(upbeat music) ♪ Connect Central Monday ♪ It's Dan Reecho, big bizarre. Here at the mobile Kintech Studio. Kintech, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Or feet, what are you waiting for? We are at Roger's Arena in anticipation of the Vancouver Canucks and LA Kings, a still potential playoff match-up, as the Kings sit just a couple of points ahead of the Vegas Gold Denights. In the standings, third meeting between the two should be a good one here at the rink tonight. Also, the Canucks with a chance to clinch a playoff spot. We'll get into all that. Canucks Central is for enzyme-Pacific Vancouver's premier. Chrysler, Dodd, Ram, and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Canby and Maine. Or at enzyme-Pacific Chrysler, Dodd, the CA. It is a big bizarre joining me, Dan Reecho, here on Canucks Central. Again, as we continue to wish that all the best in his recovery from an illness, and he should be back at some point later on this week. But the beat goes on for the Vancouver Canucks. And tonight, they'll play their first game since the all-star break without Elias Lindholm in the lineup as it was just announced. Rick Tock, it's speaking with the media. No Lindholm for Vancouver tonight. He is listed as day-to-day for the Canucks, Bick. - No-Lias Lindholm. - Yep. It's unfortunate. Score in a big goal the other night. That's the empty netter. You think Monkey off the back. He's just gonna start to get going. And now it's out of the lineup. - Seals the deal on Saturday and then out of the lineup. Look, it's, we were talking about our own pregame the other day. - Yeah. Talk to me a small hazard, right? Like, injuries happen. It just sucks. - Yes. - It comes down to that. We can talk about the impact and trade, regret, and all these things end of the day. Just sucks, man. - It's a second time. You know, Canucks were in this position to fully. Same thing happened in 2020 when they acquired to fully. Ended up getting hurt in the bubble and maybe not having as much effectiveness as you would have liked to see from the player. And then of course, they weren't able to keep them. But that's another story for another day, which we've gone over far too many times. - You just have to slide that one in there, right? - Just slide it in, you know. Just the 3.2 away slider right there. - Didn't even give the trigger warning for Canucks fans. Just a happy Monday where they might clench the playoffs since then and just like, oh, let's just dart that one and paint the corner and just, oh, we didn't swing it. That one. We're out down on the count. 650, 650 at the Dumbbar Lumber text message inbox. If you're angry about what I just said, let us know. On the text message inbox. All right, let's get to the open. (upbeat music) - Welcome to the open. - Oh, that's your home. Are you too good for your home? Answer me. - It is the open where we bring you the latest on the Vancouver Canucks and give our takeaways on it. It's now a recent three-game win streak for Vancouver, but if you expand that a little bit further out, seven, one and one, since that big speed bump they hit, their first real slump of the season that saw them sort of give a little bit of a door opening to the Edmonton Oilers, but it has now since been closed pretty much with the win. - It's been closed since November 6th, but nevertheless, nevertheless. - But pretty much the seven, one and one stretch has sort of cemented the Canucks into their first place spot in the Pacific Division. And from what I see here, big, it's, I know Rick Talkett didn't love the game Saturday, maybe as much as some others did, it just felt like a pretty comfortable affair against the lesser team. - They did the job. - Yeah, they did the job against the lesser team in the standings, and that's sort of what they did after losing to Washington, right? You drop that one, but then you take care of business against Buffalo, Montreal, and Calgary, and quick succession, all in pretty professional behavior, playing very well defensively, offense showed up when it needed to. And most of all, I think what my takeaway is from how the Canucks have steadied the ship after that little speed wobble is, they aren't really winning with the luck that people were downplaying their success earlier in the season. It's the defense, as we've outlined, has taken a big step. Team defense is the identity of this team. It is their separating factor. It is what makes them as good a team as they have been this season, and then getting timely goals from generally their stars, and every once in a while, the bottom six shows up, as it did versus Montreal last Thursday. So this feels like the evolved version of the Vancouver Canucks from early in the season that, yeah, maybe was binging on shooting percentage a little bit and getting the help of Thatcher, Demko, and goal. - Yeah, evolution is interesting, 'cause I'm not sure if it's the final form, and I'm also not sure if this team has a final form, just 'cause I look at a high end like Colorado. - Yeah, I don't know if this team has that, so it's-- - Not many do. - Yeah, so it's figuring out what you have within you, but they, at some point, we're gonna need to evolve. They won one of those games here recently against Buffalo with the 94 PDO as well. - Yes. - So even with a below 100 PDO, they still got a win. - They got goal lead and found a way to win it. - Yeah, and so that's a nice thing to discuss as well, and 'cause they barely give up any shots in that game as well. But the evolution here, what you're talking about is the defense side of the game, which we've heavily discussed here in these past 10 days, 'cause that's the thing that's showing out right now for the Canucks that this is the evolution that they found their edge to win a game. - Yeah. - And that's to me is the key. We always go back to identity, right? They've managed to find one. It's not the most exciting one, but you have to go into the playoffs with something. - Yeah. - And at least their 5 on 5 defense is the thing. And if you pair that with an improved power play, that's why the focus has been so much on that. If you're gonna play a little event at 5 on 5, where are you gonna create the goals from? Well, the power play has to be the thing that comes through for you. And it's taken about 60 games to get here, but this is kind of the version of the Canucks we thought we'd see in October. - Yeah. - But they started out so hot, they were filling the net with goals, and this is always, to me, the destination we derive at. And if they're here and they're playing soundly, that to me goes hand in hand, that they're ready for game one. I still wanna see a couple more performances, and tonight's gonna be a great indicator, but things feel like they're at the stage where they should be. - It's gotten to a point where for me, the downfall of this team in the playoffs is likely to be on the offensive side of the ice. Like they are so stable in their structure, their muscle memory is to be in structure nowadays, right? They very rarely have major breakdowns. It happens, of course. - They might be prone to a puck giveaway or something like that. - Yes. - Because that's the thing that's showing out more than ever. Maybe not here recently, but there's an odd, like, corona clearance. You're like, oh, that's where we double clutch one, or Ian Cole has one of the boars. Those things might service themselves, but you're right, it's getting to the point where if they get bounced early, it's more than likely on them that it is what an opponent did to them. - Yeah, and if I stack them up against other teams in the West, look, yeah, the Canucks have basically owned the Edmonton Oilers early in the season, but we don't have a recent example between the two teams with the evolved Edmonton Oilers under Knoblock as their head coach. We may not get it at the end of the season because both teams might be in cruise control, getting ready for the postseason at that point with all things clinched up and ready to go, but I wonder, like, the two teams that would scare me most thinking about the playoffs are Colorado and Edmonton, because I just don't know if the Canucks have that kind of high octane offense that those teams can't possess, right? The McDavid's and Drysightles, and the McKinnon's and Rantodin's, Kel McCar, I mean, Colorado's got it for days at the top end of their roster. - Is your fear subsided a bit because they also are prone to be down three to four goals as well? - Yeah, right, like, yesterday was amazing to watch because they decided to play 24 minutes and they walk out with two points against Pittsburgh. - Yeah. - And Vancouver fans have seen that here with a three goal lead. At the same time, it's a good thing to have a three goal lead. - Yes. - You're not meant to be constantly coming from behind against that. So part of me says, like, if the Canucks were in my position, I'd rather deal with that than like trying to play ketchup. - Yeah. - And if you're prone to being in situations where you're giving up three goal leads, is it a statement of actually how high is your ceiling? - And as far as, you know-- - And the Oilers, I mean-- - Yeah. - Defensively, at times they look a bit of a mess. - Yes, Saturday night against Toronto was not very good and then giving up five, shipping five to the Ottawa Senators at this point. Not a good look for the Edmonton Oilers either. Their goal tending, you know, they didn't upgrade it at the deadline. There's questions if Jack Campbell's gonna get a look here towards the end of the season. So they very much still have questions in goal. And I don't know, like, am I downplaying the Canucks offense? They still have JT and Patterson and Hughes all over 80 points. What other team has three players over 80 points? Last I checked, nobody. So, you know, is the high octane offense that I say is missing from this team? Am I downplaying what the high end of this roster has? - Yeah, it's not poor, right? I think when people hear us talk about, like, the thing that could be their downfall would be the goal scoring. But we're not talking about them as if they're some 25th-place team. They can score at an above league average rate, but in a small sample size, do you get stuck in a series where you're giving up two goals? - Yeah. - And yeah, they can probably live in a world we're the only conceding to, but now you're playing one-shot hockey. And in that scenario, anything can happen. - Yeah. - And how comfortable are you living in that reality? If they're playing solid defense constantly, look, maybe they're more comfortable. And it kind of goes to what Rick Talkett has mentioned here about, you know, meeting pressure with pressure and being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Well, tie games in tight situations and over time and playoffs, that's gonna be really uncomfortable. And you have to stay level-headed. And those scenarios are gonna present themselves over and over again in this reality. - Well, it becomes like a playoff baseball game where every shot feels-- - Yeah, the game could end here. - Yeah. - I used to do this thing in the bubble playoffs. I would tweet, like, how's your nerve? 'Cause it was tight games. - Yes. - And every tweet, every reply back to it would be just a GIF of like someone chewing their nails or a Kermit breathing into the bag or something like that. It'd be, it'd be nervous replies 'cause that's what it's like. Now imagine you're on the ice. - Yes. - And this time with fans in the building. - And as we keep saying hockey, a game of mistakes, that team that blinks first and makes the mistake, tends to lose when it comes to the post-season. On that note, have the Canucks figured out something in their top six with Connor Garland? Now we will see a little bit of a different lineup tonight. Obviously, Elias Lindholm is coming out, but from what we saw at practice yesterday, Fieldie Giuseppe played on the top line left wing with Miller and Besser Souter moved down the lineup to play center. And so maybe we see some of those machinations play out again today, but Connor Garland remained with Pedersen and Hoglander. They were the line that drove the bus on Saturday night by Tockett's assessment. Essentially the only good line on Saturday night. You may not be too wrong about that. As Garland done enough to say, "Hey, even when Joshua comes back, "we're not going back to me in Joshua as a duo. "I'm living on Elias Pedersen's right wing right now." - It's done enough. Yeah, probably in the here and now. So, okay, do you mean for game one of the playoffs? 'Cause every conversation right now is about that for me. - Yeah. - We can sit here and say like, "This guy does this, this guy does that." And Garland, look, he's got four points in these last three games. All encouraging. Am I still buying into that it's game one of the playoffs? - They've also like dominated territorially, even beyond the points that they've been in. - Yeah, but the years where like, I think it's fair to bring up the strength of competition in these three games. - Yes. - That to me is like, is this what we're relying on? - Yeah. - The audition continues, I think, is the way I would look at it. - I just don't, I don't see what the other solution is. - Which essentially comes down to... - That's probably the problem. - The deadline, right? - Yeah. - Again, and you weren't able to secure a Tyler Tifoli or something to that effect and add into your top six. But if Lindholm's not gonna play wing, and look, we don't know exactly what his status is beyond today, he is listed as day to day per the coach, but it doesn't feel like the coach wants anything to do with Lindholm on the wing because he likes him so much through the middle of the ice, how responsible he is as an F3. And that's the way the coach prefers to set this squad up. So under that assessment, I just, I don't know what else works there. Maybe you try Mikayev again. - Yeah. - Maybe you go with Souter back there and have Mikayev with Miller and Besser. Do you try Joshua there instead of Garland? I mean, you only have so many options, and it feels like none of them have really shown to be the best option outside of what we've seen out of Connor Garland from these three games. - Yeah, I don't really have a better solution for you. - That's the thing. As much as I have my concerns, if it's gonna be a viable thing, come game one of the playoffs, you kinda just go through the names. Yeah, it's Pew Souters is probably the most likely candidate. - Yeah. - 'Cause I really do like Mikayev, Miller Besser. It doesn't seem to be a thing that they stick with, but the little mini audition we got, I thought it was just as impressive as what Connor Garland is doing. - Well now, especially as Mikayev is starting to go on, right? - Also because the reason I say just as impressive, I know the production's a little bit different, but the reason, I think it fits what you wanna see from that line. - Right. - Whereas Garland and Patterson, I think they're making it work, but like stylistically, there's a little bit of conflict there. Whereas Mikayev, just play fast, win pucks along the wall, the production's not really a concern. Garland has to produce. If he's on that roll, he has to produce. - Yeah. - And fair play, he's doing it right now. - Yep. - I mean, a goal in his first game, you know, a couple of great assists. - Yeah. - Got a lot of praise from, I mean, we talked about it on the post-game Saturday, but even the coach shouted it out in his post-game news conference, just how great that play was to set up the Hoaglonder breakaway. - Yeah. - He makes the outlet pass to Patterson, out of the zone, and then obviously Hoaglonder goes in. - And stops the cycle. - Yes. - Like defensively, he wins a puck along the wall. - And stops the cycle. It's been a good showing for three games. I think you get a better assessment of it tonight against L.A. and obviously Thursday against the Dallas Stars. All right, let's get to the Canucks Central Roundup. Couple of things we want to get to before Don Taylor joins us a little bit later on this hour. As we mentioned, Noel Icelandholm tonight against the L.A. Kings. He is day to day, not sure if the appointment, the specialist appointment has happened or not yet. Canucks are working with Lindholm day to day. They're gonna see how they can manage the injury through the rest of the season. Don't know how much more there is to give than that at this very moment, but it is unfortunate to say the least. Canucks have a chance to clinch a playoff berth tonight. I ask this with the utmost respect for Canucks fans and understanding that it's been a long time since you've seen home games in the playoffs at Roger's Arena. But why is it a thing that like, I don't understand the urgency. I know yes, you'll get the X next to the Vancouver Canucks and the standings, but do you really need to see the X to know that they're going to the playoffs at this point? I mean, we've known they were going to the playoffs essentially since December. Certainly since January, like when they went through that East Coast road swing and they swept through New York, you're like, are you still thinking there's a chance? - Damn, they're holding it. - Yeah, are you thinking there's a chance they could fall all the way out at that point? No, so I don't mean to like dampen anybody's excitement, because we're all excited to see playoff hockey here in Vancouver for the first time in nearly a decade. - And it's going to happen. - And it is going to happen. - Sure, neither one of us are talking as if it's not going to happen. - If they don't clinch tonight, they'll clinch Thursday. - You're going to see playoff games in Rogers Arena for the first time since 2015. It's happening. The X, the X doesn't hold that much power. - Also to giving power to the X. - Do you think most Canucks fans would want to see St. Louis win tonight? St. Louis wins tonight, right? Canucks are unable to clinch in any fashion, because as long as St. Louis wins, the Canucks do not have a clinch scenario in their repertoire. But if St. Louis beats the Vegas Golden Knights, they then go within two points of Vegas for the second wild card spot. - That's the other thing that I don't understand about tonight. - Yeah. - Is, I'm sure your show has been similar to, but for the past two to three weeks, I've gotten so many, oh, we're just going to face the Golden Knights in round one. - Yeah, so many of those texts into my show. I'm sure you guys have gotten a ton of those and you conduct centrals as well. - It's, so what do you think happens if you clinched tonight? - The probability Vegas clinches too. - Yeah, essentially like they're on track to be wild card one. Now maybe they could leapfrog LA and that could happen as well, but now you like solidify your top eight. And also there's a lot of people rooting against Vegas. - Yes. - So wouldn't you want them to lose? - Yeah, and slide out. - I would imagine, you know, for most hockey fans, the way they feel about the Vegas Golden Knights and the way that they have used the salary cap to their advantage, you, they're the villain in the league right now. So you'd prefer to see them out rather than in. If Vegas wins tonight and the Canucks win, yes, they will officially clinch a playoff berth and Vegas would also be level on points with the LA King. So, you know, the chance that the Canucks still play Vegas is not a slam dunk, but it is a strong possibility still at this moment. - It feels like dog season cars were two weeks ago. Oh, I don't want to play Vegas. I don't want to play Vegas. I don't want to play Vegas. And now it's- - Hey, we can clinch, we can clinch, we can clinch. We're just running down the street. The other interesting number, maybe the more interesting number to me. - That was a terrible bark by the way. - It was a terrible bark. I wasn't going to say anything. - Yeah, that's fine. - I'll admit it. - Canucks magic number to clinch the Pacific Division title is now 16 points after Edmonton lost yesterday. So that is combined points gained by Vancouver. - Points dropped. - With points dropped by the Edmonton Oilers. So essentially the Oilers losing both games this weekend. I don't want to say sealed the division title for the Vancouver Canucks, but it essentially sealed the division title for the Vancouver Canucks. - Canucks don't have to, let's say for the Canucks to get to 111 points, right? So just to cross that 110 point bar, which is madness that they're actually going to have a real chance to do that. - Hang on, let's say 110, just because now you're adding an OTL, that's 13 points. - Okay. - 12 points, it's a easy map. - So 12 points. So they've got to be slightly above 500 through the final 11 games. - Correct. - Right? You got 11 games. You go six and five, you get to 110 points. And the Oilers have to do what? To get to 110 points? - In the remaining 13 games. - Yeah. - They would have to go 11 and three? Sorry, 11 and two? - Wow. - Okay. So the Canucks have essentially sealed the division, barring a huge slump. - By the way, not even just 11 and two. - Yeah. - They would have to go six regulation wins more than Vancouver. - Yes. Because of the regulation on time wins. So it's a long shot, right? - So really like one more regulation win. - Kinda does it. - Kinda does it. - So that's the playoff clinching scenarios for the Vancouver Canucks and Pacific division title scenarios for Vancouver. Dakota Joshua returned to practice yesterday in a non-contact jersey. So I don't imagine we'll see him here tonight, but that does imply that he is very close to returning, as the coach mentioned, on Saturday and Jonathan Lecker-Mackie was assigned to Abbotsford today. And that signals that he could practice a little bit with the Abbey Canucks. Potentially get into a game, but it might not be the longest stint with Abbotsford as he is still very much on the radar for a World Championship spot with Sweden. - I think this just serves everyone really well, right? - Yes. - You get to play or get to gain some air miles. - Yeah. - Well, that's a big man, you get free air miles. Like let's go in this economy. - You can just show me a video of a guy eating in a... - Yes. - Napoli. - I'm sending this to everybody. - 10 euros. - I think I might want to move to Naples. This guy just like eats all day in Naples for 10 euros. - Unbelievable. - He's like having sprows and croissants and wall pizzas, a spritz in the day. - Unbelievable. - But he gets time to integrate. - Yes. - Put the big club or the two big clubs and have access to Vancouver and everything like that, which is always nice. Keeps his competitive juices going, get ready for the World Championships and head back for a quick cameo, right? I think it just serves everyone really well. - And Alex Ovechkin scored another two goals yesterday. - Eight last a week? - Eight goals in a week since I... - He scored against Vancouver and then scored seven since then. - He scored against the Canucks. - Yeah. - At which point I said this guy's not gonna beat the record. From what I saw here, Roger's Arena. - So that was on the Saturday. - Ove is not going to beat the record. - And you went on air on Monday. - Yeah. - And you're like, "Hey, this guy, I don't know." - He's not that guy. - I'm not seeing it. - He's not that guy. - He looks like this now. Imagine what he's gonna look like in his age 40. - And he was 54 away when you said that? - Yes. - And now he's 47 away. - Yeah. - In a week's time. - In a week's time. He's up to 26 goals on the air. He's gonna probably get to 30 at this point. He scored two against Calgary, two against the Leafs, one against Carolina, and two against Winnipeg yesterday. - The fact that he's gonna get to 30 goals is... Just destroying me. (laughs) Just destroying me. - It looked like an impossibility last week. - He was behind the whole banner. He wasn't even at 20. - He was behind the whole banner, and his sword passed them. - When he scored against the Conaxios, 19 on the year. Now he's at 26, it seems in inevitability. He gets to 30 for the season. - It's a great lesson for everyone. Like, this is why you don't doubt greatness. (laughs) - Yes. - Like, this is the reason. Like, how quick we are to cast off certain players and everything like that? - I'm serious. - I've just done this one. - Tied for 39th in league scoring. - He's gonna be at 8.50 by the end of the season, and what, 44 to go to tie? - Yeah. - At least at 8.50 by the end of the season. All right. Don Taylor is gonna join us. We'll get more into the Vancouver Canucks's thoughts on Lynn Holm being out with an injury, and just how Kentucky it is that their prized trade season acquisition is hindered by an injury. It's Canucks Central, Dan Reicho, and Bick Nizarin for Satyar Shah. Getting ready for the Canucks and Kings on Sportsnet 650. - Talking all Canucks all the time. It's Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans. 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