[MUSIC] Back into the Kintech Studio, Dan Reicho, Satyar Shah, Kannock Central is for Enza on Pacific Bank. Coopers Premier Chrysler, Dodd, Ram and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Canby and Maine, or at Enza on PacificChrysler.ca, Kintech Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soarfeet, what are you waiting for? As we talked about before the break about the Canucks and how they play defense. Now we do always caution looking at the public data and taking it as a pot of gold, but there is still some you could take away from it. It is an indicator of some sorts as to how a team is controlling play on the ice and the Canucks since the all-star break, which record-wise hasn't been great for the Vancouver Canucks, but they are controlling 58% of high-danger chances on the ice. The only team better right now is the Edmonton Oilers. Yeah, that's 58%. Yeah, it's pretty good. And we dig a little deeper too. When we talked about how they're offensively, they've gone a bit cold and they're not scoring as much as they were earlier, and a lot of that is regression and all that. However, the average 12.54 high-danger chances per 60 minutes since the all-star break fourth highest in the National Hockey League. So maybe an offensive breakout is going to come right as the playoffs begin. That's at least the hope you would imagine. That's the optimist. I'm an optimist, we all know that. Well, depends on the day. Depends on the day, very much so. If it's raining, maybe not so much. If it isn't, then sure. What about thunder last night anyways? Yeah, last night's rain was it felt like movie rain, you know, like when you watch a movie it's like heavy downport. Never rains like this in real life. No, last night was that. All right, let's bring in our next guest. It is Mike, Steven, staff and graph podcast. Thanks to this, Mike. How are you? I'm good. I mean, if you're optimistic when it's raining and you live in Vancouver, I mean, you must be a pretty happy guy. Oh, I'm always cheery. My co-host will attest to that. It's-- you know what? Right now, it's been interesting kind of following the Canucks. I'm curious to get your take on it, Mike, because yeah, the record is kind of leveled out here a little bit. They haven't been nearly as hot as they were for much of the season. Still pretty good, right? They got a near 600 point percentage since the All-Star break. But, you know, when they were clipping around at 700 for most of the season before that, it has been a little bit of regression. But, you know, this is a team I think that's evolved into one of the defensive teams in the league. At least that's the way we see it. How do you view the Vancouver Canucks? Well, first of all, I view them as a very, very good hockey team. Yeah. Like, they are just top to the bottom, very good hockey team. Could they have maybe added, like, a top six guys to deadline? You know, considering, like, PSUITR is on the top line, maybe. But at the end of the day, like, blinds one through four, pairings one through three, they're great. Now, the thing is, is, like, they were missing, or they were missing a very big, you know, chunk of, I guess, like, sort of a spine that kept that up, kept their team up, which is Thatcher Demko. Like, you know, they were riding, you know, a crazy PDO bender, and they were, you know, they got everything that they were shooting was going in. But, like, a big reason for that is that Thatcher Demko is one of the, I would say, five best goal tenders in the entire league. And you miss that guy for four to five weeks. And, you know, like, it's not a giant shock that the team is going to dip a bit. And, by dipping a bit, is going from, you know, a 700 winning percentage to a 600 winning percentage. That's not bad. That's indicative of a pretty good team. So, they've got a lot of, like, the West, you know, at least the tip it's off of the West, it can get a little dicey. Like, you know, you have your, you have your vaguses, and you have, you know, your cholerais and whatnot. But the Canucks are, you know, if Demko comes back, he's healthy. And they go into the sea, they go into the post-season and they're healthy as well, like, you're pulling to them, you can kind of get past with every fight right now. This is a very, very good hockey team, but has a good chance to go as far as they want to. - Yeah, and a lot of it, like you mentioned, comes down to their star players being healthy, obviously, with Patrick Demko. But also, guys like Patterson, J. T. Miller, and Hughes really rolling once you get into the post-season. And the guy that's really led the way, in such a massive way, has been J. T. Miller this year, has 91 points, one top scorers in the league too this year. Like, how much do you think the narrative round J.T. has kind of changed league wide over the course of the season? - Oh, it's completely changed. Like, if you look at last year, I mean, I guess I can bring you a little bit of an Eastern perspective here, considering, you know, like, I'm out in Ontario, but like, J. T. Miller was looked at as like, you know, a complete defensive liability, you know, last year, at least. Like, maybe something of a, not like a point hog, but just someone who would cut corners, not play defense or, you know, all of that, especially because he wasn't scoring to start the year last year either. But he's been a completely different player. Like, he is, you know, he's obviously not a defensive stalwart. Like, he never really was, but his two-way play has improved to the point where you can not call, you definitely cannot call him a liability more. And he's always been able to put points or pucks him to that, and he'll point on the board. And he's doing that in an incredible rate this year. You guys should get 100 points. Like, it's, you never would have thought that. He's, what he's done is, he's like, it just seems like talking has been able to find something in him that pretty much the last two guys weren't able to do, at least, or at least specifically towards the end of, towards the end of Boudreau. So, he's completely changed in the narrative on him. And that's, that's great because, like you said, you know, every team, like, compared to the Leafs out here, like, they're, they could have acquired whoever they wanted to the deadline. They're not going to go anywhere if Matthew's Martin and Neil added to our sign scoring. And it's the same with the Canucks where, you know, they can do whatever they want, but, you know, tax your own code can make a million saves a game if you want to, but they're not going to go anywhere. If Patterson, Miller, if Hughes, if they aren't rocking on all cylinders. And we'll have to see it. I mean, there's only a couple of games left for them to really sort of get, get into gear here. And, you know, we'll have to see. - It, it feels like, you know, you mentioned that. And this league right now, where we're seeing record levels of scoring, right? Last year, a bunch of guys get 100 points and it's going to happen again this year. We already got a few 50 goal scorers in the league this season. Matthew's going to hit 60 pretty soon. And yet, you know, we get to the playoffs. What do we always say? Well, defense wins championships. And the defensive turnaround that the Canucks have had as a team under Rick Talkett has been really impressive. Is that, do you think still a separator going into the postseason, the teams that can defend well, while also getting their stars to get going? Like that's the team that's got the real shot of winning a Stanley Cup. - Oh, absolutely. I mean, like I covered the, you know, boots on the ground for the Cup final last year, Vegas, Florida. And they were too very evenly matched. She was at least when it came to, like the trajectories they were on. But the thing that gave Vegas the edge and something that Florida just could not muster or response to. It's the fact that Vegas had three defense pairs so they could roll out basically 20 minutes and eight each. And, you know, if you look at the teams that have gone to the Cup final, they have, or have a challenge for it. They have these defenses. They have these decores that can just eat up minutes that you can sort of almost even roll lines. If you have guys at the top, you can really rely on. And the Canucks have that. Like, I think the turnaround of Tyler Myers is being amazing. Getting Nikita Zadorov is being fantastic for them. And Quinn Hughes is taking his game from being, you know, one of the best defense in the week to one of the best players in the week. And, you know, not just offensively, but it's two-way game. It has transformed. He's almost, he definitely wasn't in the same category as JT Miller when it came to narrative-wise. But he was looked at as maybe a pure offensive guy to someone who was on par with the Kale McCars, you know, in the Adam Foxes and whatnot in the week. Like, those three are now in a class of their own. Defense is so important in the playhouse. I hate to sound like a boomer when I say that because, you know, like, obviously we love the goals and we love what the great plays and whatnot. But like, when it gets down to a seven game series when you're in the trenches and teams learn every little idiosyncrasy of their opponent because that's just what happens when you play each other. Except, you know, it goes to seven straight times. And, you know, in two weeks, defense matters so much. Being able to defend and sort of have that response matters so much. And the Canucks, what they've been able to accomplish this season by just turning around their entire unit and like having, like adding guys that need to do and also a bunch of other guys kind of turning things around, it's being, it's being nothing short of remarkable to be honest. And I think that, that along with the goaltending is going to be the two biggest X factors, I think, when it comes to the playoffs. - Yeah, and there's still very much in the hunt to not only maybe finish first in the West but finishing first in the entire league. And we'll see ultimately how that goes with 10 games to go. But even if they do finish first in the West, the prize is to play the Vegas Golden Knights maybe. Or if you finish second, the prize is playing the Red Hot National Predators. So before this national run, we kind of referred to the Western Conference as their seven teams that could legitimately one way or another find their way to the Stanley Cup. Can we extend that to eight teams now with the way the Preds have gone? - Absolutely, I started the regular season. I remember saying that Nashville is, like if they make the playoffs, they are a playoff team. Like I know that makes no sense but like they are, I didn't know if they were going to make the playoffs. Like I really, I honestly doubted it, just looking at the roster. But if they were to make it, the team that was going to play them, it was going to wake up every morning and just like slam their head against the mirror in the bathroom. Like it just, playing a team, you know, Ryan O'Reilly, Luke Shen, UC Sorrows, they can go on a run at any moment. We're only going in the corner with pretty much anyone on that team. It's just going to be just horrible throughout a seven game series. And I thought that the regular season was gonna be their till UCL. I thought they can sneak in. But I guess taking U2 away from a team is, you know, the biggest sort of galvanizer of it all. And they become one of the best teams and we can establish themselves as a legitimate threat in the West to the point where it looks, Vegas is pretty banged up. And I honestly think that the Canucks, they go against Vegas. And if they slay that dragon in the first round, I mean, just think about what that can do to the morale. Like look what doing that did to the Florida Panthers last year. It propelled that team to the Cup final. And that was a team that, you know, sent me the playoffs by one point. Like the Vancouver Canucks are one of the best teams in the league. So they, they slave that Vegas Golden Knights dragon, you know, despite the fact that like, they'll have home ice advantage and whatnot. But like, if they slay that dragon in the first round, the sky is the limit, I almost would want to play, I would almost want to play Nashville less, you know, at this stage just because they are healthy, they are feeling it and they are going into the playoffs with a bunch of guys who are battle tested and also just play such annoying hockey that if you want to go, like I said, go into the corner with those guys seven, you know, for seven straight games or over 40 or 14-based stretch, you're going to hate it. So it, it, Nashville has established himself for sure. They're, they're someone that needs to be, needs to be reckoned with. - What do we even make of the Vegas Golden Knights right now? Because they're, they're like a 500 team since the new year. You take it all the way back to December. They're like just slightly above 500 since then. I know they've got hurdle coming back and who knows what happens with Mark Stone if he's miraculously ready for game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It just feels like a lot of ifs have to come together to get this team plan right again. - Yeah, they're definitely a lot of ifs, but like it's always like that. I mean, like with Tampa, they were like, if Scrooge Rob can come back and then he did and then they won the cup. And this is like, these guys, they, first of all, they were very, like, I saw them on the ice after they won the cup. They were beaten, beaten to heck. You know, like they, they were very tired. And it's an older team, at least from the top guys. You know, maybe aside from Michael, but he's getting up there a bit. And I really do think that just, this is a team that is just dinged up and it'll all come together. They're, they're, all they need to do. And I think their organizational mindset right now is we just need to get to the playoffs. Like it doesn't matter if we, if we take some losses, if we take some hits moving forward as long as we get to the playoffs and everyone is ready to play, then we have, we, you know, we are going to be a force to be reckoned with because that's pretty what it is. I mean, you added Thomas Hurdle and Noah Hanifen in the same trade deadline, that's absurd to the defending Stanley Cup champions. They, it really is just a matter of getting guys back and healthy, but you know, then like you said, at the same time, I mean, Mark Stone, this is not, this is not an LTIR gaming type of situation. The guy last rated a spleen, like that makes me, that makes me cringe even just like saying it. So, you know, when, when a guy is off, off the ice and potentially off his feet or I, look, I don't know what it's like to last right my spleen. So I don't know what the recovery process is for that, but like I can't imagine it's a lot of jostling around. I can't imagine there's a lot of, you know, high impacts training while, while there's a potential to burst something in your body. So he's probably been off his feet for a little bit. And the playoffs will kind of be like running right onto a treadmill that's, that's cranked up to like 11. So there's a lot of ifs there, but if, and I, I say, if here as well, but like, if any team can weather the ifs and put them together, I really do think it's this collection of players. - The Dallas Stars are the Canucks opponent tonight and it's a battle for first in the Western Conference. Could the Stars be the best team in the NHL? - Oh man, they go like, look at the, their roster from top to bottom is incredible. - There's no hole. - And there's no hole in the roster. - There's no holes. And the way that they're able, like what really just boggles my mind is, of all of their like, like, if you look at their, their good young players, like the Robert Robertson hints, you know, like go down the list, Stanko, and Wyatt Johnson, guys like that, they've all been picked past pick 23. And a lot of them are second rounders, third rounders. Like the way they're able to just pull guys out of the air is remarkable. - You add Chris Tana to that mix and it's just, I mean, you guys know, you play for you. Like that's just, you use a great player and use exactly what they needed. They, when, at least on paper, they look like potentially, like the most complete team, I guess. Just like you said, from top to bottom, like, so not like elite offense, potentially the stingiest defense in the league. Especially because most of those guys are healthy. And then a franchise goaltender, Jake Audinger. I mean, what weakness do you attack? Where do you go? What really sort of bogged them down last year is the fact that like Ryan Souter really showed his age in the playoffs and he was past playing minutes that were way too much for him. And great, well, now you have Thomas Harley and Chris Tana to take that load off him to make Ryan Souter almost like a third parry defense to shelter him. And then if he sheltered, he can still contribute. Like it's like, they had one big weakness and they shorted up with, with an internal promotion that they drafted, developed and allowed to thrive themselves. And then with one of the most shrewd, like with an edition that costs so little, that it almost destroyed the market, you know? So they just go from coaching to general managing to putting the team together. Where do you criticize? You can't. It's annoying how flawless they are. - Mike, we really appreciate the time. Thanks so much for this today. - Of course, anytime. - There is Mike, Stephen, Staff and Graph podcast. Follow him on Twitter @MikeyStevens81. It's really interesting the Western Conference right now. A couple months ago, I said, it's shaping up to be like the Eastern Conference playoffs last year, which there is not one real layup in the entire conference. And you saw it with Florida being the eight seed last year in the East. You had a gauntlet running through the Atlantic division entirely and it played out that way. It was a war. And by the time they got to the final, they had nothing left to play against the Vegas Golden Knights, right? Like Matthew Kuchuk playing with a broken sternum and the RNA flag was done and it was just like, "Wow, okay, they're pretty much their toast." - They're done. - That doesn't bode well for the team that comes out of the Western Conference this year, but look at the way it's shaping up, Sat. You mentioned Dallas, we're gonna see them tonight with Kristana have in the lineup. There's no real bad team with Nashville emerging, coming out of the central. And then Vegas is the ultimate wild card here in the Pacific Division given what we know their ceiling could be even though we haven't seen it for a while. The Western Conference, it's a joke with how deep it is with each team. - Yeah, and some of it is the parody in the league that every team has some level of flaw. The exception when Vegas is healthy, I don't think they really have any flaws. The Dallas Stars, the only real flaw for the Stars has been their goal-tending this year. But as we discussed with Kevin Woodley yesterday, Jake Ottinger is showing signs of his high level form again. So if that comes together, well then, maybe the goal-tending isn't a problem for them. Maybe you can look at the high end there and say, as good as Robertson is and as good as Hinses and Pavelsky is, are they quite the same level of the other top-end guys on, say, Colorado, they're not Vancouver, right? Now, high-skinned is almost as good as any defenseman, but you know, so that, I think, is somebody you, to me, like he's gonna belong to the combo with a Yossi and all these guys. Like, I'm really high on ice. I think he's incredible, right? - So good. - But offensively, as good as they are and as deep as they are, maybe the high end, but that's, they make up for it in the overall aggregate as well. Like, they're a really tough team. And like, now with Nashville emerging, they can knock anybody off. I still view them as being maybe the eighth, most dangerous team in the West, still ultimately speaking. But that doesn't mean they can't get to the cup final with how they've been playing and how they've been going. - The way Yossi's going, you know, they still have a pretty high end, right? Like, Yossi, Forsberg's near 40 goals. - It's three guys. - O'Reilly's still really good. - O'Reilly is good. And in the playoffs, he can play it out. He's showed he can play at a high level. So if he plays there, you can put him in that discussion. But to me, it's a three guys. It's Forsberg, Yossi, and Sorrows. But it's kind of like, well, once a center, once a defense, once a goal, so you have all three bases kind of covered. And those three guys, if they play at their best, they can steal a series or two. So they're terrifying. But like every team in the West right now, in that top eight, has some maybe little flaws here and there, but they're all like really solid teams that are hard to knock off. So as good as the Canucks are, like it's tough, man. Like I understand why the coach doesn't want these guys to take their foot off the gas, doesn't want anything to kind of hurt their chances heading into the postseason, 'cause the margins are going to be super fine this time around. It's very hard to power rank the Western Congress. It's like a tier and they're all in the same tier. Yeah, they're pretty much all in the same tier. Except for like, you can say, I still think when they're going at their best, Colorado still. Well, 'cause Colorado fixed a lot of their holes further down the lineup, and they already knew what they had at the top of their line. Yeah, the Panthers are ridiculous. Panthers are insane in the East. And I think they are clearly the best team in the Eastern Conference. So you can say like, there is a tier of Panthers, abs maybe, but the separate, like even if you want to put those teams in a separate tier, it's not like it's a huge gap between tier two. No. No, because everybody else, Dallas doesn't have a flaw. You know, I think if there's any team I may be downplaying as we get into the late days of the season in the Western Conference, it might be Winnipeg. They've also struggled a bit. They've struggled lately, so that might be recency bias. They've kind of lost their defensive game a touch in the last little bit, and it's showing Helibux numbers are inflating a little bit as time goes on. They've now lost four in a row, but something is a little bit off with Winnipeg, more so than people have made out to be with Vancouver Canucks lately. Yeah, I mean, they have legit like struggles and concerns going on right now. I'd almost rather like, if Winnipeg were to fall out of the top three in the central and be a wildcard team, which isn't out of the realm of possibility, they're only four points up on the Nashville Predators right now, like that would be, yeah, you might want to face the team that's struggling going into the playoffs. They don't terrify me as much. Like I think the Canucks can match Winnipeg and all the things that they do well. Yes. And exceed them in many of those instances too, so I like the Canucks matchup against the Jets. But again, liking that matchup, does that mean it's anything less than six games still? No. No, everything's going to be a war. Yeah. And Winnipeg's huge. So they're going to like, like they're one of the bigger teams in the league. They're going to be able to grind you down a little bit. I mean, there will be a short series in the first round. They're always are like five gamers, not necessarily sweeps every time in the first round, but certainly five gamers. Like who's going to be the team that loses in five games in the West this year? It might be Vegas. Honestly, I'm kind of down on Vegas right now. But like, you know, so you're right. There's six one and two in their last night. (laughs) Like they're not, I think some of their struggles are being overstated. Yes. And I watched their game, and I know they lost against Nashville, but like, they've had some good games. They've had some good games. They're starting to turn it around a little bit. And we'll see what Thomas Hartle adds to that team when he does get into the lineup. It's Dan Reicho, Satyar Shah. You know what? We're going to get a little inside look at the Nashville Predators. Alex Doherty is going to join us. The Predators beat reporter at the Tennessean, his take on what is in the water in Smashville right now. And if Roman Yossi does really hold a candle to Queen Hughes in the Norris Trophy conversation. That's coming up next on Canucks Central. - Hitting the most important topics for Vancouver sports fans. The people's show with Bignezar, subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - It is Canucks Central. We're here in the Kintec Studio, Dan Reicho and Satyar Shah. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soarfeet, what are you waiting for? Canucks have the Dallas Stars tonight as it's going to be a heavyweight tilt here in the Western Conference. But the team that is hottest in the West right now and has been for a while is the Nashville Predators. We're going to hook up here with Alex Daugherty of the Tennessean on the Predators who are seven, two, and two since the All-Star break. And really, since they canceled a team event at the sphere in Las Vegas. - Yeah, somebody texted it and said, "Frankie needs to shell out for a private YouTube concert "for whoever plays the Canucks in round one." - It's kind of an incredible story. And whatever you want to call it, whatever happened, I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is it's become a rallying point for this Nashville Predators team and their plan as well as anybody in the league right now. - It's going to go down for sure in Predators lore, but probably like NHL lore as well. The team that responded to having their concert taken away. I mean, most of us were pretty angry when they force fed us U2 on our phones or every so many years past, but yeah. - All right, let's bring in our next guest. It is Alex Daugherty, Fred's Beat Reporter at the Tennessee. And thanks for this, Alex. Would you be that upset about not being able to go to a U2 concert as well? Or? - Oh man, I already got in trouble for this because I was on Twitter some days after that thing that I really don't care for U2, I did not my thing. So it would not be a motivational factor for me, but because I don't want to have the U2 fans in my mentions again. Let's just maybe, maybe let's just move on because I don't want to have to deal with that all over again. - So, okay, but still they lose nine two to the Dallas Stars and this whole U2 thing happens and, you know, they've been the best team in hockey ever since. What's really changed as the buy-in just gone to another level has been the rallying point that it seems to be for us from the outside? - Yeah, I really think it has, the little factors to it. It's hard to pinpoint one particular thing that has gone so well that it's turned around everything. It kind of feels like everything's just gotten better. I mean, they had an issue at the beginning of the season, including when they played Vancouver, the first three games were all in the first couple months there, where their goal tending was just kind of not keeping them in games and that was something that the predators have not ever been used to. I mean, they've always had that. So, that was part of it. UC Soros took an extraordinarily long time to get going this year. So, he's kind of back. I mean, he's not quite to like Vassana level, but he's pretty close to it. So, I think that's the biggest thing is they finally had consistent goal tending. Kevin Lincoln's been a good backup as well. The other thing is that the predators for several months, there were basically just a one-line team. It was basically all Phillip Boresburg, Justoff Nyquist and Ryan O'Reilly, that was it. And they've finally gotten some of that depth scoring. It hasn't been crazy or anything, but they've had contributors up and down the lineup. I mean, they have a fourth line that's got a couple double-digit goal scores, Michael McCarron and Nicole Smith and Kiefer Sherwood. And they've got good contributions from middle lineup guys, like Colton Sisson's and Luke Evangelista. But I think it's just a matter of... I mean, I do think that there was an intangible result of that happening. And it kind of galvanized the group in a strange way and gave them some sort of a kind of universal goal, I guess, in kind of trying to prove everybody wrong. And I really don't tend to buy into those intangible results, but it's hard to ignore this one. I mean, there's not just like one... It's not like they got some key player back from injury or they had someone turn their season around. It just seems like everything has just gotten a lot better over the last two months or so. - Yeah, and you mentioned it is an overall team effort, but also like you need your stars to be at their best for you to have this type of run. And clearly you mentioned Sorrows, but the way Phillip Boresburg is going right now, physically, offensively, his two-way game. How impactful is Phillip Boresburg when he's on top of his game like this? - I think he's their best player. If I had to... I would actually probably pick him over Roman Yossi for MVP right now, just in terms of the element that he would leave out of the lineup if he wasn't there. He has a combination of physical thighs and ability and puck skill, shooting skill, goal-scoring skill that any team would want. And I think when he has this power forward game going, like when he goes into the corner and when the puck comes out of there with it, he's getting a quality shot on goal. And there's nothing you can do much about it. It's gonna happen. And that to me is an element that any team would want. I think if you took that away, you would miss a lot. You know, Roman Yossi is right there with them. I mean, Roman Yossi's having a great, great season, especially recently, but Boresburg, when he has a shot that is something you could... I mean, obviously he scored 40 goals this year, but it's not like he's shooting a crazy high percentage. He's just getting a lot of shots on net. And that's something that a lot of players on the team struggle with, but he has been doing just so well all season. - 11 goals and 20 points, my guy. Co-host just told me in his last 11 games. It was pretty good for Philip Foresburg. And we've spent a lot of time talking about Roman Yossi and wondering because Quinn Hughes here in Vancouver is seeming like the runaway Norris favorite for much of the season here. And now, you know, Kale McCar has continued doing his thing. He's got the best points per game average of the three, but I would think the finalists are Quinn Hughes, Kale McCar and Roman Yossi, maybe with a shout to Evan Bouchard as well at Edmonton. But Yossi, he might get the late vote here as far as best defenseman goes for the Norris with the way that he's going. - It's a really fascinating race. I would agree. I think it has to be those three as the finalists. I would give it to Quinn Hughes right now, obviously. I think he's been just, I think he's been the best defenseman from beginning to end, you know, assuming nothing happens crazy in the last 10 games. You know, I compare it to a couple of years ago when Adam Fox won it. And there was a lot of, you know, Kale McCar came on real strong late and had a really great second half of the season. But Adam Fox was kind of the shoe. And that was the shortened season, I think, when he won it. And Fox ran away with it. But everyone kind of felt like, okay, Kale McCar is probably going to be the one that gets it next year and he did. So I wouldn't be surprised if that happens. Quinn Hughes has been the sort of leader. And these Norris votes are like, I mean, once you get a certain kind of player in the conversation all season long, it's really hard to take them out of it. And I think Quinn Hughes has enough, enough, you know, momentum in that direction. I wouldn't be shocked if Roman Yoshi comes in second though. And if he, if he were to somehow pass Kale McCar because because of his second half here. But I bet it, I bet it finishes Quinn Hughes, Roman Yoshi, Kale McCar in that order. On the back end, obviously Roman Yoshi is, you know, the guy. But this is a team that traded Matias, Matias Ekholm last year. And it's a team that headed into this season with more of a, you know, retool in mind as opposed to maybe being, you know, all in to have success. But are we talking enough about how good Ryan McDonough has been this season given his age and the impact he's having? He's playing nearly 22 minutes a game. - Yeah, he's been really successful this year. I think there were a lot of people that were unsure of how he was gonna play in Nashville. And I probably would include myself in that because, I mean, the guy went from every year in the playoff, every year, every year going on deep playoff runs and then getting, you know, the way it ended in Tampa and then going to basically a full-on rebuilding team in Nashville with a pretty big contract. It's hard to move. You know, how was he gonna respond to that? He misses the playoffs for the first time in his career last year, which is crazy to think about for a 34-year-old. And then this year, you don't really know what's gonna happen with a new coach. And so, but he has been just a workman's mindset. I mean, the guy is one of the best leaders in that room and he's kind of a quiet leader, but he's still a very active one in terms of what he does on the ice, I mean, he blocks shots. He plays on the penalty kill. He's switched from left to right, you know, multiple times. He's just, he's that kind of guy. So he's a, he's definitely been a great addition. And I'm glad to see that it finally has, has gotten to a place where now he is probably thinking, all right, I'm not as far away from a cup win maybe as I thought when I first got here. So that's been great to see. - The head coach of this team, Andrew, Andrew Brunette. You know, I know Barry Trotts takes over as the guy running the show from David Poel and Andrew Brunette. It seemed like he got a bit of a raw deal when he wasn't kept on in Florida, but Paul Maurice has done a really good job there. And now you see this, this predator's team. And I feel like they have more offense than they did through the peak David Poel years. And you're seeing some of the offensive flair that Andrew Brunette brought to the Florida Panthers show up on this predator side. Am I reading that right? - Oh my gosh, yeah. I mean, the offense for this predator's team, I mean, they're like at four goals a game. I mean, there were years, wait, there were years in Nashville where it was like, you'd be lucky to get half that. I mean, it was pretty bleak for a number of, including some of the Barry Trotts years. Yeah, this is definitely like an offensive team from start to finish, you can tell. And now their defense is playing a little better and they're getting better goal-tending. I think his system though is kind of tricky because it's not exactly like just turning things over to the forward and then getting the puck up the ice quickly. You still need the defense to contribute. And I think that Roman Yosi maybe had the toughest time adjusting because he couldn't just do everything himself like he was used to. He had to rely on passing up the ice and getting the puck to quicker forwards in order to get the pace of play up. But he's adjusted to it. Some of the other defense men have adjusted to it. Like, you know, even Tyson Barry doesn't play that much. All of the defense to forward, you know, kind of direction is working better. And Brunette has been great in that. The only thing that I think is disappointing is like the power play still hasn't really come along. And I don't even think Brunette has any answers for that. I mean, I know they work on it. It's like it's something that's constantly in their focus but they're basically a middle of the pack, below average power play. And I think that's kind of frustrating for a team with good shooting skill. But, you know, I think everyone would want to have a better power play. But he was supposed to be kind of that guy 'cause that was what he did in New Jersey. You know, he doesn't have Jack Hughes. So I guess that's partly part of it. But that's about the only part of the game that hasn't come along. Everything else, he's really, really figured it out. If there's a lot of momentum coming from the team from the head coach, Andrew Brunette. - Ryan O'Reilly came over as a free agent and maybe surprised by not taking the biggest contract but a contract that's obviously very fair. And people have mentioned, you know, he's 33 years old. The impact in Toronto was okay, but not great. He's not the same player he was before. To you, is he certain look more like the guy who won the sell key back in 2019? - I mean, honestly, if you could give any kind of award to Ryan O'Reilly, I would give it. I mean, I've never seen a player just completely transformed the way a large part of the locker room works. You know, I've talked about this before and this has no disrespect to any previous forwards on the team, but it's tough a lot when Barry Trotts came into the room late last season, looked around and said, "I need to make some changes." And then he sends Ryan Johansson away. He sends Matthew Shane away. And then he goes and gets Ryan O'Reilly. And you've seen this turnaround. And I just, I cannot help but notice that the work ethic in the room has gone up. The Ryan O'Reilly is, I mean, he has never missed a practice. He is at every practice, optional or not. He's the first on, last off. He is that, that epitome of that kind of player. And yeah, he's great defensively, but he's got 25 goals this year. He's unlocked Phillip Forsberg in another way, I think. I think Forsberg would definitely agree that O'Reilly has been a huge step in the right direction for him. I think O'Reilly has been, I mean, I don't know, I haven't looked at all the numbers or anything. I don't know if it matches up this way, but has to be one of the best free-agent acquisitions in the league. I mean, there's probably several to choose from, and I'm probably forgetting a big one, but Ryan O'Reilly has got to be one of the best ones. I mean, he's just been that much of a difference maker. - It's probably between O'Reilly and Matt Duchane in Dallas. - Yeah, probably, probably. - Those are the two ones that immediately come to mind outside of Vancouver, where there's, Carson Susie is one over a lot of people here in Vancouver, but maybe at a smaller level than Matt Duchane. And Ryan O'Reilly. Hey, Alex, I really appreciate this, and it could be an interesting matchup if the president can ox me in the first round. Thanks for this today. - Yeah, definitely. I need, if they do make it, I got to get some recommendations for coming up there, because I've never been to Vancouver. I need to know where the out-of-town sports riders hang out, so make sure to send me that. - Oh, we'll have you covered on it. You'll like Vancouver in the spring. - You'll have plenty of spots to go to. Don't worry about that. Barbecue and Nashville, Sushi and Vancouver, you're good to go. - Okay, all right, great. Sounds good. Thank you very much. - There's Alex Daugherty, Daugherty, Predsbeat Reporter at the Tennessean, joining us here on Canucks Central. This text came in, 650, 650, in the Del Marlumber text message inbox. If we see Nashville in the first round, we better have where the streets have no name come back and throw it way back to elevation as our goal song. - All right, all right, all right, all right. I mean, you know, going back a little bit. - Yes, elevation was the goal song? - That was for a while, it was for a while. - But do you mess with the goal song right now? I know not everybody loves it. - It's got a vibe this year, does it not? - Where do you stand on where the streets have no name though, for the intro? - Oh, it has to be the intro. That has to be the club, you know? - It has to, no, just bring in a new era. - No, no, no, you gotta bring it in. No, no, you gotta bring it in. - It doesn't have to be the way that it used to be. - No, it does. - It can be something new and create new memories. - No, you could. - I think the first thing though is like, you gotta build traditions. - Yes. - And this team, yeah, they haven't won before, but like part of having a successful sports franchise is having traditions. And this is a tradition. - I'll take that. You know what, I like your argument. I'm not always for tradition, but just knowing what it sounds like and the streets have no name, what kind of memories it invokes, 100%. It has to be streets have no name. Ultimately, it invokes a bad memory of how it all finished. - But that's like for most teams. - Yes. Except most teams do have at least one cup to their name. - Very well, you know. Maybe this is the year, or one of these years. - The Canucks thing is kind of to not have tradition though. Like they're always changing their jerseys, they're always like. - The goal sawing is honestly like. - You know, changing jersey colors even and themes and all this stuff. - I don't know how to describe it, and maybe it is nostalgia, but there's just something special about the streets have no name, post-season, the towel is waving. You know, it just does, it just feels like, it just feels like playoffs in Vancouver. - Well, that's 'cause you relayed it to 2011. - No, even before that. - Yeah. - Like even like, 'cause the West Coast Express. - That's true. - And everything, you know, so it goes back a long time. And I'm not the biggest YouTube guy either. - Yeah. Well, I still think you should bring in a new era with a new song. What song that is, I don't know. - I don't agree with Randy being like, "Yeah, mob deep." Like, nah, one of the shook ones. (laughing) Randy, I know that's his file, but I don't know about that. All right, I would just pick a Pearl Dam song. So I'm really the wrong person to ask about this. - Yeah, and it's not the goal song we're talking about. We're talking about like the intro. - Yes. - Like the goal song itself I think is fine. Don't worry about that, but the intro to the start of the game. - I would have to vote no for any song that starts out. I wanna run, I wanna hide. (laughing) - That's a great point by the textor. That's the opposite of Rick Tock at hockey. - Yeah, when you're vibing. - Yeah, exactly. You're just playing the track, that's it. (laughing) - Some good thoughts there from Alex Hardy on the Nashville Predators, hottest team in the league. You know, for as much as they're doing a lot of things well, again, the Canucks underlines stronger than some of what the Predators have been able to put together during the 17, 2, and 2 run. And for all of those that wanted to write off the Canucks early in the season because of their astronomically high PDO, well, the Predators best PDO in the league since the all-star break. It's almost like a hot streak, an extended hot streak and a high PDO go hand in hand. - It kind of works, doesn't it? - Isn't that funny how these things work? But yeah, it's really interesting. I find that the narratives around all this stuff in general has been very amusing to me. 'Cause when you watched the Canucks earlier this season, yes, they were writing a lot of percentages. But when we talked about how they play the game, I was like, well, if you look at fundamentally how they play and if you look at how a lot of these early games are blowouts, they'd be, we're out to like three, four, five gold these right away. - Oh, they'd score a bunch in the first and then it was just like cruising for the rest of the game. - Yeah, and there's so many games that are impacted by score effects when it comes to these, you know, the public data and everything. But you go back and re-watch the games again, like fundamentally, they're doing a lot of things right. And if they hone in on this and get better at it, everything's going to follow 'cause they're going to be out-chancing the opposition. And when you out-chance the opposition consistently, it means good things for your underlying numbers. And all that stuff's really come around. Like the Canucks right now are top 10 team across the board on a lot of really important metrics and even higher on the most important one, that's being defensively solid. - It's funny how for all those that we're trying to downplay the Canucks for their underlying metrics early in the season, where are they now when the Canucks are not running as hot, but their underlying metrics show they're a top five team in the league. The way they're playing. I don't know how that computes necessarily, but that's the way it goes. I shouldn't think it should be any other way. - No, but I also think when you break some of that stuff down to, it is also dependent on how the games are going. - Yes. - And the Canucks have trailed a bit more, they've been a bit closer, so that also game situations impact a lot of what you see in terms of the numbers. - The Vancouver Canucks take on the Dallas Stars tonight. As far as Nashville goes, we've talked about how they could line up as an opponent and look, Canucks would be favorite in a series against the Nashville Predators. Would they be favorite in a series against the Vegas Golden Knights? I'm not sure because of the Vegas sort of narrative around Vegas, maybe if I would have to know if they have Thomas Hurdle back and Mark Stone back for the start of that series. But Canucks in theory should be the favorite over any team they play in the first round because they're a top seed going up against a lower seed. - They're probably the slight favorites against Vegas. And the slight favorite is gonna be based on the fact that they're seasoned and the fact they have home ice advantage. - I just wonder from a play style perspective, who does Vancouver match up better with? Is it Vegas or is it Nashville? And I know that the Canucks recently handled Vegas pretty well and it was the first games for Anthony Mather and Noah Hanifen and Vegas still missing some top players in that game obviously, but didn't look all that great. - When Vegas is going and they have everybody going and they play that heavy game style, it's been very hard for the Canucks to play through that. And that's ultimately what would be difficult, more difficult against Vegas than almost anything else. Even if they don't get that talent back, Vegas is one of the biggest teams in the league and they really lean on that when they're in the playoffs. - So I think matchup wise is a different discussion from a team that's hot and I think that's the concern with Nashville, right? They're a hot team, feeling super confident. One of the postings that comes around, does that mean they're greater than some of their parts? And they very well might be, especially early on with how they're playing, but they're clearly not as strong throughout their roster as Vegases. Even with the injuries Vegas has and the dip and form that they have, go through the roster for Nashville, they're a tough team again, I'm not taking them lightly by any stretch of the imagination. But I think the Canucks match up better against Nashville, certainly a lot better against Nashville than Vegas, especially if Vegas is healthy. Now I have concerns, even if hurdle's ready, he's gonna come in for the postseason on a new team and all of a sudden play at what 90% of his capabilities even, I'm not sold. Where's Mark Stone gonna be at? I'm still unconvinced that Vegas is gonna put it together, but I think pure matchup wise, I still think the Canucks match up better against Nashville. - We'll keep the conversation going, get more into the game plan against the Dallas Stars as well. Pregame starts at six, but up next, Kirk McLean, Canucks alumni will join us here on Sportshead 650.
