Can The Jays Make It Back To The World Series?

When you've got Omaha Steaks convenient every day protein waiting at home,

that what's for dinner panic turns into your weeknight win.

And now's the time to buy during the Omaha Steaks Spring Savings event.

Save big on their exclusive lineup of mouthwatering steaks,

gourmet burgers,

air-chilled chicken, pork, seafood, and more.

Go to OmahaStakes.com for an extra $35 off when you use promo code audio at checkout.

That's OmahaStakes.com, promo code AUDIO.

Terms apply seasite for details.

My name's Mackenzie and I started to go fund me for the adoptive mother

of a nonverbal autistic child.

The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child.

So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills.

So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis.

And we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months.

I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story

and just like really being very clear about what we needed,

we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved

by the situation that this family was struggling with.

GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform

trusted by over 200 million people.

Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com.

That's GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe.com.

This podcast is supported by GoFundMe.

You're listening to Halford and Brough.

That's into the middle, across the line, to the left, circle, soccer, shot, stars!

Bubble, soccer, with the game winner and overtime.

Pass left wing tight, Joshua, stars!

They're coming in, Joshua, and I'm perfectly playing for you, too.

Good morning, make your 6-0-1 on a Thursday.

Happy Thursday, everybody.

It is Halford at his broth at his sports net 650.

We are coming alive from the Kintek Studios

and beautiful pair of you slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning.

Good morning.

Hey, dog, good morning to you.

Good morning.

Glad to you, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello.

Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Do you have pay-day loan debt?

If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80 percent

with no upfront fees.

Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com.

We are an hour one of the program.

Our one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintek Studios,

step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintek.

If you want to text into the show, it is 650, 650, and that is the Dunbar lumber.

Text line trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations.

Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar lumber online today.

We got a huge, huge sports day ahead of us.

And subsequently a huge Halford and Brough show.

We will begin with the duic morning drive.

That's our morning guest list brought to you by the duic auto group.

It begins at 6.30 this morning.

Dan Shulman is going to join the program.

Play by play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Happity, happy, happy.

MLB opening day to everybody, including you.

Do you say, Happity?

Yep. Well, I was kind of happy.

Happity, happy, opening day.

Happity, happening.

Little happy.

Are you calling today opening day?

Yeah, I don't get it.

I don't get that was opening night today.

There's a terrible baseball game.

And it was terrible.

And they stuck it on Netflix.

MLB opening night last night.

11 games across the American League and National League today,

including Seattle Mariners opening at home against Cleveland.

Dan and the Jays open tomorrow at home against the A's.

So Dan will join us at 6.30 for a Blue Jays preview.

And MLB season preview.

Maybe we can even get into some March madness talk with Dan

because he of course calls college basketball for ESPN.

Lots to get into there.

7 o'clock Max Boltman is going to join the program.

Detroit Redwings reporter for the athletic

we wanted to check the old panic meter in Detroit today.

Redwings have a couple days off.

There's a busy night in the NHL tonight.

They don't play.

They have to sit and watch.

And the question here,

are the Redwings going to miss the playoffs this year?

Follow up question.

If they do, what will the follow be?

We'll talk to Max Boltman about that at 7 a.m.

They've never had a playoff game at the New Arena, right?

They have not.

Like the last Redwings playoff game

that non-COVID year or whatever was

because I can't remember if they were in the bubble in Edmonton.

But was that Joe Lewis Arena?

Yes.

And if the Anaheim ducks make the playoffs,

which they will and the Buffalo Sabers make the playoffs,

which they will, that means Detroit is going to have

the longest playoff drought in the NHL.

By a considerable margin too.

It's going to be an end of the charts.

I think they were the team that consecutively made the playoffs

the most every year for like 25 years.

They sure were.

I think they had the record of like the most they didn't miss

every year they made it.

I'd say Lewis had a long record too.

Detroit had 20.

I want to say 25 or 26 years or something like that.

Easter famine.

Part of me.

Easter famine.

That's just how they know it's straight years of whatever.

So we'll talk to the Boltman.

Max Boltman had a seven o'clock this morning.

7 30.

Parker Burgess is going to join the program head coach

of the Vancouver Giants.

Speaking of the playoffs,

there will be no playoffs for the Giants this season.

Their year has come to a wrap.

So this is going to be an end of year media availability.

So to speak for Parker Burgess today.

As the Giants have officially wrapped their 2025

2026 WHL campaign.

Parker's going to join us at 7 30 eight o'clock.

Randy Jand is going to join the program.

Kanox analysts for sports net 650.

He'll be on the call tonight.

Kanox Kings.

Seven o'clock from Rodgers Arena.

It will be the last of this season high eight game

homestand for the Kanox.

Taking on a King's team.

Desperately fighting to get into a playoff spot in the West.

We can talk to Randy about all that at 8 AM.

It's a huge sports day.

We will get into what's on the horizon later on in the show.

But we got a lot to get into.

So without further ado,

Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

Oh, what happened?

I missed all the action because I was.

We don't have this.

Your life can be.

What happened?

You missed that.

What happened?

What happened is brought to you by the VC

construction safety alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies

to invest in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.

With all the things going on,

why not start with the Kanox returning to practice,

which they did yesterday ahead of today's game against

the Los Angeles Kings?

Well, believe it or not,

the Kanox only have four games remaining at Rodgers Arena

this season.

Uh-huh.

To reach double-digit wins at home,

they'll have to win two of them.

Perhaps one of them will be tonight against the LA Kings,

a team, the Kanox will see three times

in their final 12 games overall.

So four home games, eight road games

for the Vancouver Kanox,

not really much to report from practice,

or very least not much to talk about.

A heronic besser in Vaynercane all took maintenance days.

The latter of Vaynercane will play NHL game number 998

tonight.

I guess Adam Foot yesterday was asked

about his plans for Vaynercane.

And right now, as it stands,

Vaynercane's 1000s game in the NHL

would be in Las Vegas next Monday night.

And Adam Foot had thought about,

you know, maybe keep him out of the lineup.

So he gets to play his 1000s game in his hometown,

Vancouver in front of the home fans.

But he said he hasn't even spoken to Vaynercane

about it because he didn't want to provide any like injury jinks.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, the hockey gods could could intervene.

So presumably tonight will be a Tolo Pilo game

after Lankanin made the last four starts.

And we got that very interesting explanation from Adam Foot,

which I'm still not sure I understand

about why Kevin Lankanin made all those consecutive starts.

But we'll see if Tolo Pilo's in there tonight against the Kings.

With all due respect to your favorite team,

tonight's opponent is interesting.

It's been a frustrating season for the Kings

who still have a chance to make the playoffs

despite a minus 27 gold differential.

Yeah, they can't score.

The Kings are probably counting on the three games they have

against the Kanox to give them a leg up on Nashville,

the team currently in the second wildcard spot.

I suppose it's possible the Kings could catch Vegas

or Edmonton as well.

But for now, they got their eyes set on the Nashville predators.

The Kings have had a fairly event,

eventful last couple of months,

not necessarily on the ice, but off the ice.

First, they traded for a Pinaran.

And then they lost Fiala at the Olympics.

So it was kind of like pretty good player in.

Pretty good player out.

All the while, Anzi Kopitar has already announced

that he's going to be retiring at the end of this season.

And right at this moment,

the Kings don't have a great replacement for the 38-year-old,

which begs the question of whether they'll try to address

that issue this off season.

I think they will.

Now, a couple of reports have linked them to Alias Peterson,

but it's not clear how real their interest is

and what it is right at this very moment.

I remember there are a bunch of reports in the Kings.

They're going to be watching closely at the Olympics.

Yeah.

Well, the Olympics didn't go terrific for Alias Peterson.

Maybe they'll watch that one game where you had two goals.

Yeah, so you just said two goal game.

Take that one, send it to Ken Holland.

The Kings are in a tough spot, though.

They just acquired Pinaran.

And they didn't necessarily give up a ton to get him,

but they did give him pretty big money over the next two years.

That's not the type of move you make if you're planning

a significant retooling.

That's a win-now move.

And their general manager, Ken Holland,

said as much after the acquisition of Pinaran.

I was looking back on it yesterday, and here's a quote for you.

I guess there's two ways to look at it.

You're either compete or you go into this long-term rebuild.

We're not interested in a long-term rebuild.

I'm not interested in the long-term rebuild.

And I think some of the people that we signed

are not interested in that.

So, we're trying to compete.

Now, we have heard some of our stuff from the Vancouver Connects

not too long ago.

The Connects were an interested in a rebuild.

And then their hand was forced.

But I don't think the King's hand has been forced yet.

So, I'm going to be real curious to see what they do

in the offseason.

Remember, this was a team that was feeling pretty good

about its center depth not too long ago.

You know, you had Copa Taran.

He was still playing at a fairly high level,

despite being well into his thirties.

They had filled to know, but he's not with them anymore.

And his game fell off.

And they had Quentin Bifield, who was this young guy,

who they expected to be a really good center for them.

Well, Deno's not with them anymore.

Copa Taran's retiring.

And Bifield just hasn't...

I mean, he's been fine,

but he certainly hasn't panned out

like his draft pedigree would suggest he would.

They're a super weird team.

Because if you look at their results this year,

there's a couple of things that jump off the page.

The first one is the absolutely wretched home record.

You want to talk about the Knox being bad at home.

The LA Kings are not much better.

They have 10 home victories this season.

They're 10, 16, and 8 at home.

And that's the second fewest in the Western conference,

only two more than the Vancouver Knox,

who have been absolutely like awful at home this year.

So you would think with a home record like that,

they have no business being near the playoffs,

but the other weird thing about this team,

they lost in the shootout to Calgary in their last game.

That was the 18th game that the Kings have lost this year

in either overtime or the shootout.

So they've got a remarkable number of games

that have gone past regulation.

They just, with regularity,

haven't been able to secure a two-point.

So you say, well, if even that overtime

and shootout record was closer to 500,

which is just sort of like the coin flip-down element of it,

they'd probably be in a playoff spot,

maybe even comfortably by a certain measure.

But whatever the case,

the final part of all of this right now,

and if you go into LA Kings media

and you dig into some of the Twitter conversations

that are happening with their fan base,

everything now is like, we're doing it for Copey.

We are trying to put all hands-on deck,

all efforts forward.

We cannot have him go out

in his retirement season not making the post-season.

I have a question for you.

Yeah.

Well, next season, be doing it about,

so the season is doing it for Copey.

Yeah.

Is the next season for Daudi?

I wonder.

Can you do that two years in a row?

Can you run it back for another guy?

Because I think Daudi's contract is up

at the end of next season

and, look, he's still obviously playing at a decently high level.

It was good enough to play for Canada at the Olympics.

But I think Drew Daudi will play hockey

until he's like 60.

Like, if he could, he would.

He loves playing hockey.

Yeah.

And I'm not saying Copeatar doesn't.

Let's not get that twisted.

But we had Jonathan Davis from Sirius XM Radio

who does the sort of West Coast teams,

especially the California ones in his coverage.

And he said for a while to us,

like, there was always an exit plan with Copeatar

is that he kind of wanted to make it known

when his final season was going to be.

I think he wanted to go back home.

I think there was an element of returning to either living

in Slovenia or just going back to Europe

and kind of putting a bow on his career.

And that's why they made the announcement

the way that they did.

You know, beginning of the year, this is his last year.

Here's what his retirement to are.

I don't get the same vibes around Daudi.

Yeah. I think Daudi will just play

until the wheels come off and then he'll be like,

okay, I'm done now.

But I can find something else.

I can see Daudi getting annoyed playing on a bad team.

Yeah. And that's big.

Like really annoyed.

I think a little bit grouchy.

I think they're in, like, making big swings like uppercuts

as an organization right now.

And that's a risky way to be.

But you've got so many eggs tied up

in all these different baskets,

including the penair and one,

that you're almost forced to take a big swing this off season.

Like, you have to try something.

They're going to see Alia's better

since three times down the stretch.

And, you know, I'm not saying it's going to be-

That's a good point. That's scouting.

That's a say.

Is it a scouting mission?

I don't know, because at this point,

I think everyone knows what the player is.

I don't know what you could possibly see in a good way.

I know what you could see in a bad way,

but there's not a lot of centers available.

All right, we've talked about the lack of them in free agency.

And that's where the Kings and Ken Holland

have done some pretty significant shopping

over the last little bit.

And the argument to go for Patterson

is he wouldn't cost much, except for cap space.

If you're going to try and get Robert Thomas out of St. Louis.

Well, that's what I wonder.

You're going to spend significant assets

to get him out of there.

And I don't know if the Kings have the assets

to give up necessarily.

Yeah, they give up a top prospect to get penair in.

He was a first round pick.

I mean, by their standard, he was one of their top prospects.

I don't think he's got like huge potential

in terms of being like a star in it.

So I don't think we need to talk too much

about the Kings this morning,

because we're going to see them three times down the stretch.

So we'll put it out of the way.

Well, yeah, let's save a little bit

and see what we get from them.

Quite night, last night in the NHL,

the Leafspeak, the Rangers.

I didn't watch that game,

but I'm enjoying the Leafs putting some wins together.

Down the stretch, although they're already out of the playoffs.

They're doing it for Joe Bowen.

I did watch Boston and Buffalo,

and that was a big win for Boston,

who won it in overtime.

But while I was watching that game,

a question came to mind,

because of one of the things that was set on the broadcast.

So we all know that the Sabers General Manager,

Kevin Adams, was fired a few months ago,

and as soon as he was fired,

and your MLKK line and took over,

the Sabers took off,

and they've been one of, if not the best team in the NHL,

since then.

So let's say the Sabers

are legit, and they win the Cup,

or come close to winning the Cup over the next couple of years.

Does Kevin Adams deserve credit for the roster that he built?

Like, like, like, like, what is the...

I mean, what if the much-beligned...

What if this season,

the Sabers going to run, they win a few rounds,

or even win the Stanley Cup?

Like, how would Kevin Adams be remembered?

Would he be remembered as the guy

that put their roster together,

or would he be remembered as the guy

that they needed so badly to fire because of reasons?

Yeah, okay.

I thought about this when you brought it up last night.

Believe it or not, would you do some prep for the show?

You know what I got major vibes from,

in terms of Kevin Adams, was Dale Talon

as the general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks.

That's what I thought too.

So for those that don't remember the story,

back in 2009, the Chicago Blackhawks

demoted, and I'm air quoting that right now,

demoted Dale Talon from general manager

to special advisor.

Now it was a lateral move.

It was a lateral move, and the truest sense of lateral.

So what happened was,

Dale Talon, while building this great dynasty team

in Chicago, had one major screw up.

It was the now infamous fax gate.

You remember that?

Yeah.

He failed to send the qualifying offers.

I think it was Christopher Stig and Cam Barker,

and he failed to send in their qualifying offers

in time to the National Hockey League,

because I guess he did it by fax,

and the fax either got jammed,

or I don't know if there was like a PC load letter issue

with a machine.

His tie got caught.

Perhaps, you know, there's a number of things.

He's access tie.

And it cost them Cam Barker.

No, it didn't cost them Cam Barker,

but it almost cost them Cam Barker.

It looks like a tie pattern.

I'm very confused by this one.

What am I looking at here?

It's just a bunch of salamanders.

I don't know what it is.

Anyway, what happened was,

the delay and then not hitting the qualifying offers

essentially rendered these guys unrestricted.

So it meant short answer story,

like long story made short.

They had to pay them more money

than they would have,

and they were really pressed up against the cap,

because Tal and that summer was the one that went out.

And I think that was the summer he got

Marion Hosen and John Madden.

So he had made big moves.

Yeah.

He got demoted.

Stan Bowman comes in.

Stan Bowman becomes the general manager

as we go through the history books now.

They're like, Stan, you know,

I use a fax machine.

He's like, I do.

And if I don't, I can learn.

And then he took them, took them to the great,

you know, Stanley Cup winning teams in Chicago.

And when you go back through the history books now,

it's Stan Bowman's the general manager

of those dynasty teams in Chicago, not Dale Talon.

But the real ones,

no, the Dale Talon was primarily the architect

for that team, but I'm not mistaken.

I think a few writers actually,

or whoever picked the GM of the year back in the day,

you know, kind of tongue-in-cheek

gave Dale Talon some votes

after he had been removed as the general manager

to win general manager of the year.

Anyway, there's a long roundabout way of saying,

I get those vibes with Kevin Adams,

should this Buffalo team go on a similar trajectory?

They go a long way to go to get to the great Black Hawk's teams

of 2009, 2010, 2011, et cetera.

Does he end up being like that?

I think he might, because he is the guy

that made a lot of these moves.

And a lot of this stuff happened on his watch.

Yeah.

They just needed to get rid of him to get serious, apparently.

Well, I mean, in a Brock from Vancouver,

Texan, he said, what about Knowness and Burke

building a team for Gillis?

I mean, Burke did pull off that brilliant trade

to get the sedans for the connox.

So I think Gillis changed a lot

the way the team operated.

And he brought in a lot of new ideas.

And he did bring in some players as well.

So that one was, there were still people that said,

you know, Gillis is, you know, he's using the co-tails.

He's using the core that this pre and I don't think

Gillis necessarily pushed back on that.

But he did make a lot of changes.

He made a lot of organizational changes, like philosophically

and identity wise.

That's where that culture was.

That was a big thing for me.

Like, he didn't just inherit this group.

And then, you know, okay, we're just going to run it back

in the same fashion.

They tried a lot of different things.

I don't think the notion that the text

are sent in is wrong.

I do think there's some elements of it.

But especially in the case of Talon going to Bowman.

And then now, and we're going to wait and see

how this place gets happening in real time,

Adam's going to Kekalainen.

It feels like there was one major gap or series of gaps

that you had to get rid of the previous regime.

I remember when the Burke knownest regime

ended, there was a lot of people that thought

that was an unfair and unjust removal, right?

Yeah, that there was like, you know,

they had no reason to go.

They were building something here.

Well, knownest have brought in the long ago.

Yeah, so there were some very different vibes.

I'm just, for those that don't remember the Dale Talon story,

that's the one that really stuck out to me

because he really truly was the architect of that Chicago team.

A couple other things I want to get to.

Victor Hedmond, the Tampa Bay Lightning,

announced yesterday is going to take a personal leave.

And they said, listen, this is a private matter.

Please respect his privacy.

And Hedmond's last game was in Vancouver,

where he only played a handful of minutes.

I think it was under five minutes before leaving the game.

Now, things have been kind of odd around Victor Hedmond for a while.

And you remember back at the Olympics,

wasn't there a game where he barely played?

So here's how the timeline went.

He missed 23 games earlier in the year,

about seven weeks after elbow surgery came back

into the lightning line up on February the 1st.

Played a handful of games before he went to the Olympics.

Then there was that odd moment in the Olympics,

where he was said to have a lower body injury.

Then he watched their quarterfinal loss from the bench against the US.

But then he said, like, I could play it.

I was ready to go.

No one was quite sure what was happening.

The official reason for his exit against the Knucks

earlier last week was an illness that he left four minutes into the game

or after playing just over four minutes to the game.

Due to an illness, I wonder if this is just a combination of health issues

that has maybe led him to need to take some time away.

Because there was the elbow surgery.

There was a lower body injury.

Then there was an, I don't know exactly what's going on,

but it sounds as though he's really struggling with his health, right?

Well, hopefully everything's okay for Victor Hedmond.

But certainly something to keep monitoring.

The draft lottery date has already been reported,

but it has now been made official.

And this is going to be a big day for Knucks fans.

And hopefully a good day.

The 2026 NHL draft lottery will take place on May 5th.

And it can be seen on SportsNet and SportsNet+.

Everyone knows the deal.

This has been the case since 2021.

The first two picks in the draft will be determined after two draws.

The team that wins the lottery can move up a maximum of 10 slots in the draft

for the Vancouver Knucks.

Assuming they hold on to that last place spot, which they're going to.

They will either pick first, second or third.

Actually, the odds suggest that the most likely slot is number three,

but we were obviously hoping for one or even two.

I kind of want to, I'll be honest with you,

because I'm scared of failure.

No.

I'm a weak man and I'm scared of failure,

because if the Knucks win first and they choose poorly.

No, you can't.

Take McKenna.

Go up.

Get the first overall pick.

Take McKenna.

I'll say it right now.

If McKenna doesn't turn out the hellford and bluff, bluff.

The hellford and bluff show.

We will not blame the organization whatsoever.

That it won't be their fault.

We might if they develop them badly.

No, it's not your fault.

Crematively telling you, like Goodwill Hunting, it's not your fault.

You did not do this.

There needs to be a clarity and vision here that you want the first overall pick.

You want to make it with confidence and you want to take McKenna and not mess around

and then get to the very important first part of this rebuild.

I think here's my nightmare scenario for the Knucks.

So I just simulated the lottery on Tankathon.

First overall pick goes to Winnipeg.

Wow.

Second goes to San Jose.

Yeah, there are some teams.

There are some like quote-unquote good teams that could win the lottery.

I don't know what happened to Winnipeg this year, but the New York Islanders

weren't a horrible team and they ended up getting Shaffer,

who's going to be one of the best defensemen probably in NHL history the way it's starting.

Second went to San Jose.

So McKenna goes to Winnipeg.

Stenberg goes to San Jose.

And then on Tankathon, it has the Knucks taking the right shot defenseman,

Keaton Verhoff.

Here's the nightmare scenario.

The Knucks fall to three and then reach on a player that's like a center.

Ah, yes.

You know, they're just like, well, we've already got some defenseman.

And we've got a full opponent.

It's a drafting, so a good positional need.

That always works out well.

Now, would you feel differently if the player that they reached on

was Caleb Malhotra, who could be the first center off the board?

I would be disappointed if they reached for anything.

Yeah, yeah, anything.

Verhoff's going to be a player, I think.

Go and find the best player available and bring him into an organization where you don't have

a lot of best players.

In fact, I don't think you have any.

Just a talent.

I'm not advocating for that.

No, I know exactly what you're saying.

Throwing out this scenario.

Yeah, it's like we went through all this for, I don't want to call Caleb Malhotra a

middling prospect, but he's not McKenna.

He's not Stamberg and he's not Verhoff in terms of quality.

Even Chase Reed, who's a right shot defenseman.

Some people have been wondering if he might go in the top three.

Don't galaxy brain it.

Just go up and pick the best guy available with the highest pick that you got.

That's some good old fashioned logic.

Yeah, passing on Verhoff at three would be, oh man.

I mean, they've already done this like five times in my lifetime where they've passed

on a guy that was like sure fire and turns out he was really good.

That would that would be that would be hilarious though.

Well, not hilarious, but it keeps happening.

Can you imagine though?

They keep passing on this obvious choice and take a swing and miss.

Can you imagine though?

If they're like, no, we already got Vlander and Vlander's like,

you should take Verhoff because I'm not that guy.

Yeah, Verhoff, have you seen this guy?

He's huge and he hits people and he's got a bomb of a shot.

I'm more of a coach.

Chase Reed, who's going to play in the league for a long time.

And I don't know if I'm going to win a Norse or anything.

Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the program.

I'll be better than C.C.

I hope.

We do.

We did think he will be.

Okay, okay.

Are you done?

Are we good?

Are we good?

Are we all done?

Andy, break.

I just want to be positive.

Break.

We got to go to break.

We got to go to break.

So we got to go to break.

We didn't get a chance to get into the MLB opening night game last night,

but we are going to talk MLB on the other side.

Dan Schullman, play by play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays,

is going to join us next on the Halfordon Breath Show on SportsNet 650.

Kanox Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drams.

We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Kanox.

Listen 12 to 2PM on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts.

633 on a Thursday.

Happy Thursday, everybody.

Halford, Breath SportsNet 650.

Halford and Breath of the Morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Are you getting collection calls?

If you are, Sands and Associates could get your debt by up to 80%

and stop those calls.

Visit them today at sands-trusty.com.

Still an hour one of the program.

Dan Schullman, play by play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays,

is going to join us in just a moment here.

Our one of this program 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.

What a fantastic time to be a baseball fan.

Opening night last night, big Yankees win in San Fran.

Opening day today, 11 games across the AL and NL.

And then tomorrow, the Jays open their season against the,

I'm going to call them the Sacramento Athletics.

I'm just going to do it.

I'm going to go ahead and do it.

I know we're just supposed to say athletics, singular.

But that's the game tomorrow.

Our next guest will be on the call.

Joining us now on the Abel Auctions Hotline.

It's Dan Schullman here on the Halford and Breath Show on SportsNet 650.

Morning, Dan. How are you?

Good morning, guys. How you doing?

We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

It's been a while.

New season is upon us.

Changes always from one season to the next,

including on the broadcast.

And for those that might not be aware in case you didn't hear the big news

over the off season, it's that Buck Martinez has retired.

So you're going to have a new voice in the booth next to you,

although he's been familiar to the broadcast in Joe Siddell.

Let's talk about Buck, though, before we get into your new partner.

What's it going to be like after so many years of calling games with the same guy

bidding farewell to Buck Martinez on the call?

Yeah, yeah, it'll be different.

Obviously, it's a huge loss for us.

And everybody knows how beloved he is throughout Blue Jays Nation through all the fans.

So I just couldn't be more grateful that I got a chance to work with him for as many years as I did.

Both going back to when I got started in the 90s on TSN,

and then over the last nine, 10 years or so on SportsNet.

He just had a way of resonating with people, of reaching people.

That is really, really unusual.

Everybody who knew him loved him,

everybody who listened to him loved him.

And it's a loss for us.

He was great to everybody on our crew as well,

just so that it was nice a guy as you'll ever meet.

But talk about an incredible career that spans so many years.

He, I believe, made his major league debut in 1969,

and work through 2025.

So we're talking like close to six decades,

too, if you put in a couple of minor league years at the beginning.

Play, manage, broadcast, everything.

So he'll be missed.

There's no doubt about it.

But I talked to him a few days ago.

We're texting all the time.

And he's still following the team.

But, you know, 77 years old,

and he's got grandkids in Vermont,

that I know he wants to see more often.

And he told me about a couple of trips

that he and his wife Arlene have planned,

so it's all good stuff.

Well, at least you replaced them with the same position player.

So you go from catcher to catcher,

and Joe Siddell comes in.

How excited are you to be working with Joe?

Joe's great.

I mean, I've done lots and lots of games with Joe.

Joe did 60 games last year.

So, and I think did 60 year before that as well.

So, yeah.

And then Caleb Joseph will kind of move

into the number two role, if you will.

So yet, seems all we hire are backup Tetris.

I'm not quite sure why,

but that's the way it works out for us.

So, but it's great.

Joe is awesome.

Joe's is nice to guys.

He'll ever meet Caleb's great.

He's learning fast.

His enthusiasm is off the charts.

So, you know, if we have to make a change, you know,

like, I mean, nothing lasts forever writing with buck retiring.

I don't think we could be in a better spot

than having Joe Siddell and Caleb Joseph.

It's such a unique way to go into this year.

And I'm moving away from the broadcast side of things now with,

you know, how last season ended.

And I don't know if everyone feels the same way,

but for me anyway, it's like, I feel like there's still

a process involved with trying to come to grips with

last season, how great it was,

how certainly unexpected it was in some facets.

And then, how dramatically it ended.

I know there's still articles being written about

that that might have been the greatest world series

in MLB history.

And the theater and the drama was off the charts.

And then it ended so quickly and it was over.

And now baseball starts up again.

So, I guess I'm doing a vibe check here again.

What are the vibes like going in

to the 2026 campaign for the Blue Jays?

For me personally.

Yeah, let's start there.

Okay.

I mean, I think last season should be celebrated.

And I know it ended in absolute heartbreak,

like I get that.

I haven't, it's not like I've, you know,

put that out of my mind or erase that

from my hard drive or anything like that.

But for 99. Whatever percent you want to say,

it was an absolutely unbelievable ride.

And anybody who doesn't see it that way,

I just don't get it.

But, you know, there, I assume I think,

tomorrow night, they're, you know,

they're raising the banner.

They're showing the American League Championship banner.

And absolutely, that's in my mind,

absolutely, that should be celebrated.

Those guys who work their tails off,

overachieved, left it all on the field,

represented their team sitting in country,

incredibly well.

And all of that should not be forgotten.

So, heading into this year,

I think John Schneider has been very clear about,

quote, they are not defending anything.

They are attacking 2026, trying to do ABC.

And I think that's probably the way to do it.

Mark Shapiro held one of his, you know,

one of his sessions with the media yesterday

and I was there.

He said, listen, like they learned things last year

that obviously should be able to help them this year.

It's that they can put in their foundation.

But they cannot walk into this season and say,

oh, we were really good last year.

So, we're going to be really good this year.

Baseball doesn't work that way.

And then more than any other sports in my opinion.

So, I think they know they've got to be as good.

If not better this year, then they were last year

to try to get back where they were

and hopefully push it over to finish line.

I think they've got the personnel to do it.

But you never know until the season gets going.

Where is the upside for the Jays this year?

Where can they improve?

Because so much went right for them last year

and they had so many great individual stories of,

this guy came out of nowhere and he's doing this

and it was terrific to watch the team come together.

They've also lost a pretty good hitter in Bichette.

So, where can they, if we assume that maybe

they can't recreate all those great individual stories.

Where is the upside?

Yeah, I think they can recreate most of them.

Like, is Ernie Clement who we think he is?

Is Nathan Lucas who we think he is?

Is Alejandro Kirk who we think he is?

Like, I would answer yes to all of that.

You know, I look at George Springer

who had just an unbelievable season last year.

Is it fair to ask a 36 year old

to have the kind of season he had as a 35 year old?

Maybe it's not, but man, he looked good in the spring.

So, we'll see.

Maybe he's got it in him or even if he's, you know,

90% of what he was last year, that's still a great year.

Upside to me exists in Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.

He hit 292 with 23 homers and 84 RBI's last year.

And I think we all know, mainly of Vladimir and anybody

that there's more in there.

We saw it in 2021.

We saw it in 2024.

We certainly saw it in October.

And we saw it this spring and in the WBC as well.

So, I think there's room to grow there with Guerrero.

Kazuma Okamoto was really, really interesting.

Nobody knows until he gets going.

And we see what the adjustment is like coming from Japan

to the major leagues.

But everything I saw and everybody I talk to in the spring

says this guy's a big league player.

I mean, he hits for average, hits for power,

walks a lot, doesn't strike out very much,

and it looks really good.

Like, looks good at third base.

I know there was a little talk about,

is he good enough over there?

Everything I saw looked just really solid at third base.

So, I think they're going to be even better defensively

with Okamoto with third.

Him and his short, Clement at second.

And then the last thing I would say is,

I think the pitching staff is noticeably better.

Certainly than it was at the beginning of last year.

You know, go back and look at some of the guys

who pitched for this team last year.

And this will happen this year as well.

But they've got so much more depth that right now,

it appears they could withstand the injuries

or the delays to Bieber, Burio, Simea, Savage.

And, you know, those guys, assuming those guys get healthy,

you know, then their depth is actually overflowing a little bit

and they got to figure out what to do with it.

But that's a good problem to have.

And I think the bullpen is certainly stronger now

than it was at the beginning of last year.

And probably on a par or a little bit better in my mind,

that it was at the end of last year, even.

So I think they've patched some holes

and I think they've gotten better

and I think their depth is better.

And we'll see.

But to me, a big, big part of it is Guerrero.

I think he's primed to have one of the best years he's had in his career.

Yeah, let's talk a bit more about Vladi

because I mean, some of the swings he had

in the postseason were incredible.

And it started with a bang.

And I wonder if, you know, his first step back kind of

helped his confidence or whatever it was

that caused him to play the way he did.

Did anything change in the postseason with Vladi

or like what did you see from him last year?

It's a great question because when it's not there,

we always say, well, why isn't it there all the time?

Like we've seen it.

So why isn't it there all the time?

And I know from talking to Joe Siddled,

both on and off here about it last year,

he just thought it was a timing issue

that Vladi just wasn't getting the foot down in time,

wasn't getting the bat out quickly enough.

And so a lot of the balls that he should have been

out in front of and hitting in the air.

He was getting jammed a little bit,

hitting them on the ground.

So I'm the furthest thing from a hitting expert.

But I will defer to Joe here as I always will.

And I think some of it was timing.

I think some of it was he loves playing against the Yankees.

And as much as a lot of people probably said,

oh man, why do they have to play the Yankees in the playoffs?

Like I think for Vladi, it was good.

And his confidence just appeared to soar

early on in that series.

He was incredible in that series.

And that was incredible all the way through the playoffs.

So I think it was just a combination of mechanics

and then that bred confidence

and then his talent just shone through.

And listen, if nobody's going to hit 397 with the kind of power

that he hit over a course of 162 games.

But if Vladi is at his best, he's in that group

with Judge Shotani and Soto in my mind.

It's can he do it for six months?

He's done it twice.

He's had two sensational years and 21 and 24.

So I think he's in a good place.

I mean, right away when he got to spring this year,

he said he's happier than he's ever been.

And I talked to him a fair bit this spring.

And I don't know how to put it into words accurately,

but he just seems as fun and kind of cool confidence

as he always had.

Everything just seems on another level this year.

I think part of it is the contract.

I think part of it is the success he had

on the game's biggest stage last October.

He knows he can do what they want him to do.

He knows it's his team.

He understands his value to the team and the town

and the country and all of that.

And I just I think he's matured a lot too.

Like he was a kid when he showed up.

He's still only 27.

But I think he's really, really come a long way

in many ways over the last couple of years.

Do you spend any time just thinking back

to the postseason run last year?

I mean, there are so many incredible moments

and so many turning points.

I just think about the feeling among the Blue Jays fans

and everyone when they when they lost game five in Seattle

and everyone was all over John Schneider.

And you know, we're very close to Seattle here.

Obviously in Vancouver and there was so much excitement

in Seattle, like all the Mariners are going to go

to the World Series for the first time

in franchise history.

And then the Jays take them out in game six and seven.

And then I'm not even talking about the World Series,

which was maybe the greatest World Series of all time.

Do you spend much time thinking about it?

Are you trying to move past it?

I don't spend a ton of time thinking about it.

I mean, you know, if you're on social media at all,

you know, it pops up in your timeline, right?

Or people ask you about it.

So I will tell you this, every single college basketball game

I did this winter without exception, at least one

and usually two or three, whether it's a coach

or a media member person walked up to me and said,

man was that an incredible World Series

and man was I rooting for the Blue Jays.

Like every single game.

I think the Dodgers have kind of taken over for the Yankees

as the evil empire kind of thing with all the money they spend.

So like if you were neutral watching that World Series,

I think you became a fan, a short-term fan of the Blue Jays.

It was certainly the feeling that I got from people

I was talking to all around the US

over the course of the winter.

I don't think about it a lot.

You know, I did it a few days after that,

but honestly, and if my wife were on this call with us,

she would tell you, like within a few days, couple of days,

I was saying exactly what I said to you guys

at the beginning of the call.

I think they should be celebrated.

They didn't choke, they lost.

They played great.

They played as well as a team can be expected to play.

Hoffman, hung a slider.

Varsho didn't get the ball in the air.

They didn't choke like Jeff Hoffman

until the ninth inning of game seven was incredibly good.

Incredibly good in the playoffs.

He threw maybe the wrong pitch

and certainly threw it in the wrong spot at the wrong moment.

So, but I don't think about it a ton.

Like there's a couple little plays where I say,

man, if only they could have, but maybe it's age where you know,

if I were 29 and maybe I would invest a lot of energy

in what it could have showed up, but it's 59.

You don't have that much energy anymore.

So, you kind of, you kind of like I need to be more concerned

about tomorrow than yesterday right now.

So, that's where I put my energy.

Well, I mean, I watched it kind of as a neutral

and I just I just loved every minute.

To be honest with you, it kind of helped me fall fall back

and love with baseball again.

And I don't think I've looked forward to a J season

or a baseball season like this in a long, long time.

So, you know, it was terrific.

Let's talk quickly about the Yankees.

They got up to a pretty good start to the season last night

in San Francisco.

Do they have the roster to maybe challenge the Dodgers

to get back the evil empire?

Well, I don't look at Yankees versus Dodgers so much,

but I look at Yankees versus Blue Jays

because that's obviously going to be a battle all year.

And they basically have the same team as last year.

Few teams changed less over the offseason than the Yankees,

which is not what we normally associate with the Yankees.

They're kind of running it back and they're very good.

Like they won exactly the same number of games

as the Blue Jays did last year, 94,

but the Blue Jays won the division on the tie breakers.

So, they got the buy and we all know how it wound up.

But they are very dangerous.

First of all, they've got the best hitter in baseball

and air and judge.

And like I said before, if Ladi has his peak year,

I think you can challenge that.

But I think right now you've got a, you know,

judge has the belt until somebody takes the belt from them.

They've got a very good team

and they didn't have Garrett Cole at all last year.

Not for a single pitch, Tommy John Sirdry.

He should be back at the end of May this year.

So we'll get four months out of them.

They'll get maybe five months out of Carlos Rodano

who is coming back from Elbow Sirdry.

And they'll get a full year of Cam Schletler,

their young pitcher who by the end of last year

in a small sample size was one of the best pitchers

in baseball.

Oh, and they've got Max Freak,

who looked really good last night in San Francisco.

If the Yankees can tread water for two months

and stay within range, they're very, very dangerous.

And by the way, I think the Red Sox are better

and the Orioles are way better.

Like this division is always the best division in baseball.

And I don't think it's even close this year.

It's an absolute monster right now.

Before we let you go, one March Madness,

just one March Madness square.

I know it's baseball season,

but it's the start of the sweet 16 tonight.

If I'm not mistaken, I was checking out ESPN.com earlier.

And you had Arizona as your eventual tournament champion

and they go tonight against John Calapari

and Arkansas, will you be watching the game tonight?

Let's see, it's a 9.45, sorry.

I don't know if I'll make it up to the end, but I will.

So you know what's funny is I didn't, I don't do a bracket,

but because I work for ESPN and they ask,

all they ask us for, I think, is final four and champion.

I believe so.

That's all I did.

And as you started telling the story,

I was like, who did I pick, who did I pick, who did I pick?

You got Arizona.

Honestly, I turned the page so fast to baseball,

partially because the job requires it.

And who knows, so if I worked on the tournament,

if I worked for CBS or TBS, obviously,

it would be a whole different story.

But my season ends about a week and a half ago

at the end of conference play.

But Arizona is great.

Florida's already out.

Duke's not quite 100% although they're getting healthier.

And I think Michigan is great, but they're playing without.

They've lost their backup point card, which hurts them.

If LJKson hadn't have been hurt, I would have picked Michigan.

I think Michigan's sensational.

But Arizona, because of that one Michigan injury,

that kind of tilted the scales.

But honestly, I put about 30 seconds of time

into a email back to my guy in ESPN.

So Arizona's great.

And yeah, I will flip it on, but there's an excellent chance

like I doze off a wake up way.

Again, not to sound like the oldest 59-year-old

in the world, but it is opening day tomorrow.

But I will definitely check it out.

For me, more than anything, I really

get to know the coaches very, very well.

Like I've known all of these coaches for years and years

and years.

And it's one of my favorite parts of the college basketball

job is the relationship I have with guys like Eric Barnes

and Richard John Shire, or Dusty May, or whoever.

So looking forward to watching games when I can.

And I'm quite sure the next couple of nights

are going to be a lot of drama.

Hey, Dan, we've only got a couple of minutes,

but since you're talking about the coaches, real quick,

do they like the NIL era, or do they not like it?

They, I mean, I think they're glad, many of them

were players themselves, right?

Obviously.

So I think they're glad that the players

are getting what most people feel they deserve.

But it's just changed the whole nature of the business.

It used to be about, you'd go scout a guy in high school

in AAU, and you'd go to the home and meet the parents

and develop a relationship, and I'll take good care

of your son, and that's gone.

Now, it's business, right?

It's how much can you pay me?

How much will you play me?

And so I think it's that.

I don't think they love it, but I think the younger guys,

and I mean, guys, in their late 30s and early 40s

as coaches, they're better suited probably to deal with it.

We've seen some older coaches who, without quite saying it,

or although some have said, this isn't for me anymore,

it's just so different than it used to be.

It's the toothpaste is out of the tube,

and it ain't going back in.

So there's that, and there's also the unlimited transfers

now, all of a sudden.

I can't tell you how many times I said this year,

playing for his fourth school in four years.

It's so different.

When I started doing this in the 90s,

whether it was Tim Duncan or Chris Paul or Paul Pierce,

or whatever, you knew where guys were going to be, right?

And so I kind of missed an element of that.

I think the sport has lost something, but then again,

ratings were higher this year than they've been in years

and years and years.

Every network, every night, every game.

The quality of play is higher, because of NIL,

guys who would normally put their name into the draft

and then maybe wind up not getting drafted

and go play in Europe or something, they're staying in school.

Yeah, because they can make more money,

make more money playing college ball

than they can make playing in, you know, Hungary

or in the G-League or Italy or wherever it is.

So the quality of play is higher.

And this, you know, this draft is exceptional.

This was a, and continues to be a great, great year.

But to answer your question, I think it's just something

that coaches know they've got to deal with.

If you want to win the game, you got to,

you got to play by the new rules.

Damn, this was awesome.

As always, thank you very much for taking the time

to do this today.

All right, guys, enjoy the start of the season.

Yeah, you too.

Thank you.

That's Dan Shulman play by play voice

of the Toronto Blue Jays here on the Helford and Breath Show

on SportsNet, 650.

Got a lot more to get into on the program.

Our one is in the books, our two on the horizon,

on the other side of the break.

Max Boltman is going to join the program Detroit Red Wings

reporter for the athletic Detroit has a couple days off.

Here is they sit and take a collective deep breath

and see what's going on around them as they slip a little bit

further, seemingly every day out of the playoff picture

in the east.

Are the Red Wings going to miss the playoffs this year?

And if they do, what will the fallout be?

We'll talk to Max Boltman about that.

On the other side of the break,

you're listening to the Helford and Breath Show on SportsNet, 650.