(upbeat music) - Canuck Central Thursday. It's Dan Reicho and Satyar Shah here in the Kid Tech Studio. Canuck Central is for Enzyme Pacific Vancouver's premier, Chrysler, Dodge Ram and Jeep Superstore. On 2nd Avenue between Cambion and Maine or at EnzymePacificCrisler.ca. It is a game day. Canucks and the Dallas Stars. First place in the Western Conference is up for grabs between these two clubs as the Dallas Stars visit Rogers Arena for the second time this season. The previous meeting won nothing victory for the Vancouver Canucks. - Very low event hockey game. - Yes, low event Canucks. They aren't quite the LA Kings, but they do play low event hockey these days. - LA plays no event hockey. - Yes. - I love the quote from Nikita Zadorov. I've referenced it way too many times on the show already, but he and McIntyre talking to Nikita Zadorov. They don't play hockey and they make you not the one to play hockey. - Yes, exactly. - I paraphrase a little bit with Zadorov. - Well, and then Endoudi was asked about it today or yesterday and he would mention how, he wasn't really into it initially, but he sees the results and he loves that people hate it and everything. - Oh man, that Doudy quote. We might get into it a little bit later on in the show. - Okay. - But, let's get to the open. (dramatic music) - Welcome to the open. - Oh, that's your home. Are you too good for your home? Answer me. - The open where we bring you the latest on the Vancouver Canucks and our takes on it. And so I've been thinking a lot, sat about this whole situation with the Vancouver Canucks and where and how they're trending going into the postseason. It's, you know, while you were away earlier this week, I took a little bit of flack from listeners as I was saying, you know, I'm worried about the Canucks offense. They're not generating enough right now. They've lost Lynnholm. So there's, even with Lynnholm struggling, you know, you'd still look at it and say, hey, there's an extra layer of offense there that we just haven't seen yet because the track record of his career shows that there's quite a bit of offense. And yeah, you weren't getting much out of Andrei Kuzmenko, but you could also theoretically say that you're now down to top six forward since you made the Lynnholm trade because he's out of the lineup and you traded Kuzmenko to make the money work on the Lynnholm trade as well. So I'm feeling the lack of offense on this team. And we talked to Kevin Woodley yesterday and he said they're a bottom five team in their chance generation right now since the all-star break since they got a lie, it's Lynnholm. But the other thing that he said, which might be more important and that's what I wanted to bait today, is that team defense, they were and have been leveling up on the defensive side of the puck as we've outlined. Their shot suppression amongst the best in the league, actually the best in the league since the all-star break. And by the advanced analytics, they are now second in total team defense according to what Kevin Woodley was mentioning with us yesterday in the entire National Hockey League. And those numbers that Kevin Woodley references tend to lead to some level of playoff success. Is it ultimate success? Not always, but it leads you to be a very tough out in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So I've reached the point where I'm ready to debate what is more important to the playoff success the way the Canucks have trended defensively or the way they've trended offensively. And by importance, the offense with the way it's trended could lead to their play-optimize or the defense with the way that it's trended in a positive way could lead to their playoff success. Which one of those two things is more important to the Canucks playoff chances? - I'm gonna say defense. - Defense with championships. - And I don't think anyone would be surprised given how much I've been talking. We've been talking about defense and how important it is. And the thing that's encouraging to me more than anything else, and you're right, they haven't generated enough offense. And that is the last little bit, one of the questions about this team that in the power play, can they generate enough on the man advantage and five on five in the post season to be able to make a deep run? We feel good about their defense, it's about the offense. When you look at this last stretch though, when they've played their best defense, they're still out-chancing their opponent. So it's not like we're seeing this team go out there and limit scoring chances, only give up four scoring chances, but only create two. They're still out-chancing teams. They're very low event games. It's not like they're generating a bevy of chances, but they're generating more than their opponent, which should mean they should win most of their games and they've done that. So I do agree it is a bit of a concern, but overall with how they play in their overall team game and their differentials, they're still doing more than their opponent's doing. And if you're keeping the opponent to so few chances as they have, well, that puts less pressure in your offense to create a ton of scoring chances. And as much as you want to see them do more, they're still doing more than their opponent pretty consistently. The defense, and this is why defense matters so much. The defense allows the Canucks to keep things close, keep it a one-shot game, if you will. That's what the LA Kings have mastered with their 131, but they choose in most cases not to press even, right? They're just like, we're gonna rim the puck around, we're gonna get back into our defensive posture, and that's just gonna be the way that we play hockey until we frustrate the other team into making some small mistake and we're going to pounce on it and hopefully we'll score on that goal. And it's worked for them. Hey, it got them back into the playoff picture, solidified their playoff spot, and now they've got a chance to even finish top three and the division maybe set up another round one opponent or round one matchup with the Edmonton Oilers. But the Canucks aren't really that, they do generate more, they do try to be aggressive in certain moments and create rush chances. Not a ton of them, but when they do, they are pretty good at converting those rush chances. So it's a delicate balance with this team right now. I know defensively, I love what I see, offensively, not as much, but the defense side of it gives them a chance essentially in every game. Even when they don't have it, they still got a chance. Like how many times have the Canucks really been blown out of the water this year? It's really very few and far between. Even their recent losses, okay, the Kings game 5-1. Again, that was a pretty close game, got away from them in the third period. There aren't too many of those types of games for this team. The Flyers game 4-1 and the Boston game 4-1. We're talking about December though. That's it, or the Bruins game 4-0, which was after the All-Star break, right? That was February 24th. Yeah. So just a couple of weeks after the All-Star. Yeah, so that's maybe the worst one they've had. No, sorry, February 24th was the win. It was February 8th. No, so you're right. Ever since the All-Star break, that Boston game was right after the break, like two days after. There's that game, other losses that they've had. It's the Penguins game where they let them come back in the third period. The Wild game, let them come back in the third period. That one was just total chaos really. I don't know how much we really take away from that one in the end. But my point here is they're close in every game. And they're close in every game because of the way they play defense. Even some of their other wins. Like, okay, they didn't look great against the Chicago Blackhawks, but never really had to kick it into a high gear. And they just trusted that they would find a way to score eventually. The thing about this style of hockey, though, it very much depends on your ability to take advantage of your chances. And right now, Canucks aren't doing that in a way that they used to. And two, it depends on your power play clicking at a high rate. And that, while it's looked better of late, is still something that should be a concern going into the playoffs. 'Cause you do, at the end of the day, still need to score more than the opponent in order to win games. - Yeah, and the power play has shown some life, has shown some stuff. But I do think, the one thing people have to realize is the Canucks have flaws, and their flaws are gonna have to overcome. But that's also not too dissimilar for most teams, if not every team in the Western Conference, to some extent, they have some flaws that they have to overcome. The Canucks one flaw is they're kind of short an offensive player right now. - Yeah. - Is Lindholm ever going to figure it out? In terms of his offensive output, first of all, he has to get healthy, and the coach keeps saying day to day, but none of us really know when he's truly going to come back and what it's gonna look like when he truly comes back, right? So that's a big question mark. And if you look at the power play, as long as you're trying to put a guy like Pew Souter on the first unit, or even Ilya McKay at the times, or even Conor Garland, or even Neil's Hoglander, they're not power play one players. The coach outlined today why Hoglander is not on the first unit power play. So they're short one guy. So the power play's gonna have to overcome that one way or another. And offensively, they're kind of short of forward, and that's just gonna be something they're gonna have to overcome. So to me, me trying to expect them to all of a sudden and become this high powered offensive generating team, I just don't think that's in the cards. But as we discussed yesterday, and we talked about, you've been talking about this the last little while too, when you have the four centers healthy, and Lindholm's playing center, the one thing you do is dictate the game. And if you can dictate the game where the type of stars the Canucks have, the robust defense that they have, the goal-tending that they have, that's still a recipe for success. And teams have gone very far in the playoffs, relying on that type of playing style. So we consider it and bemoan what the Canucks aren't and don't have, but it is what it is. It's what you have to overcome with. And honestly, as dicey as it can be sometimes, when you're playing two-one games, and as boring as it can be at times, this is really the best way the Canucks have to, like this is the way they have to play if they're gonna have success in the playoffs. - They don't have a high enough octane offense in order to play too much of a different style. - Yes, but they also have shown that they have the ability to go supernova playing this style when their top players have great games. - And they turn defense and offense pretty quick. - Yeah, and that's when they're at their best. So I think in a playoff series, for instance, I can see them being the type of team. This is to me the optimistic view point of if everything comes together for them in the playoffs. You win the first game, maybe two-one, maybe you win the next game three-two or something, right? And then the other team comes after you a little bit. Then you take advantage of some opportunities. Next thing you know, maybe you win three or four, five-one or five-two or six-two. And I can see this team being that type of team where they hold on to their posture. But as soon as the other team gets a little bit, yeah, out of, gets a bit desperate or starts going for home run plays a little bit. - Tries to push. - Then that's where this Canucks team and their top level players can take advantage. And that's kind of what they did at the beginning of the season. How many times you just see Pedersen, Miller, on odd man opportunities or driving themselves. And those are the types of chances that right now the Canucks aren't getting 'cause teams are very careful with how they play the Canucks. - The two stretches that come to mind where we've seen the best version of the Vancouver Canucks was just before the All-Star break when they made that New York trip and they swept through New York Rangers, Islanders and the New Jersey Devils and looked pretty comfortable doing it. First time in franchise history, they've swept that road trip. Yeah, it was the laudable line that was leading the way for large parts of that. But, you know, they also had a one-nothing win over the Savers and Sam Lafferty was the only one that scored in what was difficult circumstances due to weather causing all kinds of crazy issues for the Canucks getting and playing in that game. They blew that game against the Jackets, but considering their situation, it was, you know, not as bad, but the peak of that stretch, you're like, wow, okay, these Canucks look great. You think of that Rangers game where you've got Hoaglander and Pedersen dangling around one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference and you're pretty impressed, right? And the other stretch is this most recent one where they started with the Ducks, then they beat the Kings, they really were comfortable against the Vegas Golden Knights in Vegas and then beat the living snot out of the Winnipeg Jets here at home, five-nothing. Like to me, that's where, that's the best version of the Vancouver Canucks we've seen at any point this season. And that recent stretch where they beat the Jets, closing with the Jets win a five-nothing and then, you know, started off pretty well against Colorado before it fell apart. That was with Lindholm in the lineup. And I think that's, even if Lindholm's offense doesn't show up, he gives this team, I've come around to the idea, and maybe you were on this from the beginning set, and I should've listened to you as normal. But sometimes, when Lindholm is there, even without the offense, he just, he provides another layer of depth through this Canucks lineup that makes them extremely difficult for opposing teams to break down and allows them to create and carry play more often. - And it's not a sexy, of course, right? And when you give up what the Canucks gave up, the expectation was for there to be offensive output. But that doesn't mean the team hasn't really, all of a sudden, truly, when Lindholm is healthy, their spine is so strong. And that's the thing you look at, like when you look at championship teams usually, they're strong down to spine. Unless you have these generational wingers that are just next level or something, right? But you need to have four centers that can truly play, and you need to have robust defense. It connects to the massive defense. - Yeah. - And they've played really well as a unit this year, and then not to mention the goal team that you have. So when you have that type of spine, and Lindholm, like Lindholm playing as a third line center, to me is, that's a luxury to have, even when he's not good offensively. - Yeah. - Again, there's a different conversation about how much you want to pay for that. - I just think you have to recalibrate. - You thought you were getting one thing, you're not getting all of that thing, but you're still getting some of it. - You're getting something that still helps you. - Yes. - And you're still want some more offensively, but I do think the spine that connects all of a sudden have, when Lindholm hopefully is healthy again, is an advantage that could be very, very big in the postseason. - A long way of saying we're, I guess, on board with the team defense being, what could give the Canucks a chance in the playoffs. That's not to say that the offense isn't a concern, but I guess my question is with the offense, how much of it is talent, and how much of it is play style execution. When the coach was asked about it today, Rick Tockett said this about the team's offense and how concerned is he about them being a bottom third offensive team since the all-star break. - Sure. No, I think it's a little bit more of, for me is getting side a little bit more. I felt this month we have not been inside enough, like we did at the beginning here. Yeah, and we got some, a lot of fortunate bounces at the beginning of the year, a lot of tip stuff, things off skates, but we're not getting those right now, and I think that's because we're not playing inside. We need more guys to play inside. That's really what it comes down to, you know, there's, you got to beat your man to the net, be ready, present your stick, get inside, instead of kind of taking the long way around. And I think we're getting, it's a habit, we got it. We have to stop because it's getting crunched on. - There is Rick Talkett. It's a habit that they're not getting to the inside. So he is very much of, and look, I'm sure Rick Talkett, if you got him away from a camera and we're gonna ask him face-to-face, if he thinks he could use another top-end forward to add to his group, I'm sure he'd probably tell you, "Yeah, it would be a nice to have." But he's still got to find ways to make it work without that. And for him, what was one of the first things that he said, "Wall guys and inside guys." A couple of weeks ago, he brought up, you know, we could use a few more wall players, you know, or at least get guys to give us five to 10% more on the wall. - Basically, we have a lot of guys who aren't natural wall guys. - Yeah. - And here today, he's saying, we need guys to get more to the inside. He's saying, "I need more inside guys right now "on this team." Guys that are willing to go as he would saying, ad nauseum the other night against the LA Kings. Guys that are willing to get to the blue paint. - You saw a Lafferty do it with, you know, in spectacular fashion against the Kings, right? But that's kind of an incredible goal. But that's also been very few and far between from a Lafferty considering the hot start he had. Hopefully that continues to go, but he kind of got away from that. There's a reason he's had like four or five healthy scratches this season. - Yeah. - You know, like he hasn't been doing those types of things consistently enough. I think Mikaya, the time has shown, have shown, has shown it, but then it kind of comes and goes. And we're still kind of waiting for him to truly, you know, give a consistent long run of doing those sort of things. And for guys like Garland and Hoaglander, I think they do their best to get there, but they also have some limitations. And I think Pugh Souter, that's the guy too, that these aren't the biggest guys. And that's a consistency issue too, over the course of an 82 game season. When you're not the biggest guys, it's hard for you to consistently go to those areas and live in those areas all the time. And that's why you, you know, the coach also kind of mentioned about Souter, yes, he lived in homes injured, but the reason we're moving him down, 'cause they have Oman still they can play center if they really wanted to. In the Lafferty can play center. That felt like his game isn't strong enough right now to play up the lineup. So I think those are the kind of guys you can see who the coach is alluding to here. And I'd say even a player like Brock Besser. - Yeah. - He's been fantastic this season. And when he's had his chances, he's been on the inside a lot of it, how many tips he's been in front of the net and the backdoor play, he's in the right spot. But it's kind of been touch and go at times. And there's a reason why he's cooled off, not just because he was on such a hard, hot run. I don't think it's consistently. He's in the scoring areas as much as he was earlier this season. - Yeah, we haven't seen him. I mean, not the goal the other night, but his prior goal was tipping right at the edge of the blue paint. So there are moments where he does get to those spots, but hasn't been as often lately. Conoc Central Roundup, maybe Dakota Joshua helps them get more to the inside. He is back in the lineup tonight and playing in a big spot on the first line next to JT Miller and Brock Besser. He is probably one of their better wall guys and with the way that he was going before the injury, a guy that gets to the inside as well. So that's Dakota Joshua adding a layer to the offense. - For sure. And it looks like based on practice, we'll see him line up with Miller and Besser. So we'll see if that kind of goes. One thing that we're all kind of intrigued and wonder about, can they rekindle that magic if Joshua plays with Blueger and Garland? That means you're moving Garland off Patterson. They've had some success recently. But that trio, the way they played, all three guys got to the middle of the ice. - Yeah. - And Dakota Joshua kind of lives in those areas. And the biggest thing with Joshua has been, is he in good enough shape and is he working hard enough? When he does those things, like he's been very effective this season. - R.C. Baines expected to be in the lineup tonight as well as confirmed by the coach, Phil D. Giuseppe and Nils Oman coming out. - It was funny, he just mentioned. The first thing he mentioned about him was, if he has two-on-ones, shoot the puck. Shoot it. That's funny, that was the first thing he kind of brought up. It's like, and he's like, well, he's not saying if the guy's not wide open, don't pass it to him, but you kind of have to shoot the puck when you have chances there on two-on-one. - That would be a way to get your first goal. You know, both Baines and Podkols and both have been given looks, neither has, well, both have looked good in spurts, but both yet to be on the score sheet with a goal in the games they've played. First place in the West, up for grabs tonight against the Dallas Stars. - It's certainly a better to have the knot first place in the West, I would say. - Yeah, I would say, so I mean, to me, I look at how they play this entire season. You can't control who your opponent is if you finish first. - Yeah. - You've done your part. - Yep. - And it just comes out to who you play. And I don't believe in the, don't finish first, 'cause you want a better opponent. Like to me, that's just not, it's a loser mentality. Go out there, if you finish first, great, if not. Okay, well then, maybe it's not the end of the world if you end up facing the first wild card team instead of the second one, depending on, you know, your taste of opponent that you prefer in the first round or whatever. But yeah, I wanna see this team finish first in the West. - Canucks have three different scenarios that could play out for them. Clinching, one if they win, and another if they lose an overtime or a shootout, and another if they lose in regulation. Already, this is something we know is going to happen. So don't worry too much about whether or not they're getting the X, next to their name and the standings. And one other thing of note, Arthur Shilov's expected to get the start on Sunday against the Anaheim Ducks, which was somewhat expected after Casey Dismuth has played every game since Thatcher-Demko went down. - Yeah, and you never know what Demko, right? The hope is he's going to be fine. And like, you know, Woodley also kind of mentioned, you know, everything we kind of hear, and even the coach himself, when they put him an LTIR, it's just procedural, you know, for roster management reasons. Everyone's optimistic about it. I know Friedman also mentioned today that he's heard, you know, nothing to be concerned about. But until he comes back and plays, and hopefully doesn't re-aggregate whatever he went through, you don't know. - Yeah. - And I think it's important for Shilov's to get a couple of starts here before the end of the season, 'cause you never know if you have to rely on him at some point or not in the postseason. - Ellie Friedman mentioned today on the Jeff Merrick show that the timeline he's heard for Demko is 10 days to two weeks. So that would give him sort of a timeline of returning in and around the game on April 8th against the Vegas Golden Knights or the Arizona Coyotes on April the 10th. And at that point, there's five games remaining in the season for the Vancouver Canucks. So he'll at least get a couple of games, even if it's a little bit later than that two week timeline that Elliot Friedman mentioned earlier today. So good news on the Thatcher Demko front as far as Elias Lindhome goes. He's not playing tonight, obviously, and coach still very much day-to-day. And they're monitoring it day-to-day, gets better a little bit every day. - It's one of those things where you ask people about it, nobody really knows exactly. I know Dollywood today also mentioned that, there's some suggestion maybe this is going to take time, like nobody really knows about it. But I do think it's one of those things where if it takes time, it takes time. But at some point, I think Lindhome is probably going to just be like, I'm going to get out there and play. Is that before the postseason? Is it when the postseason begins? I would still anticipate that he plays. - Yeah. - Once the postseason begins, the question just is, is he going to get in before that? - I guess it would depend on whatever it is the injury is and how well it's healing in the lead-up to that time. 'Cause I'm pretty sure Lindhome would honestly want to play before the playoffs begin. - I think he would love to. - Yeah. - You know, it's him having a big postseason matters. - Yes, for him, especially. - You know, more so, like not just wanting to, you know, be on a team that wins, but also his free agency this summer, especially when there's thoughts that Calgary had offered him somewhere in the range of $70 million while the summer. - Yeah, and one of the things too, and you know, I mentioned this while, you know, when the injury stuff initially happened, that it may not be something that if he just misses one game, that's it. Now you're kind of seeing it that way. It's like it's more about if he's going to need time off, when are you going to give him the time off? Is it now, do you wait until you get closer? But it looks like it's one of those things where he needs a little bit of rest for it to get better. The question is, is it a week, two weeks, three weeks forward? Like, that's the thing we don't know. - The thing about it, they've had a lot of success in the regular season, essentially with this lineup, or close to this lineup. So they can survive without Lindhome. We know that, but you'd like to get them back for that extra layer that we talked about earlier in the segment. - Yeah, exactly, and as you also kind of mentioned, even if he comes back and he's not scoring offensively, you know the overall presence he can bring, and he still improves your team, so hopefully he's back in the lineup pretty soon. - Lot's still to get to, including your texts on the Dunbar Lumber text message, Inbox, Raymond saying, "10/7 round for sat, damn reach." - We were fighting? - I guess so. - We were sparring? - Sat always wins. - I'm not, okay. - Unless it's like Carter Garland. (laughing) - Yes, the Connor Garland one, I took that one home. It was a nice win. - That was a really good win, a strong win. (laughing) I got honed on that one pretty strong. - Yeah. (laughing) - It's dad, Rachel, Sat, T.R. Shaw, Canucks Central.
