This is the Canucks Central post-game show. >> I got to use, miss handled the pocket of the line but keeps it in under pressure from Ojib. Skates out the left wing, it's a rush on the score. [MUSIC] >> Blueger wins the face off, Cox have been dominant in the circle tonight, but they can't clear. Carlson with the shot for the point, but a friendly score. Tom Wilson left circle, gems in home. And the Canucks and the fans will have reason to protest this one after a blown icing call with instant reaction from the players and coaches. >> CJ Oshi after it hit hard into the boards by Hurroni. But Oshi jumps back up, gets the puck into the slot. Here's a clean look Alex, you have said it to the back door, Puck Loose, and they score Alex Ovechkin to the side of the net. Desmith was completely out of position, and Alex Ovechkin jams home his 841st career goal to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead. >> Have your say on the official home of the Canucks. >> The Canucks Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network. >> Canucks come up short, lose 2-1 on a home ice against the Washington Capitals. And this is the Canucks Central Post game show presented by the number five orange on home here, Canucks Sportsnet 650. And the Sportsnet Radio network, Satya Arshal with Picnazzar, will bring in our good friend Brett Fessling into the conversation in just a moment. You can send us into your thoughts for a Dunbar number, text them box, 650, 650. You can also grab a line in our dispatch heating and plumbing hotline. It's a 604-280-0650, your total free, 1-888-275-0650. Just not good enough overall from the Canucks again. Good push in the third, created a few chances, weren't able to get a tie in goal, but considering they've had a two days off, here's an opponent playing their fourth game in six nights. You know, you kind of had the meltdown in the third period against the Avalanche last game. I just didn't think Brett, the Canucks had enough juice overall in a game where you would expect them to have energy considering the homestand, the time off. The motivation off the last loss, but just not a lot of junk from the Canucks overall tonight. No, I mean, you put it perfect. It was not good enough whatsoever. And this is kind of, when you heard this week talking about the challenges a bit in terms of getting guys into meaningful games and elevating their game coming down the stretch here. And this is the one that are sneaky. You're at home, you can get kind of stale a bit, you've got a desperate team coming on that's playing lots of hockey. And if you just let them stick around, they're going to find a way, they can just, their house is money at that point. You know what I mean? They have nothing to lose, so you got to get in that playoff mindset and get on that same kind of level as these teams coming in. No, I think the last 40 minutes were rather shocking. I think it's generous to call it a good push back there. Well, I mean, I said they had a bit of a push in the third, but I mean, whether you want to call it or not, but that's it. What were the chances, like McCabe on the back post? The best chance was a Lindholm open net, and he doesn't shoot the puck where he doesn't get a shot off. He gets beat to the puck. Yeah, I mean, that's the best chance they had. Oh, and there was also the jam in front of the net. Yeah, that's pretty much it. You're down after losing that goal, a three goal lead the other night. That's the best two chances we're talking about in the final 20 minutes. That's rough. That's rough. I said they need to be more deliberate. I think you can confuse some of the possession and the energy going for on the forecheck for opportunities. Yeah, they had. I marked it down in terms of like PDG comes down on the wall. He's got numbers going on the net. Sales at high and wide goes around out, right? Lindholm, Garland, Garland had the same thing twice. PD had it twice where they're coming in and they're looking for a different play. And sometimes you can just go far post or pad and just get bodies there, create havoc. It was the play we talked about in the first period where Garland took a shot rather than exactly that. Far post and PDG was crashing there. They had already gained the edge on that back post defender. The one thing I do want to give credit, we're going to talk a lot about the Canucks. I thought the Capitol's back pressure. Phenomenal, like phenomenal to the point that you're talking about, Brett, of like trying to wait too long to make another play. Everything got swallowed up so fast, then everything just got relegated to going back to the point and just like, oh, what do we do now? And suddenly all five caps are back and like they worked so hard to get back and they took away a lot of opportunities. Yeah, I think Miller's a perfect example. How many times did Miller come down the wall, did his cut back and he was going to have late guys and then there's Washington guys there. They turned over so many pucks at their blue line, whether it was bad dump ins or guys couldn't get the red line because of that back check and then it just snowballed from there. The first pass on entries, like once they made the entry, how many passes went off, Capitol sticks, Capitol's legs. And then also the way they collapse a friend of their own net. So the shots in all situations were 24, 22 in favor of the Washington Capitals, or I think 24, 23 at the end of the game, I'll bring it up exactly. But the Canucks had 70 shots on attempts on goal, 70, and they had less than a third of them get through to the net. That kind of shows you how committed the Capitals were to collapse in front of the net and also blocking a lot of shots tonight. They're in playoff hockey. Yeah, they need to. They need these points. Those are massive points for them. It's do or die for them. So that's the type of thing you see specifically back checking with effort and blocking shots that you see come down the stretch of playoffs. The thing that's alarming to me is that Washington is not really a fast team. No, they looked fast tonight, though, because they had they had guys supporting with speed. How many times did they send it out to a middle stagnant guy? They're just standing there and then they chipped it to a guy with speed or there's guys coming low underneath. We were trying to come out at some point. We lost track because that was all they were doing in the neutral zone. Yeah, and they looked really good coming through and looked way too easy for them to get the puck and come with speed is what I was trying to get through. Yeah, no, no, you're right. And it's one of those games where, again, you give credit to the opposition and all that, but it's also a mentality thing. Rick, talk of the last couple of days, kept talking about, you know, we have to reach the fourth and the fifth gear and fast, Eddie Gregory was texting me and saying forget fourth or fifth gear. You're going to get out of second gear tonight, right? And that's kind of what it looked like. And so the coach was challenging them. And he mentioned even yesterday after practice that he's not quite sure if enough guys understand the mentality for practice, even what they need to do this time of year, how important these games are and how they have to, you know, really get switched on even more. And considering everything he said, I think tonight kind of showed perhaps why he was sharing some of his concerns the last couple of days. Yeah, they're definitely evident. I think what I don't like, Canucks are so good when they get a four check going, when they have those, like, Lafferty, Torpedo, even Miller, Bester, those guys get in on fast four checks. You're seeing more guys think about options as they're getting to the red line and looking at options before they're dumping it in, and that's slowing down the wingers to me. It looks like those wingers don't have any speed to get on those D, and then the D are picking it up and making plays, whereas the non puck carriers, the non puck carriers, it seems like they're not getting the puck wide because they're getting covered, and then it's having to go deep, but they've lost their speed there. I want those wingers to know this thing's going deep. I'll go offside. I know this guy's going to get it deep and then I'll be able to jump on it. Something that coaches talked about, too, is like, force the offside. You got to go. Yeah, you're worried about the puck coming to you, force the puck. Force the pass to come. If it goes offside, it goes offside. It creates a mentality that you have to get the pass across when the guy's going. There's a few different times on the rim around where the guys wait to stationary at the blue line, and it's like, you got to be lying into the puck. You can't just, you know, kind of saunter over, and that kind of mentality from the wings, even when crashing for the rim arounds. It wasn't there tonight. It's something we talked about for years, when Travis Screen was here, when Bruce Boudreaux first took over, guys not hitting the line with speed on that exact play. Just even just the soft dump diagonal under the corner, where it's not even getting rimmed around. If the only guy that's going after it is the puck carrier that chips it in, that's a lot to ask for that guy who's probably not even taking it all the way to the blue line. Yeah, and it's huge. When you're a D-man, the first period or whatever during the game, if you're getting hit on those plays, you don't want the puck, right? Because it's coming. But if, as soon as you get one where you're like, "I got some time here," it just gives you so much more confidence to make a play. You're not getting pucks and slapping it up the wall. You're getting pucking in your heads up and you're looking for play. And that's, I think, what happened to Washington. They look like they had time to make a play and then it goes over to D. He's got another play. There's that fast winger and it just snowballed. Even on the clock's own breakout, they had moments to make plays. And it felt like maybe this was part of the game plan. Maybe this will be revealed by Rick Talkett in the post-game press conference. They tried to chip it out like airmail it a lot. Yeah, there was a lot of, you know, punting it out of your own zone and trying to hunt it down. That's really what it looked like a lot of it tonight. Yeah, it looked like there was kind of a panic button get rid of it. And then some of the clean plays, they just weren't clean. It was guys missing, thinking guys were coming into pressure. Low reads on like a reverse or something like that. Yeah, exactly. They just, they definitely did not have time. And, you know, let's spend a second here on the most controversial moment in the game. And it was when the connects were up 1-0. And it's an icing call that goes against the Canucks. But it's clear on the replay, or even when we're watching it live, Phil Dijazepi had the inside line. I mean, he's closest to the puck and we've gone over the rules already. It's not about who gets at a dot first. It's about who has the best line to the puck, but the dot is the determining factor when you have to make a decision as an official. It's clear Phil has the best line to the puck. They call it icing and they score on the ensuing shift. Now, hey, the icing call is bad, of course. But it's how you handle those moments. Ian Cole coughs a puck up. The Canucks win the face off. Luger wins it. Cole has all the time in the world. Can't get the puck out. They get hemmed in. The second goal happens. Same type of situation. Have a chance to clear it. Don't clear it. It's Phil Pironic. Then he gets caught as well. Next thing you know it's 2-1. Those types of mistakes by your veteran defense, they just can't happen in those key moments. Exactly. You probably love that icing cause as a D-man, right? You're like, "Oh, I'm bailed out." Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yes. But what are you doing off the draw? It's details. It's just details of going over and knowing exactly what you're doing. You're right. He wins it. He throws a backhand to nobody. But then PDG is already in the neutral zone too. So it's obvious that all those five guys thought something else was happening. They weren't on the same page. And that's when you see centers talking to five guys just know what you're doing. You have to do it and you have to execute. And that becomes the pivotal turning point in the game. So that play. Is there a priority on what has to happen? As far as he and Cole, he has a chance on the forehand, but he chooses to go back in. And PDG is exiting the zone as you mentioned. Is it more important to just get the puck out of the zone cause you have this mismatch of group of five? Or is it like a follow what we're supposed to do? But clearly everyone's got a different plan there. From what I saw, I think it was just a hard run by Cole. Winger goes. And that's why PDG is blowing because he wants to support the chip is what I saw. So I don't know why Cole. I don't know if he babbled it or what. But then the backhand pass. Obviously, there's no support there in terms of winger or your D-men because they both think it's going through. So unfortunate for Cole. But yeah, it ends up in the back of the net. And those guys already vacating. So that allows Washington more players outman and get that opportunity. Our text inbox is a is full of a lot of reaction as you would imagine. But the player taking most of the brunt is Elias Patterson. So where the hell was the 11.6 million today? Whereas PD looks like a first round exit. Patterson is invisible. I mean, it's one text after another. I can't read all of them. But you get the gist of it. It's where is Elias Patterson? And he talked about how he knows his game hasn't been where he needs it to be in practice. He said he didn't want to get into detail about what he thinks is hindering him. But whatever is hindering him didn't look like it was going away tonight either. I mean, let's start with something basic as far as just puck handling. There was a lot of moments where you would get close to someone and the hands would just go. And suddenly it's rolling and no play materializes because of it. It was a struggle. And there's been nights when it's like, "Oh, okay, he's getting to the right spot." Yeah, I didn't notice him. He disappeared as much as Kate Middleton right now. That's a good line. Yeah. Where's Kate? Where's Patterson? Seriously. It's alarming. Tonight's performance was alarming. And the moment that I noticed him the most was when Quinn Hughes passed up a shot in the power play in the third. You're coming right downhill. All four P.K.R. is like clear the Red Sea. He still managed to find the pass to Patterson. But what passed? What's the matter? He's out of shooting ring. He's already got the gold line all those. Yeah. That was the one. I was like, "Oh, you passed up that one to get it to Elias Patterson in that spot? You're coming downhill?" Yeah, he didn't look at it. He didn't look at it. And it looks like Tock kind of knew that because he put him in a blender. There was a 10-minute span there where I think he was out with every line. He went Lotto. He went Lafferty and Pot Colton. From late second to mid third, basically. And then Lotto line went back together late there. Yeah. He had a lot of looks with different guys trying to spark something. So, yeah, we'll see about that one. But I don't see the willingness to create, even. No, there was one play in the third and we mentioned it. That's why it's standing out, is where he actually made some good moves, power moves, got the line and got it deep. But then it died at that. It fizzled there. And then there was another one on the third where he actually got it and made some moves, took it back and let the guys change. So, it didn't turn in that cycle where you're just dumping change and dumping change. Yeah, I think the only connect that was really going to not forward wise was JT Miller. It seemed like he was the one guy trying to do everything humanly possible to get the guys going tonight. Yeah, he was firing. He had five hits before a second, obviously came out flying again to start the game. He looks like he's a guy that's trying to put it in fifth, trying to get everybody going, being the pay scar. But unfortunately, the guys just didn't follow it tonight. I'm struggling to think of solutions here too, like that's the problem is after like that second period was very, very alarming that they were that. Well, they, I mean, they were on their heels pretty heavily. And I know a lot so says you guys are talking about like they lost eight one. It's like, yeah, they lose eight one, but they're playing an opponent who played their fourth game of six nights. That's not at the caliber where the Canucks are and they got outplays on the totality. You can look at the shots and everything and say the Canucks. But I mean, if you look at the overall scoring chances, Washington ended up having more high dangerous scoring chances in this hockey game. And more importantly, like this is not coasting time. This is not January. This is 15 games to go. This is now like everything should be fine tuned and you should be revving up to hit game one with everything solved and now charged through round one. You have to apply different standard at this stage of the year. You can't just accept this and like, oh, they'll figure it out because you're running out of time to figure it out. That's the issue. Like, it's fair to be like, hey, they're still in first and all that stuff. But this isn't about just making the playoffs. This is being a formidable opponent come game one. I'm pretty sure the coach is not going to be happy with what he saw tonight. No, he'll be disappointed. You're right. You don't want to be limping into playoffs. I would rather play well play the right way and end up losing for some, you know, weird reason going to playoffs than play like that and win. Like, I think Wednesday's performance was far more acceptable than this because like, I can sit here on Wednesday and say, like, puck one off the camera hole. We are calling 503 and I know the icing thing. Like, we'll talk about that at some point. There's an alarming issue of officiating across all sports as we discussed. But the willingness and lack of desire in this, like that to me is the issue. Whereas Wednesday, at least you had a three nothing lead. Like, blown leads are going to happen. But at least you had the three nothing lead. This was one nothing and let's ease up and let's let the opponent take the game to us. That's, that's concerning. No, a hundred percent. But Brett, great stuff tonight. Call on the game alongside Brenda Bachelor and hopefully next time we chat with you, it's a good game for the Canucks. Yeah, I hope so. Thanks for having me. That's Brett Festling, great job calling the game. A 2-1 Canucks loss on home ice against the Washington Capitals. Alex Evechkin getting the game winning goal. And the Canucks were the team that scored the first goal. It was Quinn Hughes setting up Brock Besser. Ilya McKay have also got an assistant. Quinn Hughes got a 77th point, which means he broke his own franchise record from most points in a single season by a Canucks defenseman. And that means every point from here on in is another club record. So we'll see if they announce it as a club record every time he gets a point the rest of the season. There's a lot of reaction on the text inbox, 6.56.50. And yeah, like Lotso mentioned saying we're being too critical. It wasn't as bad, but most other people are text again. Pretty frustrated about what they saw here tonight. Pardib Texan and says, "McKinnon just set up the OT winner against Edmonton, PD looked lost, tired, and apathetic in the last five minutes of the game." The Canucks generated a little bit, but it was all from the outside. Like if you look at it, so in the third period, in all situations big, how many high dangerous scoring chances do you think the Canucks had? In the third? In the third. All situations, like forget 5 on 5, because they had a power play and it pulled a goalie, right? One? They had two. One 5 on 5 and one on the man advantage. Yeah, they had 21 shot attempts, right? 6 of them made an on goal on 5 on 5. They had 32 shot attempts in the third period, 11 of them made an on goal in all situations. And there were shots in volume, but what have we talked about with the Canucks this year? It's like, yeah, they'll give up some volume, but it's not any high danger chances. And we've talked about games where they've been outshot and were like, "Hey, sure, they got outshot, but look at how they controlled the game in terms of quality." Well, they got out chance in this game at 5 on 5, 11, 10. All situations was even. Despite an overwhelmingly 70, 45, all situations shot attempts by the Vancouver Canucks. And they had the puck on their stick, 54% of the time almost in this game. They didn't do anything with all that possession. And the thing that you need to do in games like this is have the mentality of being able to fight through checks, of course, getting towards the net. But they just couldn't win enough battles from the net either side. There was a lot of loose pucks, and it seemed like every single one, the Capitals ended up on them. Not at Lindgren didn't have to make a lot of rebound saves off second chance opportunity. Yes, second chance saves, right? Like, the biggest one was the Sousie low shot. It went to Lindholm, but I think it was Mick Michael that got there right before him. And so, like, there's a chance that goes begging as well. And that's the thing. Like, the two defining moments of this game that are going to stand out to me. Queen Hu is not shooting in the power play. Coming downhill, and he's basically at the top of the circles, doesn't shoot, with nobody in front of him. And then the other one was Lindholm in the second period, not shooting on a potential empty net, with players flooding towards the empty net to maybe block it. But make the players work. You just passed it back up at Colson, and now you don't get this chance off at all. And, you know, right now, when you're talking about players freezing and players fighting the puck and low on confidence, those are the two that stand out to me. And Queen Hu is like, that's the one that's surprising to me. When Queen Hu is the captain, passes up that shot, he engineered that first goal. Like, he shouldn't be short on confidence right now. You've worked on your shot. It's now a strength. That's the opportunity to shoot it and create traffic and create rebound opportunities. There wasn't a lot there for the Canucks tonight, and especially in the night when you're fighting it. That's the guy I want shooting a puck in that moment. We are going to go to the foam boards in a moment, Bick. Well, let's hit some text messages, 650, 650. William and Langley says I'm trying to remain calm about this game, but the only word that comes to mind to describe the Canucks performance tonight against a much lesser team is pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Watching Patterson with his feet planted on the ice instead of joining the play is incredibly maddening. So William and Langley, none too pleased with what he saw here tonight. And it's fair, right? I know some people are texting in. You know, Patterson needs better needs to be better for sure. Let's remember his wingers, Hoaglander and Souter making 2.7 combined Miller's wingers, Besser and McKay of making 11.4 combined, certainly. Sure. But when the performances stack up, and I think people were maybe a bit too quick at one performance, like, "Oh, Patterson, 11.6 is too much." When the performances stack up and a night like tonight, like I'm with everyone on the performance tonight, it wasn't good enough by any measure. And even the penalty that he drew, like, that's not a penalty for me. No, it was two guys battling. He gets chipped and he falls down. They're going to run into each other, basically. Patterson falls down easily. People criticize it. They worked out for them there, right? 'Cause they got a penalty out of it. All right. We'll get to more of your tax messages, 650-650. But let's go to the Dispatch Heating and Plumbing Hotline 604-280-0650 or toll-free, 1-888-275-0650. Let's go to POCO, where we have Holden on the line. Holden, thanks for calling in. What are your thoughts here tonight? Hey, guys. This is going to sound crazy to laymen, but ask Brett, I swear. I'm curious on what some of the players thought of the ice tonight, and I'll tell you why. Because in ice making, a temperature difference of just six degrees Fahrenheit can make a huge difference in how the ice behaves. The Delta T from the low last night to the high today was 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Players call this soft ice, and generally, you cannot make skill plays on that quick on softer ice, so like I'm talking stick handling and edge work. Think about who some of our best players are at that. I just really thought that the game ice tonight was, I believe, more suited to the veteran caps. And yeah, ask Brett, I swear to God, and use the X-Files theme drop after this. Hey, Holden, thanks for the phone call. You know, fair point. It's a fair point. It's something I considered as well through the course of the game, and it's like, they really struggle handling the puck. The hole, I mean, to that point, even the capital is offensively, they weren't connecting passes all that great. It was a really mucked up game, a lot of like stick checking, a lot of pucks kind of battling for it in terms of finding some space. It's a fair point by Holden. It plays into the capital's favor, sure, but guess what happens in the playoffs when the weather gets warmer? Exactly that. It's diagnosed and adapt. Right, we always talk about, like, players figuring out what the standard of officiating is in a game and adapting to that. It's not always the same, and so you have to figure it out. Well, the ice isn't always going to be the same. You've got to figure that out and improvise and be willing to figure and problem solve to say like, okay, this is what the reality is today. And yeah, they fought it a lot. We talked about it in the seconder mission. The only two guys that felt like they could handle the puck with any sort of consistency or Queen Hughes and Carson Susie. Yeah, that's really about it. Yeah, no, you're not wrong about that. All right, keep your thoughts coming into our text inbox. Let's take one more phone call. Let's go to Langley, where we have Jake on the line. Jake, thanks for calling in. And what are your thoughts here tonight? Man, if we only traded for some good ice at the deadline, then maybe that what game would have been gone a little bit different. But, you know, I'm usually pretty positive guys. I'm going to be a little bit negative today. So, you know, you've got to give Elias Lynn home a chance, and he's playing right now in the third line, and I don't care about this whole perfect center matchup game. You need to put Elias Patterson with skilled talented players that's shown there are talented players throughout their career. And Elias Lindholm has shown that you've got to put him on the wing with Elias Patterson, or you put Petey on the wing and have him as a center. You've got to do it. You've got to force it. You've got to give him more than five, ten games with it. You've got to really push that because that is the best spot for Elias Lindholm, especially when Joshua comes back. You're going to read, you're going to get that third line back again, because I actually looked up something today and I was just, it stunned me. So, Lindholm has the same amount of points in 19 games for the for the Canucks, then Louis Erickson did for the first 19 games for the Canucks. Like, that is truly how bad he's been here. And he has been, unfortunately, really poor. So, I think there is a way to turn it around. But let's be honest, guys, like, if he goes into the playoffs and lights it up for the first few games, no one's going to remember the regular season. So, maybe we have that to hope for. I don't know. Thanks, guys. Hey, thanks for the phone call. Jake and Langley calling in. I mean, hey, the good news is Lindholm doesn't have five more years on his contract. If you think he is turning like Elias, if he's going to be like Joey Erickson, for instance, this text here says, please do not extend Elias Lindholm. So, there isn't a lot of confidence in his game. Louis Erickson referenced Cassius in it, plus 3,000 today. Yeah, and if you want to talk about Lindholm's lack of offensive confidence, it was on display a couple of different times. And maybe the most notable one was the opportunity when the Canucks were up one nothing in the first period. But Charlie Lindgren comes up to play a puck that Carter Garland is digging towards. He comes out towards the face-off circle on the left side. And he's out of position. And there's a wide open net. And Lindholm has the puck by the half wall. And instead of trying to shoot at the open net, he tries to force it fast to put Colson, who's kind of in the slot area. And it hits Lindgren, who ices the puck and the chance goes away. It was probably the Canucks' best overall scoring chance, considering the net was wide open. The goal is far out of position. And just the decision and the execution by Lindholm wasn't a sign of a confident hockey player. Just take it and rip it. Like, I get players were collapsing towards the net. But they don't have massive pads on them. They don't got a block or a glove. Just make them work for it. Put that puck in that spot. And if player, your own players, put Colson's flooding towards the net. If Garland's crashing towards the net, maybe there's a rebound opportunity to not even put the puck towards the net. Especially on the heels of what just happened the other game. Just do it. Make the player work for it. And that just screamed an confident player. And it's something that you got to solve. What moment do you think is going to arrive that's better than that? The goal is out of the net. What more do you want? Do you want a backdoor to happen? It shows you the lack of confidence there. I know he talked about it himself, too, that he has to get better offensively. I don't know how it comes back. There was a few shifts where Patterson played with Lindholm. And they actually, at the end of the second period, it took them about 17 minutes in the second to generate anything. And it happened when they switched the lines up a little bit, and Patterson was playing with Lindholm. But they've kind of haven't gone back to that either. I don't know what the solution ultimately is. But right now, it doesn't look like Lindholm is any closer to finding his game. It looked like a couple of games go where he was trending in the right direction. And it's kind of like a microcosm for the Canucks in general. That four game winning streak. That a few really good games beat the Jets, too, beat the LA Kings, beat the Vegas Golden Knights. And it's like, all right, now they're getting back in. They're showing how they can play, getting back to their identity, so to speak, as a team. And then they fall out of it kind of midway through the game against Colorado, late in the game against Colorado. And then, for the most part, pretty non-existent here tonight. And that's a bit of a concern. Now, it doesn't mean you can't figure it out. And I would say, you know, if everybody's selling off on a G's text again, what about your boy P.D. tonight's at? What game has he dragged the Canucks into at four? And it's like, well, I mean, he's been bad so far, but he's still amongst the league leaders in game winning goals. I mean, he's set an NHL record for, well, it was a consecutive game winning goals on the road this season. So he's had a lot of games where he's come up big. Right now, he's not coming up big when the Canucks need him. And it's a tough spot for the organization. 650, 650, this one, Hans, this underscores the importance of Dakota Joshua. Somehow, he seems to be the key in this one. Guys, playoffs are a month away. Can actually be playing 60-minute games right now. How do we lose to a team that's on the brink of a rebuild? Better figure this out soon. Don't let this season go to waste and Dylan Vancouver with the Patterson commentary. He looks so uncoordinated when he is off his game. Yeah, it does not look very confident. All right, keep your thoughts coming into our text inbox. 650, 650 courtesy of Dunbar Lumber. You can grab a phone line as well as 604-280-0650. Your toll-free, 1-888-275-0650 on the dispatch heating and plumbing hotline. It's Satyarsha with Biknazar. Canucks lose 2-1 on home ice against the Washington Capitals, a veteran getting the game winner. And this is the Canucks Central Post game show presented by the number five orange. So the game is over, but is your night really done? Number five is open. More coming up next on SportsNet 650. Catch up on what happened in Vancouver Sports with Halford and Bruff in the morning. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is where you talk Canucks. You're listening to the Canucks Central Post game show on the official home of the Canucks. SportsNet 650 and the SportsNet Radio Network. At that point for Alexia shoots wide to the net, puck rolls to the right corner. TJ Ocey after it hit hard into the boards by her own it. But Ocey jumps back up, gets the puck into the slot. Here's a clean look Alexia. I've said it to the back door. Puck loose and they score Alex Ovechkin to the side of the net. Desmith was completely out of position. And Alex Ovechkin jams home his 841st career goal to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead. It's a bit of a broken play. It's scrambled. There's a big hit in the corner. I believe by Herronik it comes out to the point. It just kind of gets thrown into the corner and then it's a melee in front. Ovechkin's just so good and so strong in front. He just battles, takes it backhand. And Desmith's kind of sprawled in front of him so he has a wide open cage to jam it into. Alex Ovechkin now only 53 goals away from breaking. Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal scoring record and he gets a game winning goal tonight beating the Canucks 2-1. And this is the Canucks central post game show presented by the number 5 orange. I'll sports the 650 and the sports net radio networks at T.R. Shaw with Bick Nizar. Keep your thoughts coming in to our Dunbar Lumber tax them box 650-650. You can also grab a phone line 604-280-0650. You're told free 1-888-275-0650. We are going to get to the thoughts of the Canucks head coach Bick. But before we do that, what are the people saying on the text inbox? 650-650 very underwhelming effort overall. Number one puck way too often a hot potato miller, the worst player on the ice. I stopped counting at 12-13 giveaways. Flashbacks to 2-3 years ago. He looked nowhere near the rink mentally. Willy in the puddle texting in 650-650 with that analysis. This one, the playoff run won't last more than 4-5 games. Patterson can't play basic hockey versus elite or garbage teams. He deserves to be scratched next game. This one, Canucks were 1-Castle short tonight. Poor Moody Gord. That's funny. This one here from poor loser and poor Moody. I read the name first so you can understand the tone of this text message. Same brutal game, it's possible they were burnt out. Played so well to begin, burned everything they had. The highest paid player on the team looks weak. Not at all a warrior or leader ready for the playoffs. Have the Canucks baited and switched on us. Made their followers believe they were number one. A contender now looked like any Canucks team of the past. Except for 82-94 in 2011, poor loser and poor Moody. There's a lot of that and I understand. We're critical about the performance. It's a tough game. I'm not at the stage where I'm like, "Hey, they're done. They're cooked. This team is a pretender." It's not a good performance. We can criticize it. But also, I'm not ready to be like, "Hey, this team sucks now." Honestly, that's not how I feel about things. But it's not an overall great effort. We're going to get to the coach's thoughts in a second. But in a game like this, and we mentioned this, look at all the shot attempts. Not enough scoring chances. How often were the Canucks getting inside and being able to beat the guys, the Capitals' players protecting their front of their net. They couldn't get inside. They can't get in to get some rebound chances. Everything's on the outside. Even the pressure they had on the power play and the pressure they had on the man advantage pick when they pulled the goalie with two minutes left. All that was to the outside. It was barely anything going across. Nothing going to the net. No guys banging away for rebounds. If you're not ready to fight for those inches in a game like this, you're not going to win. Yeah, and it almost accelerated the decision-making on the perimeter to just launch shots then, and you weren't getting hit on net, and you weren't getting it into rebound opportunities because guys weren't ready and in position to capitalize on rebounds. And so when the color's not there to take advantage of the numbers down low, yeah, you might not take the most direct shot and it isn't more about just getting it low than it is getting it on net. And the shot count looks fantastic, but as far as the dangerous opportunities that felt like they were- Well, shot attempts, but actual shot counts. Yeah, sorry, the shot attempt looks like- Because they showed that out shot 24-23, so, you know, they have more shot attempts. They have 25 more shot attempts, but fewer shots on goal, and that kind of tells you how difficult the time they had getting to the net and also getting shots through. Connor and Burnaby says, I was at the game against Colorado with my son on Wednesday. Needless to say, an discouraging loss followed by feisty practice with no competitive carry over to the next game, lacking anything close to the 60-minute effort required to win all lines lacking chemistry as pleasantly unexpected as this season has been, not enjoying being reminded how often overpaid athletes stop sacrificing the body, grinding out wins on pure effort over pure skill. So, Connor and Burnaby, not too happy with what he saw here tonight. All right, keep getting your thoughts into our text inbox. We'll get some of those texts in and we'll also get to some of your phone calls, 604-280-0650 or toll-free, 1-888-275-0650. But it's time to get the thoughts of the Canucks head coach. Here's Rick Talkett after a 2-1 loss. Yeah, a low-event game, not much offense. A lot of missed shots, not much interior play. You know, it was just one of those, you know, there's about eight, nine minutes in a second. We were, you know, obviously chasing the puck, trying to make a push, but we're still, you know, we're not attacking the interior and we missed so many shots. A lot of shots missed, a lot of shots. Where did you feel like the momentum kind of turned in the game? It seemed like you guys obviously had the good start and were doing well through one. Maybe that icing, I don't know. Then right away, bang, bang. That's probably it, but, you know, there's plenty of time left in the game. Did you get an explanation on the icing? No, he came, apologized, stirred through it. I mean, that happens. That's not the reason we lost, you know. A lot of the second looked like a lot of the third last game. As a team, what do you need to do to better handle that press when the other two come in? Execution. When we win the draw, it's in our net. Bottom line execute. You know, we got some players going to play under pressure. You got to execute. I don't think that was a hard play. We won the draw. And then you got to play through people after that, if there's a mistake. Do you think the schedules with all this time between games at home is actually working against you? No. So how do you manufacture more energy and intensity? Well, if I got to manufacture it right now at this time, I mean, we're in trouble. Like, I mean, we've had some battle drills to manufacture a practice. So you got to do it for the game. And we got to get inside. We were just way too much on the outside. Way too much on the outside tonight. Talk about execution and getting on the inside. Is that all in the offensive zone? Are you talking about other areas of the ice as well? Well, I mean, I don't know. I think the Dylan Rodriguez, he thought they had two chances. They had didn't have many chances either. It was a low event. It was just a low event game. So yeah, execute, go through, hold on a puck. If there's a shot, the fence can stop shooting high from the blue. And when they do shoot it low or to the side of the net, it's just the disconnect, right? You can't score from the blue line, do you? We keep shooting at high. And then when we do, the guys at the side, you got to get in front of the goalie's eyes, and we got to get some shots through like this high, like bombs, this high, not over the net. Makes no sense. So we got to correct that. I like the trio of Huglander, Garland, and Landholm that you kind of had in that third period. I had a little bit of pop. Would you see from that trio together? A little bit more. But, you know, we need more from everybody. I can't, like, it's too hard to go through each line and stuff in each individual right now. Is it just an energy thing? You just need more energy, and that will fix all these things? Well, energy, yeah. I mean, energy's going through, you know, like, yeah. I mean, maybe a little bit more life guys in the bench, yeah? I don't know why you guys aren't having the energy. I'm not sure. Winning goals by Obachkin didn't feel like he was much of an influence otherwise, but is that a statement about a star player finding a way? Yeah, I mean, the guy's amazing. You know, even at this age, he finds somehow to contribute. You know, I've seen a lot of those, seen that guy score a lot of goals live. You mentioned yesterday wanting to see some guys get to another gear. It feels like maybe they still weren't there tonight, but with now 14 games to go. Do you feel like there's an urgency that the playoffs are kind of right around the corner and the team's not getting there? Yeah, of course, you know, it's my job. I got to help some of these guys. They've never been, you know, they've got to understand that, you know, it's going to get harder and harder, so they've got to, you know, they've got to, you know, it's that seal, right? They've used to this. They've got to get to pass that seal. And, you know, it's my job to get them to break that seal. There's more in the tank. You know, there's always that more, and we've got to break through it. Find it. We talked about struggling to get to the inside. Yeah. It felt like a lot of passes were, again, going into feet, and, like, where there wasn't a passing lane. And in the past, you've talked about needing to move your feet to create those passing lanes. Was that, again, the issue tonight, the players staring down those lanes? Yeah. Yeah. And we watched the, just before I came here, just a few clips I just wanted to see before I came to talk to you guys. Guy passes the puck, and we just kind of cruised instead of passing, snapping yourself in direct line to wherever it's going to be to the open area. Or even if you go to the net, they're going to check you. Somebody else might be open, so we're just kind of cruising. I'm not sure why. You know, and at this time you can't cruise. You know, we've got to pop it in some other years. A lot of guys tonight. Has that also been an issue in the neutral zone? Moving your feet to gain the offensive blue line? It seems like oftentimes players are moving into a coast before hitting the blue line. Yeah, when you stride out, you know, when you have time, you know, if I have about 10 yards to skate with it, if you don't skate with it, that option closes, right? So when you move your feet, you're going to make people defend. That's when the lanes are open, so you're right. So what happens when you don't move your feet, you start passing through sticks or feet, and it hits skates. And I thought a lot of guys tonight, for whatever reason, weren't moving their feet. We tried their, you know, we had some possession on time of the third, but, you know, really even the six on the six on five, or one guy gets blocked, just shot on pities. He literally was hurt and going to the bench. They had three guys, and we held the puck. I couldn't believe we wouldn't attack. We had six against their three, and we stayed around the outside. That's the mentality you're looking at, right? Why? You know, you got to have some energy, and they have a guy going off the ice. So they have really three guys in the ice at our six, and we didn't get anything off it. That's, you know, that's what we got to talk to the guys about. We got to break through their mentality, mindset. There's been a lot to talk about what hasn't been happening on the power play, but you also haven't drawn many of you. There's been enough to draw penalties. Well, interior, right? That's where you go penalties, right? When you go through hooking, you're in front of that guy, my cross check, yeah. You know, that's where you get the penalties. You know, when you play outside, you know, the defenders, it's easy when you play outside, right? But when you go through people, what do you do, right? You might hold. That's when all those other plays come into play. Maybe Aaron's stick or something like that. He's been quiet for a few games. It seemed like he was trying to be a bit more aggressive in the third. Where are you seeing -- what do you see from his game right now? He's struggling. I mean, you guys know. You know, he's just trying to find his way. You know, he's got to push through it. You know, he knows he -- we need more from him. He knows it. There's nothing really more to said. He's got to work hard. You know, he's going to work every day to break through it. When you were blending the lines, did you think any of the guys you put with him helped draw a little bit more out of him tonight? Yeah, a couple of guys. I thought they -- a couple of shifts here. That line was just -- you know, I just didn't like it last. It's two games now. I just haven't liked it. You know, played. It's been a tough whistle maybe for a couple of weeks, but it seems like when you have that tough whistle, you still got to fight through it and find a way to just execute on the next play, and that just hasn't been happening for you lately. Yeah, honestly, you just got to fight through this. You know, it's -- you know, it's in that room, and it's -- you got to stick together. I mean, I'm sure guys are upset. Maybe mad at their game or mad or whatever, but they got to come -- whether I bring him in or I'm not sure, but they got to come in and -- how do I get better? You know, what am I doing wrong? You know, am I going to the net? Or am I not asking -- you know, maybe you got to go out early a little bit and start handling the puck, more shooting more pucks, you know? Are you shooting 50, 60, 100 pucks a day if you're missing the net? I mean, that's the sort of -- the mentality I have to have at this time of year. So -- and we've had a lot of practice times, so that's where I don't buy the energy. You know, I just don't buy it. We should have a lot's energy. It felt like in this game there were a lot of pucks that your defense tried to clear or your force or to clear that were knocked down. Is that something that you can work on in practice, or is that more -- The knock-and-like to get it out? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Even our fore is, like, trying to dump it in early. They were knocking them down. You know, that's the thing we were talking about. You have to stride to -- you know, if you have the puck and you stride out and I chip it to myself or get it in deep, but it were on our heels. And we're just, like, on our backhand, like, in our heels flipping it. You should be on your toes. That's, you know, that's what you see. That's what I saw. I saw those that same thing. That is Canucks head coach Rick Talkett after 2-1 loss. And he kind of bemoaned a lot of things we were talking about. Not getting into the inside, keeping things to the outside too much. Not sure why guys didn't have the energy. And he mentioned if we have to manufacture energy at this time of the year, we're in trouble. You should be prepared. You should be having that energy. And it's one of those things where I know he's been tough on them before. I'm sure he's probably even more frustrated than perhaps he led on post-game. But he also kind of sound like somebody who doesn't quite know what else to do to get more out of these guys. And we've mentioned this on the pre-game show, Bic, and I know you and Reach talked about this on Canucks Central yesterday. He didn't seem to please after yesterday's practice. Like he kind of mentioned how the practice habits for a lot of guys have to improve. They're not good enough. This time of year, he's not sure if enough guys understand what it takes to play this time of the year. And they have to up to a game. Need a fourth and the fifth gear they have to start reaching. And that's something that even Patrick Levine mentioned at the Trade Deadline Presser. That what an opportunity it is for the players to learn what it feels like at real playoff time. And that sentiment of preparing yourself of what this part of the season is like. And I know Reach had mentioned this in the pre-game show that they didn't have the run-in in the bubble playoffs. Right? Like things stopped at game 69. And so they didn't have to play the final 12 games, 13 games to really feel the pressure of what it takes to get into the playoffs. Now they go against Minnesota and they do that. But it's a different reality of feeling the fatigue of the season and pushing yourself through that to have the energy and that willingness to say, "Hey, we gotta go make something happen here." And when you're not moving your feet and that was a common criticism from Rick Talkett here tonight. And you're thinking about that moment of like, "Okay, you do have to play this at a tempo at this stage of the season to get yourself ready for what's going to be even more intense. You can't just wait to flip the switch and say, "Okay, again, one, we're ready to go without preparing yourself of how to get there." Well, yes. And, you know, as much as we can sit here and talk about that bad icing call. And he mentioned the linesman came up to them in the third period and apologized, said it's his call, he made the wrong call. And listen, you can correct your call on the ice and have had the face off at the center circle if you felt like it was the wrong call. So I would guess he went and looked at the play of the linesman afterwards and realized he made the wrong call. So he comes over and apologizes. The coach, again, kind of lets the officials off the hook and he mentions the tough job. Those things kind of happen. But he also mentions, "Sure, the call goes against us." Well, we win the face off. We have a clear chance to clear it and Ian Cole gives the puck up. So it's one of those things where the thing happened. You won the face off. You've already solved the issue by winning the face off. Now you're costing yourself. So you can, yes, you can bemoan the call and all that and it's a horrible icing call, absolutely. But why shoot yourself in the foot after you're already made up for the situation by winning the face off in the first place? And that's a thing here with the index. Some unforced errors yet again costing them. And it's the same thing that leads to the second goal, right? Chronic back end, just meekly throwing out, snagged by TJ Yoshi. And he's not even moving his feet. So Hoagland has got a chance to pounce on him and win that puck too. And he works right through the contact and TJ Yoshi continues to play. And again, even then, he gets knocked over by Phillip Product. TJ Yoshi's on his backside who comes away with that puck TJ Yoshi. Of all people. And then it creates this fire drill. He gets that cut back to the diagonal for D-Man. And just this whole sequence starts where nobody picks somebody up and someone texted in here. Six fifty, six fifty. I'm going to lose it here. It's essentially about, yeah, Gary, texted him. Ovechkin was left all alone, not unchecked. And just multiple people saying that Ovi was wide open on that play. This one, Suders out to lunch on Ovi's goal. He was with them and leaves him to go towards the slot. Now I think he jumps towards the slot because of the pass to the D-Man. But on a goal-mouthed scramble, one of the greatest goal scorers we've ever seen. He's one of the greatest goal scorers of this generation. Has enough time to take it off the backhand, put it at the forehand and score this goal. Way too much time in space. No one's getting close to a body. Well, I mean, that's because, I mean, Hughes and Heronik both end up being on the left side of the defense. And Heronik's laying down trying to play goalie. And then Suder doesn't have his man. It's an absolute fire drill in their own end again. And, you know, Ian Cole, like we talked about the last little while, and we said, "Hey, you know, could this guy maybe use a maintenance day? Was he maybe the next tough worst defenseman tonight?" Like, he struggled to me. Like, I thought, you know, on that, on the breakout, he struggled. I think he's a guy that kind of needs a few days off. That's kind of how I see it. And I'd love to see Noah Julesen back in. I know the coach mentioned the whole load management thing he wants to do it, but it's not an easy thing to do, but he feels like the guys here understand. If they do, he looks like a guy who needs a rest. Thirty-five-year-old defenseman late in the season making unforced errors. And he's a guy who's been there. We're talking about a guy who's won a Stanley Cup. He's been playing big games. Like, we're not talking about a young guy. He doesn't know how to handle big games at March. It's Ian Cole we're talking about here making those types of mistakes. Yeah, he didn't make a good play after the two-one goal on the penalty kill, where he backdoor tap in play, and Ian Cole gets a stick to deflect it, something we've seen Noah Julesen do so well. So Ian Cole on that play, you know, saves a goal in that moment, but, yeah, by and large, the decision making looks labored. The puck play is listless at times. And so if the game rest, maintenance days, or whatever you want to call it, certainly feels like it's in the cards. Yeah, absolutely. A lot of reaction on the text inbox. 65650 courtesy of Dunbar Lumber. I'll keep the thoughts coming in. You can also grab a phone line, 604-280-0650. And we'll continue our conversation here on the Canucks Central Post Game Show. Plus, we'll hear from Canucks players, including J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes in a two after two-one loss on home ice against the Washington Capitals. You are listening to the Canucks Central Post Game Show presented by the number five orange of Vancouver legend. They've got sports two more next on SportsNet 650. Everything connects before and after the games. Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah. Subscribe and download the show on Apple's Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. This is the Canucks Central Post Game Show. Join the discussion on the official home of the Canucks, SportsNet 650, and the SportsNet Radio Network. Now, Verona, in the Vancouver zone passes right wing. When one tips it ahead, here's Garland with a chance. And I'll go down the right wing. Lincoln reads it down to the crease, puck checked it away. Shot off the far board, thrown back to the net by Lindholm. And Lindgren was able to get in front of that somehow, even though he was out in the slot. And the Capitals turn it back into the Vancouver zone. Second straight game, Elias Lindholm's had a chance to capitalize on a goaltender, turning the puck over, coming out of the crease. And man, is he snakebit right now. Yeah, low vent game. Not much offense. A lot of missed shots, not much interior play. You know, it was just one of the, you know, there's about eight, nine minutes in the second. We were, you know, obviously chasing the puck. Trying to make a push, but we still, you know, we're not tackling the interior. We missed so many shots. A lot of shots. Missed a lot of shots. Canucks head coach Rick Talkett, after a 2-1 loss on home ice against the Washington Capitals, and this is the Canucks Central Post Game Show presented by number five Orange, on the home of your Canucks, sports in the 650, and sports net radio, network Satyar Shah with Bik Nazar. Keep your thoughts coming into our Dunbar Lumber text inbox, 650-650. You can also grab a phone line, 604-280-0650, you're toll free. 1-888-275-0650. We have a lot of reaction to our text inbox as you would imagine after a game like this. Pedersen, like we talked about before, and it's funny because people text in, like, like, the plumber texting in. It's like, why did you guys calling out Pedersen? It's like, you know, if you've been listening for the past hour, we spent a large portion of this post game show already on Leah's Pedersen, and the coach was asked about him, and he said, you know, he's struggling, and it's clear he's struggling, and they need him to be better. I mentioned after the Ab's game. If he's better against the Ab's, maybe they win that game. Tonight, if Pedersen's better, plays at the level you expect, do you win this game? Do you at least get to overtime? That's how a player can make that think of a difference. In the last couple of games here, maybe saying he's a non-factor is harsh, because if you actually look at, you know, some of the underlying numbers here tonight for Pedersen, it wasn't like he was getting hemmed in, like he was on in the Office of Zone more and all that. So it's not like that there's no show-horrible performance, but it's simply not good enough, and that's the problem here. Right now, the performances are simply not good enough, and they need him to be a driver for this team, and right now, it is not driving well enough. Of course, he keeps you warm at night. That was not like an emphatic performance in any stretch. No, but I'm gonna say, I'm saying it wasn't like this no-show performance where it was horrible. That's all I'm saying, but he was not good. He was not good at all. The willingness to create urgency into the game. Well, nobody showed urgency outside of Miller and Hughes. From all of them, and most notably, Elias Pedersen, like I'm not expecting Sam Lafferty to flip the game on its head. I'm expecting his Pedersen to be able to do that sometime, and work through contact in key areas of the ice. You know, there was a stretch there in a third period. He's behind the net, and he's working to try to get in front, and just shoulder shake by a caps defender, and so Pedersen, rather than trying to slip inside, and work out front and front the defender, maybe try to get position that way, just skates around the net. Well, I'll try on the back post, see if players are waiting to get shots through, and here's Elias Pedersen behind the net in the spot. You're not gonna score a goal from back there. It's tough. Well, and, you know, even on the power play, you know, it gets a chance a couple times, just waits two hesits in to make a decision, and we talk about Lindholm kind of paralysis by analysis, which you're starting to see that from Elias Pedersen as well, and it shows you a player whose confidence clearly isn't where it needs to be, but listen, the Canucks still have 14 games after tonight. It's plenty of time here, but after each game, it gets smaller and smaller, and next thing you know, we're gonna sit here and say, hey, they got a handful of games to figure this out. Like, that's how quick this is going to happen. You haven't told the playoffs to figure it out, but I think, you know, I'm not saying anything anybody doesn't know here. If Pedersen doesn't find his game in time for the postseason, this team's just not gonna be able to do the damage they're hoping to do, and that's the reality for any top team. If your top players aren't going by the time the playoffs come around, your hopes of having long-term playoff success is not gonna be there, so that's a big thing this Canucks team has to figure out. Yes, start winning again, but getting number 40 back to the top of his game. The thing, too, is in the LA game Vegas and Winnipeg, it felt like that they had found their identity again, and now it feels like it's waning all over again. At this stretch of the season, you should figure out who you are, and post deadline. Okay, now we know who we are, we integrate a couple of pieces, obviously, and start figuring it out and start pushing towards, like, redlining. That hasn't happened, and they didn't make trades. Like, they made their trade well in advance. This is a pretty big runway. They talked about, oh, doing it in the month in advance, and we can integrate Lindho and figure this out. It feels like they're still searching for solutions of how to make that work. Yeah. That's what's alarming here. It's every day that goes by where the Lindhome thing doesn't feel like it's working, and it impacts the other guys on the roster. Well, that's something that they got to figure out to get ready for the playoffs, and they're running out of time here. Let's bring some levity to the conversation. Jokesper 60 coming in pretty strong here. Robbie and Burnaby, nobody talks about the real reason why PD keeps falling down. Heavy pockets from that extension. Heavy pockets falling over. Well played. Well played. Much better movement going on at the number five tonight than at the Raj. That's strong. Facts only. All right, keep the thoughts coming into our text-of-the-box 650-650. Goose in the whack e-bug to the e-bug says the Smith was also way too aggressive on those plays, and everyone is scrambling trying to compensate for his overaggression. I mean, some of it true, but at the same time, you kind of know how your goal leads play, and you play to their strengths. And like we mentioned on both the goals, right? The first one happens off the turnover, and then next thing you're scrambling to get back in front. And the second one, yeah, sure, the player is, you know, dismissed as playing aggressive. If you suit us on as a man, a vetchkin, does he get that goal? So it's like, yeah, he's being aggressive, but guys have to box out as well. Certainly, yeah. And guys aren't boxing out. They get to box you guys out. Sue just kind of put in conflict there, because he is collapsing to Ovi, and that pass goes to the D-man. So he's like, what do I do what I do? But yeah, which one are you trusting your goal you just take? Well, I mean, because at that point, you dismiss challenging the shot. Your opponent's already trying to lay down and block it, and he uses there already. It's like you got to take away the backdoor. You know, like you have to be aware and take the backdoor play away. And they certainly didn't do that. All right, we'll get to more of your text messages coming up in a bit. Let's go to the dispatch heating and plumbing hotline, and we'll start things off in Vancouver, where we have Coron on the line. Coron, thanks for calling in, buddy. What are your thoughts here tonight? Coron. All right, so we missed Coron. So let's go to Ladner instead and try Tarn. Tarn? What are your thoughts here tonight? Tarn? Hey, what's up? Hey, hello. Yeah, we got you. Great show, man. You hear me? Thank you. We got you, yes. Awesome, bro. Okay. Okay, this game's done, right? Whatever. But talk is post game basically said it was he called everybody out without calling them out. You understand what I'm saying? He called everybody out without pointing their name. That's classic for them. Like this should have been a cake over. Like Washington didn't score the last three games. Can I still sleep tonight? It's scary, man. This is like everybody thinks, okay, we're cruising along and play off. No, man. We got to get it all together. It's a matter of them goes out. Casey dismissed has not been the problem. That was our problem before, right? Oh, my God. Then goes out. Who's our back only? He hasn't made a mistake. It's our play offense, defense center. And where is Liddedome at? Oh, my God. We gave up a first round and a second round for Lindholm to be a third line center. Give me a break. Talk it. Use them properly. Put them. Be inflexible. You don't go back and forth. If you start the game at a third line center, then you want to open to bring them up. Yeah. No, for sure. Tarrant, thanks for the phone call, man. I appreciate your thoughts as always. I mean, it is concerning. Like I said, I'm not at a point where I'm selling everything and saying this team can't figure it out. Or whatever. Not there, right? Like I'm not. That take was sad. Hey, if this continues for a while, sure. But I mean, it's not like, I mean, the reason I'm not there is because before the Colorado game, they won four in a row. And we were talking so glowingly about some of those performances. Beat the Vegas Golden Knights, beat the LA Kings. Impressive win against the Winnipeg Jets. Bigger, heavier teams. Stronger opponents. Teams that are, you know, embroiled in some big games themselves. And the Canucks played really well. Got back to the identity. They shut down hockey, played hard. And then against Colorado, for most of the game, they were good. And then fell apart after a couple of calls go against them. And then tonight, the first period, they were decent, but not overwhelming, but any stretch of the imagination. And then really peter away in the second and third period. So we're talking about two games now in the past seven here. So I'm not at the point where I'm like, hey, you know, this is a long stretch and we haven't seen this team get back to it. So I'm not panicking. Like I mentioned, the couple of concerns come back to your top-end guys. And one top-end guy in particular. If they can't get him going, it's going to cause some problems. As far as Lindholm is concerned, and, you know, Tarn was criticizing the coach as well about how he's using him. And, you know, somebody else was texting in and saying, the coach should not have taken Blueger off the third line. Should have kept him there. Why mess with the chemistry? I do think the chemistry of that Blueger, Garland, Joshua line, went away when Joshua got injured. So I think that already threw everything into a loop anyways. But trying to get more out of Lindholm is imperative. And right now is not featuring on the first unit power play. Part deep texted in earlier questioning saying ever since the all-star break, talk, it's been more involved in the power play. And it's not looking any better. Today's sooner was playing on the power play. Then it looked like he was helping out with it at all. Is the usage of Lindholm on the coach so far? And can he do better in terms of trying to get more out of that player? Yeah, and I think there's moments too. Like you and I pointed this one out to you. After the TV timeout, I think there's 12 minutes left in the third. It's TV timeout, offensive zone face off, right? So one of the things you got Elias Lindholm for was situational face offs. Just here recently, Rick Talk was talking about situational face offs. Neutral zone face offs that he downplays. But in zone face offs, these are the important ones. And it's Sam Lafferty out there with Elias Pederson. Offensive zone face off, down a goal, 12 minutes to go in the third. Are you taking advantage of enough opportunities? After a TV timeout. So is that a moment where Lindholm can go with Pederson? And you engineer these moments to say, hey, especially down a goal. They're up too. Cool. Sam Lafferty, fill your boots. Get an offensive zone face off. Down a goal? Why isn't Lindholm out there? On a right-handed face off? Yeah. That's a situational moment, you don't have to dedicate the full game, like Pederson and Lindholm, they're together. But that moment, that screams to me, probably Elias Lindholm should go out there. And that's a situation that's on Rick Talk. Yeah, and I think it's fair. Any time a team goes through this stuff, I think it's fair to critique the power play. Because ever since they've tried to galaxy bring stuff on the power play, it's gotten worse. But here's the situational stuff that, as much as we're talking about the players, gotta beat the pressure and make the plays and execute as the term Rick Talk had mentioned. Even Wednesday, the 22 seconds left in that second period. The power five for the abs go out. This is what I was talking about on Thursday. And he takes Lindholm, takes Pederson, he takes Miller, puts them out. Figure out the last 22 seconds. But he pairs it with the door of a Julesin. So these are the situational things that I think Rick Talk had to be aware of, or the entire coaching staff. Do you put Hughes and Roanock out there? Do you put your five against their best five and meet pressure with pressure? As much as guys have ownership of situations and Julesin and Zadora have obviously taken a lot of D-Zone draws, do you just want to say for 22 seconds? Let's go our five against their best five. Can you guys solve these 22 seconds? Assault that away. We go into the third period with the three-nothing leap. It's these moments that are critical. For sure, this text says Talk has got a lot out of the players this year. I think we can say Talk isn't giving the players the best chance to succeed. That's absolutely true. We're talking about Lindholm. Have they figured out enough ways to get him going? And they're trying a lot of different things, so you can't say they're not trying things. But right now, those things aren't working. And as far as, you know, you're right about everything you mentioned there, but also on the power play, they've really tried to switch things up. But they're starting to somewhat get back to some of the things they were trying to do before. And they are a bit more dangerous when JT's back playing the half-wall, generating a bit more off of it again. But it seems like they've just gotten away from what their identity on the power play has been as well. And a lot of passing up. Before it was like, "Hey, we're trying to set up the great opportunity." Now they're passing up the great opportunity. Well, one thing that was really pleasant when we talked about the Quinn Pass, the non-shot. When they pulled the goalie, JT had so much space in his natural half-wall. But his back was pointing to the boards. Like, one thing that makes him so effective in that area is he's coming downhill. And he had to engineer it. Like, once he would get a pass, he'd engineer this movement then. And by that point, everyone rotates for the capitals. And they can now position themselves on a way to take away chances. When JT's already at the blue line coming downhill and then takes the pass from Quinn, it's hard to make those rotations in that shot, that slot tip. Whatever he wants to do is all open to him. It struck me as odd how unwilling he was to get himself in an already threatening position. Yeah, I don't disagree with you on that. A lot of reaction on a text inbox. Dino says, "Disagree that they were not good in the third. They were fine in the third. Just took the second period off and it cost them. Best to you guys." The reason I say they're not good in the third is because I think if we call that good, then we're dismissing what actually good looks like for this team. And good for this team means actually out-chancing the opposition when they're playing good hockey. Like we mentioned before, so for all the puck position the Canucks had in the third period, in all situations too, we count the power plays and pulling the goalie and everything. They had 32 shots of shot attempts, 32, 11 made it on goal. And out of those 11 shots, or say 32 shot attempts, two were hiding your scoring chances in Washington had one. And that includes power play and pulling the goalie. Five on five they had one hiding your scoring chance. And one of the things we talk about this team, that when they're at their best they'll give volume and sometimes you'll see a team dominate the outside, but you're not worried because they're not giving them anything. So if we're saying we're not worried when a team does that to the Canucks, and the Canucks do that to an opponent, that means Washington wasn't too worried either. And to me, that's why I don't think the Canucks had a good third period. Was it fine? Okay, fine. You can call it fine, sure. But when you're trailing 2-1, it's not good enough. And that's why the coach talked about you're not getting inside. How many rebound chances were they there for? How many times did they crash the net? How many East-West passes could they get going? They dominated the outside. It was a merry go-around on the outside. And that gives you the illusion of, hey, we're dominating and they are possession-wise and time-wise. We're not generating enough with it. In a manner of speaking, the Capitals connects to the Canucks. Yeah, in many ways they did, you know. And, you know, they're a tire team. Now, that's the fourth, I mean, if the Canucks didn't outshoot the Capitals, when they're playing their fourth game of six nights on the round... Entraveling! Four games of six nights. They're on a road trip. Of course the Canucks should have more energy in the third. They should be outshooting them and outplaying them. They outplayed them for a wide enough margin for it to really be compelling. And to me, it just wasn't good enough. That's how I feel about the third. I use the term "desire" earlier. I know "talk it, use the term "energy." Whatever you want to call it, who's inflicting their will into the game? And a lot of guys pass the moment for me. Yeah, absolutely. All right, keep your thoughts coming into our text inbox. 650-650. We'll get to more of your thoughts coming up in a bit. Let's hear from some Canucks players post-game after a 2-1 loss. And let's get the thoughts of the Canucks captain, Quinn Hughes. Here he is talking about whether they can be a lot better than they were tonight. I'm not sure, I mean, obviously just happened four or five minutes ago. So, I need some time to reflect and assess here. But I think everyone can elevate their game for sure. And you came up the eyes out for the second period, what was going through your head? And just need to get third, that's it. Where did you sort of feel the momentum in the game shift? Obviously in a second there, I thought we came out pretty explosive and, um, which is good. And then, you know, we got to find a way to, you know, carry that into the second and then in the third. I mean, we have the capability to be able to do that for 16. We didn't tonight and we'll have to talk about it in the next couple of days. What time is it to be able to just now, like this late this season, just the inconsistent? Yeah, I mean, it's, um, you know, I don't want to be too high or too low on either side of the spectrum here. I mean, on one point, um, you know, for this we beat some really good teams and at points in five straight games. And then on another hand, you know, probably should have won last game and probably should have won tonight and didn't. And, um, so that's kind of where my mindset is. It seemed like you guys, when you were trading chances, it was off low shots with great rebounds. Did you feel you guys were maybe sitting ahead too much? Uh, I don't know, I think that, um, we had our looks, we really did. Um, I think that, you know, everyone can be better, especially me. I mean, um, you know, I feel like I'm just getting pretty good in the first and then you don't see me in the second. Um, and then in the third, I mean, they just played good D so I think everyone's got to be better and, um, you know, everyone has to look in the mirror and that really includes me also. You guys were generating a lot of great loss early in the season. Do you think you were still generating as many? Uh, yeah, I do. I mean, um, trying to think about the last couple of games, how we did, but I feel like we're always scoring two, three goals, obviously at the start of the year that teams are not as tight as they are right now, so that might be a little bit of that. And it's a little bit harder to score, but, um, that shouldn't stop us and, yeah, I mean, I can't, you know, keep talking all day long. It was obviously a disappointing effort, but you got to remain, you know, positive and optimistic that, um, and look at the bigger picture, but also not, you know, sit on your heels here and feel good about how we're playing. I mean, I think I had a look down the middle there that I'm going to have to look at in the next couple of days of the video, but felt like I wasn't sure I could beat the goalie, you know, clean there at no screen and, um, you know, thought that, you know, PD could, you know, possibly one time I put a little outside of his feet, but, and also saying that we had some good looks and, um, you know, I'm not going to stay up tonight thinking about that one shot or this or that. I think there was a couple other plays in the game that were more dramatic than the power, I thought the power play snapped it around pretty good, actually. Do you think the weight of their teams have approached you guys this season has changed? I mean, I'm sure, I mean, I think that team just lost 7-2 to the Oilers, and they're probably coming here knowing that they had to play a pretty good game, and, um, they're fighting for their lives, too. I mean, there's a lot of desperation going around right now, and teams are desperate for points and desperate for wins, and there's a lot at stake. We have 14 games off, and, you know, I think we have that, too, but we need to even up the ante on that even more. How much are you guys learning from this stretch run right now being in a position that you haven't really been in before this time of the year? Yeah, I think, um, there might be a little bit of an learning aspect, but I don't think that should be an excuse to anything. I think that it's really good for us, honestly, to go through this, and hopefully edge out some of this stuff before playoffs, and then, um, again, I think if we went into playoffs, and everything was rainbows, and we won 60 games this year, and then we lose the game more again, too. That wouldn't be good for anyone either, but I don't think anyone in here, you know, mentioning that should be thinking about playoffs. I think we're about tomorrow's practice, and then keep going, and trying to play the best hockey we can on Tuesday or Wednesday whenever we play. That is Canucks captain Quinn Hughes, after a 2-1 loss on whole mice against the Washington Capitals, thinks everybody can be a bit better. He did mention he thought they were snapping the puck around pretty well on the power play, and that drew a reaction from myself, Satyar Shah Biknazar, and Josh Elli-Wolf, who's producing here at the rink, and, you know, we're like, you know, you thought that was pretty good, and Josh is like, I've actually thought the power play was pretty good, and we're like, you think that was good? He's like, no, no, I'm just saying. Josh, you can turn your mic on here, but you thought the Canucks power play was good tonight? I thought it was better than it has been previously. And mainly I'm like, maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see, like Miller and Patterson back in their normal spot, so I was like, okay, this is what I want. Something familiar to make you feel better, right? Yeah, so that's what it was. But I mean, the bar was so low, that was better. Okay, I'll concede better. Good, however, no. So the Canucks had zero high danger scoring chances. Five on four, the Canucks had no high danger scoring chances. The only high danger scoring chances the Canucks had with the man advantage was when they pulled the goalie, and they had one. There it is. So the power play to me can get a lot better than what Quinn was suggesting, but hey, listen, if you have to take some positives and build on it, I'm all for it, talk yourself into it, have the right mentality. I have no issues with it, but just have to see a lot more on the man advantage. Yeah, we did reference the play where he passed up a shot. Yeah. And you can mention, didn't believe I could beat the goalie cleanly without a traffic. He's on pace. He's got like 13 goals. Believe in yourself, Quinn, I believe in your shot. You believe in your shot. But shoot the damn puck. It's interesting because to me that speaks to like an overwhelming offensive philosophy that if the goalie, if you can see the goalie, basically don't shoot it. But so pass it off to Pat or something, guidelines and hard and fast rules are two different things. Like you're moving downhill into space in a prime goal scoring area, and you're going to pass up that shot. That to me is like, rules be damned. Just shoot that one, man, Quinn Hughes. You're going for the Norris. Absolutely. Oh, man, this one here is Quinn Hughes equals Horvat 2.0 when it comes to post game interviews at low L. I mean, hey, listen, it's fine to me. It's only one season. We had a couple of seasons of the runways of the audio like that. At some point we refused to hear audio, we were just like, we know what he's going to say. So maybe a year and a half from now, we make that rule. The funniest was the one time we predicted the four things he would say and he said all four. That was pretty funny. All right. This one here says Kirk has talked, lost the dressing room. Have they tuned him? Let's go. Let's go. Kirk putting in work. Yeah, I love it. I know. I don't believe so. And I would say this, you know, because I thought the coach was more measured for considering the performance. And he's critical. And the thing is like if you worry about losing a team, you can't be like going in on them all the time. You have to be very careful with how hard you are, especially in the media because that creates another storm and everything. So I'd say him being somewhat measured tonight is probably him also biting his lip a little bit to not lose the guy, so to speak, not that I'm worried about it and I understand the question. I don't believe there's any merit to it. I don't think that he's losing the guys at all. But I think that's part of the reason why coaches can't always go in on guys after every performance. You kind of have to give and take a little bit. Maybe that apology he got also served as a bomb to relax the tension. If he didn't get the apology from the lines, maybe he still would have been keyed up in the post game. But he got an apology. He got an apology. All right. Thanks for your thoughts coming in on the text in the box, 65650. If you want to grab a phone line, you can do so as well as 604-280-0650. We'll hear from JT Miller as well. Plus we'll talk to Ian McIntyre as a Canucks central post game show continues on the home of your Canucks sports in the 650 and the sports in that radio network. Huge top of the point to McKay, Evan, the left wing carrying along the blue line, acting huge. Miss handled the pocket of the line but keeps it in under pressure from Ojid skates out the left wing. It's a low shot. This car tipped to the top of the crease by Brock Besser. It's his team leading 36th goal of the season. It's 1-0, Canucks 1-11 into the game. Well, Canucks struggled to get it through the neutral zone a bit there with tight check in Washington, but they get it deep. Besser goes to where he does his best work right in front of the net. Hughes almost loses it on the line, sticks with it, starts wheeling around Ojid, just puts it to the net. Besser's parked in front and tips it home. Good start for the Canucks. Canucks start off well by losing 2-1 in regulation on home ice against the Washington Capitals, and this is the Canucks Central Post game show presented by the number 5 orange on the home of your Canucks, sports non-650. Keep your thoughts coming in to our Dunbar Lumber text inbox, 65650, you can also grab a phone line as well, 604-280-0650, and man, a lot of takes coming in, Lotso says, seems like a lot of the Canucks fans panicking like cryptocurrency investors. Almost every Quinn Hughes soundbite has him saying, "Us, we and everybody," and he has said numerous times in interviews, "Not to get too high or too low. This guy is awesome, Lotso texting it." Stalling in the cryptocurrency day. We have a number of texts that you wanted to get to here, Besser. Yeah, there's been so many good ones. Owen and Burnaby, any thoughts on Myers's game and changing the decor up? I mean, I actually thought Myers was more than fine tonight, overall. He had one good moment in the third special, a couple good moments in the first period. One of the better score chances the Canucks had came off a shot from Tyler Myers, which knocked Charlie Lindgren's helmet off, a mask off in the first period, and then he had a nice play where Malenstein was for checking on him, and he kind of pulled a Quinn Hughes little button hook and just dusted him and pulled the puck out. I thought overall Myers... He remembers that when he joined us, and he kind of chuckled in the corner. He started laughing about it. But I thought overall for his first game back, like Myers was more than fine. I didn't find him to be the problem at all tonight. Like the two goals I could score, he wasn't on the ice, he didn't cause any of the problems. The decor on a whole, they were fighting the puck the whole evening. The whole evening outside of Susie, and Hughes. My admirer's tooth credit, I didn't notice a whole lot outside the regular issues. It was Coles, Veronica Zadorov had some issues with the puck. 650, 650. Do you think we're getting less high quality scoring opportunities because we're focusing more on team structure on the target system, less odd man rushes against is good, but also less man, odd man rushes for two. Yeah, you're not playing as open a game, you're willing to give that stuff up, but that's kind of been their game for most of the season. And I think it's been misleading, so the Connectsmen and one of the more deadly teams off the rush, but this is something Kevin Woodley's talked about a lot. They're actually one of the teams that has some of the fewer rush chances per game in the league. So they've never been a high volume rush team, like rush chance team. They just converted on a lot of those chances, like conversion rates not happening, because the chances are even fewer right now, games getting a bit tighter. But that's the identity of this hockey team. It's going to be a low event hockey team trying to play two, one games, and we mentioned this even earlier this season where they're winning a lot of these high scoring games. I'm like, if you actually look at how they're playing, they probably are going to be more suited for lower scoring games, lower event hockey games. It just took about until game 60 for that to really come to fruition. And now we're really seeing that being driven home by the performances, that it's very low event going both ways. I also don't know if they have the speed for that to live in a world where they're trying to trade on man rush chances. I don't think they want to trade the chances, but I do think sometimes tonight, for instance, how many opportunities did they bypass because they were simply flipping pucks? Now, I don't want to sound like hypocrite because there were moments the last little while where they've been hemmed in their own zone, and they're not relieving pressure by getting the puck out at all. So there's a fine balance between getting the puck out, avoiding the pressure and getting hemmed in, and also taking advantage of your opportunities. What gets me is when you have a chance, there have been times, too, there's one play by Connor Garland in the third period where he flipped the puck up, tried to get suitor code to go chase it down. And it's like, well, instead of making that cross-ice flip pass, why don't I just bank it off the board and let it get to it? And then maybe that creates a two-on-one or a two-on-two, a bit of a rush chance instead. So tonight, even when they had opportunities to create something off the rush, they bypass those by trying to flip pucks down the ice instead. And to me, that's not really setting yourself up for any sort of counter pressure. Yeah, and even the flip-outs, like we mentioned the goal, the OV goal, that all starts from a Peronic icing, where it essentially looks like a really bad soccer penalty that goes over the bar. He skymails that one. It's not even an attempt for someone to go get close to it. It's-- Yeah. Let me see how far I can fling this puck, it was going to be icing the whole way. No attempt at a glass and out here or something like that. No. We'll get to more of your thoughts like this one here. Pecock and North Van really think Joshua coming back will position everybody properly. He's a bigger piece than we give him credit for. It's a good text by Pecock, but I also-- I was mentioning this to reach before the game. And yes, I mean, we get-- we get Joshua back and that's going to help you, of course. But also underscores. We set the same thing. Remember, I'm a Pew Studer. Missed some games and blew him. Missed some games. They kind of missed that guy. He comes back, helps him out. Mckayev missed a few games early. He comes back. Okay. He connects forward group, especially guys that have to play with their top three centers. Patterson, Hughes, and now Lindholm before it was-- it was Blueger. Like, they kind of-- they kind of need all those guys to be healthy and go, because there's a big drop off if you're missing a couple of those guys, for instance. And we felt it before, too, and whether it's Blueger, whether it's Joshua out or whether it's Mckayev that was out for a while or even Souter or guys like that, I think this team really feels it, because the feeling is they are a winger short as it is. You lose another big winger. It kind of causes problems for you. So I think Peacock is right, but I don't think it's just related to Joshua. I think they kind of need to have him as one of the most important nine skaters going all the time. Well, there was a text earlier. I don't understand. Patrick Levine saw a Pew Studer in the top six and said, "We're fine. We don't need any more forwards. It's an unsigned text coming in to the Dunbar Lumber text message inbox." Like I said at the time, I was shocked that Canucks weren't able to make something happen to the trade deadline. It wasn't for my lack of effort. They spoke about that as well. Thames were made. They couldn't close it down. But yeah, we can sit here and bemoan that fact forever. You have what you have right now, and it's not like what they have is completely lackluster. I mean, they should have done better tonight. They simply should have done better. Like you can sit here and talk about they've missed guys, but what they have here tonight is still significantly more than what the Washington Capitals have, yet they couldn't get it done. So to me, that's the bigger story tonight. But I get it. Joshua Back, hopefully that helps. And they do miss him in the lineup. What else do you want to get to here, Beck? 656.50. Thoughts? Oh, sorry. A couple of ones here from Paterson, Stephen from Langley. One thing that frustrates me most is when Petey picks the puck up in our own zone with speed and it looks promising. But instead of taking the puck wide and around the net, something dangerous, he stops, curls back, kind of like the old Garland-type move. You watch any of these star players. They impose their will in the game, PD. He shies away from Stephen Langley, and we're talking about Peterson wingers. This one from Travis, the recruiter, thoughts on playing Besser with Peterson. They had a lot of chemistry early in Peterson Square and all that should matter right now and figure out what the lineup heading into those playoffs. They aren't winning anything with the status quo. And the winger for Elias Peterson, the thing I wanted to see is some of that works away from the puck and away from Elias Peterson, because when Lindholm was there, he's a really great support player. But for me, it compresses the area. Hoaglander is very similar that he compresses the area. Now he wins along the boards and he gets to the net and can link up play and skate with the puck through the neutral zone, but to me, it's like they seem very close together. And if that's your duo, everything just gets compressed and I'd like to see Elias Peterson operate with a bit more space, so I'm going to threaten the puck or threaten the geometry of the defense away from the play. That to me is one of Elias Peterson that's at his best when he can use his vision. And right now, everything just seems so close and you add in the third guy who's usually your forechecker, your F1, to go get the puck that guy's not really a fucking player. And he was talking about that too about Lindholm and Peterson, especially talk if that is the last couple of days, saying both guys are very responsible defensively and play a lot deeper. So you need forecheckers to be able to get in there and buy some time for the centers to join the play. So sure, a lot of these things obviously still have to get better too. All right, a lot of reaction on the text inbox as always and we'll get to more of your thoughts here. We are going to play JT Miller in a second, but you had another thought here. So the coach mentions Rick Talkett that the linesman who made the icing call right before the first, the tie-in goal by Tom Wilson came over at the start of the third period and apologized to Rick Talkett and Talkett wasn't going to go in on the officials, said those things kind of happened, but it was a pretty egregious icing call. Yeah, just one of the worst you'll ever see. And we haven't spent enough time on this and we've spent fleeting moments I think discussing just officiating in general. And it's a true statement at times when we say things like, well, players have to overcome this. It also I think does a massive disservice to the game. While it's true and players have to overcome, this is the highest level of hockey. And we're seeing this across all sports. When we undercut the fact that these officials are ruining the easiest place, right? He's right there. He's right there. The puck's there and PDG's right there. I mean, like, I don't understand how you don't realize he's closer to the puck. I can understand hooks. I can understand holds, things happen really fast and it's tight bodies. Things can get mixed up and you go, oh, yeah, it's a call. Two minutes powerful. I can understand those ones. You can't get this wrong. You've got you've got time, like Teddy Blue was at the blue line, chipping that puck and by the way, he like missed PDG by a great deal leading to the icing. Yeah. But you've got time to recognize who's coming who's coming where there's no reason to not understand where PDG is compared to Alexia. There's no reason to not see the puck as across the goal line. There's no reason for any of this. And it's, this is the highest form and it's a disservice to the players to disservice the fans that come to the game. It's a disservice to the fans that are emotionally invested in these results. It's okay for coaches, fans, players to demand excellence from the coaches. From the officials, from the officials. We demand it from the teams, the players, the front offices, the coaches. We demand excellence. We demand respect from fans. We're like, hey, don't go too crazy about your reactions. It's okay for everyone who's invested in sports to demand more from officials. Again, like we said before, the Canucks don't lose because of the bad call because you have to have the resiliency to fight through it. And the Canucks won the face off afterwards and it was Ian Cole giving the puck up. But that's putting a band aid on the problem, right? Out of percent, but that's why I'm with you. The thing that gets me to is he was so adamant getting at the PDG's face being like, hey, that's icing. I got a hundred percent. Didn't say anything. Didn't say a single word to him. And full credit to PDG on that play. And maybe, hey, listen, have the courage of your convictions if you think you have the right call as an official. But man, he seemed very confident he made the right call and he was so dead wrong on it. And it's, it's a really tough job and I'm sympathetic to officials. I really am. Because it's, it's such a tough job. But right now. It's not good enough across all sports. Like, I don't even like talking about officiating because I think we get too invested into it. And it's, to your point, it's like, it is about what the players are overcoming it. And this stuff is going to go wrong from time to time. But right now it's, it's hard to watch a lot of games across any sport and not feel like a takeaway is the third party in these games, which has an influence, is not living up to their end of the bargain. No, I mean, yeah, it's, it's, as, as bad of an icing call as you'll see, now do you feel like that cost of connection? I guess that depends on how you're out. Look up it. It's, it's about the play. It's, that's the thing. It's the easy stuff that's getting wrong. Yeah. And in that moment, like, I, I can't imagine just being gaslit as a player. Yeah. It's like, it's like, no, like literally that didn't happen. It's, it's, you have to get this stuff right. Yeah. And it's hard. Like 15 seconds later to switch back on. Oh, here we go. I should know where I'm supposed to go and it's, you're getting gaslit. And it's, it's raising the emotion in moments and games when your job is to kind of control the, the emotion and absolutely, but at the same time, you have to find a way to overcome those things, right? I'm doing a disservice to my brain. And I'm just saying that a lot of times you do that a lot of times you have to come over those overcome those things and the next last couple of games have not been able to overcome them. All right. Keep your thoughts coming into our text inbox. We are going to get to Ian McIntyre as well. But before we get to all that, we mentioned we were going to get the thoughts of JT Miller. And here he is after a 2-1 loss on home ice against the Capitals. I thought the start was pretty good. They outplayed us. The second, I thought we had a good last five or six minutes of the second and then I don't know. It just seemed like we didn't get a ton of good looks tonight. You know, they, they played hard, but we have to be better. We know our standards a little higher than that. Where do you think the game sort of turned in terms of the momentum swinging there? The second period, you know, I feel like the we, you know, for some reason we, like we, our execution stops and we stop going, you know, I think we just, maybe we want the puck so bad sometimes, you know, we want it to come easy and like other teams push and then we kind of get away from our staples that make us a good team and kind of hope it goes well. And then on that time we kind of get more panicky with the puck because they're coming with, coming at us. We can do a better job of being composed in moments like that because it's going to happen a lot down the stretch. It felt like there were just a number of plays that were just puffing from all of the neutral zone or what have you, like did it feel like you were close on some of this? I don't know, I mean, I wasn't very sure I put the puck there in the third period. You know, I don't, you know, that's on me, but I don't know, it was kind of sloppy. Like it wasn't like a pretty game, but sometimes you got to use to playing in games like that. You know, they're a team pushing for the playoffs and you know, they're going to be really happy with a two-to-one win this time of year, so we had a way to be better. Before their first goal, there was a, you know, maybe a questionable offside and then eventually it leads to the goal and then take a penalty and leads to the other goal. That moment when something goes against you, how hard is it to kind of fight through that right now? Well, that's what we're trying to get better at is, you know, when it's not going good for us how we're going to play. You know, we play with a lot of leads this year, we come out and having trail going into the third very often and that's just something we need to be better at is when we, you know, we're getting pushed by the other team, how are we going to respond, you know, and that takes a level of maturity and discipline and starts with our, you know, us as leaders on the team to make sure that the team goes in the right direction. You talk about how this is a, the capital's our team that's pushing for the playoffs and they're in a tough position. You can see it's a team in really similar position on Tuesday. What can you take from this game and apply to that? We need to raise our standard, you know, raise our level of execution, raise our level of tenacity and, you know, physicality, I mean, like just, like just, it wasn't good enough today. It wasn't bad, I don't think, but it's not good enough and every single team we're going to play moving forward. It's playing for something. You've got guys playing for jobs, you know, playing to win the division, playing to win the president's trophy, playing to win, you know, to get into the, like, there's something, there's a reason for everybody to be playing hard this time of year. There are no easy games and we need to find a way to rise to the occasion a little bit better than we did in a game like today. Is it just simply getting our energy, finding a way to get forward? Oh, yeah, I don't know, I just feel like we don't, when teams push at us, we kind of stop executing in a snowball, so it's kind of hard to point out where it starts, but I mean, it's not, we're not panicking in any means, but it's just something that we need to work on as a group. That is JT Miller, Canucks forward after 2-1 loss against the Capitals. Demand's better from his group and the man who demands better of us ultimately now joins us. The man who called the triple threat, you watch him on TV, you read him on digital, you're about to hear him on radio, he is Ian McIntyre. I actually try to make a few demands, I try to be low maintenance, there's enough maintenance in my life and everybody else's, I try not to add to it. So who's more low maintenance, you or Carson Soussey, like the coach mentioned the other day? Sorry, why are you asking me about Carson Soussey? You said low maintenance, you know, low maintenance player, low maintenance guy, you know, wow, I'm probably a little higher maintenance than Carson. You need the editors to be awake, be a message to them and call them. I have very good editors, and Bic last night caught something that one of the editors in Toronto had missed, but I've got one of the West Coast Bureau, Ali Chesham on my story tonight, so it's going to be perfect. I was just a typical Friday night for me, glass of wine and reading Ian McIntyre's latest, I noticed one, I was like, all right, I'll shoot another. Do you say the best? Good as it gets. Yeah. Do you save the best for last? You're trying to go to sleep. Just we just kid, we just because we love. But Ian, my volume might have been high maintenance there. And he was like quickly bringing the volume down. Yes. Sorry, Eddie. You know, as far as this game goes, I'm back. Honestly, overall, disappointing considering what we saw against the abs, and they had a solid first period, but it was a little bit of adversity hits, and much like the Colorado game, they kind of unravel afterwards. Yeah. And the difference between the capitals and the avalanche is they don't have the game breakers, right? Alex Ovechkin is 38 and looks at, because Netzoff has gone backstrom, it's, you know, he hasn't been seen since October. Who knows if we'll see him again. They still have some good players, like they're in a playoff race, and they've won a bunch of games lately. So they're not, by no means an easy out, by no means a gimme, but they're not the kind of team that you would think like Colorado, once they get rolling, boy, there's nothing you can do to stop this force of nature. That's not the capitals. But the Canucks seem to be unable, at least in these two games, when they get into those spells where the other team is pushing and has the puck all the time and the Canucks are chasing, they just don't seem to be able to make a play. You know, whether it's a hit to separate someone from the puck, whether it's a pass out of their zone, when they do get the puck off of the other team, and certainly they don't seem to be able to reverse things by, you know, sending out an energy line or just sending out guys who are going to have a shift in the offensive zone, where maybe it relieves some pressure and maybe it changes momentum. The Canucks were very good at the end of the second period, but by then it's 2-1, it'd gone from 1-0 for them to 2-1 for the Capitals, and now they're chasing the game. And although, you know, they were good for a few chefs, they still didn't generate a whole lot, which was also the story in the third period, where the Canucks were the more urgent team, they had more zone time, more of the puck, but they had an awful hard time getting the puck to the middle of the ice to generate chances. That shift at the end of the second, that Miller, McKay, and Besser line, you thought, "Okay, that's a stabilizing shift that we've seen the blue Ger, Garland, Joshua line kind of be the kickstart," and then you think, "Okay, what's the third period going to look like?" You manage to stabilize, and there's no kind of fight back after that, and, you know, a phrase I often think about, I know Bruce used us a lot, scared to win, and it's like moments like this, you do have to go make a play, you do have to try to create something, and that's lacking. Yeah. Well, right now it is. They've obviously won a lot of games, though it is a 42 win, so they've been pretty good at, you know, season games, and they've won in all kinds of ways, and it's nice to have that in the bank, right, to know that you can do that, but you've got to do it now, you know, everyone, the NHL season, I've said this before, it's an 82-game sprint. People used to say it's a marathon, it's not. Maybe it's like a mile, an Olympic mile, where it may look on TV like those guys are jogging. Right. They are not. They're running faster than we have ever run in our lives, and they're doing it for four laps. They're all just running at the same speeds, so it looks normal. And the hardest lap is when the greatest milers are running their best, their best intervals, and that's what the NHL season is like, where the pace doesn't, it just continues to get faster and faster and faster, and right now it looks like some other teams are going faster than the Canucks are. And I think that's what the concern is for Rick Talkin, in fact I'm pretty certain that's what the concern is for him. When he says things like he did post-game tonight, we're used to this. I think what he's saying is this team has a lot of players who have not had to play meaningful games now to get ready for even greater games in April in the post-season. And it's tough, you have to, one of the things he said last year, guys, to get where they need to go, guys are going to have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And right now they don't look very good when they're uncomfortable. They look awfully uncomfortable. They need to find a way to get more out of themselves when things aren't going great. Like if you can't handle Washington in the second period in March, how are you going to handle, say, the Vegas Golden Knights in the third period or the Edmonton Oilers who by the way are eight behind now with three games in the hand. You have to elevate, as Talkin said, get back into fifth gear and he used the analogy yesterday at practice at UBC. I didn't see you guys there, oh yeah, you had radio shows. I had the day off, so I was -- You had the day off, yes. Probably called it in the morning. Yeah, I'm not coming in today. Is that how sat rolls? No, I usually get more notice than that. I'm usually more professional than that. Yes. Usually. You are. I'll ultimate professional. But out at UBC, he used the analogy that they're in third and fourth gear, they need to get to fifth gear. Well, in that second period, they slipped out of gear and were neutral. Yeah. You could hear the gearbox grinding as they were trying to find the first -- It's like me learning how to drive stick when I was 16 years old, yeah. Yes. It's a lot of fun when she learned. Oh, my first car was a Honda Civic SI, and it was stick, and I had it for about 10 years. Wow. That's a good first car. Yeah, it was great. You're not going to tell me you bought it new. No, it was secondhand. It was in Grand Prairie where you -- No, I bought it -- I bought it here when I started college. I worked through my summers in high school and saved up a bunch of money, and I bought the car when I was 19 years old, and it was all souped up. It was lowered. It had the wheels. It was like, it had a fast and furious pretty much, and then, like, I crashed it two months after having it. Now, I got to fix and everything, and I had it for a decade, but, yeah, it was stick, and they had love driving on and on. I mean, love driving standard. No. Grand Prairie and Edson, was this roughly the same time? Yeah. More or less. When did you go? I went to '07. I was '08 to '09. I was there until almost '20. I left it. Edson and I came back in -- You guys are speaking of this century. 2007. Oh, my God. You're young. Yeah. Well, yeah. You think we're young? Yeah. He wasn't even born when we were running. This is the first job. He's, like, 15, right? Probably hired him because there's still that graduated wage, right? Like, until, if you're a minor, you can pay less until -- Yeah, I think so. Like, he -- I think he's graduating high school this year. Yeah. Well, I bought -- I bought a used Ford Mustang when I got a job in Kamloops at age 20 in the 1980s. So that was my first car. But my first new car -- in fact, my only new car, because I bought -- he's one since then, was Honda Del Sol Si. So the Civic Si with the little hard top that removed and started in the trunk. Yeah. Nice. I looked awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Your stature was probably very -- My head sticking up above the windshield, getting bugs in it. I had more hair than two. I had kind of -- I got to say I had a bit of a mullet. Yeah. Oh, wow. After Kamloops. I'm back with the mullet. Yeah. We got to see some photos of these. And then I tried to grow, like, a little beard jazz dot in the '90s. It didn't go well. When I found out Connect Players were talking about it, it was time to get rid of it. Oh, you guys. Oh, so I'm the button. The joke's okay. All right. All right. So before you wrap up here, at the end, you know, we do have to ask about Elias Pedersen, who's played with everybody tonight, I think. He did. Talk it. Another thing he said yesterday at the practice you guys weren't at, is that he's got to get Pedersen going, and sometimes Pedersen's lagging. And I think tonight, you know, Pedersen played a ton. I don't think it was because he was so effective, although, you know, he's trying, like you can see it. Like, it wasn't like he had a horrible night. No, no, no. And he's had very few horrible nights. It's just the standard is so high. There's a better player there than what he's saying. Well, and now look, look, life can be complicated when you're making 92.8 million. That comes with expectations and it creates, you know, I don't want to say animosity, but there's people in the fan base now who are going to give him less, even less leeway because, you know, he got what he wanted and he just hasn't, he's, he's not playing like what's he making this year, 7.8, 7.8 million actual cash. So while he's not, he's certainly not playing like a 10 million dollar player, let alone a guy who's going to be making 11.6 and, and he knows that as well. Tonight, I thought, talk it was just kept throwing him out and he was changing his wingers. I think he played with five, at least three minutes with five different players. I mean, mostly he had his line mates, but, you know, second half of the game he was playing with other guys. And I think this is all about trying to get Peterson going. He needs to be better. I thought Miller was off tonight. I thought most of them were off tonight. Quinn, and I haven't looked at the fancy stats. I thought Quinn was terrific again, but there's even times, you know, the puck's bouncing away from Quinn. Even on the first goal. I mean, he made Oshie look silly, but part of the reason Oshie committed is because Quinn bobbled it. And so Oshie sort of took a step towards the puck and then Quinn is quick and he got it first. But I don't think they had a whole lot of guys from the top of the lineup who were anywhere, anywhere more than a six or a seven out of 10 in this game. And, and sometimes that's enough, you know, depending on what you're getting from, from the other guys in the lineup, but we know the secondary scoring is kind of dried up. It feels like it's dried up. That third line with Lindholm is, is struggling. The fourth line seems to have some effective shifts, but they're, you know, not generating anything. Certainly not scoring anything. So right now it's about your top guys and, and they weren't, they weren't good enough tonight, but a lot of guys on the team weren't good enough to me. No, certainly it wasn't. And I would love to have $92.8 million worth of problems one day, be nice problems to have. All right. Be careful what you wish for. Sact. I've seen, I've seen Hollywood movies about this. Yeah, but that's, you get the, you get the money, you end up broke and miserable and a VH one. The Satyar Shostor. I know nobody, nobody wants to be with you because of you. I'm like us. Like we're just here because you're such a good guy. That's the only reason. And we're drawn to you. If you have all that money now, that's what people are after. Just be careful. Be careful what you wish for. They still wish for it. All right. Ian, fantastic stuff is always a look forward to reading your latest on sportsnet.ca. Biggest saving it for glass of wine when it gets home. So he'll do that then. And, and please send me texts late at night. If you see anything wrong in my story, just try to be a good teammate to teammate. Like the example of so many others around. Yeah. Picking each other. I'm sure it's going to be clean tonight though. I think it was OK. And as I say, we got our top people on it tonight. I'm Max on top of it as well. Great stuff as always. Make sure to read his latest on sportsnet.ca. Biggest ours back on the people's show on Monday, three to four on sportsnet 650 special thanks to Josh Elliott, Wolf, Fast, Eddie Gregory, both doing a tremendous job producing the show as always. And thank you to all of you listening, participating to the show. We always appreciate a lot of fun and can't wait to be back at it again. On Tuesday, when the Canucks host the Buffalo Sabers, another tough game of sabers been playing well recently. But more shows coming up on Monday, and thanks for listening to the Canucks Central Post game show presented by the number five orange on home here at Canucks Sportsnet 650.
