Dan and Sat are joined by Sportsnet's Eric Engels to talk about the latest from the GM meetings in Florida, including some of the potential rule changes. Also, hear from Canucks Insider, Irfaan Gaffar, on the Canucks playing more difficult games, where Pettersson's play is at, and more.
This podcast was produced by Josh Elliott-Wolfe.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
We're back in on Canucks Central, Stan Riccio and Sati Arshah. Canucks Central is for Enzahn Pacific Vancouver's premier Chrysler, Dodd-Ramm and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Camby and Maine or at Enzahn Pacific Chrysler.ca. We're in the Kintec Studio and we now head to the dispatch plumbing heating and air conditioning hotline. The first call, the only call, Sportsnet's Eric Engels from the GM meetings joining us for a discussion here on Canucks Central. Thanks to this, Eric. How are you? I'm excellent, guys. How are you? We're good. Thanks for making the time. So just reading over your piece here at Sportsnet.ca and some of the things that have been ongoing here at the GM meetings. Well, a lot of rule tweaks and it seems they're doing anything they can to maybe help out the offensive team in a lot of these tweaks. Yeah, I think that's well characterized. You know, Colin Campbell's the executive director of hockey operations quoted Bob Ganey going back to the 04/05 season, the lockout in which they made all these major changes right to the game and saying that, you know, they're doing everything they can to improve offense and punish defense. And I think you look at these little manipulations to the rules that they're going forward with. And when I say going forward, they're submitting them to the competition committee, which will happen in the summer. And then those, if they get through there, we'll go forward to the Board of Governors to ratify and inevitably get implemented into game, but it's just these minor little tweaks where, for example, if a goaltender flips his mask off on a play where it's gotten loosened by a shot or something like that, say the puck is all the way at the other end of the ice and he flips his mask off, he'll blow the play dead and bring the face off into the defensive zone where that goaltender is and let the opposing team choose which thought it's going to be in and not let the defending team make a change. So it's just like an example of promoting opportunity, but also punishing players from the laying the game to kind of eliminate offensive flow from their opposition, right? So another one involving the goaltender is, see, he wasn't previously punished for inadvertently knocking the net off its pegs and that became a big subject a year ago where a couple of years ago and we saw a couple of the goalies in the league knocking the net off like really easily and it looked like an accident and because they could get away with it without penalty, whereas the other players, if they do it by accident, you have that same situation where the face off goes in the defensive zone, you can't change and they could choose which side it goes on. Now the goaltender is going to be a part of that because, well, again, promoting offense, punishing defense, right? Yeah, and it makes sense. I think as much as people that are more traditionalists and they love promoting defense, I think that's where all the major sports are trending towards anyways. You see it in the NBA, you see it especially in the NFL and that's kind of life in pro sports. If you can't make it entertaining, then it's going to be hard to draw eyes to your product, right? Yeah, also like talking about it is exceptionally boring, right? It's an incredible contract between trying to increase the entertainment on the ice, but talking about it off or tweeting about those little room manipulations today. I think I was putting myself to sleep. It is interesting how the league, like we've seen a huge outburst and maybe it is these little tweaks that have started to add up. I think Sat and I have talked about it, adding two teams into the league has maybe brought in some players that can be taken advantage of more across the league. It just feels like with how many hundred point scores did we have last year? We're going to have another eight or 10 or so this year. The league is better for it. People love looking at the stat sheet and seeing all these guys putting up numbers. Ultimately, that's what's going to sell in this league. It feels as though they've done this for a while and it's really started to work. Listen, I'm a traditionalist in the sense that I get as much out of a really nice goal as a beautiful save or a great hit. I think all of us probably agree at this point that fighting for no reason is a bit of a turn off, especially when you see somebody get hurt in one of those things. How many times when a fight breaks out are you just saying, "I'm bored by this. I don't really want to watch it." I'm excited by everything that I see in the game. I think the skill and the speed of the game undeniably as the GMs, many of them pointed out today when we were talking to them, is up. The league changes and the goal scoring is up in the league. I think any tweaks that they consider moving forward have to be to get out of the scenarios where we're taking goals off the board. That's one thing that Barry Trot said yesterday that resonated with me. More opportunity you have to have those things stick to better. I think one of the interesting things happening at these GM meetings, and I'm not saying they don't happen in other meetings, it's just like the way this goes now in terms of the harmony between the GMs and the league, all the staff here from Hawkey Ops explaining how they make their decisions in the situation room, you have all of Dorj Palace's staff here to clarify anything within the processes that people don't understand about DOP. Honestly, I could go off on a whole tantrum on DOPs because I don't think there's a lot of people out there, despite how much information they put out about their process, they really understand how they do what they do. You have a video explaining every single decision that they make. Once you start to piece that information together, you start to understand what they're doing and see a consistency in their methodology, and yet you hear so many occupants, or even some reporters, or even some people around the game saying, "Well, it's the kangaroo court, and they decide to do this and that." There is patterns within how they make their decisions here. I'm not saying they get it right all the time, they're human, they're going to make mistakes, but I think there's value in them being here and facing those GMs and saying, "Hey, we're giving you all this information, we're showing you everybody in our department, but if you want to know more, come to our offices in New York, watch how we watch the games, and how we get to start discussing what will be reviewed and what won't, and you'll have more insight on the process so that when you have questions or you form your own opinions, they'll be more informed." I think there's a certain transparency there that's necessary. Yeah, and I don't necessarily disagree with that. One of the things that I always grapple with personally is, do we need more reviews or do we need less reviews? I understand while you're doing the review for a puck over the glass and everything, it makes sense you're trying to get the call right. I just wonder, as time goes on and we see reviews after reviews and it seems like so often it comes down to millimeters and does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? I'm just not sure doing more reviews will ultimately be a good thing for the game. Look, I think that's a legitimate concern to have because obviously none of us want to see the game delayed to a point where you're changing the channel, or if you're at the game, getting up out of your seat and saying, "You know what? This might take a while, so forget this." I understand it's specific to off-side reviews, where you're trying to figure out, does he have possession? I get it. I'm a proponent of getting it right, and it is a slippery slope. You can't do it for everything. There is a certain element of human error that has to be baked into the game, but when you have the ability to get it right with technology, especially on a play like Puck Over Glass, where the play is blown dead in that infraction, and the officials already get together and discuss it to decide which one of the four of them may have actually seen if it was tipped or not. I think taking a step further, where a coach has the ability to say, "We've seen it all on video while you guys haven't," and we could see it was deflected, even if it barely happens where they end up getting it wrong, that's worth incorporating the challenge. By the way, guys, the NHL gave us the presentation that showed us the data. They have, to this point of the season, based on their data, gotten two of those calls around this year. I think in the spirit of getting it right in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final with the Cup on the line, if that's the one time it happens this year where a puck was deflected off the glass or off an opponent's stick and called the penalty as it goes over the glass and a goal scored in the cup is one, it's worth having this challenge in the game. Nobody wants to tell an increased thing to reappear, but there was a rule against that. That's a different story for a different day, but as far as bigger rule changes go, I know fans are, it's funny because I find with hockey, anytime something new happens, we generally just crap all over it and then we ask, "Why don't you try new things?" And anytime they do, we're like, "No, don't do that," or whatever, but there are fans now that question three on three over time. They have some bigger things they want to see happen. Now, obviously that wasn't on the table here. Do you think we could see an appetite for making some bigger changes to the game in terms of rules, whether attacking overtime in a bigger way than the way they're doing things right now? I think when you get to another CBA negotiation, as we roll in a couple of years, potentially that's a time where you start to see some sort of major change, but I think everybody's generally satisfied with where the game is at and how it's being played. I'll tell you something funny, and we all have our own ideas of what we like to see. I don't see any reason to change anything in overtime. I understand what was proposed in terms of not allowing the constant regrouping once you cross center. I just don't have an issue with that at all. The games mostly end in overtime 70% of them and over 70% of them end in overtime versus going to shoot out. I've never seen anybody in the stand sitting down for the shoot out. The only thing that people really hate about the shoot out is the anticlimactic moment for their team when it ends the wrong way for them. It's still exciting. It's not five on five hockey and neither is three on three, but it's still exciting. The one thing that I think should really change here, that I think would speed up the game and make it so exciting, and it's a revolutionary idea that I guarantee more than anybody. A bunch of people would think is completely stupid on my part. I would love to see them get rid of the hash marks in the face-off dots and go no holds barred on face-offs. No more you're cheating and we have to throw you out and bring somebody else in and we have to not drop the puck three times and we have to warn guys and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of waiting for the lineman to drop the puck and I'm sick of trying to convince players to play within the rules on face-offs when the only way to win them in this league is cheating on them. It's just a question of who's best at disguising their cheating. Why not just get rid of it and make it like lacrosse where you can just absolutely go out of each other until somebody wins the puck back? I just think it would be fun. I kind of set it to Danny Brieri yesterday because I like Danny a lot and he kind of looked at me like, "Yeah, I don't know about that." There you go. I'm sure there's plenty of hockey fans who agree with him but I don't know if anybody agrees with me on this one but I'm sure they do agree it is really annoying waiting for the lineman to drop the puck on all these face-offs. If I could bet on J.T. Miller beefing with a linesman over a face-off during every Canucks game I'd be a very rich man but unfortunately we don't get that option. I did want to ask you Montreal is coming to visit in a couple of days here in Vancouver and the Atlantic Division is kind of rolling through. We got Buffalo tonight, Montreal a little bit later on this week. It's an interesting spot. We knew it was going to be a sort of a building year for Ken Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens but that division with Detroit, Buffalo and Ottawa all trying to make their own play further up the standings. Where do you see Montreal, where they're at right now and how the next couple of years go? Well, yeah, listen, I have a one-on-one interview with Kent Hughes that was conducted last Friday as he was kind of making his way back home. Boston to prepare to come here to the GM meetings and obviously my focus and the piece which is up at sportsnet.ca is about what he seemed from the Canadiens this year and how it's informed his plan and how it's kind of shaping his plan to take them forward without revealing too much of what's in there because I'd love for people to read it. He has seen progress on an individual and collective level. That's something that was clear when he discussed with us after the trade deadline in his first media availability but kind of went more in depth than the individual pieces. The 19-year-old U.S. last cost year, 20-year-old Joshua was proven to be an NHL player and just acknowledging that he's got a lot of assets at his disposal to improve this team, be it with what they pick with their first pick this year or a second pick that they acquired from Winnipeg and trading Sean Monahan or the multiple first round picks they had over the next three years to play with to make trades like they did for Kirby Doc and Alex Newock to add to the core. It's very clear and he certainly didn't need to spell it out for me that they have needs that forward here. They've got 12 or so NHL defense men between what they have on that roster and what's in the wings. Some of them can play very high up within that pecking order if they turn out to be the type of players that the Canadians think they are. You know, we're talking about Elaine Hudson and David Reinbacher, Kate and Gully is emerged as a guy who is arguably a number one right now but is certainly a number one in development and that's a position of strength that they could use to address this position of weakness up front. I think you could just see multiple things happen this summer that make the forward group stronger and push certain guys out of the chairs they've been occupying this year because of lack of depth and that will help the Canadians move forward. The process they've been through this season will help them move forward in terms of the experience accrued by all these young players and how they've been in 38 one goal games which is the most in the NHL this year and, you know, learning how to win those games. 16, 11, 11 under those circumstances but certainly, you know, the difference between a win and a loss here is really that experience and just like understanding it and having a couple more gamebreakers added to the team. They're not going to go crazy in free agency nor should they this year because you look at the ages of the players whether it's the Zupi or Caulfield or something, you know, the main guys the Zupi Caulfield they're still a year away and the Canadians are still from a cap perspective even though they'll have some space this year they're in an even better position in 2025. So there's just an abundance of opportunity but it wouldn't matter much if Hughes didn't feel his team was going in the right direction to pull the trigger and advance it faster. So I think it's an interesting time to be a Canadians fan and if there are some out there that are a little bit patient they'll see I think they'll see that patients rewarded. I don't know how people see it outside of Montreal but I'm pretty close to it and that's kind of the way I see it. It's definitely the way Kent Hughes sees it, you know, and I think he's done a pretty good job so far but his biggest moves are ahead of him. One of the things I was kind of wondering about with Montreal too is they have a couple of you know veterans who aren't playing at the levels they had hoped with the money they're making. Josh Anderson and you know a guy that people know very well out here Brendan Gallagher who's really struggled this year I mean he's playing you know under 14 minutes again the production's not there. What do you think the future holds for Gallagher specifically and some of these veterans that aren't quite producing at the levels they're getting paid to do? Yeah I mean Gallagher's obviously going to be in Montreal for the foreseeable future when you consider what his contract is and you know what his market value is. It has to become higher to the Canadians than it is on a market. You're never going to fulfill I don't think and I don't want to bet against him but it would be very hard for him to fulfill a $6.5 million salary with what type of player he is now and you know the wear and tear that he's experienced throughout his career you know people can complain about that or they can realize it's the trade-off for what he gave to Canadians when he was making $3.9 million or $3.75 million for six years straight as a guy who did who absolutely overperformed what his contract is worth. You know he earned his contract playing the hardest hockey you possibly could for a guy his size and he's paying the price for it a little bit now but it doesn't mean that he can't be a stronger contributor to the team's success than he currently is. It's not all bad I think there's been some good in there for him but he's dealt with a lot of stuff including you know off the ice with his mom and recently coming out because his sister is doing a fundraiser for her you know having terminal brain cancer. You never know what these guys are dealing with and when you do you have to take it into account it doesn't matter you know Gallagher would never use that as an excuse as part of the reason why that story became was private for as long as it was but look you know the Canadians don't have an option with him right now their option is to move forward with him and that means he's going to have to continue to find the best level that he can offer and if it ends up being well well lower down in the lineup than even where he is right now because they've accumulated some pieces in the off season that take them further along and obviously Kirby Doc is going to come back next year and that's a pretty important thing for the Canadians then as long as he does that job really well he could he could actually add some value to the team not for the money he's making but some some real value at the lower end of the lineup where teams would kill to have you know third fourth liners that can really take advantage of their their matchups and that's that's where the Canadians hope to me in a position where they're not forced to play him in a position that he can no longer occupy as well as he wants that Eric really appreciate your time thanks for this and now we'll be reading up at Sports at Datsia thank you guys take care there is Eric angles Sports net he's got two pieces up right now at Sports at Datsia one on one with Kent Hughes and his takeaways from the NHL GM meetings and some of the rule tweaks I would call them that are going to be happening in the National Hockey League as early as next year now Brendan Gallo Lager is in a tough spot you know he's not all that old he's still just 31 years old but as Eric just mentioned you know his his played a hard game for a guy that's five foot nine through most of his career yeah he has and and he might be a guy that maybe with some time off and on off season maybe he can find something again like he works very hard right there might be another chapter and we've seen this a lot with players now where they'll go through a couple tough years and then all of a sudden they'll have a resurgence like we've seen it with guys like Jamie Ben and Dallas for instance and even Tyler Sagan this year you've seen these things kind of happen so you can't count them out the thing I just wonder about with that team is they need to get significantly better and they don't exactly have a ton of cap space for next year now they have 21 players in the roster which is pretty good at a 23 roster spots and they have nine million in cap space which is not bad for two roster spots but is one player changing everything for you and we've seen teams make these decisions now whether it was Minnesota with pewa with Ryan Souter obviously in Zach Parise we saw with Vancouver with all of Rekna Larson and Gallagher and Anderson they actually are buyout options and the interesting thing with Gallagher is I don't know if the league will let it happen but if he gets bought out this year they actually get an extra 300,000 in cap space the buyout savings is 6.83 million is contract 6.5 so they could conceivably actually gain not only you know get the six and a half off now it has a couple years on a road where it's one year at four yeah but I just wonder are they going to make a tough decision on Josh Anderson is similar now he actually has a $200,000 cap charge if they buy him out next year so do they look at doing something Vancouver did Minnesota did where they take one or two years of savings to try to move things along because you're not moving guys like this right now in this league right like we saw with Vancouver they try to trade all these players that have money owed to them if they're not playing well nobody's taking money off your hands no and you know guy like Gallagher with that kind of a contract you mean like he's either playing it out or LTIR somewhere down the line but you're not getting a contract unless you buy it out now if you buy him out he's a type of guy that I think in a new situation somewhere it could really work out for and I mean it's worked out for all of her Ackman Larson exactly right like put into a role that you're more able to successfully fill and you have a lot more success that way I wonder if teams can look at what Vancouver did this year where they carved out 7 million in cap space and were able to aggressively improve their team with that yeah if other teams take note and say hey the cap's going up in a couple years anyways is it worth it for us to do something similar to try to kick start kick start things because there's no way the connects are what they are if they don't make that move this year right yeah no it's you look back at it and yeah like Oliver Ackman Larson's been a good find for the Florida Panthers they might go on and win the president's trophy and he's played a huge role for them early in the season when they had Ekblad and Montour out of the lineup and has continued some decent play as more of a third pair guys the season's gone on but being able to open up that cap space and get blugger Cole and even Susie with that money I mean look at what it's done for this team and how much it's helped through the course of the season it's day to reach out Satyar Shah coming up Erfan Gefar is going to join us his take on the Vancouver Canucks and how they're trending towards the playoffs that's next on Sportsnet 650. Back in on Canucks Central it's Stan Rachow Satyar Shah we're in the Kintek studio Kintek Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five star Google reviews sort feet what are you waiting for it is game day Canucks have the Buffalo sabers coming up tonight at Rogers Arena and sabers fresh off a big win over the Seattle Kraken and that Eastern Conference playoff race it's heating up Washington is in is in a spot right now the caps the Philadelphia Flyers are panicking they've just they've scratched their captain who they named captain 34 days ago it's a very torch on Kateria it's a very torch thing to do is starts just like committed to making everybody mad on his team I think so I mean the reasoning is he's healthy scratched everybody else so you know why not the captain and I saw somebody mentioned he's the first captain in the past 10 years to get scratched the last one was Ed Jovanoski at Jovo yeah wow I was I was thinking about that like can't be too many captains that get healthy scratch these tips let's bring on our next guest never get to healthy scratch it is Erfan Gefar joins us every Tuesday Canucks insider here on Canucks Central what's happening gentlemen what's going on I could have sworn within Jamie Ben a healthy scratch one or do they say he was hurt oh was it well didn't they scratch Ben and Sagan for the same game or something like that yeah I called out no they they just got called out they never got healthy scratch that's right yeah okay I don't think they were healthy that they were called out there was like the CEO called the CEO what's it even the GM in the business guys like calling them out like we can't sell seats because these guys stink yeah I mean the John Torrell is going to do exactly what John Torrell has been doing his whole career right and I think when you look at what Danny Breyer said he said he's going to do things kind of his own way and what he thinks is going to help win a hockey game or or shake the room I mean they scored less than a minute into that game against a leaf so often times something yeah well it is the leaves yeah true congrats on your win today by the way thank you very much I appreciate that nice little early morning round early early bird gets the worm into your case on hole two nice little birdie there for you and then what happened I don't know what happened after that how many shots did you beat him by four strokes for yeah only but only four strokes yeah I mean you guys didn't both did fine both broke a hundred yeah yeah we'll take it for the first round of the year erf just like pumping the driver though I was very jealous in the second the second half of the round he was just crushing crushing drives drive to show puffer don't get that it's only part of my game of good when it works hey here I don't have a decision again hopefully we don't talk about me playing golf because we have a lot to talk about into the early part of summer with this hockey team yes love that we get the segue from our guests here on the show well like we do hope that the Canucks go on a lengthy playoff run well the Canucks are going to play less golf this year than usual yes that much is confirmed facts only they will be playing hockey at least into late April because the season ends on April 18 so yes they will be playing hockey into late April and look I don't know if it feels like we're making too much out of two losses right they they blow it against Colorado and they don't wake up they they don't turn it around they have another poor performance against the Washington Capitals and it feels like all of a sudden after those two results a lot of people are selling their shares in the Canucks as potential playoff contenders calling them more pretenders when if you just look right before those two games they beat the snot out of the Winnipeg Jets they handled Vegas pretty well and they beat the LA Kings like a three straight game so I'm not sold that these two games tell that much of a terrible story on the Vancouver Canucks they still have 92 points and as it stands while we're talking right now they still lead the Western Conference they lead their division as well they've played a hell of a season to this point but in my opinion when you're the big dog when you're the big big team on campus the big man on campus you're going to have a target on your back right no matter what and I think when you're the Canucks if you blow games like the way that they have against good teams and even against not so good teams that raises some alarm bells you're going to get you know the opponent's best game basically every night because you are that team for a long time in these parts in this city we haven't been able to say that about this hockey team so when they won a big game it was the greatest thing in the world but now they're losing games that they should be winning because they're in a different category of how we should be talking about them and that's a great thing for this team to have what's not great is the way that they've been losing games and kind of guys not being in it you know Rick talking about the mental errors you know talking about the mistakes like that and if you're the Vancouver Canucks I mean you as if it's happening right now it's okay but come the first week of April you need to be firing on all cylinders because if you're not the HP or the team that you're playing in the first round will have been having to fight for their playoff lives to just get in so they're more than likely going to be rolling so the Vancouver Canucks need to figure this out and they need to figure it out pretty quick the thing that matters mostly to me is player mentality do you think they have the mentality to you know get their game in order here yeah I think I do I think that there's enough people in that room and guys in that room that you know know what it takes to kind of turn it around I mean look when this team alternated wins and losses for about 10 games this season it was okay when are they gonna get to in a row what are they gonna do this can they come back from a loss can you do this can they do that you know I think it starts with your coaching staff you know to get your players prepared whether it's a film and things like that to get these guys ready to go but when it comes down to it for those 60 minutes you know you need to be ready to go play these hockey games and sometimes it looks like they're really engaged like they were against the Colorado Avalanche and then at some point in that game it just completely turns off the avalanche take over Nathan McKinnon does Nathan McKinnon things dumb penalty over the glass the game's over right and then you look at obviously you know the other mistakes that this team is making you know when Rick talk it calls them out for for those silly penalties and those dumb mistakes it's just the mentality of the players that but I think that to be completely honest there are guys in that room that I can you can't really say that they've been around or been around it because no one really knows what the playoffs is going to be like but I think that you know they've matured enough where they should be able to turn this thing around. So Elias Patterson you know they they're moving up Connor Garland to play with Patterson and and Hold Lander tonight at least to start tonight's game and you know it just feels as though the coach is trying to find ways to get Patterson going and having two guys that win puck battles that move their feet a lot create a little bit of chaos seems to be his next solution but it feels like we've been doing this for for almost a month now where coaches trying different combinations to find a way to get Patterson kicked back into his highest gear which we he hasn't really had since January. Yeah it's weird and you know he signs a contract and things like that and you know with that comes the criticism so if you're not producing like you're the big guy and you're going to be making the big bucks here for the foreseeable future you know people are going to be on you. I would worry if this happened you know obviously the first two games of a playoff series for sure but it's weird because is it looking disinterested looking like he's you know not interested in the games I mean look you're so far ahead of some of the people that were chasing you at one point it's natural to maybe not be really in it but for him I agree Rachel I think that Rick Talkett is really looking for any sort of way to get him going I mean he's your most important player you know what you're going to get at the guys like J.T. Miller Quinn he's Brock Lester every single night it's you got to get number 40 going somehow. Well if they don't get Patterson going for the playoffs like they're pretty much cooked in that first round in my opinion well he's got they got to figure it out now then yeah like right now I mean I don't know is it is it him being disinterested I mean we don't know if there's an injury right I mean I don't know if he's disinterested because I mean it's not like he's he's not trying I thought defensively if you look at his defensive game and I know he's had a couple bad moments here and there but I thought defensively he's been actually pretty good the last little while Lindholm same thing it's kind of the offensive game that hasn't quite been where it needs to be so to me I don't think he's like disinterested in it I just feel like there's something clearly affecting his game we just not quite sure what it is now he has 15 points in his last 19 games yeah like it's well below what you would expect from him but it's not like I don't see a disinterested hockey player I see a player who's yeah but I think that I think that when you look at it at some some points in games if you're there and you're watching it live TV timeout you look at the body language you look at the body language sometimes when he's on the ice when mistakes happen you know there there are some signs there that you know the coach needs to talk to his star player this frustration for sure yeah that's there's definitely frustration yeah and I think that that's just one of the things that happens right when you go through season and these things do happen right you know you had the obviously the weight lifted off his shoulders with all the contract tough tough and stuff like that but it's time like your team is not playing well and they need you and you need to get out of whatever it is that you you have going on and you know make things happen on the ice because right now it hasn't been happening for you yeah and you know the the closer look at it maybe suggest the the power plays a big culprit here for whatever reason it just it hasn't been going and yeah they've scored a goal here and there and they've they've taken advantage four on three or when they've had the odd five on three but generally like peterson hasn't had the same effectiveness on the power play the power plane general hasn't had great effectiveness I think it's you know one of the bottom it's in the bottom half of the league since since January for sure you can even go back to early December from when it really started to to cool down and you know when when you're not having the power play going you know the coaches mentioned this you can't let it affect your five on five game and I think peterson is maybe allowed that to happen more than say JT Miller or Quinn Hughes has yeah I agree I think Alia Peterson should go and be selfish to be completely honest I think he should shoot the clock every time he every time he gets it if and when he does I think that if you want to get engaged in and into a game yourself you go and do it you're the star player I don't think anyone on the team or I don't think anyone in the fan base or the coaching staff would have a problem with Leah Peterson went off and had 14 shot attempts and maybe eight of them hit the net yeah like I don't think that's a problem at all I think then when you look at it that same thing okay I'm I'm ready for this and and I want it and I think that the big problem is we really haven't seen that too much lately well and the other part too is it really highlights how much they they could have used an extra winger at the at the deadline right yeah I mean yeah putting Garland next to peterson it's it's not something that's worked ever in Garland's career as a as a Vancouver canuck they've never really gone to it as a regular thing it's only happened in spurts and starts and never really stuck you know the the fact that that's happening here this late in the season suggests that yeah they are struggling to find solutions right now to fix their top six and what's that top six gonna look like a week before the playoffs yeah like at some point you got to stop having a revolving door of line mates for your center men not just to Leah's Peterson but also Elias Lindholm I mean you know who J.D. Miller's probably going to have as his one of at least one of his wingers if not the other but you got to try and figure it out here pretty quick I mean we're a month away from oh just over a month away from the start of the playoff yeah and I think ultimately to Dakota Joshua coming back we keep kind of talking about maybe at Laos players to fall into different positions and maybe that kind of helps you out but ultimately it comes down to your top end guys being able to play at that level right and like reach mentions if you don't have peterson now it depends on who you play in the first round right but if you don't have him going and J.T. going and Hughes going and Demko healthy like those are your four foundational pieces right like if those four guys aren't clicking you're going to be in trouble but we do know that when those guys are going they can carry guys along with them right so I agree ideally it would have been nice to add another top six player whether it was to Foley or Genssel even but I don't think both just keep scoring for their new teams by the way yeah and listen there's they're hot now we'll see what it looks like in the playoffs I mean there's so many times we see things happen and it's like it starts off well then it kind of fizzles out it starts off poorly then it kind of ramps up it's like we all have to have a little bit of patience I think too just kind of let things play out a little bit here but I do think like peterson's capable of elevating his line mates J.T. is capable of elevating their line mates and if those guys play their game I think there's less concern about who the wingers are truly I agree but when's the last time recently we've seen a leah feterson takeover hockey game right you go back to january 11th so I'm just looking at it right now he had two goals and two hits against Franklin and he was very very good against the Columbus blue jacket at home obviously he had two goals and it's just yet the 3.9 there but beyond that like that ranger game too scored that great ranger game yeah I thought it was pretty good against the jets that jets game here just a few nights ago there was a pretty solid game and there's been a few but you're right I mean that was a great team game yeah I mean there was not one individual like yes peterson imposing his will on a hockey game hasn't happened recently and I think that that's one of the things where you look at the fan where the where the fans frustration comes in you say okay well part of that we've just signed this guy he's gonna be you know a guy that it's gonna be here for a very very long time and he just hasn't been that same guy that we know that he can be and I think that that's where the frustration comes in from the fan base and obviously the coaching staff as well because they know it's there he's got to try and pull it out of them so the other player who is struggling Elislyn Holm and I don't know if playing him with Ili McKayev and Sam Lafferty who have combined for two goals since the all-star break is going to help Elislyn Holm get get some offense into his game they are going to try and back on power play one tonight so we'll see how that works but it felt like it was going to be a great fit it felt like that they'd play him with peterson and he'd play on the right wing and that was going to to be how it all worked out and it just Rick Tockett's on play center and he's like I just want this guy to play center so so now as much as maybe I'd like to see Lin Holm and peterson play together again I don't know if the coach is ever going to go back to it yeah I mean I think when you look at it you probably want three strong centers when you go into the playoffs but if that line isn't producing or doing anything and he's only coming out and just trying to be your your checking line quote unquote checking line or or guys going up against the team's best players that to get Elis peterson away from those match up you know that's obviously a role that he might have to take but he has been frustrating I mean you look at today his media availability he was asked about you know what's it like having kind of the revolving door of line mates and you know we've joked about it being with Elis peterson as well and he kind of laughed right because he obviously knows it's frustrating as well to be playing with different guys but at some point you know you got to look at it and say the Canucks did invest quite quite a bit into him obviously with what they gave up to acquire him and now it's time for you know Elis went home to put a string of really really good hockey games together and be that guy that you know they spent so much capital trying to or to spend so much capital you think to get on the goaltending front life without Thatcher Demko hasn't been great because it connects up lost the two games right but I don't think Casey this Smith has been at fault really for either of the losses against Colorado or the other night against the Washington capitals but as far as Demko goes it's been a week now right like we're talking you know it's almost been a week now since he got injured do you think the sense still is that he's going to be back here in a couple weeks and be ready to go yeah I mean look and I don't think anyone has a problem with that right I think that obviously Thatcher Demko is going to want to come back as soon as he's ready to come back but if you're the Canucks you have him off the ice you know you have him rehabbing you have him getting the best possible treatment and he can get to obviously want him back you know at some point this regular season to be able to put a string of games together before you go into the playoffs but you need him at 110 percent Thatcher Demko for game one of the playoffs near the end of April right and and I think that when you look at it right now okay this myth can put a string string of games together if the team in front of them plays a little bit better maybe they get a couple wins out of it but I have no problem with Thatcher Demko you know not playing and continuing to rest for as long as they as long as they can so earlier in the show we were talking about guys who maybe have solidified themselves as long-term fits for for the Vancouver Canucks we just talked about Lindholm and you know he was the prized acquisition all Veen told us when we we spoke to him after the deadline that you know they when they brought him in that they they had hoped that they could maybe work out a long term deal now obviously things have not worked out so well so maybe that that's cooled off a little bit I would I would have to imagine too you know I don't know what Lindholm was was asking for out of Calgary but I would imagine with the way things have gone for him this year maybe maybe his ask on a long-term deal has probably come down as well for sure well I mean I think that there's look there are teams out there that will overpay for players we've seen it in the past we're going to see it in the future and we're going to see it for as long as you know possible right he would be the best center on the market this summer still yeah teams are going to be desperate right is there a team out there that's willing to pay I mean a half nine million dollars which would be wild to me but there there might be I mean has his ask come down I don't think that there has been and there probably won't be any sort of contract negotiation talk you know with the Lindholm camp until you know the end of the season for sure but I think that the I think the flames offer was over eight million I think that that's definitely been out there for him you know all on a long-term contract but if from the Vancouver Canucks point of view you just have to look at it and say are we willing to pay three centers that type of money right he won't be eight here if they're a world where it is seven something and are you comfortable with doing that and I'm not sure that they are you know in terms of players mentality I mean now kind of the the lesson is the John Klingberg situation where he turned down this massive extension right and he hasn't earned anywhere near that the last couple years I mean he could have signed for over 50 million it has banked what the last two years like 11 million it's a lot of money but where's 11 where's 50 plus right like there's a big difference between he coughed up 40 million bucks at least right so it's tough it's tough for him right so what's kind of going through Lindholm's mind when he looks at it and says I could have signed a contract let's say eight million or something or let's say seven five even you know and I didn't sign that now I'm with a new team now I'm struggling here like I'm sure that that's got to be a pretty big weight on a player's shoulder kind of looking at it saying did I miss my opportunity yeah a little bit I mean the team traded for you and they're really really good and you know they they viewed you as a piece that was going to hopefully be able to put them over the top or what I mean what's to say that there is at some point the season and the next little bit here he doesn't turn it on and he's not going to be a guy that depended on or he will be a guy that ripped that rig talk of going to be able to throw out there you know all the time but I think that there's a lot of things that go into consideration right I mean you look at this is the next eight seven eight years of your life yeah right it's not just is it somewhere you want to live right is is Calgary somewhere you want to live for that long is is it going to be Vancouver do you want to go to free agency you know players now I think a lot of them when you look at it they if they have the if they have the opportunity to do it I think a lot of them would say yeah I would like to be an unrestricted free agent at some point in my career just to kind of see what the process is like and maybe that's kind of where he's at but obviously I agree sad you know it's a big weight on your shoulders there's so much to think about right there's family involved obviously you know a young family and things like that but I think his focus right now it just basically go out there and try and put sounds the shape with a full 60 minutes together last one for you when Elliot mentioned yesterday on on 32 thoughts that Philip Ronik there's a deal to be made between him and and the Vancouver Canucks and maybe on the high end it's about getting it to to seven and a half million dollar AAV and when we talked last week you know we mentioned fifty two fifty four million dollars it feels as though the numbers are all kind of lining up as to where this ends up but maybe it's delicate and how the the Canucks handle it from here until they they get a contract signed yeah I think that their first order of business was take care of Alias Patterson and then their next order of business was you know see what the deal was with Philip Ronik and what they were going to do there and and obviously there is a deal to be made if the Canucks didn't think there would be one then I don't think that they'd be talking and you know if the contracts that you know the Canucks or the offer that was put on the table I don't think it was received too well by the Ronik camp but that's why that it's a negotiation so we'll see where it goes I mean I don't think the Canucks would be comfortable paying him when he's type of money I'm not entirely sure that you know what we talk about it us three that he's nearly worth that now seven and a half or maybe seven million they like at the highest if you're the Canucks but even then I think that's still a pretty high-ass well I think that's interesting because 7.5 is what you know reach mentioned that Friedman said yeah maybe there's a deal there I'm with you I think the Canucks would really want to keep it I mean they want to keep it under seven I think there's a realization that's not going to happen can they get it at seven one maybe maybe seven two like I mean maybe they do seven five but that's kind of been my sense here all along that they don't want it to be a lot over seven if it is well would they want to keep it under 56 million which is what JT Miller signed for too yeah and here's a question how hard are they willing to play ball over what amounts to be three to four hundred thousand dollars per year yeah you know because that that seems to be the negotiation right now yeah and look I think that there's definitely a cap that the Canucks are have a number that they will not go higher than and you know if you're Philip Ronak and Alan Walsh I mean you're going to try and squeeze every single dollar you can out of this right it's your client's biggest deal like what why wouldn't you so they're going to keep waiting I think it's going to turn into a little bit of a waiting game here as they go back and forth and and I'm sure it's going to get to a point where neither side is going to want to talk as we get closer to the playoffs and it's probably going to lead into the summer unless unless it happens sooner than later but you know from from last talk when we first talked about this and and things like that you know they they weren't even close uh always good avenue on I just want to say even though you won on the scorecard only one of us had a birdie today so that's true that's very very true that you go I do not well though well neither does reach after he birdies like an old I'll come out I'll come out I've been playing more I played more last year I'll be out more this year let's go all right let's do it I'm in the summer's just around the corner uh more golf in the future for us but more hockey as well thanks for the surf I gentlemen be well uh there is our fong of far joining us here on uh on cadoc central interesting about uh Lynn Holm you know he's maybe turned down what may end up being the biggest contract offer for him Johnny Goudreau did it too right you know he turned down the mega deal he probably would have got the Hubertow deal yeah but he didn't want us to encounter he didn't want us to encounter I mean he knew he could assign that I do think he was probably a bit surprised that the lack of offers when free agency rolled around yeah I think he mentioned that too they thought there was going to be more interest than there was and that's why it's like oh Columbus all right that's the biggest deal I guess we're going to Columbus guess we're going to Columbus um so Philly's not coming in Jersey's not coming in here yeah it's I mean and I think that's that's always the risk you run when you go into free agency I do think because of the scarcity of centers in general right handed centers at that yeah that he'll still get a really good contract like I I think seven by seven could be out there for them like that was a cadre deal yeah would a team like you know the broons do that potentially and yeah I mean hey you know you'd rather sign for eight over eight but but you know I think you can feel pretty good about a fifty nine or forty nine fifty million dollar contract if you can get that then I mean then you probably shouldn't worry stress too much about it just start scoring goals with your new team that would that would help your negotiating status moving forward if you are Elias Lindholm when we come back we'll get into the pre-pregame show it's Dan Reichow and Satyar Shah on Connect Central
