We're back on Canucks Central. We are for enzyme Pacific Vancouver's premier Chrysler, Dodge Ram and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Canby and Maine or at enzyme Pacific Chrysler.ca. Before we bring in our next guest, let's quickly get in a goal horn. Yeah, the Boston Bruins tried to avoid elimination tonight at the hands of the Florida Panthers and they've taken a first period lead thanks to Morgan geeky scoring his fourth of the playoffs assisted by Jake Brusk and Charlie McAvoy. So they lead it one nothing. The goal horn brought to you by rewind beer co-find their big West Coast IPA at a liquor store near you and celebrate big plays in a big way to bring in our next guest. It is Irfan Gefar. What's happening? What's going on? Solid game day. The internet and the social media, they're violent today, so it must be a game day. The battle on the socials has been, well, there's been some good and some bad as there usually is, but a lot of it, a lot of it dumb, but some of it's really good. Yeah. It has been really good, the second screen is provided entertainment for a large part of this series, but I think Sat and I talked about this off the top. The Canucks up to one and I know what the shot clock says, but for as much as the Oilers could use a few more saves, I think the Canucks have understood the assignment and they've kind of exposed the Oilers biggest flaws in the early parts of this series, that their goaltender maybe is a little bit shaky and also their defense can be very shaky. So for as much as yeah, the Oilers have had an upper hand in terms of shots, I don't know if that's the whole story of this series. No, I mean, absolutely not. I think that other than Echo Bouchard, and we don't even know the health of Echo if they're going to draft seven defense then tonight, you know, you look at some of those other parries, nursing CC, you can expose. They've been getting crushed. Definitely. You know, you always get exposed, right? Like those guys aren't, they're all that great and the Canucks are doing a really good job of that. And beyond that, I mean, once you once the Edmonton Oilers go to a one line hockey team, you look at the rest of the forwards on that in that group, they've done nothing either, right? That's from dry side, obviously scoring, Zach Heidman scoring. And you know, Connor McDavid, obviously getting involved as well. But beyond that, like nobody else is doing anything for them in that board group. But it's a troubling thing. I mean, can you imagine being someone on that bench too, like a third and fourth line guy? McDavid and dry side are going to, and Heidman are going to play 29, maybe 30 minutes a night, like you're not getting on the ice. That's got to be demoralizing like your coach doesn't trust you enough in a playoff game. They're going to ride their guy so hard that he can't even look down the bench and your way. So it's a tough, it's a tough thing to sit in, talk to guys that have kind of been in that situation before. And it's, it's not a lot of fun, but I mean, the Oilers are in the, they're in desperation now. They're only down to one in the series. Yeah. And I think that's the real mess. That's the thing that has really created a big mess for this team right now. You see the frustration already for them and I would always be careful to count them out still though, right? Because it's only two one. All it takes is win one game, you feel better by yourself and the next thing you know, you're on a run again, right? So you got to be really careful with this evidence team. But I think the sign of this frustration is also a sign of even if they get past Vancouver, which they very well still might be able to do, they clearly don't have enough and are not deep enough to make a deep, deeper run. Like you're probably not getting into the cup final of somehow you get to the cup final, you're probably now winning the cup with how your team is built out this year. They don't have cup winning and goaltending and they don't have cup winning defense and they don't have cup winning depth. They just don't have that. And I think that might be a realization that creates all that frustration. Yeah, and I mean, it doesn't help where it's like an all Canadian matchup and all eyes are on you every single game and there's millions of people watching and things like that and so many different variables that come into play, right? And you're the Oilers. I mean, you know, before this season, before this season started, you know, you're supposed to win the Stanley Cup. You had two of the best players in the world. You're a really bad hockey team to start and then you've got and we're one of the best hockey teams in the National Hockey League. So I agree with you, Sat, like you can't let the Oilers get back into this series. You can't give a bite because they probably are going to feel pretty good about themselves if they do get a win, but and we've seen in the past and in this season that they can go on a run. But for the Vancouver Canucks and from their perspective, it's keep playing your same game, right? It's keep doing the things that have made you successful team defense. You're getting good gold tending and, you know, a power play and maybe some secondary scoring on the offense. It's something that can help. Well, it's kind of become a series of like, I don't know if we're talking to said this explicitly, but it's like, you know what, if McDavid and Drysyla are going to beat us and they're going to beat us, two of the best players on the planet, it can happen. But would be the one game? Yeah, they did it the one game, but we can't let them beat us away from those guys. And it's gotten to the point where Noblock is, you know, I got to play these guys 30 minutes in order to win these games. And that's truly just unsustainable. And it's a credit to again, the coach and how much he's gotten by in. I know there's a lot of people out there being like, man, Rick Tockett is like coach of the century with the way he's gotten this Canucks team to play. And we know he's going to win the Jack Adams, but I guess it's again, just another remarkable moment of how well Rick Tockett has coached this team. Yeah, I agree. Like, look, it's no question, he's going to win the Jack Adams. People are buying what he's selling. You know, the team listens and the attention to details, all the little things that, you know, him and his coaching staff have done. And you know, you have guys like the sedines on the ice during practice as well. And, you know, other different people that are in the organization that you're talking to and that you're dealing with that, you know, makes all of this capable and then make you, you're able to do what you're doing right now. I mean, it's ultimately the players that are playing the games and, you know, in the trenches and blocking shots and stuff like that. But, you know, talking to his staff, I mean, he mentioned it when, you know, he was nominated for it. The team award, the coaching staff award, yeah, they've done an incredible job. One player that's really excelling here in the playoffs is Eliz Lindholm. And we spoke so much about, you know, how good a fit he could be here in Bank Hoover, then he went through his struggles and had the injury, of course, couldn't score goals. And we kept maintaining that there's a better player there. And once the postseason comes around, if he can find his game, that's where you're going to see a big difference maker. That's what we're seeing right now. And as far as how the organization views him, clearly, it's not easy to trade for a player like him. And so even harder to sign a player like that because there's going to be a lot of money involved in it. But how do you think the organization views him and how much do you think they would like to retain him given the success he's having right now? Well, I mean, you just look at his postseason, right? You've got seven points in nine games, seven thin goals. You've got one of the 26 hits or something like that, I think I thought out there. And 12 blocks, like he's playing like a monster. Something I meant is that like he's having a very, very good postseason. So if you're the Vancouver Canucks, I mean, you obviously want to keep a lifeland home. There are other teams out there, maybe a little bit over a handful of teams that are definitely going to be willing to pay the services of a lifeland home. I mean, if that number doesn't start with a seven and a half million dollar sign from Vancouver, you can't put it that offer forward, I don't think. I just, he's going to get paid, right? Whether it's here or somewhere else, Lindholm is going to get his money, you know, he's and he's, and he's proving it, it's worth, right? We sat and talked about it, sat and then on this show a lot when he was going through his struggle to your in Vancouver when he wasn't playing well. And then he got hurt and people wondered if the trade was good or why did the Canucks trade for him because because Manko was going on a tear scoring against Anaheim, San Jose, and everyone was like, oh man, we really need Andre, who's Manko? Well, you don't, right? You need a guy like this and he's built for the playoffs, right? And I think that that's one of the things that the Canucks look at and say, I think they expected him to play well. I think he's exceeding expectations, right? With what he's doing with the matchup that he's getting, with a guy that's driving his line now, you know, getting Dakota Joshua involved in Connor Garland involved and being able to be relied upon on the penalty, I have the power play. So he's proving his work, but that number is going to be large and it's going to be a conversation that the Canucks are going to have. They're going to have to prioritize who they want, to be really honest. Is it Lindholm and Joshua, is it Zadorov and Joshua, is it Zadorov and Lindholm? How much are we going to give to Philip Roanik? If we're thinking about that, are we going to look to maybe move a guy like Roanik? Like there's a lot of things that have to go into consideration here. But for the Vancouver Canucks right now, yes, they'd love to keep on them, but it's going to cost them a lot. Yeah, it's going to be a really interesting offseason coming off of this year, there's probably going to be quite a bit of change given how many unrestricted free agents are around. But the biggest, one of the biggest values that Lindholm has provided here in the playoffs is like, Elias Patterson is struggling and here you are still two wins away from getting to the conference final. And if you don't have Elias Lindholm playing the way that he is, there is no chance in hell you are at this point in time with a chance to beat the Edmonton Oilers. Hey, you may not even get past the Nashville Predators without Elias Lindholm's value. Patterson did not have a goal in that first series. So I know we've talked about Patterson's struggles a lot and it's still a big storyline, but the fact that Lindholm has given you this makes it less of a storyline right now. Yeah, I mean, look, I agree, but I still think the guy that you just committed a lot of money in a lot of terms to for the foreseeable future, I think it should be talked about more. I know, you know, we mentioned it and not talk and talking about it and saying that how how much can we keep harping on the same thing? Well, until he shows up, I think the conversation is warranted, you know, someone pointed out to me that it's an all Canadian matchup and the games are obviously in Edmonton. Elias Patterson hasn't been asked to do media once. Now, whether that's people, you know, kind of admitting the fact that he's in a slump and they don't really want to talk to him because it's not that sexy of a storyline. And I know that the door-offs and the skinners and McDavid and dry side, you know, I know there's other characters there, but this guy signed a $90 million deal and he has one goal in the playoffs. Yeah. And he's supposed to be Vancouver's best player on every night, any given night, you know, the bubble P.D. Well, where's the bubble P.D.? Well, is there a certain line center and you look at it and you think that there's something that's going to come out of this, but the more and more you watch it, like I think that Vancouver fans watching games, even in losses, I know you want to mention already not being around, but like you almost don't expect him to do things going into watching games just based on recent form. And I think that's the troubling thing for the Canucks. Yeah, and also they haven't been able to find a mix that works on that line, right? Like they haven't been able to find something- Well, McDavid has never been a scorer. Right. I mean, he's getting chances. I mean, the funny thing here, too, is like we all agree, Pedersen, and I think the biggest thing with Pedersen's game is he's not a threat to score himself enough times, but he's set up McDavid. Like if McDavid even scored on three of the 150 chances he's had, all of a sudden the numbers look different. You know what I mean? Like if Pedersen's sitting here with like eight points, one goal, seven assists, it's like, yeah, it's not great, but it's, hey, at least he's contributing. You know what I mean? But he's not a threat to score himself individually. That shot is not a threat. And the thing that was really eye-catching last game, he didn't play the last five minutes and 48 seconds of last night's game, or game three's third period. So the coach didn't feel like they needed him to close that one out. That's something that was a bit surprised to see. Well, what does that tell you? The coach doesn't trust him. Well, generally he has, right? But like in that spot, like, yeah, he didn't trust me. That spot, game one, he played a lot. Game one, he played a lot after they took the lead, and he, and they closed it out. Yeah. Well, even game two, he played a lot. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, look, it's an interesting conversation that we're going to have to keep having, right? Yeah. Until he has his quote, unquote breakout game, like, what's it going to be, another goal off the power play that the puck doesn't even go off the ice? Yeah. I know it went in. Right. I mean, he tapped it in. You know, it's obviously hard to score in the NHL, but maybe that would look pretty easy and it would set up for him. I just think that there's a lot more going on there and I agree with you, Sat, maybe not the right fit on the line. I don't know if it's a lot of line. I don't know what's going on. Maybe like Rick Talkett mentioned before, he is still in his head a little bit and, you know, thinking the game too much, but like they need him, you know, they, they, they've needed him for quite some time and still kind of know where to be found. It's, it's been strange, you know, the way that this is played out, it felt like he started playing a little bit better towards the end of the Nashville series. I thought started this series really well, liked his game in game one, but now it's kind of gone back the other way. He hasn't been able to find any consistency. That's the opposite for Brock Besser. I mean, this guy's doing everything. It's not even just the goals or if it's, it's how good he's been defensively blocking shots hard on the walls, like there isn't anything more you could ask from Brock Besser so far in these playoffs. No, I mean, the Brock stock, right? He keeps rising. I've said it before I'll say it again. I think that, you know, he's a guy that before the season wanted to be a 30 goal guy. And he said that this, this is the year it ends up scoring 40, right? Now you look at him in the postseason and he's the guys they need. And you mentioned the, the differences and the different ways that he's scoring goals. Like early in his career, it was that wrist shot. It was the flat shot. It was like from the top of the circle, you know, you knew Brock Besser one on one, Brock Besser and that, and it's probably going in like he scored in game three against George Skinner. Right? Now it's 16 goals on the power play. How many of them were from right in front of the net? Happens getting into greasy areas, taking the hit to make a play like the way that he's evolved his game and been become one of more of a complete player is a transformation that, you know, you got to give him a lot of credit for that. The work that he put in the offseason coming into this year, his mindset. Um, everything else that's gone on in his life that, you know, gotten him to this point to be able to go and produce every single night. So I give Ross, you know, all the credit in the world for, for going out and, and being able to perform and, and remaining consistent. I know that, you know, we talked about at some points in this season, he goes six, seven games without a goal. And then he scored two or three new scores in bunches. But when you're in the playoffs, nobody really cares about that kind of stuff. It's what you've done for me lately. And Brock is definitely lately they're one of their better players. Yeah, I mean, he really has been fantastic for them here in the postseason and, and another guy that I think hasn't obviously had the same impact defense offensively as he had in the regular season. Quinn Hughes. But I do think defensively he's been pretty much matched up against McDavid a lot in this postseason so far. And I wonder if they lean on that a bit more with Susie being out here for game number four. But I think one of the things that Hughes is showing at least like going head to head against McDavid and being out there against dry saddle as much, he's done more than enough to hold his own. And those guys haven't really gotten loose five on five against them. So I think as much as he hasn't scored offensively, I think Quinn's defensive contributions might be somewhat underrated at this point. Well, absolutely. I mean, remember last year at some point, people were talking about his defense and he said, well, they don't watch me play it. Yeah. Well, I think now they're getting a good. Now those people that same people that were watching talking about his defense are getting a chance to watch him play and he's doing a really good job. Right? I think it's been a quiet series for Quinn on the stat sheet, he's not scoring and he's not getting primary assists and things like that. And he's not making those crazy Quinn Hughes things happen where he skates down low and things like that. But if he's shutting down the team's best player and the team's second best player, then he's doing his job. Right? He gets paid to be an NHL defense man, right? Defense first mentality. And the way that this series has gone for the Canucks, it's that defensive mindset. He's going to play a lot tonight. It's going to be interesting to see who he plays against more if McDavid and dry side aren't playing together, which that kind of looks like it's going to happen. I imagine it's going to be McDavid and it'll be interesting to see because if the Oilers get down again, are they going to go back to that line? Dry side are going to go back up and join that top line. So lots of different things are going to happen. But yeah, I mean, the way that Quinn's played, I think the Canucks will take that every day. I think that he's responsible in his own end, he's not making mistakes, he's not taking chilly penalties, and he's being a leader by doing those things as well. So do you have the newly divorced Rory McElroy winning a PGA championship this weekend or what? Oh, for sure. That's the narrative, right? That, that, that he's able to, that as soon as it's settled, he's taking 800 million for live, isn't he? Probably. I just, after today, I want to see Brooks Koepka and Rory McElroy in the final pairing on Sunday. That's what I want to see. Oh, I think it'd be great. I really do. I think it'd be awesome. As much as I want Tiger in there too, at some point, but it's goatee and all that, I think it'd be great. Or for the best. Thanks for this gentlemen. Be well. Oh, there he is. Erfan Gafar joining us here on Canucks Central Canucks playoff coverage on sports at 650 is 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. West Side pest control.com. The Pedersen storyline is, I mean, it can swing so wildly game to game, but I think it very much depends on the Canucks result. If they win, as they did in games one and three, you're not talking about Pedersen so much when they lose. I think the story goes in a different way. Now they lost game two and Pedersen did score in that game, so that helped. But if he doesn't find his game set and the Canucks start losing a little bit, then you're going to see that story line pick up quite a bit. It's funny because when a team is winning, it masks all sorts of problems. When a team is losing, it creates problems that don't exist. We've seen that here in this market too, right? And sometimes it is a problem that exists, but it creates all these other things around it. And right now, it's fine, but at some point, it may not be fine. And when it's not fine is when this guy has to come through, right? And what was really interesting was the fact he didn't play in the last five minutes and 48 seconds of that game. In his last shift, he was out there. He got the puck by the boards, just flipped it in and left. Now, on the first glance, you look at that play and it's like, okay, well, he had been on for a little bit, trying to keep his shift short. He's just putting the puck deep, changing, and the next guy gets going. But one of the things that coaches talk so much about is holding onto pucks, making plays, right? You know, just hold onto it for a second, make a play, skate into it. Well, if he would have just held onto that puck for a second, he would have seen that carnogar on the screaming coming through the neutral zone. Do you maybe hold onto it, make a play to the guy, maybe then jump off, right? Now you have possession or you skate it forward, make the play, now you have possession type of deal. And this is like your top-end guy. And he's a guy that can do these things, they need that type of, he needs to be brave in those moments. And I think that's something that he needs to do a lot better job of doing, recognizing is like you're a high-end player, you can make a play, like, don't be so quick to just dump it in and get off. Jason Greger is going to join us. A lot of storylines around the Edmonton Oilers will get his take on it ahead of game four. It's Dan Reicho, Satyar Shah. You were listening to Connect Central. Hey, it's Viknas R. Have your say and join me on The People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays, three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. That is Connect Central, hour number two and the pregame show officially starting up at five 30 game four between the Canucks and Euler's just around the corner from Edmonton. So let's head out to Edmonton, Jason Greger now joining us, host of the Jason Greger show on 1440 in Edmonton and co-host of the DFO rundown podcast. Thanks for this, Jason. How are you? I'm excellent, fellads. Beautiful day out. How are you? Yeah, we're, we're pretty good hyped up for another good hockey game. I mean, the series has provided all kinds of drama and storylines to this point. But it was kind of a fascinating day listening to Chris Knoblock and how they're planning to go about this game four. The decision to go to Calvin Pickard, you know, I know we can quibble with it and say, ah, the others are desperate, but it's just with, with what Skinner's given you, I kind of wonder, like what other choice do you have as the head coach? Yeah, I don't, I don't really think difficult of a decision if we're being completely honest. He has Skinner, his, hey, he hasn't played well, right? I think he has to watch it like the goals, the Sodorov goal in game two was terrible. The Connor Garland game went in goal in game one was horrific and he didn't play bad in game three, but he didn't make a, he didn't make like a big save, right? None of those were awful goals, but he didn't make a big save. So I'm not surprised by this, you know, I think last year's playoffs, probably maybe factor in slightly, you know what, that he played a stretch, he got pulled, I think in four games in that second round series against Vegas. So, you know, or, or sorry, two or three and then two in the LA series. So I think this is just one where they're going to let him reset. I think Pickard would have to play out of his mind in the Vancouver Canucks without the pepper him in order for Skinner not to play in game five. That makes sense to me too, because as good as, you know, Pickard may have been this season, I think Skinner is still the superior goaltender. You're right. I thought, I mean, we were talking about this the other day too, that in game three, he wasn't bad really, but you guys are, you guys know the team as well as anybody. You guys cover it so well and you guys know exactly what goes on with that club and you know, is there kind of a lack of safe faith in how he's handling it mentally, right? Because I know Elia today mentioned too, that they didn't like his body language out of some of those goals and whatever. So I'm sure like they're internally seeing some of the signs as to, hey, this guy's right now not where he needs to be mentally. And this has been part of his challenges the past few years, the mental side of the game. Yeah, and it's somebody really works on like Skinner is, Skinner is a very thoughtful guy. I will say that, you know what, he talks really openly about a lot of things. You know, he didn't speak to the media. It's probably the first time ever and then the next day comes out very gently and apologize to our guys. You know what, I was pretty emotional and I didn't speak and you're like, all right, okay, I get it. Everybody screws up. But you know, it wasn't like it was that terrible to screw up. But I do think that, you know, when I talked about it last year's playoffs, he, you know, he mentioned I was never physically fatigued, he felt it was more of a mental one and little things like, you know, not giving himself time off on game days and staying out too late in morning skates. And then you're thinking about the game and you're, you know, by the time you get away from the rank and then you come, now you got to come right back. And so little things like that. But I think there is a, you know, a mental stressor that comes to the postseason. And you know what, you allow some goals in the other games and you're right. I don't think the goals he allowed last game, like Besser, two of those, like the Besser one shot. I'm like, no goal is saving it. Like Besser has all time because Eckholm and McDavid both over committed to Miller in the corner. Besser is wide open and in today's game, you give good shooters like that time, they're going to bury it, right? And that's what he did. But, you know, the Lindholm goal, you know, that's maybe the one where you'd like it. It was kind of odd. He's on an stage and you know what, it pops up, but you know, going to pick her tonight, the way Vancouver, like Vancouver hasn't generated a ton of chances. So Emminton doesn't need a goalie to stand on his head, right? Like she lost is allowed 11 goals in three games. It's not like, you know, Emminton's getting stymied by the opposing goal tenor. So if you can just get just decent, even I think they crunch the numbers, if you get like 8, 90, say percentage, you'll have a good chance to win. So that's, that's what I think that they're going to hope they get from Pickard. And, you know, I think that the other storyline is that they're finally set, well, not finally, but no blocks going back to what was the key to success in the regular season. Under Noblock, the orders have the best five on five goal, four goal against differential in the league. They were, they were the second highest scoring team, five on five in goals. And they were six U.S. goals against five on five. McDavid and Drycettle only played about 30% of their time together. A lot of that's coming off of a, out of a power place for the opposing team. And then there was a stretch of a few games where they play them, you know, out of the all-star break and such and that's fine. But for the most part, they were on separate lines and both their lines dominated. And then the third and fourth line out scored the opposition. So I didn't like the, the strategy to go with McDavid and Drycettle in game three. I didn't like it. I know it worked in game two, but that was because Drycettle was injured. Well, Drycettle was the boarder's best player in game three. He doesn't need McDavid. It's the biggest myth around the league is that Drycettle needs McDavid. He outscores him in the playoffs, like Drycettles, a heart trophy winner on his own and then being separated tonight, I actually think makes the orders a better team. Yeah, it felt like, you know, it's just for the Canucks is like if McDavid and Drycettle beat us together, then fine. But you know, we're not going to lose this game or these games with them away from them on the ice. And it makes it a little bit easier to kind of coach, I guess, in a way, knowing you only got to stop these five guys. I mean, playing them 30 minutes, it's, it's not sustainable. I know Noblock sort of alluded to that as well and it's, he's going to change it up tonight, but it just felt like they, they went to their fastball a little too early in this series. And some of that was maybe necessitated by Drycettles injury, Jason, but it, it felt like they just, Noblock went to that a little too early in this series for me. Oh, I would agree wholeheartedly. Yeah. I wrote about it today at Ours Nation and you know, I outlined all the numbers on it. You know what, you, to me, when you get to the playoffs, you might change stylistically due to a team you play, like, you know, maybe you'll line match a little bit more. But for the most part, you got to go with what got you to the dance, right? And that's what got the orders of the playoffs. That's why they were the best team under Noblock in the NHL. They had the best record, you know, they had the best goals for again, you know, top five and power played everything. So, you know, against LA, McDavid and Drycettle played eight minutes together, five on five and they beat him four to one. So, you know, I get it's game two because the injury, all right, I'll give him a pass. But game three, I didn't like it. And then he overplayed them where you had six forwards or five forwards played less than 10 minutes and the sixth guy played like 11. You're not going to win. You can't ask guys to contribute when they're barely playing. It's impossible. Like the hardest job in the NHL, as much as it is scoring goals, I would say the hardest job is the guys who play 10 minutes a night are supposed to contribute. It's extremely difficult to do. Well, on the back end, we know Matias Ekholm is at least somewhat banged up. He didn't take the morning skate, but, you know, the coach said he's going to be fine to play the game. But the fact that they may go with seven defense men, what does that kind of tell you about how banged up he might be for the game? Yeah, well, I'm hearing he might be sick, actually. So, you know, now illness could mean a lower body injury, lower body injury could mean illness down the playoffs. It's kind of the running joke in the NHL, like you're never going to get a straight answer for sure. You know, like, I know he got hit hard in the first shift of the game twice, right? Lindom popped them pretty good. Clean hit, but he played the whole game, right? So now I guess maybe you're adrenaline roll, you know, wears off and you're a little banged up. So illness would actually probably make more sense because I didn't see anywhere like, you know, guys get hit in the NHL, doesn't mean you get hurt, right? Like you didn't get hit from the side and jarred. It was like straight on and, you know, sometimes when you, when you give away a hit like that, it actually doesn't hurt as much as going into the boards, right, because the boards are pretty firm. So, you know, we'll see, I think he's going to play 11 and seven. Most people don't love it, especially the defense men, right, because, you know, rarely are you going to run two pairs, you might, and then you rotate the other three. Well, the other three don't like it because now they're not getting into a rhythm. So I'm curious to see how they play Broberg, you know, do they play him 10 minutes a night and you know what? Because here's the thing, if Broberg doesn't get into the game early, guys, you can't play him, right? You can't suddenly be like, Oh, now we're in the second period. Let's give the guy a shift. He's sitting on the bench for 20 minutes. So you either kind of have to commit to it early or you otherwise just waste having a seventh defense. So I guess the benefit is, you know what, you can speak in a few shifts for your McDavid or dry title and I wouldn't necessarily do it with Ryan and Yanmark. I would put him a cloud with them for a few shifts. And then I would put McDavid or dry title with Fogle and Corey Perry because they got much better chance score. And I think this is one with the Corey with the Carson Sousie suspension, the Noah Julesin Ian Cole pairing. I'm very curious. No block isn't a guy who looks for matchups, but I wonder tonight if we see him try to get one of his top two lines and even the centerman out there with the other lines as often as he can against that pair. Yeah. And I even wonder how much Julesin plays. I mean, we'll see. It might be a feel thing to see how he looks in the first period, but the one game he played against Nashville, he took a couple of penalties and wasn't exactly he looked cold, coming in cold. And that's going to be a tough spot for him again tonight. I do wonder from the morning skate, you know, switching up the D pairs, how much of that was was echolm out, but do you think no block does switch up nurse and CSU have had a really tough go so far in this series? Good question. I don't I don't really know what's funny is that if I look at the goals against they beat on the like, like CC struggled to me more than nurse. Yeah. Like I look at the last game, you know, the defense, Warren Fogle has the puck completely. And today's game, you're you want your defense when jumping up with your players. Everybody does it. So fold those skating out of his own zone. There's no one around him. So of course, CC and nurse start moving up the ice because they, Hey, our guys, like you're in the NHL, you're not going to try to backhand sauce up the middle of the ice. Oh my God. Yes, you are. And how, you know what Vancouver turns over, boom, you know, the best there's wide open behind CC because no one expects that play. Like I don't really I don't blame them for being on the ice for that goal because they did nothing wrong. Right. You look at the, uh, at the Zadorov goal, you look at the, um, um, Connor Garland goals, like as a defenseman, if you can push a winger wide and he shoots from below the circle at the side of the net, you will take that play every day all day and say, Hey, I played that pretty well because my goal is going to stop it. And both times it went in. So, um, I don't like I looked at the minutes last game and day, Harnay and Koolack didn't play a lot. So, you know, I'm kind of curious. I think nurse might be the guy who actually ends up playing a little bit more with Broberg tonight. Like if that's the kind of the eight defenseman rotation, I think that's where you'll see a few minutes played more, um, but I don't, I don't know if regularly they'll split up a CC and nurse now if at home can't play, well, then I do think they'll split them up. And I think you would play a nurse with Bouchard and then you would play Broberg with, uh, CC and, and keep the Koolack day Harnay pairing that might become your second thing. Well, one thing Emmett's also needs some more of upfront is from Ryan Nugent Hopkins and Evander Kane. The question with Evander Kane is, is he so physically limited that you can't expect his best version? But as far as Nugent Hopkins is concerned, uh, how much more do you think he has to give? Well, historically he's never been a grade five on five player. Um, I, I think it's probably one of, you know, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, a very smart player. He's on the tower plate. He's a very good power play guy. He's not a penalty kill. He's good there, but he's never really been a big five on five producing player. So to me at best, he's a complimentary guy, five on five. That's what he is a complimentary winger now. So would you like to score more 100% am I expecting it? Not really. Right. He's got, I think one goal in his last 18 games, five on five. Um, so yes, he needs to do more. What I hold out, you know, my breath that he's going to do more just based on history. Probably not. In 2022 is really the only year that he was productive five on five in the playoffs every other year in the postseason. He hasn't done much. He'll produce on the power plate, even penalty kill, but he's not going to produce a lot goal scoring wise, five on five cane. I think can. Um, you know, we saw him hit the goal post last game, you know, he scored three goals in the series against L.A. Um, you know, he can be engaged more, uh, Dylan Holloway, I think in limited minutes has actually played quite well. And so he's going to get a bump tonight and play with dry, subtle and cane. And hey, if you're playing with dry, subtle, you're going to get chance. No question. I think dry, subtle has been the best player in the series, uh, so far. And so if you're playing with him, you better be ready. And you know, that's a line that's quick and obviously they're pretty big, right? Town guy. You know what? I'm curious. They'll probably go up against the Lynn home line again tonight. That's a matchup that they don't mind. Um, but yeah, they need it from Kane. I actually think guys, they need their entire forward group has two goals, five on five in the series. That's it too. They've got some defense scoring three times, but two of them, CC and Bouchard went if went in off of Vancouver players. So Emmetton scored a grand total of three goals off their own stick, five on five. That's just not good enough, right? And, and I give Vancouver credits, but Emmetton, you know what? You got to have more will and more want to go to the net. And you got to go early. I talked to Jason Stradok, he says that when you have big defenseman, you've got to get to the front of the net because nowadays, this isn't like the old days, guys, where you could just criss pronger guys in front of the net, right? You're cross checking them six times in the back. If you get to the front of the net and get positioned first, it's really hard for guys to move you now within the rules. So, but Emmetton's not getting there first. And I think if, to think to watch more tonight is, you know, Kevin Woodley, you know, outlined that the one area of weakness she love has is seeing around screen, right? We saw it on the echo and goal in game one. He totally was the wrong way and echo had a wide open net. So to me, Emmetton has to get traffic in front and they got to have a willingness to go there early and make it a little bit more difficult because there's a lot of one and done five on five. You know, in game three, she has made a lot of saves, but how many times did he have to battle to make a rebound stop and then a third chance? Not very often because Emmetton just isn't there enough. And we can use Vancouver, oh, they have big defenses and excuse. I've seen lots of other teams go to the net and score on big defenseman. Emmetton just got, I think, have a little bit more desire and get to the net quicker. That's true. I do think though, Vancouver made that very difficult for Nashville to do as well. And I think generally they've been one of the best teams in a league this year in boxing in front of their net. And I do think in terms of how Vancouver defends, they're probably a bit underrated compared to what people may think outside the market at times. Oh, no, no, they're very good at it. Don't get me wrong. But here's the thing. With Suci out is Quinn Hughes and Philip Peronich, like they should they be able to box out of Andrew Kane and Dylan all the way and, you know what I mean? Like they shouldn't, they're not that pairing specifically is isn't the one that I think. Now obviously they're probably the one parent that maybe has the puck more too. So once Quinn Hughes gets the puck, well, it's pretty much out of your zone, right? So that's the advantage of having a guy like that. But if you can cycle the puck against them, you should in theory have an easier time of getting body position and battling them. Now the other four guys are huge, right? You know, they're 230 and 235 and 65 and 63. So yeah, I think it's fair against those other four, 67 in the case of Myers, maybe even 68. But I think that's the one pair that Edmonton needs to make it more difficult down low on as Hughes and Roanek. And I'm guessing with the Suci injury tonight, those guys are going to play even more. Jason really appreciate the time. Enjoy the game tonight. Guys, enjoy it. It should be a lot of fun. It should be a helping atmosphere tonight. Yeah, it should be good. There is Jason Greger show on. He is the host of the Jason Greger show on 1440 co-host of the DFO rundown podcast and of course, writes at Euler's nation as well. It's Stan Reicho, Satyar Shah. You know, it's pretty clear what the blueprint is for the Euler's and we're going to get into this a lot more during the pregame show, obviously in the next little bit. But separating McDavid and Drycidal, at least to start this game, I think it is probably a better choice. I agree with Jason, like, it's just not realistic to throw out McDavid and Drycidal and Hyman every second shift and play them 30 minutes a night and expect that they don't get fatigued. I know if you're trailing, maybe you have to do that for the second half of the game, but do you have to do it from the beginning? That's maybe, I think, where Noblock got a little too ahead of himself in game two. I'm not quite sure. I'm not sure I quite agree because I do think Drycidal is somewhat limited and he saw him fall over quite a bit last game too. I agree, like, ideally you'd like to do more, but if the guy is banged up and you're trailing a lot. Well, he did say after game two, they did it because he felt he needed to protect Drycidal. Yeah, so I think those things, you know, come into it a little bit they hear too and I do think to the point that you made yesterday too, like he doesn't really trust the rest of the guys. And the roster, you heard Jason mentioned that Nudge has been a great five-on-five player. Kane's not playing at the level he needs to and a Warren Fogle, a guy who had 20 goals this year and played a big part for the team, only had under nine minutes of ice time last game. Yeah. Oh, after you make that turnover, kind of hard to trust that guy afterwards. So he's not playing. But these are guys like, you know, that were contributors for you and they're not really giving you much of anything. It just goes to show how much different the game is in the playoffs than it is in the regular season. One of these things that the Oilers are really struggling with and I know Jason's not wrong in saying the Oilers got to do more and got to work harder to get inside on the Canucks. But easier said than done, the Canucks have proven to be a team that blocks those areas really well. They don't allow the cross seam pass a ton. So, you know, it's a big challenge for the Oilers to actually get the job done when the Canucks have been able to protect the house a lot, especially in these playoffs. Well, and one thing that gets underrated is how well, you know, we talked about this a lot, the rail, the Canucks defend the rail in front of their net so well and the centers do a great job of doing that as well, right? So I mean, he shipped Andre Kuzmenko out of town because he didn't protect the rail. Yeah. And the rest of the guys are very, very dedicated to doing that. So I mean, they get a lot of support and then, yeah, those guys don't let the cross seam passes come across and they do a good job of not letting bodies get in front of them as well. The Canucks have been really good at defending and I do think in general, too, that type of art because it doesn't necessarily show up in the analytics either as much, right? Because you still be like, they got scoring chances, but it's like the degree of the scoring chance may not be the same, right? And the Canucks aren't giving up the great A's as much as they are. But I do think, I don't think what the Canucks do well in their own zone gets quantified well. And I think that allows a lot of people to overlook the Canucks a bit about what their strengths truly are. And sometimes, you know, people will look at just the numbers from the shots back while look at the volume. Eventually, it's going to break. It's like, yeah, you don't want to be giving up that much volume, but show me in the third period when the Canucks were defending in their own zone more than three instances where they looked really uncomfortable. Yeah. Honestly, the only thing for me that the Canucks can do better defensively is possess the puck a little bit more. If you spend less time in your own end, that's the main thing, I would say, Canucks have to do better on the defensive end of the ice, and that's just connect play a little bit better and spend a little bit more time away from your own net. Other than that, they've defended really well in their own end. Even the second period, when they started to give up a few more chances to the Oilers, a lot of those were off the rush. And those are the kinds of things that the Canucks have prided themselves on not giving up. And the Oilers found a way to get a few rush chances in the second period last game. Yeah, and I would be really careful just assuming that getting a few more saves would be the difference for Edmonton against Vancouver. Yes. Like, I think, of course, it makes a big difference. I think score effects played a big part in the last two games. Yes. Yes, I do agree. And going back and watching games and watching other Canucks played for most part in game one, which I thought they were the better team. And people said score effects in that game because the Canucks had a three-goal deficit and they came back. Well, you know, what about score effects in the other games, right? So it's like, you know, you can't have it both ways. So but then was in game two, like after, like, Canucks got way too passive and then McDavid ties the game and then they weren't able to turn it back the other way. In the third, they kind of, for the first 40, they were really good. First 45, even. They were really good. Yeah. And then it kind of trailed off in the third, right? They played scared. Like the time goal they gave up started in the offensive zone. Yeah. And then after that, they were just like, it was like, they were playing for OT almost. It's like, you can still, you know, maybe score a goal. You're not playing to split a point here. Exactly. In game three, like, yes, I thought they were actually pretty good for the first half of the game. It was a third. But even the third going back and rewatching it. And it's not, it's not even about they were bad. It was more about you guys can be better. Yes. And there were so many opportunities for you guys to move, go up the ice and to keep the puck in the zone and make plays happen and at least alleviate pressure. And they were too quick to dump the puck out. So there are things that they can improve on. And I do think for all the talk about Edmonton being better and all that, I think the Canucks can still be better than what they've shown. We'll get in a quick goal horn here. Goal horn is brought to you by Rewind Beer Co. Find their big West Coast IPA at a liquor store near you and celebrate big plays in a big way. Sam Reinhardt scoring a tying goal Boston and Florida tied up at one a piece midway through the second period again, the goal horn brought to you by Rewind Beer Co. We'll get more into the pregame, more into the storylines of tonight's game, Canucks and Oilers. Turn it over an hour away from puck drop here on Sportsnet 650. (upbeat music)
