Dan and Sat discuss the Canucks win in game 3, the suspension to Carson Soucy, and the Oilers getting more desperate as the series continues.
This podcast was produced by Josh Elliott-Wolfe.
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.
the game. Can I central Monday. It's Dan Riccio Satia here in the Kintec studio. Can I central is for enzyme Pacific Vancouver's premier Chrysler Dodge Ram and Jeep Superstore on second Avenue between can be in Maine or at enzyme Pacific Chrysler.ca I don't know much that but one thing I do know it is amazing having the Stanley Cup playoffs happening right now with the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers and I much prefer it over preparing for the NHL entry draft as we have in years past. Yeah we're not the draft lottery is done but we're not doing mock draft's not draft version 2.0. Yeah mock draft version 17 of the week. Now we're doing it interactive mock draft where you can make the selection and hey those are fun too for a time. It just happened for way too long here in this market and now. Yeah the novelty wore off on that and I've always been a prospects guy not as much as the last couple years with what my job now truly entails but I've always been a prospects guy but I was really sick of talking about the Canucks and their draft position. The bottom line is NHL playoffs are great. I love the discourse that is going on in my mentions and in all of our mentions really and the ongoing discussion surrounding the Canucks and Euler. So let's get into it. It's the open on Canucks Central. The open where we bring you the latest on the Vancouver Canucks and our take on it's Nikita Zadora find $5,000 Carson Sousi suspended for one game for their double whammy cross check on Connor McDavid last night. Yeah the somebody texted in last night and said the mixed sandwich. I mean Twitter is so fun to follow at these times. McCrybaby was trending for quite a while today. And you know what to give McDavid credit he popped right back up. Yeah he did and also today when answering questions about it he didn't whine about it he didn't moan about it. He said hey you know what it's playoff hockey two intense teams and you got to love this type of hockey and he called the Canucks to tough physical team to play against. Like he he took the high road in a big way. So props to Connor McDavid for yes on the ice last night a lot of Edmonton players were whining believe it or not. I know some believe a no players but Canucks players whine but some Edmonton players are whining but give Connor his due he wasn't whining today when meeting with media. Here is Connor actually playing down the cross checks from last night. It's it's a tough game. It's a tough game. They got big demon that like I said they make it hard on you. They play physical they play. They had to play physical brand hockey and it's fun to be a part of. It's a fun series to be a part of. Obviously you know 2k teams going at it. A lot of passion. Yeah you know that's part of it. A heated series he went on to say and I mean I actually like like you said I like that from McDavid. I know Vander Cain was sort of maybe looking ahead to game four and saying without saying that he's going to want to get his revenge on Nikita Zadorov won't be able to on Carson Susie who is suspended for the one game but now the Oilers kind of eluded to it doesn't mean it's going to happen but I get it their star player got mixed sandwiched at the end of the game and they want to get their pint of blood and I know that there was a lot of hey the Oilers didn't even go stand up for their guy but that was before a lot of people started to take a look at what Zack Hyman did at the end of that scrum and went up high caught Nikita Zadorov on the side of the head to which Zadorov now has a cut on his face per sports nets Dan Murphy and as far as we know I mean Zadorov and Susie's punishments were already handed out it doesn't look like there will be anything for Zack Hyman here no it doesn't look like it and considering the standard was set with the Zadorov cross check to the back right like if you're going to give Zadorov a fine for the cross check to the back of McDavid that means a cross check that wasn't high yeah can still be deemed unnecessary after the whistle and that play by Hyman yeah maybe it's not the same force and extension on the cross check as the Zadorov and even Susie won was but it's after the play it still rides up catches Zadorov in the face and cuts him we talk about hey tough yeah and result but you have to be responsible for your stick right I think if the standard was set out of fine it should at least be a fine do I think Susie should have been suspended I'm okay with the suspension like I'm okay with it because if this was Elias Patterson or if this was JT Miller even taking that lumber to the face same situation I think a lot of Canucks fans will be calling for a suspension I'm I still think it's a bit harsh because it's really not at all what Susie was intending it's not a high cross check ends up you know because even the explanation from the league kind of contradicts itself it does cross check yes that we established that we established but they also acknowledge like hey we understand like because of the Zadorov cross check you know Susie's cross check ends up landing in a place that he clearly wasn't intending to but it's way too high so you're gone it's one of those things it's kind of on this borderline a little bit right so it's like okay whatever it's and it's a star player it's McDavid best player in the planet if the shoes were on the other side we would be having very similar discussions about hey maybe that's not what you meant but you almost took the head off of X player on the team right but to me like highness should be getting something out of this especially when you establish after it was unnecessary after the whistle not a hockey play and everything and I think that's where the frustration comes down does it matter though big picture here we're talking about a fine or whatever they probably weren't going to suspend him it probably would have made you feel better or not but the reality now is Susie's missing a game and that's a relatively sizable loss now I know he's had a couple moments that haven't been great but he's also had some really good moments in this series and he's been part of the two towers of that pairing of of Myers and Susie that outside of the one mistake they made in game two were both got caught up by us and McDavid scored they've been kind of flawless and defending against the top guys at least in their own end yeah and five on five they've been really good at defending and then a lot of great things in their own end so missing him for for game four is a sizable loss how muted is it though with Noah Julesen being able to step in that's going to be an interesting part of this you know Julesen draws into the lineup we assume Julesen draws into the lineup with the Susie injury by the time the Susie injury or suspension news came down I should say Rick Tockett had already spoken for the day so we didn't get his take on that we'll hear from him tomorrow on it but you know I look you lose a little bit of the size with with Susie coming out of the lineup you gain the ability to go lefty righty on each pair which is something Rick Tockett does like to have and I don't think you lose too much physicality but can I see the Oilers trying to attack Noah Julesen when he's on the ice yeah I can foresee that being a part of the game four strategy for them so yeah my guess for the pairs would you go Cole and Myers and Zadora of Julesen then I think that's that's what you have to go with right and Julesen I think look he's going to be amped he had a tough game two against Nashville when he drew in I think he took three minor penalties in that game against the predators so he's been off for a long time is it going to be hard for him to deal with the pace it's a tough spot to be in as the seventh d-man coming in cold while everybody else is playing every other night and has been in the heat of the battle so it's a really tough spot and you know I don't want to look I understand very much the backdrop of sort of the the rhetoric that's been going on outside of the games from our colleague Mark Spector and all that I don't want to make this too much about the referees I just really dislike the standard of the NHL player safety and how they go about their business it's clear like I have no problem giving Zadora of a fine I have no problem giving Susie a suspension end of the day it lands on the best player in the world's face you know yes guess what I'm not naive enough to think that there isn't a different standard for protection for Conor McDavid than there is for other players in the league that makes sense to me it makes sense in the NFL the way they protect quarterbacks it should make sense that the NHL wants to protect its top guys so I get it but you have to have something for Hyman you can't just sit there and be like those cross checks are bad and that one's that one's fine it's totally fine I that's where you lose me a little bit and it's not even just this series it's all around the playoffs it's compounded by Emily Kaplan's report today being like yeah the NHL didn't see that angle of Sam Bennett's hit on Brad Marshawn until Sunday but you know what even after they saw it they still thought it was just fine it was okay within the rules of the game sure you don't think you don't think their second look at it would have been somewhat tainted and biased considering they've already made a decision so crap we miss this you know what it's fine it's totally fine and honestly it's one of those things that that play too it's one of those things where it's it's borderline enough where you're like it's hard to distinguish whether Bennett meant to punch Marshawn in the faced way he did or not like intent is hard to judge on it yeah but it's a really borderline situation and considering what happened and considering some other angles yeah maybe you should be taking a closer look at that right or at least taking that into consideration a bit more the one thing too though that has been inconsistent in general and you saw it in this series and we've seen it in the past we've seen guys get fined for slashing somebody between the likes yeah and Ryan hit Hoaglander between the legs and there was nothing for it now two-minute minor I know some say it's only should only be a two-minute minor but it's something it's low it's like an unsportsman like play and I've seen those types of plays get fined and or suspended in the past right that didn't happen nothing happened the slough foots which a couple pretty clear slough foots those also went obviously without penalty and also without forget the suspension not even a fine right so that's against the guy who's about to win the Norris trophy right so if you're protecting the best players in the game you should be protecting Quinn Hughes as well now I don't think I don't I'm not sure I'd agree that any of those should be suspensions yeah but to your point about us trying to look at okay why are fines given why are suspensions given where is the common thread that common thread gets finer and harder to spot the closer you look at NHL's we live in justice it's very difficult to determine at times what is a penalty and what isn't and part of that is because they let a lot go and then they'll call something that is deemed soft in comparison to other things that were let go earlier in the game you know some of the cross checks in the second period that were called against the Oilers I thought within the context of the Stanley Cup playoffs what generally gets called felt a little bit soft to me it helped out the Canucks in that period it happens but you know what they called them against the Canucks in the third period gave it back to the Oilers a little bit so there was a balance but I don't like that balancing act I'd prefer you just call the game as you see it yeah and that way you don't have to play this game of oh we need to balance it out we need to manage the game that's where things really take issue for me and I think there's you know we have this conversation every single year in the Stanley Cup playoffs is an initial officiating worse than it's ever has been before it's like no this is just this is it it's a very difficult job that they do and I think they make it harder on themselves with the way that they try to manage games and you know again looking over at that Boston series the standard of goaltender interference what is it what isn't it you know we called out Rick Tockett or I wouldn't say called out but we question Rick Tockett for not challenging some of those calls in the first round against Nashville and you know when I see some of the standard of goalie interference and and what is allowed and what isn't who am I to say Rick Tockett should have challenged that when really it's anybody's guess what is goalie interference and what is it so this is more a commentary on overall how NHL officiating continues to me to be a problem for the league yeah I mean it has been in supplemental discipline too now I would say about officiating sometimes I was mentioning this to you guys off air too sometimes we see a call get made in your world like that's a pretty soft call but also there's a game within the game where you see a player be warned by an official a few times be like hey you do something else I don't care if it's small you're getting a penalty I've warned you a few times I told you to watch it a few times and then he does something relatively minor and he gets a penalty and we're up in arm saying what the heck is going on but I do think sometimes those things happen in game where they're giving you warnings right they're telling you they're trying not to call everything they're trying to tell you what to expect them what not to expect then give you some leeway and then eventually they give you a call and yeah you think it's soft but it's because you've gotten away with a few borderline ones and this time you didn't right and I think those things do happen that we don't give enough consideration for but in terms of NHL's supplemental discipline I just I just don't know what's going on anymore a couple of comments on McDavid's high stick to to Hughes I mean look there should have been a four-minute minor double minor on that play that's not something that would generally get a supplemental discipline but yes absolutely there should have been a double minor called in the moment but I don't want to dwell too much on that because the Canucks are leading to one in this series that and for as much as the shot clock told a story last night I don't think it tells the whole story and this has been the Canucks MO all season long we don't care about giving up volume it's the kinds of chances that we're really trying to take away we'll give teams chances on the outside on the periphery as much as they want and as much as they'll take them but it's certain things that we want to take away we want to make the goalie play half the net try to make it as easy as possible for them they did that for our Tertilops for the most part last night and I think the Oilers desperation is speaking volumes through three games of this series you're having to play McDavid and Drycidal 30 minutes a night you've essentially shrunk your bench to the point where you're playing five guys 25 minutes of the game and then there's Ryan Nugent Hopkins who's up around 22 everybody else is sort of down there in the teens or even less for the Oilers they are throwing their fastball and they're down to one in this series a lot of it yes is on Stuart Skinner being unable to make a save but there's more to the story than that the fact is for as much as they are running these guys out there it was only in game two where they really put the metal or like you know put the pedal down to the floor and had the Canucks truly on their heels there was times last night where the Canucks spent too much time in their defensive zone for my liking but they defended mostly well while they were stuck in their structure in their own end the fact that the Oilers are going to this you can hear it in their commentary after the game Leon Drycidal post is not good gold tending I'm sorry well it's not good shooting either miss the net doesn't count as a shot on goal um so there's a lot here where it's like Knoblock is doing this still not getting the result and now you've essentially told the rest of your roster you don't think they're good enough to win this series because they're playing so few minutes outside of those guys yeah I mean I don't still know what else Knoblock's supposed to do I mean I had somebody ask the question last night too is talk it out coaching um Chris Knoblock and I'm like you can make that assertion sure but I'm not sure what Knoblock's doing that's incorrect yeah well like they've been trailing so game one they had the lead they're up 4-1 this is before Drycidal gets bangs because they can't call in problem more than it is a Knoblock problem sure we can have that discussion absolutely but in terms of um what else can Knoblock do so they had Drycidal McDavid on separate lines they had a 4-1 lead in game one despite the fact I thought the Canucks had played better but they were up 4-1 they could kind of cruise Drycidal as we saw something happen lower back or something right and he wasn't quite the same afterwards so what happens in game two they put Drycidal with Knoblock David because clearly Drycidal is banged up and can't run online on his own and they're trailing that game yeah for the most part yep Edmonton they come back and tie it and then win it in overtime so they have to play their guys a ton of minutes to get back and tie the game well last night they scored an opening goal but then they're trailing Vancouver again two goals one goal two goals again and they're just trailing the entire time what else is he supposed to do the other guys aren't producing Kane looks to be banged up not skating and playing well Nugent Hopkins doesn't look like the news that we've seen in the past he had 100 points last year at 60 some this year yeah not the same player right I just don't know what else he's supposed to do so yes I think there's definitely desperation and or there's definitely frustration because to your point this is their fastball this is the breaking in clay break glass in case of emergency situation and they're at it already but I'm not sure what else he's supposed to do right like and this is the problem I think that leads to the extra frustration from knob lock and that's why he kind of lashes out and says we need to save on his netminder on Stuart Skinner where last night which of those goals were on Stuart Skinner they're all tough saves they're all I mean but you've got like you've got to make one sure you can make that argument you can make the argument he's got to make a save you can't let him four goals on 15 shots yeah but they're they're also good good goals good good so my point is a 40 goal score like bear down on you from below the hash marks essentially like yeah tough yeah and they're all high danger chances you're right you probably should have a save but the problem for them is giving up those chances and ultimately that's been Edmonton's problem but they look at the guy on the other side and he is making the saves so I can understand where they're at yeah but here's the thing though now what you do is you call that Stuart Skinner or a guy that has already shown he has problems dealing with the pressure dealing with the mental side of the game now credit to him for facing the media today and and and taking responsibility and perhaps showing some maturity here but how is he going to handle this moment and I think if Stuart Skinner is now afraid and the team is already frustrated it puts Edmonton in a really tough spot I just don't know if Nobla can be criticized for anything he's done like is he supposed to break up Bouchard sorry nurse and CC sure you get played day RNA with one of them anyways like yeah I just don't know if there are any perfect solutions like I think his best card is the one he's playing right now well we asked what the solution was for nurse CC after game one they they don't have one the solution is play at Coleman Bouchard the solution is play your top guy and Bouchard played 31 minutes last night but the problem with that is you get the last five six minutes of last night it's it's those five guys on the ice they add Nugent Hopkins as the extra attacker once they pull the goalie and the problem with that is those guys are sloppy they're fatigued yeah they're gassed I just don't know they're not they're not as dangerous as they were in game two not nearly as dangerous as they were because of the fatigue factor setting in it's not a sustain he even said it after the game it's not sustainable to play these guys as much as I have it's not but the one thing I would be very careful in doing is assuming that it's not going to be enough for them to potentially win three out of four games oh yeah they can you know what I mean so I think those guys string a couple of really great games together there's only so much you can do yeah if I'm an Edmonton fan I think the biggest my the sinking feeling I'm having isn't so much about hey we might lose this series or we will lose this series it's that we're not winning with this team yeah this team isn't winning a cup this year it's just not now with that goal tending now with that defense now with that lack of depth right and I think that that's maybe the most crushing thing like if if you're being honest with yourself even as an Edmonton player potentially you wonder about those things now Vancouver you can make the argument too like hey they may not win the Stanley cup shirt but they're they're finally in the playoffs after this long run right yeah they have this belief this season they have this buy and things are going their way they're winning games they usually lead to going on a long run like even the way they won the game last night you know what I mean like a lot of games we've seen the Canucks win so far in the playoffs are not games you're accustomed to seeing the Canucks win in the playoffs yeah they don't often win those types of games whether it's a last second comeback come back from three goals which has only happened once previously and that happened back in 1994 against the Leafs and what happened last night and how they still held on to win despite the fact JT Miller heard a post and despite the fact Edmonton got a goal and looked like they're about to tie the game usually when those things happen it's gonna it's it's good night for Vancouver they give up the tying goal you go to overtime you know that's usually what happens when Vancouver yeah I thought it might be a I thought it might be a similar story to what happened in game four against Nashville yeah we're cold and citizens miss the empty net and then the Canucks go back and tie the game but guess what happened they didn't give up the tying goal they don't you know it's it's not it's it's not kunuki to what you've been expecting in the past right but for Edmonton I think they're in a tough spot and I'm not saying the series is over it's not but I don't think this Edmonton team with the way they're playing with if they have to play their fast guarding his Vancouver today their fastball against Vancouver this way today they're screwed if they get to the next round they might have one Hail Mary left to play and that is Jack Campbell sure it's a Hail Mary for a reason doesn't mean it's a great option but I mean don't don't you want to pick her at first we would have said that about Casey to Smith don't you go straight back to Casey to Smith before why at least he got a first crack at it yes and then it was arters slovis is that King slovis is what they call him on the Pat Mac of fisheaux it's Dan Richeaux and Satyar Shah quickly before we get to Randy Bjanik on our central roundup Julesin likely to draw in tomorrow as Carson Susie is out with a one-game suspension after the cross check on Conor McDavid Nikita Zadora fine five thousand dollars no Patterson in the final six minutes of the third period last night we'll talk about that with with Randy because it's interesting the way things are developing around Elias Patterson yeah I didn't play the final 548 yeah I did not have a shot on goal but also didn't even have a single shot attempt last night uh very much MIA yeah and I thought he got more from one of his line mates actually because I like the way Linus Carlson played in his playoff debut Randy Bjanda is coming up Canucks playoff coverage on sports at 650 brought to you by west side pest control protect your home with west side pest control they have the tools and know how to eliminate your wasp problem don't live in fear visit west side pest control dot com Randy Bjanda from the west Edmond to mall next on Canucks Central Vancouver Culver's hey it's Mike Alford and Jason Bruff join us for Alford and Bruff in the morning weekdays for six to nine a.m. on sportsnet 650 or on demand any time through your favorite podcast app
