(upbeat music) - Welcome to In the Booth on Sportsnet 650. We are your official home of Knocksine-Brinded Bachelor joined as always by Randy Janda on our weekly show and we call the games for you as well. Right here on your home of Knocks playoff hockey sportsnet, 650 and Randy getting set for a game four matchup, a Sunday matinee game between the Knocksine Predators, a two o'clock Pacific time start. And of course we'll have that game for you coming up on Sunday afternoon, but the Canucks now with a two one series lead after a hard fought low event tight checking two one win in game three and as we look back on game three and throughout the show we'll get to previewing game four and looking ahead to the rest of this series. But a lot of the things that went wrong for the Canucks in game two on home ice went right for them in game three that allowed them to take the lead in the series. - Normally when you have 12 shots on goal you're probably looking in the mirror and saying what have I done here? Why did it go wrong? But for Vancouver, it wasn't the case, 12 shots on goal. They get two goals and most importantly batch, we talked about this in the lead up to the game, whether it was on the round table with sat and down or even in the preamble in the keys to the game for us as well, getting that first goal. When you get that first goal in his playoffs series, especially for this Vancouver Canucks team, it was so important JT Miller striking at the 1323 mark of the first period. Just kind of set that domino effect where this team is so comfortable to have that lead and grind out games and it wasn't easy. They had to be determined. They had to play a hard no style. They had to sacrifice in that game, but a very different game script than we've seen in the opening two games of the series. - Yeah, and it wasn't how they drew it up in the first period, like JT Miller, you mentioned it more than 13 minutes into the game, scores on Vancouver's first shot. So they had to, you know, whether a storm from the Predators early on and it looked like Nashville was going to control that game based on the way the first period played out. But you got to credit a couple of people in terms of being able to hold that forward. And I'm going to put Casey to Smith right at the top of that list because he was good throughout the game, but especially early so the Canucks didn't fall behind, didn't get into a deficit because you're right. If Nashville had scored the first goal when they were pouring it on early in the first period, it would have been a very different game and we could very well be talking about the Predators holding a 2-1 series lead at this point. - For sure, and Casey to Smith was a hot topic in this city after game two because you're given that opportunity, unfortunately, through injury to start games. And it was not a great performance from Vancouver, even though, you know, they were able to, in game two, really tilt the rink from a finishing perspective, it wasn't great. And a lot of that pressure went back to Casey to Smith to say, "Hey, the guys didn't score goals, "but at the same time, could the goal tender have done more?" I don't think so, but that's kind of the price of being a goal tender where you're always going to have questions lobbed your way. He responded in a very, very good fashion. A lot of, you know, saves early on, later on in the second period as well, makes a save on Ryan O'Reilly and then a double save on Luca Vangelista. And there were a couple of rebounds out there that you're saying, "Okay, you gotta clean those up a little, "but Zintim in front of him did an excellent job, "but Batch, there was a lot of plays "where he did control those rebounds." He was confident, he absorbed the puck and he didn't let it out. So I think a bounce back performance, even though he really didn't need one in my opinion, it was there from Casey to Smith. He was a guy that was just really, you could say confident in the crease and there was no extra movement. He was very, very efficient in the crease. - Yeah, and, you know, rebound control is an interesting one because Smith to me has never been the same as someone like Thatcher Damko who, when we talk about rebound control, he's so good at swallowing pucks up, taking them into his body, making sure there aren't rebounds at all. That's not the kind of goaltender to Smith is to me, but that doesn't mean he doesn't control his rebounds, he just directs them effectively, I think, at times when he's playing well, so that, yeah, maybe he's not gonna swallow up, he's not quite as big of a goaltender as Damko, he doesn't have that same technique, but he's really good at kicking it to the side or kicking it up the wall or making sure it doesn't end up on a platter in the slot at the very least, and that was something I thought he did a lot better in game three than in game two. - Absolutely, in game two, you could probably see a few opportunities and one of them led to the goal, but in game three, what you saw was that directing sometimes out of play, right? That was a simple play where off the paddle or off the pad. Nashville was playing for rebounds on a lot of those shots, a couple of moments, you know, they were able to create at least a half chance in the slot off the rebound, didn't happen very often, but I thought Casey to Smith was tracking the puck really well throughout the night where when those opportunities, when they were shooting for that rebound to really pop out through the middle of the ice, he saw it coming and he directed it towards the boards as you mentioned. So overall composed play by Casey to Smith. One area that I think, and Kelly Rudy mentioned this on Hockey Night in Canada as well after game two were just playing the puck behind his own net. There were one or two moments in game three, there was a little bit of miscommunication, maybe he hung out behind the net a little bit and I'm nitpicking here because, you know, he played fantastic, but that's one area that I was kind of watching closely where there were still some, maybe some miscommunication there, but outside of that batch, he was locked in and that's all you can ask for your goaltender. When they're feeling pressure, when Ryan O'Reilly's buzzing around you, Philip Forsberg, one of the best shots in the NHL, is, you know, trying to get in that area and get those shots off and whenever they did, he made some really solid saves, but also credit to the Canucks structure. I thought they gave up 30 shots, but, you know, there was outside of maybe the final few minutes when it becomes frantic in the opening few minutes where you're just hanging on for dear life. The middle part of that game, they had under control, they didn't really give Nashville all that much. - Yeah, and I thought it was really interesting how the script shifted in that regard from game two to game three, where coming out of game two, we were talking about the fact that the Canucks had 84 shot attempts, but they had 33 missed shots, the Predators blocked 33 of their shots and they only got 18 pucks on net and ultimately lost that game. Then it's the exact opposite side of the coin in game three where it's the Canucks that only register 12 shots on goal, but find a way to win the game. Meanwhile, the Predators had 71 attempts and the Canucks blocked 30 shots. So, you know, that was a big element of winning game three and this is something that both head coaches have talked about in the series about embracing the pain or I think Rick Talkett said craving the pain at one point when talking about what it takes to win in the playoffs. And, you know, there are a lot of common threads we could look at through this series, but certainly in the last two games, you can look at it directly and say the team that blocked more shots won the game, both in game two and in game three. - And a big part of that has been the game script, right? It's one thing to get a lead, but can you hold onto it? Can you sacrifice where you're able to hang on, right? There's a, getting the lead is only a part of the equation and I thought Nashville and Vancouver have built that way where their defensemen will swallow a lot of pucks. They'll eat a lot of pucks. Ryan McGunna, Alex Carey, have done a great job on Nashville side, but in game three, Ian Cole, who, you know, blocked one off his head late in the game. Prior to that, essentially like his upper chest area, kind of near the collarbone, this guy was sacrificing and that's not a surprise. He's the Canucks leading shot blocker all season long, but even beyond that batch, we saw it was Dakota Joshua, Elias Patterson, there was a level of sacrifice to saying a team game is being played here and in order to win these game, you have to play that. So whether it was, you know, the defensemen or the forwards, there was a real sacrifice being made to say, hey, Casey's, we know he's gonna stop the puck when he sees it, but when that opportunity comes, we're not thinking twice about blocking shots and I like that from the Vancouver Canucks. That's that level of, you know, veteran prowess, I think from a guy like Ian Cole, Tyler Myers, Dakota Joshua. He's hasn't had that much experience in the playoffs, but he clearly understands what it requires from a physical standpoint and his three blocked shots in game three were quite big as well. - We also have to talk about JT Miller, who not only had a goal and an assist and as you mentioned, scored the crucial first goal of the game on the power play on the first shot to give them the one nothing lead after being soundly outplayed for most of that first period. Of the Canucks 12 shots on goal, Miller had six of them and no one else on the team had more than one shot in that game yesterday. So we've talked about JT Miller in all sorts of glowing terms this year as an emotional leader as the heartbeat of the team and he really was all of that and more in game three. - No doubt. And at one point, the first three shots of the game, when it was five, three after the first 20 minutes of play, it was all JT Miller, all those shots were from him. He's a physical, you know, presence of course, but we also know that he's in a situation where emotionally, he is a leader on that team, whether it's, you know, scoring goals, whether it's being a playmaker, which he was both in this game. Heck of a pass to Brock, better on the power play as Besser takes the contact from Lowson, but what happens after before that is a great pass right to that area, right to the blue paint. And Batch, he's been solid in the face off circle as well. Last game ends up winning 55%, but consistently in the 60, 70% range in game. So, you know, he's, there's a lot of miles on that body. JT Miller does not play the game. He's not a, he's not a guy that takes shifts off. He's a guy that, especially this time of the year, it's, you know, he's, he's embracing the pain as Rick Talkett calls it. And that's to be respected. That's what you need from your leaders right now. And sometimes they're goalscore, sometimes they're stars, other times they're role players, but JT Miller is kind of like the role player star. He kind of embraces both of those roles and it's really, really important this time of the year. - And that's a great compliment you can pay to a player because what do we talk about Sydney Crosby always as? Like the fourth line checking superstar. If you're being compared or talked about in similar terms as one of the greatest guys to play the game in this modern era, then you're certainly doing something right. And it was the power play that won this game for the Canucks after really not being very effective. And let's be honest, they hadn't scored on the power play in the series prior to game three. It comes through and makes a difference for them. And the change on the power play going into game three was Elias Lindholm moved on to the first unit in place of Connor Garland and the Canucks get the goals as mentioned, it's Miller with the first one and then he sets up Besser for a nice tip at the top of the crease to redirect it between the legs of Sorrows on the second goal. I'm wondering what you thought of that first power play unit. First of all, obviously made a big difference in the game and also the impact that Elias Lindholm's addition to that unit might have had. - Well, it was on two fronts. That second goal, let's start with that one because I thought that power play looked so direct. It was moving the puck quick and that comes of course after the original JT Miller goal. So there's some confidence. The second time they come around, they score that goal but Besser goal, they had Nashville chasing. And when this power play is playing well, when they're confident, when they are moving and they're keeping PKs on their heels. And that's what I saw in that goal specifically to say, this is a confident bunch. So there's a little bit more, you could say balance to that power play with Lindholm on it. And with Lindholm, one of the things you have to watch for is two things actually. He's a shooting threat. So he keeps PKs honest because he is that dual threat. And the other thing is if you're rotating, you're switching with them. He's also a pretty significant net front presence so he can tip Puck's home. So he just adds a little bit more than Connor Garland does in that regard. And with JT Miller on that first goal, what I liked about that play was right before that shot, he takes one identical spot that going downhill from the left hand side, it gets blocked, but you have to go back to your bread and butter. You have to try it immediately and you don't move away from things that work. He gets the puck back and there's no hesitation in that shot. That's a confident player. And I think that had an impact on the rest of the power play as well where they looked very, very confident on those two opportunities. - We should mention as well that that first power play goal came after a really undisciplined play by Michael McCarran for checking in the Vancouver zone, ran over Casey to Smith. That's what your power play needs to do in the playoffs. Like if we talk about the 2011 team, the best era in this franchise's history, we always talk about how they didn't get bogged down in a bunch of the stuff after the whistle or didn't get undisciplined or running around. If you were gonna take penalties against them, they were going to make you paid. It was nice to see the Canucks have an element of that in their game in game three. And if they want to make this a short series, that's going to be a factor that's going to need to continue. Another thing that's gonna need to continue is the strong performance of the penalty kill in game three. And really, it's been good all series long. The Predators only got a power play goal on their very first power play of the series in game one when Ryan O'Reilly scored on a shot from the left circle past Thatcher Demko. But yesterday is a game that you can credit a lot of things in terms of the Canucks and their ability to win, but special teams are at the top of that list. And it's not just the power play that we've given the flowers to already. It's the penalty kill too. - Yeah, the penalty kill has been excellent in a couple of senses. First of all, the clears are so much stronger of late. That's one of the things that Rick Talkett has mentioned in the past to say, the penalty kill percentage could be two to three points higher if they could just clear the puck down the ice. And all of the defenseman have been better at that. Ian Cole was criticized for that throughout the season. I think he's looked extremely strong on that. And we talked about shot blocking the level of sacrifice. That was evident on the PK. Last couple of games, but especially in game three. You were talking about making Nashville and Michael McCarran pay for that penalty. Well, not only did they make them pay on the power play, but the NHL also fined Michael McCarran $2,000 for that hit too, which in the scheme of things is not all that much for an NHL player, but the NHL player safety has come back at him and said, yeah, that was not only a stupid penalty in terms of the game's script, but it was also just a bad one from what they saw as well. But when you go back to the PK there, Batch, I think there's been a lot of talk about what's wrong with the PK, what can be done better? And when you send a PK 200 feet back into their own zone to reset, it's deflating. You take 30 seconds off the clock and the Canucks have shorted that up. But the other element is since they picked up Eliz Lindholm, since he's been healthy, having him there with Teddy Blueger to win face-offs, that just sets you up because all of a sudden, you win back the face-off if you're clicking at 50, 60%, and you're sending the puck out, or at least you're giving your defenseman or your wingers an opportunity to clear, and that makes a huge difference, especially for that first face-off. - So we talk about McCarran and that on discipline penalty, and obviously the penalty kill was great too. There is also going to be a change for the predators in terms of their lineup for game four. And we don't know what that's going to be, but we do know that defenseman Spencer Stasney has been listed as week to week after taking that hit from Dakota Joshua on the end boards in his own zone. Joshua was initially given a boarding major, and then the officials reviewed it and reduced it to a minor penalty. I've been getting lots of pushback from people on Twitter saying that they don't even think it was boarding, and they thought it was a clean hit. But Stasney out of the series, so we're looking at potentially Tyson Berry or Dante Fabro, a couple of BC products that could draw into the lineup on the back end for Nashville in game number four. But let's relitigate that hit, because in real time when we were calling the game, you and I both thought that they were going to call the major to have a look at it, and after a review, they were going to uphold that major penalty as Joshua finishes the check from behind into the end board. Stasney's head goes into the glass. They reduced it to a minor, so Joshua only served the two minutes, got to play the rest of the game. They killed that penalty off, and Stasney's out for, you assume the series at this point, if he's being listed as week to week. What did you think of that hit? And now looking back on it with all of the context and the fact that the league decided to find McCarran, but as of time of recording here, they have not fined to code to Joshua, leads me to believe that this is a situation where they didn't see that as being anything more than ultimately it was called, which was a two minute boarding minor. - Well, I assume what they're calling this is that, it's not a hit from behind, because real time, what we saw Batch was, the numbers kind of presented there, there was no last second change in Stasney's body position, and essentially what happened is, Joshua lured his left shoulder into Stasney's left shoulder, kind of the upper back area, causing Stasney's head to slam into the boards, and of course he goes into the boards. That being said, in the moment I was with you, I thought it was gonna be probably a five minute major, but the way you look at it, I guess it's they're essentially looking into saying, the left shoulder hit the shoulder is a shoulder to shoulder hit, even though the numbers were presented, and the numbers were there, and generally you wanna play it or wrap up at that point and kind of ease off, they downgraded to a minor, and I would assume it's because the shoulder to shoulder impact, that's more than anything, rather than a hit straight to the back. So when you look at the replays, and we watch it live, and of course caught the replays last night, when it's such a quick play, it looks like it's, oh, that's a hit from behind, but looking at the replays, you can see it kind of the shoulder to shoulder element there, but I still think it's kind of questionable in the sense that, if Andrew Brunette and the national predators are not pleased with that, I can understand why, because real time, the A, lost a player, and B, it looked like a hit from behind on that play. - Yeah, and as we look at the NHL rule book here, rule 41 boarding says, a boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit, or impact the boards violently or a dangery, the referee at his discretion may assess a minor penalty, or a major penalty based on the degree of violence of the impact with the boards. So that's where I am still surprised that this wasn't a major penalty, is there was violent impact with the boards, like make no mistake about it. Whether you think it's a clean hit or not, you know, Stasney does go heavily into the boards, and I always have had an issue with boarding as a penalty anyway, and this is kind of us getting off topic, but I'm gonna get on my soapbox here, because it's so vague. Like oftentimes you could call boarding for just hitting too hard, if a guy goes flying into the boards, and a penalty that's hit that's in the open ice might not be a penalty, but if it's against the boards, it might be boarding. So this is so vague anyway, that I completely understand people that are saying, hey, this should be a major penalty. I also completely understand people that think this is just a clean hit and should have gone unpinilized, but with the chance to review, to see the violence of the impact, to see that Joshua didn't divert his course at all, to see that Stasney didn't turn at the last minute or anything like that, I still count the Canucks lucky that they got out of that with only a two minute successful penalty kill, and not more in terms of either Joshua being given the major penalty, or let's be perfectly honest, with the supplemental discipline in the NHL being so unpredictable these days, it would not have surprised me at all if they had fined Dakota Joshua, like they did Michael McCarran. - Yeah, I'm with you. I'm still surprised on that front, because real time and the replays, I still thought it would be a little bit more, but one thing is for sure, that moment changed the game, even though they ended up getting a two minute penalty, there was confidence coming out of that PK, there was confidence in their game, and I mentioned it to during the game call, it kind of slowed down the game. As Stasney slowly got up, they were giving out the penalties there, Vancouver got a chance to get some composure, kind of relax a little bit, because they were up against the ropes in the opening four or five minutes of that game. What happened with that hit was two things, you got composed, but also, it was a big hit, and that was needed for Vancouver, because they were chasing the entire game, and here is a physical play that benefited them, and more than anything, Dakota Joshua said, all right, that's enough, you guys are having your four check, we got ours too, and I feel like that really changed the game, it emboldened Vancouver, and it also got Nashville's attention. - So the series now led by Vancouver, two games to one, ahead of game number four, coming up on Sunday afternoon reminder, two o'clock puck drop on Sunday between the Canucks, and the Nashville Predators will have coverage throughout the morning on Sportsnet 650, 10 a.m., I believe Josh Elliott-Wolf is on the air with the pre-pre-game show, and then at noon, it's sat and reach, and Yannick Hanson, with the official Canucks pre-game show, leading up to the drop of the puck ran deep and I, will have the call, and it's a big swing game for Vancouver, an opportunity either to come back with a chance to close out the series on Tuesday night at home, or you're coming back tied at two with the Predators, and in a best of three series. Do also wanna mention that they have released the start time for game five on Tuesday, it will be a seven p.m. puck drop from Rogers Arena. Still lots more here to come on in the booth, on the other side we'll look forward to game four, and what we can expect from the Canucks and the Predators in a crucial, pivotal matchup in this first round, best of seven series. It's Brendan Batchelor and Randy Janda, and it's in the booth on your official home of the Canucks, back with more in a moment. This is Sportsnet 650. (upbeat music) Welcome back to In the Booth on Sportsnet 650. We are your official home of the Canucks, if you've missed any part of the show, listening on the air. It does live as a podcast as well, so subscribe to the Canucks Central podcast feed. You'll get our show in the booth, you'll get the daily show every day of the week with sat and reach Canucks Central, and you get every Canucks Central post game show after every Canucks game as well. And Randy, we talked a lot about game three in this first round series between the Canucks and the Predators in the first segment, and touched on Casey Desmith and how good he was in the win for Vancouver as well. But we haven't really talked about what has been the biggest story around this club this week, which is the injury to Thatcher Damco, what is believed to be a knee injury, not the same injury that held him out late in the regular season, but it is an injury, and it is believed to be to the same knee. And so Damco, depending on the reports that you believe, either week to week, which is the official classification the organization has given the injury, or potentially out for the remainder of this first round, or potentially out until late in the second round, or potentially done for the year. So there's been a lot of reporting about this, and I think the main takeaway that I have from all of that information is that it's not really clear what this timeline is going to be, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Canucks don't even have a firm picture of how quickly Damco might heal, or when, or if he might be available for them going forward. - Yeah, there's a lot we don't know about this topic, and I'll give credit to the Canucks, since Jim Rutherford took power in Vancouver, there's a lot of, that is not known about injuries and that sort of stuff. So this is pretty good in terms of keeping the information inside. One thing is for sure, one thing we do know is that Thatcher, Damco did travel to Nashville, right? And historically, if you're in such a bad way, you don't make that trip, because A, you've got a heel, you've got a rehab, you've got to have a procedure, whatever the situation is, and it's generally an inconvenience for an injured player, especially if they're seriously injured to travel. So the fact that Thatcher, Damco, was in Nashville, he was celebrating with his team right after the game, given Casey to Smith a big hug. That should tell us something. I don't know what that means, but at the very least batch, we know is that when a player is hurt, you don't travel them just for the sake of traveling, right? There's got to be a level of comfort to say, all right, you're good to travel with us. So that's why I think, you know, that's an important fact here. What that means in the long term, I'm not sure, I'm not a doctor, don't play one on television or radio, and I'm not going to start now. But this is something that is something to watch because it's so important to this team. Thatcher, Damco, on certain nights, a lot of nights this year, was the MVP for this team. On, you know, the, the Vesna ballots, he was probably going to come in second, or he was going to win if he hadn't got hurt. So of course, he's an important player in this series, it's going to matter potentially beyond if the Canucks win this series. But in terms of knowing what the reality of the situation is, I believe guys, like Elliot Friedman, that say, hey, there's things to read into this, but there's a lot that's unknown right now. - And, you know, you bring up the fact that he's traveling, which I think you're right, could be seen as positive, could be something you could be optimistic about. But at the same time, I wouldn't get ahead of yourself and say, oh, that means he's for sure going to be back soon either. Because there's a couple of factors here. One, they've talked about how Damco and Desmith have a really close relationship. So having him come in the playoffs to support the guy that's in there, to maybe kind of act as an extra goalie coach to provide his input on what he's seeing out there from Nashville's shooters is something that could be an advantage for the Canucks. And also, you know, as we know, the organization takes pretty much everybody on the road in the playoffs. So any of the training staff that Damco might need to be working on rehab with could be in Nashville anyway. So, you know, while I agree that I think it is a positive that Damco has gone, I don't think we can necessarily look at that and say, oh, that means he's going to be back quick because they're traveling him. But here is another thing that we do know for sure, which is that based on how aggressively he worked to recover from the first knee injury, he suffered back on March 9th against the Winnipeg Jets. You know that Thatcher, Damco, will do everything humanly possible to get himself back into the spot where he can play games. And it's up to the Canucks to make sure that they are still alive in the playoffs by the time he gets there. - One thing is for sure, we've covered a lot of Vancouver Canucks over the years, whether, you know, going back to call it a decade or depending on how long each of us have worked in this industry, I've been doing it for what, 13, 14 years back, you're in that same boat. Thatcher, Damco is one of the more locked in Vancouver Canucks I've ever covered, where when he's got a focus, when he is, you know, to the media's detriment sometimes, he doesn't give you much in terms of interviews, but there's a level of just so much mental preparedness that he takes and he's such a strong individual mentally that you know behind the scenes to your point that he's pushing physically, but also mentally, being locked in, being supportive for your teammates, whatever the injury is, that takes a level of just being comfortable with who you are in your own situation. You know, a lot of people would look at that situation to say, I just came back from an injury and I get injured yet again, woe is me. Not for Thatcher, Damco, not in this team environment where, yeah, he's out there, he's given, you know, hugs to Casey to Smith, he's helping out presumably behind the scenes, giving some intel as well. So, yeah, I'm with you, I think if there's a way to get back in the playoffs in this series, Thatcher, Damco is gonna try his best, but that speaks to what kind of individual he is, but also Casey to Smith, right? Like we talked about this in the first segment of, we've heard so much about just Smith being that guy behind the scenes as well, in the room, whether it's with other goal tenders or whether it's with players, he's a player that they lean on and he's always there being supportive. I think that's a, you know, now it's kind of paying it back to him to say, hey, I got your back as well. You have ours and it's your moment to shine right now, we're gonna support you on and off the ice. - Yeah, and that's another thing we can talk about from, you know, being around the team a bit in the dressing room, is Casey to Smith always has a smile on his face? Like he's a pretty positive guy and I'm sure that's hard when you're a backup goaltender that would like to be playing more and even in stretches where he hasn't played as well as he would like this year, you know, always accountable, always steps up and talks to the media when asked and has a pretty positive outlook on things. So I'm sure that helps the situation, having a guy like that come into the crease 'cause it calms things a little bit. And I think we do have to give the Canucks a lot of credit because there are plenty of teams that would lose their starting goaltender and, you know, there would just be a reaction of, well, I guess that's our year finished, right? Like, oh, well, too bad, bad luck. We'll try again next year. We lost our starting goaltender. This is gonna be way too difficult for us. And we did see a lot of that in the fan base after this injury. And I wanna talk about some of the stuff we've seen in the fan base over the last week or so in a bit. But first of all, I think you have to give the Canucks credit for not hanging their heads, not saying woe is me, not saying, you know, this is now going to be hard for us, but they've buckled down and they played some really good hockey, even though they didn't win game two with the number of chances they created and the opportunities they had to battle back into that game. And then, you know, playing a gritty road game in game three as we talked about in the first segment and tightening things up defensively and helping Casey to Smith by blocking 30 shots, this is a committed group that isn't going to let an injury to their star goaltender prevent them from giving themselves the best opportunity to have success this year in spite of the fact that Demko's out of the lineup. - There's predictability about the Vancouver Canucks game and a couple of years ago when they required, even before Thatcher Demko got the starting job, remember in the bubble year that season, Jacob Markstrom was leading the NHL in stolen games. Thatcher Demko the last two years previously as well, had to play that superhuman level to even give his team a chance. Now there's a predictability in their game defensively and that just go back to the last game. They get the early lead and it feels like, especially in the third period, it's just all Nashville. There's, the goal is coming at some point in time. Batch, Vancouver only gave up five high danger chances in that entire game, a game where they only had 12 shots on goal, they only gave up five high danger chances. That speaks to the predictability, the structure that Jim Rutherford was talking about, Patrick Levine was talking about a few years ago and that really comes down to knowing where your teammates gonna be and a level of trust A in the skaters around you, the four other people that are on the ice five on five, but also trusting your goaltender, giving him half the net and ensuring that you're taking the other half to say, you do your job, I'll do mine. If something happens, I'll help you out, but there's a level of trust in this team that we're starting to see in this series as well, where, you know, Philip Forsberg, 48 goals. Ryan O'Reilly, a 70-point guy almost every single year, was at 69 points this year. You had Gus Nyquist, 75-point player, roaming Yoshi, 85-point player, but to give them five high danger chances five on five in the entire game, that speaks to the defensive identity of this team. And when we look at the roster, we focus on Pedersen, JT Miller, and the points that they put up, but there's also a two-way commitment by those players and everybody else that is showing here in the playoffs, it showed in the regular season to a certain degree, but we're seeing a different level of it here. - Yeah, absolutely. Now, moving on to what I was alluding to with the fans, and I was talking about this with you off air before we went on the air to call game three on Friday, but the Canucks lose game two. The series is tied at one. Yes, they have an injury to Demko, and I was listening to the guys host Canucks Central before we went on the air to call the game, and they were doing their Friday mailbag segment as they do every week. And this is not a criticism of our guys because they can only answer the questions that are sent into them, but the tone of the questions they were getting was like this team had already been eliminated, like one guy messaged in and asked, if they go down three to one in the series, should they put Arthur's she-loves in there just to get him playoff experience? There was another question about like, what should they be doing in the off-season? Should they trade Demko now that he is a player that gets injured so often? And this was when the series is tied at one, and I understand an element of this is the fan base, hasn't been in a playoff series like this in a long time, and when you win a game, you can feel on top of the world, and when you lose a game, it can feel like the playoff run is over and you're never gonna find a way to bounce back and have success, but I was really disappointed by the tone of some of the questions the guys were getting in, because this is such a cool experience. It's been so long since this team has made the playoffs. This is the first chance we've had to call playoff games outside of the 2020 bubble on SportsNet 650. And for a 1-1 series and a close, hard-fought loss in game two where they generated a lot, for that to be the tone from the fan base, and again, it's not all fans, I'm not painting everybody with a wide brush, but the playoffs can be a rollercoaster ride, and to a certain extent, you need to sit back and enjoy that ride and not get so emotionally tied up in every win and every loss, which I know is easier said than done, but I would like to see a little bit better from the Kodak fan base now that they've got a 2-1 series lead, especially if they lose game four on Sunday, and it ends up being tied at two coming back to Vancouver for game five. - Go off, King, go off, there we go. That was-- - I had to get that off my chair. - I love it, I love it. And I understand too, because this is still a team that is more than it was a couple of years ago. If this was that, you know, a team that relied on their goal tenders to steal games and lead the league and stolen games, I would be echoing these thoughts on radio, Batch, but that's not the team anymore, right? Go back to Vegas, and I know they were the Stanley Cup champions last year, so people are gonna say, okay, you're out to lunch by even comparing this, but when they started the playoffs, Aidan Hill wasn't their guy. Laura Bruce Law started game one, and there were other goal tenders that were used. Sometimes you gotta give your backup a shot, you gotta give those individuals on the ice a little bit of a try, a little bit of a benefit of the doubt, and Thatcher Demko, his loss hurts, you know no doubt about that, but sometimes this is the beauty of the playoffs. A, you rely on being a good team and having that structure, but the beauty and the magic of the NHL playoffs is sometimes some heroes come up, sometimes a hero will, whether that's a defense been blocking a shot with his head, or whether that's a big tough defense and throwing open his body checks. Maybe that's another goaltender, a veteran that is getting really his first taste of playoff hockey, they might surprise you. There might be a fun or a magical story that starts to develop, so I'm with you. I don't think it's that dire straits mentality that this town has been used to for the last five years, it's a very different team, and over 82 games, they do deserve your benefit of the doubt. They do, they've earned that. They've earned that much back, so I'm with you. - Yeah, and this is something that we had talked about a bit as well in terms of the goaltender situation, and they did a great job of highlighting it on the TV broadcast yesterday as well, that when Jim Rutherford has had success in the playoffs and won his three Stanley Cups, he's done it with multiple goal tenders every time, whether we're talking about Martin Gerber and Cam Ward, or you know, Mark Andre Flurry, Matt Murray, Jeff Zatkoff, I believe, played at least one playoff game for the Pittsburgh Penguins, the one year they had all those injuries in the crease. Just because your starting goaltender goes down does not mean that you can't have playoff success, and in fact, in recent years in Vegas is a good example of it too. You look to teams that have gone deep in the playoffs and have ultimately won the Stanley Cup, and it's pretty rare to say that one goaltender played every minute of the playoff run. It can end you if that's all you are. If you have pieces around you that actually are, you know, greater than your individual pieces, the some parts are what makes your team special. You can still thrive, and that's why Vancouver's shown by being a team that was top six in the NHL and goals against, that don't give up much off the rush. You don't give up two or three on ones, like they did the last couple of years. This is a different team. So, yeah, you have to have other things going well for you. You can't just say, hey, you know, this is gonna be an Andrew Hammond type of magic scenario, and a goaltender's gonna pop out of nowhere and be an unbelievable story. You know, you need other things if you wanna go deep in the playoffs, but the Vancouver Canucks do have those other pieces, right? And I'm not saying they're gonna go in a cup run here. I'm not saying all of that, but when we're looking at, you know, round one and having optimism, you have one of the best defensive teams in hockey. That should give anybody optimism. - Absolutely, and the other thing I think when I look at the goal-tending situation is, if you look at the West, right now, there's no team that the Canucks could face on a potential path to the cup final that scares me in terms of the quality of their goal-tending. Even the Winnipeg Jets with Connor Hellebach, well, he hasn't actually been that great through the first handful of games in their series with the Avalanche. Stuart Skinner doesn't scare me as an elite-level starter. Cam Talbot has, you know, had good moments this year, and as a veteran guy has played very well for the Kings, but he doesn't scare me either. You already talked about Vegas and their goal-tending situation. And I guess Logan Thompson has probably been the best goal-tender in the Western Conference to this point in the postseason. But, you know, in terms of the goal-tending matchup in any potential series the Canucks might have, assuming they can get through the Predators, none of the other goal-tenders on the other side scare me enough that I'm gonna sit here and say that they can't beat one of those teams based on a mismatch with Casey Desmith in net. - More so than the goal-tenders, you know what scares me is, Vegas's big defenseman that can plug up lanes. And what do Vancouver have? The exact same thing. And of course, Aiden Hill is a goal-tender who's won, you know, and they've got other pieces there that have won the Stanley Cup, but Vancouver modeled their restructuring of the back end based on Vegas that you're not gonna be able to get pucks through, you're not gonna be able to create opportunities. So more than anything, it's the environment that I think as a fan, you should fear more than getting goldied. Getting goldied can work for a round or two maximum, but if your structure is not there, that goal is gonna be hung out to dry. Like, you've gotta go in an all-world heater to win. But when you've got an environment that makes life easy for goal-tenders and you have to make one or two big saves, you don't have to be a superstar goal-tender. And Aiden Hill showed that last year. He's a good goal-tender, but he's not a superstar where the environment really dictates how the playoffs can go for teams. So from that perspective batch, even though it's a scenario where you're looking at Vegas's back end and saying, "Hey, I want that, let's go reconstruct that." The Canucks did that and the environment has become a very, very different situation and a better situation than some of the ones that you listed there. - Absolutely. So we'll see what the goal-tending matchup between De Smith and Sorrows has in store for us in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon. And as we look ahead in this series, I'm interested to get your thoughts on what we should expect in Game 4. My initial reaction is the Canucks are probably gonna have to weather an early storm again, because this is a desperate predators team at this point that knows that their potential success in this series could hinge on their ability to split those games at home and make it a best of three in the final three as opposed to having to come to Vancouver down 3-1. And then potentially the task for the predators at that point is you have to win Game 5 and Game 7 inside hostile territory in Rogers Arena on top of picking up another win in Game 6 on home ice at Bridgestone Arena. So I think a lot of the potential for the Canucks to succeed and build that 3-1 series lead in Game 4 is gonna come down to not just who scores the first goal, but whether the Canucks can weather an early storm from the predators. - Yeah, the start is gonna be vital in this game for slightly different reasons though, because if you get the goal, the first goal in this game, you're also testing the resolve of the national predators. They're a veteran team, but if they go down early in this game, do you give up belief or are you fighting till the end? And that's why I think if you're the Vancouver Canucks, you know, you kind of played rope a dope early on in that game and that was not necessarily by design. It was just natural, brought it and you had to adjust and it took a little bit of time. But one thing about this Vancouver team is that they're resilient and they're a very difficult team to play against. They can hang for 10 minutes, maybe a full period if a team is storing everything that they have at them and not buckle. So I'm with you, I think the start is gonna be vital here, but the Canucks in that last game did show Nashville something that you come after us on the fourth check, you can come after Queen Hughes and hit him the most he's ever been hitting his career, which is something that, you know, you start looking at that, there's an impact on Queen Hughes games. So Nashville did have success on that, but Vancouver fought back, Vancouver dished out big hits, whether it was Dakota Joshua, whether it was Zadorov, whether it was, you know, J.T. Miller throwing the body. There's a number of individuals that didn't back down. So I think more than anything, checking the Nashville Predators in game three will have an effect on game four, but Vancouver has shown that you can throw your biggest haymaker at us, will respond back and we'll take the lead. So I'm with you, I think the opening 10 to 12 minutes are going to be big and especially for keeping your structure. You wanna grab this series, you know, wanna give it to get it in the strangle hole that a three one lead, but you have to be disciplined, you can't get taking chances diving into the neutral zone. As we saw in that Evangelista goal from Philopronic, you gotta limit those things. There's the excitement there. There's a, you know, a real chance to grab the series, but you gotta be smart and play to your style and structure that they've been doing all year long. - Yeah, and I think the importance of special teams increases with every passing game in the series because it wouldn't surprise me if we start to see fewer and fewer calls each game as you get later into game four, game five and potentially beyond that, depending on what happens in the next couple of games here. So you've gotta make the most of the power play opportunities that you do get and you cannot get into penalty trouble and the Canucks will need their penalty kill to continue to be as strong as it has through the first three games in the series. All right, Randy, we're tight on time, but let's get to the Rose ceremony and we'll start with you. Who are you giving your Rose to this week? - I'm giving my Rose to Big Z, Nikita Zodorov and what else can you say, four hits, but not all hits are equal. Some absolute thumpers in game three. He scored in game two. He can change the momentum in game and what I like about him is that he has swagger. He's gonna hit you and he's gonna talk about it after he gets my Rose. - And scored a very nice goal, albeit in a losing cause in game two as well. So producing on the score sheet, he's got a couple of points in the series, but that physical presence and you're right, the swagger around it, Nikita Zodorov, very deserving of your Rose. I've gotta give mine to Casey to Smith. I can't imagine this was a situation he expected to be in with Demko coming off injury and how well Demko played in game one of the series too. So for Desmith to come in, to be composed, to be calm, to give the Canucks the level of goal tending he has to allow them to be in this situation now where they have the opportunity to win the next two games and close out the series in I think a lot quicker time frame than any of us would have expected when Demko went down is a credit to how well Desmith has played. Now I'm not saying that the Canucks are going to make this a short series and are going to close things out, but they have that opportunity at this point and that in large part is thanks to Casey to Smith. - He's been important for this team through one game and two games really, even though they lost game two, but Batchi's a confident veteran and the team's playing for him in front of him. That 30 block shots he mentioned was important for this team. So he's got the support. Let's see what happens in game four. - And finally, before we get out of here, Austin in Langley writes in with a question and this has kind of been a running bit on the show. So we're going to continue with it. Austin says, "PD seem to go quiet after Batch had to take a leave for calling games. Can we get an apology and break the PD voodoo curse?" And for those who aren't regular listeners in the booth, I missed a couple of games back in mid February when my son was born and the Canucks lost both of those games first of all. And it kind of started a bit of a tough stretch for them. So Austin wrote in and asked me to apologize for being the reason that the Canucks stopped playing well. And I did apologize and then the Canucks started winning games. So you know what? Even though I don't think any of this is my fault, if PD gets going as a result of this, I will apologize. I am so sorry again, Austin, and to all of our listeners that I missed those two games in February. - I love how we have the roses, but a weekly segment, Batch's apology. It's going to be like a new thing. Who are you apologizing to this week? For superstitions sake, if the Vancouver Canucks keep winning, you might have to, Batch. - Yeah, absolutely. That does it for our show this week though. So thanks for listening to "In the Booth" on SportsNet 650. Again, if you missed any part of the show, it lives as a podcast on the Canucks Central Feed. And if the Canucks win this series in five games, you can thank me for the apology. But all jokes aside, we'll talk to you next week on this show. We'll talk to you Sunday afternoon at two o'clock puck drop. The Canucks and the Predators in game number four. You've got it right here on your home of Canucks playoff hockey, SportsNet 650.
