(upbeat music) Back into the Kintek Studio, it's Dan Reicho and Satyar Shah, Kannok Central, is for Enzhan Pacific Vancouver's premier Chrysler Dodge Ram and Jeep Superstore on second avenue between Canby and Maine or at Enzhan Pacific Chrysler.ca. Kintek, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews, sore feet, what are you waiting for? We go to the hotline, it's brought to you by Dispatch Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, the first call, the only call, and it is Kevin Woodley joining us on the Dispatch Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning hotline, he has a presentation of White Rock Hyundai. What's happening Woodley? - Not much, not much, a bunch of all Canadians skate this afternoon, it was good to be down there, come up with the day off and getting ready to watch the Habs tomorrow night. - So the Habs are one of those teams that until they traded Jake Allen, they ran the three goalie thing for a long time. How do you think that shook out for them all of this season? Seems like Sam Montembeau has kinda been a benefactor with their goalie situation, he's had a pretty good season. - You know, and I've had a good 20 minutes with Caden Premo today, who said the same thing. Two factors in it, one, Jake Allen's a hell of a mentor. He, you know, say what you want him or where he is in terms of being a number one goalie at this stage of his career, but the guy thinks the game, like he'll be a hell of a goalie coach if and when he ever decides to take that route. And his mentorship didn't talk to Montembeau but talking to Premo today, you know, sounds like he had a real positive impact, Darren. You know, there was a lot of negativity around it, it seems, in the Montreal media, to the point where yeah, casual conversation with their goalie coach sort of raised a whole bunch of alarms and eyebrows 'cause they don't like him talking to the press because there was so much focus on the three goalie rotation, but it sounds like they handled it beautifully. Outside of the fact that everyone wants to play more than they get to. Talking to Caden and the way they would, they would have actually, and this is, hey, guess what, guys, the benefit of having your own practice rank with two sheets, they would actually run team practice on one sheet and then have goalie-specific work on the other and they would actually rotate at times during practice. So everybody was getting different touches. It was none of what we, you know, sort of here in the past where, you know, even game to escape for the savers in Seattle where all three goalies were there and Devin Levi and Eric Calmeri are swapping in that at one end, well, Uco Pecalukin plays at the other and gets ready for that start in Seattle. They really, at least when they were home, they were able to sort of keep them all occupied and focused and I think, you know, in talking to them, they were better for that time, specifically with the goalie coach Eric Raymond and being able to sort of work in and out of team practice while getting that specialized attention. So, you know, three doesn't go into two, the math isn't hard, even a dope like me can figure that out but there are ways to make it work and the irony of course is that the GM's meetings we're talking about, you know, somehow making official and E-bug role and proposals along that line. I've actually seen one of the proposals. It's not so much about the E-bug as it is having a third goalie to avoid using an E-bug and that includes having that third goalie for practice, you know, and so in some ways the Canadians may have just been slightly ahead of the curve here. - Well, you know, I was gonna ask you about that. I was thinking, can't you create an extra spot so make a 24th spot on the roster but that 24th spot can only be occupied by a third goalie. So you can have an extra skater, you know? - Yeah and then the thing is here, Sadie, is there's always, you're gonna have to be careful with this 'cause there's always gonna be teams that find a way to make sure that their third goalie, you know, is practically an NHL, you know, I mean, spend the money and get an NHL veteran to have them in that role and, you know, there's ways to sort of gain the system, but one of the proposals as I understand it is going to be using your fifth string goalie. Rather than having a guy in the E-C-H-L all year, you could have him up as a third goalie 'cause that's the one level and I think that was the hesitation, you know, maybe even send the total appeal down, although, you know, to his credit, he's sort of earned the right to play in the American League, but one of the hesitations would be, well, that's once you get to the East Coast League and it's often where you're just starting up as a young goalie, that's where you need to help the most, but rarely do you get it. There's no goalie coaches down there for the most part. So what if you had, 'cause we're seeing teams go five, six deep in terms of organizational depth and goal, you had a spot to put a young prospect in the E-C-H-L where you could play a bunch of games and say your other young prospect one month at a time swaps back and forth so he's getting time with an NHL goalie coach against NHL shooters and at the same time gives you your practice goalie so you can give your starter times off and in case of emergency break glass, he can come in and maybe be your E-bug if you're in a jam and you don't have, you know, you don't have two healthy goal tenors. So again, you have to be very careful, there will be teams that try and, you know, find ways around it to make sure that theirs is more qualified than it was intended, but there are certainly ways, you know, and teams talking about ways to solve the problems you have at the NHL level when somebody gets hurt in terms of an E-bug, but also sort of kind of do what the Canucks are doing in terms of having a practice goalie so that, you know, obviously moot right now, but so that for stretches this season, Thatcher and Emko didn't have to, you know, head out onto the ice and stay for the whole team practice and, you know, do three or 400 butterfly drops. I think of the reps that goalies do in a team practice, every time there's a shot, you're down to your knees and the stress that puts on the body. This is just a way to sort of make sure, you know, you could solve a sort of kill a couple of birds with one stone here and interestingly enough, 'cause we heard talk at talk earlier this season about the idea of maybe traveling their practice goalie, Roman Basran at some point. The Pittsburgh Penguins did just that when they were in town. They had the practice goalie with them on the road, spot in the locker room and out on the ice to spell either Tristan Jarrier or Alex Adelkovich depending on, you know, who was starting that night or who maybe had played the night before and didn't want to be out there or shouldn't be out there too long. So it's an idea that other teams are already sort of starting to embrace and find ways to make work and I think it'd be good if it was formalized. - Well, you could make it where it's a league minimum contract or entry level contract, right? So the only goalie that can be your third goalie is that somebody who's on either one of those two types of contracts. - Yeah, no, there's definitely, I mean, there's a lot of different considerations that have to be made and listen, like there are questions about it. If say it's an ELC contract, those that like, you know, our teams that are up against the cap is that counting, right? They want this position to not count against the cap, right? That's going to be the issue here. And not just for in terms of team staying under the cap and, you know, do you create an exception to help them stay under the cap? But also on the other side, like, you know, you probably aren't going to find a ton of owners that are lining up or raising their hand saying, yeah, me even an ELC carries a, you know, pretty good chunk of change. Yeah, I want to pay that guy at that level instead of bare minimum to play in the ECHL for a month at a time, just so we can give our goalie the odd morning skate off or odd practice off. So you'd have to find a way to sort of balance those two things for sure. He's our goalie guru. It's Kevin Woodley here on Canucks Central a presentation of White Rock Hyundai. So Casey to Smith, it's only been a few games. How would you assess the way he's played as the starter in Thatcher, Demko's absence? Steady, solid, everything you want out of a goalie in that role. You know, I think that if you look at the Colorado game, listen, like the Washington game was, you know, they didn't generate. They weren't at their best, they didn't create enough. He keeps it at two, it's not enough. Did he swim a little bit on the second one, get chasing out? It was a nice play by TJ Oce up into the high slot. I think it was Alexiev with a nice fake and pass across to sort of catch him out of the crease, but he came charging out at that one. So could you say that was a read that cost him? Yeah, could the defending have been a little better? I'd say a lot, but I don't really hold that one necessarily against him that game. Colorado, you know, they were rolling. Well, we were the shots 17-3 in the third period against the team on the second end of back-to-back. I'm not sure you hang that one on goal-attending. Do I think the fact that Thatcher and Emko can shoot his pad out an extra three or four, maybe even six inches, gives him a chance to make the save with 2.7 seconds left in the second period that sort of gave Colorado life. Yeah, would have been a hell of a save, would have been a tough save. I don't think you expect your goal is to make those types of backdoor opportunities, but that's where the upside athletically and size-wise can maybe buy you one or two of those dramatic saves in Thatcher and Emko that you might not quite get in Casey to Smith, but that's not in any way, shape or form or criticism of what Casey's given them. It's funny, again, I'm talking to the haves going all these today in the locker room and they were talking about actually, and Jake Allen expressing the same thing. How incredibly, they were surprised how fast Casey was when he was in Montreal. He really left an impression there for how explosive he was, moving around on and from his knees. And I think we've seen that as well here. So, you know, I know last night he talked about how much better he feels about his game, the way he's incorporated some of the new concepts into some of the staples, that he's clung to and the name clerks allowed him to sort of cling to as a smaller goaltender. He's never going to play just like Thatcher and Emko's, but he's added elements of Emko's system outside of the ones where his size would limit him. And he's kind of given you what he's given you for most of this season, which is, you know, slightly above expected statistically, really good quality, no bad goal of goaltending. That's all you can ask. And if the rest of the team plays up this stuff, it's going to give you a chance more nights, more nights than not. - Is he the type of guy with how he's performed this season that some team this offseason can look at as a one A, one B spot for him where he can actually get a chance to be a starter? - Honestly, I think it could depend on these next couple weeks if it is indeed another couple. You know, we've seen it. Yeah, I think I may have talked to you guys just about like, like quite literally as much as we joke about Lo Long goes in from his bathroom break. - Yeah. - Those two and a half minutes got Danny Serber in a one-way contract, 100%. Know it for a fact, talk to the people involved in the contract, talk to Danny about it. Like those two minutes. So what Casey dismissed does in these three or four weeks could have absolutely influence in a starter's role, whether more teams see him as a guy that can give you, we know he's a guy that can give you a great start every two weeks. Can he give you two great weeks as well? And this is his chance to sort of remind people at a key time in the season that he is indeed that guy. He hasn't been in the past for stretches, but that's what it'll be fresh heading into, you know, free agency in the off-season. I think there are teams that think very highly of them. I think I look at the Kings and they might see him as a guy. You know, there's a relationship there for sure with the Golden and Coach they hired in the off-season. Mike Buckley and their, you know, their team that maybe doesn't look to spend a ton on goaltending and they might see some of that upside in him. Certainly all it takes is a couple. And like I said, I think there's enough proof of concept here as to what he can be. It's just reminding people of it over these next couple of weeks. And perhaps erasing the statistical damage done by the Minnesota game. 'Cause it's really hard to get out from under that and sort of remind people that there was a point this season where, you know, he was running in 9/19 and, you know, had people in this market even saying, hey, play him a little more often ahead of Thatcher to go. - As far as how they're playing in front of their goal tenders, you know, we've talked about it all year. I just did a quick check and we talked about it in the opening segment of the show, but since the all-star break, you know, we've talked about it as being a poor sort of segment of the season for the Canucks, but defensively it's, it almost seems as though they've leveled up. They're shot suppression. Just by shot attempts, they're second best in the league, course against per 60 in that time, only to the Carolina Hurricanes. It almost seems like they're getting even better defensively right now, Woodley. - Yeah, no, I mean, I think they have, I mean, there was obviously a little bit of slippage at various times in the season. You can't, I mean, you can't ask them to be at that level. Yeah, like it's just human nature, right? Like you take your foot off the gas a little bit and where does it show up? It usually shows up in terms of not being in the right spot 'cause you're not mentally a hundred percent or you're not giving it a hundred percent work ethic-wise. You take your foot off the gas and often, you know, I think the biggest one to me actually when their play slip and this is sort of prior to the four-game winning streak. And, you know, we heard actually Tyler Myers talk about this when he was asked about what he was seeing, you know, watching from the press box, so to speak, although that's kind of a cliche, it's not often do many of them come up there to watch the game. But he talked about the back pressure and it's something I've talked about too. Like that to me is what had slipped during the slide that preceded the four-game streak and that's what was back during it. And that's attention to detail. That's not turning pucks over in bad spots. And then that's hustling back. And when that back pressure is there, when that back checking is there, like teams, and I'm in the other room. Like my job post game is to be in the other room. And that's where you hear teams talk about like suffocating, no space, there's no room out there. They're on top of you all the time. And again, that's not easy to do. And it's not easy to do all season long, especially in the dog digs between the all-star game and the trade deadline. And to me, that's what it's slipped. A little bit in stretches at key moments in safe third periods against Winnipeg. And then you saw it's like they flipped the switch. And yeah, OK, Colorado wasn't a great example. And they weren't all there against the capitals. But that stretch they had Vegas, LA, Winnipeg at home. That was the style of hockey. That was back. And I think overall, they've been a top five defensive team all year long. And you've just seen little ebbs and flows within that status of top five. And you're right, right now they're back at that. And to me, it all starts with as much as we think of defenseman, when we think of defending, it really is the forwards in that commitment to being in the right spot and being on top of opposing teams as they're trying to get out of their own end through the neutral zone. Turning pucks over and trying to go the other way. And we know on the PK, that's one of the questions, too. And we heard the coach talk about this, too, the last few days that he feels like they're one of the worst teams in the league and clears. And I'm not quite sure where they rank in terms of clearing the puck out of their own end on the PK. But is that something where you're seeing any signs of them actually being able to improve on it? Or do you think that's going to be like a bit of an Achilles heel for this team? Because they've kind of just been around average this entire season, more or less, in terms of their power play, or PK efficiency. Yeah, I think it's just one of those areas that you hope, again, in those key moments, they're going to be, listen, it's under pressure. And it's not the easiest thing in the world. Because the other team's got an extra guy out there applying pressure on you. But just to be harder and firmer on sticks and make sure you get it out. For sure, talk has talked about it. We've seen lots of examples of it over the course of the season. I don't have a metric for that. And actually, stupidly enough, I'm willing to bet they have one at clear sight. And I just haven't looked forward to look at it. Maybe that's homework for next week, guys. But I don't know if that. I guess the answer is I don't know. You would hope as the message that talk delivers to us is also delivered to them, that there's going to be a recognition that, hey, in these key moments, you need to bear down and get that out. But it's like bearing down on a scoring chance. At some point, some of it becomes ability. At some point, some of it becomes what you do under pressure. And is this who you are? At some point, you'd hope if it's just about bearing down on work ethic, that in key moments, when it comes down to the crunch in playoffs, when all your personnel is hopefully healthy and back, that that isn't an issue. But it's been an issue long enough this year that it's a fair question. I think offensively is maybe where more of the concern is right now with the team, right? Elias Lindholm hasn't had the desired effect as the big deadline acquisition. He's got just four goals since coming over. He's got just one point in his last 12 games. He's minus five in that time. Five on five. Last night, maybe being the outlier. They're not generating enough five on five. Yeah, like I said, defensively, to me, they've been a great team all year. There's been little ebbs and flows. We're seeing in the second half, we're offensively-- it's almost like the math has caught up to them. Even when I would come on and talk about the things they do well in terms of layered screens and traffic and how that-- hey, you hit the top of the net with a layered screen. You hit the top corners. It's a 43% chance, right? And they did a lot of that that-- I don't know that they get credit for in some of the public numbers. But even with having that available, that context at someone like ClearSight, they still ranked in the 20s in a lot of offensive generation, like not much happening at all off the Russian. I do think that's sometimes how you get the puck back, dictates what you can do with it when you have it. And I do think a lot of that back pressure and turnovers, that's when they create the limited rushes that they do create and they can get games like Winnipeg, where they can sort of generate by turning pucks over through the middle of the ice. But you're right, it hasn't been consistent. It's tough to do against teams that are equally conservative offensively, that aren't going to try and force the issue and give you those opportunities. And it's a fair question. I think obviously, we've seen a power play struggle for stretches, thought it was really good last night, but I think they got goalieed last night. Like if not for Devin Levi and good for him, first start since January 24th, no pressure kid, playoffs are on the line and you're coming into Vancouver on the second end of back-to-back. Behind the saver team that hasn't swept the back-to-back all season in 11 tries. And I thought he was really, really good for them, or that game would have been a lot more lopsided. It was one of the better nights they had generation wise. And the power play did look good. I think the power play has to be a weapon for you in the playoffs to negate what could very well be underwhelming, not 5 on 5 play, but 5 on 5 offensive generation if the underlying numbers continue to match the production as they have in the second half of the season compared to the first. Woodley are the best. Thanks for this as always. Thanks, guys. Have a good week. There is Kevin Woodley joining us here on Canucks Central as he does every Wednesday. And he is brought to you by White Rock Hyundai. Visit the showroom on King George in White Rock or whiterockhunday.com. And he joined us via the dispatch plumbing heating and air conditioning hotline, the first call, the only call. And he agrees. The Canucks power play is going to have to be a difference maker come playoff time because over the course of the season, they've shown, yes, they can score goals, and they find ways to manufacture goals. But if there's one thing about this team that maybe lags behind some of the truly elites in the league, it's their offensive chance generation at five on five. Yeah, that's something that obviously has to improve. And we know they were capable of generating a bit more than they have. Now, I will say, I mean, they generated quite a bit against Buffalo. Yeah, last night it was not a problem. They should have scored more than they did. The score line really flattered the Sabres last night. Yeah, the fact that it was even close in the third period was very much favorable to the Buffalo Sabres. Yeah, so the Canucks, they were full value on it. But we know that some of these games they've lost against the bigger opponents. Remember those games against Colorado, for instance, the game against Winnipeg when they lost four or two? Those two always stick out in my mind because special teams that cost them those games. Yeah, five on five defensively, they were great. And yes, then they didn't generate a ton, but neither did the other teams. The Canucks made a couple of mistakes, which their opponent capitalized on, but the Canucks actually out chance their opponents, both those games. But it was about how stifling they were. They lost the special teams battle. You win the special teams battle, that's your key, 'cause if they play the stifling style and you can play a low event, game five on five, and you win on special teams, like it's over. You know, like, that's your best pathway. It is something that they've really worked on. And it's still kind of a question mark. Their penalty kill when it gets to the playoffs and the power play has been sputtering for long enough, even though it was great last night, has to have some momentum going into the postseason, at least for my liking. Stan Reicho and Satyarsha coming up, overrated or underrated. We've got a ton of submissions. Try to get to as many as we can next on Sportshead 650.
