(upbeat music) Welcome to In the Booth on Sportsnet 650 with my self-branded bachelor and Randy Janda. Thanks for joining us again for a post trade deadline edition of the show in Randeep. We were geared up for a big day on Friday. The Canucks hadn't made any moves in the week leading up yet. They had been connected to Jake Genssel. Obviously, he went to Carolina on Thursday. There was talk of a Phil Kessel signing. There were other names in the mix. Would they go after Tyler Tofoli? If they couldn't get him, what about Jason Zucker? All of these things were floating around. We had talked about how Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen have been the most aggressive management group in the NHL over the past few months, certainly since taking over as the brain trust of the Canucks organization. And I'll be honest, quite surprised that we're sitting here recording this on Friday afternoon as the deadline has passed and the Canucks did not make any player transactions at all prior to the noon trade deadline on Friday. Yeah, that's a consensus. The surprise, I think amongst the fan base, even disappointment's been a word, but when you start looking at the list of transactions this team has made over the last number of months, going back to Nikita Zadora, I've even further backed to Sam Lafferty and what they were able to add, Elias Lindholm, of course, at the all-star break, you can understand where they acted first. They acted earlier than a lot of teams, but I think there was an expectation. I can speak personally. I thought one of the areas, if you're not able to hit a home run with the top six winger, I just expected this team to pick up maybe another defenseman in a depth role, and that didn't happen. So a lot of surprise when the clock struck noon that the Vancouver Canucks had no transaction, and if you start looking across the Pacific Division, you start looking across the Western Conference, we know a lot of the other teams that are chasing them right now did make some big moves, but part of that has to go back to Lindholm's deal, right? That deal at the beginning of February is essentially their massive move. Yeah, and I was on with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drantz in the lead-up to the deadline earlier on Friday and sort of talked about it as being like, on Christmas morning, you don't get a present 'cause your parents bought you a new bike a month ago and they told you when they were getting you that bike that that was going to be your present. You know, it kind of leaves a hollow feeling, and I'm sure for fans, that is the case when your team is a cup contender, when you're at the trade deadline, when you think there are areas of the roster that you can improve and you want to add. And so I think we should probably take some time here to kind of flesh out why the Canucks weren't able to make any moves prior to the deadline and what it means in the short term, as they still look to be a Stanley Cup contender, look, they're still top of the Western Conference, they're still very much on track to go to the playoffs and have an excellent chance to go on a deep run with the season they've put together and the roster that Al Veen and Rutherford have put together in the lead-up to the trade deadline. But there are a few factors here and I think, you know, the one you touch on there is that they jumped the market, they got their business done early. And look, could they have improved this roster even more? Yes, but they had a price that they weren't willing to pay and I think there is value to that and we can talk about that a little bit more as we carry forward in terms of maybe a longer term view of this team and how they're going to carry on beyond this year. But you can understand fans in the short term saying, hey, you're a cup contender, you've already given up your first round pick to bring in Elias Lindholm. Why wouldn't you make another move? Why wouldn't you be aggressive? And, you know, first of all, it seems like the price that teams were asking of the Canucks, and again, I think we can oftentimes get into convoluted conversations about, oh, Winnipeg only had to give up a second and a third for Tyler Tafoli. How come the Canucks couldn't match that? These trade conversations are often fluid and it's not necessarily the same deal being offered to Winnipeg that's being offered to Vancouver. There's all sorts of factors that play into that. But I think what was very clear from Patrick Levine's messaging at the press conference and when he was on with Sat and Dan on Canucks Central as well is they have a belief in their young core and they are not willing to completely compromise their future just to try and go all in on this season. - And that's a big fact because you start looking at the upcoming, of course, the playoffs. You try to win as much as you possibly can, but this team is not, despite the narrative in this market, going all in implies that you're willing to trade your best prospects. It implies that you're willing to trade every possible draft pick that you can get your hands on because it's all about the here and now. The Vancouver Canucks are not that. Have they traded draft picks? Have they traded prospect? Sure they have, but when you have an untouchables in your system, that means they're untouchable because you're not willing to go all in. So to me, A, keeping an eye to the future is really important with this team, especially based on a couple of things. So a couple of names that Patrick Levine mentioned in the press conference of, there was demand for younger players like Tom Villander, Yeonathan Leckermaki, Elise Patterson, the defenseman. He mentioned a few other names like Vasily Podkolzen, Arsti Bantz, and Max Sasson as well. And I think the reason you have to mention those names if you're Patrick Levine, a couple of fronts, you wanna name the guys that are a part of your youth kind of system. But at the same time, batch, looking ahead to July, this year, there's a bunch of UFAs that the Canucks are gonna have to address, whether that's Dakota Joshua, whether that's Teddy Blueger, whether that's a new contract for Phil Epironic and what that looks like. If you're unable to strike those deals with the UFAs, impending UFAs anyways, you're gonna need players in your system to replace them. So if the cupboards or bear come July, where are you gonna get those players to graduate? So I think that was a really important factor here with this team where you're looking at the here and now of course you wanna address it, but you also have to keep an eye on the future because there is going to be a need with some of those names I mentioned, maybe in the short term, definitely in the long term, but maybe even in the short term, starting next year. - Yeah, and this kind of to me ties back to the Elias Patterson extension, which of course, as was chronic hold on last week's show, came out on Saturday morning after we had recorded most of the show on Friday and you were dealing with Hockey Night in Canada, Punjabi commitments. So I recorded an insert talking about the Patterson contract and what it meant for the organization. And ultimate blue guy, by the way, I gotta say Brendan Bachelorette, making sure he got the insert in there while I was off doing something else. That's a team guy right there. - Hey, we get it done however we can get it done. But I think I misread the situation with the Patterson extension because on last week's show, I talked about how having the cost certainty would allow them to be more aggressive because they would have a better long-term view of their cap scenario. And as a result, they could go and try and target a player prior to the deadline that they can either then extend or they could go and target a player that had term left on their contract rather than giving up more premium assets for yet another rental that could walk in the summer as they already did with Elias Lindholm. So there's a couple of things on this. One, I think the exact opposite happened, which is they got certainty on Patterson. So now they feel their window is longer than maybe it might have been if there was a worry that Patterson was gonna walk at the end of the season. And in fact, they felt less urgency to compliment this group right now because guess what? If Elias Patterson's locked up long-term, if you got Hughes under contract, Demko under contract, Miller under contract, then in theory, if you make the right moves around those guys, this is a longer window. This is, we're talking two, three, four seasons, potentially, where you could be a Stanley Cup contender. So why would you give up all your future assets for a rental that can only help you this year if you think you've got multiple years where you could be in contention to try and go and win a Stanley Cup with this core group? So that's the first factor in all of this for me with Patterson is that extending him opens up their window a little bit and I think that'll be interesting to follow. The other thing that stood out to me, and this is something that Patrick Alveen said on the interview with Sat and Dan on Canucks Central, which if you haven't heard it, go check out the podcast, Canucks Central podcast feed. Guess what? You find in the booth on the Canucks Central podcast feed as well. So if you're listening to us on the radio, you missed any part of the show. Subscribe to Canucks Central. You get Sat and Dan, you get the post game shows, you get our weekly show in the booth. But Alveen alluded to the fact that there were some conversations and I'm paraphrasing here. So if I don't say it exactly the way he said it, then please forgive me. But what he alluded to was that they may have had conversations with teams who weren't ready to sell yet and that that could be something that happens in the off season. And so that to me ties into what I was just talking about that there are some moves they might like to make. There are some players that they had conversations on this week. You can't get a deal done. Yeah, that's not gonna help you for the stretch run this year. But guess what? If you feel you're a legitimate Stanley Cup contender for at least the next few years, you've got options in the off season. And what else do you have in the off season? Flexibility. And why do you have that flexibility? Because of all these pending unrestricted free agents that we keep talking about. You don't have to bring them all back. You know, maybe a guy like Haronek comes in at a lower number than you want. Maybe you choose to move on from someone like Tyler Myers or Ian Cole or even Teddy Blueger to go to Joshua. And that's not me saying that I think the organization is going to do that. But what will happen in the summer that is not the case for this team right now is that they will have cap flexibility. They will have options and that will open a lot of doors for them that quite frankly were closed at the deadline because of the salary cap situation they're in right now. For sure. And when you start talking about some of the names, I know Ian McIntyre sent out a tweet earlier today. He also mentioned on our hit on SportsNet television during the trade deadline coverage. But Frank Vittrano and Pavel Butch Nevich. Right now, those two names are the ones that have been kind of surfaced here as two players that might be of that profile where you're looking at. But come the off season batch, that list expands significantly because you've got much more potential supply on the market where there's teams that are saying, hey, we're up against the cap or we're looking for a change of scenery for this player. Maybe you're in a situation where a team underachieved in the playoffs and they're looking to shake it up. So that two person list that we're talking about because those individuals had a little bit term and they were not impending UFAs, that could expand to four, eight. Maybe there's 10 players that we're considering and their Canucks are considering in terms of adding players that might be a little bit younger, but at the very least have a little bit of term. And that's why in the short term, does that make you feel better as a Canucks fan that the Canucks did not act here at the deadline? I think it should because we have to be realistic on two fronts. One is the assets are not there. If you start looking at how many draft picks this team has and they've traded away, at some point, you can't be dealing third round, second round picks, first round picks all over the place. And the Canucks right now, the way that I look at it, the next three years of drafts, it's a pretty depleted draft capital. So you have to be careful about when you start tapping into 20, 26 draft picks and all of that. The other thing is, to your point, there's no cap flexibility right now. So one of the reasons you have to kick the can down the road and ensure more flexibility in the offseason is because you've made your move. So I look at that July and around the draft as there's going to be more teams that are looking to shake it up, maybe move off players, the supply's going to be there. And most importantly for me, Batch, is are you able to find a winger that's in their mid-20s, that you have a few years of control? And that really is, really, you know, when you're talking about cost certainty, we talked about it with Elias Patterson, you also need to address that on the wing spot because sure, Jake Genssel could have given you, you know, an answer for this year. We don't know about the extension. We don't know how much he's seeking. It seems like a very high number based on his production. There was a younger player who's locked in for a couple of years. You get some more flexibility there and you can also surround your core with more players because you potentially save a little bit on the cap. - Yeah, and the other factor too is, you know, Alveen talked about not wanting to give up more of these assets and whether you believe the Canucks could have matched or beaten offers on guys like Genssel, for example, or Tifoli is one thing. But the fact that they've given up so many of these assets already means that they were loathed to give up more and we're looking at rental players here. There's a chance you could go and sign guys like this on the open market come July and not give up any assets. And yeah, you won't have them for this year's playoff run, but it's kind of funny and I saw a tweet from someone to, you know, this extent on Twitter today and I don't have the direct quote and I don't have the tweet in front of me. So I apologize and I would give credit if I had it, but it just comes to mind here where someone talked about, you know, when this team was struggling, people wanted a management group that had a longer term view of things. Now that the team's good, the management group is saying, okay, we've got a bit of a window here. We don't need to go all in this year. And now people are upset because they want them to go all in. So it's kind of a, you know, damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. But the fact that there isn't that urgency for management, I think speaks to the confidence they have in their core players and the confidence in their own abilities to surround those core players with pieces that will allow them to win that meant they didn't try to force something. They didn't overpay. They didn't give up young players that they want to keep in the fold like Lecker Mackey, like Vlander, even Podkolzen as someone that's come up here in the last week and has performed pretty well at the NHL level. And, you know, as much as it might sound counterintuitive to the Canucks fan listening right now that's disappointed that they didn't make a move. And certainly I understand that because this is a great team that's put itself in a great situation. They have been very healthy this year. None of their core players have been hurt, knock on wood. So you would have liked to have seen them really add to this team and try and give them the best chance to win the Stanley Cup this year. The fact that this is a management group that didn't panic or didn't try to force something and is instead willing to be patient and willing to wait for their moment to be more aggressive, even though they've already been pretty aggressive, I think is something that I gain confidence from actually as someone that follows this team because it feels like there's a steady hand on the wheel as opposed to somebody that's just chasing something in the short term and not thinking about how it's going to affect the organization one, two, three, four years down the road. And I used to use this analogy, you know, when the Canucks didn't have a president of hockey operations and essentially, you know, a sports organization is, it's kind of like, you know, a tanker, right? A cruise ship where you have to, yes, you have to be nimble, but at the same time, you got to make sure that you're not making zigzags all over the place and changing your identity and all of a sudden, you know, every year changing up the situation. No, you have to make sure that you're guiding this thing smoothly and it takes a couple of years to get a vision out there. And I think with today and it was going to be Canucks fans saying, hey, opportunity missed, but at the same time, what's the standard of excellence in a sport? Of course, winning the trophy and winning the Stanley Cup is the most important thing. That's why they played a game. That's why we cover the game, it's to win. But at the same time, how many kicks at the can do you want? Do you want one or do you want, you know, a five year window where you're saying, okay, you're going to put your team in a best position to succeed. And as much as you value, you know, players like Jake Genssel, if you're starting to throw in really important prospects, first round picks, you got to make sure that that move is going to get you, help you, you know, grab that, that five year window. And to me, I think, of course, Genssel's a good player. He's a point per game player in the playoffs. He will give Carolina points in the playoffs. We'll probably see that. But at the same time, you have to be looking the long term view, which is something that this organization lacked for a bunch of years. And now they're kind of, you know, dealing like that, that worldview, you can see, you know, essentially, the pieces come together and there's an element of, you're looking at this from 20,000 or 10,000 feet away rather than, you know, a hundred feet away. And that's the MO here, where if you want to build a solid organization year after year after year, you're going to have to sit some of those trades out. Not everybody is Vegas, Vegas is in win now mode. But at some point, Batch, it's going to catch up to them too. They've got a cup under the belt, but not every single team, it doesn't work out for every single team. So you got to make sure that you pick the right spot to do that. And Vancouver, the number one team in the Western Conference, they're going to be competitive, as Patrick Alvin said, but are you willing to go all in and trade away your untouchable prospects? You got to make sure when you do that, that is the right time. And as of right now, the management team doesn't feel it's the right time, which I don't mind, because you want to have that window where you have, you know, a five, six year window to say, we're going to be competitive, we're going to be right in the thick of it. It's about building consistency over a span of five or six years rather than having a one and done type of season. Yeah, and look, do I think Jake Genssel would have been a great fit on the wing with Elias Patterson? And that would have been a good ad and potentially an ad that is worth giving up one of those young prospects for? Sure, I do think that about Jake Genssel. But he's depending on restrictive free agent. So if you aren't able to get an extension firmed up with a player in those sorts of conversations, are you willing to risk giving up someone like Vlander or Lecker Mackey to bring in Genssel as a rental and then maybe resign him, but also maybe have him walk in free agency. And, you know, as much as you can look at these scenarios and say, oh, maybe they've cost themselves an opportunity to go deeper in the playoffs because they didn't make that move. Jim Rutherford said this at the press conference for his extension as well. And he talked about it, you know, when I asked him the question is that, you know, sometimes you make the move and it doesn't work out. Sometimes you don't make the move and it does work out. And we're obviously going to see how things transpire for the rest of this season and going forward over the next few years for the Canucks. And certainly there is a possibility that we look back on this season and say, this was their best chance to win a cup. They should have been more aggressive at the deadline, but hindsight is always 20/20. But think about this potential scenario. Let's say they do give up one of those premium prospects to go and get Jake Genssel, who by the way is not healthy right now, is recovering from an injury. So it won't be in Carolina's lineup right away. Then let's say the Canucks bring Genssel in and for whatever reason the chemistry doesn't fit and they go out early in the playoffs and he walks in unrestricted free agency. And suddenly you didn't have a deep playoff run and you don't have your premium prospect that you gave up in that trade to get Genssel and you don't have Genssel. Like, so I mean, this is all hypotheticals and people could say, okay, but hypothetically, what if you give up Genssel and you win the cup this year? Then who cares if you gave up that premium prospect? But I think the conversation that you were bringing up about giving yourself as many kicks at the can as possible is the one that's most important here. And I don't think this organization is completely unwilling to move their premium prospects or to move more premium pieces. They obviously don't have a first round pick that they can move this year because they've already done that in the Lindholm trade. But you're right, I think they're willing to wait for the key moment and it doesn't seem like this market at this trade deadline offered up that moment for them to strike. - Yeah, and I think one thing to keep in mind here, Batch, is that Jim Rutherford in his career has 34 deadline day deals. If there's a moment to be aggressive, you better believe Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alvin are going to take it. Their trade record this season, with six trades since October, speaks that their trade record of, since they came to Vancouver, they've made 20 trades and that's going back to March of 2022 as the first trade that they completed, that speaks to how serious and how aggressive they are. So if there's a spot to be aggressive, they're going to do it and it's funny how this market has the mindset changes, right? Where early on, I think whether it was a Travis Haminick deal or in that area, there was no, no, no, don't be aggressive. Of course, the team's fortunes were in a different situation at that point, but now with some success, of course, there's a lot of people in the market saying, you should have been more aggressive, but I think one thing to keep in mind is that this management team is not going to think twice in terms of pulling the trigger when they see a deal that makes sense for them. It's just a matter of, does it make sense in the not only short term, but medium and long term as well? You got to make sure that you play to all three of those scenarios and timelines because in order of building a healthy organization, you got to make sure that you keep an eye on all, the medium and long term as well. And hey, listen, if you're a Vegas or if you're in a situation like Vegas, where it's, you know, we got this window and we're going to try to win with every single year, well, at that point, you go all in, but Vancouver is not quite their batch in terms of their build. They could be there in a couple of years, but they're not there right now. - And let's be perfectly honest. You know, the moves that Vegas made at the deadline look like big splashes and look like, you know, a really aggressive team going all in. And certainly I love the hurdle acquisition for them. I think that's a piece that really gives them a boost that a lot of other teams in the West don't have. I think the Hanifen acquisitions a good one. The Mantha one I'm not quite as hot on. But at the same time, this is a Vegas team that's essentially been a 500 team since their strong start to the year. And it's entirely possible with the way that things are shaking down in the Western conference that the Golden Knights in spite of making all these go all in moves right now could be out in the first rounder. You know what, with where they're sitting right now, they are in danger of falling out of the playoff picture. Now, I don't expect that to happen, but I come back to what Rutherford said about sometimes you make aggressive moves and they don't work out. Sometimes they do work out. Sometimes you stand pat and it doesn't work out. Sometimes you stand pat and it does work out. And time is only going to tell for a team like Vegas whether those moves will serve them well, whether they're able to go on a deep playoff run and potentially win a second straight cup this year. Or whether being aggressive at this point actually was the wrong move because this was a team trending in the wrong direction and ultimately the assets that they gave up are going to hurt them over the longer term. Conversely, for the Canucks, as I said, we may years down the road look back at this year and say they should have been more aggressive or maybe we won't because maybe what happens in the years to come is going to set them up better for some more long-term success. - Well, on Vegas, they started off to season 11, 0 and 1 and since then they've been 500, right? So with all the additions you mentioned, of course you add a new energy, you add some excellent skill players to the roster but it takes time to get those players playing your style and really getting into that team, jelling with your teammates. So that doesn't happen immediately. So you're in a situation right now when you're Vegas, you got Calgary all of a sudden, if Calgary wins the game in hand, they're four points back. That's nothing. So I'd still bet on Vegas to win that battle against Calgary because Calgary is a team that's sold but it's going to take Hanifin, it's going to take hurdle, it's going to take Manta time to gel and we don't even still know if they're going to be a team that is able to make the playoffs. I'd expect them to do so but I think your point about, it's not a guarantee is extremely valid. So this is still a team and when we talk about those two teams, Vancouver and Vegas, that's 16 point gap, right? The Vancouver Canucks, the way that they are right now, it hasn't been perfect. The recency bias tells us they're a strong defensive team as LA and of course, Vegas were those match ups where the Canucks really locked in but still 16 point gap between Vancouver and Vegas tells you that Vancouver's been doing things right and maybe those early moves, they went through their growing pains where they lost six out of seven games. If they come out of that and they're better for it, maybe the Canucks did jump the market and that run away of getting new players incorporated into system. A Rutherford and Alvin could have been right on that because we're going to see how these other teams deal with new pieces in their lineup. - And we'll see what this means for the Canucks going forward on the ice now that the deadline has passed now that a guy like Elias Lindholm knows for sure that he's staying in Vancouver through the rest of this season after having his name in trade rumors this week and they get set to kick off a nine game home stand Saturday night against the Winnipeg Jets. We'll talk on the other side about the Canucks strong road trip, three wins in a row against all divisional opponents and a couple of big wins in particular in LA and in Vegas. And we'll look ahead to the rest of this month, nine consecutive games inside Rogers Arena starting on Saturday against the Jets. That's all still to come right here on in the booth on your official home of the Canucks sports net, 650. (upbeat music) - Welcome back to In the Booth on sports net 650 with myself branded bachelor and Randi Jandte. If you missed any part of the show listening on the radio right now, guess what, you're in luck. It lives as a podcast as well on the Canucks Central podcast feed. Subscribe to that feed. You get Canucks Central every weekday with Sat and Dan. You get every post game show with Sat and Beck and you get in the booth every week with myself and Randi. So before the break, we talked about the trade deadline, the Canucks were not very active prior to the deadline at noon on Friday, but on the ice, things have been trending in the right direction again after a couple of weeks of, I guess we could call it maybe an extended stumble. They've won three games in a row. In particular, I was impressed with the come from behind the win in LA to beat the Kings in overtime on the road and a really complete performance against the Golden Knights on Thursday. And now Vancouver comes home and has a lot of home cooking and a pretty quiet schedule in March. Nine games the rest of this month, no back-to-backs, and this is a big opportunity in the schedule for this team. And not to say it's gonna be easy because there are some tough opponents on this home stand, Randi, and that starts on Saturday night with the Winnipeg Jets coming to town. But to have all this time between games, to not be playing back-to-backs, to get a ton of practice time for Rick Talkett to work through some things with his team, big opportunity for the Canucks, not just to potentially extend their lead atop the division, but solidify their game heading into April and be good in terms of a process standpoint ahead of the playoffs. - And that's really the key. When you're talking about, you know, playing the game that you wanna play and limiting what the other team's able to produce, and you talk about those three games in two of those games, the Canucks were able to almost triple, you know, the high danger chances of the opposition against Anaheim. They controlled 71% of the high danger chances. It gains LA 82% against Vegas, 66%. Impressive on two fronts, not necessarily because they're creating that much more, but they're really limiting what the other team is able to create. And against Vegas who, you know, has firepower, A, Vegas didn't look very good, and B, when they tried to get into the game, what I loved about Vancouver's style of play was, everything was kept to the outside. They out Vegas, Vegas in their own style of game. This is something that, you know, the Las Vegas Golden Knights last year in the playoffs were able to keep everything to the outside where they had those, you know, towering redwood of defenseman, essentially blocking everything, and there was no room on the ice to penetrate the middle of the ice. Vancouver did that against the Vegas team that has players like Ivan Barbershev who tried to really just smash their way to the net. Jack Eichl, who is as skilled and as slippery as some of the best players in the NHL, but they were unable to do that. Marcheso, when, you know, he's lived in the middle of the ice over the last couple of years, scoring big goals in the regular season and in the playoffs. So for this team to play that style against that team was really impressive to me, not only in terms of blocking shots, the numbers weren't all that high, but, you know, about to watch in that game, covering that game alongside you, how many sticks did the Canucks get pucks on? They were disrupting and did not give anything to the Golden Knights. It was a pretty easy night for one Thatcher, Demko. So I look at those three games and the Vegas one is the one I really loved because that was a truly a playoff style. How do you keep a team from the guts of the ice as Rick Talkett calls it? How do you push them into the outside? How do you limit what they can do? The Canucks were able to do that to a very savvy, you know, Cup winning team in the Vegas Golden Knights. Yeah, and they got back to some of the staples of the game as you alluded to protecting the guts of the ice is one of them, but I thought in particular against LA and against Vegas and to a lesser extent against Anaheim, although the Ducks aren't the same level of opposition as those other two teams, they got back to playing a patient game. They weren't trying to chase things. They weren't getting out of position trying to make things happen. And that's something that we had talked about and Rick Talkett had referenced, you know, as recently as last week where, you know, at times they were reverting to some of their old habits and duplicating mistakes and getting themselves in bad situations because of that. So I don't know if it was a switch that flipped or whether they just needed something to go well for them again and winning in Anaheim and then, you know, going into LA and having a chance to get revenge against a King's team that really outplayed them in the meeting the previous week in Vancouver, but whatever it is, they seem to have found that part of their game again that allows them to be that stifling defensive team and sure, they didn't create a lot of offense in these games. It's not like they were high scoring wins and there is still room to improve for this team in that regard, but on a three game road trip with two games against teams that you might face next month in the playoffs, you only gave up three goals. That says a lot, not only about the goal-tending 'cause I thought, you know, Casey Desmith was good against Anaheim and that Thatcher-Gemko was great and particularly made that huge save on Alex Turcotte in the LA game to keep it tied late and allow the Canucks to win it in overtime. But if you can win games two to one, that's a tremendous asset to be able to have when it comes to the playoffs. - Yeah, especially against those teams, right? Where they play that style, if you can beat them at that game and listen, there's gonna be some games where maybe structure for both teams goes aside and it might be a four, three or a five, four game, but in the playoffs, those are rare. You need to be able to win a three goal game or whether it's a four or five goal game on the maximum, but they're pretty low scoring affairs generally, batch, and you talked about, you know, what's gone right for this team. And of course, them having a little bit of practice time here and there is, you know, provided them with work on those details of their game. They're gonna get more on home ice, but another thing that I don't think we can look at in the past is the return of Carson Susie, right? On the back end, this is a guy that just plays a calm game and the last two games that he's played against some pretty difficult opposition. The Vancouver Canucks have played sound and it's not solely on Carson Susie, but that certainly has an impact where it's just a balance on that defensive side of things for this team and he's playing on his right side. He's a guy that hasn't necessarily done too much of that in his career, but so far so good. And just having the poise on the puck, making the right play when he's got the puck on his stick, but also the way that they defend the blue line is very different when Carson Susie's on the ice and that ability to deny zone entries. You know, the Canucks do it so much better when Carson Susie's back. So you're right, you know, winning those games, it's really important, that style of game, but when you can get players like Susie back in the lineup, that just adds another layer of protection for a Rick Talkett to say, all right, we can play our game now now that we have a key piece back. - And I've said this before, but I'll say it again, I don't think it's a coincidence that the Canucks two worst stretches of hockey this season were stretches when Carson Susie was out of the lineup. Now, I'm not gonna hang it all on Carson Susie like he's this miracle mister fix it that comes in on the back end and all the team's ills are cured, but you're right. I think he has a calming influence. There are a lot of positive assets to his game. And as this team starts to get healthy again, if they can continue trending in the right direction with their play, then you almost look at a club that could peak at the right time. Like Dakota Joshua, according to Patrick Alvee, and on Friday is 10 days to two weeks away. We're hearing a similar timeline for Tyler Myers. So assuming you don't have any more injuries in the interim, you're looking at being pretty close to fully healthy by the end of this homestand at the latest. And then you're going into April and you've just got a few games left at that point before going into the playoffs. And so much of having playoff success is peaking at the right time. That I think the fact that they had this little wobble and again, we hope it's just a little wobble. We hope they're out of it now and that they're gonna go on a good run here through this homestand, but it was almost perfect timing that you go through your struggles at a time in the season where maybe some other teams around you and the standings are having a bit of a battle as well and you don't lose that much ground. And now you can round your game into form again so that you can peak at the right time heading into the postseason. - For sure. And the opposition is gonna be the next two games, especially against the Jets and the Colorado Avalanche. The Jets, the last time they played the Vancouver Canucks, they lost the Avalanche the first two times this season that the Canucks have played them, they've lost. One thing I've liked about Vancouver's game is Boston first match-up of the season, they lost the second time out, they ended up winning. LA Kings, same story. Vegas Golden Knights going way back to November 30th and Fieldie Giuseppe mentioned this in his interview post-game with Murph that they keep these things in mind. They remember losing to Vegas on the 30th. They did not want that to repeat. This is a team that cares and their next game against that same opposition matters. So, you know, the Jets, that was a feisty affair. The first time that they played this season, the Jets ended up beating Vancouver and the third period of that game kind of went awry for Vancouver. I'm sure the guys in that locker room will remember that game and say, we can't let that happen again, we got to beat this team. Colorado's done it to them twice. I'm sure that's on the back of their mind. So, to me, this is a rehearsal for the playoffs. You're playing four really good teams that you could at some point play in the Western Conference playoff pitcher. LA and Vegas are two teams that you could immediately, you know, be playing in the first round. With Winnipeg and Colorado, you might see them later on, potential Western Conference final. If you make it that far, this four game stretch to me is, all right, if this is kind of a tale of the tape before those boxing matches come up and I think, you know, both teams are probably saying, all right, this is how we stack up against these guys. There's an extra motivation or extra juice going through the entire team when they see these, I think, match ups on the schedule. - And this is another conversation we can get into now in light of the fact that the deadline has passed, the rosters are set. The two teams coming in in Winnipeg and Colorado are both teams that did make moves prior to the trade deadline. And I know Tyler Tofoli's not expected to be in Winnipeg's lineup on Saturday night, but I'm interested in your thoughts about the moves that were made by the other teams around Vancouver. We already sort of touched on Vegas earlier in the show, but, you know, Colorado brings in Sean Walker from Philadelphia, brings in Casey Metalstadt to replace Ryan Johansson as their second line center. Essentially, Winnipeg had already acquired Sean Monahan before bringing into Foley on deadline day. But I've said this a couple of places already. I'll say it here and get your reaction. I don't really think that the moves that some of these other teams made change this picture for the Canucks that much because they have been so successful. And for the most part, they have been so consistent this year that, look, is there roster perfect? No, it's not. Would it have been better for them to add a top six forward to this mix? I'm sure it would have been. Jim Rutherford would even admit that because he was open about that's the kind of player they were targeting going into the deadline that they ultimately weren't able to get. But just because they didn't make those ads doesn't mean that they can't go up against almost any team in the Western Conference, if not any team in the Western Conference. And, you know, as much as the Vegas moves, I think we're really aggressive, as much as I like what Colorado did, as much as Winnipeg, you know, has added a pretty bonafide scorer here in Tyler to Foley. I don't look at any of those three teams and say, "Oh, I'm way more scared of facing them now "than I was a week ago." Yeah, the other one I would add is Chris Tan of to Dallas, which is only one move, but it's a pretty sizable move. Those are kind of your heavyweights in the Western Conference. When it comes to Vancouver, I think, you know, you and I are in agreement. I've been talking a little bit more about depth to be like, "Okay, hard skill, "and if you can get something on the back end, "that would be nice because you're gonna need "defencement in the playoffs." But when you start talking about some of the other moves, and I think Vegas, even though they made a lot of, you know, eye-popping moves, that's a heck of a job that these guys are gonna have to do here to write their game and get everybody on the same page, essentially in a month batch. So, you know, it's gonna be a lot of work. The team that I like and I love their moves, I think Winnipeg did a good job picking up to Foley. They picked up Sean Monahan, similar to the Laius Lindholm deal, and even adding a depth-defencement in Colin Miller. But I think Colorado was the team to me where they added, "Sure, a lot of pieces kind of like Vegas, "but they sprinkled in, you know, depth signings, "whether it's trades, whether it's do-hame, "whether it was Yakov-Trennan, "Casey Middlestadt really solidifying their second line "and getting, you know, saying goodbye to Ryan Johansson "who didn't work out there." And of course, Sean Walker on the back end. I really like their moves. Vancouver, the standard is high, right? These teams, even though they were able, some of them were able to beat the Vancouver Canucks, who has been the most consistent team in the NHL this year, it's really two teams. It's either Vancouver or the Florida Panthers. It really comes down to those two teams. I would throw the Boston Bruins in there as well. It really comes down to those three teams. So, when we're talking about what is the standard in the West, it is Vancouver and, you know, it's on some of those other teams that we just mentioned, Dallas, Winnipeg, Colorado, and of course, Vegas, who are 16 points back to change that story. So, I'm with you. I don't think the Canucks needed a full-on facelift here. They don't need reconstructive surgery on anything. If they could tinker a little bit, if they could add a little bit, it would have helped. But this is still one of the most consistent teams in the NHL. And yeah, I think there's a couple of scary teams in the Western Conference, if everything clicks. I'm looking at Colorado as probably the one that I think is a big winner, just with the type of players that they added. But, you know, if the Canucks are facing them in the playoffs, that means they made it to the Western Conference final. That means, you know, if you've had some progress in the first couple of rounds in the playoffs, which is great signs for the Vancouver Canucks. - Yeah, and in terms of, you know, changing their forward mix or having other players that could provide some of those assets that we were looking at in potential trade targets prior to the deadline, I think that's part of the reason why they've given Baines and Podkols in a look here over the last little bit, is to see what those guys can bring. And, you know, certainly with Baines, but maybe especially with Podkols in, you've liked a lot of the things you've seen in the game of these young players that make you believe that, you know what, Vasily Podkols in could be in the lineup late in the season, could be in the lineup in the playoffs and could bring something down the lineup that they haven't had, at least in recent weeks. And of course, this mix is gonna change when Dakota Joshua comes back up front, when Tyler Myers comes back on the back end too. So these are all factors that will continue to follow and track in the coming weeks. We've got a few minutes left, so let's get to some listener questions. And our first one comes from Ryan. Good friend to the show, he hosts a local hockey podcast, pucks on net, so make sure to give them a listen. He asks, which Western Conference team faces the biggest risk of being this year's Boston Bruins or New York Rangers, two teams who loaded up with huge names at the deadline, only to be bounced quick in the first round. And to me, the obvious answer is the Vegas Golden Knights. You know, obviously the hurdle trade is a more long-term acquisition, but as we stand right now at time of recording, Manta and Hannafen are both rentals and with how Vegas's game has been trending, as we were talking about earlier, I think this has a chance to blow up in the face of the Golden Knights. - Yeah, it's hard to disagree with that because here's the difference between Vegas and Colorado. Colorado made a lot of moves too. They've essentially added one new player on, three of their four lines, and they've added a defenseman, a quality one, but still that's a lot of movement. But you know what the Colorado Avalanche have? They have cushion in the standings, right? Where they're going to be in one of the top three spots in the Central Division. With Vegas, they're going to be in a situation where they're probably fighting for their playoff lives to a certain extent. If they don't get on track here, Batch, you know, the first round is one thing, but there's still a mathematical chance that one of the other teams, most notably Calgary, who keeps on winning after trading away their best players, can make this interesting if Vegas does not sort out their issues, and Bruce Cassidy was not happy after the Vancouver game, but I would agree with you. I think it has to be Las Vegas, but you know, Colorado potentially with all the moving parts, but I just think they've got some padding there. I don't see them dropping off. And in the playoffs, you know, if they get the one seed, we'll see if they get the two or three seed. Whoever's in that two or three seed in the Central, it's going to be an absolute, you know, hard fought series. It's going to be a bit of a war in that first round. So the Central is wide open right now. - Another question in here from @LionelHuts01 on Twitter, our good buddy from The Simpsons. He asks, "What happened with Phil Kessel?" And the short answer is that Patrick Alveen talked about being an LTIR in their cap situation, and it just wasn't a fit to sign Kessel at this time. I believe that, but I'll also say this. If Kessel had come in and blown them away in terms of how he looked and the level he was at, then I think they probably could have found a way to bring him in. And I think maybe the most telling comment from Alveen when talking about Kessel today was he referenced the way that the Canucks play. And as much as Kessel at his peak was a sniper who was a guy that provided a lot of production on that HBK line winning the cup in Pittsburgh at this point in his career into his mid to late thirties. I don't know if Phil Kessel is the type of player this team needed. - Yeah, that's identity of this team is not what I would see as Phil Kessel's forte right now, especially at 36 years of age. You know, this is a guy that played nearly 1,300 games. He's just shy of 1,000 points, but Batch, the other thing is, and you know, talking to some players across the league, Phil Kessel as a player has also changed over the last couple of years, right? He was, you talked about a sniper in the NHL in his prime, but he's gone a little bit more past centric. He's not the same player. So, you know, it's a nice story to have, but if you're a Vancouver, you got to look at the mix you have right now and it does it make sense. Would you take that player, even if you did have cap space, would you take that player and have to bump one of the other players that maybe play closer to your identity? It's a very tricky situation because, yeah, it comes down to really, what can you expect from the player, a guy that hasn't played in 10 months? And, you know, right now, you're number one in the Western Conference. These little decisions and the type of player you have, maybe you're going to have to wave a player after picking up Phil Kessel and potentially lose a player. You have to really look at these situations because identity of the team matters. And I'm with you that, you know, the style of plaything is, the more you think about it, it does make sense. Which line would he fit on? I don't really see a fit. All right, that's almost all the time we've got on the show. Of course, we have to get the Rose Ceremony in before we get out of here, Ran Deep. So I'll let you do the honors. Who are you giving your Rose to this week? All right, I'm giving my Rose to a player that over three games has shown that he's got something different in his game. Vasili Podkolsen, compared to last year, I just see a much more confident player, a player that's playing on instinct. I love the way he's attacking empty space in the neutral zone where he's getting to the red line to dump the pucks in. Or whether he's, you know, not necessarily rushing plays, but he's comfortable with the puck on his stick. I don't know if that's going to lead to him being an everyday NHLer at this point right now, this season. I don't know if it's going to lead to, you know, him being a playoff performer or playing up the lineup, but what I do see is progress. And for that, he gets my Rose. I'm going to go with Thatcher Demko this week. And look, we could give a Rose to Demko almost any week throughout the season for the way that he's played this year, although I think he went through a bit of a personal stretch where his game wasn't at the level that he would have liked at the same time, that the team was struggling, but he makes the massive save on Alex Turcotte in the LA game that ultimately allows the Canucks to go on and win. And then he goes into Vegas against the Golden Knights. And while the team did well in terms of chance suppression in front of him, he still makes 27 saves on 28 shots and backstops them to a 3-1 win. It's going to be interesting to see how Demko's minutes are managed here the rest of the way, especially through this homestand with no back-to-backs and how much they get Casey to Smith in there in the coming weeks. But Demko was a big part of the Canucks' resurgence in the past week, and he gets my Rose. Okay, Randy, before we get out of here, you've got Hockey Night in Canada, Punjabi coming up on Saturday night, tee up the program for us. What should we look forward to? All right, our East Coast game is Montreal and Toronto, so some rivalry there, and of course, the West Coast game. Winnipeg Jets, Vancouver Canucks, can the Canucks get some revenge for that earlier defeat on Hockey Night in Canada, Punjabi this weekend? And I'll have the call of the Canucks and Jets alongside former NHLer Brett Festerling right here on Sportsnet 650. Pre-game show goes at 6 o'clock on Saturday night and the drop of the puck will be just after. Seven, we'll talk to you next week on In the Booth. Again, you can get it as a podcast if you missed any part of the show on the Canucks Central podcast feed. Keep it locked right here on your official home of the Canucks Sportsnet 650.
