Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Need More Straws

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they discuss which Canucks can be play drivers besides Quinn Hughes (11:30), they chat the latest around the struggling Blue Jays with the Toronto Star's Rob Longley (26:51), plus they get the listeners thoughts (40:10) on how the Canucks' coaching staff can create more offensive next season, and if there is a veteran leader they could bring in. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and bruv of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for net health with over 3,000 five star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-trustee.com We are in our one of the program our one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North Star metal recycling they recycle you get paid visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step

We got a big show ahead on a Wednesday guest list today begins at 630 Gonna talk a little blue Jays with Rob Longley baseball writer and columnist at the Toronto Sun Jason's got his Toronto blue Jays mug Oh things are blue. Oh, yeah It's obviously to celebrate the fact that the Jays have lost four or five after sweeping the Padres I couldn't find my regular mug Those losses also include two shutouts. That's a shutout mug everybody. Those of you watching on the stream including last night's two nothing lost to the

Rangers. We'll talk about Toronto's offensive ineptitude. That's fun. At 630 this morning with Rob. He'll be joining the program. Seven o'clock Frank Saravalli from Daily Face Off will be joining the show. Frank's top 20 trade board. It dropped yesterday. Two caducks in the top 20 that your dem goes on it. Alias Patterson's on it as well. Topping the list. Uh, at number one is Buffalo's JJ Paterka. So we can talk to Frank about all that other news and notes from around the national hockey league with our NHL insider from daily face off. That's at seven o'clock,

uh, seven 45 today. We're going to go, uh, With our NHL insider from daily face off. That's at seven o'clock 745 today we're gonna go talk a little NBA host and producer for the athletics NBA show and the Oklahoma City Podcast down to dunk Andrew Schlecht is gonna join the program Tonight at 530 our time the Thunder and Shay Gildes Alexander are looking to book their spot in the NBA finals. It would be their first trip back to the finals since 2012. And that was the famous big three team that featured Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. So we'll talk to Andrew Schlicht about all things Thunder, Shay Gildes Alexander. That's coming up at 7 45 today at eight o'clock. Greg Wyshinski is going to join the program. Our NHL insider from ESPN. The Oilers beat the Stars 4-1 last night to take a 3-1 series lead in the Western Conference Final.

Speaking of 3-1 leads, that's the lead Florida has over Carolina in the Eastern Conference Final with Game 5 going tonight in Raleigh. A reminder, you can hear that Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final right here on Sportsnet 650 after Canucks Central with Sat and Dan this evening. Before we get moving along here I need to tell you about the Sportsnet 650 Jays Care 50-50. It is now live. You could win half the jackpot and the other half supports Challenger Baseball, a program that helps kids of all abilities across BC thrive through sport. Tickets start at just $10 with bundles

for even more chances to win. Don't wait, you can get your tickets now. Listen closely, jayscaregolf.rafflenexus.com. Now, if that was too confusing, we're making it even easier on you. All you have to do, this is not a scam, text the word money, yes, money, to 650-650 right now and we will send you the link

so that you can buy 50-50 tickets, that's it. And then send a dog your credit card information. Right, and your social insurance number. You must be 19 years or older and live in BC to play. Let's make a big impact together. Again, text money to 650-650. Okay. That's everything that's happening on the program today. I've already said too much without further ado, 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 is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We got one step closer to a Stanley Cup rematch last night.

Leon Dreisaitl and the ageless wonder Corey Perry each had a goal and an assist. And the Oilers pushed the Stars to the brink of elimination a 4-1 winning game four of the Western Conference Finals. So we are now one win away each from an Edmonton Florida rematch in the Stanley Cup Final. So I'm telling you, it's concerning when the Oilers play like they did in the second and third period yesterday.

I thought the Stars came out pretty well, had some opportunities, couldn't finish or Stuart Skinner made some nice saves, but it was once the Oilers got that 2-1 lead, which was right after the Stars had finally scored a goal and it was a nice goal by Jason Robertson on the power play. The Oilers after that, they locked it down, man. And we've been seeing this Oilers team lock it down.

Scary. And that's something that, God, I don't know, they did it at times last year for sure. Remember how good their PK was? Sure. know, they did it at times last year for sure. Remember how good their PK was, but them being able to just totally keep the stars to the outside. It was funny. I know that the stars got some shots on goal

last night and that was, that's been tough for the Canucks at times. And I know that Skinner did play well in net, but we know as Canucks fans, what it looks like when you can't get to the middle of the ice with possession of the puck. The puck is constantly on the perimeter and it feels like time and space in the slot with the puck is something that other teams do. You know, it's just, the Oilers are playing well defensively and it kind of brings into, into the, the debate of like, does defense win championship or is it

offense? I mean, the answer is you need both. You need both, but I think oftentimes it starts with playing well defensively as a team and, uh, and Chris Nodlockloch, the coach, not the guy who looks like the coach, although that was incredible. Pretty good. Was saying afterwards, he's like, yeah, it's great when you're not just waiting for two guys to make

big plays for you. And once again, it wasn't McDavid or Dreisaitl that was the offense for the others. It was like Ryan Nugent Hopkins again. So the others, they've got McDavid and Dry Settle playing well for them. Stuart Skinner is playing well for them. They got other guys stepping up like Ryan Nugent Hopkins and they're playing a great team game.

The only thing they've got to worry about right now, well, there's two things. Number one, if they meet Florida in the finals, that's a good team. Yes. And number two, Hyman's hurt. Yeah, so he, okay, let's, we'll focus on that real quick. So Hyman sustained an undisclosed injury

for the Oilers last night. He left at 9.17 of the first period. He took his hit from Mason March, but it looked like his right shoulder. Left the game game did not return But all that did was pave the way for Corey Perry to step up and have this massive game He replaced Simon on the top line played a total of 1651 so nearly 17 minutes for a 40 year old guy Scores the game winning goal has an assist on dry sidles goal tremendous effort from Corey Perry as I earlier, the ageless wonder what Edmonton is doing at five on five,

I think is the important thing here. When you talk about defense, wins championships, there's a pretty easy pathway for all of these cliches, right? So one is you got to win at five on five. And the other one is that your power play, you can't rely on it in the postseason because you just don't get as many opportunities as you do during the regular season. The power play in this series outside of that burst that Dallas had in game one in the third period when they scored the three power play goals,

the special teams in this series have kind of been a non factor. This has been about Edmonton choking the life out of Dallas at events. Dallas has two goals over the last three games, and this is with getting a decent amount of shots at times. But if you look what Dallas did in the first period yesterday, where they got a bunch of shots on Skinner and didn't score, they weren't able to replicate that first period success. They have four shots in the third period yesterday.

Four shots in a game they were trailing going into the third period. They just couldn't get anything going. So what do you what do you think it is? Do you think the oilers are just playing really well? Or do you think the stars don't have the horses that maybe we thought they did? Okay. So this is an interesting conversation because, um, if you look at Dallas during the regular season, they had good offensive output in terms of collective team numbers.

And then you look at their team and they're like, yeah, they had three 30 goal scorers, right? Duchesne scored 30, Wyatt Johnson scored 30, Jason Robertson scored 30. They've got good depth forward. You like everything that they bring. We didn't even mention in that conversation, Rope Hints. And we didn't even mention the guy that picked up at the trade deadline in Miko Rantan.

So you love the depth forward. But when it comes time to these moments where you need something special out of a guy, it feels like everyone on that team is waiting for Rantanen. So you love the depth of forward. But when it comes time to these moments where you need something special out of a guy, it feels like everyone on that team is waiting for Rantanen. It feels like everyone else is just sort of a guy out there, like not pushing, not dictating. And it's very concerning because on the Edmonton side of things, you've got all these different individual players.

And we're not gonna talk about right now, McDavid and Dreisaitl, like you mentioned. Ryan Nugent Hopkins has been fantastic in this series, making plays left and right. Zach Hyman has been, and here's the interesting thing about Hyman, he made a physical imprint on this series when maybe the puck wasn't necessarily going in the net,

and then it started going in the net. I already mentioned Corey Perry. They've had different guys step up and just sort of take the moments and make something happen, being in a one-on-one situation or making something out of nothing. Whereas Dallas, I mean, who's doing that right now?

There's not a single guy that you can point to that's saying, wow, that guy's a real difference maker out there. I mean, I noticed Ranton in on the ice, but he's not scoring like he was at times. And he had a bunch of big games, obviously in the playoffs, but you're right. They look like just a bunch of guys.

You're kind of like, all right, who stands out here? So when people say defense wins championships, I don't necessarily disagree. I think that's where it always has to start, but great players can break down great defenses. Like Dallas is good defensively. That's what McDavid does with his speed and vision. The best Canuck at penetrating the middle of the ice while keeping possession with the

puck, and that's important because anyone can just skate to the middle of the ice. It's when you have the puck. You've got to get the puck to the middle of the ice. I can go to the middle of the ice. I mean, the best Canuck is Quinn Hughes. middle of the ice. It's when you have the puck. You got to get the puck to the middle of the ice. I can go to the middle of the ice. I mean, the best Canuck is Quinn Hughes. After Hughes, I'm not sure who's second. Like who's making things happen out there.

We've gone over this before. Yeah, Garland's not bad at it. He's a distant second to Quinn Hughes. And the issue with Garland is he doesn't have a great shot. De Brusk is good in front of the net. He's got really good, he's got amazing hands. But he's not the one making things happen out there. And I think with the Oilers, with McDavid and Dreisel

and maybe even Nudge, like you've got guys that they can make things happen. And it's just such a, I mean, it's such a elementary way to look at things, but sometimes you just need the individual brilliance. And right now I think the stars are waiting for that individual brilliance. Like they got a nice shot from Jason Robertson

and you could see after he scored that goal, the celebration, the relief. But like that was on the power play. So the stars did well to get him open and I think the Oilers got caught a little bit overloaded on one side and Robertson comes out into the middle of the ice. He actually has time and space and he rips a

perfect shot past Stuart Skinner. That's their only goal. Otherwise it looked impossible. And this is going to be, when we're talking about teams like the oilers and teams like the Florida Panthers, which is what the Canucks aspire to be coming, and you go back to other Canucks teams that were good. I mean, they're very good defensively, but they also have the game breakers up front. And so the challenge is going to be for both the coaching staff on the Canucks and the management to

go out and find those players. But like the coaching staff, my hope, and we were talking about this yesterday, cause they needed to bring in some more staff for Adam Foote. Sure. My hope is they bring in someone who has some new ideas because it's not like the Canucks, here's the thing, it's not like the Canucks under Rick Tocket

could never gain possession of the puck in the offensive zone. They actually set up quite often with the puck. A lot of the time they would dump it in, God forbid, they would dump it in, but they would gain possession of it. They just couldn't do anything with it once they got it. And that's why the whole thing of, Oh, back to the point again, came up.

Yeah. It's not like they were, again, it's not like they didn't have the pockets. It's like they were trapped on the outside. Like they were trying to break into a house with no windows or doors, which is hard to do. So many times they just settled for the point shot or hope for a tip and a rebound. I felt like that that's what the Stars were doing at the end of it. They're like, okay, it's on the outside. They were big time. You know, like, I don't know what to do here. And then we would get into the never-ending

argument about whose fault it is. Some people would say the coach, some people would say the players. I don't know, some people would blame us, but it's also going to be the big challenge for management to find players that can create scoring chances, either off the rush or in the zone at five on five or on the power play. And we can go on and on about how they had one of those players in JT Miller, but he's gone now and he's not coming back. Um, I enjoy the phrase, the straw that stirs the drink when it comes to hockey. Not everyone has to be a straw. You can be a valuable player, even if you're not

a straw. And I think Brock Besser was one of those or is one of those. And when he was playing well, he had a straw on his line and that was JT Miller. But right now the Canucks have what? One straw? One straw stirring the drink out there. Singular straw.

And the good thing is that he can play 28 minutes a night. But the bad thing is that there are no forwards. We're talking elite straws. Yeah, Reggie Jackson type straws. There's no elite straws, and they're gonna need some more straws. I mean, the interesting thing with the Kinox is like, this is a stretch a little bit, but.

Phoenix, Phoenix Texan, too many ice cubes out there. Yeah, they're melting the plastic straw, paper straw, just, they're withering it away. The interesting thing with the Kinox, and I know this is a bit of a stretch, but Philip Heidel is not a straw, but he has straw characteristics. Like the style that he wants to play,

there is that element of driving and creating in his game. Now the issue is that talent-wise and health-wise, he can't do it with enough regularity and effectiveness to be an elite level straw stirrer. I don't think he's a good puck distributor. Right, there's also that. But there's elements of his game that quite frankly lend itself to doing this,

this type of thing more. And to be honest, in a game like last night, you almost want people with Heedle's mentality and attacking mindset, even if they're not necessarily executing, just to push instead of what we saw last night and what we saw too many times from the Canucks this year, which was like the number one priority when you got in the offensive zone was to defer to somebody else.

You can't have five guys deferring to each other. It doesn't work, right? Now, normally it was four guys deferring to Quinn Hughes. But when he wasn't out there, it was five guys deferring to each other. And you get that sometimes, because when you're looking for a goal, oftentimes guys don't wanna be the guy.

They're thinking I'll be on self, like selflessness here, like unselfish, and I'll give the puck to someone else who might be in a better spot or opportunity. Maybe that's a naive way of thinking of it. Maybe it's fear that this whole thing is predicated on. But like a guy like Heedle, and I do wonder when you're talking about

you know, team identity and mentality and coaching philosophies, I do wonder if that comes from targeting the right kind of guys in terms of do they have an attacking mindset and attacking mentality? Because there are always gonna be guys in the NHL that their job is to play it safe and do things that aren't necessarily high risk, high reward.

Right. And the canucks had a lot of them at times on the ice last year. Right. There were a lot of play it safe guys. And now does some of that have to do with Rick talk and style? Absolutely. But at the same time, if you give talk it players like, for example, and just loose example, a guy like Heidel, it does open up the possibilities because you know, in a moment or two, that's a player that's going to try and drive the net, try and take a guy one-on-one. Take a guy one-on-one is a big thing, right? I mean, that's a big thing in the sense of,

you have to have the confidence to be able to go and do it, knowing that it might end poorly, i.e. you lose the battle, you get stripped of the puck, it's going the other way and you're caught in the offensive zone, those kind of things. But also, you have to have the confidence to know that if you do it and it doesn't work out, you kind of have to do it again. Because the part of this is like the continual pressure of attack, right? It's not a one off. It's not like, well, I tried it once and it didn't work. Like you have to be able to go after guys again and again and again. And that's the whole 1v1 It's not a one-off. It's not like, well, I tried it once and it didn't work.

You have to be able to go after guys again and again and again. That's the whole 1v1 battle mentality. It's not about just going on in one battle. It's putting the defenseman on notice like, hey, I'm going to be coming after you repeatedly tonight. I'm going to try and beat you. You know what David does brilliantly? Everything?

Well, yeah, but he takes on the defenseman one-on-one or one-on-two Well, yeah, but he, he takes on the defenseman one-on-one for one on two half the time, but then he's able to dish. Yeah. You know, it's remarkable. I actually think, you know, if there's one thing that Hughes could do more, it's find a way to dish the puck.

You know, when he, you know, when he starts skating downhill, I think too often times he just shot it. Sure. And like, people, you're actually criticizing Quinn Hughes? Just offering a different option for his game, that's all. I'm just saying that the, like, you know, and maybe- He doesn't trust his teammates.

Maybe he doesn't trust his teammates. Nobody's gonna score, I'm gonna do it myself. Honestly, honestly. Hey, there's that. Listen, I think it got to that point. Looks over at PDs like, no. I think it got to that point for Looks over at PDs like, no. I think it got to that point for Hughes. He was like, he was like, sure, I do it myself.

Right? And, but you know, that's what McDavid is lucky, he's lucky to have a dry saddle. You know, where he can dance into the offensive zone, and everyone's focused on him because it's like, wow, that guy's so good. And then Dry Cytle is just hanging out on the goal line. I know it wasn't a McDavid that fed Dry Cytle for

that one timer yesterday, it was Nuge, but having someone that you trust to feed the puck to is huge. And I don't think Queen Hughes, like think about the power play last year. Did he ever have that guy? This is a big thing in the world of international football, the soccer right now, is that because the tactics and the managerial acumen and the formations,

I mean it's so advanced now is that oftentimes the best way to break something down is to have that singular game breaker and then you're almost like let's just get him into space and let's see what happens. Yeah. I mean, you're seeing it at Barso with like LaMina Mall. Obviously, there's some high level guys like Vinny and killing and Boppe at Real. If you go down the list, like if you ever watched Man City, who had a terrible year this year, but there were often times where

when they were desperate to find a goal, it was like, just get it out wide to Doku and see if he can. See what he does. Just take a guy one on one because it's speed and it's the mindset of I'm gonna get the ball and I'm gonna go after a defender one v one. If it doesn't work out, I'm gonna get the ball again and do it again, because you do put a defender under constant pressure.

Yeah. It wears them out mentally, it fries you because you're like, oh, here we go again. And it's an interesting way to watch it because for all of these great tactics and drawing stuff up on the whiteboard, at the end of the day, it's like, let's get our best player in space with either the puck or the ball or whatever. And let's see what he can do, see if he can create. That's why I, Sean from New West, get, starting to worry me a little bit with all his texts in hating on Rick Tocket, but it's like,

Sean has never suggested something that a coach could actually do. Like what would you, so I'm going to throw it out to the listeners. Maybe you got some great ideas. Maybe there's a future assistant coach out there for Adam Foote's staff. Give me specifics on how the Canucks coaching staff can help the Canucks score goals this year.

Just text them in, text them in and don't be a specific isn't more controlled zone entries, right? Like you, okay, how? Because one of the reasons that the Kinect struggled with zone entries was they didn't have a lot of, well, in the first half of the season, it was they didn't have the puck movers on the back end. And then when they fixed that, they lost pretty much everything up front. And they didn't have enough speed through the neutral zone where you could reliably control the puck with speed because you need speed to get into the offensive zone with control of the puck. So text in with ideas or also just text in in general with like, do you think that a coach can truly impact a team's

offense other than just allowing the players to play with more risk? And maybe that's something that Rick Tauke should have done, but maybe he looked at the composition of his team and said, in fact, we know this is what he did because he told us. He looked at the composition of the team and said, this fact, we know this is what he did because he told us, he looked at the composition of the team and said, this is the best way for us to play and to win.

And if I were to say, all right guys, start cheating on exits or start, D-men everyone up the ice, right? Then I think we'd be in trouble. Because even if you send all your D-men up the ice, you? Then I think we'd be in trouble because even if you send all your DMN up the ice, like you still need to finish those plays and I just don't know if the Canucks had the horses up front to play that style. Okay, we got a lot more to get into on the Haliford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up on the other side of the break, Rob Longley,

baseball writer and columnist for the Jays of the Toronto Sun is going to join us. We'll spend a few minutes talking about the very erratic blue Jays. They're up, they're down, they're scoring runs. Now they're not scoring runs. We'll spend about 10 minutes talking to Rob about the Jays. We'll dive back in to this conversation about the Vancouver Canucks. And here's another one we wanted to throw out there for the listeners, dear listeners, as we ask you something, is there a veteran leader? You'd like the Canucks to target this

off season? We saw what Corey Perry, the 40 year old ageless wonder did last night for the Edmonton Oilers. We see what Brad Marshawn is doing for the Florida Panthers right now. Is there a veteran leader you'd like the Canucks to target this off season? Dunbar Lumber text line is 650 650. Get them in now. We'll read them throughout the show. But coming up next, a little Jay's talk with Rob Longley from the Toronto Sun here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews,

inside info, and even the post game show. Listen four to 6 PM weekdays, and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.31 on a Euro Dance Wednesday here on the Haliford & Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Haliford & Bruff of the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com Here comes the drop I've heard about this I'm excited to hear how it finishes That was underwhelming. A little bit. That drops suck. Befitting of the show We are in hour one of the. Our one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North

Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them. 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. You know, we were talking about the offensive struggles of the Dallas Stars in the first segment of the show. We will now turn our attention to the offensive struggles of the Toronto Blue Jays. Joining us now for a little Blue Jays talk, Rob Longley, the Toronto Sun, here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Rob. How are you? Good morning, guys.

I heard you say the word underwhelming. So I guess that was a good tease for this segment. Really, I was going to say it's a good tease for our show. It's a good tease for the Jays offense. What is it? Four runs through the first 45 innings of this current road trip that they're on. Rob, why is it so difficult for the Blue Jays

to score runs right now? I mean, I don't know. It's just, I mean, they're flawed. They're flaws all the way through. They're flaws in terms of the way they've built this lineup. They didn't have enough, they didn't add enough offense, I didn't think, in the winter,

but this is well beyond that. I mean, they've got guys that have been in the major leagues for a long time and have been productive in the major leagues for a long time, and they can't do anything. I mean, in this two-game series so far in Texas, they're one for 20 with runners in scoring position. Last night, they had runners on base in scoring position in four of the first six innings. And each of the first two innings they let off with doubles and they couldn't get guys around. I mean, it's just, I don't know if it's in the approach.

I don't know if opposing pitchers have found something that can easily beat these guys. But I mean, that seems too simplistic. I just, I mean, I think they're just collectively lost. And it's, it's, it's ma, it has to be maddening to be in that clubhouse and be a part of that. It has to be maddening to be a Blue Jays fan to see what's going on here. Because like you guys said, four runs in through the first five games of this road trip. That's, that's pretty miserable.

four runs in through the first five games of this road trip. That's, that's pretty miserable. So, uh, we're about a third of the way through the season. Um, at what point as a, as a baseball writer, do you, do you just go like, well, this is who they are. You know, you really have to start wondering if this, if that's the case now, that the problem with that, of course, is there's still more than 100 games left. We see it year after year, teams that turn it around and get hot for a stretch and basically reverse the tables.

The American League is pretty weak right now. This team is sort of one, 10, and five stretch away from being in a playoff position. Having said all that, we probably could have had this conversation at this point last year and said, when is this team going to turn it around and will they turn it around? And of course they didn't, you know, they went on to win 74 games and then finished last place in the American league. Um, which led to this off season of change that we were promised and that

the offense would be better. And, you know, yet here we are having a very similar conversation. I mean, it could change. You have to believe that Anthony Santander has to be better than he's been at some point. They brought him in to hit home runs. He's never going to hit for average. He never really has in his career. And yes, he's had a, had some injury issues that he's battled over the last couple of weeks. But, you know, I talked about guys looking lost at the plate and he would be prime in

that category thus far. You would expect Vlad Guerrero Jr. to be hitting for a little bit more power. At least he's getting on base a fair amount. You'd expect a little bit more from Beau Bichette at the top of the order. But you know really if you look at this team one to nine there isn't enough consistency in hitting top to bottom and and I think that's what when you reach a situation like they're at now where the top guys aren't producing then it's big trouble. I mean we had George Springer sort of carried this team through the first month and a half. And now he's regressed closer to the form

that he showed last year, the aging bat with not enough bat speed. So yeah, I mean, to answer your question, can they turn it around? Of course they can. There's more than a hundred games left, but you have to start wondering if this is what we see is what we get and that's a team that's Basically the definition of meter at mediocrity there at their best there are three games above 500 at their worst There are three games below 500 and that's the way they've been basically since day one Didn't they have like 20 seasons of that from after they won the World Series like that? I guess that's the concern for Jays fans because they did have that for so long. They went from 95 to like, I don't know, 2014, where

it was just like, yeah, they had some guys, they had some stars, Roger Clemens and Roy Halliday. But you know, it was the seasons got long because there was so much mediocrity. Now they did sign Ldy Guerrero and they locked him up long-term, but didn't, correct me if I'm wrong here, didn't it always feel like, okay, we'll sign Vladdy, we'll make sure that we

have certainty on that front and then we know we've still got some work to do here. Yeah, I think, I think that's fair. And I hadn't thought of it in that context, but yeah, what we've seen over the last two years certainly feels a lot like you know basically from the end of the 90s to the to 2015 you know there were so many bad seasons and so many seasons where we could have frankly been having this conversation at this point in the season. I guess where the difference is was you know 2021 did show so much promise. They just missed out on the

playoffs that year then they made it to following two years and of course exited in kind of horrific fashion both times but there was still the sense that you had that core. You had Vlad Guerrero and you had Bo Bichette and you had these young prospects everywhere and you had a decent pitching staff and you had made some additions and you were just rounding that corner into being a team that was going to be a perennial playoff team and, and maybe beyond that. And then 2024 happened and it's followed up again this year. And you know, it's very interesting to me that the fan support has still been pretty high.

I mean, they're, they're getting 25, 30, 35,000 people a night at the Roger center. And I, I really thought that it would drop off this year after what we saw last season. But at some point, when does, when does the fan base kind of hit the breaking point? Because, um, not only is the team not doing well, it's not much fun to watch a baseball team that, you know, tries to win two to one every night. And that, that almost feels on too many occasions that that's the best case. We're speaking of Rob Longley, Toronto Blue Jays, MLBB writer for the Toronto Sun here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. The manager, John Schneider, I believe he's the seventh longest tenured general manager

in the American League. He's been on the job since 2022, so it's not an overwhelmingly long time, but it's three years on the job, and he has climbed into the top 10 of longest tenured bench bosses. How much pressure is he under right now, given how inconsistent this team has been?

John Schneider, the manager of the champion Vancouver Canadiens team way back when? One and the same. Yes, one and the same. I don't know. It's, it's inter, it would be, it'll be interesting to see how they, how they handle that. And if there is a need for a scapegoat at some point, and then who decides on who the scapegoat is, will it be ownership and decide to make changes at the,

at the front office level, if it comes to that, or will it be the general manager looking to get rid of the manager? My sense is that you know Schneider hasn't lost the room by any means. He seems to be a fairly popular manager within the clubhouse. I think he's adapted and changed nicely over his time in the manager's chair. He's trying to become more of a player's manager in terms of listening to the leadership group in the clubhouse. And he really is, as is the way with so many managers these days, and especially in Toronto, he really is, operates at the hand of what the front office and what the baseball operations department wants. I mean, very much analytics driven, very much a lot of pre-planning game planning

decisions are made prior to the game. There's not a whole lot left for him to do. Um, now if it were to continue and they were to finish and if it were to go further south and they were to finish last place again this year, then I certainly think he would, he would be on the hot seat at that point. I don't think he is right now. I always remember a conversation that I had with Brian Burke when he was the GM with the

Maple Leafs here. And he said, one of the things that really frustrated him was that in the media, especially in the Toronto market, it seems that, that coaches and management get, get more of the criticism. Cause why don't people just criticize the players every once in a while? And I think, I think, I think there's a, there's a point to that. Maybe it's a long-winded point to get at, I suppose. But I think there's a point with that with this Blue Jays team right now.

And it circles back to our first topic in this conversation. And that's the offense. John Schneider's not in the batting box every night. It's these guys who just can't produce, they can't get runs across, they just can't generate any consistent offense and really that's what's holding this team back right now. What's it like to cover Vladdy on a day-to-day basis? Has anything changed since he signed his big contract? Is he still the same guy? Do you see any of the pressure on his face or his mannerisms? Is the big contract a weight on him at all? No, I don't think it is. I've known Vlad since 2018. I first met him and wrote about him when he was in AA in New

Hampshire. He was a kid then, he was a teenager. Since then, he's matured for sure. I think he's become a little bit more confident in his own skin. He's definitely more confident in speaking English. I think we've seen him become a more prominent voice in the clubhouse. Does he get frustrated at times? Sure he does. You know, when things aren't going well for him or the team, he wears it. And as a leader and as one of the best players and the highest paid player, he should wear it.

But I don't think the contract has changed him. I mean, you see his, he's for the most part, he's a happy-go-lucky guy. You know, he's one of these players that seems to be able to forget about a bad game and turn the page quickly to the next day, which in baseball you absolutely have to do because there's so many games and you basically play every day. But other than maturing, I think he's, and showing some signs of leadership, I think he's handled it all well. I think he's the same guy, maybe even a better version of the personality that, let's face it, has essentially grown up from a kid in Toronto to a young adult.

You mentioned how weak the American League is this year. You look at it and I think it's seven of the 15 teams are above 500 and one of them, Tampa Bay, is 27-27. So they're right on 500. So yeah, it's, you know, it's not a great sign when over half the teams are sub 500, but are you surprised at just how weak the AL East is this year? Like Baltimore might be the worst team in the league. I know they're not on record, but their run differential is so ugly.

They might be in that conversation, but the entire AL East is, I mean, it's really weak Rob. Yeah, it's a, it's a bit of a stunner. I mean, in fact, he could argue that before the season, if you were looking for a team to regress the most, it might, might be the Yankees were leading the division because of some of the pitching injuries that they had. But you know, the Yankees are certainly holding their own. A lot of that is because of the bat of Aaron judge, of course, but, um, you

know, the, the Orioles, my my goodness like who would have ever predicted that they would fall off that badly it was you know won the division two years ago and was many were figuring would be like a dominant force for years to come and they've already gotten rid of their manager they can't seem to get anybody out that stuff is terrible I would have thought that the Red Sox would have been battling the Yankees for the division and they're below 500. Tampa Bay, they had got off to a poor start. All they needed was to play six games actually against the Blue Jays over the last few weeks. They're one and five and that got them back up to 500. That's another thing about this road trip by the way. One and five against, they got swept by Tampa in Tampa. They could lose this series against Texas. And those are both teams that, you know, way too early to be talking about the wild card race, but are teams that could be in

that because they're all in that murky middle of all those teams that are in contention for a wild card spot. So yeah, but the back to the a Elise it's it's Confounding as as to the drop-off and you know many expected the Blue Jays to be much better than than they were It's not challenging for the division At least being a team that would be a front runner in the wild card race at this point Jays are back in action today against the Rangers looking to score a run. That'll be a start Rob Thanks a lot for doing this today We really appreciate it enjoy the game tonight the rest of the series and the rest of the road trip will do this again soon

Yeah, my pleasure guys. I think what the Jays must do tonight before they take the charter back to Toronto They've got to go out there and make sure they didn't leave anything on the bases because that's basically all that I never Okay, thanks Rob appreciate it buddy. All right, see you guys. See you later, Rob Longley from the Toronto Sun here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. A lot of people weighing in to the, we asked two questions in the opening segment of all of the Vancouver Canucks fans listening right now.

One was with regards to the team's offensive play style and strategy and things that Rick Tocke had employed last year, what they'd like to see different. And the other question was with regards to veteran leadership, perhaps bringing some in, is there a veteran leader you'd like to connect to target this off season?

A lot of people weighed in in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. Yeah, I'll read a few on the coaching styles and maybe you can handle the veteran players. Jay had a bunch of ideas. One of them I 1000% agree with, work more plays from below the goal line. If you can have the defenders facing towards

their net, might be able to sneak a player into the middle. Yeah. I mean, that has to happen. Now, in order to do that, you need to have the players that are able to control the puck along the wall. Yep.

And a lot of that is size and strength, body position, just guys that can hold up the puck behind the net, work it down low, and don't get busted by a defenseman because the defenseman, there's a lot of big defensemen in the league right now and their job is essentially to, to bust the cycle up. And if you don't have players with size or strength or just good puck protection skills, then that strategy isn't going to work. And I, you know, so much of this is on management

to talk to the coaching staff and be like, okay, how are we going to play? And that's why it's so important to have that alignment because if you want to play that way, all right, we're going to need to find some bigger guys, some stronger guys that can hold the puck up down low. Hannah texts in, it doesn't have to be to the degree

of the hurricanes, but I'd like to see the team get more comfortable just shooting to see if it generates something rather than waiting so long for a perfect shot that all the defenders have to do is eventually break up a pass. It felt like they were all too scared to be the one who caused a turnover off of a missed shot, but that's how their zone time usually ended anyways.

Yep, for sure. And I think Tauke was definitely not a volume shot guy. Nope. Like he, he was, he was a guy that saw volume shooting as kind of a waste and you know, he did want the guys to shoot the puck, but he didn't want it just for the sake of shooting.

He wanted traffic in front of the net. He wanted people in the middle of the ice. He wanted, you know, he didn't just want to just pepper shots on. That's a debate that a lot of people have. There was a time last year where Tauke really shifted his philosophy of post-game media availability to talk about the number of shot attempts that they were getting, and I think part of it was to almost illustrate, like, we get enough shot attempts. Remember, and then his de facto add-on to that

would always be, of course, we're having too many blocked and too many missing the target. Yeah. He said it all the time. And I would always kind of bristle when he said it, because the answer always seemed to be, well, we just have to figure out a way to make sure that they're on net,

not into the opposition shin pads or off. Gotta move your feet, gotta move your feet. And that's where it fell short for me as a coach, because it felt like it was putting a lot on the execution of the players, not literally executing them, but the players execution of the game plan. Whereas I thought that the Carolina model

for all of its flaws, and there are some flaws in it. I've mentioned this three or four times now when Taylor Hall sort of frustratingly just blurted out exactly what they wanna do. They usually try not to say specifically what they wanna do, because I don't think Carolina likes saying out loud, we don't necessarily shoot to score, but they don't.

Shooting is the first step in an evolution that leads to additional possession or pressure to draw a penalty and get on special teams. And it's a great idea and it's a cool philosophy, but as you've seen in these playoffs, it comes with limitations. They can't rally from a one goal deficit at times, it feels like, because their style of play

is so predicated on doing this one particular thing. If the Canucks, it's funny, the first one that was mentioned, Jay talked about being sub below the goal line and having more offense created from there. When we were talking about the national predators of years from before and their makeup and how it was very built around the strength of the blue line and there was just some sort of like

run of the mill average forwards. That Nashville Predators team did a lot of scoring from behind the goal line, specifically against the bank. I don't think that's exactly what Jay is saying. No, no, but in a very funny way. Yeah, yeah. A shot from beneath the goal line was just as good

as any other shot for that team because their forwards, the Leguans and the Joel Ward's and the Martin Eratz, they weren't elite level producers. So it was like, well, you may as well try that because it's as good as anything else. Al from Nelson texts in, Boudreaux took heat for allowing players to be creative, undeservedly so, in my opinion, a good coach leads according to using the players he has. Checkers and muckers, dump and chase, fast guys with speed, focus on offense. You pair these players with appropriate defenders. It goes on, but I think one thing that this coaching staff has an opportunity to do because it's new is to build up the players a little bit.

You just be like, hey, don't forget, you guys are pretty talented. And like we don't know what, here's the thing, we don't know what shackles really were on these players because it looked at times like there were shackles on them, but you've also got a coach that comes out and says like there aren't shackles, some of these guys just aren't shooting and they're not making plays and they're not moving these, they're not, they're not moving their feet. And like, I don't know what to do about that.

Right. They got to a point where, where Tauket was, was saying like, we just got to have the courage to shoot the puck. Right. Now, yeah, he was talking about one player specifically, but I don't want to make it all about that. There is an opportunity for this new coaching

staff to come in and be like, hey guys, you guys are good players, okay? Even if he has to lie, right? And give them a little more freedom. I think a lot of goals in the NHL these days are East West plays. I talk a lot about the play where Connor McDavid will do all his dancing and he'll come in and everyone will be mesmerized by him and then he'll

quickly dish it to dry sidle on the goal line for a one timer. Well, that's an East West play. That's actually what I'd like to see Hughes do more. I think he's going to be a little bit more mesmerized by him and then he'll quickly dish it to dry sidle on the goal line for a one timer. Well, that's an East West play. That's actually what I'd like to see Hughes do more of. You know, well, yeah, but get everyone looking at him. Right.

And then he, he, he dances into, uh, the middle of the ice and, or, you know, down the flanks or whatever. And then he, instead of shooting it, instead of just whipping it on net, find a player that's open and give him a pass. He has the ability to do that for sure and he does it sometimes. But then you're just like, okay, well you need a finisher.

Who's gonna be his finisher? Who's gonna be his dry side? The finisher's the big one right now. Well, I don't think it is necessarily. I really don't think it is necessarily. I really don't think it is. I don't see centers as the finishers. The need for a finisher is the big one right now. No, but they need centers that can distribute as well. I think they need both, man. Maybe that's the answer. You need guys that can go out there, um, make plays and then dish it off.

And then someone finishes it. Cause it's very, very glaringly obvious at times last year. I don't think if you just added a goal score that you're like, if he, if he's not able to make things happen out there by himself, I don't think it's going to change much. It'll change more goals. You're like, you'll score more goals. Look at what happened to Brock Besser. Yeah. What happened to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll change more goals. You'll score more goals. Not necessarily, man. You'll score more goals. Look at what happened to Brock Besser.

Look at what happened to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I know. He lost his. He lost JT Miller. He lost a straw. He lost JT Miller. You know? I think if you paired a guy that could make something

happen out there with a guy like Debrecht, Debrecht could finish. I cut you off again, I apologize. That's fine. We gotta go to break anyway. We got a lot more to get into on the Half off again, I apologize. That's fine. We gotta go to break anyway. We got a lot more to get into on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hour one is in the books, hour two is coming up.

We're gonna speak to Frank Ceravalli on the other side of the break. His top 20 trade targets board dropped yesterday. His two Vancouver Canucks on it. Thatcher Demko, Annelias Pedersen. And there's a very interesting Buffalo Sabre atop that list in JJ Baterka. So we'll talk to Frank about all that. And then at 7 45, we're going to talk a little NBA specifically,

the Zombie Sonics better known as the Oklahoma city thunder and their NBA MVP, a Canadian, Shea Gilders Alexander, Andrew Schlect is going to join the program, NBA podcaster for the athletic. He covers the Oklahoma city thunder. We'll talk to him about this team that is one game away from the NBA finals. That's all coming up in hour two of the program. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.