[MUSIC PLAYING] Connect Central Tuesday, it's Dan Reicho, Satyar Shah. In the Kintec Studio, Connect Central is for enzyme-Pacific Vancouver's premier Chrysler, Dodge Ram, and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Canby and Maine. Or at enzyme-Pacific-crysler.ca. Not much suspense from the Canucks today regarding Thatcher-Demko's injury. Rick Talkett confirming week-to-week lower body injury. LBI is the diagnosis. And he is not worried about Demko not being ready for the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Well, that's reassuring, to some degree. But at the same time, the only thing we're going to know is what he looks like when he returns. And hopefully, when he returns, he looks good. And hopefully, he returns to get enough games before the end of the season that you feel good about him being your number one guy in the postseason. Yeah. Well, we'll have our goalie guru, Kevin Woodley, on tomorrow. And he'll dive into all of this and the particulars about that through Demko and, of course, Casey to Smith. But also, how many games does a starting goalie get in the preseason, right? Two, two and a half? Yeah. As long as Demko gets two to three games in before the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I think you'd feel pretty comfortable. And when he came back from injury last year, he got off to a pretty good start, right? End of the season strong. At the start of this season, start of the season strong. So maybe the rest could be good for him. Maybe I'm also just feeling very optimistic, given the gorgeous weather out this afternoon. Listen, there's nothing wrong with taking the optimistic outlook on things like this. It's good. Instead of doing the doom and gloom concerned thing. Yeah. So that is the latest on Thatcher, Demko. But it's time for the open. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to the open. Oh! That's your home. Are you too good for your home? Answer me! Another bit of news from the Vancouver Canucks today. The open where we give you the latest and bring our takes on the Vancouver Canucks. Tyler Myers returned to practice and could get in as early as tomorrow, if not Saturday against the Washington Capitals. Good news in terms of having more defensive depth, depending on who you ask. Is it bad news as far as who comes out of the line-ups of Myers can return? Well, I mean-- That's an open debate. How good have the Canucks been in these last few games? Defensively without Tyler Myers in the line-up. The Canucks have allowed three goals in four games and no more than one goal in any game in those four without Tyler Myers. So, fact only, the Canucks have played some of their best cleanest hockey of the NHL season without Tyler Myers. That's a fact. Yes. Does that mean they're better without Myers? Some would say yes. Others may be more measured in how they answer that question. And I'm going to try to be a bit more measured on this one. And that being measured never happened before. But no, I was going to say, you're only unmeasured when it comes to the Browns or Chelsea. Yes. Or depending on which diminutive Canucks player is having struggles in any given night. But that's a conversation for a different day. Well, we'll talk about that on a different day. But I think the thing with Myers that I was concerned about is more about, hey, do you want shoe-horning back into the line-up? Because if you do that, I'm like, hey, the way they've gone is it not just better to let them roll and then bring him in whenever the need arises, or maybe they hit a little bit of a bump somewhere. But I think the coach alleviated all the concerns, or essentially spelled it all out. With Myers back, it allows them to load manage the back end. And with that, you should expect Myers to come back pretty soon as soon as he's ready. But not necessarily a bad thing. And when you think of a big picture-wise, giving some of these guys a day off here and there may not be a bad thing ahead of the postseason. Well, Myers, probably the biggest factor in the Canucks going on this run of four games, quality hockey, better defense as a team. Well, maybe not the biggest factor. But a major factor in why Myers' absence has maybe not been felt as much. Well, that first game was against the Anaheim Ducks. And then Carson Sousie returned. Yeah. And as we talked about on yesterday's show, which you can go back, Carson Sousie has been one of the better free agent finds in the league. I don't think you can really dispute that. I know he's only played 24 games this season, but he has been incredible in the games that he has played. The Canucks have only lost three regulation games when he's been in the lineup. So it's pretty damn impressive what he's been able to do. And some of their best hockey this season has been when they've had their top six available to them. Now, that hasn't happened a ton when Nikita Zadorov was initially acquired. Sousie was already out of the lineup. When he came back, he wasn't in that long and he had to go back out of the lineup. So they've been really good when they've had their top six available to them. And that's the positive here is getting to see that come back. But no, what Julesin becomes an odd man out. And he's been a lot better than anybody expected at the start of the season. I guess the question is how does Myers change anything when he comes back? Or is the seventh D just Noah Julesin as we all expect? So I would actually expect Ian Cole to come out when Myers is ready and do more maintenance days. We saw them do that once earlier this year. And I think one thing we noticed about Ian Cole's play, especially before Sousie did return, it wasn't quite as good as it was earlier this season. Like he looked his age a bit more and he was fantastic to begin the year, right? And his game has kind of suffered the last little while. - Right. - I think he needs a day off here and there. I would love to see him getting like a whole week off here, right, like give him or I'm not saying Wednesday, but like at some point, because it connects, you know, the thing about their schedule is they have eight other instances where they have two days between games after Wednesday's game. - That's a lot. - Yeah, so there's gonna be a lot of off days. - Yeah, then they don't have more than two days, two extra days off between games, but they have eight more. So there's a lot of extra days coming up, right? So you can align it to make sure a guy gets like a four, five, six day break. - Yeah. - And I think a guy like Ian Cole before the playoffs, if you can get him, honestly, if you can take him out of three of those games, rest of the way, yeah, I think that would do wonders for him come post-season. So I would like to see him come out, not because his game isn't good, but because you wanna load manage him before the season. - Yeah. - Before the playoffs. - Cole, his career high in ice times, 1945, he did that as age 29 season, and last year played over 19 minutes for the Tampa Bay Lightning, his age 33 year, but generally has been below that for most of his career. Right now for the Canucks, he's just under 19 minutes per night, but he is 34 years old. So getting him a few maintenance days here and there, I don't think would be the worst idea for the Vancouver Canucks. But something that does happen when you get Myers back into the lineup, and again, we haven't seen it a ton, but Susie Myers ends the door of, all on the back end. You have the size, you have the heft, you have the mobility, and some of the chaos that comes with it as well, especially with Zadorov and Myers. But you get the size that this coaching staff, this management group, I think has craved on the back end, and they just haven't had all these guys available to them most often. - The Canucks top seven is very strong. It's not as good as any top seven in league, I wouldn't say it in that regard, but in terms of going seven deep, it's as good as and deep up to seven as most teams have, right? Like their number seven guy would be Julesin, and right now people feel like he's better than Tyler Myers, for instance, right? And then Zadorov, in terms of having him as your, you know, five or six on some nights? - Yeah. - Yeah, that's pretty good, right? - It's decent. - It's very, I mean, obviously we know how well he was just playing and we know what Phillip Aronik is doing. And plus we all love what Carson Susie's broad defensively and everything. So that group is very solid, like you feel really good about it. And come post season, I do think Myers will be, you'll see the best version of him. Now, it'll still be sometimes dicey with the penalties because of the physicality, but he can take it up another notch physically. And he played some of his best hockey as a Canucks that postseason in the bubble, right? So I do think there's another version of Tyler Myers that can be a lot better than when we've seen in the regular season come post season, but if for whatever reason that does not materialize, or his game's not going to be there, I don't believe this coaching staff will hesitate to take him out. So as much as yes, he's going to get back in the line of a play a lot. Like he still has to perform. And I do think now that there's seven deep, especially when you get to the post season, you can't be taking chances. And if he's going to be erratic, like Myers can be at times, like he's not going to play. So I do think, you know, everyone needs to chill, even if he comes in right away and I know, you know, people mention the Canucks are far safer without him. This text says, nine out of 10 zoologists say it's safer without Myers. (laughing) The zoologists, who's surveying these zoologists? - This is kind of chaos. - Are they all from the Vancouver Zoo? (laughing) But I want more intel on this survey. It's like one of those TikTok surveys. I found this study that says drinking water is bad for you. Look, it says right here in this study by the University of Northwestern Dakota, South Fargo, that says water is maybe not good for you. That's what that text was. - And apparently they're funded by Pepsi, right? - Yeah. (laughing) - That company, yeah. - Don't trust the TikTok health advice always. - But I get it, like, you know, people do think that, but I do believe in the post-season you'll get a better version of them. And I don't think you should be too worried about, hey, this coaching staff being too married to him, because if he's going to be a liability, they actually have somebody they can go to and know a Julesin. - The thing about, it's something you just mentioned there is, you know, the Canucks D is pretty good, like one through six and one through seven with Noah Julesin now a part of that. - It's solid. Like I'd probably say, it's comfortably fourth among playoff teams in the Western Conference right now. Vegas after adding Noah Hanifen, that's pretty good, right after, you know, they already have Pietrangelo and they have Shay Theodore. Dallas probably has the best decor maybe now with-- - That's close. - Miro Haskin and they add, they add Chris Tanneth, Thomas Harley's come on. - I still like the Canucks. - Third pair better, okay? - But their top four is like very good. - Yeah, so the Canucks won through six. Like it used to be that the Canucks defense, there was a chasm between the Canucks and the other top defenses in the conference and that chasm no longer exists. You can say, yeah, Vegas has a better decor. Winnipeg is comparable. Colorado has a better top four than the Canucks do. All of those things are true, but they're better than Edmonton. They're probably still better than Nashville. Winnipeg, they're ahead of Winnipeg. So, you know, comfortably I would say, it's hard to argue that they'd be lower than fourth. - And I think sometimes, I think those ranking conversations, you can always make discussions, you can always make arguments for it. To me, the most interesting thing that we always discuss this is tears. Are the Canucks not in the same tier as those defenses? - Yeah, they're pretty close. - Yeah, so I think they're in the same tier. Now you can rank some higher and lower than others, but they're in the same ballpark. And when I think, when the Canucks defense is in the same ballpark as any defense in the Western Conference. - Yeah. - You have a chance. - Yeah. - Especially if you can get your net mind or healthy for the postseason. - What might change in the playoffs is like Colorado and Vegas will decide, you know what, and Dallas, we're just gonna run our top four for pretty much 30 minutes and our third pair is gonna pay 10 minutes. - Yeah. - And the Canucks, like they don't have that second pair that they can really lean on in the same way that may be other teams. - No, but it's also because they're married to having her own against use together. - Yeah. - And one thing I do wonder about come postseason and you know, it's really funny 'cause usually we'd be like, "Hey, you're getting ahead of yourself." But 16 games to go, deadlines passed. Like the postseason is coming. It's going to be here. Is you are going to have to adjust and you're gonna have to do different things in these different opponents, especially based on matchups. And will they have to at times break those guys up? - Yeah. - And that can give you a better chance to hang with those teams. So I get what you're saying, you're right. But I think we have Hughes, who is the single best defenseman in the Western Conference, save Kiel McCar. - Yeah. - That makes, that's a notch in your recap. - It's a big advantage that you have, right? And now the depth shouldn't let you down unless you get past the 70. And that's what we talked about the deadline 'cause you upgrade on a freedman. Do you have enough? Can you dip even the abstract guys? How confident are you in those guys playing in the postseason for you? Do you want it a little bit more depth? But forget that, the top seven, as good as any. - One thing we've talked about quite a bit. You know, of course, you get Myers back, you've got size on the back end. And this front office, which by the way got, locked up extra today. Ryan Johnson promoted to assistant GM, Emily Castangay and Kami Granado, all getting extensions as well. So the front office is locked and loaded for the Vancouver Canucks. They've got size on the back end. But do they still look and feel like a team that can get pushed around in their forward group? - In certain spots, potentially. - Yeah. - But they have a few small players, like Niels Hoaglander, Connor Garland, Pew Souter. Those three forwards who play regularly are under six feet, under 5'11", even I'd say. - Yeah. And all kind of, well, Niels has got some thickness to him. So he's a little bit more, he's got a little bit more heft. I would say he's probably the heaviest of the three, right? Souter and Garland aren't exactly thick guys. And, you know, does every team have a few of those? When you go up against Vegas, there's probably a bigger gap there in terms of size in your forward group, than there is maybe every other team. Colorado didn't have a ton of size through their forward group. They don't have a ton of size on their back end. But they added it with guys like Trenen at the deadline and Brandon Duhaem. So they added a little bit extra of that because they felt like they needed it. I don't feel outside of those few players in the forward group, there's a big difference between the size of the Canucks forwards, and a lot of the teams are gonna go up against in the postseason. - So those three forwards that we mentioned, those guys are small, right? And I think they kind of bring down the Canucks overall average because J.T. Miller, Elias Pedersen, Brock Besser, Dakota Joshua, Ilya McKay of Teddy Blueger, Sam Lafferty, and PDG. So that's what, that's eight forwards. - Yeah. - So that's three quarters, basically. - And they analyze Lindholm. - And they're forward group. - And they analyze Lindholm, so that's nine, right? - Yep. - Or six feet or taller. And to me, where it's even more important, and the Canucks actually have size where it matters. - Yeah. - You know, that's what's important, that's what's important, the size where it matters. They have a big blue line, right? But then down the middle, they're spine. J.T. Miller is a power center. Pedersen is obviously not massive, but he's six-two. - You know he's long. - He's long, he's not a small player, he's good defensively, he's not a small center, right? Elias Lindholm is kind of sneaky big. He's six feet, six foot one over 200 pounds. Like he's not an easy guy to get through. - Yeah. - And Teddy Blueger is six feet, you know, obviously not huge or anything, but you see how he plays. He's a hard player to get through as well. So the Canucks in terms of their defense and down their spine are not a small hockey team. - Yeah. - And that allows them to protect the middle as well as they have this entire season. And if you're a small team down the spine, you can't protect the middle as well as the Canucks have. Clearly on the wings, they're not the biggest team with the three guys we kind of mentioned there. But it's not like those guys can't forecheck well, what do we talk about Garland and Hoglander about recently? - They've forecheck well. - They've been infectious. - Exactly. Now in the postseason, are they going to be able to be as effective? We're going to find out. And that's the big question about those guys, right? And if they can show they can be, then maybe Garland has a future here in Vancouver. - Yep. - Beyond this season, maybe Hoglander is a guy that can be a long-term top six solution. But we won't know until we get to the postseason with those guys. But the rest of the roster has some decent size. Like to me, they're not a small hockey team, you know? And I think watching how they play against the Jets, who are one of the bigger teams in the NHL? - Yes. - Like I don't think they're incapable of hanging with those big teams. - Jets and Golden Knights are among the biggest teams in the Western Conference. And well, they are the biggest teams in the league. The Oilers are third. So, you know, those are the three biggest teams in the league. But again, when you're going by averages, it can be a little bit misleading. And that's the easiest way to sort the groups at the NHL website. But, you know, the Canucks are a bottom third team. LA is still below them. The Colorado Avalanche are below them. So there are two playoff teams. Nashville isn't the biggest. They're right in the middle of the pack. And the thing about Edmonton Winnipeg and Vegas, they're over an inch taller on average than the Vancouver Canucks. So it's not a massive difference between these teams on average height. What I would say about the Canucks is, okay, the profile is a little bit of a smaller team because of those smaller players. And you're right about down the middle, they're fine there. But they probably don't have speed in the same way that LA does or Colorado does, even though they are smaller teams. - Not in the same way. But that's also why a guy like McKay have a so important. - Yeah. - You know, because he has size and he has speed. And he's effective as a four checker and good defensively when he's playing his game. And today the coach was obviously lauding his play and also mentioned, you know, he needs to stick with it, even though he's not scoring, you know, 'cause he's doing a lot of those things. But he's a guy that can bring that, right? And Lafferty when he's playing can bring that. And Lindholm brings more seed speed in that combo. But you're right, the Canucks don't have this, this big speed edge as a team. Like they're not a fast hockey team. Like when you look at their overall rankings too, across the league, they don't really get to the top end as much and they don't sustain it as well as other teams do, right? But it doesn't matter if you play your game the way you're supposed to play it. As the Canucks play it. And I think as we talk about, they have kind of, you know, size where it matters. They kind of have speed where it matters a little bit too. - Yeah. - So their breakout would Quinn Hughes, you have that, right? JT for a big power center can move well. Hider's is not slow, right? So I think those guys stole down your spine, can still bring enough speed and game break to help you out and make up that edge. But if you look at a big picture, could you stand to get a bit bigger and faster long-term, of course? - Yeah. - Pods is the size X factor that's from Raymond on the Dumbbar Lumber text message inbox. - With the speed too. - Yeah. You know, he's not, again, Pod Colson isn't the tallest player, but he's thick. And he's got a, he's got a real heavy body as you can tell. - I think he's up to like six to no. - So like, you know, by NHL standards, like he's a pretty big hockey player. - Yeah, most NHLers, like we think they're all these massive guys. They're like mostly between 5'11" and 6'1". - Yeah, and like most, a lot of them are under 200 pounds. - Yeah. - You know, like 180, 190 maybe, you know, in that kind of range. - You gotta have a shocking. You need to have some agility to go with your size to play NHL hockey. - Well, it's really hard to be over 200 pounds. But now depending on your, you know, height, but like if you're over 205 to 10 and be fast, like that's a really hard combo to find. - Well, we see a lot of young players try to add muscle in their early on in their careers and then they like lose half a step. And they're like, this didn't get what I wanted it to. And now I've got to go back to the drawing board on how to figure out my off-season program. Mark is strowman texting in, it's the size of your heart that matters. Height doesn't measure heart, folks. - Rachio's motto, size right matters. - Yes, HDMH, producer Josh Elliott Wolf. It's, I don't know if that was actually Mark is strowman, but that's what it made me think about text. - For our purposes it is, it might be. - The Canucks Central rundown. Canucks management is locked in as mentioned. They have upgraded Ryan Johnson, who was the general manager of the Abbotsford Canucks as now getting a full title of assistant general manager of the Vancouver Canucks and Emily Castongay and Kami Granato also getting extensions. - Hey, tough question. But do you think the upgrade in management will lead to the upgrade on the roster? And is that why they got extended? - Yes. - Okay, that's probably, yes. That would make sense. - Canucks have the avalanche tomorrow, of course. Abs are in Calgary tonight. One interesting thing from the athletic there, the Dom's model, I guess, as they call it. Athletic listing, the Canucks is a dark horse in their post deadline cup contender rankings. Winnipeg, Colorado, Edmonton and Dallas are Western conference teams ahead of the Vancouver Canucks. - Yeah, I mean, money puck's been on the Canucks being cup-favored for a while now. I mean, they fluctuate from third best to the best odds. - Yeah, so it depends on who you want to ask about that. Dom's model merit plate on this. - Maybe Matt Rempe getting four games for his hit on Yeona's Segan Thaler. Can't really disagree with that one. I feel like this guy's played 100 games in the NHL. It's only 10. He's been the most talked about NHL player in the last week. Why not more about Nathan McKinnon and Kita Kucharoff and all the crazy things they're doing? - Is he going to play 100 games in the NHL? - I don't know. Might get kicked out of the league by then. Also, Rick Tockett is NHL.com's favorite for the Jack Adams towards the second and Paul Maurice is third. That shouldn't really surprise anyone. And a group that includes former Canucks, Anson Carter is pushing to bring expansion back to Atlanta for a third go around for the Atlanta, whatever's in the NHL. - Are you ready for it, Jack? - Dude, I've been on the Atlanta train for so long. Give them good ownership and it's going to work out. I don't care about this, they fail twice. - It's the old real estate model, location, location, location. If they put the building in the right place, maybe it'll work. That's what they've been saying in Arizona for the last 20 years, right? - And it's never been in the right place. - No, that's the problem. Put it in the right place. That's what they've been saying for the Ottawa Senators forever as well. Like, why are they in Canada? What the heck is Canada? Right. Winnipeg, just a poor location. - Yes, as Tyler Tifoli. - We had a lot of freezing in this segment, I must say. Took every ounce of restraint I had on the last one. - It's Dan Reicho, Satyarsha. Coming up, John Michael Lyles, former NHL Defenseman covers the Avalanche, is next on Canucks Central. - The most opinionated Canucks show out there, Canucks taught with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans. Be sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. (upbeat music)
