[MUSIC PLAYING] We're back in on Knuck Central. We are for enzyme-specific Vancouver's premier Chrysler, Dodge Ram, and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Cambion, Maine, or at enzyme-Pacific-Chrysler.ca. Knuck's playoff coverage brought to you by Sky Avenue Kitchen and Lounge. Discover Surrey's newest luxury dining experience. Experience the richness of Canadian cuisine prepared by Michelin-recommended chef. Reserve your table today at sky avenue.com. Now joining us, a former NHL goaltender Knuck's longtime color analyst. And also a Michelin-recommended chef, it is John Garrett. What's happening, Cheech? I like that, I like that, Michelin-recommended chef. You don't want a Blue Jay fan, I am. And so on Tuesday now, because it's loony dog Tuesdays all the time for the chase, I always have hot dogs for Tuesday. But they are the Michelin chef. What's going on the hot dog? Catch up for sure, is it just catch up, or is there multiple things? Catch up mustard, mayonnaise, and naturally cheese. OK. Oh, yeah, of course. Always has to be cheese. Yeah, nothing healthy. No sour crowd or anything like that that might be construed as healthy. It's John Garrett joining us, the legendary John Garrett. So Knuck's through two games of this series with the Nashville Predators. It's a split of the two. What have you thought of the series so far? Oh, it's been really close. I thought the first game, the Knuck's were very tentative. And Thatcher made that save in the first two and a half minutes of the game, and I think it calmed the team down, gave them some confidence so that they felt they could come back even in the third period. And Thatcher kept it close enough so that they could. The second game, I thought the Knuck's were by far the better team, but their power play has to get better. They really missed Tyler Myers in that second game, too. I don't know how people could speculate that he was a healthy scratch. I was reading on Twitter that when he wasn't playing, that people thought, well, OK, Rick, there's no way. Because in Game 1, he and Nikita Zadora were very effective. And you look at Zadora's Game 1 and then compared to his Game 2, and you could see the difference, not having Tyler Myers out there with him. But you have to get shots through. You can have 33 shots blocked and then 33 missed. And people say, well, OK, you miss on purpose. But you change the angles, too. You don't just pound away. And especially on the power play, teams at this time of year are so scouted and so prepared that you throw it over and you tee it up for that one time power play shot, and it gets blocked. And the Predators give them great credit. And Rick Talk is talking about it today. Their will to defend was higher than the Canucks will to score. And I think, sure, the Canucks wanted to score, but they didn't go about it very intelligently. I thought that they were just pounding away and OK. We got to go. We got to get one. We got to go. And instead of hanging on a little bit and make that a little extra play, change the angle and get the shot through. And I think that's something that they're going to have to do in Game 3. Well, one thing Talk had mentioned today from Nashville was if those guys are going to get in the way, then bomb away. You know, they've been throwing a lot of kind of snapshots that are trying to get through stuff that's not super hard. They're not felling guys. And Talk its message was if they're going to get in the way, then make it hurt more. I thought they bombed away enough. You're not going to shoot it through guys now. And the equipment is so much better. OK, you're going to hurt the guy if you hit him in the ankles or in the arms or something. But I don't know about the bombing away strategy. It is-- we heard Talk had talked a lot about how Nashville is fronting them in the defensive zone and taking away some of the high tips and the things that the Canucks did during the course this year. It just feels like creating more angles, maybe moving the puck faster in the offensive zone. Like, that's the key here for the Canucks, isn't it? I think so. And you have to beat guys one-on-one. If you get fronted in the corner and you look at Phillip Forsberg's goal, it's OK. He was kind of trapped in the corner, and then he gets no one, Josephson, to spin the wrong way. And he makes a good move out front. And I think that's-- the Canucks have been not as creative as they were. If you look at game one, and I thought Lidholm had a great game, and he wasn't as effective in game two, but teams adjust in, so the Canucks have to adjust for game three. And the player that's been-- he criticized the most so far through the playoffs. And even towards the end of the season, has been the guys signing the big contract extension in Elias Patterson. What are you seeing in his game? Do you think he's close, or do you think his struggles might continue for a while here still? Well, I really think that his confidence is kind of fragile right now, and shots that should go in don't form, that one that he hit the side of the net. And it's just execution. And you say, well, it should come naturally to him, and it has come naturally to him. But when that happens, you can't let it get to you. And then the next time you're looking skyward again, and instead of feeling like you're going to score, he feels like he's going to either get the shot blocked, or missed. And then he tries to do a little too much instead of shooting himself. And he should be the shooter. He is a great playmaker. There's no doubt about that. But throwing aerial passes. And when you have a chance to shoot, and you have a chance to get the shot through, take the shot. And I think that's one of the things right now, Elias is hesitating. And he's thinking, well, OK, they're on me. And I'm going to have to make a play instead of just, well, OK, beat somebody yourself, and then take the shot. It feels a little bit similar to when he signed his second contract. And he missed all the training camp. And then he shows up for the last game. And I think a preseason gets off to a horrible start. Really slow start to that season. It was a conversation we had for months after he had signed that second contract. It's just the confidence getting him again. But the thing-- Well, and didn't you have an injury there, too? Wasn't there a wrist or something that he came back? Yeah, he did have an injury. Yeah, there was-- I don't think there's an injury. And the system's goal, to me, is an example of-- he's frustrated. He's drawn a couple of penalties. But he's trying to draw more. And it's the playoffs. The referees aren't going to call the same as they do in the regular season. He got knocked down at the blue line on the system's goal. And he was hoping for a call, I think he was. And then he has to get up, scramble coming back. And he doesn't get the stick. And I think he might have ended up putting the puck in the net himself. And it was one of those that-- had he just stayed on his feet at the blue line, then he would add position on systems and the play wouldn't happen. But it's a confidence thing, and you can tell. And after the game, saying that he blames himself, the first goal, which I didn't like Casey to Smith on it. But it started with Quinn falling down in the one corner, going around the boards. And then Aliyah spinning away from just going to the boards and freezing the puck or throwing it back the other way, letting it go. And that started the chance, and then Casey overplayed it. But I didn't mind the way Casey played. I thought he was OK. And your team goes-- what, they're all for six in the series so far on the power play. And they had back-to-back power plays in the first period. And didn't really-- I don't think they had a shot on goal. And those first two power plays didn't get any through. And you've blamed the goalie for overplaying the first goal. And it wasn't a great goal, but you're supposed to win one nothing every night? No. Yeah, exactly. I do want to get to Casey to Smith in the whole goal-tending situation. But one last thing on Pedersen for me as well. His line mates, Nils Hoaglander, Sam Lafferty, Ilya McKayev, it's kind of a revolving door on the right side of Aliyah's Pedersen, and we've seen Rick Talkett sort of move him through the lineup as kind of a rover. They've put him with Miller and Besser at times, put him in this spot, put him in different spots, because you're not getting enough out of Hoaglander and McKayev to support Pedersen. And I think that's part of the conversation, too, here, with number 40. Well, I think it is, too. And you look at his ice time and people say, well, look at his ice time. He's still around 19, 20 minutes. But what was it last game? 6.30 was on the power play. And do you feel-- and this is me just watching the game-- that at times, especially game one, it looked like Aliyah's was the third line center. And if you consider yourself one of the star players, and you're relegated to that role, and you're never going to complain about who you're playing with, but all of a sudden you're a third line center. And I don't think that the star players really appreciate that. No, and I do think, to reach this point, as much as it is on Pedersen, they need to have guys that can forecheck well up front as well. And I think as much as they did that a lot better in game, too, there are certainly things they can still improve on. As far as how the defense has looked, too, what do you think of the way Quinn Hughes played in game two, and ultimately, how much better he can still be as well? Yeah, I think as the game went on, Quinn is such a competitor, and he takes such responsibility to be the leader on the team. And I think J.T. Miller was a little bit guilty of that in game two also. How many times did he try and go one on two, or one on three, on the rush, especially five on five? Instead of just continue to play your same game, and I think Quinn was pressing, especially in the second and third period of game two, just trying to do too much. And it affected his game. You're trying to be too many guys. And it's night after night, you're playing the same team. So Nashville is getting used to playing against Quinn. It's hard to cover him, but you see him play every other night. Then you adjust your defensive posture and make sure that he doesn't spin to the inside, and make sure that he doesn't have the given goals, where he's getting it back. But if I'm one of the Canucks, I'm trying to give it to Quinn every time I've got the puck. Yeah, the best players got to be your best players, right? It's the old cliche, and the Canucks could use a little bit more out of all their top guys moving forward in this series. So you mentioned Casey to Smith. The first goal, he even admitted it after the game. He just kind of overplayed it a little bit, and then he lost his edge when he was trying to cut back after the shot got tipped and just didn't work out for him. But a tough spot for a backup goalie to be in. I still think the Canucks can win this series with Casey to Smith. He's been pretty good all season long. I mean, he's not going to give you what Thatcher gave you, but the team showed that they can defend pretty well, no matter who's in goal. Well, and I really think that he probably was nervous. He hasn't played a whole lot of playoff games, but he's a veteran guy. He's been around. And so I think, especially now he's playing on the road, not quite as much pressure, I think he'll be fine. I don't think it's going to be the goal, Tenning. I think this team has lived and died. And look at their start of the season. And look at their streak when they were really hot. They were just-- any problems they had, they'd be able to score them. And that's what they're going to-- they're going to have to score some goals. And as you said, Brock Besser is going to have to get some goals, and JT Miller, and they're going to have to have their top players. And Elias, naturally. And get the power play going. You can't have teams defending and go four straight minutes like they did in the first period and not get a shot through. I know because they lost game, too. And there's so many other big storylines that we've kind of gone through all them so far. But I think one thing that's being lost a little bit is how effective the PK's been. They gave up that one goal, of course, early in game one. But since then, they've done a really good job. And it seemed like every PK got better and better after game one. And even last game against Nashville, they barely got set up in the office zone. Do you think that they've figured something out there on the PK in recent days here? Yeah, I think so. They've been really good on face-offs. And that's such a big part of penalty-killing is winning that initial draw. The Canucks have been really good on that. The only thing, and I think it flatters the penalty-killing a little bit, is you look at Nashville's last two power plays in the last game. And they had the 3-1 lead, and they were just killing the clock. It wasn't-- you get credit for the penalty-kill, but you watch the game sat down. And was there a whole lot of pressure from the PK power-- or from the Nashville power play? No. They were just, OK, we got five minutes left in this game. And we're going to eat up two minutes here. We'll throw it around the outside. We don't have to throw it to the middle. We don't have to make any passes to the middle. We'll just kill the time. And that's what it looked like to me. That was the predators were just OK. They were quite happy just to eat the clock. Yeah, and they were definitely playing Keep Away in that final power play at the end of the game. It's-- man, the crowd here in Vancouver's been unreal. I mean, you've experienced it as a goalie, playing in the playoffs for the Canucks. And it's-- I mean, seeing the return of the playoffs at Rodgers Arena, it was-- you can almost feel like a release of stress from Canucks fans over the past decade, Cheech, of just all the things that hadn't been going well, sort of appreciating that the team has finally gotten back to competitive hockey. Well, that's it. And expectations so high. They played really well all season long the last month and a half, but they still won the Pacific Division. So I mean, the expectations are high. The fans haven't had live playoffs, as you say, in a decade. And it is exciting. It was exciting. It'll be exciting for game five. I think the fans have deserved it. They've been loyal through all the ups and downs of the last, well, 10 years since the sedines. And 2011, they've been so loyal and so passionate about the Canucks that it would be nice if they go on a run. Now, Cheech, before I let you go, there was obviously some sad news in the world of hockey today. Legendary broadcaster Bob Cole passed away at the age of 90. I mean, I know we all grew up watching Bob and his call, of course. We'll always remember some incredible moments. What kind of went through your mind today when you heard the news? I was saddened, naturally. Cole and I worked together a number of times. And we did a few series together. We became very good friends. He was a real unique individual. And if you ever met him, you came away with the impression that his passion for the game was just unequal. I worked with 41 different play-by-play guys. And he's one of those play-by-play guys that you could turn away from the TV and just listen to his voice and know exactly what was happening. You'd know if there was a good scoring chance. You'd know if there was a big hit just from the inflection. And his voice and his cadence, and he was so good that way. And it's sad that Cole has passed away, but he had 90 good years. But he did what he loved for a large, large part of that. Cheech, we well said. And we always appreciate the time. And hopefully, we'll be talking again over the course of the playoffs. Well, I hope so, right? I hope we get-- yeah, in the next round. Thanks for this, Cheech. OK, Dr. Lehr. There he is. John Garrett. Yeah, always fun catching up with Cheech. And yeah, I mean, we all grew up watching here in Bob Cole, right, and we all have tons of memories. But I thought, great perspective by Cheech, right? Like, you got 90 years in. You got to do what you loved for a very long time. We should all be so lucky to live a long, rich life, the way Bob Cole did. And you know, that point he makes-- I mean, it's somebody who's dabbled in play-by-play. Definitely just dabbled. Dabbled. Well, he only dabbled. Well, you've done a lot of soccer play-by-play too. But that is-- I don't know if it's a learned skill or if it's just natural. I couldn't tell you if I have it. It would have to depend on how people feel the way that it sounds. But what Cheech just mentioned, you could turn away from what you're watching or be on the radio and not-- and it's at times going in one ear, out the other, whatever it might be. But-- and this is where, like, following the play and really understanding the ins and outs of the game, where you can see a goal developing while the puck is in the neutral zone. Or whatever it might be, like, you have that anticipation and the ability to naturally bring that to life. I mean, Bob Cole had that in spades. And he was definitely one of the best. Certainly the voice of hockey for a lot of years, one of his great quotes with Trevor Linden on the big-- the perfect goal from Trevor Linden. It's up there in the Jim Robson broadcast gondola with many other big quotes from Canucks history. So we remember Bob Cole today. And there's a lot of content at sports at .ca about this, some of his greatest calls of all time as well. It's Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah. You're listening to Canucks Central coming up. We're going to get into more of the series, because that's what's going on. Canucks and Nashville Predators game three is tomorrow. Adam Vingen is going to join us. Prez reporter, sports net contributor on this series. That's coming up next on SportsNet. Hey, it's Viknasar. Have your say and join me on The People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets. Weekdays, 3 to 4 on SportsNet 650. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Back in on Canucks Central. It's Stan Riccio and Satyar Shah on the eve of game three. 24 hours from now, game three will be ongoing nearing the end of the first period. Actually, as it is a 430 local time start for game three tomorrow for the Canucks and Prez. Yeah, and it won't be a super late post game, but we're going to have an extra hour of coverage on the post game. Plus a post game show. You just jinx it triple over time tomorrow. That's fine. That's fine. It's fine, because we have a post post game show coming up as well. Oh, OK. With Josh Elliott Wolf. And he can do if they go triple over time. Yeah, Josh, I'll just do the whole post game show. You can do it. All right, quickly. Before we get to our next guest, the goalhorn. Couple of games on the goal right now. The goalhorn brought to you by Rewind. Beer Co. Find their big West Coast IPA at a liquor store near you and celebrate big plays in a big way. Panthers with a 1-0 lead on the lightning. Matthew Kachuk, his second of the series. That's at the end of one period of play. And the hurricanes have just gotten a second as they lead it to nothing over the New York Islanders. Brent Burns, Demetri Orlov, the goal scorers, both the hurricanes and Panthers trying to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. All right, let's get to our next guest. He is Adam Vingen, Sportsnet contributor and one-time Predators reporter. Thanks for this, Adam. How are you? Good. How are you? We're doing pretty well. It's been an interesting couple of games, to say the least, the way that it's played out. Fairly low events. I guess if you're not considering the 84 shot attempts that the Canucks had in game two. But what have you made, at least, of how this series has played out through the first two games? It certainly has been an interesting series. I think from a Predators' perspective, perhaps they lost the game. They might have deserved to win and won the game. Perhaps they deserved to lose, especially considering, as you said, how many shot attempts the Canucks had and the discrepancy between the two teams in terms of shot attempts and zone time and all of the important indicators that typically lead to wins. The Predators held on for dear life in game two. But to their credit, they blocked a lot of shots. I believe they were officially credited with 30 blocked shots. It certainly helped that the Canucks missed upwards of 30 shots on that, and then the chances that UC Sorrows did have to stop. He was able to do so in bouncing back from a subpar game one. So in the postseason, we all know that no one remembers how you won the game. It's just that you won it. And the fact that the Predators were able to get one in Vancouver is a big deal. And the Predators are happy to be home, obviously. They missed the postseason last year for the first time since 2014. And the last time they were in the postseason, they were swept by the Avalanche. The series was a bloodbath, so to speak. So, Predators fans are hoping for a more entertaining, more reason to cheer at Bridgestone Arena tomorrow night. But, yeah, I mean, you gotta give it up for the Predators, how gutsy that win was. I think Andrew Burnett said they had to be committed to the pain is the way he described it in terms of all the block shots that they had to throw themselves in front of. But, you know, I think the Predators are pleased with where they are, you know, in the series coming back to Nashville. - Yeah, and I think one of the things that was different in game two, and you wrote a great piece about it on sportsnet.ca about J.T. Miller, who was an absolute force in game one, not quite the same level in game two. Did you just kind of, you mentioned things that Nashville might be looking to do to slow him down a little bit? How'd you think that went in game two? - Yeah, well, I mean, in terms of, you know, shot attempts and such, I think they were still heavily tilted in the Canucks favor in general. I'm not sure specifically about J.T. Miller, but to me, Miller has been the one player on the Canucks side that has popped off the ice in both games. You could always feel, and even when watching on television, you could always feel when he was on the ice 'cause something was happening. And I, as you said, in that game one, he was absolutely dominant. I know that Rick Tockett said that he wasn't trying to necessarily match up. Miller's line with the Predators, sports line just happened that way, but it wasn't advantageous match up for the Canucks. I wonder what the Predators decide to do with last change in games three and four, but, you know, Miller has been outstanding in the series overall. You know, on the opposite end, and I know that this is, I'm sure, a large topic of conversation with you, you know, Elias Pedersen has had a really rough goal of it, especially in game two. I mean, that chance that he had an on the power play with the wide open net that he hit off the side of the cage, if that goes in, it might be a completely different game. And I know that he also had to turn over that led to, I think, the third national goal. So that's something the Predators have to be wary of. I mean, you have to be wary of, you know, the likelihood of Elias Pedersen missing so many attempts over a long stretch of time is pretty slim considering his track record. But, yeah, I mean, I'd like to see, you know, I'd like to see what match ups the Predators try to take advantage of in games three and four just because I thought the Miller line specifically feasted on the fourth line in the first two games. - Yeah, you mentioned Pedersen at five on five in the series. Goals are 3-0 against for the Predators with Pedersen on the ice at five on five shots or 12-4 for the Predators at five on five and the high-danger scoring chances, seven-two in favor of the Predators with Elias Pedersen on the ice at five on five. I mean, it goes without saying in almost any playoff series, your best players have to be your best players. And, you know, Nashville has started to get that out of at least Philip Forsberg in game two. - Yeah, so now that was an important goal in the game and an important goal for Philip Forsberg who had an outstanding season set the franchise record in goals at 90 plus points. You know, you could not have asked for a better season, I think, from Philip Forsberg. But, you know, the last few times the Predators have been in the postseason. He hasn't been as impactful. So the Predators had not won a playoff series since 2018. They won the first round series. They played against the Colorado Avalanche before losing to the Winnipeg Jets in seven games. But since 2019, they have not won a playoff series. So this is, I think, their fifth trip to the postseason since then. And including his performance in game two, Forsberg has eight goals and 14 points in his past 22 playoff games. By comparison, he had 42 points, 22 goals, 20 assists in his first 55 playoff games. So he has not been as productive over the past five years that the Predators have been in the postseason. And I think that's the reason why the Predators have not won a playoff series. It's because Philip Forsberg has not risen to the occasion in ways that he has shown in the regular season and did early in his playoff career. So for him to score the goal he did, I think was important, as I said, for the Predators, but especially important for him. And he had the assist to on the Villiers goal, but that was just a harmless chuck in the pop towards the net and Pavilion made a nice redirection there on Casey Smith. But if the Predators are to win this series, as you said, it goes without saying. They need Forsberg to play like he did in game two. The other player I'm looking for more from is Roman Yossi. I feel like Roman Yossi has not been, and he has not been effective offensively in the series. I think he might only have two shots on goal in this series, which is out of character for him. When this team was winning, or excuse me, when they had a point streak of 18 consecutive games in February and March, he was the catalyst. You know, it would not shock me if Roman Yossi ends up on some part trophy ballots. I don't think he'll be a finalist, but when the results are unveiled, it would not be surprised to see him having a smattering of fourth and fifth place votes, because he played at an MVP level during that point streak. And you know, this team needs him at his best in order to generate the kind of offense that they have shown themselves capable of doing. So I really want to see more from Roman Yossi. I thought Yossi Sorrows had a bounce back performance in game two. I thought Philip Forsberg had a bounce back performance in game two. I think Roman Yossi has one of his own to give. They hope it's tomorrow, obviously, but he's the one that I am really looking at, 'cause that was, to me, the match up of the series was seeing what Quinn used in Roman Yossi did when they were on the ice. I feel like I've noticed Quinn do a lot more than they did Roman Yossi. And I say even for Quinn, I think he can still be a bit better than he's been as well, but I think you're right about Roman Yossi not quite being as noticeable as we saw before. One guy that I was really impressed with through the first two days of games for... the preds was Gustav Nyquist. I mean, I don't think, you know, sometimes you may look at the point totals from the outside and think, "Hey, maybe just riding coattails." He does a lot good. He seems like he's got some jumpback in a step as well, winning board battles, coming with pucks really well. What's making him so effective this season? Yeah, it's a great question, 'cause, you know, he had a career year in his mid-30s. I'm not sure how often that happened. I doubt it happens a lot. And I remember when the Predators signed him in the summer, I thought, "Okay, he's a perfect kind of guy. He can play in your middle six, and if the team stinks, you can trade him at the deadline." 'Cause I feel like he's been traded at every deadline for the past few years. He's moved quite a bit in recent years. And he did not start the season on that top line with Forsberg and O'Reilly. I can't remember exactly when he joined them, but, you know, for whatever reason, they just seemed to click. They played off each other so well. The only team in the, excuse me, the only line in the league that scored more goals on ice five on five than the Predators' top line was the Rangers to, I believe, their top line, of Panerin, Pro-Check, and Love for a Year. That was the only line in the league that had more five on five on ice goals than the Predators' top line. And yeah, just, you know, I remember like, Nyquist was, I remember like five, six years ago, Gustav Nyquist was the player that the Predators fans wish they could trade for at the deadline when he was still on Detroit, and that team wasn't playing well. It's like Gustav Nyquist in his late 20s, they would have loved. I wouldn't have expected them to continue to play like that in his mid-30s. But yeah, he's been great for them. You know, he's really added a dimension to their game, especially on that top line. And, you know, he has been a surprise. I mean, he is the, he was the leading scorer in the regular season among players who started the season on a new team. And the second high score among players who started on a new team was Ryan O'Reilly. So they had quite an impact, and Nyquist has been a pleasant surprise. So we've talked, I'm sure you can imagine that. And we've talked a ton about the adjustments the Canucks are going to make coming out of game two, and finding ways to not get as many shots blocked and get more through on UC Sorrows. But I can't get away from Andrew Burnett saying, and some of the Predators players saying that, you know, that's the way they played in the third period is not a recipe that they want to follow for the rest of the series. So what adjustments do you think Nashville is going to make moving forward in this series? Well, today they talked about wanting to establish a better forecheck. They talked specifically about, they felt like they weren't putting the puck in the right spots when they were dumping it in and allowing Casey to smith to get to them before they could. So that's something I think you could see. You know, I think, you know, that's a big part of their game. And, you know, having significant zone time and being able to sustain offensive zone time is something that they were definitely unable to do in game two. And I think they'd like to do that much more. And I think that, you know, the Predators when they're at their best, you know, they are, they can get up and down the ice, but they generate a lot of the cycle in the forecheck. So you haven't really seen a lot of that from them in through two games. So one thing I would be looking out for is, you know, is, you know, what kind of where they're putting the puck in when they're dumping it in. Whether, you know, I feel like that's something that they specifically talked about earlier today in terms of what they would like to do better tomorrow. Adam, we really appreciate the time. Thanks so much for this today. Of course. Thank you for having me. There is Adam Vingen, a sports contributor covering this series between the Canucks and Preds and a long time Predators reporter as well. It's Stan Richo, Satyar Shah. You are listening to Canucks Central and Canucks playoff coverage is brought to you by Avenue Machinery and Douglas Lake equipment. Get your keys to an all-star collection at Kubota products at one of their six locations across BC this spring. Visit d-l-e-a-m-c dot com. Let's get a goal horn in, hey? The Tampa Bay Lightning just getting on the board. The young Steven Stamco still scoring big playoff goals as the Predators, or sorry, the lightning, I should say, needed this one, a net front goal for Steven Stamco's as he beats Oliver Ekman Larson to the front of the net in a battle of 91s and is able to get the tying goal. Of course, Tampa looking to get their first win of these, of this series against the Florida Panthers team that's expected to do pretty, pretty well this playoff. Yeah, I mean, you kind of have to win this one. Yeah, you know, you go down three nothing against Florida. It's probably not going to work out for you. I mean, hey, I picked an upset in this series. I picked Tampa to win. So I still have some hope, you know. So I'm looking at this game going, you know, they got a chance. 1-1, a road team has yet to lose in this series. So the series technically has not started until a road team. Yes. Has lost. Sorry, a road team is won. Uh, Dan Rachel, Satyar Shah, you know, a couple of things there from, from Adam, uh, obviously some, some thoughts on, on the Predators. And I am curious, you know, we're, we've been talking about the Canucks adjustments. The Preds were a team, especially during their best run of the season where they controlled a lot of play at, at five on five. And that hasn't really been their recipe through these first two games. The Canucks have had the better of the run of play at, at five on five. You know, does that change here? Or are there things that Nashville can do better? I'm sure of course, but it still comes down to me is saying, I just think the Canucks are, are a better team at five on five. And as long as they're doing what they're doing, like there's only so much Nashville can do. What's going to be key to me is the first 10 or so minutes of the game and game one. And that's where you're hoping that, you know, Nashville is probably going to have a lot of jump in front of their home crowd. They're going to be going bonkers, right? Especially after they split the first two games and, you know, like Adam mentioned, they haven't had a lot of playoff success recently. They were swept last time. So even just getting the one win right now is really, you know, a big boost for that fan base. So they're going to be going in hyped for the game three, right? So that to me is going to be their best chance to strike early. Because that jump perhaps can be, you know, they can have it over the Canucks early on. But outside of, you know, having an adrenaline push, as long as the Canucks bring their game, they're going to tilt the ice in their favor. Yeah, that doesn't mean, however, you can't be victimized because you saw Forsberg victimized them and he's good enough to do it or Riley's good enough to do it. Oh, you can't give them freebies in the way that they didn't get to. No, exactly. So I mean, as much as yes, even if you dominate, you still have to be careful to just, you know, not give those guys too many good opportunities. But I feel the same way largely. If the Canucks play their game, they should still be fine in this series, right? And I feel like coming up to game three, a lot of things will go in their favor. They just need to get some saves early. That's kind of what it is for me. Get some saves early, get some confidence. And after that, I think if the Canucks do refine their game a little bit and being on the road could be a positive in that aspect, I just don't see their game in terms of how they played where I have any red flags. Only red flags, so far, has been the demo injury. Yeah, and just the way they've been able to execute in big moments. They were able to in game one in the third period, but game two, I think that's really what cost them big time, big moments. They just, they kept coming up short. Well, obviously, Pedersen has to be better. He has to face his chances. But to the point where I don't think it's a red flag, if they weren't getting opportunities and the ice was going, was being tilted in the preds favor and the Canucks were the second best team consistently, I'd have far greater concerns about the rest of the series. The preds best period though, may have been the second period of game two. They were good, man. Like, I think that's why I stopped short of saying, oh, the Canucks should have easily won that game nine out of ten times. Hey, the preds did enough good things. That second, they were the better team. And the Canucks made enough mistakes and didn't take advantage of enough opportunities for you to say, hey, they deserve significantly better. And that's something to keep in mind. I don't think it was a case of 60 minutes of the Canucks going at Nashville. Like, Nashville also had a punch. They completely went into a shell in the third, of course. But the second, you're right. Like, they're, they had some good opportunities. And they certainly took the energy away from the building as well. Like, that buzz went away when they went up to nothing, then three nothing. And after that, it seemed like the Canucks didn't have that energy either. And Nashville took advantage. One of the things that has been so integral for the Canucks success this season is scoring the first goal. They haven't scored the first goal in these first two games. But actually, it's kind of one of the things about both of these teams. Canucks were the best in the league at scoring first. Nashville, I think, was third or fourth, scoring first over 50 times this year. So it is massive for both of these teams to get the first goal. And I wonder if you're the Canucks. Or you may be able to take advantage of how amped up Nashville players might be at the start of game three. We heard Rick Talkett today say, you know, maybe he loves being the villain. So who's going to be that player to be the villain for the Vancouver Canucks? They haven't really had somebody step into that role. Maybe it's Nikita Zadorov, you know, he stared down the preds bench, said somebody chirped him just before he scored in game three. So we're sorry in game two. So we'll see how that develops. Are you surprised at all that it doesn't appear as though the Canucks are making any lineup changes other than Tyler Myers coming back into the lineup, as in Vasily Pod Colson potentially getting in for his first playoff game? No, because to me, the lineup changes we're talking about are would be more cosmetic than actually making an unappreciable change, right? Like it all has PDG versus put Colson going to make that big of a difference. Judging by their numbers this year, no, right? Now, yeah, maybe both are probably playing less than 10 minutes. You can make the case that put Colson, the experience will be good for him. It'd be good for him to maybe grow and maybe there is some untapped potential that make a rise in the playoffs that PDG doesn't have. And yeah, I can listen to all those things, but it's not exactly going to be the type of needle moving move that you're like, man, I can't believe they didn't do that. Yeah. I don't think they're out of stage yet where I think they need to do anything significantly different. Yeah, I kind of agree. And one of the things about this series, like you already have Nils Holglonder, who's really struggled through his first couple of playoff games, Lafferty hasn't been all that good. De Giuseppe has, you know, kind of been who he is, but nothing that has made any substantial effect on the series to this point, still playing a bit of a role on the PK as well, which has had some success. I don't know if you're Rick Talkett, do you want to add in another forward that potentially you may not be able to trust as a game goes on? Like you've already shortened your bench quite a bit in the way that you've been utilizing your forward group in that Holglonder's playing less than 10 minutes. Lafferty's playing less than 10 minutes or can you afford to have another guy that you're really going to maybe want to limit their time five on five if, you know, they get a case of the deer and headlights sort of moment, like a player might have playing their first ever playoff game on the road. Yeah, but at the same time, what if you put bluegir between Garland and Joshua and move Lindholm with Patterson and McKay F. Say, then that, yeah, and then, and you're kind of just looking at a fourth line like, hey, you know, if I got to just, you know, shut it down and go nine forwards, and that's what's going to happen. You go with those nine guys, you know, maybe you throw those guys a few shifts here and there, you know, Lafferty maybe takes a shift at center, but maybe you rotate, Lindholm gets an extra shift there, maybe, you know, Miller or Patterson kind of getting extra shift and the fourth line guys on your wings play seven, eight minutes, you know, and there is a way to do it that way. I think you can afford to do it, but that would take away something the coach has been committed to. It's having Patterson JT and Lindholm, Lindholm playing on their own line down the middle. Do you need to have all three of those guys down the middle, though, against Nashville? I'm not sure you need now to win. Yeah, I'm not saying, you know, it's not a benefit. It is like I'm a big proponent of it. Is it going to be as necessary to against Nashville as a, as it would be, say, against Edmonton? Probably not, but if this is who you're committed to or how you're committed to having this team deployed, then I think that plays a big factor in the way that you go about it. This is the way you imagine is the best way to put this roster out. That's really what Rick Talkett has told us for so long. And I'm not opposed to it because I'm just not sure I love the way that they're using Patterson right now and having him play center with McCabe and Hoglander. But when you're not trusting those guys so much, you're moving Patterson to play up on the Lotto line or moving him up to play here, moving him down there. I just, I don't like this juggling and essentially, you know, as we talked about with Cheech, you've kind of made Patterson the third line center. And I know he's not going right now, but you're still like, you're going to need him. He is your most talented forward at the end of the day. Now, I would say some of that is still overstated. I'd say the third line center stuff, because if you're going to play those three guys down the middle, then, yeah, I mean, one of them will be a third line center. But if you go by the ice time and by how much you get those guys out there, let me go play 17. If you're Andrew Burnett, who are your most, your biggest worries right now for game planning against? Yeah, it's probably Patterson and the Lindholm line. Is it? It's Miller and Miller, sorry Miller and the Lindholm line. But I mean, Patterson still played more even strength minutes than Lindholm the other game. Yeah, like, so my point is I'm with you, but I don't know if he actually is like, because their minutes are very similar. JT played 1543 even strength, which is, you know, far and away more than both of those guys. But Patterson was at 1316 and Lindholm was at 1238. It's pretty close. Like JT's number one, and then Patterson and Lindholm are essentially two A to B kind of when it comes to the ice time, right? Five on five, though, if you're not pulling him with Lindholm, it's still going to be incumbent on either McKay of a Hoaglander find some chemistry with him. Yeah. And that's why I think game three is going to be really big for Hoaglander here. You know, is that going to show enough progress for you to feel confident to keep that? Or does a coach have to break his tradition of keeping those three centers on separate lines? This from Kirk on the Delmar lumber text message inbox 24 goal scorer playing less than 10 minutes is tragic. If Hoaglander was playing well, I don't think he would be playing only 10 minutes at night. No, he earned a lot more ice time as the season went on. Yeah. And if honestly, if you go back and watch game one and watch Hoaglander shifts, he had it like it wasn't like he wasn't trying, but like he didn't advance the puck very often. He got a strip from him quite a bit. Didn't come up with him along the wall. They didn't make the right decision when he had time with the puck. Hey, some deer and headlights, right? First game and all that. I didn't barely notice them in game two. Yeah. You know, like there was a scrum you mentioned with those on that he was that was involved with a couple moments where maybe he he did a little something, but he's not involved in the game, you know, and that's something that's going to have to change. And yeah, does he need to play more for this team to be good and score? Yeah. But he also have to play well enough for you to be able to be out there and through two games so far, Hoaglander's really struggled. This text, an interesting one, you know, we've talked a lot about other guys not showing out so well so far. Brock is costing himself a lot of money in his poor two games of or his two games of the playoffs. It might be a bit of an overstatement. Guys put up 40 goals. That's not going away from the back of his hockey card at the end of the day. We're two games in and I mean, it's not like again, like I think he can be better and he doesn't have the most pace like once we get through the playoffs, guys, we can have a conversation about, okay, what do we see from these players? Do you feel confident paying this player to be here long term or not? And we can talk about all those things, right? Yeah. But at the same time, when it comes to what you have to do right now and how you have to get through all this right now, like I don't think Brock Besser has been as bad as people make it out to be either like he had that chance to gain sorrow. So he scores. It's like Patterson, he scores in that chance. You're having a different discussion about Brock Besser. But I don't know if Besser is going to have the type of pace in his game that he's going to be a huge standout guy in the playoffs. He's going to have to bury chances like the one he had on sorrows or he gets a shot, he's got to have to bury it. But I don't know if Besser is this player who's going to have these shifts where he's going to, you know, just storm down the wing and rip a shot past a goaltender or really take the game by the scruff of its neck. Like he's not that type of player. Just swap 40 with 23. No, essentially putting Patterson with Garland and Joshua. Sure. It's a possibility. But here's a thing, though, like you can do that. I guess Patterson going again. But the whole point is you want to have three lines going. You want to have a push. So if you if you don't have that, then is Lindholm going to get going on his line by himself with Hulklander? Probably not. Maybe you want to try sure. Go ahead. But to me, it's kind of like you're swapping deck chairs. Yeah. You know, like the deck still the same. The chairs are just changing. Yes. You know, when you're doing that, like, I don't know if anything's too different. Like you're still trying to get to a point where you have three guys going, you know. It all comes back to the same issue that they tried to solve at the deadline, but weren't able to getting another big time forward. Yeah. Another big time winger that could help them, you know, spread out three different duos across three lines for this time of year. Game three tomorrow for the Canucks and Predators will be on at two o'clock in the afternoon. And the official pregame show starts at three thirty puck drop at four thirty for the central time start at four thirty or sorry, I guess six thirty central time four thirty Pacific. It's Dan Reicho, Satyar Shah. Let's do a goal harm before we hit the break. The Tampa Bay Lightning had taken a lead thanks to former Canucks, Canucks, Tyler Mott. Sergey Babrowski had made a couple of big stops keeping it at two one. And then the Florida Panthers come through. Local boy, Sam Reinhardt with his second of the playoffs coming on the power play. And the Panthers have tied it up at two apiece elsewhere. The Hurricanes still lead the Islanders to nothing. That's a quick look at the out of town scoreboard and the latest goal coming from the Florida Panthers. The goal horn brought to you by Rewind Bierko. Find their big West Coast IPA at a liquor store near you and celebrate big plays in a big way. Stan Reicho, Satyar Shah, you're listening to Canucks Central.
