This is the Canucks Central Post Game Show. Miller left wing, Lowe's shot blocked in front. By Lowe's on, but the predators couldn't clear. Hughes holds in, Miller left circle, shoots, he scores. GT Miller with the power play goal. Ripsey cloves side on UC Sorrows, and the Canucks score the first goal for the first time in the series. They lead one to nothing in Nashville. Huge tie slot again to Miller, bottom of the left circle, center to the ball. Tipped the score, top of the crease, it's directed in by Brock Besser, and the Canucks get their second power play goal of the night to take a two-nothing lead. With instant reaction from the players and coaches. Hawk is tripped into the Vancouver zone of Angelista's. Got it left wing, top of the circle. Got to get to the slot, shoots, he scores. Luke of Angelista for the high slot beats Casey to Smith, and the predators make it a one goal game with 3-12 left in the third. Have your say on the official home of the Canucks. Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network. Canucks, back in the lead in the series. 2-1 in games over Nashville after 2-1 win in Nashville against the Predators, and this is the Canucks Central Post game show presented by number five orange on the home here at Canucks. Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network. Satyar Shah with Bick Nizar and Brett Festerling. We are going to bring in Randy Janda into the conversation in just a moment. Get your thoughts in. To our Dunbar number text inbox, 650-650. You can also grab a phone line, 604-280-0650. You're total free, 1-888-275-0650. And guys, up until Nashville scored to make a 2-1 and created a little bit of angst, it really was a master class of defending for the Canucks. It pretty much gave Nashville nothing in the third. Maybe you want to see them push forward more than being in as much a defensive shell as they were. But the difference between this game and the last game where the Canucks are trailing against the Preds, they were under siege to Preds where the entire third. The Canucks, up until Nashville made a 2-1. It was kind of textbook defending up 'til that point, Brett. - Yeah, I thought they covered the middle. They protected the gods again. I think this was a great game by all six defensemen. The same way we were talking in game one, about how good that group was. They just shut off that middle. You saw anything that came in the middle of the door. I've tried to hit. Myers that reach came in huge. Cole was amazing at blocking shots and kind of off the middle. So they really didn't let them penetrate into those dangerous areas. And then they did a good job again in the notes. So they didn't really feel or didn't feel like they were in danger that much during the third. - It was, yeah, like a master class, right? And then that one goal, it's like two breakdowns on the same play, which they hadn't really done any breakdown on any play, but sequential breakdowns, suddenly Luca Vangelista creates that goal and then it's just white knuckle it for the last three minutes. They gout out a dodge there with their, hey, they at least got the split going to Nashville and see what happens in game four, obviously, but they were doing so well just until that last few moments. And imagine a lot of people like, I just wish they didn't sit back. It's what we were talking about in the second of the mission, but hey, they did the job. They got it too, one seriously. - Well, that's what you're looking to do. Let's bring Randy into the conversation and Randeep. I mean, not third period. It was hold onto your butts time for the last couple of minutes there. What did you think of the way that Canucks did respond tonight? - Yeah, I thought it was, first of all, a gritty, determined effort, right? This is a team that, of course, we've seen the storyline kind of the opposites in the first two games, but getting that first goal just kind of takes the stress out of the situation not to say that they didn't feel the stress later on the game, but you're not chasing the game. You have the team trying to throw everything in the kitchen sink at you, but you can rely on your structure and that's exactly what they did, guys. Casey to Smith, 30 saves. There were some tough ones too, of course, that double save, Evangelista on the rebound, who was getting into some danger spot throughout the evening, but I thought from a digging deep and blocking shot, so much of the narrative out of game two was Nashville did a great job. Vancouver, especially late in this game, throughout the game, but late in this game, Ian Cole looked like he blocked one off his collarbone and then gets the deflection on the stick and a little bit later on, Dakota Joshua was doing that and at least Pedersen was in the lane. It was a team that was determined to win and you go into this probably saying, okay, we need a split at the very least. Now you've got the leverage back in this situation. I thought it was a very strong effort. Of course, you know, you start looking at the underlying numbers, it's gonna skew one way. That's all right because you get that early lead. You survive those opening 10 minutes and the game, you execute well in the power play and you're able to guide the ship the rest of the way. - It's like they predators the preds because the shop blocks to me is gonna be the story out of this, they get 30 themselves tonight and the preds, they're looking at the box story now, 31 shots blocked, nine misses. It wasn't as volatile as the Canucks, but nevertheless, Canucks, their commitment to the pain that Rick Talk had mentioned a couple of days ago, they were willing to do it tonight. - Yeah, there was a clear sacrifice in their game and there's the physical play, of course. This was a tough game. This was a game that was, you know, guys are finishing their checks, especially early on in the game, on the forecheck, the preds specifically, but when you talk about eating pressure, if you've got that two nothing lead in the second period and of course, when you get an opportunity for the quick ops, we saw that on Philip Hironic hitting, I believe it was Brock Besser who ended up hitting the outside of the post, like they were still looking for their opportunities but they weren't leaning into it. You're gonna eat a lot of pressure as well and guys, you know, the defenseman as a six man unit were so strong today, Nikita Zadora for most of this game, led the Vancouver Canucks in ice time, laid in the game, Tyler Myers sees a lot more ice and ends up getting the overall lead but you're looking at six guys that had pretty equal time on ice, right? And that speaks to the confidence you have if you're Adam Foote and Rick Talkett in every one of those guys. So I thought that was a physical demanding game but the Canucks did not back down and sure it got hairy near the end there with the goal from Evangelista but you can be proud of that effort because it was not an easy game to play. - No, it wasn't, right? And you know, there are certain things the Canucks can obviously do better, right? And there are things that can improve on and in terms of trying to generate more offense, obviously five on five, you wanna do more 'cause five on five for both teams, it was the Predators only had five on five, five high danger chances all game five. The Canucks only had three. So it wasn't like the Canucks generated a ton but one thing they did a good job of guys and Brett, I wanna get your thoughts on this too and Randy chime in. On the power play, they took advantage of the Predators pushing forward, right? Leaving the front of net, Brock Besser was able to screen. He was able to be alone on the tip-inch, as Chancy scored. So on the man advantage, we saw the Canucks take advantage of how the Preds play and front the Canucks forwards on the PK. - Yeah, well, they talked about they had a plan and they hadn't executed yet and it was pretty obvious with the seam passes in game two that they were trying to get around that front and get in behind it, whether it was shots and rebounds or passes through or whatever it was. So you just saw them be more successful at that and then that leads to the lead. That's where they're comfortable and that's when they can lock it down. So I think we talk about would they wanna go more forward and get more opportunities? Yes, but they've kinda played that way all year and to me, they went back to that structure exactly with Talk Talk to him in September. We want this structure so that when we get in certain situations, we can rely on it to be our power and it's something that keeps us in games or wins those games and I think that's exactly what won them the game tonight. - Yeah, there was a predictability in their game when they got the lead and that's probably the biggest compliment that anybody in that organization, you would go back to Patrick Alvee and Jim Rutherford talking about players knowing where their teammates are gonna be. This was even before Rick Talk had got hired. Guys, we're starting to see that at the time of the year where it's the toughest hockey, it's toughest to navigate and that was a big game for that because yeah, you're eating a lot of pressure. There's a desperate Nashville team in the third period. Do you buckle or do you not? And despite a couple of hairy moments, you still pull it out. The other thing was the power play, guys. You talked about that seam pass and I love that from Brock Besser because he's there, he's got his position, he takes a hit from Lowson and he finishes, but even before that, on the JT Miller goal, who's in front of the net? We talked a lot about Elias Pedersen needing to up his game. I thought Brock Besser had a strong game on the power play but even five on five, there were moments where he was in the second period, creates a great turnover, active stick in the pred zone and leads to a JT Miller deflection chance. So there was just, I think overall, I think a lot of these guys embraced the moment where you're saying, okay, there's some questions are being asked about us, we were frustrated, we couldn't get pucks through, but lean into it, meet that pressure and I thought most guys and the majority and the entire team were able to really meet it head on. - Well, a functional level of compete too, right? Whereas last game they had overwhelming had the puck, right? But you think of even on the power play, retrievals, how big that was, how it looked in the offensive zone, Queenie was with a keep leading to a goal as well. And then the shop blocks, as we mentioned, but that dedication to it, to for me, is like the big story of why this is a 2-1 series for them. - No doubt, and you start looking at, I wanna say even, you know, the shop blocks is one thing, the matching the physicality and listen, Dakota, Joshua gets two minutes for boarding, but it felt like after that kind of insane 10 minutes where everything was being thrown at them, that hit turned the tide, like they stood up and they were like, okay, we're not gonna be, we're not gonna be eating all the hits. That hit kind of changed the momentum in the game where there was an acknowledgement of, all right, we're in this physically too. So I thought it was not only the shop blocks guys, but you know, just the hits, and Roman Yossi getting drilled by Nikita Zadorov, where Michael McCarran also through the middle of the ice, getting lined up. And this is, you know, one of the big guys, the biggest guy that Nashville has. And Nikita Zadorov's essentially saying, I don't care if you fight, I don't care if you're the biggest guy they have, I'm gonna line you up too. That sends a message. So when we talk about that commitment and meeting that sacrifice, shop blocks are one thing, but the way that I thought Zadorov, even though in a game where Quinn Hughes, this was probably the most we've ever seen him get hit in an NHL game guys, three big hits in the first period throughout the evening, Nashville didn't make him comfortable and made him skate backwards. He still persevered through it, but beyond that, I thought the rest of the guys elevated their game and Zadorov is one of those players. - Yeah, I mean, Zadorov, the physicality he brings, of course, but also he's a real intimidating presence 'cause I'm just not sure, as much as the Preds have a couple tough guys, they have Luke Shen on the back end, he's big and he's tough obviously, right? And they have AJ McCarran, they have Cole Smith, these guys aren't scared, they're not afraid, but even they, they're kind of diminutive compared to Nikita Zadorov. So I mean, Brett and Randy, I mean, the physicality he brings, he looks like intimidating presence 'cause I didn't see a lot of Preds really, you know, getting, trying to get after him, trying to exacting revenge after he absolutely crunched Roman Yossi in the third. - Yeah, he hits guys and then he goes back for more. That's the intimidating part for me, is there's really physical guys like the guy like McDonough, even Shen, they'll hit guys and then they're in the play, it's kind of, that's how they, their style, their business, Zadorov, and I'll go back to the first when he stood up, I forget who stood up online, but then he turned around and just yelled at him. He just like yelled and noise at, right? He's just intimidating that way of like, you're gonna have to come through me and you're gonna deal with me and I'm gonna remember this and I'm gonna keep doing it and he reminds you of that and that's what's intimidating. - Yeah, I mean, real big presence, let's go outside the Canucks locker room in Nashville, we're joined by Canucks forward Dakota Joshua after a 2-1 victory, the Canucks now have a 2-1 series lead over the Preds and Dakota, always a pleasure getting you on the show, man. I mean, that was a real battle between you guys and the Preds, but you guys didn't give up a lot. How did you guys feel about the way you guys played defensively tonight? - Yeah, thanks for having me and yeah, that was a playoff hockey right there. Just trying to make everything stay to the outside and if they did get to the inside, make sure they only had one whack at it. Casey played outstanding and we had a lot of good defensive efforts out there, so we're gonna be better next game but it was nice to pull that one out. - The, it was mentioned kind of being the villain walking into enemy territory. What was the environment like? And we were just talking about the Doral but you featured a big way in the physicality as well. What's it feel like having that target in your back on in a playoff setting? - Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Definitely a different role than being at home but you embrace it and it brings the most out of yourself so I really enjoy it. We kept them under control for the most part till the end there and then they got loud but resiliency and we got out of there with the win. - Huge shot block there in the first. You end up going off but that leads kind of to the first goal and then that seemed to be contagious throughout the lineup for the night. Did you guys talk about that or is that something you guys just want to be better at going forward here? - Oh yeah, we talked about just paying the price to make plays out there. It's not going to feel good all the time but you got to do it this time of the year if you want to get wins and that's the main thing and what we want to do so we're going to keep doing it and just part of the game. - You've played a big part on this team this year of course but also on the penalty kill and your role has grown and the team's PK has gotten stronger as the season's gone on but it seems like you guys have really found something on the PK, on one of the preds scored in the first chance in game one but since then you guys have been dynamite. You guys killed a two man advantage as well. What's the real key to the PK? Is it as simple as winning pucks and blocking shots? Well what are you guys doing a bit differently to have the success you're having? - Well yeah, you got to win battles and block shots for sure but we've just done a good job of reading off each other and as the year's going on getting better and better at no one where each other are going to be where your outlets are and then just making sure when you get a stick on it that it's going all the way down the ice. So you got to take pride in it when you're out there and we've done a good job of it as late and trying to keep that going as well. You mentioned wanting to improve on game four like the shot totals are fairly low tonight for the Canucks. Well what's something to improve upon that heading into game four? - Yeah, maybe not sitting back so much. We got to take more of the play to them. You know, we didn't give up that much but at the same time they definitely controlled the play I would say more than we did. So just getting in there and getting to the inside holding on to pucks when we're in the ozone and just making them work hard defensively will go a long way. - We were talking pre-game that through the course of the season the team has had to lead so much. You guys score first today. How much does that flip as well for you guys? Just kind of playing a more settled game when you have the lead. - Yeah, it's big in these playoff games. You want to get out in front and it puts more pressure on the other team, right? You want to play with the lead for as long as you can and it definitely settles you down when you get the first one but you know, you got to be able to battle back but also hold on to the lead when you have it. - And quickly before I let you go, Casey the Smith tonight. What do you guys make of the way he's battling between the pipes? - Yeah, great game by Casey. He stood on his head for us. We really, we needed that out of him and I expect him to have some more of those performances along the way here. - Hey, Dakota, thanks for your time, man. Best of luck in game four. We look forward to seeing you guys back here in Vancouver. Hopefully with an even bigger series lead. - There we go, sounds good. Thanks for having me, guys. - You got it. - Thanks for Dakota Joshua after a 2-1 nail biting win in Nashville against the Preds. Let's bring Randy in real quickly here but before we let you go, Randy, you know, on Dakota Joshua and the Canucks PK, absolutely massive tonight again. - Oh, huge. And especially early on in this game where you have a couple of penalties and it couldn't turn the tide of the game, right? It can go from a situation where they end up taking confidence out of that PK to really undercutting you and then you're chasing the game again. But guys, this is a PK that is, you know, allowed one goal through three games, but that was in game one and now you're starting to see them elevate their game. They're being very, very strong on the puck. What, one of the things that has bothered Rick Talk at this season and he said it and that's probably cost them two to 3% when it comes to their percentages, the clears, they're strong. The last two games, they've been very strong in the puck in making sure that the puck goes down the ice. I also love the confidence where, you know, J.T. Miller in the first period on one of those kills, not only are they killing the penalty, but he peels off and he goes for a bit of a skate and you're not a PK that's eating pressure and is not looking confident. There are moments tonight, they're saying, all right, yeah, we got this, we got this lockdown and a big part of that is face off wins, but it's also when those defense men get the puck on their stick, they're making it count and they're sending it 200 feet. - Brandi, great stuff man calling the game alongside Brendan Batcher. We look forward to hearing your guys's call coming up on Sunday, an afternoon affair, game four, Canucks and Prez from Nashville. Two o'clock puck drop, it's been a while since we had one of those, all right, looking forward to Du Bois and have a great post game show. - Love it, great stuff as always. All right, keep your thoughts coming into our Dunbar Lumber text inbox, 65650, we'll hit more of your text on the other side. Plus, more of your phone calls, 604280, 0650, your toll free, 1-888-275-0650. It's Satyar Shah, Bick Nizar and Brett Fesserling. More next on the home of your Canucks and the Canucks Central post game show presented by the number five orange of anchor religion. They've got sports too, more next on sportsnet, 650. Hey, it's Dan Reacho and Satyar Shah. Join us for Canucks Central where we will set up the game and break down the latest around the Canucks. 4 to 6 p.m. and post game on sportsnet 650 and wherever you get your podcasts. This is where you talk Canucks. You're listening to the Canucks Central post game show on the official home of the Canucks. Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network. Use on the right wing, goes down the near boards for Elias Patterson, Patterson passes below the goal line to Besser, now to the left wing for Miller. Back take you to my slot again to Miller, bottom of the left circle, center to the goal, tip the score, top of the crease, it's directed in by Brock Besser and the Canucks get their second power play goal of the night to take a 2-0 lead. And what a pass by JT Miller to connect with Brock Besser right in front of UC Zorro's. Some confident play by the Vancouver Canucks on the power play as Elias Patterson has the puck. Then he gets to Brock Besser behind the net and Miller and Hughes do a little bit of a give and go as Brock Besser gets to the front of the net and is drilled by Laozan as he deflects the puck between the legs of Zorro's to make it 2-0. Connected play by the Vancouver Canucks on the power play and Brock Besser taking a hit before he makes the play. Brock Besser, game winning goal for the Canucks on the man advantage, 2-1 victory over the National Predators, Canucks now lead the series 2-1. It's Satyar Shah, Bick Nizar, and Brett Festerling. Keep your thoughts coming into our text inbox, 65650. You can also grab a phone line, 604-280-0650 or toll free, 1-888-275-0650. We are gonna get to the phone boards in a second plus we'll go live to the podium when the Canucks head coach Rick Tock, it makes his way over. But Bick, what are the people saying in the text inbox so far? Let me turn my mic on, 65650. Jacob from the Maple Ridge, from Maple Ridge. Casey looked very confident today, made great for saves, tracking everything well. We had some good puck luck tonight but Canucks put their body online with those blocks. This one, this win is the Smith, 12 shots not get you a W which Elliot Friedman tweeted out actually that that's two shots on goal off the record for the lowest amount in a win. The Devils had 10 in 1990 in Chicago had 10 in 1974. - Well, I'm not surprised the Devils had a game where they had two shots on goal. - The mid-90s Devils or the 90s Devils find their way with the win. Yeah, so a lot of kids say this is my text going in, 65650. - Yeah, I get it. Brandon and Vancouver says our third line got killed and I thought he was going through it. Hopefully that changes the next game. So some people have some concerns about how the Canucks played, and believe it or not, a lot of criticism is about Elias Pederson but hey, you're not surprised to hear that nowadays, are you, Brett? - No, give the guy a break, I think. I mean, it's a win, it's a win. I want to take the win. Yeah, we want him for a minute or a bit more but it's a team game to me. And I think they show up as team. Do you want more shots? Do you want more grading opportunities? Yeah, but I think everybody bought in. That's the main thing. - It's interesting after game one, right? You're right, Canucks win that one and your preds had the lead for large stretches of that game. Game two, it connects dominate play and you think, okay, well, game two, like the results were almost flipped. - Yeah. - Right, and then game three, this to me like cancels out game two all of a sudden because it looked very similar but the Canucks are on the right side of the result in this time. So you start complaining about one result. You know, like, well, the last game, this happened and as long as you get the win, you're up to one in the series, you can just delete the pass and now it's just moving forward to game four. - Yeah, that's all it's about. Part deep text then it says JT Miller is and has always been the key cog to this team. If PD can be half the player who's expected to be, we can win this series. So yeah, the Canucks now lead to one. They can, you know, it's in your control now. - It felt like all of the 12 shots on goal. I'll bring this number up here. If I can find what JT did tonight is overall influence. It just felt like everything ran through him offensively. - Yeah, he was, he moved the needle for me. He was definitely leading emotionally, physically. He was just going every time he got the puck. He was, he was ripping, he was taking shots. Even if he didn't, couldn't get in tight, he was taking slaps shots of the blue and he was trying to do something. - So it's six shots on goal. So he accounts for half the team shots on goal. - Six shots on goal. - Add on another two for other attempts. So the Canucks tonight end up taking a quick maths here. 33 shot of attempts this evening and JT takes eight. - Yeah, we'll talk more about some of the shots and scoring chances as the show goes on, but let's hit the foam boards as well. 604-280-0650 or toll free, 1-888-275-0650. Let's go to Qutlam where we have Paul on the line. Paul, thanks for calling in. What are your thoughts after this thrilling 2-1 Canucks win? - Hey guys. Yeah, so I have to admit when I first heard the news that Thatcher Demko was injured, I was actually pretty despondent. I almost kind of gave up, right? Canucks, there's no way they're going to win 'cause, and I now realize what I kind of went to in my mind at the time was bubble Demko, right? And thinking about the Canucks defensive structure or lack of defensive structure for the last number of years. And I figured there's, if they don't have like a world beating goalie in net, there's absolutely no way this team can go anywhere. But I kind of forgot that like, this team is actually pretty good defensively. And certainly it's way better if Demko gets healthy and gets back. I mean, dismiss is a decent goalie, but he's no Demko. But I was actually kind of surprised watching tonight, like just how like structured they are defensively. I know we've been talking about this all season, how structured they are, but it just, I'm still kind of flabbergasted at how complete, they've done a complete 180 from the last number of years where their defensive structure was aortic is probably a good way to put it. And now it's like professional in this, you know, as you've talked about in past, like one of the best defenses in the league. So I don't know, I'm just, you know, now that I kind of, you know, think about that, I'm thinking like, hey, actually they, they could do well with this defensive structure, even if they have this myth in net for this round and hopefully next round as well. So I know just wanted to put that out there 'cause like I say, it was a bit of a revelation to me as I was thinking about it. - Hey, Paul, thanks for the phone call. And you know, they've come so far defensively as a unit. And I see people texting into about like, well, this is kind of like what happened when Nashville, the other game, you know, the Canucks were the team pushing, Nashville were just sitting back and it's the exact same thing. To me, it's completely different how the Canucks played the third. Now, yes, they scored to make it two, one, late with three minutes to go and a bit of a fire drill late when they pulled the goalie as well. And it was very hectic in front of the net. But, so last game, when the Canucks were trailing Nashville, in the third period, they had 37 shot attempts and they had 10 high danger scoring chances against Nashville. In this third period, five on five, that's five on five. Not even man advantage, five on five. Five on five, the predators in the third period had 18 shot attempts, one high danger chance. So I get it, like they were, the Canucks didn't push and Dakota Joshua himself admitted that they need to push forward. But I thought they defended really well. The outside of that mistake, of course, that led to the goal to make it two, one. The Canucks didn't really give Nashville much of anything in the third. Like to me, it wasn't really analogous to how the third period went in game two. - Yeah, I think it's protecting the middle. Like it comes back to protecting the middle and those six D men and even the forwards. And the goal they get is Lindholm kind of reaches, ends up blowing a tire or whatever you want to call that. And he gets to the middle and takes a shot. So that's, you know, when you keep those guys to the outside, it's just going to limit that. And then with the big guys boxing out, we even saw a PD and we saw Lindholm boxing guys out in front of two, that nullifies your second opportunities and the shots coming from the outside. So that was really positive. - For me, the big thing of why the flip and what Paul was talking about, why there's been a 180, it doesn't feel like they're selfish anymore defensively, right? And like for me, it's always been like, how can you contribute with four other players to get the puck? It's not about you winning a battle. Like that's important, obviously, but those opportunities are going to present themselves. And that's why that goal against was such a departure because here's Roanick making this big leap. Like if he just keeps that play in front of them, okay, what does it look like? There's still back pressure coming. How does the rest of your teammate help you? Lindholm on a play, it's like, you get a little lazy with the reach on the stick and suddenly a guy works the counterflow and finds a shot to make that a one goal game. But everything up until then was, like there was three guys just always making Nashville work around and just delay the play and suddenly someone else is there to tip a puck and win a battle along the walls and waiting for those opportunities. It was just that, those two moments, like even in the late scramble, like that's just throwing junk to the net and seeing what happens. And you can live in those environments if you're prepared for them and boxing guys out and they connect, survive, obviously those last three minutes. But in general, like up until that goal, everything was solid. - I thought, yeah, I thought so too. I thought defensively tonight, it was a bit of a masterclass. Now the gave up some shots and again, you'd like to see them push forward more, right? Not to be in as much of a defensive shell and there were chances where they could have maybe four checked and they didn't go as aggressively, but they were very comfortable. Like up until they scored that goal and on that goal, let's break it down for a second. What did you see as being the main problem? 'Cause I wasn't sure I loved how Aeronik stepped up 'cause he's a bit late on it. He takes himself out of the play, but then it kind of becomes a bit of an odd man, opportunity down low, Hughes moves away from Sizzance, trying to take the backdoor play away, but you didn't love the way Lindholm played that, that entire sequence. - No, I don't, and we'll touch on Aeronik first. That is kind of a, I don't know if you want to call that a 50/50 play, but the general thumb for D-Man is pucker body. You gotta get one, you can't get neither. And he got neither there. He goes up thinking he's gonna get the puck, doesn't get the body, and then he ends up catching him by the net there, but he's part of that counterflow you're talking about, driving to the net that creates that space. - Middle drive is probably what talk would say, right? - Yeah, exactly, so he can do a better play there, but that type of hockey play is gonna happen all the time. His safety net is Lindholm back checking, and Lindholm's there. That's where the problem arises. Lindholm's there, he has them, he has the extended stick. Now, if Lindholm doesn't think he can get him, just cut to the near post. He's gotta come to the net. - So he'll meet you there, but instead he reaches out, and then as soon as that forwards, he's that reach. - He reaches and bends over, like you're way spending, right? That's not an athletic move in any way, 'cause there's no recovery capability in that spot. - It's desperation. - Why is that active defending either? He's kind of like lunging over, whereas actually actively closing on somebody, right? But again, it's one of the very few mistakes they made defensively in this game. They were good defensively. You can ask more offensively, pushing wise, and creating, and doing certain things, but in terms of their defensive play, we recounted they had, what, two odd man chances. We'll get to that and your phone calls, but here is Canucks head coach Rick Talkett at the podium. - Positive is obviously the power play. Casey to Smith, and our D-Zone coverage was good. The negatives for me, our neutral zone was not good. They were, they were, gotta give that credit. We're gonna adjust that on a couple of things, and they were going through a neutral and pretty good. Breakouts were at less than average, so good positives on the D-Zone, which I think all year we've been a really good D-Zone, but I think a couple of things we gotta show up quickly because they were coming tonight. - Rick, have you felt from behind the bench like this series has had an inconsistent flow, and I don't mean in terms of your team performance, but it feels like not just every game is completely different, but every period almost feels removed from the other ones. Is that difficult for you, and do you feel that way? - That's fair. I mean, I think, I guess in both sides, there's been parts of the, whether you think there's a flow going, and all of a sudden it just turns to you turn. Like I said, the neutral zone, they were coming through the new zone on us pretty easily. Yeah, but I still, this series, I do like our D-Zone coverage though. I do, as much as they had a lot of possession, we limited a lot of insight. I thought our rails were really good tonight, and if they did get inside of Casey's Air Force. - A lot of conversation over the last 72 hours about sort of will to score, and the tweak you make on the power plans of sort of indirectly moving Besser down low, and him at the net front is key on both of your goals. What have you seen in terms of his improvement in that spot over the course of your, you know, 120 games in the coach of this team? - Yeah, it's got a great back to find that. I mean, the time into that goal, I mean, that's Bess. You know, we worked on a play from that goal, which was nice. Obviously the downhill shot from Milsey, you know, we've seen that before. So yeah, it's, I think it's huge for our team when our power play can find it. Hopefully that gets us confidence in the 505 game. - Rick, you said in the past that, you're not as concerned with the power play percentage as much as you are concerned, that comes up with big goals when you need it. Hasn't been that great recently, but two goals tonight in the low scoring game. Is that just evidence of that? - Well, the Besser goal, right? That's the big one. You know, gets us two goal lead, you know, they score and they're making a push. So yeah, that's, I'm a big believer that, you know, percentages are really when the pressure is on. That's when you want your power plays to be the best at. - What about your team's play over the second half of the game, kind of defending the lead and shutting down the game? There are a lot of positives that you can take from being able to play that way and play low event hockey. - Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, we're static with a win, but we got to, you know, we got to make us some improvements. But like the way we defended, but I think like I said, the neutral, we can shore up that. I think we can slow them down a little bit in the neutral and I think they were coming freely. And Brunette's a good coach. He's got some, you know, he has some really good offensive sets there that, you know, that we're gonna have to tweak. - Rick Casey was dropped into a pressure pack situation this week. What do you think enabled him to be more comfortable tonight? - Well, I think it's his personality, Frank. I think he's a, you know, he's not an uptight guy. He always has a smile on his face. I think that it's infectious when he comes in. Even if he has a tough night or things don't go his way, he comes in, spends hours or whatever with the clarky on the ice, never complains. I mean, his demeanor is just great for that role. And I think, you know, he was just locked in. So I would say just his personality keeps him kind of even keel. - Rick tonight, JT had the goal. Great setup on Besser's goal as well. But also even at 5 on 5 was probably one of your most dangerous forwards, even in the third period. He had a back check where he stripped one of the Nashville players of the puck. How do you grade his performance and what he meant to you guys in this one? - Yeah, I think obviously the snap shot, I mean, that's a typical milsey goal. I mean, that was, that pumped up the team. And then obviously the nice pass the best. Yeah, I think with milsey too, like I didn't think we got a shot there for a while, then he just grabbed the puck, went through the New Zealand and just ripped one. I think that helped our team too, a little bit of confidence too. Because I think we weren't looking for offense. We were just in the defend mode. And I think when milsey went out there and did it, it was almost like, hey, you know, we could, let's start playing some offense. So that's what he does with our team sometimes. - And with the PK, it seems like zone entry denials have been pretty consistently an area where you guys excel. The end zone was maybe up and down at points. It seems like you guys have really cleaned that up in this series of four. What do you like about how you guys are defending end zone on the PK right now? - Well, I think our clears have immensely improved. To be honest, we got some good clears in this series, especially tonight, that's been a problem all year. But I think if you can get that puck down, that's 20, 30 seconds and that helps us. So that's one of them. And, you know, I think for the most part, you know, the PK was pretty good tonight. - Rick, Brent's seem to be making a point of emphasis of trying to finish every check on Quinn Hughes, which makes sense. - Who's that? - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - He's got that escape ability, but they seem to get him a couple of times tonight. Is there things that the team can do to sort of protect him or is that just come with a territory of being a star in this league and he's gonna get that kind of attention? - Well, I think our breakout strategy, I think partly we can hold up some players but also think how you can, there's some things that he can do so he doesn't get hit too. I think it's a two-way street. You know, obviously there was a great play by the ref. I mean, Z had a great hit on Yoshi and then they went after Hughes. And then, you know, that's how they protected, the ref protected that because that was a penalty and I think they tried to grab Hugh Huggy. But yeah, no, I think the, if we shore up our neutral zone, we'll have more time on our breakouts and then Huggy'll have some more time to make a play. So I think it just connects. And they rim a lot of pucks a lot and they got to a lot of rims on us. Uncharacteristically tough night in the face-off circle for a long time. - Yeah. - Windholm has been so good for you. Was that O'Reilly on his game? Was that just Elias off his game and how much of that? You have to be mindful of moving forward. - Well, I think that it was the other day he, I think he owned O'Reilly. There are two, there's superiors face-off guys. You know, there are two heavyweight's going at it. So, but I thought Lindy was, I mean, I don't know what he played tonight but he was very good, very good. He very good defensively for us but I'm one of the bright spots for me. - We got two more points. - Yeah, just one more for me, Rick. Given how low event this series has been and how little you'd got from your power play but also from sort of your quote unquote, star player at the top of the lineup to have Miller and Brock perform the way they did tonight given the context with them co and coming off a loss. I mean, what does that mean for your group and in particular, given all the conversations about sort of seeing how this group responds to challenges and learns in the postseason? What's a game like that tell you about those two? - Well, it's big, right? Because if you look, the cons by Twitter last year at Marshall didn't score the first six games, right? I think when Chicago won their cups, I think Taves didn't score for eight games. Like, star guys are gonna go at, but they, but if you watch them, they stick with it. You got to have other parts of your game. So that's our guys are learning. If you're not scoring offensively, you got to make sure that you're good in other parts of the game. So I think that's, you know, now Mill's in, Brock have a good game for us. So that's just a lesson for our guys, you know, whoever that's struggling that makes sure your other parts of the game are really good. And eventually the offense will come. - Rick, going back to Casey and his demeanor, the first period, they pushed really hard, really took it to you guys. I don't think they didn't really get a lot of shots on net, but there was a lot of consistent for our check. Casey, you look strong, he looked confident. He looked like he was tracking the puck well. What does that do for the rest of the group when you see him locked in like that in a really tough situation? Does that permeate through the rest of the group even to the coaching staff? - Yeah, I think a couple of saves there. He was just, he wasn't, he just looked big, like he wasn't side to side flopping. I think that really gave confidence to the team. But they had a couple of, you're right, they had a couple of pushes and chances. And if you looked, Casey was right on the crease and he looked big, you know, he wasn't, you know, and I thought we, I thought it, I thought it was a big deal and I played well. I thought Z was good, Susie, you know, go down the list, Myers. I think they protected the house pretty good, but I just thought Casey, especially the first, after the first period, you know, I think one of the coaches said, you know, Casey, that was good that I, like you just tell, that he had it. - Thank you. - Good, thanks. - Coach Rick Talkett at the podium brought to you by Tile Town. From Vision to Reality, Tile Town has everything you need for your tiling project. See them today in Victoria, Richmond, Langley and online at mytiledown.ca. It's Sat, Brett and Vic here on the Connect Central postgame. Show, keep your thoughts coming into our text in the box. 650, 650. You can also grab a phone line. We'll get to more of your phone calls on the other side to keep them coming and you can call and we'll get to you and hold on to your lines. LJ says, it's awesome having a hockey nerd as a coach. You know, he's already thinking about what tweaks to make next game. The guy has a plan. I think that's a good point. And he was already bemoaning what they weren't doing well. He's already thinking ahead to what they need to tweak for Game 4, Brett. - Yeah, and you know what players those are? Because they're the guys on the bench with the board. I mean, now it's guys with iPads on the bench. But when I played, it was guys just getting the board and going through and doing next to those. Now guys go through. But there's guys as a player, everything that happens, you're thinking of ways you can get around it. Or if they do this again, let's try this. Let's try that. You see the different, you know, and that leads to things like Miller gets the shot. And then that, the next time they're gonna take that away, okay, let's work it low and then go to Besser. That kind of thing. So, yeah, it's great. When a coach nerds out like that and he wants to change it. And then for the hockey guys to have a coach come understand those parts of the games and then go through the X's and O's, it's huge. - I also imagine speaking to the guys of how the minutes were deployed. So just the centers, Lindholm, 2137, Miller 1935, Patterson 1741. So there's a bit of a gap between all that. And look, I know we talked about the one goal against. I did think Lindholm was amazing. - Yeah. - Just that one play and then the face-offs were a struggle. But in general, like I thought he was very influential with his natural defensive ability. - Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's something that went a long way. And he gave a lot of kudos to how they defended. And he liked their in zone defending, something that we talked about, like boxing out really well. And anytime the coach mentioned they did get the shots, Casey the Smith was there. But in terms of second chance opportunities, there weren't a ton, I mean, eventually at least they had the one in the second, where it dismissed me the great pad save coming across. And yes, the last couple of minutes, their Cole saved, blocked a shot with his head, his everything. I don't know what he didn't block a shot with on that sequence. But overall, there weren't a lot of second chance opportunities that the preds could get to. - No, and I think, yeah, any besides Casey, we saw a lot of demand block shots, anything that came under the top of the circles, Cole there in that sequence, even off the back of Miller's feet there. - Yeah, the one who was kind of dangerous in the third, there was, they collapsed. They even showed him the replay of Canucks, getting five guys below the hash marks. - The rails. - Yeah, the rails. - Then the rails for those wondering. So it's kind of that invisible line horizontally across the hash marks by the circles, right? And yeah, they were right there in position. The fours helped get pucks out how often we see Dakota Joshua, Lindholm, Miller, even Patterson, being in that spot, helping in pucks out. - Yeah, so if you all pull in the same direction there and you get guys sacrificing their bodies for that, it's just gonna be hard to get pucks through. And we saw that from Nashville last game and we saw that from the Canucks tonight. - And then there's Ian Cole. And then there's Ian Cole through it all, right? Like, I was gushing through the course of the game to you guys, just like, there he is again. He shows up, so tonight, five block shots for Ian Cole. He's the leader of the 28 that they've scaled it back. I guess the Angels do an audit live time 'cause it was 31, it's down to 28. He has five of the 28. - Five, five. - And I think two of them were on one play, including his head. - Well, it may have been three on that play, but yeah. - He doesn't flinch though. - No. - I think he knows it's coming out of his face and he just kinda closes eyes like, here we go. - Here we go. - This is the moment. - Here we go. - This is what I'm gonna, yeah, well man. And Nock in the six says, shout out to Ian Cole for putting his face right on the line of Yoshi's wind up at the end as well. To Smith, a good game, but he really needs to learn the rebound controls. Certain things that he can do better as well. - But that's part of his game, right? - That is, and he's not gonna all of a sudden become this, you know, full best. So what you have to do is you have to play to your goal, these strengths, and then help him with his weaknesses. And they did that tonight. - Yeah, BKC, that's what talk said. We don't need him to be like, something he's not. Just BKC, and let us take care of the rest. And we'll play our game. And I think he's been KC for two years. - He's so aggressive, right? And you see on, sometimes on, say, it's like he's pushing out. And then even when there's a rebound, he's still moving forward. So he's closing the space between the puck and the shooter, even on a jam. And he's like, in some of those moments, like it looks chaotic. And it's not necessarily my favorite. It doesn't always inspire confidence. But it's how he plays the game. And so if you're executing it to that level, then it's like, I can live with some of it. It, don't get me wrong. I know a lot of people are texting you. I'm like, oh, great game from this man. Honestly, it didn't look so similar to game two for me. - Yeah. - It's just like this one, the puck didn't slide in on a Ryan O'Reilly chance. In the first period, it just doesn't slide towards the net. Like there are moments, but like this is kind of how we place. - Yeah, I mean, maybe a bit on the first goal last game is a bit too amped, but you're right. I think overall, not too dissimilar with the rebound control and how he played. Colin also in the caribou says, listening to the talk at post-game instills confidence in the fans. I can only imagine what it does for the players. And that's Colin also in the caribou. All right, we'll get to more of your text, more of your phone calls, and a few more minutes with our good friend, Brett Festerling, as you are listening to the Canucks Central post-game show presented by number five, Orange. It's Satya Rashaw, Biknazar, on Sports on 650, and the Sports Net Radio Network. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans will dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sports Net 650, or wherever you get your podcasts. - This is where you talk Canucks. You're listening to the Canucks Central post-game show on the official home of the Canucks. Sports Net 650 and the Sports Net Radio Network. - Queen Hughes near corn, throws it off the wall, cut, got caught up in a crowd of bodies, and now rolls to Forzburg in the slide. Tried to shot stop, but to Smithy made a great save out of Angelista, on the rebound, and the puck rolls behind the goal. Delayed call coming up here, as if Angelista and Hughes are tangled up behind the net, and that will draw, a crowd of Angelista is on top of the Canak captain. - I think a couple of saves there, he was just, he wasn't, he just looked big, like he wasn't side to side flopping. I think that really gave confidence to the team, but they had a couple of, you're right, they had a couple of pushes and chances, and if you look at the case, he was right on the crease, and he looked big, you know, he wasn't, you know, and I thought we, I thought the big deal, and I played well, I thought Z was good, Susie, you know, go down the list, Myers, I think they protected the house pretty good, but I just thought Casey, especially the first, after the first period, you know, I think one of the coaches said, you know, Casey, those good that I, like you just tell, that he had it. - Canak's head coach, Rick Talkett, after a 2-1 win, over the Preds in Nashville, the Canucks now have a 2-1 series lead, over the Preds, and he mentions the big demon, and how well they played. Well, Tyler Myers led all Canucks defensemen, Ice Time tonight, 2,158, 58. So, Dorav was 2nd, 2019. Hughes 3rd, 1929, and Heronic 4th, 1857, so it was the two big defenders getting most of the, Ice Time here tonight for the Canucks Decor, and this is the Canucks time to post game show presented by, the number five orange on the home of your Canucks, sportsnet 650, keep getting your thoughts into our text and inbox, 65650. You can grab a phone line, 604280, 0650, but before we go to that, Satyar Shah, Biknazar, and Brett Festerling, Nikita Zadorov, and I see a lot of people texting into, people saying, you know, they have to pay Zadorov, give him his money, there was someone texting, I wanted to read here real quick. This needs to be talked about guys, Zadorov has to be signed before Heronic, he showed up at every playoff game so far. I think it's fair to say that through the post season so far, Zadorov has been the most imposing, consistent figure on the Canucks back end. - Yeah, he's been my favorite player for the playoffs, to be honest with you, he's been really physical, he's skated pucks, which is kind of an underrated part of his game, and sometimes he just kind of sees the ice, and he's like, I don't wanna deal with all the forwards here, I'm just gonna skate it and get it going. And then he's got some shots through, he's had good shots from the points, he's been my favorite player of the playoffs, I agree that his, what he brings to the table, especially in playoffs, just gets elevated, and then you bring his, he's elevated that physicality in the playoffs as well, so he's been incredible. - The direct nature, it's not even just that he's carrying it out, 'cause you think of D-Man carrying it out, it's like already looping around the first guy up the board, like he's going up the middle, and-- - Very direct, you know, it's not just meandering, looking for space, he's very good at times with the second four, right, like the first guy will go to the other D-Man, and he's like, I'm coming right at you, and I've got the big mobility, I've got the big reach, I'm gonna work around you, no problem, and he's done it a bunch of times, it's like, it's in the middle of the ice, and he's like, he did it on the first shift in game one, and the three of us were, oh boy, okay, he's locked in, and it's carried through, so it's the course of the series. - Yeah, I like it, he goes directly at it, he takes the angle away from the forward, 'cause the forward's trying to angle, that's exactly what he was trying to do, he's just like, yeah, you are gonna play this game with, yeah, here we go, and if you wanna try to hit me, go for it, if you wanna try to reach me, I got the reach, good luck. - Well, his first, like, his stride is so powerful, and so you think you get an angle on it, and then suddenly, like, here's this extra little acceleration, and the burst just pushes him right past guys. - Yeah, the one arm, the one arm reach, usually that's a penalty, 'cause guys can't hold it, and they're weak, and they get spun, I've never seen a guy stronger with one extended arm in my life, and then one of that extended arms, seven, eight feet long, it's great. - Well, and like, he's such a presence, and we were talking about this before on the show too, but he's an intimidating factor, he'd last at the opposition's face, and what are you gonna do about it? Like, then, Preds don't have soft players, but they're like, like, who's going to go after him and challenge him? - Yeah. - Nobody can. - No one's really trying to police it, it really is, like, the only guy, the only candidate would be McCarran. - But even him. - And he's busy taking runs at case of this man behind the net. - Yeah, and the game's just changed, right? Like, that's maybe 10, 15 years ago, there's other teams are equipped for that, but there's not many teams equipped to take that on. - Yeah, absolutely, we're gonna go to the phone boards in a second. Special shout out to the viewing party at Rogers Arena, Energy at the viewing party at Rogers was Wild Go Canucks, Go is one text message, and somebody else was texting in too. We were at the watch party tonight, the atmosphere was electric, even away games are home games, and OG also texted and says, "Hey guys, shout out to the Canucks organization "for an epic viewing party at Rogers Arena, "so glad I went, everyone in attendance, "was raving about the experience. "Hope we have another chance to do it again soon, OG." And the shots we saw from the viewing party at Rogers looked like the place was jumping, so good for you guys being out there and hopefully enjoyed for game four as well. All right, let's go to the phone board, 604-280-0650, you're toll free, 1-888-275-0650. And let's start things off in West Van, where we have Steve on the line. Steve, thanks for calling in. What are your thoughts after the Canucks win or two-one? - Well, first of all, I believe what I'm calling is, I've got two words for you guys, Tyler Myers. Remember the days we used to rag on him and what is he on the team for and all and all and all? - Yeah, yeah. - Well, let's, I think we all owe him an apology, because look what he has done, even right from when he didn't show, when he was not at the last game, but he was there tonight and I think he's made a huge difference. So I think we all owe him an apology. That's it guys, that's why I'm calling, go, Tyler. - Hey, I like your call, Steve, good call. And you know, we were talking about Myers before the game would reach and we're like, "Hey, the two players who have changed their standing with Canucks fans this is the most this season." And J.T. Miller is the leader. I mean, they're chanting J.T. Miller at games and everything, but it's really watching Tyler Myers as well and seeing the way he's kind of gone across. And I think the big thing with Tyler Myers has been his game has improved. Like it's improved to such a degree where he's become a net positive for this team. And especially in the postseason, you see the physical presence, you see the way you can clear the net. And they really missed them in game two and his presence tonight was very noted. - Yeah, he had the fresh legs after the flu there. He was great tonight. I think he just simplified his game. Like we've talked about one, that the structure in the system under talk and just the team in general helps him so much because it's predictable and it's predictable where guys are being. I think he got in a lot of trouble last year because it turned into him free wheeling a bit, right? He had to get it and then he didn't know if he needed to skate it or pass it. And now it's pass and then he uses his speed to jump in the play and then he can make plays when he gets in it. So he's been awesome this year. I think it's been simplified and he's more direct, but I agree, he's been great. - The best version we saw of him too was in the bubble and like they needed him in the Vegas series, right? Alex Tuck was running a mock and having a phenomenal series and it's like, well, Tyler Myers has got to be in there and what will he do? Well, he played a big role in that series. Now he's back here, right? And suddenly in the playoffs, like through three games, like yeah, everything looks settled. Everything looks a bit different for Tyler Myers. Like even during the regular season, it's been a fantastic bounce back for him. Like there were moments and stretches. Like, oh, he's fighting it. But so far through three games, he's been fantastic and on the penalty kill again tonight, like obviously they go perfect and talk even like downplay the penalty kill a little bit. I don't think he's just trying to keep him level headed, but like they were fantastic. And Tyler Myers tonight on the PK, ends up playing 334 as a draw, played 423 and a minute ahead of everyone is Ian Cole. 527 on the PK tonight for me and Cole. - Yeah, he was an absolute monster on the PK tonight. Just the monster with how he blocked shots. And you know, in his game, you know, we talked about this too Brett towards the end of the season. He had some moments where it looked like his game was struggling a bit. And you kind of figured, well, he's a veteran, you know, probably a lot of wear and tear on his body through the course of the season. But can he find another level on the playoffs? He certainly has. And it's one thing to sacrifice. It's another to just do it so fearlessly as he did, especially on that sequence where he blocked like three shots and one with his head. - Yeah, I think if you go back to game one, his experience just shines through. Like if he goes the first, I think the first shift of the first game, he makes the nice pump fake slap pass to Miller in the middle and that kind of sets a tone of confidence because you can easily get in that game with that crowd and just be kind of antsy and gripping the stick and dumping in. I mean, I would have put it down to all 100%. But he makes a nice offensive play, which we don't usually see from and to me, that just like settled the whole team down into this thing. And then now you just see how he does all those intangibles so well and he's just not scared of the physicality, the shots, and just taking the bull by the horns a bit. And he's been really good for your game. - Wines up with four shot attempts tonight, one hit and three blocked shots for Tyler Myers tonight. - Yeah, strong performance from Tyler Myers tonight on the back end for the Vancouver Canucks. All right, let's continue on the foam boards. Let's go to POCO where we have John on the line. John, thanks for calling in. What are your thoughts tonight? - Hey guys, thanks for taking the call. Well, you know, just again, obviously, we're like a really gutsy win, but I think it goes without saying, I don't think we can get away with play in this rope at Oak style. Like, you know, 12 shots just unacceptable. Like, I mean, you've got to be generating 20 to 25 plus shots and assert themselves more offensively in the next game because like I say, I mean, the defensive side of their game is good, but you know, you still have to put, you know, effort into trying to generate offense and directing POCO and being more direct to the net. So I just like to see them obviously bringing more offensive cash in the next game. Thanks guys. - Hey, thanks for your phone call. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad critique. You push a bit more Dakota Joshua who joined this post-post game mentioned they can push more and not sit back as much as they did in the third. It seemed like the coach is big as gripe though, circling back to what he had to say. And of course, John called in and wants him to be more aggressive offensively. The coach didn't love how they played through the neutral zone. He thought that they allowed Nashville to go through the neutral zone too easily. They were getting in on POC. So if you get through the neutral zone with speed and dump it in, you're probably gonna get the POC too. And it seems like he wasn't too happy with the fact they were able to do that. - Yeah, the neutral zone just sets up your play offensively and defensively, we were talking about Hughes getting hit and he was saying, well, if we close down the neutral zone a bit more, he won't get hit because it gives your defense been more time to break out. But then on the other side in terms of more shots, and I agree, they do need to get more shots and be more of an offensive presence. But it just allows you to turn those POCs and get that grind game going in the forecheck. And they didn't really have that because of that neutral zone, right? So if they clean up that neutral zone, turn a little more POCs over before the red line and re-attack. I think that'll lead to more shots the way Nashville kinda did tonight. - I do think it plays a big role into them scoring as well, right? On the power play that they were willing to sag off a lot more, especially in that third period obviously. But just in general, the nature of the game, like they take all the penalties in the first period. So you're kinda working the flow of the game. And then in the second period, it was a bit more even. But that stretch there, again, they get their work done on the power play with Bessers. But it was a tough time for me to pick up the flow of the game. And I imagine that was also difficult to it. So let's see how that translates into game four. - Yeah, in game four, it's gonna be absolutely riveting to see how the Canucks do go about things. We have to go here pretty quickly with Brett. What are you looking to see from game four from the Canucks? - Yeah, more of the same. You got home ice advantage now. Now, I mean, you're playing with House Money, but you obviously wanna take a three-one lead on this. I wanna see the structure. The demand, the same type of demand you want, that same play in front of Smith. I think he's right, the neutral zone. If you can get some more neutral zone play, just create more of that grind game in the office. - Brett, great stuff, man. Can't wait to talk to you on Sunday. More coming up on the Canucks Central Post Game Show right here on the home of your Canucks in next SportsNet 650. - Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on SportsNet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. - This is where you talk Canucks. You're listening to the Canucks Central Post Game Show on the official home of the Canucks. SportsNet 650 and the SportsNet Radio Network. - Roman Yossi got it free to Luke Shen. Now to center for Knight, who's driving the Vancouver line, right wing McCarron, gonna trust up by the Smith. It bounced off, pull in front, back towards the net. And Ian Cole recovered to pull the puck out of the crease as it was trickling towards the goal line. Canucks have had a couple of close calls around their own net. (upbeat music) - Canucks now lead the series 2-1 after taking game 3-2-1 in Nashville. And this is the Canucks Central Post Game Show presented by the number five orange on the home of your Canucks, SportsNet 650 and the SportsNet Radio Network. It's out to your show with Bick Nizzar. Keep getting your thoughts in to our Dunbar Lumber Texan inbox, 650, 650. You can also grab a phone line, 604-280-0650 or toll free, 1-888-275-0650. But before we go to the phone boards, Bick N, we are gonna get to more Canucks players reaction post game as well as a show goes on and we will connect with our good friend Ian McIntyre coming up at nine o'clock and we'll get into everything that he saw from Nashville against the Preds. But the Texan inbox is jumping. Canucks fans are excited with the team being up and they're playing off series against the Preds. - Scooter. - There we go. Scooter in Port Moody expected the Preds to have the home crowd bump tonight, connected to a decent job weathering that storm, deserved to win a game like this. Not a recipe success long term though, can't sit back like that in game four. The Smith was a plus TJ in Surrey. No rhyme or reason to the series. Absolutely bananas. No pattern period, period let alone game to game all for it. Myers is thriving in the chaos. What a win. Joe Bob says this was so stressful. Took years off my life. Glad to have playoff hockey back. I missed this kind of stretch. - Embrace the pain. - Yeah. - You know when we talk about, you know, the coach talking about players embracing the pain. As a fan, you have to embrace the pain of watching playoff hockey. Like the ups and downs, the peaks in the valleys, it's the journey and the playoffs that makes it fun. Scared money, don't make money, right? - Exactly. - Cole, player of the game, no doubt. He's read the book on how the Preds want to play and got in front of everything when it mattered. I just like everything Ian Cole does right now at these playoffs, it's been phenomenal, man. It's just been like even like a subtle breakout pass. There was a moment where just you know, five V five going up the ice. He's in the middle of the ice. I think he was Ryan O'Reilly, that's to his left. And he's trying to hit Zadorov, I think. And, or it was, it was a Ford. And he does like a double clutch which normally would say like, oh, he's gonna fumble the puck. He kind of does a fake and O'Reilly takes a stick out of the lane, spins. And he just like opens up the lane for himself. He's like, oh, there's my exit. He just like, he is slick, man. You really see the value of Ian Cole right now in playoffs. - And no doubt. I mean, Swab in the Olympic Villagio says Ian Cole blocking two shots with his head. Had me ready to run through a brick wall. Canucks in five, that's Swab in the Olympic Villagio texting in. - Love the vibes, man. Like one win. And it's like, yeah, sweeping the rest of the win. It's like, look, I said Canucks in five as well, right? - It's in play, it's in play. - Maybe you scale up one game with, with, Demko going in or going out in this myth going in, but like even with the overwhelming shot total tonight, and I'm just looking at MoneyPuck.com here. - The deserved one. - Yeah, what was it like, let me guess, was it almost 70% in Nashville's, I don't know, 65% in Nashville's favor? - 50.6. - 50.6. - That's it? - Yeah, and you think about it, like the way the Canucks defended. - Wow, so it's not even, I can understand. - Well, you know, maybe that shouldn't be as surprising, 'cause again, like looking at it in terms of five on five play, like, you know, and even strength, five on five. The Canucks gave up five high-date scoring chances. Five, only one in the third period. And I saw people mention this and I hit this briefly, but I want to spend some time breaking this down with you a bit more, too, about what the Canucks were doing defensively in this game. But, you know, somebody was texting in, too, and saying, I think it was, Andrew, sorry if I don't attribute it to you, but said, essentially, it was Freaky Friday, the Canucks and Preds changed teams, you know, with game two and game three. But I think defensively, how the Canucks played in the third was really different than how the Preds were really under siege. Like I mentioned, so that five on five in the third period, game two, the Canucks had 10 high-danger scoring chances. They had 37 shot attempts. Preds, one high-danger chance, 18 shot attempts. Like, to me, there were nothing alike in terms of the level of stress. What makes it made it so stressful was the fact they scored a two-on goal, and then afterwards, pulled the goal and then the Canucks were under siege for the final few minutes, and that, of course, created a lot of stress. But I think for the totality of that third, up until the fact, up until Evang, at least, has scored that goal, there wasn't really much going on in terms of quality scoring looks for the Preds. - I may have tempted fate, 'cause I think the comment I had said to you guys was, they can keep defending like this for another hour. You can go play another two periods of them. They'll be fine, and then, certainly not like, minutes later, the goal goes in, and then it all breaks loose there at the end. But, you know, just off the top of my head, like game two, there's three empty net moments that the Canucks should have scored on. The Anderson Josh was a suitor. You know, Brock Pesser has two great eight chances right in front. One goes off a stick, other sorrows for another, and then there's countless others. Though, of course, to that game that they just didn't convert on to make that closer game, or to edge it towards Vancouver. Tonight, like, okay, early on, there's that puck that gets swept just wide by O'Poke, just wide by Rhino Riley. There was a two-on-one where Myers ends up taking a penalty on, and Smith makes a save on Carrier. But, I mean, outside of that, like, the second period was fairly low event. There was a shot and a rebound from Foresburg, and then Luca Evan-Jelista, that Smith turns away with a skate, but, you know, that was it. The real marquee one, and then the third period was, like, just chaotic near the end. There was the McCarron shot early in the period that it's a routine save, and it goes off E and Cole to make it a bit more dangerous. - Yeah, that's the one where Cole almost puts it into it. It was complete, like, it wasn't his fault at all. The bounce is off Cole and it goes in. It's completely a fluke one, but it doesn't go past the Smith who ends up getting a pat on it. So, yeah, I mean, obviously there are things the Canucks can do better, but for the whole idea of how the Canucks played in the third, I, you know, for the most part, like, defensively, they did a good job. Of course, you want to see them be able to push more 12 shots, and like you mentioned, Vic, only two other victories in playoff history have teams had fewer than 12 shots in one. So, it's not a recipe for success. Like, if you get 12 shots on goal, Vic, you're probably not gonna win a lot of hockey games. Like, generally speaking, that's gonna be true. So, there are things they can improve and should be improving upon as the playoffs go on here. A lot more reaction on the text inbox, 656.50. A lot of it comes down to Nikita Zadorov as well. You know, people text again, the one thing I have learned from these three playoff games is the Canucks need to find a way to retain Zadorov and Joshua. Benny from the Mox, Big Z was a player of the game for me other than slapping that rolling puck in the crowd. He was immense, and even slapping that puck in the crowd came off of a bit of a soft call on Brock Besser, and it leads to a two-man advantage 'cause he clears it with too much vigor, getting it out of his own zone. And the Canucks are down two men for what is it? Almost 30 seconds. The PK did a great job. - 27, yeah. - PK did a fantastic job on that sequence as well. So, the one bad moments that Orov has was taking the too many men penalty. Sorry, the delay a game penalty put in the puck over the class. But, the PK really stepped up in that two, in that five on three advantage as well. Not giving Nashville more than the one really good look they had, thinking it was Evangelista who ended up tipping the puck over the net on that sequence. - Josh and Mission, they have to keep the door off around. I know he has his lows, but when he's on his game really makes an impact. He's a great leader for the group. Thought he was great tonight. This one, I was never even worried for a fraction of a second. The Smith's luck was raining supreme, breaking the press, breaking the preds belief, and the Canucks effort was swarming all over the ice, and this one, the Canucks Homer Network 650. Can't actually call it. Canucks defended, quote unquote, defended well, but so did Nashville. Canucks had 12 shots. Canucks don't have to do anything with this effort besides shelling up on the brutal Nashville team, but because of high danger, Canucks played great. Shaking my head. - Hey, okay, great. Sit here and cry about the factor team won a hockey game in the playoffs. (laughing) - Sure, it's the playoffs guys. Yeah, some games are not great. - Do the Canucks deserve to lose game too, for instance? - Not for me. - Right? You wanna say they deserve to not win this one as much? Sure, but they won the game. They won. Listen, you can fan any way you want, but if you're gonna sit here and be upset after the Canucks won a playoff game, they're up to one. I don't know man, you gotta recalibrate. - 50% of the job is done. - You gotta recalibrate where you're at with your team and your hockey watching enjoyment. If you're not a Canucks fan of your trolling, like, okay fine. Fair, sure, if that's why you wanna spend your time, but come on. - You've been waiting how many years for your team to make the playoffs? - You hate when I use this phrase, 'cause you always like roll your eyes, but I like to use it, like maybe sports isn't for you. You hate when I use that. It's like, oh no, when your team wanna play off game right now, they don't all have to look the same way. - Yeah, and- - They're gonna look chaotic. - Yeah, somebody texted in and they were saying, like, in the playoffs, you don't just find ways to win games, man. Like, I'm not saying you're trying to, like, figure out who has the best analytics. I'm looking at who's winning hockey game. - This is the era of short sample, right? Like, this is what this is. - It's just, get out with the result. - So do you think through three games, is it fair for the Canucks to be up to one? - Yeah, I do. - Right? You can give one to Nashville, I think that's fair. So that's how I look at the series. - If you played 180 minutes so far, what's the result right now? - Right, but with two one, yeah. - So that's how I view it through, of course, there are things you can and should be doing better, heading into game four, of course you have to, but I'm just saying, like if- - They all openly admitted it. - Yeah. - We talked about it, though. - Joshua came on the show, he said we gotta be better. And honestly, Rick Talkett's first comments, even today, was positive about the power play and Casey to Smith and negative was the neutral zone. Like, that was one of the first things he said and even the tone of his voice was not exactly like euphoric. - No, it wasn't, 'cause there are things that, and I think it's easier for him to sometimes, after a win to be critical, especially after the last game he was taking, the very like, hey, we did a lot of good things. - Sounds more after you after a win. - Yeah, it does. And I think also with the guys in the playoffs, like he's spoken so much about how he wants to build guys up right now. He wants the guys to have confidence. This was his first real chance to perhaps be a little bit critical of things. And, you know, it's about time and placement and how you do a lot of these things. And I thought it was completely fine in that regard. All right, a lot of reaction on the text in the box, 656.50, we'll take some more as the show goes on here. Hopefully a few people that are a bit happier as well. I do see a lot of happy texts. I shouldn't say that. We have a lot of good texting. - Yeah, we'll win as a win. - Yeah, it wasn't beautiful. It wasn't pretty, but good teams find a way to win. And that's Maddy G on Barart. - Yeah, Yager and Port El Berni is also texting that win in. This one, Quinn Hughes, one shot attempt this evening. They are harassing Quinn Hughes. A great deal. - They are. And, you know, somebody was asking us too about Quinn Hughes and his overall play. Like when is he gonna get defensive here? When did he need to see him be somebody that, you know, takes things on a bit more? This one says, one is Hughes gonna start playing defensive. He's the hot potato kid. He's playing scared. He can see it in his body language and his eyes. I don't know if I agree he's playing scared, but he has been trying to spin off hits a little bit at times. I know Elliot Friedman mentioned on the broadcast that there could be something going on injury-wise with Quinn. Does he have a shoulder or something or whatever? He is trying to get away from getting hit. That tells me he has something he's dealing with. - Hit that moment late in the season, left shoulder. - Yeah, I wonder if that's what I need to do with it. You did see he got sandwiched early in the first period about two preds players after he got rid of the puck. I could have maybe been a bit of a late hit or whatever, but that's the playoffs. Teams are gonna take runs out of here. They're gonna make you pay every single time you have the puck and it goes off your stick, even if it is a fraction late. I don't know if he's playing scared, but I do think there is some slight hesitation in his game here and there. - Yeah, the moment, you know, I talked about this on the show yesterday on the People Show, three to four o'clock here on Sportsnet 650, the system's goal last game. My guess, Patterson makes turnover. Yes, Patterson's not as committed, but you look at the way that goal gets created too. But Vily gets the puck and he's kinda coming downhill and I thought Quinn was a little slow to close that out and then when Vily takes the shot, he's probably not close enough. And if you read that a bit earlier, do you stifle that opportunity and some of that Patterson turnover isn't as exaggerated 'cause it turns into a goal. And in this one, he gets the two assists on the power play, but the Quinn Hughes level of minute-to-minute influence for me hasn't necessarily shown itself out in these last two games, but the thing is, it's like Quinn Hughes at 90% of his capacity is still tremendous, but yeah, I do think there's more to come from Quinn Hughes in this series. - Absolutely, now he's been picking up some points here tonight and as far as the goals go, maybe we should spend a couple minutes breaking the two goals down. I mean, hey, the Canucks only score two goals, both of them come on the power play, but Quinn Hughes does pick up a couple helpers, Brock Besser scores a goal, JT scores a goal, Patterson gets an assist as well, and it all starts off on the man advantage for the Canucks pick, and it is in the first period where JT Miller gets a shot past UC Sorrows with a nice screen by Brock Besser in front. - Yeah, and Hughes also makes a great play on this because there's an attempt to clear by Jankowski and he knocks it down, keeps it in the zone. And then-- - Had some good fortune on that power play too. - Pogba's bouncing and staying in and everything, yeah. - But we talked about it in the intermission. Besser's screen, it's not always just about taking the eyes of the goalie, it's do you set up in a spot to influence the goalie's position? And I thought if for Sorrows to play to his near post and Besser kind of situated perfectly and kind of gets skinny too when the shot comes in and there's JT shooting to the far post. And Sorrows is looking one side, it's actually on one side of Besser and also I can see it straight up. And when you talked about this after the last game that it felt like the Preds were almost putting everybody on one side of the ice and forcing the flow of the play to the other side and say, hey that backside shooter, you're one on one against Sorrows, deal with it. And the Canucks found a way, this time it's Miller shooting it and there was Besser in front and the shot goes on the other side of Besser and into this far post. - JT Miller has an incredible shot, right? And I think that downhill shot has been available at times and it just hasn't been utilized and it was nice to see him use it and you saw the way he sniped it past UC Sorrows. The second Canucks goal happened also on the man advantage. This one came up in the second period and Brock Besser also key on this play, he's standing net front. And we talked so much on the pre-game show, we spoke about how aggressive Nashville is fronting and getting ahead, they will leave some players available in front of the net. And you saw it with Besser being all alone in front of Sorrows, nobody cleared him out on the JT Miller goal. And Brock Besser, yet again, all alone, net front. And by the time Lowson picks him up, it's after JT Miller made the pass over to him from the goal line and Brock Besser just tips it in. - And Brock also on the face-off, gets inside of a private race player and helps kick that back to Gwen Hughes, something Rick Talkett has mentioned, even the guys on the edges of the face-off, gotta win those and Besser helps, 'cause it's a team job on the face-offs, it's not just on the center to win it cleanly, like there's gonna be contested face-offs, he helps that and just swings around the wall to Hughes. And this is the play we talked about, even just on the round table today with me, you and Reed on Connect Central, if they're gonna dedicate this many bodies to the middle, when Gwen Hughes has the puck at the top, like go around, just two quick passes and it was Hughes to Miller, Miller makes a great play, like eyes inside to Lindholm and it draws sticks and attention there and it opens up that little crease right in front of UC Charles, like right at the paint and hard direct pass and there's Besser to redirect it in. - Yeah, I mean Harry O'Puck and Burnaby Hill says, can you describe the adjustments talkin' made for us? Neil fights, many lucky charms, Harry O'Puck and Burnaby Hill. And you know, one of them is what you just talked about there and with the defenders pushing forward as much as they did, if you can find that play down low or close to the goal line get into the middle of the ice, those things can really help you out and you saw it on that power play there. But overall, five on five, again they only have 12 shots and J.T. Miller had six of the shots for the Vancouver Connects here tonight, right? So it's one of those things where I don't know if they exploited it consistently as the game went on. But one thing I also thought they did a pretty good job on was attacking as soon as they got the puck and trying to get through the rush on them 'cause Nashville will commit a lot of players forward. So if you can break them through, if you can get past your own blue line with the puck, you're gonna get some chances and they had a few odd man breaks. They didn't make the most of it. The best one was Elia McKayev by a glorious chance when Neil's Hoaglander and they don't end up getting even a shot on goal. But they ended up, I thought, doing a pretty good job of creating some turnovers at their own blue line, getting it across. I know the coach didn't love their neutral zone play, but a couple times at the blue line, they did a good job of winning pucks and going the other way. Really would've liked if Elia McKayev had taken a shot on that. I know he makes the best of it and there's an opportunity for Hoaglander to slide in an empty net shot. But in that moment, I thought low shot, hit the backside trailing player in Hoaglander is that an opportunity Hoaglander really wasn't skating fast on that play. - Yeah, he looks a little choppy on that play. - Yeah, Spencer's asking to close them down from a distance, real easy. Hoaglander tonight played seven minutes and 52 seconds. Sam Lafferty at 8.06. So, Hoaglander didn't play a great deal tonight. - Yeah, absolutely. And he played under eight minutes. Second game in a row, he hasn't played a ton and we'll see what that means. I don't know if it means they're gonna change the lineup necessarily, but we'll see what that all means. And as far as when it comes to the Vancouver Canucks post game, let's get to a couple of comments here from Canucks player's post game. After a 2-1 win over the Preds in Nashville, giving them the 2-1 series lead. And one player who played a huge prominent role for the Canucks tonight was Nikita Zodorov. And here he is talking about how they handled the push the Preds had in the third. - When they were pushing, we kind of... - Stay with it, you know, like didn't break. Casey made a couple of big saves for us. I thought Dee, like, Kohler, Tady, guys, too strong on the 5-1-3, they made a couple of big blocks for us. That was the difference in the game. - First five minutes in a game, they pushed really hard. And I think you guys went out like two or three shots, but the fact that Casey got that pressure early, he looked comfortable, he looked smooth, he looked like he was tracking it. That give the rest of the good confidence that he's in a good spot. You guys can go play your game. - Yeah, I mean, like I said, he has a great goal, they were so confident to play in front of him, you know, he's been great for us. And, I mean, I don't think they pushed too hard on us. I feel like it was pretty even first five minutes in first period. And there was a lot of power plays. There was kind of no rhythm in the game at the start, you know, in the power play speed case, some guys don't get their ice time and then they get a long shift. Their legs are kind of slow, so that kind of lost the rhythm in the game a little bit, you know, gonna try to stay out of the box next game. - What's that feeling like when you're already down a man and you see the pucks failing? - Yeah, it sucks. It just rolled on me and I, when as soon as I, like, taken a slapper, I kind of took a little bit off it, but it still went over. I was just hoping it touched the glass a little bit because it was far as far as zone. Yeah, it just sounded like it. Just rolling me last second. I know, like, we focused on the hard clears on the PK, so that's kind of what I had in my hands. Yeah, what I was doing, man. - People just looked at the shots and this game was 31 to 12. I think they might think it was a rope or don't, but aside from the first five, maybe the last five. Do you feel like you guys did a good job? - Yeah, I mean, I thought it would stay strong. Like I said, then they were pushing in a third. We were playing smart, we get the puck out. Didn't really have much offensive zone in the third period. Didn't really have a four check, but we, that's a playoff hockey. You know, sometimes you have to survive and we did today. - I think the key to the success of the penalty kill so far in the series. - Trustee Chatter, guys putting their bodies on the line all the time, you know, like stick to the structure. I think we have a good coaching. We did a good pre-scout. Obviously, there's a lot of skill on all the sides, so we still get at respect them and be better, so there's probably things we're gonna look on in half day, and then come ready the next game as well. - That is Nikita Zodorov, big Z after a win over the National Predators, and as much as he was giving credit to what they've done, he also mentioned there are things they can do a lot better still, too. And that's something Dakota Joshua told us as well. Like, hey, maybe four check a bit better, but to a man, they were very happy with how the team peaked. And something Dakota also mentioned that Zodorov echoed the trust, the chemistry between the penalty killers. And hey, it took a while for that peaked to start looking like a strength, and hey, there's a long way to go, hopefully in the playoffs, but now through three games, they've only allowed a single goal on the PK. - We've lamented at times in games where the Canucks lose anything. Oh, it's the PK edge, right? The Canucks gave up a goal, and the power play didn't convert. Well, today, the reason the Canucks win is special teams. Simple as that, right? Like, are there issues five and five that need to be corrected for game four? Of course there are, but right now, the Canucks, like the reason they win today, two power play goals, and they go five for five on the PK. It was a big, big win at special teams. - Special teams made a big difference. - Especially in the game where there was a lot of penalties. - Yeah, there were, and you know, especially with the Canucks to the kill, what six penalties they killed off tonight? - Five, five power play opportunities for the Reds. - But you're right, is it six? - 'Cause it was a two-man advantage. - Yeah, I'd have to do the math on this. - We'll take a look and confirm it exactly, but we do know the Canucks score two goals on the man advantage, JT Miller and Brock Besser, and here are the two goal scores for the Canucks tonight helping them win at the podium in Nashville this evening. - JT, maybe you can start by just saying how you feel about Casey DeSmith. He's coming in a very difficult position, obviously, and gets his first playoff win. - Yeah, he was very important for us today. You know, these are gonna be two hard road games for us, and obviously to step in and come up with a performance like that so timely is really big for our group. We always talk about much confidence we have in him, and he showed us today why, you know, why when he gets his chance he belongs in there, and I'm very happy for him. - Brock, when, you know, they have that big push in the first four or five minutes of the game, I know you guys didn't get a lot of shots. They didn't give up a lot of shots on Casey, but he looked strong, he was tracking it. How much confidence is that put through the group when you see him playing well-looking com, and it kind of lets you guys just kind of get into the flow of your game? - Yeah, I think it's big, and, you know, we expected a push right out the gate, and we knew we just needed to stay patient, and, you know, stick in there, in case you made some big saves for us tonight, and, you know, like Milsey said, he was an important piece for us, and we're just happy for him tonight. - JT, I know you guys don't like talking about one another when you're sitting beside each other in this environment, but on your goal, shooting around the Brock screen, how big was, how big a part of that of his presence there was, your goal here? - I mean, it's, I also don't like talking about him, either, when I'm up here, but he, those don't go in without him. You know, I'm shooting, you know, about the top of the circle normally, and we've scored on that goal plenty of times over the years, but he's getting really good at making the goalie when I release it, look at his back, and he's too good to score on him from out there, and it's not gonna happen without the screen, and he knows that, so we try to show different looks, but obviously he was, and that's, like I said, he's gonna catch it if he can't see it, or if he sees it, he's gonna catch it, so it's a great play by Brock. - Brock, same qualifier applies here. You've got moved sort of back into the net front. You've been more in the bumper throughout this series until tonight, but you've put a lot of work in, I know, to improve as a screener, and some of that's been with JT's encouragement. Can you say anything about that sort of process for you? - Yeah, well, you know, I think JT's played a lot in that front just back in the day for him, and, you know, took a while to buy in, but we bought in after a few years, and, you know, he's taught me a lot from, you know, just playing that position, and looks that I have when I do get the puck, so yeah, he's helped me a lot. - Sorry, just one more for me. Despite how frequently you played in your own end of the rink, how did you two feel especially about your game? It seemed like, even though your team would have wanted a higher volume of chances, it seemed like the two of you were in on a lot of them. Did you feel like you were opportunistic despite how little you had the puck to make? - Yeah, it was one and done night for us, I think as a, probably as a team. It was, we didn't sustain many shifts, like we would get, you know, I had a ton of shots today, but that was about it, like, it was, that was it, and we were back checking and kind of, you know, we didn't really play in any zone tonight, we just kind of went up and down, and I don't think we played a bad game as well, and I thought we were okay, but, you know, they played really well, like they responded, you know, I think after all of our possession, the first two games, we knew they were gonna have a response, and it wasn't gonna go like that, the rest of the way, so, yeah, I think we feel good about it, I think this was a perfect time in a game where your power play needs to step up, and it was timely for us, so, we just talked in these games all the time, we say stay patient in these games, 'cause you don't wanna crack, and a boring type of event game for your line. - Brock, you sat in the boss for the full two minutes, that was the good news, I just wonder, did that feel like a never ending penalty, like how in a high leverage situation like that, like how sort of anxious is it to have to sit there, and then Z joins you as well? - Yeah, it's a good feeling, that's for sure. Yeah, I don't know, I'd have to look at the play again, but, yeah, it's not a good time to take a penalty, and that's all I really have to say about it. - What about the penalty killing in this series so far? JT, just the job, and you're part of it. I mean, obviously, it's about getting the job done, paying a price, and clearly guys are doing that. - Yeah, I mean, obviously, the second half of the year, I haven't been on as much, you know, I've gone for a draw or two, but those guys that are getting the call regularly are doing an unbelievable job for us, and, you know, there takes so much pride in that area of the rink, and I just nice to see after the last couple years of how much our penalty kill kind of failed, and let us down sometimes, it's nice to see that the hard work these guys are putting in, and the buy-in, and the shop blocks, and then they have their pairs, and they have chemistry, and it's awesome, we need that so bad, and, you know, in years prior, they get that power play in the third, you know, they're scoring, it's a terrible feeling, but I'm super happy for them, and we're gonna need them moving forward, they've been doing a great job for us. - JT, even though they had a lot of zone time, it felt like you guys were able to sort of keep them to the outside, and especially taking away a lot of their backdoor passes. There wasn't a lot of East-West movement. Even though they had a lot of zone time, can you guys take pride in how you defended the slot to carry rebounds and sort of prevented those passes? - Yeah, I mean, that's one of the parts of our DNA as a team is making the goalies play half the net, protecting the middle. When it gets loud and crazy, you just do your job and stay in your structure. We don't have to do anybody else's job. You don't have to go rogue, and tonight I thought we had tons of sticks in the middle of the rink, like you said, and that's probably why it's frustrating for the other team, 'cause you want to get in the interior, and I think play out hockey is about denying that, and, you know, I'm sure Casey would tell you, I feel like a lot of them are on the outside as well, and when they were in there, Casey was able to make the save, so I mean, that's part of how we want to play hockey as a team, and, you know, I think they obviously all played us a little bit tonight, but, like you said, when we rely on our structure, and we have sticks in the middle, and everybody buys in to taking care of that ice, you know, where our team is scoring, I think. - JT, you talked about how a few years ago, or even last year, if they got that late power play, then you know they're scoring. Can you talk about the resilience of this team, and how you saw a little bit of that tonight? - Yeah, I mean, some new faces on the kill, obviously, but, you know, I just think it's the, this goes back to day one stuff, with the day-to-day stuff, is, you know, especially for the penalty kill, it's a refresher restart, try to forget the past. Like I said, it's not like we knew it was going in, it was just, you had it in the back of your mind, 'cause we've seen it so many times, but now we have confidence in our group, and sometimes we're gonna score that goal. It's okay, it's about the response, and I just think, like I said, for the most part of the season, like the guys have been going more regularly, we've been doing a pelvic job for us. - And we talked so much after the last game, about Shopbox on their side. Tonight, you guys had something like 30. Was that something that you wanted to focus a little bit more on heading into tonight? - Not necessarily, I think. I think it's just showing our willingness to win the game. I think it's a buy-in from everyone, and, you know, we need, you know, guys sacrificing when they get those looks at boxing shots, and we had some big blocks tonight, but yeah, it just shows a lot of effort from the guys, and that means a lot to our team. - That is Brock Baster and JT Miller after a 2-1 win over the Preds tonight in Nashville. The Canucks take the 2-1 series lead, and, you know, both players spoke about, you know, special teams being a big difference, how they can do things better, too, of course. But everybody, too a man, felt good about how Casey the Smith played, and, you know, as far as the game puck goes for Canucks players post-game, the last game when the Canucks won game one. Dakota Joshua got the game puck, and Dakota Joshua after the game gave the game puck tonight, too. Casey the Smith. - There you go. - You heard JT Miller mention that, hey, they did a good job of not giving Nashville, I mean, Nashville too much. It was all on the outside, but any time it was on the inside, Casey the Smith stepped up, and yeah, he kicked out some rebounds, but the way they played, they cleared the net really well. They boxed out, and they were taking away those second chance opportunities, and I think that's exactly the way you have to play in front of Casey. - And the two wins to me so far, huge credit to the six-demon. - Yeah, absolutely. - Like that to me is the emerging storyline out of this series is the six-demon, and the game is they've won, have been the tipping point for me. - Yeah. - And we thought coming into this series, right? Like, you look at the edges, and the overall depth for Nashville wasn't there. Like, look, there are the lower seed in this spot. If the Canucks play to their pedigree, the opportunities will be there for them to pick up the wins, and yeah, I just like every D-man tonight, like had moments. - Yeah. - Susie even, you know, he had one bad pinch, but like, there were a couple of nice plays by Carson Susie as well. - Yeah, oh, absolutely. I mean, Susie did his thing. I mean, the only moment I didn't like from Susie was at the end of the first period, where he pushed up, and it doesn't get the puck, and there's a two-in-one chance, or there was an odd man chance when the other way. - Suitor, a pew suitor takes the puck away from Ryan McDonough, and you had the video, he goes between McDonough's legs. - Yeah, it's unbelievable. - I think Patterson did that once, like maybe the rookie year or the second year, but he's done that once, but like, it was perfect by Suitor. 'Cause he's, first of all, he's on his horse, man. He gets all the way back, he catches Ryan McDonough, and then just like leans perfectly, he gets underneath, and like, I don't even know how he doesn't take a penalty, or it's like damage upon McDonough here. - It's one of the best defensive plays in the game, and it's by a Canucks forward, pew suitor making a great play. KG says, "Big Z has been our best defensemen so far, "and the playoffs, JT has been a beast, "regardless of what the points say, "Gutsy performance tonight." And as far as JT Miller being a beast, I think what was really interesting was, I saw a tweet here from Dimitri Philip-Hovitch, you can hear the PD OCAS on our airwaves, of course, he says, "JT Miller had a goal "in a primary assist on the two Canucks goals, "six of the team's 12 total shots, "as you mentioned on goal, he had six of them. "He also factored into the nine "of the 13 scoring chances he had him down for." - It's like what, nine? - Nine of the 13 total scoring chances. He took five himself and set up four other ones. JT Miller of beast. - What a night, absolutely an absolute beast, JT Miller. All right, we'll get to more of your reaction on the text inbox, plus Ian McIntyre as a Canucks Central post game show rolls on, presented by the number five orange. So the game is over, but as your night really done, number five is open, more next on SportsNet 650. - Hey, it's Big Nazaar, have your say and join me on The People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays three to four on SportsNet 650, or wherever you get your podcasts. - This is the Canucks Central post game show. - Join the discussion on the official home of the Canucks, SportsNet 650 and the SportsNet Radio Network. - Sizzin's thrown out of the circle, so O'Reilly steps in. And O'Reilly wins it to Sizzin's. Back to Yossi at the line. Left wing Nyquist down low force, we're trying to send a pass back to Yossi at the slot, he's stopped by the Smith. Rebound O'Reilly had an open net and he fired it over the goal and out of play. Ryan O'Reilly cannot believe it, he got it at the side of the net, to Smith was down and out, but he missed. And there's only nine seconds left in the two man advantage for Nashville. - And Batch right before that, Ian Cole blocks this with his hands and it actually went off of Ian Cole. The second shot as well, it looked like it went off of his neck. - Ian Cole blocking shots with his face, his neck, every single body part imaginable. What a warrior shift from Ian Cole helping the Canucks win two one over the preds and this is the Canucks Central post game show presented by the number five orange on the home air Canucks sports net 650. So Satyar Shah with Bickens are a lot of reaction on a text in the box. Jeff Rose says, what about Cole on the five on three, great blocking and positioning? We played that clip for you coming in. - What was the highlight of this game? Is it the Zadorov hit? - The Zadorov, on Yossi. - Cole shot block. - Like what are you going to remember from game three? - Probably the JT Miller downhill snipe. - Okay. - Okay. - Probably because to me, it's like, hey, you know, it would be aggressive on the power play, getting a shot on goal, right? And just a clear look, getting best friend and goalie. - Just with the same on Luca Vangelista might be on there. - In the second period? - Yeah, that one might be on there. - Yeah, two saves. I mean, the Zadorov hit on Yossi was tremendous and his Zadorov post game mentioned he felt like that hit got his guys going. So he was very happy with his own hit about what it does to the guys. But yeah, absolutely. I think that's it for me. What about you? What stands out for you moment? - I think it's going to be that one right there. That'd be cool. - Yeah, cool. I can't shut up enough about eating Cole. I keep talking about it. - Absolutely. This person here says, "I waited on a hole "to talk about the hit on Smith "and all you guys could talk about was our structure. "Smith played well and the defense. "Our offense can't play that way next game." But the hit on Smith, it was AJ McCarran behind the net who blew up. - Oh, this Smith. - I think that's a Cole Smith. I was like, what was that? - I don't remember. I'm thinking it's the one on this Smith. That's what I'm guessing. I can't think of a hit on Cole Smith that really stood out in this game. But that play on... It was a cheap play like it was straight on. - The reason they lost the game was that cool. - Yeah, 'cause it went on the power play and scored. So it's a bad penalty to take. And the Canucks, well, I did wonder if they were going to take themselves off the power play 'cause Ronik was not having it. Like he jumped on McCarran and there was a big scrum afterwards. But their officials haven't even things up after scrums very often. Like they've been very good at letting guys go at it a little bit. Not saying the officials were good in the game. I know people are upset about some calls, but we haven't seen them even things up after a clear penalty. Like they're giving a little leeway there in these scrums. And that's something to kind of keep an eye on. - I think there's a way to stand up for your guys. Show that you're not going to take some crap and not take the second penalty. And I thought the way the Canucks handled that was perfect. Right? Like this is a big opportunity. We're going to go on the power play. You can't run our goalie in any way. And the way they handled that is perfect. And just other moments like, yeah, they've had all themselves in the scrums well. - Yeah, they have. - And especially when Zadorov's laughing and Joshua's chirping. - Oh, what are you going to say to him, right? Like who's stepping up on Zadorov? - And even my idea. - Every game that goes by, the confidence, like Zadorov and Joshua are getting in the physical confrontations, feels like it's growing. - It does, doesn't it? - And so that to me is like something that's going to emerge here as the series continues. - Yeah, Carmichael from Burnaby says, "Doesn't Big Z's voice sound exactly how you'd expect it to?" - It's not like a wide Ivan Drogo. It's not quite like that, but a little bit, I get it. You know, he's fantastic. All right, a lot of reaction on the text inbox, 656. 50, keep it coming to our Dunbar Lumber inbox. And, you know, we've kind of run through a lot of different notes for this game, of course. We spoke with Dismitz, Zadorov, Cole, Besser, Miller, you know, the suitor back check, the PK, the power play. And, you know, the other one I wanted to mention too was Lies Lindholm. It was a pretty notable bit that in this game here tonight, Lies Lindholm led all Canucks forwards in ice time. - Huge, huge. Again, it was really just the face off of that one play where he's trying to make a read, but even that's like, okay, that happens. But, like, I really thought he was strong. - Well, I think he had a lot of moments. And, this is something Brett pointed out too, that where Canucks forwards were really good at boxing out Preds players too, and allowing Smith to see the puck. Not often were players getting in case of the Smith's sight line in Lindholm and the center's playing the rail. The coach mentioned that a really good job of boxing guys out and allowing Smith to see the puck. - I would say the name of the game, or I'll try to bring up some underlying numbers if it's just unfounded on my part here. But I would say the name of the game for Lies Lindholm tonight is suppression. - Yeah, not a good way of putting it. He suppressed a lot tonight. All right, let's go to Nashville, where we have a man on the scene, the man we call the triple threat. He's gonna close the thing out here tonight for us. You watch him on TV, you read him on digital, and you're about to hear him on radio. He is Ian McIntyre. (upbeat music) - I have required all superpowers tonight as well. - Yes, you empowered all your superpowers tonight to get this guy in. - Activate the moment. - We'll see how the radio part goes. - TV would kind of just take something with Murph. - Yeah. - Maybe not my best. So I'll try to do better on radio. But I know I'm gonna crush it in print. - Whoa. - If I get to writing my column. - You would always do. And I would say your poor performance is also probably a great performance for most, 'cause you have a very high heart for these things. (laughing) - Well, thank you, thank you, appreciate that. - Well, and as far as what you saw here tonight in Nashville from the Vancouver Canucks, I mean, we were really, really impressed with how they played defense for the most part in this game. Of course, got a little hectic there after the predsomated 2-1, but what did you make of the Canucks overall team play tonight watching it in person in Nashville? - Yeah, I thought actually the, it was a bit of a role reversal from the last game. Now, I don't think, I don't think Nashville quite dominated the way that the Canucks did territorially, although they certainly dominated the shots. But I thought where Vancouver looked a lot like the Predators is they did an excellent job, obviously at blocking shots, 30 of them, but they also were terrific at protecting the middle of the net. You know, Casey DeSmith was excellent and it's, you know, it's a great story for him. It's a great story for the team. The pressure that he has entered this series under and, you know, gets his first playoff win after, I think, you know, five or six years in the NHL. So that part's good. But he didn't have to make a whole lot of second saves because the guys in front of them were so good at blocking out and then retrieving pucks before Nashville could get to them. We're seeing why Patrick Holbein went out and very purposefully built a defense where numbers three to six on the defense average about six, five, and 230 pounds. Because you see the benefit in playoff hockey, how hard it was tonight for Nashville to penetrate, to set up and get second chances. I mean, that's why a few scrambles, a few moments of chaos like near the end where Ryan O'Reilly had fished the puck out of the wash pit and took a couple of attempts at Nat with Casey swimming. But there were other guys in the pool with this myth and they blocked those shots. But I think moments like that stood out because I don't want to say it's routine because, you know, for a guy who never won a playoff game, it's certainly not routine. But he looked comfortable, Casey. And the Canucks actually, even with all that zone time for Nashville, they looked pretty comfortable defending that lead. It wasn't really, you know, that predators really didn't have a whole lot going despite all that pressure until they got their power play chances in the third. And then of course, Evangelista gets a goal where Lindholm had a bit of a stumble. So Evangelista got around him, made a great shot. There was somebody who contacted this myth. I think it was Sissens right before the puck went in. But, and then of course, it's two-one and there's all kinds of pressure at the end. But I thought the Canucks were excellent at how they defended. You've probably listened to a lot of talk, it's audio. He wasn't too impressed with some other aspects of the game. But the goal tending and the way they defended tonight, of course, the special teams were a huge factor. - I was saying earlier, Ian, that the two wins to me have been defined by the Canucks D-Man. You detailed there just the boxing out and cleaning all that up. And it's so funny to say that considering for years, we talked about improving the D-Man. And now it's new arrivals like Zadorov and Cole that have featured so prominently in the progress. - Yeah, yeah, it is. But, you know, Cole's been here the whole year and Zadorov has been here most of the year. And yet, even at times I know there was some consternation about whether the group was good enough. Obviously, the Canucks team defense was so much better this year and especially in the second half of the season. That helps out everybody. But we're only now in these playoff games seeing the real value of having the defense that they have built. I thought Cole, this was easily his best game so far tonight. Zadorov has just been a monster all series. And Susie quietly, I think is continuing to get better. And Tyler Myers had a couple of moments tonight, but we don't know exactly what he's dealing with. I'm hard-pressed to believe that he missed a game because he was, you know, had a cold or the flu. I wonder if he's got something else going on. And it was great for them to have him back with his stick and his reach in front of the net and especially on the penalty kill as well. And I thought tonight and talk it did mention a post game. I thought tonight they did a fantastic job when they were short-handed on seizing on every opportunity to clear the puck. You know, there were very few times that they flubbed it, I know that Zadorov put it over the glass on one that was a little bit unlucky. He even said he took something off on the clear. But, you know, there was a concert last night, the puck was rolling all over the place. And if you wondered about the value of those clears, all you have to do is look at the Canucks first goal, where Nashville had a chance to clear it and they shot it right at Quinn Hughes and the puck stayed in and Vancouver got a goal. So that part of the game, they've really cleaned up. And who knew, who would have predicted that the penalty kill of the Vancouver Canucks would be a big deciding factor in these playoffs. At least they haven't been so far. It's been very good. They gave up a goal in the first chance, 12 straight since then, that they've killed off. And as I said earlier tonight, it's not just that they killed off the five tonight, it's the timing of them. You know, three in the first period when Nashville's at home, they're trying to, you know, stir up the crowd and, you know, stoke their momentum and put the Canucks under pressure and the Canucks killed all those penalties. And then of course the two in the third, now the two in the third, Nashville generated a ton of momentum and maybe the end of the game, maybe the minutes after that would have been the same, whether there'd been penalties or not. Because clearly the predators were a very desperate team at the end, but for Vancouver to kill off, it was overlapping minor penalties and maintained the two goal lead until the, until the late goal I thought was a huge, huge moment in the game as well. - Yeah, I mean, it was one of those things tonight where when we looked at the deployment of the ice time for a defenseman, you know, Tyler Myers, Nikita Zadorov, you know, these guys had more ice time than Quinn Hughes and Phillip Rohnick, now part of that obviously is the short-handed ice time that those guys had, but even even strength, like it was one of those games where the head coach was very comfortable not having Quinn Hughes as his primary guy out there for the most part. - Yeah, well, I mean, you're up, you're up to nothing in the third and you're protecting the front of your net and Quinn, you know, it seems silly to even have to say he's a world-class player 'cause we've been spoiled with him for so long now and he is gonna win the North Trophy this year. - Yeah, has unbelievable hands, but in a big heavy game, if you're trying to defend the lead and you're trying to keep guys away from your net in front, it kind of makes a lot of sense that you're gonna lean on some others. Obviously at the score been reversed, you probably would have seen Hughes play, you know, six or eight more minutes than he did if they were chasing the game the whole way. But this is, you know, this is also a reflection of how strong the group is. That it's not like you're just trying to survive when your third pair goes out there. It's not like you're just hoping that you survive a shift with your fifth and sixth so you can get your one and two out there again. There's a lot of ability in that group and especially on the defensive side. And again, as far as that size that they built, part of the reason they went that way is because they have Quinn and Philip Roanock on the first pair, you know, not big guys and especially Quinn. So they went with these bigger guys in the bottom two thirds. And I think that it's, you know, their deployment tonight is a reflection of durability and the confidence coaching staff has in them. JT Miller, boy, he looks built for these playoffs. He's been immense and it felt like every opportunity the offensive zone was going through him. And even just like, you know, a rim around and there he is engaging physically. He's really shown so far through three games. - Yeah, he said before this series how desperate he was to play playoff hockey again because in his early years in his own words, he knew nothing about playoff hockey. And it was all about for him. It was all about his ice time and his opportunities. And year after year, in those early years with the Rangers, he just played himself down the lineup in the playoffs 'cause he didn't know how to play them. He said he was, you know, be a top six forward during the year and suddenly he's on the fourth line in the playoffs. And now he understands how to play. And we've seen the evolution of JT Miller as a player in terms of his skill and his impact. But we've seen the evolution of him as the leader, how he conducts himself on the ice, how he's managed, you know, to rein in his temper and, you know, his tendencies to see white at times and just kind of go blank. And he was so eager to show that this version, this best version of JT Miller can play in the playoffs as well because the irony is all these great years he's had with the Canucks where he's been, I think he's 11th in NHL scoring since he came to Vancouver. He hasn't had the chance to play real playoff games. And now he is and we're seeing how much they mean to him. Has there been what until the last couple of years, like say three years ago, has there been a JT Miller moment, the whole series where he, you know, had negative body language or did something rash, you know, took a bad, like he's just been so good playing between the whistles and shift after shift. And tonight, I think part of the reason he had six shots is because the team was just kind of flatlining offensively, you know, to win a playoff game where you only have 12 shots on that. And JT Miller has six of them, tells you something about what their offense was like tonight. And, you know, he, I think he recognized that, but this is, you know, this was a really hard night for the team offensively and he was trying to do everything he could to drive that a little bit. But of course, still playing great two-way hockey, no matter who he's going up against. And yeah, he's been fantastic. Probably their, probably their best players so far in the playoffs. I haven't really looked at all the numbers from three games cumulatively, but he's been good every game. - Yeah, I saw a quote post game here kind of making the rounds that Ian Cole said that JT Miller's drive is very reminiscent to Nathan McKinnon's drive in terms of their will to win not same players, but having that desire and that fire to win. And that's obviously been very palpable here through the first three games. Ian, we're up against it here at the end. We have another show coming up, believe it or not. Josh Elliott, well, if we're making the kid come in and put in a couple hours on a post-post game show. - Excellent, well, people want to talk about the Canucks. - No kidding. - They're up to one. - I know. - They play off series. - It's wild. And Ian, we look forward to chatting with you on Sunday and game will be even earlier. So maybe we'll have even some more time to dig into what happens and hopefully another Canucks victory to talk about. - All right, okay. Have a good night, guys. - Thank you. That is Ian McIntyre. Make sure to read his latest on sportsnet.ca. Fantastic, as always. That brings us to the end of our show. It's Bick Nizar, Satyar Shah. Now we'll be back here on Sunday. Of course, there is the pre-game show to our pre-game starting at noon. Pucked up, Satyar Shah. We'll be here for an extended post-game as well. But up next is Josh Elliott-Wolf. There's more coverage coming up. So you can stay on the airwaves. Listen, you can text in. You can call in. He'll be here to chat all things Canucks and NHL playoffs through the evening. - Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, game four. - Can't wait. - Can't wait. - And special fun, man. - It's been, man, it's playoffs, man. Enjoy it. It's fantastic. We're here having a lot of fun with it as well. Thank you all for listening, participating, being part of it. It's always a lot of fun here on the Canucks Central post-game show. Special thanks to Fast, Eddie Gregory. Victor as well, producing the show. Great stuff as always. And fantastic for all of you. You've been listening to the Canucks Central post-game show presented by the number five orange on the home of your Canucks, Sportsnet 650.
