On this week's show, Brendan Batchelor and Randip Janda recap the Canucks' opening round series win against Nashville, preview Vancouver's second round matchup against Edmonton, answer some listener questions and conduct another Rose Ceremony.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
So you're welcome to in the booth on Sportsnet 650 your official home of the Canucks. My name is branded bachelor joined as always by Randy Janda. We call Canok games for you here on the radio and we do this show in the booth every week as well. And Randy what a week it's going to happen. For the Canucks the highs and lows of an opening round playoff series with fans and attendance for the first time in a long time and the Canucks finally closed it out Friday night with a hard fought one nothing victory on the road in Nashville and they're off to the second round to face the Edmonton Oilers. Yeah what a first round it was. There's the euphoria of the first two games and then a couple of big wins in Nashville and then you start to worry a little bit about it. I think that's awesome. You know some maybe some nervousness in this market talking to people all around the city people saying hey we're excited but heading into game six a lot is nervousness but what a game it was and what an experience and hopefully it's just gotten started for this team as they tackle round one but it's nice to have playoff hockey back in Vancouver and it's nice to have this team winning rounds as well. Yeah and you know the it's the the emotional roller coaster that you go through and we'll get to the end of the round. When they face the Oilers where your team will win a game and you think we're going to win the cup we're going to for sure come out of this series you lose a game and people are talking about summer storylines and who are they going to sign and who are they going to bring back and who do they need to trade and you know that's the way the hockey market is in Vancouver. We know that Randi from both growing up here but it's been a while since we've been able to go through these kinds of conversations and for us our first real opportunity to call these sorts of games you know with the exception of the 2020 bubble playoffs but we all know that that was a very different vibe and a very different time. This feels more normal and it's been very exciting from our perspective to cover this team and now that they've come out of this series it's going to be exciting to carry forward with them as they get set to face the Oilers as well. No doubt that pressure that excitement that nervousness is all going to amp up even more so the playoffs and the round one is one thing but the more you progress the more you feel it and you know batch we can get into this a little bit later on ourselves but even as play callers you know you could sense that in the game game six as it was winding down as the Canucks were looking for a goal there's that element of not only all right what's going to happen here there's an element of nervousness in the game there's it's a good feeling to have but you can sense that for a lot of the fans that are listening in as well so it's only going to get as Rick talk it says the only going to get hotter moving into the second round so before we preview the series with the Oilers and just so you get an idea of how the show is going to work today we'll look back at the Nashville series we will preview the Oilers series here in the second round and we're going to get to a bunch of your listener questions because we've got some really good ones when we called for them after the win in game six on Twitter so the entire second segment we're going to dedicate to you the listeners and the questions that you've talked about over the last two minutes and ten but off the top here Randy let's break down game six and it was a close game it was you know fine margins it took a goal with under two minutes left kind of against the flow of play and somewhat out of the blue to eventually end that series for the Canucks I was convinced that we were headed for another overtime game against the predators and obviously when people look back at this series and the memorable moments you know series winning goal in the end is going to be a memorable one the Tyler Byers block on that closing sequence in game six but also the miracle comeback in game four the overtime winner from Elias Lindholm and the two goals in 12 seconds in game one and that's what I'm sort of you know what I'm left with as we come out of this series reflecting on it is the big moments in the series the Canucks took advantage of them they were opportunistic they capitalized when they had to they had the tremendous comeback in game four where they scored a couple of goals in the final three minutes to force overtime and got the winner they scored two goals in 12 seconds in game one taking advantage of a situation where they could build momentum and turn game one on its head and that kind of set the tone for the series and then in game six to they get a late goal when it looked like nothing was going to separate those two teams and they defend very well in the last 30 seconds and get it across the finish line yeah they lean into the big moments in this series and that's something that you know with teams that maybe don't have that much experience recent experience as a group together. I'm not focusing on Ian Cole I'm not focusing on Jade team alert and players like that have done their thing before and Teddy Blueger who's won a Stanley Cup. I'm talking about this as a group together. There's sometimes a moment of okay are you going to lean in are you going to lean back a little bit and in those you know stressful moments and this team showed that in those moments they don't run away. It's not a it's a fight or flight situation and they fought. So you're absolutely right and a classic example of that was game six the third period where of course to the road team of course nationals got the support on the home crowd. They probably got the desperation as well but Vancouver matched that desperation and really in a lot of ways exceeded it at the end of that period even though the national was pushing and wanted to make sure that their season was extended Vancouver gets the goal Vancouver matched them in high danger chances shot attempts are almost equal in that regard as well until later on in the final seconds but that start of that period batch really showed me a lot about this team to say hey we know they're desperate but we're desperate to end this too we're not going to you know flee from this moment we're going to fight and that's where the the goal that you see your scores that's where it comes from there's you know some really good wall battle some really good you know leaning into the play and and not sagging back and that's exactly in those key moments in this series the Canucks were able to do that it wasn't a you know a Monet it wasn't a a you know a great piece of art in terms of a series this was not one of those series it was tough to watch it sometimes I know I saw a lot of those tweets we called the game too there's a lot of you know stuff going on in the perimeter there are a lot of blocked shots but Vancouver showed that they can win that way and that's a very very important thing in the playoffs yeah it reminds me of something that Rick Talkett has been preaching all year which is don't get antsy and be patient right he's been saying since very early in the season you've got to be comfortable in a scoreless game or in a tie game in the third period you've got to find a way to make the difference in some of those games that don't chase the game and don't try to do too much and I think game six is a perfect example of that where it's a scoreless game in the third period are the Canucks you know aggressive yes I thought they you know had some looks created some opportunities especially earlier in the third period but they didn't do it at the expense of their structure they didn't do it chasing out a position they weren't gifting the predators breakaways or odd man rushes the other way and that's the the fine balance that this team has been striving for here and you know you're right it wasn't a perfect execution of that game plan by any means throughout this series but that's what I look at when I look at you know finding a way to come from behind and not quitting when you're down by a couple of goals late in game four finding a way to have that come back in the third period of game one finding a way to get the decisive goal in the final two minutes of what had been a scoreless game up until that point in game six is trusting in the systems trusting in what you can do as a group waiting for your moment and then when that moment arrives you capitalize on it and that is something that regardless of how things go the rest of the way in this postseason was an important lesson that this team needed to learn because when Rick Talkett took over they were a wildly inconsistent team they would build leads and then blow them or they would you know come from behind and then end up losing anyway you know you could never really predict what was going to happen there was no consistency with the way that they played and now you can see that consistency there that even if they don't have their best game even if pucks aren't necessarily going in for them or they're not generating as much as you would like they have that structure to fall back on that allows their floor to rise so that they can keep themselves in games and then wait for their moment for sure and styles make fights so the Nashville style was a tricky one to navigate it was not an easy team to play remember the second half of the season they were the best team in the NHL they were the hottest team heading into the playoffs the final two to three weeks anyways so it was a tricky matchup and I start looking in you know being patient use that phrase as what the Canucks needed to do and there's no better example than that than Pew Souter in the game six right he has essentially five shots on goal three unbelievable chances on UC Sorrows and Sorrows denies them stones them three times whether it's a you know rebound off the boards and Sorrows moves left to right whether it was a great shot by JT Miller designed to have the rebound pop to Pew Souter and he crashes the net and Sorrows makes it unbelievable save there and a couple other opportunities but there is a camera shot of Pew Souter being extremely you know angry and a guy that doesn't show very much emotion breaking a stick on the bench because he was frustrated he couldn't beat Sorrows but there you get the opportunity you get on the right side of Anthony Bavillia you get right in front of Sorrows you beat him so it was not only you know from a collective perspective of staying patient it was also when you run into a team that can block a lot of shots and be one of the better goal tenders in the league on his day you're going to have those moments we're going to have to believe in yourself you're going to have to say hey don't worry the first three times didn't work if I get that fourth one I need to take advantage I need to get to the right spots and credit to Pew Souter because I think he's an understated player batch we talked him in the locker room as well he's not exactly the most outspoken individual he doesn't talk very much at all but his game speaks loudly he gets to those areas where you're going to take a beating he gets to those areas when you play with JT Miller and Brock Besser the puck is going to go there a lot and if you look at his goals during the regular season this past season and even in the playoffs he's been able to get to the middle of the ice which is oh so important this time of the year so credit to the team for staying patient also a player like Pew Souter and credit to Pew Souter as well as reported by our colleague Thomas Drantz who's been eating out of a straw for a couple of weeks after taking a Carson Sousie shot in the mouth so to be able to contribute the way he did in this series with a couple of big goals remember he tipped the Hughes point shot in game one that was the first of those two goals in 12 seconds he scores the eventual series winner and he finished third on the team in shots on goal in the series and I know a large part of that conversation until he scored that series winner in game six was that he wasn't finishing his grade A chances but he came up big when it really counted for this team to get them through and pass the predators and make sure they didn't have to come back and play a game seven in Vancouver on top of that as well and I think the credit when it comes to talking about patience with this team can also be extended to Rick Talkett and his coaching staff because there were times in the series where you know the Canucks offense was struggling and there was a lot of talk in this market about why isn't talk it changing the lines you know should he go to the Lotto line what can he do to generate more offense and to Rick Talkett's credit he said I'm going to stay the course here I believe that the way we have these guys deployed right now gives us the best opportunity to have success against the predators and when people outside of the organization and outside of the dressing room were calling for Pew's sooner to be moved down the line up so that Elias Patterson could be back there on the Lotto line sure Rick Talkett did things situationally in games but he didn't deviate from what he felt was the best deployment for this team and it worked in the end and finally enough actually you know the series winner is scored on a sequence where it's Patterson that has to go out there with Souter and Besser which is something we hadn't seen in the series that point because J.T. Miller had an extended shift and you know wasn't able to get out there with his line mates and it's Elias Patterson who was another guy that was a big focus throughout this series for some of the wrong reasons in terms of his lack of production that makes a couple of really smart plays in the lead up to that goal and then of course we've got a credit Brock Besser for the great pass to find Souter in front yeah excellent pass by Brock Besser he's got Kerry draped all over his back but he sees Souter in the middle of the ice makes that feed but it might be another line to put in the blender if things are stale at some point in the playoffs where you have Patterson working with Souter and Besser I do want to mention that Souter Miller Besser line because you're right I heard that a lot from people saying get Souter off that line he doesn't you know have the he can't score the goals he's not a fit to me and the staff back this up he is absolutely a fit when you start looking at expected goals per 60 minutes in these playoffs batch he is up there with the dewe Claire Braden point Nikita Kuchra of line so Miller Souter Besser have expected goals of 4.7 per 60 minutes and here's the deciding factor that is top five of lines remaining in the playoffs but here's the difference they only allow an expected goals of 1.84 per 60 minutes which is by far the best of any line in the top 10 that's putting up those goals too so that tells you that a they're creating opportunities the amount of chances that they're creating is really strong and maybe the finish hasn't been there to that same degree but they're putting themselves in an excellent position and on the defensive side they are stout they're not allowing many chances either so in the playoffs it's two things scoring timely goals and making sure the other team does not score and you are on the ice and that line is doing exactly that so I might would be willing to experiment with other lines I might be willing to experiment with you know something further down the lineup but when it comes to that line and what they've been able to do I'm not touching that and I will say this the Lotto line even though they were together in game six they didn't have much success there's a reason that Rick Talkett went away from it later on in the game as they were not finding that chemistry so you know that clamoring for the Lotto line I understand it based on history but and maybe the the high-pired offense but right now Suder Miller and Besser they're one of the better lines in the playoffs yeah absolutely and before we turn the page on this Nashville series we also have to talk about the biggest storyline by far for the Canucks and the playoffs which has been the goal-tending and it's been a tremendous story which I don't think many of us would have predicted when Thatcher Demko went down going into game two and we got that news at the morning skate that day at Rogers Arena that Casey Desmith was going to start and then you can extend that even more when Casey Desmith goes down with injury and Archer Shilov's has to take over in the crease but credit Shilov's pitching a shutout in the decisive game he picks up two of the four wins in the series Desmith had one Demko had one Shilov's had two and you know as we start to turn the page and look ahead to the second round match up with the Oilers Khadok fans I think can probably feel pretty comfortable and pretty confident with the fact that they've got a 23 year old Latvian who played a tremendous game on Friday night going in between the pipes for them at least we expect at this point to start the series against the Oilers that's what a fantastic effort from Archer Shilov's and I'm not going to lie I think like a lot of people in Vancouver I was not sure if the stage might be too bright for him I wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle that but 28 saves in a shutout and making timely saves right off the bat, right off you know the puck drop in period one where he makes an excellent save on Bavillier and later on in the game there's a number of chances where you know he's not fazed there's an excellent you know chance by Philip Forsberg he hits a crossbar a lot of goalies might be kind of shaken a little bit at that point but he makes another save on Zukary he's challenging at the top of the blue paint throat and in the third period of course alongside his defense he played really strong he's had such an impact batch that Hugo Boss I believe is restocking the Paisley interlock shirt which he had that's on sale right now by the way it's on sale I looked at it I was like you know what this is not going to look good on me so I opted out it's not going to look good on a lot of people but I can tell you one thing it's the most famous shirt in Vancouver right now even more so than the Scott Roosevelt sell shirt because he is buying you know Canucks fans are buying it all over the place so that tells you when Arthur Shilov's is able to make alongside some help with J.T. Miller that that t-shirt that looks a certain way the most famous shirt in probably the province but I think what I'm most impressed by batch you know jokes aside is the poise he this guy he's ready for the spotlight he welcomes a spotlight when you're that young it is so it could be a deer and headlights moment but what Arthur Shilov's and he talked about it post game six said hey I've done this at the world championships I'm 23 but when you have a world championships you're playing in your home city that's a lot of pressure so having that experience has helped me a lot I love the confidence I love the fact that he is not he's not somebody that can be rattled easily and that's exactly what this team needs right now by the way with the t-shirt the Scott Rhodes sellies t-shirt much better value for your dollar hundred bucks for the Hugo boss shirt if I'm not mistaken forty dollars Canadian on dude soda dot c-a for the Scott Rhodes sellies t-shirt there we go that's not not see and I will say this it is a local product too so that always helps thank you batch thanks for the plug okay so now that we've got the cheap plug out of the way love it we shift our attention to where things are going for the Canucks and that is a second round series with Conor McDavid, Leon Dreycidal and the Edmondson Oilers as we transition away from the success of the Nashville series I think the question we have to ask is what did we learn about the Canucks in the first round and how can we apply that learning to this matchup against the Oilers and you know my takeaway first and foremost when I look at facing Edmonton is that this is a series that could very well be completely decided by special teams the Canucks and the Predators combined for just four power play goals in the opening round series meanwhile the Edmonton Oilers in their five game victory over the LA Kings went nine for twenty on the man advantage they've got the top power play in the playoffs as we speak right now on Saturday afternoon so there were a couple of games where the Canucks were not very disciplined and we know LA had a great penalty kill in the regular season the Canucks penalty kill while it has been improving and trending in the right direction was still not anywhere near close to what the Kings accomplished throughout the 82 games in the regular season and that's the number one thing that I look at is first of all the Canucks need to be disciplined because as much as their penalty kill has been good I don't know how much they can trust it when it's McDavid and Dreycidal on the other side so discipline to make sure you don't give those guys a ton of chances to win hockey games and then secondly the Canucks power play which only scored twice in the series against Nashville has to be a heck of a lot better if they want a chance of matching what the Oilers can do on their man advantage yeah this is a huge talking point in the series for a couple of reasons and you mentioned Edmonton's power play if Vancouver's has been described as mechanical the Oilers is a complete like freestyle power play because they've got so many shooting threats they are so loose they are going to find ways to get the puck to the players that score those goals and whether that's Leon Dreycidal near the goal line whether that's Zack Hyman net front whether that's Nugent Hopkins in the bumper whether that's Conor McDavid honestly anywhere on that power play because he's got the liberty to go wherever he wants and I haven't mentioned the guy that's been really good this year on the power play Evan Bouchard he has the most 90 plus mile per hour shots in the NHL and it's not particularly close he doubled everybody else in getting that shot off and getting it through so you have to pick your poison and unfortunately they're venomous on that power play from four or five different players and that's not a slight to Ryan Nugent Hopkins but the other four guys their goals we can see that they've been able to put up a lot and you know when you have Ryan Nugent Hopkins on that power play and he's seen as a secondary threat that's telling you something so first thing is you got to make sure that you are not taking the penalties that's going to be something that's so important second thing is if you do those draws those opening draws are going to be so important if you start eating pressure right away your good is done against this power play that was striking at 45% in the first round 45% so that's that is one thing the other thing I would say here is round one there are a fair bit of penalties but as we saw the Canucks series kind of go on the penalties started to dry up a little bit right so the big question for me is yes they've got a lethal power play yes you don't want to take penalties against them but what is the standard or level of officiating heading into round two are they going to be whistle happy to start off the series just to set the tone again or are we leading off of what they left off in the first round because that could be a very big factor here based on how many opportunities Edmonton gets on the power play the fewer power plays there are in the series as a whole the more it suits the Canucks because we've talked so much about their great 5 on 5 play all year long and we saw how well they were able to execute at 5 on 5 in their season series with Edmonton now you know I'm not going to read too much into that much like we talked about going into the Predators series three of those four games and by the way four wins against the Oilers were played very early in the season and then the one late game while it was a very important win for the Canucks and it was Casey Desmith in the net on that night and they essentially locked up the Pacific Division by beating the Oilers in that game Conor McDavid was not a part of the fourth and final meeting he was out of the lineup so not that I'm going to read into that too much but we know how good the Canucks have been at 5 on 5 this year we know the structure they play with defensively sure the Oilers have the top skilled players like McDavid and Dreyseidel and I'm not going to take anything away from those guys but if the Canucks can stick to their structure play a patient game like we saw them do in the Nashville series and then they don't go to the box a ton or they don't give McDavid and Dreyseidel a lot of opportunities to work on the power play then they've got a chance of hanging in this series I don't think it's going to be as one sided as many people from the outside looking in are predicting but that's only if they stay out of the box and only if it isn't a series with a lot of power plays I think you know regardless of whether the Canucks go to the man advantage more than the Oilers are not if we see games with lots of penalties we'll see the Oilers win those games for sure and I agree with that and here's another thing that we need to focus on with the Edmonton Oilers in round one they did not allow a single power play gold LA they have a PK percentage of 100% coming out of that round and for a power play in Vancouver that hasn't had success you know that's something to be mindful of they've got guys that can kill penalties the Edmonton Oilers bottom six is a little bit more rounded out than previous years Chris Knoblock has done playing a committed brand of hockey so this is going to be a challenge there's no doubt about that but Vancouver 5 on 5 is going to be the key here because you're right one of the better 5 on 5 teams in the NHL a team that outscored Edmonton 19 to 7 during the regular season a lot of that is the first two games of the year with Jay Woodcroft but the fact of the matter is you still have that confidence you still have that to say on our game when it's JT Miller versus Conor McDavid you're comfortable with that matchup JT stepped up in those spots previously and you can't contain Conor McDavid you can't keep him off the score sheet but you know are you able to limit him are you able to make life difficult and I think the Canucks have three players that are able to do that in a way right whether that is JT whether that is a Lice Lindholm who can play that you know role as well he was as we know got sell key votes a few years ago Teddy Blueger in certain situations has been able to do that as well so it's going to take a total team effort to really limit Conor McDavid and try to limit what he can do alongside Leon Dreyseld but that's to me I think the biggest talking point heading into the series is the matchup game line 2 how do you match up against Leon Dreyseld you've got Conor Hyman and Henrik playing on the top line I would see a Lice Lindholm and Dakota Joshua probably going against Nugent Hopkins and Evander Kane and you know the way that Elias Patterson sure he had a good play on that goal that the game went in goal but like do you have confidence on him to take those head to head match ups right now at home ice? I don't so I think this is where Lindholm and JT Miller will be in a major spot right now to take those head to head match ups and much like we talked about going into the Nashville series that puts the focus on Patterson because if he's not the guy that's going to be lining up against McDavid and Dreyseld at least through the first two games before the series shifts to Edmonton then you look at the Patterson line with Ho Glanner and McKayev and you look at the Euler's bottom six they've got Holloway McCloud and Perry on a line they've got Fogle Ryan and Jan Mark on a line if Patterson can find even a portion of you know his top level then that is a mismatch that the Canucks can exploit and I think Vancouver's depth is another thing we're going to have to talk about in this series because you know if Patterson can get going then suddenly the Euler's have to decide even when they're at home you know do we match up against Patterson or do we match up against Lindholm and who goes out there against Miller and do we try to get Dreyseld and McDavid away from any of those lines and which lines do we target but the key to making that a hard conversation for the Euler's is the Patterson line holding up its end of the bargain and although I think those guys have looked better and better as the Nashville series went on in particular Hoaglander who I think probably had his best couple of games in the series in the last two games it hasn't even been close to enough in terms of you know how good they will need to be to make that a tough decision for the Euler's coaching staff that you can say oh they're rolling three offensive lines deep and we've got to figure out how to contain them right now the Canucks had two really good lines I think throughout the majority of that Nashville series although I certainly think the Lindholm line could have been better later in the series and I thought Joshua and Garland who have been so important all year long were less and less of a factor as the series went forward but separating you know those conversations looking back looking forward if you want to say that the Canucks depth is better than the Euler's depth then their depth has to show through and Patterson if we're not calling him one of those matchup centermen you know automatically gets grouped into that conversation of depth and bottom six and winning those sorts of match ups and that especially if the special teams battle gets away from Vancouver could define not just Vancouver's ability to win the series it could define their ability to extend the series beyond being a very quick one if Patterson cannot hold up his end of the bargain yeah the first two games of the series are going to be really important because if that's the way the top two lines match up where you've got JT versus Connor and you've got Leon Drys settled versus Elias Lindholm you've got a soft match up there in theory against Ryan McLeod, Corey Perry and Dylan Holloway and Shouts Dylan Holloway a couple of goals in that series I think he's been playing really well for Edmonton but paper on paper that's a matchup that Elise Patterson when he's going even at I want to say 75% that's one that you favor the Vancouver Canucks set but here's the issue if you can make that count in the first two games because when you go back to Edmonton you're probably going to be targeted as a line you're probably going to have you know dry settler McDavid they're going to no block will probably try to get one of the top lines out when Patterson's line is out there that's what Nashville tried to do in some of the match ups last round as well so this is an area that I think you got to make those first two games count and even the game within the game though batch when we look at those two lines matching up Corey Perry versus Neil's Hoaglander could be fascinating you've got two past type players and one of the greatest pests of all time who's played 201 NHL playoff games think about that for a second he's played 201 NHL playoff games on top of his you know his regular season games he's got a lot of experience you know he's going to be in the grill of a Leo's Pedersen if they match up you know there's going to be a lot going on in front of the goaltender's Corey Perry's going to be in the mix now can you bring your own guy who's played that style of game maybe not as greasy as Corey Perry but definitely brought an element of you know the players on the opposite side hate to play against them that line if they go head to head I could see those guys you know meeting in a lot of scrums and it could be kind of like the master versus the pupil type of scenario so even within the role players the death players could be some interesting match ups yeah absolutely and we have to talk about the goaltending too because we already gave archer she loves his flowers for his performance in the series against predators and in particular in game six you look at Stuart Skinner at the other end of the ice and put up some solid numbers against the Kings but he finishes that series with a four in one record a nine ten save percentage and a 2.59 goals against average so in terms of NHL experience right Skinner's been an all-star he's got a couple of years under his belt in the NHL archer she loves less experienced very young maybe too young to know any better and then you know the pending potential return of Thatcher Demko looms large over this series too because Demko has been on the ice a couple of times now we saw some video on the TV broadcast during game six of some of the work he's been doing and you know that if Demko can get back as soon as possible in this second round series he's going to do it the question is how quick can that be can he get back in this series and can the combination of she loves and potentially dismiss hold the fort long enough to let the Vesna nominee get back in the crease yeah that's really going to be it with Demko in the crease he's capable of stealing a series he's capable of frustrating some of the best shooters on the planet obviously the ceiling with a she loves and the Smith is not as high but you don't necessarily need that sort of ceiling with the team that plays well defensively and Vancouver has been able to do that this year against Edmonton so it's really about the structure sticking to the structure and saying hey if Connor and Leon want to take all the shots from the perimeter they want go for it we're not going to give you the middle of the ice and that's when one area that I think both of these teams have improved on we've talked about Vancouver being really good defensively since Chris Bob Locke took over in Edmonton that team's been very strong defensively as well they're not giving away odd man rushes like they were earlier on this year so you know there's going to be a difference there but goaltending wise Stuart Skinner in the first two games of this series did not have a good start even though they won game one gave up four goals in the next game gave up five goals and then. There was a confidence in his bounce back and not only on the ice but even asked off the ice like there's a swagger about this guy that he hasn't had in previous years sometimes we think about him you know he's you know been around for a little bit he's only 25 years old he's only two years older than Archer she loves so I think he's maturing in front of our eyes to which poses a challenge for Vancouver because batch those final three games of the series against LA he was dynamite and I know you know in the final game he didn't 21 shots against and three goals against at that point Edmonton really had that been locked up but the two games prior to that Stuart Skinner was one of the reasons that they won this series so it's going to be a challenge I think she loves in the Canucks structure is capable of beating this Edmonton team you at least at the start of the series or being very competitive in that regard but you know there is a more confident Stuart Skinner here that is very different from maybe the beginning of the year when they had Jack Campbell and of course Skinner and that it's going to be interesting to see all of these story lines are going to play out when this second round series between the Canucks and the Oilers gets underway this coming week all right we're late for a break but on the other side we'll come back and we'll answer a bunch of your questions we got a bunch of great ones in for the mailbag this week so we'll deal with your questions we'll talk through those we'll get to the Rose ceremony as well on in the booth here on your official home of Canucks playoff hockey Sportsnet 650 Welcome back to in the booth on Sportsnet 650 we are your official home of Canucks playoff hockey branded bachelor alongside Randy Jenda if you're listening on the radio and you missed any part of the show it lives as a podcast too so you can catch the full program on the clock central podcast feed and this is the time of year more than any other you want to make sure you're subscribed to Canucks central you get the show every weekday with Satyar Shah and Dan Riccio you get every Canucks post game show with Satyar Shah bick nazar and former NHL defenseman Brett Festerling and you get our weekly show in the booth as well alright Randy let's open up the mailbag and we've got a number of good questions let's start with a really open ended one from our good friend from the Simpsons Lionel Hatsu writes in and simply asks what will it take to beat Edmonton I got a one word answer for you batch structure structure is what's gonna honestly it's gonna and I know it's a simple answer but you have to make sure that you defend in a you know a very responsible way against this team you don't want to sit back because if you sit back like LA the one three one didn't work as we saw so you have to make sure that you are posing a threat like the Vancouver Canucks they didn't shy away from Edmonton earlier on in the year but you have to make sure that the guts of the ice the middle of the ice is not exposed for players like Conor McDade Leon dry settle and Zach Hyman particularly this is a team that if you give them a little bit of space they will shred you so you have to lean into the offense that you have in JT Miller a Leus Patterson Brock Besser Quinn Hughes and be very opportunistic against this team but it really roots from strong defense of if you frustrate them and you get them to take sometimes penalties themselves Leon dry so it's been known to take a couple of frustrated penalties from good defense with the Canucks will be able to create often so it comes down to structure for me. Yeah and in particular I think rush defense too because we know when McDavid gets going and the speed that he's able to generate if you can't negate that speed or you can't you know make sure you keep him to the outside to your point of protecting the guts of the ice then he'll cut you open and fill the back of the net and the series could be defined by his ability to do just that so guts of the ice Rick talk it always talks about but he always talks about skating forward to defend especially in the neutral zone and I think that's going to be key in particular against McDavid and then talking about how all of the facets of the game are kind of interwoven you want to establish your four check you want to be the team that's getting in and forcing the Oilers defense men to go back for pucks and you know forcing them to make bad plays with it because you're hitting them into the end boards and you're on the front foot in that regard you know I think this will be a very different series than the one against the predators in terms of the physicality because Vancouver and Nashville were two of the top five teams in the league in the regular season in terms of total number of hits the Oilers are not that same kind of team their skilled team they play with speed especially when McDavid's on the ice but you don't sit there and think of them as a really bruising club they do have guys that can lay big hits and play that kind of game like Darnell nurse and Evander Kane who just jumped to mind but we're talking about a team that was right in the middle of the pack in the league this year in terms of number of hits through 82 games in the regular season so you know not only defending the middle of the ice not only defending in the neutral zone and defending them from picking up speed off the rush but then laying the body on them making them pay a price to get to the areas of the ice they want to get to if the Canucks can do that then it levels the playing field to a certain extent in spite of the fact that the Oilers have the better top end skill yeah and on that first defensive pairing it's fantastic Matias echolm is a heck of a pickup good dating back to last year Evan Bouchard offensively one of the better defenseman in the NHL but Vancouver's got probably a top two guy in that regard when it comes to Quinn Hughes but you start looking at the rest of the defense and I know CC and Kulak had a good first round but there are some areas to target there to your point if you pressure Darnell nurse for instance these guys are capable of making those mistakes where I think Nashville the way that they play it was you've got Roman Josie can skate out of trouble you've got Ryan McDonough a very good team out tested defenseman but he also made some mistakes in game six that nearly cost Nashville so if you pressure this team I think there are mistakes out there so your point about you know being further up ice having that you know pressure on that defense is going to be vitally important having structure in your own end and you know limiting that blue line to Carson Sucy has done an excellent job at that I've really liked what Elias Lindholm is going to do through the neutral zone but there's other defenseman that have done a good job of denying you know the blue line at the Canucks blue line Phillip Roenik has done that it's going to be so important against this Edmonton team so can you create turnovers and can you create offense from your own blue line or the neutral zone and attack the other way our next question comes in from Josh who writes in and asks will we see Lindholm in the top six to combat the McDavid Dreycidal lines since we know Blueger is great on the third line or you know to be honest lately he's been on the fourth line Lindholm and Miller on a line would give either one of them fits with their tenacity so he's talking about moving Teddy Blueger into the middle with Joshua and Garland and moving Lindholm up I would assume into Pew Souter's spot on the Miller line now we already talked about the Miller line and how good they've been with Souter there so my take on this is that I don't expect Rick Talkett to change very much in terms of the way he deploys his top three lines in particular I do wonder if if he makes some different choices further down the line up because of the style of series that we might see with the Oilers as opposed to the you know the physical war of attrition that it was with the predators this has a chance to be a more higher paced skill based kind of series but my initial answer to Josh's question Randeep is that I'm not expecting to see any changes at least to start game one on those top three lines in particular part of this is also figuring out what the opposition is going to how they treat your three line three center scenario right and I think any matchup that the Vancouver Canucks going to right now they're in the power position having three centers deep that poses a real problem for the opposition Andrew Brunette talked about that saying hey it's a challenge not any every team can can line up and have an advantage against them and if you're Edmonton they've got that in their roster in their lineup to a certain extent to if they feel confident of popping you know Ryan Nugent Hopkins back to center they might be able to provide that but they don't choose to do that they like him on the wing I think Rick Talkett heading into the series is very such an a alright I'm confident with at least two of my top centers a two of my top three centers defensively right now to handle Leon Dreyson and Connor McDavid the third line whether it's probably the Patterson line right now I'm confident in that matchup I'm okay with rolling in with that same lineup because I feel like the Vancouver Canucks are in a position of power of saying that third line whether it wins or loses is really it's up to us it's not up to what something that Edmonton will do so I don't expect any changes there the Lindholm moving up in game though I like to see that more often if you know that third line with Garland and Joshua is not clicking if it's not finding the same success that it has maybe early on in the national series in game I wouldn't be surprised to see that and not actually like to see that a little bit more just to see where Lindholm what he can do with maybe a Patterson again remember the last time they played Lindholm was mostly weird at that time so in game I don't mind that especially for chasing the game but the way to start off the series now I think this setup is is the way you want it if you're Vancouver our next question comes in from Sarah and it's little bit of a different one getting away from previewing the Canucks Oilers series Sarah asks what's been the most exciting or stressful game that you've ever called one you so desperately wanted your team to win and I'll let you answer first Randy because I think you know I've called games for a little bit longer than you have so I would imagine that last night's game or maybe the overtime game in game for are the ones that you're looking at but you tell me what what would you pick is the most exciting or stressful game that you call yeah I think going back the exciting two things right game one of this series this past series was just cool because it was it was exciting in the sense that hockey playoff hockey was back in Vancouver and batch standing next to you there at Rogers Arena while you were doing the pregame reads and I was kind of shutting up there and not saying anything I kind of zoned out it was a really exciting moment from you know our line of business just to be in that building and see how much the city loves playoff hockey and how much they missed it so from an excitement level that's the moment from a stress level or nervous level I got to go back to the last game when it was zero zero and it's heading towards what seems like overtime and then Pew Souter ends up scoring that goal after that unbelievable feat from Brock Besser I think that stretch maybe that four or five minutes as the clock started to tick their tick away that was probably the most nervous for me and you know I've been lucky to call some games for hockey net in Canada Punjabi but it's very different when you are calling a game for the city that you know the team that you cover on a daily basis and you're able to be in the building so often you cover this team on a daily basis as well I have to go back to game one and game six for me most exciting and definitely most nervous how about you yeah I would say certainly the game for overtime winner and at the end of the game six in the NHL are probably up there I look back to some of those games in the bubble playoffs to and the final game against Vegas in the second round where they had a chance to go to the conference final you know again very different circumstances no fans in the stands all sorts of things those ones jump to mind but my actual answer comes back from my days calling junior hockey with the Surrey Eagles in the BCHL because I was lucky enough to call a championship winning double overtime goal to win the Fred Page Cup in the BCHL shout out to Adam Tambalini who scored the winner for the Surrey Eagles back in 2013 to you know win the BCHL championship and a championship winning goal and you know that was a team that I worked with very closely all year long so you get to know the players very well as people it's a lot different than covering the NHL where there is sort of a bit of separation there so you have had a motion of enjoying the team winning but feeling really good for the people that you've built bonds with too so that probably is at the top of my list and we're running out of time here on the show now but we do have one more question and this question is tied into the Rose ceremony Randy because I know who you wanted to give your rose to and Ernest writes in and says how much credit should Ian Clark get for the team's goal tending depth back in the ranks truck and give that man a lifetime contract and I set it on a platter for you for the Rose ceremony your rose this week goes to Ian Clark he gets my rose and Ernest yes he gets credit a lot of it because this management team is very much next man up policy and Ian Clark has prepared all of his goalies for the job going back to even last year when it was so difficult for a stretch there he did his best with what he could with Spencer Martin call you really and now you fast forward to this year Thatcher Demko has been one of the best goal tenders over the last two or three years when he's been healthy but Casey to Smith he started off the season really really well and then Arthur she loves and what he's doing right now it's a credit to what Ian Clark has been able to do so back up the bring structure but he's he's a guy that gets the best out of his goalies from what I understand as well he's he's a very direct goalie coach he's not somebody that that is he can tell you what you need to hear sometimes not what you want to hear but it gets results and that's something that deserves a lot of credit and the rose absolutely I'm giving out a few roses this week or one big rose to a group of people it's all of the members of the Canucks organization that have been nominated for awards thus far so Quinn Hughes nominated for the Norris trophy Thatcher Demko nominated for the Vesna trophy Rick Talkett nominated for the Jack Adams Award and Elias Patterson nominated for the Lady Bing as well so those guys deserve the credit and they collectively get my rose for this week and we're fresh out of time on the show but we'll be back on the air sometime this week when the Canucks host the Oilers for game one of their second round series you are listening to your official home of Canucks playoff hockey Sportsnet 650.
