Halford & Brough in the Morning - Whitecaps, Golf Claps, and Stick Taps

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

In Hour One, Mike Halford and Jason Brough discuss the Canucks being officially eliminated from playoff contention last night, and the Vancouver Whitecaps massive win (draw?) over Pumas FC to advance to the Semi-Finals of the CONCACAF Cup. A heated debate breaks out when discussing whether or not Lionel Messi will show up to Vancouver. Then, Adam Stanley joins to preview the Masters at Augusta. Who are the favourites, and what the storylines are heading into golfs biggest tournament. 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-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Scores! Connor Goscet! Emma Ducks come all the way back! Left circle cross, that's Capri-Supp! Scores! What a play! What a shot! Centering pass, Matthew Scores! Nice, gets a beautiful goal both pass for the Hat-Trek and the Leafs with it in overtime! Good morning Vancouver, 6 601 on a Thursday! Happy Thursday everybody, it is Halford in his breath

it is Sportsnet 650, we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios, a beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Regular Zach, good morning to you. Good morning. And Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford in breath of the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first and trusted choice

for that help with over 3,000 5-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Big show on a Thursday, lots to get into. I'm

excited because in the first half hour of this program, first hour of this program, we're going to Augusta, Jason. Guest list today begins at 630. Adam Stanley, Sportsnet Golf Analyst is going to join us live from the Masters at Augusta I'm very excited Mike we're is off to a good start He's for time for fourth on the leaderboard after one hole. Oh good. He went even he's even he's even good for him That's tough hole too. I like his chances. Yeah, and get the even get through number one that Augusta It actually has a tough hole, but many people say if you get through number one at Augusta. It actually is a tough hole, but many people say if you get through number one at Augusta,

you've still got 17 left. It's just a classic Augusta line, classic golf analysis. Adam Stanley's gonna join us at 6.30 for all that, live from the Masters. Seven o'clock, Adnan Virk is gonna join us, MLB Network. Yeah, we're doing golf, yeah, we're doing baseball. Don't look now, laddie. But guess who is eight and five and atop the ALE standings thanks to a three game win streak. I don't want to jinx it but it's the

Toronto Blue Jays. Let's go. Yeah they're just playing against the Red Sox though. They're going to be bottom of the division right? Was it Bruins Day at Fenway yesterday? I was watching the game and there are all these guys wearing these like half Red Sox, half Bruins jerseys. And I was like, those look terrible. I think it was Bruins. It's a matter of fact. They love their Bruins hacky.

It was Bruins night. It was Bruins night. Yeah. Celebrating those losers. And then they lost. The Red Sox lost. Yeah, how befitting. You know the Red Sox are like,

the Bruins are still good, right? All right, let's have Bruins night. Fire it up. So that's gonna be at seven o'clock. Ed Nanverk is gonna join us. Eight o'clock, Thomas Drantz, yes, the Drantz are from the Athletic in Vancouver. The Canucks playoff life officially ended last night

thanks to, you heard it in the intro, the Minnesota Wild with a very low scoring eight-seven overtime victory against the San Jose Sharks last night in Minnesota. I guess getting Joel Erickson-Eck and Kirill Kaprizov back really did make the difference. Do the Sharks just go out there and just have fun? Play shinny?

Yep, they're just out there to have a good time. Score some goals. It's kind of entertaining, actually. You let some in, whatever. It doesn't matter. We laugh, we cry. A little bit of everything. You know Flurry last night was like, yeah, It's kind of entertaining actually. You let some in, whatever. It doesn't matter. We laugh, we cry. A little bit of everything. You know Flurry last night was like,

yeah, these whippersnappers. He couldn't believe it. Yeah. They would not stop scoring, except in overtime, when they did. But anyway, so eight, seven, the wild win. That means the Vancouver Canucks are done. Let the autopsy begin.

We've also got some very interesting quotes, not from a Thomas Drance piece cuz not a list. No, it's from Ian McIntyre who got an interview with Quinn Hughes on the road in which Quinn Hughes professed his love and admiration for

head coach Rick Tuckett. Some quotes and comments that were making the rounds on social media yesterday. So, we'll dive into that in the first segment as well but to wrap it up and work in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock it's Thomas Drantz, seven o'clock it's Adnan Virk,

six thirty it's Adam Stanley. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. This is how this is going to work. We're going to run through everything that actually happened last night in a classic what happened style. Then we'll pick up in the back half of this segment, we'll talk some more in depth Canucks stuff. But there is a lot of scores and stuff that we want to get to from last night. So we're gonna begin with the game

as it pertained to the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks are now officially eliminated from playoff life thanks to an eight seven win for the Minnesota Wild over the San Jose Sharks. Let's hear what it sounded like in overtime. Now we're gonna do a little fun thing audio wise this morning because there were so many big emotion, don't air quote fun.

It is fun. Oh, you caught that. It is fun. Yeah, don't do that when I'm not looking at you, Greg. We're gonna do, we're gonna have some fun. We're gonna do a fun thing here. We're gonna have some fun because I said it was fun. We're gonna play.

Aren't we all having fun now that the connection has been officially eliminated? Are we having fun yet? It's time to connection been officially eliminated? Are we having fun? It's time to have some fun everyone. Are we having fun yet? We're gonna play the winning and losing audio from the overtime games yesterday and as Zach astutely pointed out, you need to hear the winner first to appreciate how sad the loser sounds. So, we're gonna begin with Minnesota. Here is the

Minnesota Wild Call, Karil Kaprizov eliminating the Vancouver Connex from their playoff lives. 8-7 win in So, we're gonna begin with Minnesota. Here is the Minnesota Wild Call. Corrella Kaprizov eliminating the Vancouver Connex from their playoff lives. Eight seven win in overtime. Here's what it sounded like. Capriza darts in. Left it back to Corrello. Left

circle. Cross eyes. Capriza scores! What a play! What a shot! And Correal! Capriv wins it in overtime! What does it sound like from the losing side of things, laddie? Dan Ruzdowsky on the call, 7 goals not enough for the Sharks. Let's hear it. Kaprizov gets the drop at the red line. He moves in with speed right down the middle.

Across the line, little drop pass. Sukharev has got it back to Kaprizov and he scores. So Kirill Kaprizov gets the game winner in overtime to make it eight to seven, the final in favor of Minnesota. So you just heard the Canucks getting officially eliminated twice on the Alfred and Brough show this morning. What a way to start. Once from the Minnesota perspective and once from the San Jose perspective. That was a wild game last night.

There were a bunch of wild games and some entertaining games last night in the NHL. There was no way that sharks wild game was going to the shootout. Like it was definitely being decided in the three on three. Um, should we talk just a little bit about the Canucks or do you want to go through some other scores? Yeah, let's rip through the rest of these real quick. So we got Calgary desperately needing the Minnesota Wild to drop points.

They didn't do that. And Calgary dropped one itself. After blowing the lead in regulation, they then went to overtime with the Anaheim Ducks and it was Cutter Goche putting a knife into Calgary's playoff chances. Here's what it sounded like from the Anaheim side of things. Cutter-Goche in overtime, 4-3 win for the Ducks over the Calgary Flames.

Perhaps the saddest of all the calls coming up. Calgary, that was a real problem for them not getting those two points last night. Here's what a four, three loss sounds like when you're desperate for playoff points. And now Carlson will pick it up and race up the right-wing side into the flame zone. Carlson drops it, Goche shoots it and scores. That's a tough one.

Finally, a wild game, a bunch of crazy games last night. Leafs-Bolts from Tampa Bay. The Matthew Nyes show ended, and we heard the call in overtime, of course, courtesy of Joe Bowen. Ends it in overtime, 4-3 win, huge win for the Leafs as they try and stay atop the Atlantic division. Here's what the winning goal sounded like. Morgan Riley finds Nyes with one man back.

Reilly jumping into the rush. Knives to Reilly! Good save made by Vasilevsky. Centering pass, Matthews scores! Knives gets a beautiful goal-mount pass for the Hat Trick! And the Leafs win it at overtime! Very quiet, very understated.

Well, not necessarily as big of a dagger as the Calgary Flames received. San Bay Lightning, upset to be on the losing end of this one. Here's what it sounded like from the losers in overtime. Busy night in the NHL last night. Bolts lose 4-3. And now Knives, two on one for the Leafs. Knives on the right wing. Across the blind, Knives right circle for Riley.

Left circle shot. Save Azalevski. Riley again. A feed in front, Matthews for Knives. He scores! A two on oh as the Lightning couldn't get the puck. Shot, save Asileski, Riley again. A feed in front, Matthews for Knives, he scores. A two on oh, it's the Lightning couldn't get the puck. A hat trick for Knives, he wins the game for Toronto.

So let this be a lesson, we have two young aspiring broadcasters working the show right now. Both laddy and regular Zach. That is young? Well, youngish. Youngish, okay. You're not older than you. Yeah, that's true, you are younger than us.

So is everyone now, because Bruff's almost 50. But, you guys are both aspiring play-by-play, and you're currently working at your craft, honing it. Let this be a lesson to you. Bring the same level of energy and enthusiasm to every goal, no matter if it's for the team you're working for.

No, I disagree. Yeah, show the emotion that you have, I think. If you're sad, be sad. If you're a home broadcaster, you gotta have the, you know Steve Rable for the Seahawks. I'm familiar with his work. When the Seahawks score, you know it's the Seahawks that scored.

When it's the other team, it's like touchdown raiders. Fine, be a homer. That's the other option, is to be a homer that's the other option is the homer yeah depends is it a national broadcast are you talking here well isn't that what you aspire to i always do national broadcast you're gonna have no tape for national broadcasters okay keep going the way that you're going you guys you guys no no you guys had your fun with the play-by-plays and everything but listen we got some things to focus on i'm not done yet the connects have been done yet we gotta mention the done yet. We gotta mention the Whitecaps before we move on.

Okay, yeah, I was just gonna say, the Canucks have been officially eliminated, and we need to talk about the Vancouver Whitecaps, because they got a massive win last night. No, they didn't. They got a massive draw last night. Wow. People that don't follow, I'm sorry, it's funny,

because someone asked me, they're like, so the Whitecaps beat the Mexican team twice, I'm like, nope, they tied them twice That was they scored more goals on the road Somehow this contest still has this away goals were and then the people that know something about football like with that They got rid of the away goals were all like they did most places just not in Conca calf So the whitecaps after drawing Pumas from Liga MX 1-1 at home last week, went down to Mexico and got another draw,

2-2 last night, but that was enough to push them through to the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Cup because as Jason mentioned, away goals matter. So even though it was 3-3 on aggregate, the Whitecaps had two away goals, two Pumas's one, therefore they get to go through. It was actually a very dramatic, dramatic end because Pumas scored late.

I think he scored in the 88th minute to take the lead on aggregate. Do we have the Pumas call of any of the goals? No, but we do have the one soccer call of. Oh, you have to find the Pumas call. No, you don't. No, you don't. No bueno.

Yeah, that was it. We just got it. That was the Coles Notes versions. It was no bueno for Pumas. Pumas, no bueno. Tristan Blackman, the center back in the 92nd minute, two minutes into added injury time. Whitecaps two-two draw, sees them through,

and we'll talk about their opponent in the semifinals on the other side of the audio. Header from White, collected by Ocampo, kept in play, and it's smashed in! Can you believe Tristan Blackman, Campo, Captain Pooley and it's smashed in! Can you believe Tristan Blackman with one of the biggest goals in club history for Vancouver Whitecaps? Wild finish. So I'm watching the match and we got a group of guys that

go to Whitecaps games quite often, there was about six of us on the thread. And we'd kind of prepared to close this chapter. Much like the Canucks season, we were ready to close this chapter on CONCACAF Cup. We're like, you know what? Whitecaps had a good run, but they went down to Mexico and they got beat by a very tricky team and they're not gonna make it through.

And that's okay. They're playing a lot of games. They're really tired. They got a ton of injuries, they're playing 18 and 19 year old guys in the match, like it's time to end it. And then Blackman scored and we're like, yes, let's go. Now we get Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in the semifinals. Why were you guys so willing to give up so easily?

We weren't, we were just trying to come to grips with the fact, I thought it was done. When it was two one and Puma scored, then I'm like, they're done. But all they needed was one goal. That's the crazy thing. That is kind of the entertaining thing about the away home goals rule, whatever you want to call it.

A game can turn either win or loss on one goal. In a 2-2 draw. But it's not really the same as sudden death. No. Because one team doesn't need to score. No. It's a very, very unique situation that the White Caps found themselves in.

And it was just like one goal, it wasn't like a tie or anything. They were like, now we're tied. It's like, now we're ahead. Given the circumstances last night, that was as close to a golden goal that you're gonna get in football. Because when Blackman scored, I was like,

oh my God, it's done. Yeah, yeah. There was no time left. There was like maybe 30 to 60 seconds left in injury time. And Pumas knew it too. They all collapsed to the ground and everything. Anyway, in case you missed the bookend of that thing is that the Whitecaps now face Lionel Messi and Inter Miami

in the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Cup. Okay, is there a date set for this yet? It will be played either the 23rd or 24th of April. Technically the window allows the game to be played from the 22nd to 24th, but there's an issue, shockingly, there's an issue at BC Place on the 22nd. There's an ACDC concert.

Oh yeah, that's a big concert. Yeah. So I, they are going to announce this apparently at some point during our show this morning, officially, but it sounds as though, um, that the first leg will be played in Vancouver either on the 23rd or 24th. The 23rd is a Wednesday. People are kind of suggesting that might be the night. None of this is official yet. So is he going to come this time? We don't know. No, come on. What do you want me to say, dude? What do you want me to say? I'm not arguing with you. I'll tell you exactly. It's the semi-finals of a, I don't know,

for MLS, a fairly big tournament. Yeah, sort of. Can you imagine? I can. Can you imagine, just for a second, that Miami plays two games in Vancouver, everyone's excited about Messi for both, and he doesn't show up for,

like he'll show up for this one, right? Like he'd have to, come on, get on the plane. what do you want me to say last time i'm not getting mad at you i'm just getting i'm not getting mad at you i gotta get mad at someone i mean this show has been all over the map since you planned it we're playing calgary's goal scoring and and you know the big story whatever wait to pay attention bruh so yeah well i checked out i wanted to get to the meat of it i wanted to get to like what was going on here with the white cap. So they're playing this game. Can you imagine if they have Messi come to Vancouver, like his team twice and he doesn't

show up? Like I feel like he's going to play in this one. Doesn't he have to? No, I'm telling you, I'm just semi-finals of the CONCACAF cup. I'm just telling you, I am very hopeful, but if you look at their schedule, it does line up a lot like the last time he missed the game because of fatigue.

Okay, so the Whitecaps and Miami need to get on the same page now. They do, they can't have a repeat. They cannot have a repeat of what happened. That was one of the- You can't make the guys show up. That was, no, no, no, but you can communicate to the ticket buying fans. You can give, you have to, I know it's not like, well, we're going to keep our lineup secret. Just, you know, it's a competition. We don't owe you anything. Like this does seem know it's a competition we don't owe you anything like this does seem like

it's a unique situation where the white caps have to call up inter-miami and frankly there has to be pressure put on the white caps to call up inter-miami and then put the pressure on Miami to say either yes or no and if they say well we're not going to tell you well then it's on inter-miami because on Inter Miami because I think the main issue last time this happened was that the White Caps, whether they meant to or not, screwed their own fans because they raised season ticket prices and everyone was like, oh, their season ticket base was pretty good last year. I was like, yeah, there was a reason for that. And then they raised the ticket prices for the Miami game. The thing was sold out and not only did Messi not show up and a couple of the other stars from Miami didn't get on the plane. Miami kicked their butts. That was

not good. Like it was a disaster. So they cannot have this happen again. So here's what I'll say. He appeared in both legs of the CONCACAF Cup quarterfinal win over LAFC. So in terms of travel and compacted schedule, he made both legs, including the away leg at LAFC, right, where they had to fly across the country. Maybe not as long of a flight to Vancouver, but still, you're traveling from the far reaches

of the East Coast to the West Coast. And he played in both. The tournament matters to some people in the sense that it is a spot in the club world cup, if you win the whole thing. And there's no doubt that they would want to win the competition. I am trying to be as hopeful that he will show up while also being realistic with the past history that is, I mean, I don't know what to tell you. I know exactly what you're saying, but you know exactly what I'm saying. I mean, I just think that if there's anything the Whitecaps

can do and that includes going public with this and and like putting pressure on which is kind of a funny thing to do. It's like we want to win this game, but he's bringing the best players bring the best player arguably the greatest player in history So many people say because our fans one want to see him like okay here Here's an here's an honest question for you. Yeah from a white caps perspective. Yes. Yes go What do you think they would rather have? Messy play in this game at BC Place or win the

tournament? Oh man, that's a tough one. That's a real tough one, dude. You're but don't like the okay. The competition would be you want to win a tournament. You want to win a tournament. You want to win a tournament but it would be tight. It would be awfully tight because there's a huge opportunity to have it twice. There's have it happen twice. There's a huge opportunity to win the tournament. There's a huge opportunity. To have it twice. To have it happen twice. There's a huge opportunity. Even if you win the tournament.

There's a huge opportunity to right the previous wrong here. Huge opportunity. I am going to be cautiously optimistic that Inter Miami will embrace the competitive spirit of this tournament and say, we're bringing our best team to both legs. We're not gonna send half our team to Vancouver like we did last time and we got a result so there's proof in the pudding that we can

do it. We're gonna go and send our entire team to Vancouver and then have them come back in the second leg and beat them like true champions. That's the spirit that they should have. I'm just afraid that they might not. By the way you got some audio laddie? Let's hear it. Ivo van Kouaver, the center of the field, there he is! Goal! Goal by Blackmon! Goal! Goal! Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo That was the Pumas. That was the Pumas call. It was a sad lengthy goal. He's like I hate this bit.

I thought that might have been like the the I don't know just the national call. Was the ESPN Centro America? Yeah, so that's not but that's not their home team. He's sound pretty sad. I'm not sure I don't know. He sounds sad. He was saying goal for like, it was, he was sounding kind of excited. Listen to the first one. Like he kind of trails off at the end. Okay, let's hear it. Ah! That doesn't sound like a happy guy. That's not a happy guy.

That's not a happy guy. No, I don't know, I don't know. Okay, whatever. Whatever. Great. Great bit though. It was a good bit. It was a good bit. I wanna read this text from Eastwood.

Sure. In New West. I've been a white cap season ticket holder for 12 years and I can say with full confidence that I want Messi to play over winning the tournament if I had to pick. The fan base needs this one and deserves it. Sure.

I have time, it's a great question by you. Great question posed by you. I got time for all of it. This is I don't want to say wildly unexpected, but I did not. And when we saw the Conquer Cubs draw come out months ago, they were like, hey, look, there's another chance to play Miami if you get to the semifinals of this tournament. And that seemed like a real long shot because you saw the road and how many

different very good Mexican teams that the Whitecaps were going to have to come up against. And quite honestly at the beginning of the year with the amount of injuries that they had that's why I was kind of half joking last night when they went down to one I'm like well you had a nice run but this tournament is over now you can focus on the real prize for them which is MLS and then they scored and now we're back in. It's a wildly unexpected development. I know that they've now have basically 12 days, 13 days to, I mean, do a lot of things.

There's going to be a huge spike in ticket sales. Well, again, the white caps, if you're listening right now, get on top of this now. Don't be like, well, we'll see what happens. Right? Do whatever you have to do. Make some calls if you need to, right? Do whatever you have to do. Make some calls if you need to,

even if it's unusual to do that. Like I realize in the Champions League, for example, like Man City isn't calling up, you know, Byron and be like, who's your starting 11? We just want to know because we want to sell tickets. Like this is an unusual situation. Now, 2Toke Tony, Texan. To toke.

To toke. Just to Tony. Just to? He said, I believe you guys are missing the boat. He does not play on turf. That's not true. Yeah. He said, find out when the last time he actually played on artificial turf was.

He's said, I'll play on turf. I'm pretty sure. I don't know. October 21st, 2023. That was the last time he played on turf? I'm pretty sure. I don't know. October 21st 2023. That was the last time he played on turf? Yeah Charlotte FC. Okay so maybe he has become less open to playing on turf than in the past because when he first came to MLS he was like I don't have a problem playing on turf I played on it when I was a kid. The quote that he had after shortly after joining Inter Miami which is one of the first

things that journalists and reporters asked when he joined MLS was will you play on artificial turf? The reply was the truth is my youth was spent on artificial turf. My whole life was on that pitch. Truth is it's been a while since I've played on artificial turf but I have no problem adapting myself again. So I would throw that part of it out to a certain degree. I don't think it helps. I don't think that the notoriously bad BC Place turf helps at all, but I don't think that the decision is going to be made based on the playing surface. I think it'll be a collection of things. I really do hope,

just for the record here, really really do hope that this goes through not just because you want the spirit of this that this goes through, not just because you want the spirit of this competition to come through, but as I mentioned, this would right a previous wrong, which burned a lot of people, a lot of people, right? Fire up the civil suits. It was a lot of people that were very, very disappointed. A lot of kids were disappointed, a lot of travelling fans were disappointed. And the amount of money that a lot of people shelled out to go to see that game, which was ultimately just, I mean, it was like going to an exhibition game that the Whitecaps even lost. Someone texted in, I played on turf last night. Thank you for your service.

Unless you are Messi, that is not relevant. If you say I can do it, then Messi can do it. I do appreciate the effort though. I'm glad you texted in. Messi's a world-class athlete. He is. I can't the effort though. I'm glad you texted in. Messi's a world class athlete. How can he do it? We're going to go down to Augusta for the next segment. We're going to have a quick hit with Adam Stanley. Then we'll come back and we'll talk a little bit

about the Canucks being eliminated from the playoffs. Adna is going to join us at seven and then as the show progresses, we're going to get more and more into the Canucks talk. We'll talk about some of the stuff that Quinn Hughes said in the article with Ian McIntyre, and if you have any questions or comments on that, text in to the Dunbar

Lumber Text Line at 650-650. Sorry about all those goal calls earlier. That was a Halford and Laddie production. Now they're going to yell at me. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Goal. You're listening to the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo You know, while my jerk co-host is complaining about the audio selections on this morning show, I find them very appropriate.

What better way to lead into the Masters than a little thrash Thursday. Bring it up, laddie. This song is called A Trip Down Magnolia Lane. It's John Daly showing up to Augusta. Firing Bud Lights out of a t-shirt cannon. It is 634 on a Thursday. Firing Bud Lights out of a t-shirt cannon. It is 634 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. If you're listening to the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650, Haliford and Bref for 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 Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Fittingly, 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. Before we get to Adam, I wanna play two goals from the Edmonton St. Louis game last night. Joining us now on the line, Before we get to Adam, I want to play two goals from the Edmonton St. Louis game last night.

Joining us now on the line, Adam Stanley, Sportsnet Golf Analyst, live from Augusta here on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Adam. How are you? I'm doing great, and you guys win the prize for the best musical intro I've had all week long. I'm used to the soft piano, but that was much better. I'm very to the little, the soft piano, but that was, that was much better. I'm very firmly awake now.

So Rory McIlroy, is he the story of the Masters as he is many years? Yeah, I mean like the Scotty Scheffler, Rory McIlroy situation is certainly stories number one and one A depending on what you look at. But I think, you know, Rory, Rory's kind of done himself no favors with respect to how good he's played leading into this week because even in the most normal

of years, the hype machine is in overdrive because he is the guy who is attempting to become only the sixth male golfer in history to win the career Grand Slam. And it always happens at this particular major, the first major of the year. So obviously, you know, the calendar turns and it's always like, is Rory going to win the Masters? And that's kind of the initial storyline in the world of professional golf. And quite frankly, Rory's probably the only golfer that we have on the PGA Tour that transcends, you know, serious golfing and into kind of the world of sports as well. So yeah, I mean, Rory's got two wins already this season, including at the Players' Championship.

He's leading the tour in strokes game total. So his body of work so far on the golf course is better than anyone on tour. And he's leading the tour in scoring average as well. So he's arguably playing better on average than anybody else. Jack Nicholas revealed this morning in his press conference after the honorary starter,

that he and Rory had lunch together in Florida last week. And Rory went through his entire approach to playing Augusta National, every shot, every hole, with Jack and Jack said, don't change a thing. Now, planning is one thing, but executing obviously is a whole other thing. And we are about to see how Rory can execute this particular year. But the answer simply to your question is, yeah, Rory's got to be the biggest story here this week.

Does it make sense to you that he's never won at Augusta? Because he is one of the greatest drivers of the ball ever. And if you can gain strokes off the T at Augusta, you're in a great position. Like if you can't drive the ball long, you're not, you're not going to win at Augusta for the, well, Mike Weir won there, but you know, for the most part, you know, you want to put yourself in positions to take advantage of the par fives.

And that's what Tiger did so brilliantly when he won there. Um, so like, what is it with Augusta and Rory? I know he has had some decent tournaments there but there have been a lot of like really bad ones where I think his, maybe, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong here, but his iron play has just been dreadful. Yeah and Augusta National is really a second shot golf course more than anything. It is very curious because it's not like Rory has completely thrown up over himself at the Masters every single year. I think this is 16, 15, around there, a number of times that he's played the Masters. I think he's got

a seven top 10s, another six or seven top 10s at the Masters. So it's not like he goes in and out of this tournament thinking like, man, where is Rory? Now lately he's run a little bit hot and cold. Some pedestrian finishes. The second place finish he had a couple years ago came only after he shot 64 in the final round. So he was never really in the mix until, you know, it was too late basically. But I think the very specific thing that has been the issue for Rory McRoy at the Masters is less about kind of the way that he plays and more how he scores on the very, very first day. Rory has only shot in the 60s once in his decade and a half on Thursday at the Masters

and he's only shot under par at the Masters once in the last, I think it's been six years, it might be seven years. So today, Thursday, this first round, he's teeing off in a couple hours, this is going to be really the make or break point for him just because of the history with respect to Heyman and Thursdays at the Masters. How would you describe the last, say, five years of Rory's life? Oh my gosh. How long has this hit? It's been a lot. I mean, he is gone from, he's never left as being

a global superstar, but it's been difficult obviously to be the global mouthpiece for the establishment and essentially because he is so whip smart, he gets trotted out into doing these press conferences every single week that he tees it up. So that's 25 plus. So if we're thinking 2019 happens, he wins four times around the world, plays super well. 2020, obviously COVID and it's a weird year for everybody. 2021 there's rumblings about this break-off faction and then we finally get to it the next year and Rory's kind of the guy of the

face to be like as if this happened and has to keep saying things. And then of course he separates from his wife and then they get right back together. A couple of weeks later this happened last year. All the while he's trying to be a dad, his daughter turned five, I think recently. And, um, you know, he's obviously starting the TGL venture and he's doing all these things. And at the same time that all of that stuff is happening, he also gets the number one in the world. And he also wins the FedEx Cups and he also does blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. So yeah, I mean, it's been a, it's been a pretty, you know, roller coaster half decade for Rory McIlroy, certainly personally and professionally. But I say the professional thing also with the caveat of like, here's a guy who's won almost six, seven, eight times in the last five years as well. So you can't really say that he has, he's been playing poorly. Uh, it's just really this, this major championship stretches, um, or major championship drought, excuse me, has been a big question mark and, and it does seem, I will say that it does seem like the personal life, uh, seems to be going extremely well now, you know, he's not out there talking about live PGA tour basically ever anymore.

Him and his wife were back together. You know, his whole family had a great time with the par three contest. Not to say that I'm friends with Rory or know really any of the ins and outs of it all, but, you know, just kind of on the, on the surface, it does seem like that's going great. And of course he continues to play really good golf as well.

I just never thought that he would be a divisive figure in golf. Do you know what I mean? Right. Like, and I think I described his life the other day as like, it seems like sometimes it's on tilt. Like he's bouncing around from like this controversy to that controversy.

And of course this whole live golf thing created divisive figures, especially because people had opinions one way or the other. And again, like he was kind of trotted out there as the traditionalist. And then so all the guys on the live tour, they were taking shots at him and he's not going to take that. But then sometimes you also see he's changed his position on things. He's like, all right, fine, bring in the Saudi money, whatever. And it just seems like he's been through a lot of introspection in the last few years and I'm still not sure where he is. Where, like, I think winning this Masters tournament would go a long way for him, but man, I think there's a lot of people cheering against

him, don't you? You know what, I do. And I think it's part of his own, for better or for worse, I think it's part of his own making, right? Like because he is so smart and he was on the board and he did come out and say a lot and he doesn't really give stock answers in these press conferences.

He has very thoughtful answers to all these things, state of the world kind of things. And there's 156 guys on the PGA tour with their full cards. And, you know, we're talking about maybe three of them that, you know, come out and have talked at length about kind of the state of men's professional golf, robustly over the last three or four years, and Rory McRoy is one of them. So people, not just golf fans, but sports fans in general, you know, absorbers of news, just see the same guy week in and week out talking about, you know, the state of men's professional golf. He's going to be a polarizing

figure because he's kind of the only figure that's out there. So yeah, I mean, to your point exactly, Rory's opinion has changed on the Saudi money. And I think that's, you know, a completely valid thing. The PIF and the Saudi folks are, they're not going away. They're passionate about golf and they have, you know, more money than basically anyone on the planet. So yeah, Rory as businessman versus Rory as PGA Tour crown wearer, if here's an entity that wants to inject a billion, billions, plural of dollars into this sport that you play, you would be kind of dumb to not want to take that. So yeah, of course you, but the only reason why people are thinking

maybe negatively about him is because all they've seen is him talk about X, X, X, X, X and then all of a sudden it's now Y, Y, Y, Y but that's because he just keeps getting brought out to talk about it. So they don't really hear from anybody else. We are speaking to Sportsnet Golf Analyst, Adam Stanley, live from Augusta at the Masters here on the Halford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650.

Speaking of polarizing and controversial figures, Adam, can you explain to me and the rest of the listeners exactly what's going on with Colin Morikawa right now? Oh, the media hates him. What's going on here? Yeah. Yeah. So the short version of the story

is that he finished second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the event at Bay Hill, the week before the Player Championship. Finished second, and you would be under the assumption that, well, here's a guy who finished second, and of course, it's the Bay Hill the week before the players championship. Finish the second and you would be under the assumption that well here's a guy who finished second and of course it's the end of the tournament. He'd come in and he'd say a few words even if it was if he was completely ticked off. It might be short answers but like you know give us something and he blew off the media on on that particular day and then the next week at the players championship he got

asked about blowing off the media and he said I I don't, we, well, he didn't say I said we as golfers, we don't owe you anything. So that obviously got the media in a, in a tizzy being like, well, you're a professional athlete, you're doing your job. We're doing our job. So there needs to be some give and take. And that story just really hasn't, it just hasn't gone away. Probably. And I will admit this, probably because the media folk keep asking him about it because we're media and this is what we do. But that seems to be the, that's the issue in a short version of describing it.

I heard a Brando Shambly fainted after Colin Morikawa said that. He was like, my word. And then of course, Rory adds his opinion to it yesterday as well. So like that's kind of like he's out and it was, and it was like a sharp opinion. He's like, I agree with Colin. We don't owe you anything. We're not like, we're not, he didn't say it exactly that. We said we're not obligated to do that. Like the NFL and Major League Baseball, that's part of their agreement. We're not obligated to

do that. I wanted to ask you about one more golfer and then I'm going to ask you who's the best shot for Canada. Scottie Scheffler, where is his game right now? Because he's a great example of golf and why it is really hard to stay number one in the world and why you look back on guys like Jack and Tiger Woods who were number one for so long and it just makes their reign over golf look even more impressive. Yeah, even like, I mean, again, even Rory's body of work over the last decade, you look at who was in the top 10 in the world in 2014 and Rory was there and then you look at who's in the top 10 in the world in 2024 and Rory is still there. So it kind of makes his effort

in a decade that much more impressive, just like the guys that you mentioned as well. So from a Scotty Scheffler perspective, obviously he hurt himself at Christmas time in the kitchen with that making the ravioli, had to have surgery, emergency surgery that day. So he obviously had a much slower competitive start to his 2025 than he would have liked. Now, you know, I think he's played five tournaments so far this season, finished in the top 10 in three of those times already, including, you know, he was second the last time he teed it up in Texas a few weeks ago. So, you know, I'm under the assumption that he is shifting into, you know, maybe third year right

now, whereas last year, you know, he was firmly in the fifth, rounding into sixth and redlining it already from now basically onwards to the end of the season. All we really have is to compare Scotty to the Scotty of last year, which was a generational effort from a guy on the PGA Tour. I don't think he's ever going to be able to live up to that standard per se, but he's been playing very well so far I don't think he's ever going to be able to live up to that standard per se. But you know, he's been playing very well so far. I do think it's just one of those things where he hasn't quite shifted into high gear quite yet. But you know, it's a guy who's won two green jackets the last three years. And you know, this is a golf course that fits his game

and his eye obviously extremely well. And I would not be surprised to see him, you know, second to last group on the weekend, final group on Sunday, leading the tournament firmly in the mix, any number of those things. Cause there's kind of no better golf course for him to kind of switch it in a high gear, as I mentioned, than Augusta National. We're talking the Masters with Adam Stanley.

You can hear the birds chirping in the background at Augusta. It's truly a beautiful place. Um's Canada's best shot? I saw you wrote about Taylor Pendreth, and he immediately bogeyed the first hole. So thanks for that, Adam. That was the Taylor first hole in his first Masters was a classic first timer kind of effort. Snap hooks it off the tee into the trees on number one, punches it out up towards the green, bunts it down there, tries to make the putt, leaves the putt short because he's afraid of ripping it too far past and makes a bogey and we're off to the races after that.

So, yeah, I think Taylor's got, Taylor Penderith obviously has the game to compete at this particular golf course, but obviously the Masters has a lot of little tips and tricks that you don't quite get in three days of practice as a first-timer. I'm kind of betting the house on Cory Connors this week. There's so many little magical sprinkles about why he has a real chance to play well this particular week. But I think just from a golfing standpoint, from a ball hitting perspective, this guy is just so good. He's so dialed. He's putting up better than he ever has in his PGA Tour career this year, which has always been his Achilles heel. I was told in their practice game on Tuesday, Corey made eight birdies on his own ball.

He's just going around this place with a lot of confidence and again, Augusta is about nostalgia and about tradition and I will leave you from a Corey Connors perspective with this one thing that I just can't stop thinking about this week. The average number of starts that it takes to win your very first Masters in the history of the tournament is 6.3. This is Cory Connors seventh start at the Masters as a pro. So you know if it's gonna happen I would assume it's gonna happen around now maybe next year the year after but you know I'm just I'm really high on Cory this week for a lot of reasons, but he's just been playing such good golf.

Three top 10s in a row in Florida at golf courses that are comparable enough to Augusto with respect to second shot golf courses. A lot of confidence combined with good golf, and hopefully he rolls in a few putts this week and that's going to be the difference. We figured we'd play him in with metal. Oh, okay. And then play him out. This is much better. I feel much better now. And we were just talking with Adam Stanley and I want to thank you, Adam, on behalf of the sponsors Verizon for coming on our show today and talking about the Masters. Enjoy these next

few days at Augusta and we'll chat again soon. Thank you, Adam. It's been a tradition unlike any other. Thanks, fellas. Thank you, friend. It's Adam Stanley joining us from Georgia as you're listening to the Alfred and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650, if you've got any questions or comments, text into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650-650. Their Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at DunbarLumber.com. Should the Vancouver Canucks trade Elias Pettersson?

I was going to say he can't do that bit for another two minutes. He doesn't have two more minutes at him. He ain't got two more minutes to spit. He can't do it. Sorry. That was good. We got, well, someone just, oh, you, so, uh, regular Zach is in for the ailing A-Dog. He's got kennel cough. And uh, you put up a video of Brough and I going back and forth about Messi and the Whitecaps. It's really doing numbers. Someone has texted in, he's already watched the video. It's the most watched Whitecaps video we've ever produced here.

What did the texture say? Just watch your clip on Messi and the Whitecaps home game. I'm a season ticket holder and I bought four extra seats for the last Miami fiasco. Never again. If he comes or not, I couldn't care less. I'll get my tickets through the season ticket option. But that's it.

So he's mad at Messi there. Once burned and that's it. Once burned, never again. I get that. Messi's going to come out, he's going to be the greatest soccer game ever played in Vancouver. He's going to come three days early, he's going to do a lot of photo ops around the city.

He's going to go walk the seawall. I've heard lots of good things about it, Messi said. The white goal performance. The white caps are going to be forced to come out with now. I mean, reporters are going to be calling the white caps for looking for some sort of statement about what their plan is to avoid another debacle. If you are of the belief that you need to learn

from your mistakes to get better, then there will be some different approaches taken this time around. You just, they just got to cover their assets basically. Like that. Well, I'm just, you know. You just, they just got to cover their assets basically. Like that- I wish. Well, I'm just, you know- You say that on the air.

I know, right after the Augusta thing too. Right after the Augusta hit. God. God. I wouldn't be allowed back there. No. They have a very strict membership. No patronage for you.

Yeah, no patrons. The patrons, you can't call them fans. Patronage. Yeah. Is that what patrons do? They patronage, right? Patronize? I don't know. No. No, they don't do that.

They patronize. I don't think they do that. Okay. We're going to talk with Adnan coming out. We'll talk a little bit of baseball in the wake of the Jays signing Vladdy Guerrero. And I'm curious to ask Adnan, like, you know, they got one player that cost some half a billion

dollars, but how much further away, how far away are they from being a world series contender? In other words, how much more money is Ed Rogers going to have to throw at the Toronto Blue Jays to make them a contender and are they willing to do that? And as we get in later into the show, we're going to kind of transfer more into the Canucks talk. We got

Drancer coming up at eight o'clock. We got an open segment on the, on at seven 30. I really want to talk about the comments that Quinn Hughes had about not only Rick Tauke, but some of the things that he said that need to happen this off season and for next season to be a successful one for the Vancouver Canucks. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro from warehouses to washrooms and everywhere in between. Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected. For a free quote, visit them at JanPro.ca. You're listening to the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650.