Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Jays Are Back...With A Vengeance!

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they chat a commanding ALCS game three win by the Blue Jays over the Mariners (3:00), plus they speak with Jean-François Poisson (25:51), director of the upcoming Netflix documentary "Who Killed the Montreal Expos?" 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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Rodriguez back, turning, it's gone. Glad Jr. launches a Soto shot. Make it a dozen for the Blue Jays on a three-run homer from all a hodge Even though we were down, we were able to grab some momentum. And this game is so much momentum-based. And so we didn't really look back after that.

So it was awesome. It's Krush. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Bradford, it is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Broth of the morning is brought to you by Sands and a associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. No more interest, much lower payments, and financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the

program. Big show ahead. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear and orthotics working together with you in Step. As I mentioned, I mentioned, we have a big show ahead on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Four guests today, we're going to go around the sports world. As a matter of fact, at 630, we're going to go to Quebec. Canadian filmmaker and the director of the new Netflix documentary Who Killed the Montreal

Expos, Jean-François Poisson, is going to join the program this morning at 630. The documentary is not out for public consumption yet. It drops on Tuesday, October 21st, so next Tuesday, already playing two. rave reviews, though. I was on one of my favorite websites, Roger Ebert.com this morning. Very strong reviews for who killed the Montreal Expos. So we're going to talk to the director

Jean-Francois-Poisin at 630 this morning. Was it the Butler? It was not the butler. Oh. It was Colonel Mustard in the study. With what? With what? It was a candlestick. It's always a candlestick. You never think it's going to be a candlestick. All right. Enough

clue references. Jean-Fresois-Bassan's going to join the show at 630 to talk about the new Netflix talk on the Montreal Expos. 7 o'clock, more baseball. Adnan Verk, MLB Network, is going to join the program. How about those Toronto Blue Jays? They routed the Seattle Mariners 13 to 4 last night, closing the Mariners lead to 1 in the ALCS.

No rest for either team. They're both back at it tonight. What a great Thursday night. More like a Thursday afternoon, too, of baseball. At 3 p.m.R time in the first game, the Dodgers host the Brewers up to nothing in their series after winning the first two in Milwaukee. then at 533 p.m.

It's game 4 between the Jays and the Mariners. Mad Max. Max Scherzer going to the bump for the Jays against Luis Castillo. This is the most fascinating part of the series so far for me as the Max Scherzer start. It's incredible theater. I have no idea what to expect.

He's a lock for the Hall of Fame, right? A lock, like three-time Cy Young winner, two-time World Series winner. Definitely in the running for the crazy Hall of Fame as well, crazy athlete hall of fame he's a he's nuts which i love yeah yeah but he's wired different he's built different as the kids they call him mad max for a reason he's always mad it's true and he has two different colored eyes it makes it just like look a little more

like crazy you know i don't understand how uh this this playoff baseball thing's starting to wear on me you guys why night after night your heart's just getting ripped out i don't know how people do this all the time like i'm glad i've been a jays fan that's why the jays don't go that often i know they're not i can't handle it we'll have How about when the Mariners opened that game pretty much with a two run, home run? It's like, well, good night. That's it. How many TVs went off you think?

There were a lot of Twitter receipts after the first ending of yesterday's game. I'll just put that out there. I'm glad I kept my thoughts private because I was like, oh my God, like, the Mariners are going to the World Series. I'm like, not so fast. I'm not ready to put that out into the ether. Okay, so that's the 7 o'clock at Amberg. MLB Network is going to join the program. 7.30 and 8, for those of you that say

this is a two Toronto-centric show and station, we're going all Seattle. 730 Brady Henderson's going to join the program. Our Seahawks insider from ESPN. On Monday night, yeah, Monday night football. The Seahawks returned to it. Seattle is going to host Houston with a chance to rack up another win and head into the buy

with a 5-and-2 record. Seahawks are three-point favorites on Monday night football. We'll talk to Brady about that, look back on Sundays. Last Sunday's big win. in Jacksonville. That's all coming up at 7.30 with our Seahawks Insider. And then at 8, I am very excited for this.

Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle is going to join the program. If you have not been paying attention, Softie is quite literally living and dying with the Mariners during this playoff run. He was actually at Team Mobile yesterday during the 13 to 4 blowout loss to the Jays. I'm going to read a smattering of his tweets to give you an idea of where he's at emotionally right now. here's one brutal just brutal here's another one so cook this thing and move on to tomorrow here's another one i am taking a walk around the stadium it's hard to breathe because the air has been

sucked out of the entire thing the man is having an emotional reaction to his baseball team i like when you can see how softy is like in the moment and then after the game he's like we all would have taken up 2-1 after 3. The odds of a sweep were slim. Shake this off and go get tomorrow. That's a cliche thing. I know, but he's just like, he's a guest actually in the hour three of our

show, so maybe don't call him cliche. Maybe, but maybe I'll bring up this tweet from Softie where he says, in my opinion, tonight is a must win for the Mariners. Show no mercy. Give them no quarter. Allow them no hope.

get a win, go to bed a game away, and then in all caps, finish them. David, the city worker, Texan, and that Mariners game felt like Game 3 Canucks in Boston in 2011. Well, what's funny, though, because I thought that game three with the Yankees and the Blue Jays felt a little bit like that. I know that was a best of five, but I was kind of like, oh, right? Like, it's just the momentum and who has the upper hand at any moment. Remember after that one, it was like, and the Jays have a bullpen game? game in game four. And then the bullpen game went incredible, which is why I'm looking forward to Max Scher because everyone's like, oh, this, I don't know, he hasn't pitched that

well down the stretch. He was even left off the roster. And now he's going to pitch this important game. Like, who knows what's that, what that is going to bring? It's been a fascinating postseason. We haven't even got through the rundown yet, have we? Well, we did because Softie's our last guest. So working in reverse on that guest list. Eight o'clock, Dave, Softie Mahler, 730, Brady Henderson, 7 o'clock, Adnan, Verk, 630, Jean-François-Poisin. I enjoy saying his name. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that?

What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools. resources and safety training, visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. There were a lot of offensive stars on Wednesday night, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer were two of the most prominent ones. They woke up Toronto's offense. Blue Jays hit five home runs yesterday to actually rebound from an early deficit, as we mentioned,

routing the Mariners 13 to 4 on Wednesday night. And again, as I mentioned, closing the gap to now just 2-1 in the ALCS. Not that you were going out on a limb or anything, congratulations on kind of nailing your one to watch who was Vladimir Guerrero he was far from the only star for the Blue Jays yesterday but he does

tend to lift his team when he is on and as we saw in games one and two when he isn't on it's kind of like oh if Vladdy's not hitting how can we it's almost unfair to the guy because when the bats are struggling he gets into the spotlight And then when the bats come alive, we all talk about him. There's a lot of other guys who got the business done last night.

Right? Addison Barger got off to Schneide, Dalton Varsho finally started hitting the ball. There were a lot of guys that did it. But let's be real here. When you pay a guy half a billion dollars, you're going to talk about him. And this has been a remarkable postseason run for the big fella. I mean, it has been between what he did in the Yankee series and then to come alive in a clutch moment yesterday. That's the big thing here is that everyone was like, well, you're not out of it until you're out of it.

but if you go down 03 in that series, you're cooked. So for Vlad to be able to do what he did, hit his fourth home run of the postseason. He is now tied with Jose Batista in 2015 for the most single postseason home runs in a single post season in Jay's history. I also saw a stat that compared him to the 2004 Carlos Beltran playoff run.

Well, I'm glad to mention that. It's like an all-time playoff run. It got him a huge contract with the Mets. And Vladie's apparently doing the similar thing. Second player in MLB history to have 13 hits, 10 RBI, 5 extra base hits and 4 home runs through 7 games. The only other player to do it. There it is. 04 Carlos

Beltrae. Which is legendary. Yep. Can I tell you what I thought was the funniest moment? Oh yeah, sure. I guess it's your radio show. Yeah. The funniest moment was when they were talking about George Kirby's incredible strikeout to walk ratio. And I'm like, maybe he

should consider like throwing a few more balls because he is getting hit hard. He is getting hit. George was pounding the strike zone. And the Blue Jays were pounding those pitches. Yeah, man. And maybe that was something to do with their approach at the plate.

Yeah. So we will ask, I'll save it for Softie because there were a lot of people that were vehemently complaining and opposed to Kirby going as long as he did in that game. I saw a lot of people saying he should have been out when it was 3-2. How did you let it get to 7 against? We'll leave that part of it because... Two shots to strip. right away center field.

He got beat up. He got beat up yesterday. Like that is the definition of getting hit hard. Like sometimes you're just a little bit unlucky. Man, what was the exit velocity of some of those? One of them was 700,000 miles an hour. 11 of the 18 hits were over 100 miles an hour.

Yeah. Like they. Yeah. Okay, so let's pivot. Is that on the night? Not just off Kirby. That was the whole night. They had 18 hits on the night.

Yeah. So let's pivot off that. If someone, if you're at home and you're like, well, what went? different for the Jays who couldn't muster anything hit-wise, especially after the third inning in games one and two in Toronto. What changed yesterday? I mean, if you want to look at the raw data on this, they were like, oh, I forgot to take our steroids. That's true. That was a big part of it, right? Truesh. It was such a bad mistake, guys. What a freaking boost. What a freaking boost. Those were. No, you know what they did yesterday? What a freaking boost. They started jumping on

pitches early and counts. Now, here's the thing. We'll extrapolate this a little bit. Throughout the course of the year, the Js have been lauded for their, the battlers approach at the plate, right? They like to work counts. They like to foul off pitches. They like to get, you know, pitchers going seven, eight, nine, ten pitches and an app bat. I like that way, by the way, that that's saying, is that a baseball saying? We're not batters. We're battlers. Yeah. I mean, it is. It wasn't like, that's like our, that's like we don't tackle. We a tackle. Print the shirt. we can get it done, right? That's, sorry, I'm interrupting you.

No, no, no, no, it's good. It's good because that is a good saying. Yesterday, however, they were kind of the opposite of that. 18 hits yesterday all came in the first three pitches of every app bat. So like Springer's done a really nice job of jumping on the first pitch. Never mind getting two or three pitches. They're just jumping on guys early. And I can't make it like, again, this is way too novice baseball to like try and suggest it this way.

But there is something to be said like you just change up your. approach. If the Mariners and their strategy is, well, we're going to start grooving stuff into the strike zone because these are patient batters. Well, also especially against Kirby? Yeah, who's a guy that hits the strike zone? You mentioned the, you know, strike out to walk ratio. If he's going to throw stuff in the zone, why wait, right? If you know he's going to deliver, jump on it early. And there's much more nuance to this than what I'm putting out there. Did they talk about it after the game? Yeah, they talked a lot about the fact that a lot of these hits came really early in that And I mean, they put up 18 hits yesterday.

Yeah. And when you go back, especially game two, if you go back and look at game two, they didn't get anything going, anything going past the third inning. Like I think they had one hit after the third inning in that 10-3 loss where they just couldn't muster much of anything. And I think it was the same approach. It was let's try and work these guys down. Let's try and extend this pen, whatever.

Now, they jumped on Kirby yesterday. That was the big difference in this game. another huge difference in this game was the Beebbs and I'll give Beaver a ton of credit for what he was able to do. He pulled a Bryce Miller. Yeah. He pulled a he did exactly what happened

the Bryce Miller who started the game one for Seattle gave up a first pitch home run to George Springer and kind of struggled also in that in that first inning and everyone was like oh the Jays are the Jays are going to

crush them in this game they've got all the momentum. They are, the Mariners are tired. And then, of course, the Mariners come back and win that game. Yes. Not only that game, but also game two. When Bieber gave up the first home run, it was like, this series is over, right? Like, it's, this, this, this, this.

I was very worried when this is, and it was J-Rodd too, right, of all the guys. Yeah, yeah. Rodriguez, there's been a beast in this series. You know what? I was actually even... We've seen so many good bounce backs from pitchers within the game. That's another of my coaching sayings.

Guys, I don't want you to learn how to lose, but I want you to learn how to be losing. That's an interesting one. Because everyone loses. What are you going to do in the aftermath of a loss? How are you going to respond? I don't think you understand it at all. I don't think you understood that saying whatsoever.

Oh. I don't want you to learn how to lose. lose. I want you to learn how to be losing. Like you're in a game. Things are not going well for you. Got it. You're losing the game. What are you going to do? What are you going to do when adversity hits? That goes for the individuals and that goes for the teams. That was hilarious how you're just like, don't understand that. I thought I got it. That's like half the kids when I say it. It was like it was the be losing part that threw me off. I'm like, be losing. Yeah, you're like, you are losing. I want you to learn how to. I want you. I want you.

you to learn how to be in that situation. And I think we've seen some awesome performances from individuals and teams, but specifically pitchers, in these playoffs. Like, even in a losing effort, like, you can be losing in a one-on-one

pitching battle, right? Remember Flaherty in game football? He was pitching for the Tigers, but he would fall behind three and one, almost like every year at bat and you're like, oh, this is the one for the Mariners. But, like, he just he was losing but he was comfortable

with being losing so Beaver was at yeah it doesn't make sense Bieber Bieber was at yesterday and I thought that so after Rodriguez hit the home run I was like okay that's a problem

and then Polanco followed up with a ground rule double where I was like I guess it's starting to cave in and of course it was the two guys that have given the Blue Jays fifth throughout this series the bottom of the second inning I think that entire game

might have changed and that was when Beaver got back up. Now remember, the J's in the top of the second also went down without a peep. Like, they did nothing in that inning. The Mariners come back up and I'm thinking like they're going to put the nail in the coffin right here. Now, I know it was the bottom of the order and everything.

Safi's going to love this. Right? Canzon, Robles, and Crawford all go down one, two, three. But Bieber gets them swinging as well. And like, I know the guys on the post game were saying, like, he discovered his splitter right then and there and they couldn't hit his splitter. And they couldn't hit. Sorry, it was a slider as well that he was delivering.

And I'm thinking like, okay, now you've got a little bit of momentum. And he looks like, there is something to be said for when guys go down swinging as opposed to going down looking. There's a little bit more of a vibe, especially when you're a pitcher. So he comes off the mound,

he's hooting and hollering. And I'm like, okay, a little bit of a spark. And then, of course, top of the third, Jays get right back in it. Huge performance from Beaver, though. Like, I thought that was, if this series is going to turn, and I'm still not totally convinced it's going to,

but if this series is going to, going to turn. You could look back to the bottom of the second in that game before the Jay's even put a run on the board. They're a huge potential turning point. You can see the Jay's fans be like early on. They were like, this is the guy. They go out and get at the deadline. And then at the end, there was like, that's the guy we went out and got at the deadline. And that's why. That's what they were saying. After that Rodriguez home run, he retired 17 of 19. Like he was really good after that. So that's the, we'll put a lid on the baseball for now because we're going to talk to Adnan Verk at 7 and Dave Softie Mahler from KJ Air Sports Radio in Seattle at 8.

So we got a lot more baseball talk to get into as well. We should probably mention the Vancouver Canucks, Jason, because the Vancouver Canucks have a fairly important game. Yeah, I know it's early in the season. Yeah, I know it's the first road game on this five-game road trip, but they're playing a very difficult Dallas team tonight. They traveled yesterday to Dallas to begin the five-game road trip. I guess the big quote-unquote news of yesterday was that Max Sasson had officially been called up for me.

H.L. Abbots ford. Yeah, and also Derek Forbort placed on IR Retroactive to October 11th, so he's probably out for the road trip. He's definitely out for the first three games of the road trip. Sometimes players join their teammates on the road. But that means Mancini is into the lineup with DPD. I don't know if they're going to call up another defenseman because by my math, they would have a roster spot open. My math is sometimes wrong, though. I thought Mancini and D.D. D.P.D. spent a lot of time in their own end against the blues, and there were a couple ships where the blues jumped on Mancini, but look, a lot of their teammates spent a lot of

time in their own end, so maybe they can bounce back. How will the Canucks line up tonight? Adam Foote suggested that it could be Cain, Pee, and Garland, which is a line that I'm kind of like, yeah, why not? At this point, why not? Because Garland can go get the and he can make some passes and Kane and Pedersen even if they're not moving as well as we'd like to see them, they've still got a good shot. So maybe it's one of those lines

where I'm like, all right, girls, you go do the work and give us the glory. We'll see if that works out. The second line, Adam Foote also suggested this heedel between Debrusk and Besser. So the six guys in the top six, I imagine would just stay the same guys in the top six, which begs the question,

how does that leave the bottom six? Now that Coots has been sent down, we spend so much time on the bottom six, like the, or sorry, on the top six, like talking about Pedersen and how to get him going and whatever. The bottom six has been, I wouldn't say equally problematic, but problematic. I mean, the Coots, Lechromackie drew a Connor line against the Blues was, it was a black hole. Yep. Now, you're going to keep Ratu, Baines, and Sherwood together because that was the best line against the blues, right? That was, I think you keep them together.

And if you want to bring Sherwood into the occasional top six, you know, shift, you can do that. So does Max Sasson just replace Coots on a line with O'Connor and Lechromackie? And then you've still got a line where you're like, oh, I don't know. Like, I like Sasson, but Sasson, Lecker-Macky, and Drew O'Connor, are you going to have to hide that line a little bit? Or does Linus Carlson get a sniff soon? You can reunite the Abbey line. You could, but then you'd have to bring Baines out of the top six,

which you might, I'm not like, like, how dare they? I know, I know he's played fine. He's played fine. like he's been the least of their concerns but maybe you consider that the other thing and i don't think this is going to happen but i know the guys on uh on the on the station yesterday we're talking about it's like you know if you look at the right winger you're kind of like well you're not taking bessor out you're not taking garland out you're not taking sherwood out if you're going to put linas carlson in as a right winger would you consider taking lecker

or macchi out yeah which i don't think is going to happen because they need goals and also I don't want to see the Dunbar-Lumber text line if Adam Foote takes out Lecker-Macky. No, like that's the thing. Everyone's already clamoring him for beyond Power Play 1 or moved up into the top six, like get a guy that has offensive talent. But this is one of those things where

like an old school coach would be like, actually we're sitting the kid. There's so many different permutations right now. And a lot of it is born from the fact that the forward groups just haven't looked all that effective through the first three games. Again, you've seen the two guys that you could say were standouts were Sherwood and Garland. That leaves a lot of forwards that are either treading water or have their heads below it. And that leads to all of these different ideas about what you want to do with your forward group, right?

So we will find out not too long from now, as a matter of fact, the Canucks are going to skate this morning at 11.30 central. That's 9.30 R time at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. And then they're going to have pregame media availability. So around 10, 30, 11 o'clock this morning, you'll get a better sense of who's going to be in. and what the lines might look like for the game tonight against Dallas. There are some interesting results from the NHL last night. Stick around with us for a bit. We'll discuss them after we speak with our next guest.

He is the director of a documentary you can watch on Netflix in about five days called Who Killed the Montreal Expos? And it's just the story of the Expos leaving Quebec. and the director's name is Jean-Francois-François-en. How do you like that? Poisson? It was really good. And we're going to talk to him coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Before we go to break, I do need to remind you that this segment of the show is brought to you by your BC Lions. It's another season of hard hits, heated rivalries and non-stop entertainment. For tickets, visit BCLions.com and get ready to roar as one. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with it. Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. Potential winning run at third base.

14th inning 1-1-1-1-0. Swung on it. Deep to left field. Way back. It is a grand slam home run. My size the woman has won the game for the Montreal next boat with a grand slam home run in the 14th inning. They actually like thrash metal in Quebec.

Oh, yeah. They love it. Yeah, they love it there. I've played it many times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Been all over Quebec. Hasn't Metallica played the Big O a few times? Yeah, I want to say, definitely.

Yeah. Metal and Quebec goes hand in hand. Metal and motocross. And Moises a little. They love it. They love it. The three M's, Quebec. You are listening to the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650.

Halford and Brother of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can get your debt by up to 80% with no up front fees. To learn how, visit Sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. We're at the midway point of hour one. Jean-Françoisin, the director of the new Netflix documentary, who killed the Montreal Expos, is going to join us in just a moment here, the highlight of hour one.

Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. As we mentioned, our next guest is a Canadian filmmaker. He is the director of the new Netflix documentary Who Killed the Montreal Exposed.

It is available for public consumption next Tuesday, Tuesday, October 21st. But we get to talk to him now. Jean-Francois-Poisin joins us here now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Jean-Francois. How are you? Hey, I'm good.

I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. So I read it and that's for my broken English. I'm mostly French, too. You speak English better than both of us combined, as far as I can tell so far. So, yeah, we're not great at it, but we are very excited for this documentary

because you were a big Expos fan back in the day, Jason. I was a big Expos fan back in the day. Andres Gola Rago was my guy, the big cat. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I love Tim Raines. Yeah, it was, and, you know, the question that hanging out there, who killed the Montreal Expos,

when I thought about it. I'm like, it's really interesting because I've never thought an awful lot about it. But before we go too far down the road, the Genesis, the origin story of this project, tell us about why you decided to make this film. Well, you know, the expo's topic here in Montreal is really hot. We still, fans are still talking about it a lot.

And we still could feel all those weird emotions there. I could feel anger. I can feel a lot of sadness. a bit of shame and a bit of betrayal. This is a big one. And I think those emotions maybe are coming from an answered question. There's something incomplete. It's not an unresolved.

It's not a crime. So it's not an unresolved crime. But I think it's maybe an unresolved grief. It's interesting. Sorry. Sorry. We wanted to do it. Yeah, we wanted to do this movie because there's this thing that is not.

completely gone. So we wanted to give new point of views to the fans around the world in Montreal, in Canada, just to maybe add some fuels to the discussion. You mentioned the word shame there, which is interesting because, like, you didn't own the team, and the people of Quebec didn't really own the team. But how much of this story is about the city of Montreal, the province of Quebec, in the identity of the city and the province? Oh, it's a lot.

It's a lot of it because it, the expos were, everybody's talking about it. The expos were special. There was a special atmosphere. And it became, I think, I think over the years, we put in this, in this team some of our Canadian values, Quebec values, sense of community. were something special, a sense of partying.

So everyone talks about it like it was magical. And when, and it's all about identity because at one point, it's a story about a clash between two culture, really. So was there one thing that killed the Montreal Expos or was it a culmination of things? Of course, it's a combination of things. one person would be easy but it's not the case and I know you know it it's more complex than that it's it's a whole saga not for nothing it's really there's a lot of things that happened in that story and there are a lot of point of views a lot of point

of view everyone depending where they were on what level they were of the team as a different view on this story so so I it's it's obviously they're obviously more than one person. So I went to an Expos game once. I had a friend who went to McGill and I flew out there one spring and Montreal in the spring is a magical place and I got to get back soon. But we went out to the Big O and this was, God, this would have been mid-90s. So the Expos only had a few years left.

And I went to the Big O and there was a, About 8,000 people in the stands, and I looked around and I said, this stadium is terrible. There's nobody here. So I guess when they moved, I wasn't all that surprised because I was like, well, maybe this isn't a baseball city. Maybe they don't really like the expos as much as they did back in the, you know, in the early 90s, in the 80s when I would watch them. what happened at the end of the expo's tenure? Was there almost a sense of resignation in the city because the attendants did drop pretty low?

Yes, I think so. I think so. It's a good question why people and fans didn't show up at the end. But I think that maybe, because there's a Canadian-Moreal here and when they don't do good, people show up and it works. But I think the Expos, since the strike, every media, we stopped talking about baseball, and every media was only talking about the business decision, the bad decision. It was never about baseball, and I think people and fans started to get sick of it.

and they can do anything. They're powerless, so the only thing they can do to show that their disagreement is to buy or not a ticket. But that doesn't mean for me that they didn't want baseball here. But, you know, that was so sad. But I wouldn't blame the fan for not showing up because this was so, it was so much weird decision. and the media was, oh, it was crazy, this whole saga. So I would blame the fan, but for sure it was really sad at the end. There was nobody.

And it was a big stadium, cavernous stadium. Yeah, it was a dusty. It smells so dusty in it. I was telling the listeners, I think it was last week, about clacking. Did you remember that at all? Like, clacking was when the fans would, like, put the, seats up and down to make a sound? And I'm like, that's not the sign of a healthy franchise when one of the ways that you make noise is by clacking the empty seats. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know. It's pretty, it's pretty cubic. I think they do it for the Canadian. I don't know. But maybe it was the angriness. I don't know. I don't know. Who was, who did you enjoy interviewing most for this documentary? Oh yeah, you would be surprised, but David Sampson was my guy. so fun. Now, who was that? Remind us who that was. Yes, David Sampson was the stepson of Jeffrey Loria, who bought a share of the team after Claude Rochue, the president was gone. It was a kind of a consortium, a group of an investor, and Jeffrey Loria came and just bought the major part and became the president of the team, so he owned basically the team with some other guys from Quebec. And David Sampson was like his vice president. He was on the field. He was speaking

to the media. And he has a, can I say cocky on your radio? A cocky way to talk. And here in Quebec, confident people with strong opinions, talking like that. We're not used to that. So people, we're more consensual in our decisions. And people didn't like that. And, and And so he became like the devil here. But, you know, it's an entertainer. You know the game. We went in the Ampton to interview him. And he was, he agreed to answer all of my questions.

And it was fun because it was kind of a ping pong game. Fun fact about David Sampson. He was on Survivor. Yes, I know. And he lost. I think he was the first one off. He went away the first one. Yeah.

He looked around and everyone was wearing. Expo's jerseys and he was like, oh, I'm not going to win this. No, no, no, no, no, I know. I know. He's feel sad about it. We're speaking to John Freswa-Poisin here on the Halford of Rough Show on Sportsnet 650. He is the director of Who Killed the Montreal Expo's new Netflix documentary, which goes live for public consumption next Tuesday, October 21st. Jean-Fresois, I've watched a lot of the sports documentaries that deal with fan bases

and cities that have lost their team, like the Baltimore Colts won, the 30-for-30. When they left Baltimore, there was the Brooklyn. Dodgers one as well. There's always challenges that go along with that. My question for you is, what was the biggest challenge you faced in making this particular documentary and how did you overcome it?

Oh my God. The biggest challenges was to find the right balance between all those versions of the story because everyone is not telling it. Everyone is pointing to the other one, you know? It's like, ooh played ooh. So I wanted to find the right balance. And I wanted it, and I'm proud of it

because I wanted to be fair for everyone. You have to corroborate, fact-check, everything that people say, because there is a lot of things that have been said, and there are some things that are just not really relevant. I couldn't corroborate it, so I can put it in the movie. But I think it's fair for everyone, and I think there's a part in it that we just don't blame the others, and I wanted for the Quebec people to just own their part of,

this failure and watch ourselves in the mirror so maybe if it's coming back or if we face something like that again we could just learn from our mistakes. The film is available

as mentioned next Tuesday October 21st on Netflix it's Who Killed the Montreal Expos. Jean-François, thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. It's a very cool project. Very happy that you were able to do it. And best of luck with everything moving forward.

Thank you. I hope you will like it. Thanks. We will. I'm sure. That's John Francoisant, the director of Who Killed the Montreal Expos here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.

I wonder, I should have asked this. I wonder if they interviewed UPI. They did. I'm not joking. Still silent. It was 45 minutes of the documentary, though. He's hiding something. Yeah.

UPS is in, I saw Larry Walker, Vladimir Guerrero, Moises Alou, were the street prominent. Pedro is there. It's not my dog, Pedro, Pedro Martinez. And then the, right, and then the actual, he didn't interview as UPI just to spoil that part of the film. I know, I'm sorry, I ruined it for everyone. He broke the immersion? Yeah, he's illegal.

Well, no, I don't think UPy exists as an entity anymore. Yes, he does. He's the Montreal Canadiens. Come on. No, no, but this guy's not. It's not hit, like, it's a different UPy. You probably got to get younger a little bit. Do you?

I think they needed to put up. The guy that plays UPy. So they interviewed the guy who was UPee. Jean-Simon Bibo is his name. Did they like blur his face and garble his voice? That's what I'm saying is once I think you hand over the suit. No, I don't think you should be allowed to speak. Well, but he's not Yupi anymore.

There's a new, I'm assuming, the Montreal, I don't know who it is for the Canadian. And he's like, I don't know who Yupi was. Right. You take it to the grave. But. protection after leaving the Yupi costume? Yeah. He is in the film. I know that. Okay. If you want to check it out, Tuesday, October 21st on Netflix.

Okay. It's when it comes available for public consumption. What was the most interesting result from the NHL last night? We're not going to talk about Detroit beating Florida. There was four games, and I think three were pretty interesting. Yeah. Buffalo. They started slow.

I'm going to go through the games, and then you pick. Okay. Buffalo, they had a slow start, but ended up beating the sense. senators eight to four greener after the game was saying all the right things but i saw him on the bench during the games and i don't think he was saying the same things on the bench that he said after the game because he after the game he was pretty positive there was another uh eight put up and it was by chicago eight three over st louis jimmy snugger would must have been hurt or something because he couldn't carry the blues

against the Blackhawks. This game was in St. Louis. So I think St. Louis correct me if I'm wrong here. They've had two home games this year. One they got smoked by Minnesota 5-0 and the other, they might have had another one. I don't know, but they lost

8-3 to Chicago. So for two reasons that doesn't really bode well for Vancouver because the Canucks play in Dallas tonight and then they play Chicago tomorrow so maybe Chicago has improved a little bit. But also it doesn't bode well because St. Louis got, this wasn't like just a goaltending thing. I mean, Joel Hoford wasn't very good last night.

But Chicago outshot the Blues for most of the game. I don't know if the Blues caught up, but they, like, they dominated St. Louis. And that's a St. Louis team that came in and dominated the Canucks very recently. So that was the second game. Third game, Utah, the mammoth, first of all, they unveiled a mascot. his name is Tusckey. Yes. Retired elephant,

Tusky. Utah beat the Calgary Flames by a score of three to one. And that dropped the Flames record to 1, 4, and O. And I think we might have been pretty bang on about the flames in that like you can do one year

of, hey, let's prove everyone wrong. But if you come back the next year and you're kind of like the same team and some guys, you know what you know if we're going to be around, Rasmus Anderson, for long. You're kind of like, I don't really want to do this again. Like, it was hard and we didn't even make the playoffs last year. So the question was what was the most surprising?

Interesting. What, yeah, Chicago beating St. Louis and St. Louis A3, for sure. So St. Louis last night, that was a largely on the, they had two goalie pulls last night. Hofer started. Yeah. He got lit up a little bit, four goals on 14 shots. He gets pulled. Yeah.

Bennington comes in, only gives them six saves and relief, then back out for the the third period. Joel Hofer's back in now. The old flip-flop, I love it. Monty had some very subtle, like he wasn't super, like, heavy-handed with it, but some subtle remarks about like we need to be able to win five, four

games. That was one of his lines, kind of suggesting like maybe our goalie tandem isn't going to be as lights out as it has been, like, because it was good last year. It was a big reason why they made the playoffs. He also talked about that there was going to be more, they were going to get closer to a 50-50 split in St. Louis, but to your earlier

point, they've been outscored. 13 to 3 at home this year. Two games at home, but 5-0 and 8-3. So 2-5-goal losses at home to start the season is very bizarre, considering on their brief Western road swing, they were patting themselves on the back coming out of Calgary in Vancouver with 5-2 and 4-2 victories.

And they looked pretty good, I thought, against the Canucks on Monday night. I didn't watch a ton of the Calgary game over the weekend, but they took care of business. It granted against a pretty weak Calgary team. That does allow me to pick up. pivot to that other game, which you mentioned. I thought this wasn't necessarily the most surprising.

I actually threw down a wager on this one when I heard that Devin Cooley was getting the start for Calgary and Nett. And good on. He was pretty good, though. He was good. He was good. He actually was the only reason they were in the game because they were getting outshot 29 to 8 at one point in that game. Wolf hasn't been good this year.

No, no one in Calgary's been good. So Calgary, as you mentioned, are 1-4-0. They've given up 19 goals through five games. They've got a minus-9 goal differential. So I watch them pretty closely Just because I think they're They're going to be intriguing now Until you realize that they're bad

And they're kind of a forgettable team And then you're not going to pay attention to them They still do all the things That made them successful last year Yeah Like when they're not going Somebody fights Yesterday it was Klappka

The game before that it was Lomberg And they get a spark And they come out when they're down And they put up a good fight They just don't have The talent or the goal score of the guys with the finish in front of the net. Like, they actually played really well in the third beard against Utah yesterday.

Probably deserved a goal out of it. But when you look at the- Well, it's disappointing as he's been. They also miss Huberto. Yeah. And then when you look at the box score at the end of the night, you're like, well, they really didn't generate a lot of shots. They were going to need more out of Yigor, Sharon Govich.

I mean, you look at that lineup, and they rely on a lot of plugs to do the business on a nightly basis. And those guys try, and they try super hard. Like, you can never fault their effort, but it's a league where, And we can maybe even pivot back to the Canucks here. Like, you need talent to win. It's, you know, you talked about the blueprint of being successful hockey. Wait, really?

You need a competent one. Well, yeah, you can't grind your way. You have to have guys that can score. Well, here's the thing. You need a good top six and a good bottom six. Here's a thing, though. We have, we have seen, we have seen, we have seen. We have seen away without a one C.

Is that okay? Well, we have seen teams in the past kind of grind their way to like a playoff spot. Yeah, and I know what you mean. Yeah. Like, I would say that in Nashville team. that Vancouver beat two years ago was not offensively prolific. They had a couple guys that could put the puck in the net, but they got there because they worked hard and they grinded

and they got their way into the playoffs. Calgary almost did it last year, right? Calgary's in the Eastern Conference last year with 94 points. They're a playoff team, and they do not have a lot of offensive talent. But I do think that after a while, you can only go so far with grit and grind and like, let's fight and fire up the boys, fire up the fellas. Like, over time, it takes a lot of effort to do that, and the results won't always be there.

You know, to be fair to that Nashville team that the Canucks played, they had a guy that had 94 points on that team. Yeah, they had a way. Foresburg's way better than Calgary. Anybody Calgary has. He had 48 goals that season. They've got a pretty good defenseman in Roman Yosey.

You know, they also had Ryan O'Reilly down the middle. Oh, it was a good team. Like, yeah, yeah, but I, right, I just think, I'm not saying you portrayed it this way, but it wasn't like talentless. And I think it only adds to your point that, like, you need some guys going at a very, and multiple, actually, you need multiple guys going at a very high level. And don't forget, they also had UC Saros.

Yep. And he played well throughout. The other thing was, I mean, I don't want to belabor this point much. But that, that team was, I think that team was really unique. And I think it's a reason that they fell off last year is they just, they punched above their weight class when they got into the playoffs. I think they tried to, I think they changed their identity. Does that not still, does that question not still? hang out there.

What are the Canucks? How would you describe their style of play? Like Calgary last year, Calgary last year, I think you did a good job of that. You're just like, yeah, they muck it up. And they keep, I say they keep games close,

you know, and maybe they find a way in some of them, right? Didn't completely, they didn't make the playoffs, but they punched above their white to steal another phrase of yours. So what are the Canucks What are what do the Canucks do well?

I have no idea right now They're their goaltending's very Are they Queen Hughes? Their goal ten? No, they're goaltending They're goaltending? Are they Hughes and Demco? Is that their team?

We have been erroneous by the way And saying that their best players Over the course of the first three games We're Sherwood and Garland Because we had we should put You should be putting Demco in there Yeah, and he'll start tonight Yeah

And he gives you a shot to win games That quite frankly you don't deserve to win How often he can do that Is a great you know it's going to be a great question moving forward because you would assume that if this team is going to be anywhere close to the playoff chase he's going to have to be lights out

and a vesna caliber guy that's supposed to be their identity I think is building from the backout and strength on the back out but I wouldn't say that it's been on display through the first three games I mean I know that they don't think Hughes has been his normal self

I think again it's kind of down the list on things to watch tonight but if it's DPD and Mancini on a pair. If I'm Dallas looking at that team, I'm like, I'm going to pick on that pair. I'm going to try and forecheck the heck out of them. Yeah. And see

if those young guys can handle the pressure. Yeah. And when you go, just to go back to the identity part, I think it's valid to say that you don't know what their identity is right now. Are they a fast team? Are they a tough team? Are they a hardworking team? Now, to play the other side,

to sort of play the other side of this here, I think there's a lot of teams in the NHL right now early days that haven't shown exactly what they're going to be. I mean, you look around the NHL right now, and the Canucks are far from the only team that's kind of floundered to start the season. We briefly mentioned Ottawa there. Like, if I'm in Ottawa right now, there is at least one red flag about what it looks like right now, because they're bleeding goals like crazy.

They're going to be without Kachuk for an extended period of time. And if there's always that one team that has a breakout season and makes the playoffs, and then regresses. It's almost like it happened a little too soon. I thought it might happen to Montreal. I thought it might happen to Montreal, too. Montreal has been great to start the season. And Ottawa has not.

Giving up eight goals to a sad sack buffalo team is not good. They host Seattle tonight. And that might be kind of one to keep your eye on because Seattle's not off to a terrible start to the season. All right, what do we got coming up next? Back to the baseball talk. Yeah, but before we do that, I need to remind you that it is a Canucks game date.

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Panago's dad was very disappointed. Joe Panago. That's not how we raised you. You're listening to Halen is coming up next. Talk a little baseball on the Halford Embrough Show, which might be canceled pretty soon on Sportsnet, 650.