(upbeat music) Back in on Kidock Central. We're in the KinTech studio. Dan Reicho, Satyar Shah. Kidock Central is for ends on Pacific Vancouver, Premier Chrysler, Dodge Ram, and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Cambion Main, or at nzinepacificcrisler.ca. Canucks playoff coverage on sports. That's 650 brought to you by Merritt Kitchens, Canadian made beauty, strength, and craftsmanship. Find an authorized kitchen designer near you today at Merrittkitchens.com. Your tailored kitchen awaits. The conversation continues on the Dunbar Lumber text message. Inbox, Sat, Burnaby Kirby. The domino effect of Pedersen's lack of confidence is that his line mates could be losing confidence in him and directly affecting how they play with him, especially on the power play. I'm not sure I see them avoiding him on the power play. Yeah. Like, you know, they'd move the puck around. I mean, when they're set up, they've actually done a decent job moving the puck around. Like, this series issue in recent games has been not being able to get into the zone and getting set up. Once they're set up, they've been decent. I think they've created some looks, right? They scored a couple of goals. They haven't been bad when they're set up. I'm not seeing that there. My bigger thing was we were talking about earlier was bypassing some medium chances. Now, you know, we mentioned Quinn not passing in a Pedersen a couple of spots. Is that because lack of confidence? I mean, who knows? But at the same time, as we've discussed, it's a thing they've done for five games. Even if JT's there, like they bypass, even JT's bypass some decent shots for looking for the better pass. And I think overall, yeah, is Pedersen playing at the level where they're constantly trying to get him the puck and feed him? No, he's not the hot hand, but I don't see them avoiding him on the power play. - Yeah, I mean, look, there's a couple of occasions where you could say Hughes chose to take the shot instead of look to Pedersen for maybe a one timer, but those happen all the time. It's not like a regular thing where I felt like with Andrei Kuzmenko, it felt like it became pretty obvious early in the season. - Like it's not there with Elias Pedersen, it's just not. A couple of texts, of course, people just still want to go in on Pedersen, put Petey on the wing to free him up, have Blueger go back with Dakota Joshua and Connor Garland, another texture saying, just put him on the wing. So I get the sentiment. They've put him on the wing at times with the lot of line, obviously playing on the left. This comes down to a Rick Talkett sort of mindset that he just likes to have those four centers all four of them provide him with strength down the middle of the ice. - The only question has, I mean, so far, a lot of it does come down again to Pedersen. If he plays at his best, then it changes everything. The bigger question had been, can you afford to do that with the wingers you have on this team? Do you have enough for you to feel comfortable doing that? - Well, you feel pretty good with Miller and Besser, of course, and how Lynn Holmes played with that line, generally speaking. Again, it comes down to Pedersen. But that's been his overall preference. And I think against a better opponent, if you get past Nashville, you kind of need to do that. Like you can't really put all your eggs in a basket. But I do think it's fair to ask in a series like this, and yes, you want to show confidence or whatever it is, but yeah, you can match up against different opponents differently a little bit too. And I think he's also trying to impart confidence in their process, and we're not going to go away from our game plan as long as we stick to it. But I do wonder at times, can you, you know, make some adjustments in a game here and there? Like he does in game, because it goes to the lot of line or whatever it is, but it seems like he is married to that notion for the time being. - Outside of the four most common lines, the lot of line has been used the most beyond that nearly 10 minutes together in the series hasn't generated a goal, but they have had a few good looks, at least by the public data, via natural stat trick. A couple of texts coming in about Dakota Joshua and Connor Garland and put Petey with him essentially saying like, no matter what you put with, with Dak and Garland, it seems to work. Now they came up with the big play that led to the 4-3 winner in game four. But Garland, last I checked, still does not have a goal in this series either. Like one of, for as much as they've had moments in this series, and certainly game one was a huge one, Dakota scoring twice, getting the winner in that three, two goal, the second goal in the 12 second span. Joshua and Garland, certainly with Linholm. I mean, it hasn't had the effect that we saw it have for much of the season. Like that line, whomever Dakota Joshua and Garland were playing with from almost November onward, seemed to have success. Whether it was Souter or Blueger or whomever they were playing with, but even with JT for a little spell. Yeah, they just, they haven't really had that. Like they haven't had the consistent tilting the ice feel that they did through much of the season. No, no, and I think part of it is the responsibility they have with Linholm as well. Like in what spots are getting put in, how many face-offs. Taking on the O'Reilly and Forsberg line sometimes. So I think a lot of it comes down to that as well, and that's limited some of their overall effectiveness, right? And I think part of it is that, but in this series in general, like nobody's really getting high volume, like that's not happening. It's quality chances here and there, but not a ton of volume. Like a very, you know, a lot of skating in this series without anything happening. A lot of that is going on between these two teams. And yeah, there's physicality to it's been entertaining, but there's a lot of that. A lot of skating and grudge match kind of things going on across the ice, but not a ton of actual skill plays and a lot of offensive zone time and overall pressure. And I know people are wondering, can they try different things, right? Like, you know, I know, Tony says he's gonna staple, he's gonna stay, talk it will staple and process preference his preferences way, his way out of the playoffs. They're running out of time to try something different with PD, that's tones and nice meeting tones at the ranked the other night. - Yes it was. - I can say hi to us on the pregame show. Thanks for everybody who stopped by and said hi as well. Hopefully won't be there for game seven, but we'll be there for game seven if there needs to be a game seven. - I prefer to be there for game one. - Yes. - Then game seven. - I agree about that. - I agree, but we'll see what happens. Either way, it's a blessing doing what we're doing. But in terms of trying different things with PD, like what else can you try outside of loading up, right? And the thing is, if you're trying to impart confidence on your team, this is where I will defend the process of the coach. Maybe we would try different things. I don't know if he's being stubborn or as much as it is about you're trying to keep the mentality of your guys straight too. 'Cause we hear this a lot about coaches, players talk about if we get into the playoffs and the coach all of a sudden starts playing mad scientists and changing things around, we're all looking around saying what's going on. - Yeah. - Like why are we doing something different? Like why are we going away from what we thought made us successful all season? - The last thing you want is to have a moment like Winnipeg had where it seemed like everybody just lost the plot in that series with Colorado, right? And you stop trusting it. Rick Talkett is empowering his players. He's trying to empower his players. This isn't on me. Like sure, there's some things tactically we can do here and there's some tweaks to our game that we'll need to find some wrinkles to try and break down what Nashville's showing us. But like we have all the tools here to win this series. And he hasn't wavered from that at all. And could he change something tomorrow? I mean, I just don't, I don't really expect any sort of a big change. I don't know if there's an obvious one to make. You know, there's another text coming from Edge and Port Moody talking about Nils Hoglander. And hey, didn't Patterson struggle sort of coincide with Hoglander moving up the lineup permanently and moving off the fourth line and with Patterson consistently? I'm not going to go back and find the exact timeline. But yeah, Patterson's struggle sort of coincided with the all-star break and beyond that, he hasn't really had as much success. - Yeah, I think that text was from Christopher and Langley just to give credit. We'll get to Edge and Port Moody one as well. - My bad. - I think it means a good point. But just because I always wanted to be fair to the textors, but to the thing you're mentioning, you're right. There is a correlation there, but is the causality Hoglander? - No, like is that Hoglander is not the reason why Patterson is struggling, right? Like there is a causal link there. I mean, there is a correlation, but I wouldn't say it's the fault of Nils Hoglander. But the thing I will say about Nils Hoglander, and this is one of the reasons why, as much as we talked about him moving into the top six, I'm like, yeah, right now might be your best option 'cause you don't have a ton of other guys that you would prefer to have over him, but he's really good being a catalyst on the fourth line. And his game right now is not adept to be a huge playmaker. Like all season long, he's been scoring goals, not a lot of playmaking. You know, like he'll make some plays in space, he does a lot of good things, don't get me wrong, he does. But how often do you see him setting up great A scoring chances? - Yeah. - Or how often do you see him, you know, really connect play offensively to create the type of movement that leads to a good scoring chance? Not a ton of that, he does a lot of good stuff along the walls, he gets in and scores goals, a lot of positive things. But when you don't have that playmaker really, and also the other guy that plays with Patterson, if it's Mikayev, he's also not really a playmaker, more of a straight ahead guy, like where is that real interchangeable play happening? Where's that skill kind of interchange happening? And not a lot of that happens right now. - No. - And that's part of the reason when you look at the roster, it's like, obviously you would have liked to see them add Gensil, they were hot on Gensil's heels, couldn't pull that trade off the arena. - They're not too fast. - Right, couldn't pull off the defoldy deal. That's kind of what you were looking to add here with Patterson. But that still doesn't mean he can't be better, but I'm not sure I would hang his struggles on Nils Holglander, even if Holglander would be better suited at the moment to play, say, on your third or fourth line. - Holglander was better in game four. - Yeah, he was. - And that's why I think if you're Rick Tockett, you're hoping that progression continues from Holglander. Like he still made some baffling puck management decisions, going cross-ice at the offensive blue in a not so great opportunistic spot that I didn't love. Here and there, like he's going to do some of those things that frustrate you, but he was a little bit more physical. He was getting in on the four check, and he did create a little bit from below the goal line. Like if he is playmaking, that's generally where it happens. Similar to a garland, he wins a puck down low and throws it out in front, centers it for somebody that's waiting for a pass. - Yeah, he does a lot of that. We'll throw the puck in the space. Like he's done, he's really good at making plays off the wall. You know, that's something JT's really good at doing as well. - Holglander doesn't quite do that. You know, like he'll make plays along the wall and he'll move the puck along. But how often do you see and make that kind of bum play into the middle or make a play behind then into the middle of the ice? It happens every once in a while, but 'cause like Holglander does it every game. JT does it every game. Holglander, you don't see that part of his game, right? And maybe that's something that can develop and kind of flourish. As far as can we see better from Patterson, an edge in port Moody, we were going back and forth talking about Patterson's game, you know, whether people are being too kind to him or not. But he says he was way better in game five, process wise, that was his best game in a month perhaps. I felt like it was better in game five than game two 'cause he had two huge mistakes in game five defensively. I mean, game two defensively, especially the last one where he turns the puck over at least at a goal of game. So to me, like, it was just a couple of bad mistakes. He looked kind of scared in the third after he didn't, wasn't grand, he had a great first period. - I thought he had a great first game. - A great first period after he missed the empty net at the end of the first. - Kinda says his game struggled. - Yeah, so that's why I thought consistently he was better in game five. The thing is, it all comes back to him finding that game 'cause when he's on top of his game, he can carry guys along with him. And we're getting other techs people saying, for all those talk about trying to get Patterson going, like what about him, himself? Like, come on guys, they can't be excuses. There's always things that complicate, like it's not a simple answer to anything, but ultimately it comes out to him being the difference maker 'cause he's very capable of doing it. - Yeah. - And he was closer, I thought, in game five. As Rick Tock had said today, I don't care if you're playing with Mario and you or Wayne Gretzky, if you're not moving your feet, you're going to struggle a little bit. So, yeah, Patterson remains the biggest conversation around this team right now. Although I did notice Philopronic trending at times over the last little while on Twitter and the conversation picking up around how he hasn't been enough of a factor in this series. - So, I think it's interesting because I also think it's one of those things where his game hasn't been as productive in the second half of the season. Like, it's tailed off. - For as good as he was, he did not end up with 50 points on the year. - No, so under 50 points on this. - It looked like a slam dunk when we got to the All Star Bird. - Yeah, it was like, he might get 70. Like, there was actual talk of him like, is Quinn going to get 90 and he's going to get 70? Then there was like, well, he's probably getting at 60 points. - Yeah. - Then it was like, he's getting at least 50 and ends with what, 48 or 48 points, right? He was not nearly as prolific offensively in the second half of the season, especially down the stretch. But I also think there is a level of, I don't wouldn't say piling on, but I think there's a lot of confirmation bias too with what his game has been like and because his game has, you know, not been as prolific offense, so like, I don't think he's been bad defensively. There's just some moments, of course, like, you know, that have happened but his most egregious defensive moment was when he fell over on the Forsberg goal, but then you've players fall, that happens, right? So I mean, he fell over, wasn't there to cover that goes in. But generally, like, I haven't seen his game defensively be an issue. - I would agree with that. Like, he hasn't had a lot of bad moments in this series. He's, it's more just, it's almost similar to the Pedersen thing. Like, people are equating, well, he's gonna, if you're gonna pay this guy $8 million, I need to see more and you're judging him on a contract that he has yet to receive. But the one thing that I do find interesting is that Zadorov is playing currently more minutes than Haronek has in this series at five on five. - It's very, like, it's by seconds, though. It's very close. - Well, according to natural statric, it's four minutes. - Five, five on five? - Yeah. - Okay. - Five on five. - Are they overall ice time? - Overall ice time is, yeah, it's like a second per game. - It is, like, it's very, it's very, but yeah, five on five. But I think a lot of that is also because of how confident they are in the other two D pairs. They've been outstanding. - It's less to do with Roanek more in talking loving his pillars, as he calls it. - Well, and I also think there's been some games where Hughes, the game was a game four in Nashville where he missed a few shifts. He was a little banged up or whatever. Instead of trying to get Haronek into the mix, they just went with those other guys. You know what I mean? Like, they didn't force Haronek, they didn't prioritize getting Haronek minutes. They prioritized keeping those pairs together and they're Haronek getting mixed in a little bit until Hughes kind of came back. And they've been stellar. Like outside of Zadorov on the Yossi goal, which is the first goal that's game time goal in game five where he kind of moves out of space and allows that to kind of happen. He's been good defense. Like, they've been really good those four guys, right? They've been pillars. They've been actually hard to get through as well with their size and physicality. So I think that plays a part into it. My biggest gripe with him is what we just talked about. And we spoke about it a lot yesterday. You brought it up then, offensively. - Yeah. - And it's too many indirect shots. - And it's the same as so much that he's doing bad things. It's just, you're better than what you're showing. You can make better decisions than what you've shown. And if you make some tweaks and get some shots on goal. - Then we're talking about different opportunities for Haronek. We'll get landed Ferraro's take on all these things. XNHL are gonna join us, his take on the series so far. And what he's seeing from the Canucks that they could potentially be doing better. We'll get to all that and more. It is Canucks Central on Sportsnet 650. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - We're back on Canucks Central's Dan Racho Satyar shop. (upbeat music) We're in the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soarfeet, what are you waiting for? (upbeat music) Canucks Central, playoff coverage brought to you by Sky Avenue Kitchen and Lounge. Discover Surrey's newest luxury dining experience. Experience the richness of Canadian cuisine prepared by a Michelin-recommended chef. Reserve your table today at skyavonew.com. We'll get to more of your texts, comments, questions as the show goes along. But let's bring in our next guest. It is Landon Ferraro is joining in with some of his thoughts during the course of this series already. And we bring him back today. Thanks for this Landon. How are you? - I'm doing good. How are you guys doing? - Hey, we're doing pretty well. Canucks, weren't able to close it out in game five and a lot of storylines continuing to pop up with this team. In one being, how few shots on goal they've had in this series? Now, the shot attempts are sort of exactly where they were for much of the season, at least average wise. It's just they haven't been able to get a lot on to UC Sorrow. So I've kind of wondered, and Rick Talk it was asked about it today as well. Do you see the Canucks often looking for quality too much and maybe just in doing that, maybe passing up a decent scoring chance to begin with? - 100%. Like I'm definitely of the belief of what Talking was talking about of, especially in a playoff series, like, if the guy wants to get in the lane, make him block it. And each time that he has to keep getting in that lane to block it, without him knowing it, he's gonna be moving a couple inches each time. Or after one big stinger, right? Like, you can't keep changing your game to everyone else. Like the craziest thing I've saw out of last, last game specifically is you're down to one with seven minutes left, and you have three shots in the final seven minutes. And it's exactly what you're saying of like, trying to find those backdoor plays and everything's a one extra pass. Like, it needs just to be simplified right now. You have a goalie in Sorrows who's playing well and putting 20 shots at 'em, you know, for the most part isn't gonna get it done. - No, and I think when we hear the coach talk about create broken plays, it's not like you're looking to make broken plays, but they happen off of shots, right? And there are times where your, you know, players can maybe try to go for a low shot, create or rebound, and if we see more of that kind of stuff happening in addition to some of their big chances, then I can see this team really taking over offensively in a series like this. - 100%, and there's one thing that I think the Canucks do very well is recoveries. And, you know, you can look at the power play of, you know, recoveries there, but five on five, it's just as important getting it back, and they do a very good job of hounding the puck. So if you have a team that's capable of it, well, let's start working into that a little bit. Let's throw more pucks on the net. You know, it's easy when it's a backdoor play, it's almost like it's in the net, or you miss it and it kind of wraps around out of the zone, or back up to the point again. You know, having it the other way, you're giving yourself more than one opportunity, put it in. Like, the door of gets his goal, and I think it was two shifts later. Besser throws one back to Myers on kind of a broken little play, and he misses the net, but he goes off the end, well, and they almost put the rebound in. Like, that's a nothing burger play, but it gave them another chance because he didn't look for another pass. He just tried to get it to the net. Yeah, and we've seen, especially after game two, where they had, I think it was 84 shot attempts, and only got 18 on the net, which is a terrible percentage, if my math is correct. But, like, where... I get the idea of the indirect shot, looking for a tip, or maybe looking for a bounce off, off the endboards, but it almost feels like some of the defenseman on the team are using it as their default. Like, instead of just taking aim at the net, they've just defaulted to always looking for the indirect shot. Yeah, and I mean, unless you have, you're on some crazy run, like, the same thing isn't gonna work continually, especially in a playoff series where you only have one opponent that you're playing, like, you keep making adjustments as the series goes on. So, you know, shot tips are great, but they're only great if you take shots to now make sure those people are in the lane again, and now the sticks open up on the outside. But if you're just doing that, well, now they're not even really worried about the shot, they're just worried about tying up the stick. Like, you have to make them think of a couple different things. It can't be such, you know, so straightforward each time, but it definitely gets in your head as a player of, you know, that game happens, and they have, you know, a million shot attempts, and nothing's getting to the net. And before you know it, you know, it takes a strong mind to, you know, push out the thoughts of, wow, we can't get anything to the net. And then before you know it, you're like, they're not even looking to get the puck to the net. They're like, well, they're already there, I'll just throw it off the stick. You know, it's to the point that you made. So, like, it's tricky, you gotta talk to yourself and kind of get your frame of mind back of, like, we need to keep switching it up, but we need more at the net to, you know, just create as much as we possibly can. It can't be so one and done. - Well, in terms of what you mentioned, getting in their heads a little bit, stuff, I mean, I'm sure if you're an experienced player in the playoffs, the emotions and swings are hard to handle, and you can obviously still get into your own head. We see it all the time. We're great players having tough series and all that, but how much do you attribute some of this awkwardness by the Canucks at times to the real lack of experience for the top guys? 'Cause the guys that looked really good are guys who have played in the playoffs a lot in the past. JT, Lindholm, all the big defensemen have had, you know, copious amounts of playoff experience, but Phillip Oronik, his first playoffs in any sort of stage, right, Hughes, this is their first playoff with Bester, Pedersen, and these guys who have played in a non-bubble atmosphere, and I'm sure a lot of this is, you know, them going through and learning through their first real playoff pressures as well. - For sure, and then you can amplify it by the amount of extra things happening in the background of dealing with three different goalies, and, you know, they've all done well, you know, so like, that's not the issue, but at the same time, you know, there is that discussion still going on. There's, you know, guys that, you know, you'd like to see a bit more out of, like, there's just a little bit more everywhere, and there's a lot of, you know, a lot of talk going on through this, you know, through this series that's just, you know, so, so tight compared to, you know, pretty much every other series. Like, you know, they have to really work for what they get, and it's hard in your first series. Like, you look across the way in Nashville, and, you know, there are guys that have won the Cup over there, and, you know, it is a storyline that, you know, it bugs me to a certain extent, because after a little bit, like it is just a game and experience 100% matters, but you just got to play. But when it comes down to different situations, like, you know, Rhino Riley taking a face off in his own end with no time left, like, he's comfortable in those situations, he knows he can do it. The other guy's telling himself, I know I can do it, but man, I gotta kind of see if I can. Like, I need to do it once. Like, that's why it's so important to get those playoff reps, and it takes a while. It's not an easy game to adjust and win right away. - So the ongoing conversation around Elias Petterson has continued, and, you know, there's a thought of maybe an injury. He was coy today when he was sort of asked about it at practice, but when the coach is often asked about where Petterson's game is at, lately he keeps using the term, he's got to move his feet. When you hear a coach say that about a player, what does that make you think? - I would say a little bit of it is, he doesn't want to go into everything that he thinks about at the same time, right? Like, you know, he's in a series right now where he needs one of his best players to not be just a little bit better. Like, he needs him to take a step. And he's one of those guys that if he can get back rolling here and show up in next game, that like, he alone can turn the tides here. And not that he needs to hold that through the rest of playoffs and they're looking for it to be just him, but if they can get that little bit of a jump again out of him, like, it's gonna alleviate so much, right? Like, he's so gifted, he has everything there. He just looks lost a bit right now. He doesn't really know what he's doing. In the sense of, like, he gets those open nets and earlier in the year when things are rolling, like, those go in, he doesn't overthink anything. Like, the one play I did, like, last game was, he comes down the right wing, laid on the 2-1-1, and you don't even see him look over to make a pass. Like, that to me now says, he's just being simple into the net. You know, like, he doesn't need to create anything hard, make things harder on himself. Like, treat it like the beginning of the season almost, where you're like, I just need to get volume and feel good about myself again. That's tough to do in game six of a playoff series. Yeah, 'cause, I mean, he didn't score a ton late down the stretch either. This is his, he has one goal now in his last, what is it, 15 games, I think it is, or something like that, going back to the regular season. So how much would it change things for him confidence-wise if just one went in for him? Like, is that simply, like, all he needs, he gets one, and that all of a sudden changes how he thinks about things? I mean, that obviously completely depends on the guy. I, he's, it's not one where he's thinking I'm one bounce away from going on an absolute tear. I'm sure he's telling himself that, but, you know, it's not like he's just missing chances after chance, after chance that he's creating, right? Like, before when things were rolling for him, like, he's the catalyst in the offense. He's not having to look for a play to be made, so then he can get his point. So, I mean, like, he needs to be worried about his next shift, put that together, okay, that was a good one. Let's move on to the next shift. Don't look at the big picture because it doesn't really matter at this point. Like, your next shift's all that matters, and just try and keep building that way. And before you know it, maybe he puts together a good period, and to keep building, and then in the 30, ends up getting one off his shin pad. Like, anything can happen, right? But he needs to find a way to build some confidence in himself here. 'Cause the coach can't do anything at this point. He's got way too much on his plate right now to worry about just one guy's offense. - Yeah, coaches, he's almost run out of ideas as to what to do with Lee as Patterson. You gotta sit there and just hope he starts to find his game a little bit, and, you know, as it is, you know, guys are always playing through injuries, especially at this time of year. Some are gonna hurt more than others, but you gotta find a way to play through it. If you're on the ice, you're gonna be still expected to be able to do your job, and the Canucks need more out of Patterson right now. That one seems pretty obvious at the moment. When it comes to the power play, Landon, it really does, you know, it's pretty obvious. The entries are the issue. They got a little slow last game, and Nashville seemed to have pinpointed what Hughes is trying to do, and they've picked off the drop pass, and they've blocked the, they've held the defense and the blue line pretty well so far. What adjustments can the Canucks make, or is it simply, you know, moving with a little bit more quickness and decisiveness through the neutral zone on those entries? - Yeah, I mean, like, you can't expect to make that long drop. Everyone ends up standing at the far blue line, and then he gets kicked out. And, you know, I was, you know, again, it's a different level, but at the same time, you're, like, I was the kick out guy on the right side. I was the right-hander. And the times where you don't have speed, and it gets kicked out to you, you have, like, a step and a half before the defenseman gets there. That's not much time to get down the wall and find a play. But now everyone's stopped up as well, so I don't really have the option to chip it behind, because now there's only one forechecker, and no one's finishing their roots, so, you know, speed is definitely something they need to bring in. You know, like, I would like to see, I don't think, with the personnel that they have, like, I don't think they need to be in a double drop, where both guys are back there at the same time, have one skate up with Hughes, and now you have, if they wanna send one guy behind Hughes to take away the drop, well, now the four guys that are up ice can go in together and break in four on three. And if they clog it up, well, then you can throw it back to whoever's back there by himself. But everyone else can at least keep their feet moving, and you know what's happening. You just gotta get into the zone at this point, 'cause once they're in, they are moving it pretty well. They just need to get there. - And I think that's probably part of the challenge, and I mean, it's easy for us to sit here sometimes, and say, why don't you do those things, but what is it sometimes you kind of get into that repetitive rut, we keep trying to do the same thing without, you know, being open to other possibilities being available to you? - Because in your head, you just keep going back to all the times that you're like, well, we're in. Like, we get in fine. We just need to capitalize, and we need to be sharper as we're coming in, is guaranteed what you're telling yourself. But at the same time, you know, it's just like, it's really no different than saying they need to shoot more, and even on the power plate, they need to get more at the net. It's the same as the breakout. Like, it doesn't need to be perfect on the entry. It doesn't need to be a kick out, pass down, rimmed around. It's this perfect thing, and then we move out of it. Like, if we come over the line, or the red line, and we throw it in, and we've got four guys moving, and we get on top of them down low, and create a battle, and then throw it back up. What's wrong with that too, right? As long as you get in. Like, you can make the more simple play. Let that happen, and as that starts to work, then you build your confidence a bit more, and then you let your freedom roll again. - Yeah, I know what Well said there, Landon. And in terms of how the Canucks have played now five on five, 'cause something we talked about before was how aggressive Nashville has been with their pressure, and they front so much defensively. And it seems like the Canucks are kind of, they beat that fairly well for the most part in game five, and they started getting some more looks down low. Is there something that you think Nashville can adjust to now to try to take that stuff away, or do you think they kind of have to play into what they've done so well? 'Cause if the Canucks do some of the things that they did in the first period again, there's a lot of space to be had behind those players. - Yeah, like I think for Nashville, like just the aggressiveness has to stay. Like that's really turned things for them. They've made some adjustments where it feels like there's space, and the Canucks are bombing passes up, and it almost seems like guys are kind of on an island quite a bit. Whereas like, well yeah, they got some space, but it's kind of a one on two again. Like they've kind of lulled them into that a bit, and they've done a good job of it. - You know, I think Nashville will try and push a little quicker than before. Like I feel like the beginning of last game, their zone time, once the Canucks got the puck in, like they moved it very well. And again, I think that goes back to the recoveries because they were shooting the puck, and they were getting it back all over the place. For Nashville, I think they're just gonna be trying to keep plugging it up a little bit more, being aggressive, trying to cause as much stuff between whistles. Like you can see sizzons and all these guys having so much fun between whistles. Like it looks like a fun, tight series right now, right? - Yeah, it has been a lot of fun. And I think just the desperation that we've seen out of both teams, it's been good hockey. I do wonder when it comes to beating Nashville's four check, they send three guys in. You know, it can be risky at times, but I think there have been opportunities for Canucks defensemen to jump in on the rush. Do you think there could be more of that there for them to try and create some odd man's and maybe take advantage of Nashville's three-man four check? - For sure, I mean, if you make two clean passes coming out of your zone and that offside these coming, like there's opportunities there, it just needs to be clean. And they've done a very good job with their dump ins that they're never to a very easy spot where Vancouver's had some issues of that because Sorrows is so good at getting out and stopping pox and making the first play. You know, I think that there's opportunity with that weak side defensemen, like it's open. It's just knowing that it's there and telling the defensemen like you have a green life. We're struggling a bit to get some offense. Let's have you get going. Everyone else knows what's going on. That's fine. Just take off up the far side. You know, they need to add another element just trying to get in through the entries. So maybe it doesn't have to be a dump again and we're chasing it all over the place. - Landon, always appreciate your insights. It's a pleasure we'll talk again soon. Thanks for this. - All right, awesome. Have a good one, guys. - There is Landon Ferraro joining us here on Canucks Central. - Fantastic stuff, man. It's been a pleasure having Landon on the past few weeks and look forward to chatting with him again, hopefully next week as well. But you know, on that thought, and you're right, I mean, I think the Canucks can have their D be more aggressive. I wonder, one of the reasons they've been less aggressive than the regular season at times is because of the net minder, net minder's being different. Like they're also, I think, very aware it's not Thatcher-Dempo. Like you have confidence in your guys, but you also can play maybe as aggressive as you would at times when you don't have Dempo. - It's still about picking your spots, you know, when they're available to you. But the problem starts when, yes, like Nashville's sending three guys. So what does that mean? If you're able to get beyond them, then you should have the opportunity to send an extra D-man. I don't think they've picked those spots well. Sometimes I feel like Cole has been the one to recognize it and jump into those spaces. - I think Cole has, Adorav has, right? And I think guys again that have had some-- - He used it in a couple times last game, but there's more opportunities. Part of it is their breakouts haven't been clean enough, often enough. And that's a credit to Nashville and just how good and aggressive they've been on their four check, but-- - Their sticks have been really good too. I think one of the things that Nashville isn't getting enough credit for is it's not just about, you know, you meeting pressure with pressure, but if you come at guys and you get a stick in on a guy, like there's only so much you can do sometimes. And they've been really good at taking time in space away and have had very active sticks in doing so as well. So I mean, they've been a team that's executed in their game plan to a tee, you know? And it's been, and yeah, I mean, there are things they would like to do better, but how much more can you ask of a team that doesn't have a ton of talent, right? So it's hard to look at them and say, well, they can be better. Like this might be some of the best hockey they play. And unless the Canucks can elevate again and do more, it might be enough. It has been enough to still hang around the series, right? Like we're playing a game six here on Friday. - Game six and Nashville. Look, you look at all of the underlying statistics this season. The series has been dead even. For me, you know, the Canucks, it's been more, I'm more inclined to agree with Rick Tockett and that the opportunities are there for us. We need to execute better. It's not as much of, hey, these two teams are incredibly talented. They're both neck and neck. There's not much difference between the two. On paper, for me, there is a difference between the two. It's just Nashville at times has executed their game plan a little bit better than the Canucks have executed their own game plan. - Yeah, and I mean, the Canucks still have three teams. - Sometimes that's all that matters in the playoffs. - And hey, the Canucks still have a three, two series lead. A lot of it on the backs of the fact they have talent. They have stepped up at opportune times, right? And things like that. And that's, you know, you don't apologize for those things. That's why you want to have as much talent as possible. But you know, it sounded like a broken record. We just need to see them play a better game. You know, and it goes back to Patterson. They showed it, you know, in the first period last, the other game, and it's not that far away. But if they go out and play like 55 minutes where they are the best team, 50 minutes where they are the best team, not where it's like 40 minutes. You know, 'cause I think in the playoffs, it's very hard for you to have a 60 minute effort where you're better than the other team. - Yeah. - Like I just think it's almost impossible. The other team's gonna have 10 minutes, you know, 12 minutes. But you gotta be bet, you can't just have a good 30. 35, it has to be above 40, you know? - And the Canucks are better in the first. Not as good in the second last game. And then I thought it had the better third, but at the end of the day, Nashville scored twice and Canucks only once in that third period. Some real good thoughts from Landon as well on the power play. And, you know, he makes a good point about what they can do with their entries, maybe instead of having two guys behind Hughes waiting for the drop pass and then trying to enter the zone at the same time, you know how they do. - Yeah. - Hughes does drop pass and then the two forwards that are behind him, they kind of do a little give and go through the neutral zone and try to gain the blue line with speed. Maybe change that to just having one player behind Hughes and create a numbers advantage at the offensive blue line that way. You know, there's different ways they can go about it. I don't know if they're gonna go for a major tweak like that at this stage of the season, but it's pretty clear they've gotta make some kind of a tweak because Nashville is easily anticipating what the Canucks are going to do on every entry. - Yeah, and I think sometimes it's as simple as, you know, the guy carrying the puck up ice instead of trying to make the play to enter at the blue line, just rip it in and then somebody chases in and grabs it. You know what I mean? Like if you're not gonna change overall what you're doing, do you simplify at times? And if you change things up here and there, then they can't sit on one play. - Yeah. - And I think that's what you wanna do right now. They're sitting on the same thing and they're attacking it every single time and they're winning it. You know, the Canucks are barely getting set up on the power play. - We know what play you're looking for. - It's not like, you know, the Madden video game where like, hey, I'm just gonna do the slant route that you can't stop ever. I'm just gonna keep doing it or like Madden 04. Like, yeah, I'm just gonna like run out with Michael Vick and there's nothing you can do about it. - You really can't do anything about it. Deal with it. - Yeah. In this case, you know, if you're the Nashville Predators and you know what the Canucks wanna do on their entries, you're gonna be able to foil them. And that's what's happened in this series and it's something that the Canucks have to correct moving forward. Appreciate Landon and his insights on the Canucks. Hopefully we'll have a lot more playoff games to talk about. Canucks and Predators, game six is tomorrow. Canucks will have an optional game day skate as just confirmed. And then a puck drop at four o'clock Pacific time will be on at two o'clock here on Canucks Central to get things going and get the pregame fired up at three. More Canucks Central coming on Sports at 650.
