(upbeat music) - Canuck Central Friday. It's Dan Reicho and Bik Nazar here in the Kintek studio. Canuck Central is for Enzyme Pacific. Vancouver's premier Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Canby and Maine, or at Enzyme Pacific Chrysler.ca. We're in the Kintek studio. Kintek, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Store feet. What are you waiting for? Canuck's coming off a victory over the Montreal Canadiens, Les Abitos at Sontre Rogers. - No, didn't work. - No, 'cause what's the French word for arena? I don't know. - It's the Bell Center, that's why it makes sense. - Yeah, Sontre Bell. - But it can't be that far. - It can't be Sontre Rogers. - No, I don't know the French word for arena. Can someone help me? - Arena? - No. (laughing) - See, I lost pretty much everything that I-- - Oh, you might have to be right. (laughing) - I lost pretty much everything that I learned in grade nine French. - Yeah. - So I don't know. - I'm not the person asking the scenario. - Okay. But yeah, they won over the Montreal Canadiens. - Sontre Rogers. - And it was a good performance. Good luck's now 3-1-1 here on the nine-game Homestand. We've got a lot to get to, so let's get right into it. It is the open. (dramatic music) - Welcome to the open. - Come on! That's your home. Are you too good for your home? Answer me! - 650, 650 on the Del Marlomer text message inbox. That's how you get in touch with the show. And last night, Bick, the open, of course, where we bring you the latest on the Vancouver Canucks and give you our biggest take of the day. We mentioned it yesterday. I mentioned it yesterday during the round table. The Canucks have leveled up defensively. And really, since the all-star break, now I'm not simply putting this as Elias Lindholm comes to the Canucks, and now they are a better team defensively. They're already a really good team defensively, but in lack of being able to point to his offensive numbers and say, "Hey, that's where he's helped this team." I started to look a little bit deeper at how things have been affected defensively for the Vancouver Canucks. And it is safe to say that they have leveled up on the defensive side of the pucks since adding Elias Lindholm to the roster. They now are allowing the fewest shot attempts per 60 in the NHL since he became a Vancouver Canucks. They allow the fewest shots on goal per 60 in the NHL. They've allowed just two goals or less in seven of their last eight games, and they are at just over two goals per game at five on five since the all-star break, which is an elite number in the top five of the National Hockey League. So I'm looking at all of these things. And yes, you'd still love for Lindholm to have some offense, more offense than he has shown so far. Did have an assist last night. Seems to have a little bit of chemistry with McCabe and Lafferty, but adding him and putting him at center, spreading out Miller, Pedersen, Lindholm, and now Blueger through your four lines, you don't have a center that isn't defensively adept. You don't have a weak spot that opponents can really, truly attack. Certainly not over the course of an 82-game regular season when you have some lesser opponents on tap, but even when they've played LA, when they played Vegas, they didn't have these issues because they were so long through their lineup, and they make it really difficult on teams, allowed 17 shots on net last night to Montreal. Guess what? The other night, Tuesday night, 17 shots on net. When you look back to Saturday against the Washington Capitals, yeah, it was a tougher performance for them, but still, again, the shot clock and the amount of chances they gave up to Washington wasn't the issue on the night. The last time the Canucks really got beaten up on the defensive side of the puck was that third period against the Colorado Avalanche. To which is to say, it's very seldom, very few and far between that these moments are happening to this team since the lies Lindholm became a Vancouver Canucks. - So using him as the marker, right? - The proxy, yeah. - It's interesting too because the acquisition, we know what they needed and we know what a weakness is, they probably still could use one more top six forward. - Yes. - You're not gonna solve the problem now, post deadline. And I do believe in the theory that your strength is what gets you to the playoffs, your weakness is what defines your playoffs. So they still have a weakness, but you go look at the acquisition, they technically made a strength stronger. They were good defensively, certainly vastly improved for where we saw last year, but now go with this Lindholm acquisition. What is his primary role? Like even when he had his most success, yes, he scored 40 goals, but it was two other guys driving a line. - It was Matthew Kachuk and Johnny Goudreau, who has maybe negative defensive value. And he's, you gotta be the guy that takes care of it. You're gonna get your points 'cause those guys score, but you gotta take care of the puck. - And Lindholm held up his end of the bargain in a great way by scoring 40 goals and obviously fantastic season plus 60 all that, it was fantastic. But just evaluating the player, you see a really smart player, methodical player, 200 foot guy, something that Rick Talkett has mentioned over and over again. He is like defensively responsible. And he's done that part since arriving to Vancouver. Face offs have been incredible. Last night notwithstanding, I think it was 23% last night. - Yeah. - But he's held up that end of the bargain. And so the Canucks have made a strength stronger in the acquisition. They didn't necessarily pay over any weaknesses. And to your point, the numbers that you just showcased there, just fantastic run. And over the last nine games, they could give up less than 30 shots on goal once. So, and that was the Colorado game. So it's trending in a way that raises their floor, but I still don't know if it scratches a ceiling that you have to compete with some of the teams in the West. - So the offense is still a little bit of the issue. And I don't know if you're going to get it from Lindholm. You took a maintenance day today, but we know that there is an injury there. And you could speculate as to what it is, but maybe that's a fool's game. Do believe it's something upper body. But it's to the point where I think this team has added to its strength. And I am seeing why they prioritized Lindholm and getting Lindholm early. Maybe they had a good idea of how difficult it would be for them to end up getting Jake Genssel. - Well timing also wasn't right. Pittsburgh was still in the mix. - Pittsburgh was still in the mix at the time. - You can't eat a willing seller. - But they found a player that helped them on both sides of the puck, right? And added to a strength, but also could help in a weak spot as well, as far as it goes with adding some offense to the team. We haven't seen that part of it yet. I think he's got more offense than he's shown so far. Does it ever come out, depending on this injury? I mean, I have my doubts now, but at least he is giving you this. And you're never going to get a huge offensive output with the spot that he's in in the lineup, the wingers he's going to have attached to him because of the spot he's in the lineup and the fact that he's not playing top power play minutes. So I don't think you can realistically expect for Elias Lindholm to come anywhere close to the point production that J.T. Miller or Elias Patterson are going to have, but he is giving you this. He has added to your strength through the middle of the ice. And it's something you're going to need certainly against Edmonton, certainly against basically anybody in the Western Conference with the way that Winnipeg, Dallas, and even Colorado play. - Well, it's going to be how they have to win. - Yeah, and I know you can perceive that statement however you want. Well, you have to play good structured hockey in the playoffs, okay, certainly. But the way Rick Tockett said it earlier this week, it felt almost as a, this is the design of the team. - Yes. - We don't have players that are going to race up and down the ice and create chances and we'll trade chances, but we'll probably end up on top. - It's almost an admission that we're not really prepared to play a certain way that when a Colorado torques it up, we can't live in that world. - But does any team win like that in the playoffs? Like even Colorado a couple of years ago, they were still damn good defensively. - Yeah, but they also were able to turn it up to 11 sometimes and play at such a speed. The Canucks just don't have fast players. - Yeah. - They can't do that. They can play fast, but they can never get to that speed. - Yes, or as like McKinnon, he's gone. And now five guys on the ice have to figure out how to stop them. - McDavid, same thing. - Yeah, they just don't have that player. And so you've got to figure out a new way to play or whatever works for you that fits your team's philosophy as well. And for the Canucks, it's, I found that statement telling this week and also the one that he talked about last night where he mentioned about, you know, chipping bodies and in essence to me the takeaway was like slowing the game down. And on the 40 hits last night, he said, you don't have to kill people, but getting in front of people continually have to do the something that they have to do. And you look at with Lindholm now, and if this team intends to win, you don't have to play the same way everyone else says, you don't have to play what Carolina does, you don't have to play what Colorado does, you have to play your way. And their way might be low event defense. It's not exciting, but that's the reality that's shaping up here as we get into the stretch run. - Well, and good defense can lead to offense. We saw that on occasion last night certainly, but those opportunities against teams in the playoffs that manage the puck better, that are smarter about how they do things, like they're going to be fewer and farther between. - And I think there's a difference between what we saw in the bubble. - Yes. - That defense, that was, we're barely going to come out of the zone and we'll absorb all the pressure, and hopefully we can stop enough seam passes and Demko will be there. - Yeah, this is more proactive defense, but I still think it's the reality that they want to live in. - That was more, in Italian, they call it with the Edzoudi, the Catanacho, where you just essentially park the bus. You used to kiss many players in front of the net as you possibly can take away any little bit of space and make it very, very difficult for your opponent to get to the inside, and they did that. They accomplished it, certainly against Vegas, made it very difficult for them. Demko was the extra layer of defense that they needed to force seven games, and if you remember that game seven, they came ever so close to actually taking a lead in that game and maybe going beyond the Vegas Golden Knights. - They made a one shot hockey. - Yes. - Now I think it'll be different, this upcoming playoffs. - Well it's a lot more talented team. - Correct. - And they actively defend, I guess, is-- - Proactive, yeah. - They are proactive in their defending rather than sort of reacting to whatever the opponent is doing. And last night was a good showing of that where Montreal comes in, they're like, this is how we're gonna play, we're gonna turn it up, and we're gonna try and be very aggressive, we're gonna add players in on attack, and really try to force the issue to get a lead early, and the Canucks had to weather the storm in the first couple of minutes, but once they kind of got it down, you started seeing so many seams open up all across the ice against Montreal, and then there's odd man rush after odd man rush for Vancouver. - Montreal's defenders were not shy about trying to get into the slot. - No. - And forcing the attempt to creep in below the hash mark, so another forward could go into the net front area. Like routinely, there were spaces along the top of the zone. You're thinking, where's the other defender? And there he is, skating down, someone was trying to create some urgency, but Vancouver pushed everything out. - Yeah. - And there were small little gaps, you know, the opening six minutes, the power play strikes in the second period, where Montreal starts to gain a bit of footing, but Casey this myth was up to the task and the Canucks survived those moments. - So defensively, the decor is a big part of that. And the fact that the Canucks have seven playable defencemen is pretty incredible, considering, you know, what this decor looked like at times. Certainly when Patrick Levine and Jim Rutherford took over, if you look a year ago today at the roster and what it looked like, it's a lot different than it is now. They spent the summer restructuring their D and now they're getting a lot out of it, right? And Ronik is having a great season. Susie has been an unbelievable find for this team and free agency. Ian Cole took a maintenance day last night. You don't miss him because you've developed Noah Juleson into being a credible six, seven defencemen in the National Hockey League. Tyler Myers has played his best hockey in Vancouver this year in a more structured environment. And you also added Nikita Zadorov in season. Now, I don't want to bring like, I don't want to strike the fear of God into Canucks fans that this may be ending as early as this year, but-- - Strike away, strike away. - If you look at the Canucks depth chart beyond this year, you only have Quinn Hughes, Noah Juleson, and Carson Susie signed Beyond This Season. - That's next year's problem, Richard. (laughing) - I can't handle most of my problem. That's next week's problem. - That means you are three defencemen short by my count. - Four, gotta need one. - Yeah. - One more on the roster. - You need at least seven on the roster. Now, hey, look, there are some guys down in the minors, you know, Guillaume Breezewa, whatever, there are players that they could call up obviously. But as far as this defense and how well it has looked, it could look a lot different next year. You know, we heard again from Frank Serra Valley, Philip Ronik still aiming to have an eight next to his name when you look at the average annual value. Nikita Zadoraov, everybody is writing off even the slightest possibility that Nikita Zadoraov could remain a Vancouver Canucks because he's pricing himself out of the market with how well that he's played up to now five goals with the Canucks. It's been really impressive. The way that they've restructured it, but also it shows just how short of a lifespan it has right now. As for Zadoraov, where are we at with this player? What are we seeing and are you warming to the idea that he could be worth four and a half, maybe five million, which is what the speculation is that he could get on the open market? - I like this text here, 650, 650, it's unsigned. We still have a lot of information to learn about these defenseman in the playoffs. I think that's a great point, right? It's exciting run of seven to 12 games for Zadoraov here. Yeah, it's been really impressive. And we got a lot of text last night in the postgame show, give this guy five by five, whatever he needs, he brings an element that not a lot of demon have and his team certainly hasn't had, not even just here recently, but for some time. So he's an exciting player. I totally get why people are enamored with them and want to pay what its full freight is. But it's a great point there that are we happy? Well, what we've seen through 70 games, or is this about determining success in the playoffs? And using the playoffs as an evaluation to say, you're worth what you think you can command on the open market. 'Cause if Zadoraov has a bad playoffs, that number might come down. And are you then enamored with the player in that scenario? Because he has had struggles in the playoffs before. He, you know, I think back to that Battle of Alberta series, and what I'd been to one of five games, it was pretty short, right? Calgary had a couple of defensemen get injured and Zadoraov and good Branson had to be bumped up the lineup. And they started to, Darryl Sutter started utilizing them in minutes against Conor McDavid. And it didn't go well. Zadoraov is a fantastic third pair of defensemen, but a guy who, if he has to take up towards 20 minutes, you're going to see the warts a lot more. If he has to play consistently against Tufts, you know, go against another team's top line consistently, you're going to see the holes in his game. You know, he's kind of like, he's got a lot more tools, I would say, than Tyler Myers, like offensively at times. But they are similar in that, you know, their best utilization is for them to play probably around 18 minutes a night. That's a lot of money. And that's a lot of money to pay for a guy that's playing 18 minutes a night. - And especially when historically, you know, Jim Rutherford teams, the way he's been built them. I'm going to use Rutherford as the example because there's not a lot of runway for Patrick Levine. But if we assume the philosophy is aligned to a certain degree, you know, he's spent as low as 25% of the cap on his demon and he's spent as highest was about 32%. - Yeah. - So it hovers in around 28% of the cap towards demon. Well, the Canucks right now on the blue line is spending 35%. So that number is going to come down. - Yeah. - Significantly. So if you want to live in a world where Quinn Hughes is making just shy of eight, you already have Carson Soussey at just over three. So you're already at about 12ish million dollars, or sorry, 11 million dollars. And then you want to add another five there for Zadorov. You're talking about 16 million dollars just on the left side. - Yeah. It's not efficient. It's a lot of money. - It's not very efficient. And, you know, the idea of Veronica at eight million a year, I mean, I sort of agree with basically everybody in that, okay, you want eight million a year? Well, we're going to find the team that's willing to pay that for you because we're not that team. I think that's the approach the Canucks should take. And it's almost as if you've rented Filopronic for a year for whatever the price difference may be. You might not get a first and a second round pick in the way that they had to pay to the Detroit Red Wings, but you should still get a first round pick back at the very least and maybe a prospect of some kind. He's still going to be valued. I know people will say, oh, how many teams are going to have the eight million dollars? Like, if the Canucks don't have the stomach to pay Filopronic eight million dollars, then who will? There's a lot of teams with really bad defenses that will want to get better. And we'll see Filopronic as a solution for their defense. So there will be teams out there that are willing to take that on, especially when they see his numbers and his effectiveness this year. But, you know, there's games like last night or just like this guy doesn't scream eight million dollar defenseman to it. It's him in Victoria's section like that. It's his hot take. I'd rather see Canucks pays the door of next year four to five million dollars and give anything close to eight million dollars for heroic for his play on the defensive side of the puck lately has been dismal. - Yeah. I mean, he makes, he's a good defenseman. There are times where he makes some really curious decisions. - Yeah, the best thing I can say to him, or about him this year, is that he's, he brought the best out of Quinn Hughes. - Yes. - But Quinn Hughes is always going to get the best out of his deep partner too. And at the end of the day, I'd rather just find another passer that can fit Quinn Hughes. - Yeah. - Than overextend myself. 'Cause every duo is going to have a more dominant side. And right now it's clearly Quinn Hughes. - All right, let's get to the Canucks Central rundown. We're going to have Mailbag coming up later in the show. So if you have some questions for the Mailbag, send them in 650-650, Dunbar LumberTech's message inbox. Canucks 3-1-1 on the homestand so far. What should we expect from the next four? It's a little bit of a tougher schedule. They've got Calgary, LA, Vegas, Anaheim. I'm really looking forward to those LA and Vegas games. - Do you have that tougher? - Okay, fair enough, fair point. - It was Winnipeg and Colorado that came to town. - Yes. Winnipeg and Colorado were maybe the two tougher opponents. - Although Winnipeg was gas in that game. I'm not sure Vegas is any good. I'm really not sure Vegas is all that good. We are scared of them because they were the Stanley Cup champions of last year. But everything about them suggests that they are not that team anymore. - It really just depends on health. - Yeah. - That's what it comes down to. And they're kind of running out of time. Like I don't know what Tomosherto will look like in a Vegas Golden Knights jersey. He's a really great player, but they have 13 games to get them in, integrate them, figure out the chemistry, learn the systems and all that. Every passing day gets harder and harder to implement him into the lineup. They'll obviously do it because he's talented, but they live in a world and they've loaded up their line. It's Marshall, Eichol, Barbershev, they play together. But you look at their groupings and William Carrier is playing second line minute. Chandler Stevenson can play that role, but there's no Mark Stone there. Their deadline acquisition, Anthony Manta, is a support player, not the lead goal score on a second line. Michael Amadio, Brett Howden, who's playing fantastic in the playoffs, but higher up the lineup surrounded by other good players. These are, I don't know, it's a weird lineup. It's a weird lineup without hurdle in Mark Stone and Patranzo is out right now. I know I said his name wrong, sorry. - Pietrangelo, there we go. We'll see you later this week, the Vegas Golden Knights. And they're still in a dogfight to make the playoffs, but do have the inside track for that. Visily Podkolsa got his first point of the season last night, lead team in hits at six on the stat sheet. Do you think we'll see Podkolsa in playoff games? - Well, who's knocking them out right now? Joshua? - Dakota Joshua. - So Neil Zomana's staying in PDG going in? - I'm hard pressed, that's the fine reason but Colton will come out. - Yeah. - Well, he's giving more than, pains me to say, giving more than Phil Dijazepa has the speed, has the heft to really get in and punish. Like, Kate and Gully want to know nothing to do with, a lot of Canucks last night, but certainly Podkolsa. - He had a rough one, man. And actually, I really like the player. - Yeah. - He had a rough one. - But it was a sign of like, he took a lot of hits from the Canucks and it got him really off his game. Like, you see it on the, on the Garland goal, like he's just not mentally in the moment. - He's making no decision on that play. He's not going to Bligger. He's not chasing back on Garland. He's not even turned to face the puck. He's in no man's land with his back to the play. It was a weird. - And that's just cause the Canucks wore him down all night long. Podkolsa was a big part of that. You know, right now it seems to me, like he's got the inside track on a playoff spot. I wonder how they utilize it. If Joshua comes back, do they send him back down, avoid having to put Dijazepa on waivers and then call him back up before the playoffs? We'll see how they navigate that situation. No decision yet on Ian Cole getting back into the lineup, which was an interesting thing that Rick Tockett mentioned today. Elias Lindholm did have a maintenance day, so was not at practice. And Jonathan Lekromacki, as Rick Dollywall mentioned on the morning show today with Mike Halford, going to visit Vancouver before going out to the World Championships training camp. So he's going to spend about a week, 10 days here in Vancouver, maybe practice with the team, and then head back to Sweden for the World Championships. Have a skate. Travel halfway across the world for a skate. I know people, makes sense. Yeah. When you're a hockey player, I guess. It's his vacation. Is that even enough time to get jet lag, like get through the jet lag? You can get jet lag immediately. It's like I'm going back in time, nine hours. This is fine. He's young, he can deal with it. So we'll see Jonathan Lekromacki shortly here in Vancouver. Coming up, Randy Genda, Canucks color analyst, and co-host of After Hours Tomorrow Night with Scott Oak and Connor Garland. And co-host of In the Booth. Don't forget that one. Yes, co-host of In the Booth. Sorry, Batch. And Rick Nash, two-time gold medalist, GM of Canada's World Championship team coming up. He's going to join us after five o'clock as well, plus a male bag. That's to come, Canucks Central.
