shows, which are average at best. Today's a really good one. Guest list begins at 7 o'clock. Axel Schuster, Whitecaps CEO, is going to join us. We will talk to him about Wednesday night's match. It's 80s night at BC Place between the Whitecaps, Sporting Kansas City. Whitecaps are playing some good football as of late. Brian White finding the back of the net with regularity.

We'll also ask Axel what he thought about Ali Ahmed at the Copa America with Canada. And here's a thing, Jamie. So yesterday, someone texted in asking us if we could find out more about the turf situation for the upcoming Wrexham match against the Whitecaps at BC Place. I'll own this one.

I scoffed at the question. Scoffed! I said to Jamie, I'm like, what turf situation? What's this guy talking about? Then I did the research. It turns out that there's an active standing request to have temporary grass put down in BC Place for the W rexham match and of course from axel we're also going to get the for a dog the official rundown of all the arcade games that

will be on the concourse on 80s night you got a lead with that question which i'm sure axel was personally involved in making the selection the details of this event hand selecting which street fighter 2 console i want to know every single game that's there. So Axel Schuster is going to join us at 7 o'clock, 7.30, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com Ingold Magazine. Hey, if you have something that you've ever wanted to ask

Kevin Woodley, now's your chance to do it. We're going to get him on the show. We're going to talk anything and everything there is to do about the world of hockey. You can even get in on the action. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. You don't need to hashtag it. It's 730.

Know that Woodley's going to be on the show. I got a question for him. You have a question for him. How did he get his own commercial? Are you talking about the White Rock Hyundai commercial? Yeah, by doing great work. By putting in the hours. Kevin Woodley? What do you mean?

How did he get his own commercial? How did he not have his own commercial before this? You know what we need to ask Woodley, though? Why does he have not one, not two, not three, but four Hyundais? That does seem a little bit much. Does he have a hoarding problem? Is he stockpiling them for the Armageddon? What's happening here?

I have a question. First of all, how dare you? Yes. Thank you, Andy. So 7.30, Kevin Woodley is going to join the show. 8 o'clock, it's our regular Tuesday BC Lions guest. We're going to be joined by offensive lineman and good local kid

Suk Chung's going to join the program fresh off the heels of a very big victory for the Lions on Saturday against the previously undefeated Saskatchewan Roughriders. Okay, so working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Suk Chung. 7.30, Kevin Woodley. 7 o'clock, Axel Schuster.

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?

You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Part of the reason that this is the slowest time of the year is because when the MLB All-Star break happens, there's no other sports going on anywhere else. Obviously, there's no other sports going on anywhere else. Obviously, there's no other baseball games. And then the entire

world becomes glued to the Home Run Derby, an annual event where we actually play it on the radio sometimes. And that is scintillating radio. Let me tell you what. It was actually a very dramatic event last night, though. Teoscar Hernandez is your 2024 MLB Home Run Derby champion.

An exciting final round against Bobby Witt Jr. I was a big fan of his dad, former Texas Rangers pitcher Bobby Witt. So Teoscar wins. I guess the big story of the night was that there were a couple upsets in the early rounds. Pete Alonzo, a lot of people's favorite,

including our very own MLB insider, Adnan Virk, was knocked out early. Gunnar Henderson, Adolis Garcia, I think a lot of people were rooting for him,nan Virk, was knocked out early. Gunnar Henderson. Adolis Garcia, I think a lot of people were rooting for him, obviously, because he was a Texas guy. They were all out in the first round. That paved the way for Teoscar Hernandez. Not necessarily even close to being a favorite going into it to win the whole shebang.

Laddie, while you were at home nursing your ailment, were you watching the home run derby last year? Off and on. I didn't see the very finish of it, but I watched as much as I could. And yeah, it was good to see Teoscar and Vladdy back together again, the two bros, wearing his jersey. It was nice. So we need to discuss, and because we've got Jamie Dodd and Greg Ballack here,

two huge Blue Jays fans, anytime that Teoscar Hernandez or any of the guys that have been jettisoned do anything of note, I always bring it back to, why did they get rid of these guys so do we want to relitigate the Teoscar Hernandez trade? Absolutely what do you mean do we want to relitigate this are you kidding me? Yeah we do and the great thing about this is

like I was trying to think if this if you drew a parallel to something like this happening to the Canucks okay guy they traded and then he goes on and this is his second team they didn't even trade him to the Dodgers. Okay, guy they traded, and then he goes on. And this is his second team. They didn't even trade him to the Dodgers, right? They traded him to Seattle. Then he left in free agency, signed with the Dodgers,

and wins MVP at the All-Star game or something, right? And people are freaking out and texting in like, oh, how did they let this guy go? Look what he's doing. And in that situation, I would be coming on being like, look, guys, it's the All-Star game. Relax. This has nothing to do with their value as a player.

You do not have to overreact to this. We can evaluate the game like relax this has nothing to do with their value as a player like you do not have to overreact to this we can evaluate the trade but it has nothing to do with this that's what i would be doing my professional capacity on canucks talk but as a blue jays fan i am fully licensed to be outraged that the guy they let go who's like vladdy's best friend is out here hitting bombs and winning the home run derby especially because and here's the thing it's not just because he won the home run derby it's because the trade itself is so emblematic of what this front office's approach has been which is hyper emphasizing years of control right so hey he's a he's a year away from free agency we're gonna get ahead of this and trade him for eric swanson who's got all these years of control left right and a prospect who's got

even more years of control left and and we're gonna get better at run prevention we're tired of hitting all these home runs and not being able to feel very well we're gonna get way better at run prevention and eric swanson is now a 30 year old reliever who had like a 13 era this year and is in triple a so it's like oh great That we have years of control left on him. It's not going to amount to much because he's in AAA. I remember when the trade happened at the time. So the trade was, and it was after the meltdown series against the Mariners,

right? The two game sweep, which is still funny vernacular to throw out there, but the two game sweep. And then I don't know if it was... I think it was probably a hybrid of things. It was probably what you were suggesting, you know, the emphasis between Atkins and Shapiro and having guys

on club control. I also think that they wanted to make a statement to the dugout and the clubhouse about, you know, less celebration, more seriousness. Well, he was known for his gaffes, too, right? The team wanted to get more serious. He's not a great fielder, to be fair. And he does strike... Like, there are... not he's not a perfect player there's a reason seattle let him go too but he's a good player strikes out a lot but apparently very good when

it's batting practice fastballs coming in he was the one that would throw the sunflower seeds on everyone when they did something good as well which he does with shohei now his buddy shohei in la you know the team that's yeah tough just so So I think what this, if you want to kind of extrapolate a lot of different conversations from one particular move, I do think that this was partly about what the numbers and the metrics and the analytics tell you, as opposed to what the vibes and the mood and the atmosphere and attitude of your team is.

Because in that same offseason, they also got rid of Lourdes Goriel Jr., who i think in his first year in arizona ended up making the all-star team and he's been kind of the same guy in arizona that he was in toronto and i think you could maybe say the same with to oscar he still kind of does the things that he does similar in that series against uh the two games here the two game loss to Seattle. If I'm not mistaken, to Oscar represented about half the runs that they scored in that series. And they scored nine and he had four, he hit two home runs and you could have made the argument that he was one of

the guys in that series that didn't kind of shy away when the lights got bright and there was pressure on them. Right. Where a lot of other guys failed in that moment. He didn't. And I wonder as we extrapolate another conversation from this, I do wonder if when we look back on where the downfall of the Jays, because we're seeing it happen in front of our very eyes here,

if they decided to tinker too much or move off the things that gave them known success and wanted to go into some sort of weird abyss where we don't know what we're going to be, but we know what we're not going to to be and we're not going to be this sort of loosey-goosey fun-loving uh highs or highs lows or lows kind of team we want to be more you know straight line and pragmatic and phlegmatic even calm in our approach and it hasn't worked and just they're now below 500 baseball yeah and they're just boring and joyless and not fun to watch at all. And Teoscar, for all his flaws, is super fun to watch and super charming and super engaging. And I think it's also just an example of them misreading the market, right?

Because I understand, like, hey, this guy's a year away from free agency. There's some flaws in his game. Do we really want to keep him long term? Maybe let's get ahead of this and try to trade him. But he ended up signing a one-year deal in free agency, right? It's not like they were going to have to pay an arm and a leg and commit until he was 37 to keep him around. And I think it's just like they're kind of outthinking themselves, right?

Like, oh, we're going to trade this guy before he's a free agent. It's like, well, you could just sign him to a one-year deal. It wasn't going to be that expensive to keep him around. It would have been very low risk to keep him in Toronto, ultimately. Text into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. It's in all caps and it has two exclamation points. So you know it's important. They kept Alejandro Kirk over Moreno.

That was the worst trade of all. We talked about this, Laddie, prior to the break. And Moreno's been fine. Yeah, he was better last year. I think this year he started off a little slow. He's still been pretty good this year. Yeah, he's been better late. And Kirk has been better, too.

But he was off to a really slow start. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the long-term future for Alejandro Kirk looks like. And now it sounds like they might trade Danny Jansen at the deadline. So I really don't know what they're doing, what they're catching. They nailed it. Yeah. Another master class.

So it's interesting because we've been re-litigating trades. We're going to do another one. And we've actually got a question out there that we'll do later in the show about the best move of the Jim Benning era. But yesterday we did one where we were talking about the sort of now infamous Keith Ballard trade for the Canucks in 2010 that was in part due to Willie Mitchell's departure, whatever one preceded the other, and talked about how it affected the arc of a very competitive team.

And there's some comparisons to be made here with the Jays because there is an important point to make here, is that the fun of a team, the way that it interacts with its fans, if a fan base likes a team or not, I think is more important than executives will give it credit for. And they were a fun team. I remember being more enamored with those teams than what we're seeing now no question jamie and i were working the um seattle

j series so we watched it in full yeah and i do recall saying like the games are tight and there's an entertainment value to this series but the teams don't really play sort of inspired basically i came away from those two games being like, I hate both of these teams. These teams both suck. This is awful. There's nothing sort of charming or alluring about either of them. They don't play particularly scrappy. They don't have one guy that makes you

and not even get out of your seat because of the athleticism or the heroic nature of it. I mean, personally, I remember when we used to coach baseball, if your uniform's not dirty at the end of the game it means you haven't played a good baseball game right now you want guys it's not necessarily a charlie hustle thing but you want some guys that are going to bring energy to a sport that oftentimes needs it i will also say to be fair to both the jays and the mariners i think they're both kind of representative of where baseball is as a whole

which is there's a ton of mediocre teams and guys can't hit. When we were watching that series, both teams had multiple guys hitting like 200 or below in the lineup. And that's not atypical for around Major League Baseball. It's a problem for the product. It makes it tough to watch. And then you have the expanded playoff field. And Jerry DiPoto had the famous quote, like, hey, just be 54% year over year, right?

54% winning percentage. And it's like, it's not that entertaining to watch two teams who can't really hit and are striving to win 54% of their games play against each other. That all or nothing mindset, right? That every team has now. Sure. It's okay to strike out three out of four times as long as that one that you get hit is a home run. And then it makes up for it, right? So you see a lot of those 200, 179 batting averages.

And it's weird, right? As someone who's grown up watching baseball, if you were under 200, you were off the team. But it's not that way anymore. Speaking of hitting a home run, Quinton Byfield hit a financial home run yesterday. Look at you. The Kings hit a home run with that AAV.

I think everyone just hit a home run with this one. So the Los Angeles Kings signed winger Quinton Byfield to a five-year contract with a $6.25 million cap hit. So he was in the last of his ELC, which means he gets a very substantial raise, more than $5.3 million per year. And he makes the jump up to making $6.25, which is a nice piece of business for him. He gets a lot of money out of the deal. And also for the Los Angeles Kings, who, if this works out and he continues on the trajectory he's on, will probably be a steal of a deal in a couple of years.

Last year, he had a breakout season, 20 goals, 35 assists, 55 points in 80 games. He scored that outrageous highlight reel goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets midseason, where you saw kind of the culmination of everything that he brings. He's 6'5", he's 220. He can skate like nobody's business, and he's got really good hands. He looks like he's going to be a real problem at the power forward position for years to come. They've got him locked up until he's 27 now. So a couple jumping off points from this.

One, that draft class, which we don't really think about here in Vancouver because Vancouver barely participated in it. Yes, yep. I don't think they drafted until the fourth round. Although, Nils Oman, who was a sixth-round pick in 2020, has actually turned into one of the steals of that draft. You've got your Stutzli and Raymond as being the guys that would probably, if you were to do a redraft in Lafreniere,

would be the top guys at the end of that draft. Now it kind of feels like Byfield's ready to reenter that after being the second overall pick. I think after the first couple years, there were a couple of question marks. But he looks like he's going to be quite an interesting player moving forward. And you're going to ask, well, why are you talking about this at length? Well, one, how does it pertain to the Vancouver Canucks? And two, a gentleman by the name of Ian Who, WHO?

W-H-O question mark on Twitter, threw out a question for us, which is a perfect jumping off point from the byfield extension. He wants to know, Halford and Brough show featuring Jamie Dodd, what is your too early prediction for the Pacific Division standings next season? And for the teams outside the top three,

do you predict any get in on the wild card? So really quickly before I throw it to you, we'll recap. Last year was obviously the Canucks won the division. Edmonton finished second and got all the way to game seven of the Stanley Cup final. LA finished third.

Vegas finished fourth. Those were your playoff teams. Vegas was the wild card. Calgary fifth, Seattle sixth, Anaheim seventh, and San Jose was the worst team. In probably the last 20 years, they finished dead last. So if you were to, you know, I know it's important to do this on July 16th.

That's the time to do it. Yeah. How would you? Everyone's expecting it. Everyone's like waking up. Got to hear them talk about the Pacific Division today. Is it July 16th? Dancing around the fireplace.

The fireplace? Yeah, it's off, but it's still there uh how would you rank the teams in the pacific division as it stands right all right i gotta give edmonton first spot i think yeah look i get it i get it but they improved their team from where they were they were already really good i liked what they did in free agency i think they're going to be at the top of the division but i think vancouver is to be, I don't want to say right there necessarily, but I don't think there's a massive gap, at least in terms of regular season, what

you should expect. So I'll have Vancouver too. Vegas is fascinating because they didn't do a lot. They let some good guys get away from them this year. Now, they did make those, like they made the hurdle deal and they made the Hannafin deal at the deadline.

So we haven't had a ton of time to see the new version of the team anyways. But Vegas, this is probably the least imposing Vegas lineup, at least as things stand right now, that we've seen in a number of years. So I'll still put them third just because I don't think the rest of the division is all that impressive, to be honest. But I think the gap between edmonton and vancouver and what vegas does now the caveat there is it's vegas they'll probably find a way to like you know land nathan mckinnon or something right like they'll do something they'll do something to improve their team at some point sure but right now i think they're pretty comfortably in third then i'll go la who again i don't think had a good offseason.

Like, they don't intimidate me that much. Seattle. And then it's like the dregs. I guess I'll go Calgary, Anaheim, San Jose to wrap things up. So, I've got the same. I think Edmonton's the best team in the division. When Jamie said it, I muttered approval quietly under my breath because I didn't want to make it too... And meant a lot to me yeah that muttered approval i show

support in very very subtle ways uh i didn't want i don't want to oh edmonton like i know what that's gonna yeah i'll end up like more hated than luke gazdik in this market if i have but i mean that's hard but um i think they had a tremendous off season for a team that got as far as they did in the playoffs. If you put them up against the Florida Panthers and the body blows that Florida took roster-wise this offseason, Edmonton came out looking like champs, honestly. They didn't lose anyone of significance. I know there were departures, but I really don't think that like Ryan McLeod and Warren Fogle were going to be difference makers next year anyway. And when you're able to add the likes of Jeff Skinner, Victor Arvidsson, they got a little bit of depth on the blue line with

Connor Brown and they traded for Matthew Savoy, which I think is a really interesting deal because they didn't really they weren't flush with young prospects. And that's a guy that they can kind of, you know, bring along slowly and plug and play and see if something clicks. And if it doesn't, I mean, he's still sort of matriculating or whatever down in the American League or what have you. I just really liked the offseason that they had. And they've, the other part of it is that they got so close and had such a good run,

but they fell short. So that hunger is going to be there. I could see them coming out of the gates and being ready to kick ass at the beginning of the year. Yeah, I do wonder, though, also, if it's hard to prioritize the regular season as much. If they're looking at it as like, hey, we can coast, and we're still going to finish second to worst in the division. You know what I mean?

So I wonder if there's some of that playing with Edmonton as well. Well, you know what? I thought about that. My biggest concern there, from a Canucks perspective, is that they learned the lesson from last season. I walked right into your trap. You're like, oh, you think you thought of something new? Did you?

Oh, you thought of something. Hmm, interesting. It's a good point, though, because they did it last year. That's what got Jay Woodcroft fired. It was very obvious that they were working on structures and systems that were designed so they could use them in the playoffs, but they weren't doing enough of it with efficiency in the regular season. I do wonder if, because I actually think Chris Knobloch

did a really good job as their head coach coming in. Oh, yeah. I think he did a good job in the playoffs. For sure. He had the temperature of the team, the lineup tweaks that he made almost exclusively worked. And I wonder if he's going to be able to take that next step as an evolution as a coach and not just have the tactical part of it down, but have the motivation part of it down.

Cause that's what it's going to be at the beginning of the year. It's going to be really hard to get that team amped up and ready to go. I'll be very curious to see if he does it. I'm worried that they've got all the pieces in place to do that. Okay, so that's the Edmonton part of it. Vancouver's number two on the list. I mean, I like a lot of what the Canucks did in free agency. The boilerplate, real short notes on this would be,

I think their forward group is better than it was at the end of last season. And I know that there's some concern about the mobility and puck moving on the blue line, but I like the fact that they leaned into an identity. They knew what they wanted to accomplish. And while it might not be perfect and robust in terms of having all the different dynamics you want from a group,

I like that they're big and nasty and physical, and they've got that. And so I'll put the Canucks at two. I think Vegas is in line for a crater season. Ooh. Yeah, I think Vegas. You have them falling out of the top three? Yeah. Wow. I would not be surprised if they're fighting tooth and nail for a playoff spot at the end of it.

I don't think that you can have as many body blows as they took in the off season and just run it back. There was a couple interesting quotes from Kelly McCrimmon this summer where he said, we knew this was coming. We knew that inevitably all the checks that we were writing, they would eventually be cashed.

You can't just keep kicking the can down the road and putting guys on LTIR and operating over the cap as much as they did without eventually there being a squeeze. And this summer was the squeeze. So I don't think you can let your leading scorer and say what you will about being the face of a 7-year-old, 8-year-old franchise. But Marc Ch marshall was that and then he's gone just up and walked out the door uh chandler stevenson was their fourth leading scorer last year

and he left with no return they lost guys like amadio and carrie who were good for them and did a lot of things without having the spotlight on them and and honestly when guys got hurt or when they had to stash mark stone on ltr they relied on those guys to do good things for them and play good minutes like amadia was like samadhi was really good and like the mark stone thing's an important point because as much as everyone jokes like oh mark stone and ltir again it's like him missing games is actually a problem for them like they they were a wild card team last year right because in part because they were missing key guys. Like, Mark Stone's one of their best players.

If he's only playing 50 games with the decreased talent, like, you're right. That puts them potentially on the margin of a playoff spot. If I was to say, like, there's just a random NHL team. It's not Vegas. It's just Team X. Barely made the playoffs last year. Lost in the first round.

And then lost the amount of guys that they did. You'd be like, oh, they are going to be hard-pressed. And like one of their best players among the most injury-prone players in the league. It's like, oh, that's tough. And I mean, they got rid of Logan Thompson for nothing. It was essentially a giveaway. I know that they like Aiden Hill,

but Aiden Hill's had a hard time staying healthy over his time in Vegas. I just think that, and I would savor it, like it's going to be, the ironing will be delicious if this team that is always constantly going for it just completely craters this year. I'll love that. And then I think that LA will finish third in the division.

I don't like LA's summer. No, I don't at all. But at least that they did something. At least that they leaned into, like the guys that they brought on board, it's like Warren Fogle, Tanner Janot. I have really leaning into that identity, though, that their players are like openly like we don't like this identity. It's like, well, guys, guess what?

I got more of it coming. But it definitely works during the regular season because you get enough games against crappy teams. That's true. Going to choke them out. Right. You go to Columbus and you go to all the other teams in California. Like, look, we can beat these teams with this style. When they get into the playoffs, I think they're toast because they don't have the offensive capability to score enough.

I mean, I don't think that they can with the style that they play, but at least they know what they want to be. That's the strongest sort of advocacy I can give towards what they're doing is they know what they want to be and they leaned in. And you're right that in the regular season, I mean, as we saw with the Canucks this year, a strong identity can carry you a long way. If you get buy-'re right that in the regular season, I mean, as we saw with the Canucks this year, a strong identity can carry you a long way. If you get buy-in on that in the regular season.

I know we're up against it for time, but what the hell, we'll keep going. Who cares? I think Calgary's going to be awful this year. Yes. I think Calgary's going to be down bad. Calgary thinks Calgary's going to be awful this year. So I don't know if it's the right move.

They're high on Dustin Wolfe, correct, Laddie? They're very high on him. Everyone's high on him, yeah. Right. I would worry, because he will be the nominal starter. He might not get a lion's share of the stats, but he's going to be the number one guy. He's their guy.

Their blue line stinks. It's not good. And at this point, I don't know why you would keep Rasmus Anderson around for long. I don't know why you'd keep McKenzie Wieger around for long, to be honest. I wonder if the fire sale continues, and they're throwing a really young goalie

into the fire this season with a bad defense in front of them and a forward group that might not be all that motivated. It was Andre Kuzmenko and Jonathan Huberto. You know what I mean? I do wonder if that's going to be an issue. The only thing with Calgary is, and I know Drance hates their roster, and he's like, oh, they could be in the running for the first overall pick. I think they're going to be really bad.

They don't have a first overall pick roster, though. Like there's still as much as like their veterans have been disappointing. You look at the teams that like San Jose last year didn't have anywhere close to the talent that Calgary still has on its roster. So don't get me wrong. They're going to be really bad. They're not going to sniff

a playoff spot, but I also don't think they're going to be first overall pick bad, which is kind of a really terrible place to be. It's like when you're cruising for the seventh overall pick again or something like that. That's kind of where Calgary feels to me. I'm with you. There's too much.

I mean, too much high price talent to the traditionally be that we're bottoming out team. I just don't know if they're done the teardown yet. There's still time to move things. That's true. And so that's that's a wild card. I just don't know if they're done the teardown yet. There's still time to move things with this team. And so that's a wild card. As for the, I'm actually slightly intrigued by the basement this year

because I think San Jose climbs out and I think Anaheim moves in. I don't even know if Anaheim realized that July 1 came and went. I don't know what Pat Verbeek is doing, but they didn't do anything of note. They were like, we're pretty good with being this bad. And it feels like they're going to be just as bad this year. When your biggest off-season acquisition is Robbie Fabry and new uniforms. I don't know how much that's going to win over fans in Anaheim. So there's your Pacific division rundown on July 16th.

I hope you enjoyed it. Everybody way up against it for Tom. We're going to come back some other news and notes. We have two noteworthy coaching dismissals, removals, departures, however you enjoyed it, everybody. Way up against it for Tom. We're going to come back. Some other news and notes. We have two noteworthy coaching dismissals, removals, departures, however you want to frame it. We'll discuss those next on the Halford & Brough Show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650.

It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4-.m weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app 635 on a Tuesday. Big Band Tuesday here on the Halford & Brough Show.

On Sportsnet 650, Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service. Four parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier

metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. So off the top of the show, we talked about Teoscar Hernandez capturing the Home Run Derby. That wasn't the only big highlight from last night's

Home Run Derby. That wasn't the only big highlight from last night's Home Run Derby. I did not hear the national anthem yesterday. I saw it referenced on social media. I saw some cheap jokes being made at the expense of country music star Ingrid Andress. But I didn't hear it. I don't know whether this was a conscious decision or not, but I was like, you know what? I'll just hear it when we get in.

You're so lucky. It was an appointment viewing for you, the national anthem before the home run derby? Usually, usually I'm glued. I rushed to get to my TV. I was watching social media at the time. That's what it was like when it first started. It went from, why are they doing the national anthems

at the home run derby to, oh my God, what is going on with the national anthem at the Home Run Derby? So, as mentioned, country music star Ingrid Andress, a four-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter. So with the resume to be able to sing Star Spangled Banner, it didn't come off great. We'll play it now. We'll let you hear it.

We don't want the whole thing, do we? We'll just play a snippet. You know what, Laddie? I'll let you be in charge of how much. I'll play it now. We'll let you hear it. We don't want the whole thing, do we? We'll just play a snippet. You know what, Laddie? I'll let you be in charge of how much. I'll play a snippet. This was Ingrid Andress with the National Anthem at yesterday's Home Run Derby. For you, right here on Sportsnet 650. Great stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free And the home of the brave As the resident in-house musician, A-Dog. What the hell was that? She was like moving octaves like it was going out of style it was that was bad i mean yeah there was like six or seven different keys in there it was it was not good i don't know what was going on do you think she's gonna like release a statement today like i honestly you know what i mean like it it's that level where it's like we need an explanation yeah like i

have an interview issue my microphone wasn't working some way here i think she just hopes everyone forgets about it and moves on. We'll see, I guess. I mean, it wasn't quite the Roseanne anthem, but it was pretty bad. Because that one was purposely bad. Yes. Right? Like, that was like a performance art thing. This one was just not good. Yeah.

I mean, like, I know I've had performances where, like, my in-ear would fail, and if it's a really noisy room or auditorium or whatever you just can't hear anything and you'll be off key a little bit but I mean she was like by herself in a big stadium, no other instruments playing I don't know what was going on, maybe she was sick maybe she had a cold or something and the rocket

went black uh oh it was a memorable performance for all the wrong reasons. The best anthems always have uh-oh in the middle of them. I respect the fact that mid-anthem. Yeah, he was like, this is not going well. I'm in trouble here.

You know? The best part was he's like, I'll bring it home for you. Spoiler alert, he did not bring it home for anyone. I do like the one last night, though. It crossed the threshold where the players waiting were like, what's going on? And which, of course, like famously Draymond Green with Fergie at the NBA All-Star game where he's just kind of like zoned out prepping for the game. And then he's like, wait, what?

What's happening? Was there one guy like biting a towel? Because he just started to laugh. On the subject of the Home Run Derby and the All-Star game, we had a question come in a little while ago from John in Colwood. He wanted to know, are there any All-Star Games

that are better than no All-Star Games? That kind of got me thinking. I was like, hmm. Have we reached a point in society where the All-Star Game has just kind of become an antiquated idea and notion? I understand why it used to exist, right? Yeah.

Coverage league-wide, it used to be sort of narrow in scope and very tribal and very market-based. You didn't really have a lot of opportunities to see, hear, watch, read about stars from other markets, other leagues, right? There didn't used to be any crossover, ALNL. It used to be a totally different thing. You know, Brough always talks about seeing, I think it was Tony Tanti, represent the Canucks one year at the NHL All-Star Game

and how great it was to see a Vancouver Canuck up there with all of these big market teams. It feels like that notion is so far gone because, I mean, you can watch and follow any team that you want as closely as anybody possibly can with every platform and venue and website, whatever, you can cover everything, you can watch everyone.

It's not a surprise to see these players in action. You can follow everyone, which begs the question, what are we really doing with All-Star Games now? And in the case of the nhl they're like let's just get rid of it for a year i can tell you what they're doing it's become a corporate schmooze fest that's all it is it's a freebie for their sponsors it's the players you know just helping out by showing up and being there it's not really about the game and the

celebration it does feel like for it to even still have value as like a sponsor thing and all of that that there has to be some interest in the underlying product. They've forgotten that. You know what I mean? And that's the issue here. I get it. It's not for the hardcore fans. It's for the kids.

It's for the sponsors. I can see all that, but there still has to be a certain level of interest, of general interest in the game itself. And I actually don't think, I think relative to some of the other ones the nhl is not doing too poorly like the nba one is just a disaster now right like the pro bowl they don't even do a real pro it's more of a slam dunk competition they show up and they play flag football yeah they just do yeah it's nothing but there's an interesting uh spinoff here so you said like it's a corporate entity a corporate schmozler schmooze fest you brought up it's for the kids that's fine those premises can still exist you could put them around

a different event which is why um i think that this year for the nhl i think what they're doing is going to be a really good litmus test for the other leagues to see how this thing goes off if your league not a third party international governing body but if your league can put on an event of significance and importance in the middle of a season where people will pay attention to because you can apply a lot of what you guys were saying the corporate schmooze fast kids to something that is also an entertainment product and valuable, right? That's why I think this Four Nations thing is really going to be interesting because the NHL is trying to do something here that's not easy to do. It's pause your season, create a secondary event, make it matter,

and the key to all of this, which is tough in all of the All-Star games, is make the players care about it. Make the players show up and put on a show. Should have been Five Nations though. Chetia should have been there. Okay. Is this the latest hill you want to die on, A-Dog? It still bothers me. Is this riled up your

Czech heritage? I don't know why it bothers me so much. It just does. They should have been there too. Well, four is a nice round number. I know. They could have round-robined it or something. I can't call it Four Nations. Pretty sure. Yeah, that's true. I came up with the name first. Okay, which four countries are we going to invite?

We had the t-shirts printed. You could call it the Five Nations Cup. I mean, I understand. Okay, so while we can get into that. I know we've discussed it before. Obviously, the other countries they've left out, outside of Russia, of course, could not field a full NHL roster. Chechya can, so it's weird that they're

not there, but whatever. Well, the Czechs are disappointed by it. I know... They could very easily compete with Finland and probably Sweden in terms of rosters. After they won the World, Pasternak had some very direct shots at the NHL for not having them in it. This just seems weird. But regardless,

if this works, if this format works and it is as anticipated and it actually matches some of that anticipation, they're going to have, one, they're going to be sitting on a cash cow. Two, they're going to have the ability to expand the idea. And then three, I do wonder if a lot of other leagues are going to look at this and say, are we doing this wrong? Like, is there something that we can do?

And I don't know. I don't know what it would be. I know the NBA is trying with the in-season. Yeah. I wonder if that ultimately is, I don't want to say a full replacement, but because it's a neutral site thing, can you recreate some of that?

Hey, it's, you know, we pause our season and everyone gathers in one place and it's good for our sponsors, right? Can you, can you recreate some of that around an event that hopefully,

with the in-season tournament, they've called the NBA Cup now, I believe, that hopefully teams will actually care about and try? I wonder if that's where the NBA is headed down the road. I mean, the NBA, if you're talking about leagues that would possibly want to lean into their own international competition, I know the NBA would be very difficult for the NBA to do because there's not enough NBA players from countries outside of North America. But, I mean, if you look at what is it, the last six NBA MVPs

are all non-American based players, right? It was Giannis 1-2, Jokic 1-3, and Embiid 1-1. I mean, that is the sort of hallmark of a league that is growing globally that might want to try and do something. Hockey's got the biggest, or hockey has the easiest job here because it has such a diverse player pool among those four nations that they can do it. I mean, in the NBA, you could try, you know,

U.S. versus everyone else or something like that. But again, like, are the players going to take it seriously? Probably not, right? Because they have Olympic tournaments to go and do the international best on best thing. I don't know if a random game on February and Sunday, if you're like, hey, you're USA versus the world, I don't know if that's going to get the competitive juices flowing.

So back to the Four Nations face-off for a sec. Question for you first. Yeah. How seriously do you think the players are going to take it? I think pretty seriously. Maybe not quite Olympic level, but you're still putting on your country's jersey, and there just hasn't been best on best. It's going to be almost nine years by the time this one rolls around.

I think it's just hard not to take it a certain level of serious in those circumstances. Baked into the equation there is what you mentioned that that's been so starved for international competition that i do wonder manufactured tournament or not if the players are going to be amped for because they've been starved for it like conor mcdavid for example has had no um dawning of the maple leaf on that level to play against some of the other ones um the other one I think that's really interesting for this is that they're playing it. Now, we talked about midseason.

You need something midseason at break. The last World Cup, for all of its flaws with sort of fake teams and the way that it ended up in the final, that you didn't get that rivalry you so desperately wanted, was the fact that it was being played preseason. Yeah. And guys came in and used it as a training exercise to get ready for the regular

season there were a lot of anecdotes about the kind of shape and round was a shape for a couple of them of the how guys came into that and they weren't ready to play real hardcore aggressive in your face do or die not playoff style hockey but it like the level of one-off international competition having in february gives these guys 40-plus games of regular season NHL work, so they're going to be in form. And I think that's going to be a big part of it as well because this tournament, it needs to work. Yes.

There's a lot at stake for the National Hockey League and all the stakeholders involved with it because they've tried so many different things. They've got a real sort of pivot moment with the NHL and the NHLPA where they're on board with what they want to do in terms of international competition. They finally got an international calendar, which seemed like a bridge way too far for these two parties to get together

and come to an agreement on. And this is what the players have been asking for to a certain degree. So they're gonna have to show up in there on that front like this they're like well it's on you guys now if this matters show us that it matters and i think ultimately it's just it's kind of impossible to get team canada on the ice versus team usa and not have them try yeah like these are hyper competitive athletes international hockey looms so large in their imaginations it's such a big deal for both countries like even if they're going into the tournament thinking oh man this is kind of a drag

you know i'd rather be going to mexico with my family or whatever i think when they get on the ice and they see team usa on the other side like they're gonna there's the effort is going to be there it has to be yeah one guy makes a point though like well guys maybe hold back a bit because they don't want to get injured before the playoffs i mean this isn't the olympics so it doesn't mean the same part of this is going to be on the players and like and i think the nhl would be wise to say hey you take ownership of this as if it's going to be a serious event or not because what are the issues with the all-star game and why guys like kucherov showed up and just sort of loafed through it is they were being forced to be there. There was a punishment involved with the Indian.

I think he got suspended on either end of it, right? And so he's like, I'll show up, but I'm not going to invest anything because I don't care about this. The NHL would be very wise to be like, hey, you guys won an international competition. We put together a calendar. This is a sort of appetizer for the Olympics. Now, Kucherov's a bad example because russia is not participating in this but if this matters to you guys make it so show that it

matters and show up and put on a display for this four nations thing i think the other element there is the fact that it's going to be viewed probably as an audition for the olympic team right like okay hey i'm gonna i'm gonna put my maximum effort in because i want to be back on this team for the olympics in a year's time. And if I show up at this tournament, I'm going to have a better chance to do that. OK, a couple of quick news and notes that I want to pass along that we didn't get to from what happened off the top of the show. We don't usually do CFL front office and coaching news, but it was a pretty big shakeup in Edmonton yesterday. Chris Jones, who served in a dual role as the head coach and general manager of the Elks,

is out after an 0-5 start. Now, the 0-5 start comes with a caveat. They were all really close. They were trying really hard. As a matter of fact, the Elks have lost each of its last three games on walk-off, last-second field goals. So you could say that they were right there.

You could also say that they were 0-5. And given how much they've lost under Chris Jones, it was just time to get rid of them. I bring this up in part because of the dismissal, but also because some heavy BC Lions flavor to this one. The president that got rid of Chris Jones, former BC Lions president Rick LeLachere, and he is there with G. Roy Simon,

who now takes over as general manager and the former offensive coordinator who have many BC Lions fans. Remember, Jarius Jackson is now going to take over head coaching on an interim basis. So that's the news out of the CFL of the day. And speaking of managerial news, we talked yesterday at length, Jamie and I, a lot of uninterrupted footy talk. And part of it was around what was going to happen with the English national team and their head coach, their manager, Gareth Southgate. Well, this morning, overnight, I suppose, he announced that he was stepping down and resigning

as the manager of the English men's national team. After eight years, 102 matches in charge, one of the English men's national team. After eight years, 102 matches in charge, one of the most successful spells in English football history without any hardware to show for it. Yes, he did take the team to consecutive European finals. They lost both. And I do want to play the interview that I think a lot of people pointed to that said, oh, he's probably done at the end of this

because there was a very emotional response from Southgate after they had that dramatic victory over the Netherlands in the semifinal to advance to another final. It almost felt like going to the final, regardless of what happened in that final, was his final gift to England. With all the scrutiny that he faced and with all the criticisms lobbed

against him he was kind of like hey look I got this country to consecutive European finals that is a feat I know it won't be judged as such because it's England and you're very critical of me and I just want to play the very emotional what many are saying was kind of his farewell and what he thought about the job Gareth Southgate resigns as a manager of the English national team here was his emotional presser after beating the manager of the English national team. Here was his emotional presser after beating the Netherlands in the semi-final.

Yeah, I mean, we all want to be loved, right? So, when you're doing something for your country and you're a proud Englishman, when you don't feel that back and when all you read is criticism, it's hard.

So, yeah, to be able to celebrate a second final is very, very special. And, you know, especially with fans that travel, you know, our travelling support is amazing. The amount of money they spend to travel, the commitment to do that, to be able to give them nights like this and I think we have given them a few over the last six years from Russia onwards. It means a lot. If I hadn't been on the grass I would have been watching, celebrating like they were. So we're kindred spirits in many ways. But, of course, I'm the one that has to pick a team. And, yeah, so to be able to give them a night like tonight, very, very special.

The footy talk continues on the other side. Axel Schuster, Whitecaps CEO, is going to join us ahead of Wednesday's match at BC Place against Sporting Kansas City. It's 80s night at BC Place. We'll talk to Axel about that and a whole lot more coming up next on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.