(upbeat music) We're back on Canucks Central, Stan Reachow, Satyar Shah. We're in the Kintech Studio, Kintech Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews, sore feet. What are you waiting for? And Canucks playoff coverage. Here on Sports at 650, brought to you by Avenue Machinery and Douglas Lake Equipment. Get your keys to an all-star collection of Kubota products at one of their six locations across BC this spring. Visit dleamc.com. All right, it's a Friday, and just 'cause it's a game day doesn't mean it can't be a mail bag Friday, so let's get to it, hit the music. (upbeat music) Sometimes I feel like ravishing Rick Roode when I say hit the music. Do you? Ravishing Rick Roode. Well, it's an old wrestling reference. Of all the guys, the ravishing Rick Roode. I like it. We're gonna start with E.B. and not Ben Bass from another B.B. - Okay. - Why is everyone in a panic after just two games? - 'Cause they haven't seen the playoffs in a long time here. - It's, as Jim Morrow would say, playoffs, now this is a different context, but because it's playoffs, people are definitely living and dying. Small samples rule the day in the playoffs. You can't be like in game two of the 82 game season. It's early. Can't be like sat trying to talk me off the ledge of the Bluejay season. It's early. - Yeah, it is still early. - In the playoff series? - No, it's not quite as early, but it's still like, it's one one. - Yes. - Like I do think it's a one one series. There does not need to be massive amounts of panic at the moment. You know what I mean? - Yeah. - So I think, you know. - I, yeah. - It's all right. Now to me, it's like after game four. - Yeah. - If you're two two, whatever. If you're three one, then you're in trouble. - Then it's really tough. - I'm not even sure tonight's this biggest swing game 'cause it's two one, right? You sure you want to win, but if you lose tonight in a win game four and it's two two, you know, like it's, and I'm not saying that's going to happen. All I'm saying is it's still early in the series, especially because it's one one. - It has tended to be a swing game over time. I think the number is like 60 some odd percent of teams that win game three in a one one series go on to win. - Remember what I said yesterday? - Yeah. - Different biospheres. - Different biospheres. Did you ever talk it today? - Well, it is, oh, oh, oh, on which part? - Yeah. - Where he said, I don't like roller coasters. - Oh, yeah, that part was good. - But he meant mental roller coasters. Not like literal roller coasters. - Yeah, he didn't mean, yeah. He meant like that. - I don't like the mental roller coaster of living and dying with every loss. - Yeah. - The playoffs in the Canadian market. - That is a roller coaster. - Fans are going to do that. - That's fine. - Fans can do that. You're allowed to do that. And even broadcasters can do that if you want to. - But just the sad point earlier in the show, like him not making any drastic changes to the lineup, I think shows that it's a level of stability. - Yeah. - It doesn't have to be a roller coaster yet. Moving on from Hayden. Do the Canucks realistically have a chance to have a deep run without Demko? Or is it just a matter of time here? - So, I mean, the easy thing to say would be it's only a matter of time. - Yeah, I mean, you're not going to win a Stanley Cup. I don't think without Demko. - Chances are no. - Right. - There's not a lot of-- - Probably not. - Is it impossible? I mean, no, because if it's happened before, where things have happened, right? Like, who knows? Maybe Shiloff comes in and he does steal the show. - Okay, but how many people would have said, oh, Vegas isn't winning any cup with Hayden Hill as their goalie. - A lot of people said that. - Like, Hayden Hill was like their fifth on the depth chart at the start of the last season. - True, true. Now, are the Canucks, like, last year, Vegas, at the end of the season, roster-wise, had the best roster in the league, right? - Yeah. - Do the Canucks have the best roster in the league? - No. - So, I think that's the, they're in lyser up. The way the Canucks are built, and not to say it's-- - They have maybe a top 10 roster in the league. - Yeah, but they're not like the top one or two rosters in the league, right? Especially if you take Demko out of it. - Yeah. - So, I think that's the difference here. It's like, they're not built to rely on gold tending, but they're built to have an edge with gold tending. - Yes. - And when that edge isn't there, because the rest of the roster is really good, but maybe not quite as elite as some other teams, then it makes it very difficult for you to go on a prolonged run. That doesn't mean you can't beat Nashville. Hell, it doesn't even mean you can't beat winning the second round. Like, who knows? Like, were the gold tending you're seeing between the Kings and the Oilers? Right? I'm not saying, I'm just saying. - Or the Jets and the Abs. - Gless? - I don't know why that's the last half full. - Again, at Casey to Smith wouldn't be high on the power rankings of goalies in the Western Conference right now. But it's not like there's any... Hellabuck, yes, he's gonna win the Vesna, but he hasn't been playing like it. Jake Ottinger hasn't been playing like it. So far, Logan Thompson is the best goalie in the Western Conference playoff, and he hasn't even had to do much. So, it's not as though there's one team with great gold tending right now. - No, not elite gold tending. - Yeah, there's some good names, but nobody's actually playing well. You go into a second round series with Edmonton, yeah, if you don't have Thatcher-Demko, you're going to be a considerable underdog in that series. But, you know, the Canucks did beat Edmonton twice with Casey to Smith and Gold this year, so. - I'm gonna combine two submissions here. Are there any examples of goalies that have multiple knee injuries that have had successful careers? And is it maybe time to start thinking about moving on from Thatcher-Demko given his injury history and a potential Corey Schneider-like trade just because we've seen this movie a couple times now and would see logs in your mind be ready? So, a lot of pieces there, but kind of all related. - So, as far as the injury question goes, I'm not gonna lie to anybody. I don't have that in-depth of knowledge of injuries to goalies to know the answer to that. - Goalies do deal with a lot, especially ones that play a ton in today's day and age with the amount of movement. And, you know, we talk to Woodley all the time about this, how much stress there is on their joints, their hips, their knees, their groins. They just go through pretty much a war every single night. So, yeah, it's always going to be tough when a goalie starts to rack up, you know, a bit of a track record of injuries. I think it's still, for me, it's too far out to say yes or no, but I've always been of the mindset that you shouldn't be already locked into giving Thatcher-Demko a new contract once this current one expires. And, like, this injury doesn't change that for me. - Yeah, I think it was always going to be a bit dicey, especially if you look at what Helibux signed for and it's going to be through his 30s, massive number, even if Demko can't demand the same, what would be a million per year. - Still, we're still talking about more than what Markstrom got. - Yep. - He's going to want at least seven plus, I would imagine. - It's so hard with goalies. Like, injuries are not. Browski has bounced back, but that looked like the worst contract in the league for a little bit. He started to play better in these last couple of years. Ilya Siroki, it's not like he's that old, but they gave him an eight-year contract at 8 million per, and it's like, this guy can't play playoff games for us. - No, it's problematic. - You know, and he was considered like the best goal in the league, maybe as soon as-- - He had strength just this season where he was the best, this season where he was the best goalie in the league. - Hey, even Vasilevski, he wasn't quite the same level this year. Now, he's coming off an injury too. He's been very consistent, generally speaking, but it's a volatile position. Like, you know, so it's a very difficult position to over commit to, you have to be careful no matter what, but I don't think, you know, he's getting eight and a half million to be in Vancouver. Like, I just don't know if that's gonna happen the way Helipa got, right? - Yeah. - And I think for Demko, is it maybe a little unfair, the injury prone stuff? 'Cause we're not talking about every single year, right? This one is a really inopportune time, he got injured, and like Woodley mentioned to us, this injury, it's kind of a, it's related to his previous injury. It's not like a brand new injury he got, he's fully healthy, like it's still related to the same one. - It's a different injury to the same knee, but from what Woodley told us on Wednesday, you can go back and listen to it on the podcast, you can kind of surmise that the feeling is, maybe there was extra stress put on this part of the knee because of the recent injury. - Yeah. So it's something related to what happened before, most likely, right? - Sort of like anything, you get any kind of an injury, another part of your body is compensating to, you know, try and mask what happened in that other area to get through your current situation. - So this is the second time he's been hurt, right? - Yeah. - 'Cause like, you know, the 35 games, that was the North Division year, him and Holt, he kind of split the duties, he took over that job as a year, went on, right? He played 64 games in 21, 22, and then he got injured towards the end, I suppose, right? Which affected him hitting to last season, and you know, he was still dealing with that injury. - Had to have a procedure before last season. - Yeah, but it was still the same stuff, right? And that was the second one. So is it fair to say his injury prone? Whether that's the case or not, how comfortable are you paying him eight and a half, eight million per year long term into his 30s? That's a question. The other part of the question was Arthur Shilov's. I think we all have to pump the brakes. Now, hey, unless he steps in somehow here and shows, he can be the guy. I just think there's a lot of getting ahead of ourselves on Shilov's, I like him, and I think he should fight for the job next year to be a backup, but I don't think he's ready to be the number one, and even the way he played, I don't think, 'cause the people also were pointing to, hey, look at what Pittsburgh did with Matt Murray, and they let him take over. He only played 13 games that year, and then he played 21 in the playoffs when they went on that run. But if you look at his numbers in the AHL, 9.30, save percentage, 9.41, save percentage. He was like crushing it in the AHL. I'm not saying Shilov's has been poor, he hasn't been, but we're not talking about a guy who's been one of the best goalies in the AHL. - He had tough stretches in the AHL, he's here. - And hey, he's still, he's promising career and everything, but I think people need to pump the brakes on how high his current ceiling is, and how ready he is to play a role like that. - That kind of leads into the next question from Wes, which is if there is a doubt about getting past Nashville due to goal tending, should they consider taking the opportunity to play? She loves to give him playoff experience. If he is gonna be the backup for next year, why not give him the opportunity? - You're not giving Shilov's a game for experience. Let's say you go down three-one in the series and the Smith hasn't been playing well. You're going to Shilov's because it's your last hope. It's your Hail Mary. You have no confidence left into Smith. It's similar to being in an elimination spot in a baseball series, and it's like, well, we've got Max Scherzer available for one inning, even though he pitched the other day. You know what, we're putting Max Scherzer in for one inning because we need to stay alive. So there is no tomorrow if we don't use Max Scherzer in the spot. I don't think you're thinking about giving Shilov's playoff experience. I think you're thinking more so about, does this give us the best opportunity to survive? That should be your only mindset. - Yeah, I don't think they have a mindset at all of like, hey, we're not gonna go far anyways without Demical Maize, we'll get this guy a start. I think the only time you think that is if you're down three nothing or something and you're like, you know what, we're down three nothing. Hey, Maize, we'll get him in here and see what he can do. But I, as much as I think to Smith clearly is the guy, it's a huge game, it's a huge game for him here. - Yes. - Like, I don't think it's, you know, like two starts here. - Yeah, it's, as much as I don't think he was the issue in game two, like you give up, you have another night where you give up three goals on 15 shots. - Yeah. - Your leash is only gonna be so long, you know what I'm saying? They would have to be absolutely no doubt about it. You had no opportunity to make these saves in order for them to continue having confidence in Casey to Smith, if he has another night where his save percentage looks less than good. - Moving to the players that are gonna play in front of the goalie, how best is it, says Spoon Man for the Canucks to get pucked through the predator's small box style defense when they're fronting? - So, as we talked about with Bic in the round table I think you can find that on podcast as well. And a longer version of this. For me, it comes down to a few things. Most importantly, it's execution because they did create some opportunities that they could not finish in game two, but apart from that, it's changing your angles in the offensive zone so that they can't as easily just stack up and front your players that are trying to give the layered screens that the Canucks have been so using as prominently as they have this season. And the other major factor, you gotta move the puck quicker in the offensive zone. Like there can't be as much hesitation as we saw through parts of game two. - No, and I think one thing I wanna see more of too is have that low to high play and that's getting behind the goal line a little bit and that gets a cycle going a little bit. And we see a lot from them going from the points to the side, to the half wall perhaps going down to the goal line, get past the goal line then. If you wanna throw it down to that guy on the flank by the goal line, just have them go deeper and see if you can get one of those low to high plays. And if that defense starts collapsing down, then maybe the forward's up front or the defense may have been somebody the weak side he can crash down, maybe he can get somebody on a backdoor player, get somebody coming into space downhill that can attack a low to high pass. And those are a little wrinkles I'd like to see, but like we spoke to Bic about and you mentioned, I don't think in the reinvent the wheel. You need to do things differently. And part of it too, man, it's when you have a shot, take it, the hesitation, it's a big part of the issue was how much they hesitated on getting shots off or made the wrong decision on a pass or a shot once they had the opportunity. - Well, maybe get put a little bit more into the shots too. - Yeah. - Look, the Canucks, they're looking more generally the reason they don't take huge clappers from the point. I mean, it takes longer to load up a clapper it. - Well, they're playing for tips too. They're not as accurate, right? So why they are usually risking it from the point? It's because it's easier to change your angle. It's easier to make it pinpoint where you're shooting for a stick rather than just like hammering it, like you're, you're Sheldon Saray and his prime just like throwing bombs from the point and trying to score 20 plus goals a season. That's not the biggest thing that the Canucks are attempting here. It is, you know, they're shooting for sticks, they're shooting for tips, they're looking for those kinds of things. But as Rick Tock had said yesterday, maybe we got to tee it up a little bit more. - Well, you have those opportunities sometimes, you just got to do it. And, you know, you can't also completely abandon everything you were doing in the last game and try to be completely different either. - And if you injure an opposing player momentarily, make sure to attack that space. Like you, it's the playoffs, you're relentless. - If that player's down, like if a player breaks, if a defender breaks his stick blocking a shot, what do you immediately do? You go and attack that defender because they aren't as good as defending without a stick. - Right. - If Ryan McDonough gets hurt because he blocked a shot and he's, you know, his right leg is just like not working for a minute. Go! - That's part of it though. - Get after it! - You wanna make it? - What are you waiting for? - One guy we know who does have quite the shot on him and we've yet to seen it. He released his Vasili pod Colza. More wants to know when could we see pod Colza and play? Or if we will. - I think we will see him play. I mean, you know, the funny thing is I don't think he wants to put the blame on anybody after the last game either, the head coach. Like Jules is coming out 'cause Myers is coming back in, right? I mean, that's an obvious one. But I wouldn't be shocked that even Game 4, if the Canucks take the 2-1 lead here, then we see put Colza in Game 4. - Yeah. - Like wouldn't shock me. - I wouldn't be all that surprised either. - If the Canucks win tonight? - Yeah. - Why? - They win. - Because I just think when you, there's less pressure in terms of putting this player into a situation where you're down 1-2 now, now go play your first game where you can't make a mistake. You go up 2-1 and if say PDG just didn't move the needle much or whatever, or let's say somebody else really struggled and they feel like they need more of a push, I could see them putting him into that game. And it's just a safer environment for him as opposed to coming in when you're down 2-1 and you're really worried about making mistakes. - I don't think Phil Dijzepa's had a bad series, but again, it just comes down to do you think Pod Colza can have more of an effect on the game in some way? And to this point, I wonder if how much Nils Hoaglander has struggled in his first two career playoff games, does that make you think twice about putting Pod Colza in because he's yet to play in the play? - Now I know he's got to play at some point, but can you afford to have two guys maybe having deer and headlights kind of moments as rookies in the NHL play? - Something did shift though, right? Because towards the end of the year, it was very clear from the deployment that Tock had preferred Pod Colza and over the other guys. 'Cause he played him, he played over 10, 12 minutes. - Played him a lot. - A lot. But then the last couple of games he struggled, remember the last two games he wasn't great in Calgary, wasn't great in Winnipeg, even that Edmonton game he had some moments, he had some good ones, but also in that great moments. I wonder if those final few games where his game slipped, concerned the head coach. 'Cause I mean, up until that point, he was very clearly the preferred option. - He seemed to have won the 12th forward job. - Yeah, he had it like, 'cause PDG went like games without playing. - PDG hardly played towards the last third of the season. Even after he came back from the injury, he was more out of the lineup than he was in, at least it felt that way. And it hasn't been that way in the playoffs. Sometimes coaches lean on their veterans, and I can't say that Dijuzep has done anything to take himself out of the lineup. It's gonna have to be whether or not Pod Colson is showing well enough to get back in. - Chris has an interesting submission here, and I'm gonna put my own little spin on it. He asks, what star would be a perfect fit for this Canucks team that would get us to the cup? And he trades scenarios, and my spin is, after watching the first two games in the playoffs, is there some hesitancy of, oh, maybe they should have done something more at the trade deadline. What are they missing, and what would you have liked to see? - So, if we are unlimited as to which superstar then the easy answer is Conor McDavid. - Yes. (laughing) Nikita Kucharoff would be a great fit. - I don't mind Kucharoff. - Yeah, he'd be okay. It would help out the Canucks on the wing. Kucharoff and Patterson would look pretty good together, I think. - Yeah. - I mean, honestly, I mean, more realistically speaking. - What could have been done? What could have been done maybe after that? - I was to follow these, the only one. - Yeah. - And to follow you became hard because the Canucks didn't have a second, and the only way you could have done to follow you was if you didn't do Lindholm, and then you traded a first for him, and a first would have been more than what Winnipeg got, they got a second and a third, right? So, I don't think there was, you know, unless you wanted to trade one of your better prospects, right? And Genssel, even if they didn't make the Lindholm trade, I don't think they were able to get Genssel. Now, one thing I would have liked to see, and I mentioned I was shocked at Canucks didn't make an edition, even if you couldn't get those guys, I mean, you saw Jason Zucker so far in this series. Would he have been a guy that at least he can play your tosses? - But even Zucker, they couldn't, no, it couldn't make a cap work unless you moved some money out. - Couldn't make the cap work, and Arizona prioritized getting somebody to take his full cap charge off their books. Not retaining or anything like that. It was just like, we want the full cap charge off the books. - Save the money. - And Nashville was able to do that. - Yeah, so I mean, I would have been nice for them to add another forward that can play up top for them. In terms of adding somebody, I think this off season, Jake Genssel, you keep looking at him. I mean, we'll see what they do with Besser and everything, but if they don't keep Besser long-term, do you consider making a run at Jake Genssel? - They need to add another big-time winger, right? You're probably not keeping Lindholm, but you've got Besser for Miller, you've got to find somebody for Patterson. - As good as Hoglander was this year, I think, you know, we're seeing-- - On the top six. - Yeah, we're kind of seeing what Hoglander is as a player, and he's got some great tools, some great attributes, but is he a guy that truly is able to play drive in top six minutes in the biggest moments of the season? Like right now, I mean, there's still some question marks there. So you'd like to have more of a sure thing next to Ali as Patterson for the start of next season. - With health considerations in mind currently is winning a round. This playoffs, success for the season. - Six, I mean, to me, if you win a round, especially with Demical being out, I would deem it as a success for this year. - It's hard to deter from how much success they had during the regular season. You know, not just winning the Pacific Division but also getting Ali as Patterson down to an eight-year contract. Huge win for the team. - Although not everybody feels the same way about that right now, if you ask them. - I know I've been critical with Patterson, but I'm not an idiot. So those things are huge successes that you can't take away from this team, but it would be very disappointing for them to do it. At least not win a round after they gave up the first round pick to acquire Lyle's level. All right, that'll do it for the mailbag. It's Dan Reichow and Satyarsha, producer Ben Bassrin. Getting the questions in here on Canucks Central. We're going to get into a pre-pre-game show after three o'clock. You'll hear from Rick Tockett his full eight minutes from the morning skate. What do you had to say some of the adjustments the Canucks are looking to make? - We'll get hyped for the game. Because it's going to be a lot of pacing, at least for me, because I'm going to be here till 10 p.m. tonight. - Get your sprouts going. - Get ready. - Sat hyped. - Sat's here for a while. You're going to have to keep them up with all your post-game calls, so make sure you do that. - Have some good takes, have a take, don't suck. - And some bad ones, we like those too. - Well sometimes, depends. - Although, it's funny, when there's a really bad take, you get a lot of people texting and go, this is why you shouldn't take haulers. And others being like, this is great entertainment. So it depends on what type of where you are on that kind of spectrum. - The pre-game show is next on Canucks Central.
