[MUSIC] Can I central Monday? It is a game seven edition of the program. It's Dan Reichow-Satt, T.R. Shaw, here in the mobile KinTech studio at Rogers Arena. KinTech, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five star Google reviews. Soarfeet, what are you waiting for? Canucks Central is for Enzahn Pacific Vancouver's premier Chrysler Dodge Ram and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Canby and Maine, or at Enzahn Pacific Chrysler.C.A. It's a beautiful spring afternoon. It is a holiday across this beautiful nation of ours. Two Canadian teams going head-to-head in a game seven. Do or die, take it, all match up in the Stanley Cup playoffs. What else can you ask for, man? Game seven, Canucks and Oilers, all Canadian matchup in the second round. We have at least one Canadian team going to the conference final and it can be your main quarter Canucks tonight. I mean, honestly, what else can you mean when you grow up playing hockey, watching hockey, what were the big moments you played in the backyard? Game seven over time, score the winning goal, hands up in the air, let's go. Exactly. So channel that energy for tonight and embrace the excitement. I know a lot of Canucks fans are super nervous. I totally understand. But, I mean, nothing beats watching your team in a game seven. If they win game seven, the euphoria is undefeated. Let's get to it. It's the open here on Canucks Central. Welcome to the Open. Oh, that's your home. Are you too good for your home? Answer me. Yes, the open where we give you the latest on Vancouver Canucks and our take on it. And, well, I know now that we're on, everybody has talked about it. Everybody's had their say. And we know the unfortunate news surrounding Brock Besser. He is going to miss game seven and likely the rest of the postseason. Should the Canucks move on after tonight's with a blood clot issue? We do not know many more details. Coach did not elaborate, said he learned of the injury yesterday morning, late Sunday morning. And it's a bit of a devastating blow, not just for the Canucks, but first and foremost sat on the player scored 40 goals this year. Was unbelievable all season long. These playoffs, we've praised how he's answered the bell. He's led the team in scoring, but has also done some pretty great work on the defensive end of the ice. Maybe game six withheld, but that was a team issue as much as anything else. Brock has been everything you could have asked for and more. Like this is the season that when you thought about Brock Besser's ceiling as a player, for me, this was kind of the season you thought of. Guy who could score 40 goals, be a big fixture on a top line, play at both ends of the rink, and be a big time game player as well when it came to the postseason. Yeah, and he's had such a tremendous impact on the Vancouver Canucks turnaround. And in so many ways has embodied that turnaround individually because of the year he had last year, where his game was. And it's not only just scoring goals, he's being trusted late game situations. He's out there to close games out. He's out there when they need a goal. He's out there to preserve a lead. Those are situations that coaches only put players if they fully trust those players. And that's what Brock Besser has become, a reliable two-way player and a guy who was scoring goals at the biggest moment for this Canucks team in the postseason. The kind of score, what, 31 goals in the playoffs? He's had seven of them. Yeah. And it was a big part of this series. It was a big part of the success they've had against the Oilers this year, starting with game one of the year scoring four goals. Now, you can dwell on that. You can see how much it hurts the Canucks on paper in a matchup where they're already struggling to deal with the Oilers top six, but life goes on. You've still got a game to play tonight and you've got to find a way to make it work. And at the end of the day, you know, there is something that is undeniably true about a game seven scenario. And that is anything can happen anyone can win. Yes, the worst team in the NHL can win on any given night. What do they say in football? Any given Sunday anyone can win. It's a cliche across sports, but it's also true. One game can depend on one bounce. One team can play their butts off for a night and have good things happen. So no, there is no difference tonight for the Vancouver Canucks. That's got to be the mindset. You're you are going to if the Canucks are so fortunate to win this game tonight and move on, there's a different conversation to be had about the Canucks chances against Dallas and missing Besser and what that means over another seven game series. For one night, the rallying cry can be. Yes, right. The team coming together for that one player, everybody gives a little bit extra because hey, this guy's out of the line. If you all need to step up a little bit more in addition to having the extra juice for a game seven. So that can play into your hands slightly for you to overcome the loss for the game tonight. We can have a conversation we can also have a conversation about Besser when the season is over about what this situation means for him and how it's going to impact next season and its future. Those are conversations for the off season or at the very least the lull between series if you do win game seven, right? But as far as the single game goes, obviously you miss him but you can overcome it for one night. Yes. One night, like Chris Knoblock said this earlier today and I believe it to be true. Matthews with the Maple Leafs, you saw them lose him in the lineup. They found a way to win a couple of games and force a game seven. March on out of the Boston lineup, they find a way to keep the series going force a game six with the Florida Panthers. Even to a certain extent, the Oilers, the first game Calvin Pickard comes in. Everybody's talking about their goal tending. Well, what are they doing game four? They barely let the Canucks get a sniff of Calvin Pickard. They get Stuart Skinner back in and everybody's talking about how things can be and they rally around them. Don't let the Canucks get too many looks at Stuart Skinner. There is something to the rallying part of this where for one night, the team can rally around the Besser situation and find a way to overcome it. Yeah, I can see them. I see it for tonight. That not being something that I'm overly concerned about. Like I'm not concerned about game seven. Are the Canucks going to be able to match up against Edmonton? They don't have Brock Besser. It's going to be the reason they don't win this hockey game now. Hey, if it's a game that ends up being low scoring and you don't score whatever sure you could have obviously used him and you'll look back and bemoan that fact. But for one game, like I don't know man, the way the Canucks season is gone, the way they've played, the way they've bounced back. Everybody wrote them off after the Demko injury even. Yeah. And I went and I was watching back and it wasn't very, very pretty. Game six. Yeah, it was a tough watch back. It wasn't a lot of fun. But but like the thing is the second half of that game. Well, this thing that stood out and when we heard a lot about it going into the game is hey, McDavid's not 100 percent. Yeah, dry side all we know is not 100 percent. There is an illness going through the team. Edmonton's not 100 percent. And as good as Edmonton was, it wasn't like they were overwhelming. Yeah, they were good. It was also really the Canucks being that bad. Yes. And how much does McDavid truly have? I know they only had to play 20 minutes. But if he's being hindered by something, are you going to see McDavid at his 100 percent best tonight? Yeah. And when McDavid, if McDavid goes supernova, there may not be a lot you can do to get in front of him. But if he's not able to get to that level because something's hindering him, then that's something to kind of watch out for. And if they can bring that extra juice tonight and I think having the crowd, having the building being fully behind them, I think the rallying cry is going to make up for the fact he's not playing. It's, you know, there's a lot about Besser's game that they are going to miss. He had 16 goals on the power play in the regular season. He had a power play goal here in the postseason. He was their leading goal scorer for a team that has just 18 goals, you know, he scored nearly half of them so far in this postseason. However, however, you know, it is a situation that you have to find a way. And the Canucks are going with a couple of lineup changes as we expect. Talk it alluded to it this morning. McCabe and Lafferty are going to come back into the lineup. Given the very optional morning skate that the Canucks had, we expect Pot Colson to be the one that comes out and obviously Brock Besser is coming out of the lineup. So those texting in saying Lekker and Mackie in for Besser's spot, don't think that is going to happen this evening. But now you have, if you're Rick Talkett, you've really got to go back to the drawing board with the recipe for how to get the most out of your team. After game five, we said they found their ideal lineup. Game six, the ideal lineup, pretty much all had a massive letdown after they had their best performance of the series in game five. And now you have a significant injury in your forward group. What does Rick Talkett do with his lineup tonight? How do you reconfigure the lineup to give yourself the best chance of winning game seven? So the coach was reluctant a couple games back to break up Lynn home, Garland, Joshua. And he was reluctant to break up Besser, Souter, and Miller. But now that Besser, Souter, Miller line is done. Besser out for the rest of the playoffs like it's done. It's over like that, that line, that trio's not going to be a thing, because Souter was very much the third guy who worked with those players as long as you have Besser kind of doing his thing alongside of JT Miller. That's not going to be an option for you anymore. We saw Lynn home go back from Patterson. So if you want to have some continuity, would you not guess we see Lynn home back with Garland and Joshua? Because now you get back to, okay, let's go to one line we know can play at a high level and a trio that has chemistry and familiarity going into game seven. 100%. You're keeping Joshua and Garland together. If you're moving Patterson away from Lynn home, then it makes the most sense to put your winger duo with the most chemistry together with Elias. Yeah. And I think then you have, okay, there is a line that we know exactly what to expect and they're going to play at a high level tonight. So you don't chalk you chalk it up to. I'm not going to worry about them. Yep. And I think you're forced now if you're playing Patterson with JT, which I think you have to do tonight. Yeah. I don't think there's any way you can go into this game and not have JT play alongside Patterson. No, you're going to have last change. You're going to have matchups. You know Miller's going to be there. You're probably going to want Patterson with him. You have to. I don't think there's any you either have Patterson with Lynn home or you have Patterson with JT. I don't think there's any other way you can go about this. No, there's no use. You don't have enough wing talent to spread out those. No, as long as Besser was there and Besser and JT were that duo, you're like, hey, you didn't want to split that up because they were so successful this year and look at the, you know, the results speak for themselves, right? But now you have to have two high to two high end guys together. Yeah. The question I think the biggest question is who plays wing with with Patterson and Miller? Because I think if you're putting Patterson and Miller together, Lynn home goes back. Yeah. You're going to have to play suitor down the middle, I think. Like, I don't know if you're going to trust Oman and game seven seven to play down the center down the middle. I think you move suitor down the lineup to play center somewhere else. For me, it's still going to be Patterson on the wing. He played these last two games on the wing. You know, I'm not the first to say it. I know we've all sort of noticed it. He's not really nothing. He's not moving well, but the burst doesn't necessarily seem to be in his stride. So that's making it that much more difficult for him to, I think, play center and get to his spots offensively. So I think you play mostly Patterson on the wing. Essentially, it'll be a hybrid with Miller and Patterson as the center of that line. But I think Miller is your center there with with Patterson. And then I wonder about who the third man in on that line is. And the reason I would say it's it's not Nils Hoglander is because if you're planning on matching them up against McDavid Hyman, then I'm not sure that's the kind of spot you're willing to the coach is willing to put Nils Hoglander in. So I think to me, that's the bigger question more so than who plays center between Miller and Patterson, because I think it'll be Miller. Yeah, no, I mean, the coach has always said it's a bit of a hybrid anyways. Yeah. And if anything, like JT like the coach said, JT, even though he's center ends up oftentimes being the F one. So if that's the case, it kind of plays a way to suit or works well in that spot or had worked well in that spot. Exactly. Despite the fact he's not this, you know, speedy digger, he can and JT got in there first oftentimes. And now you're not asking Patterson to be that either. And I think in the offensive zone, that kind of allows Patterson to be more familiar space. Yeah, you're playing center. Again, you're playing the middle, you're not you're not playing the F one role. So I think there's there's a lot there that can work. It just didn't work with Besser too. I know that people wanted a lot of line and they had a spell of course, but ever since they went back to throughout the playoffs, any sample you've seen from the waterline left a lot to be desired. Yeah, and I mean, I do wonder how it's going to work. But as as Elliot even alluded to it on 32, I do think we're going to get Patterson and Miller together. And they've got to find a way to make it work tonight is essentially it because, you know, on a night where you are going to empty the tank, the one question I would have amongst all of this is is the Canucks emptying the tank as formidable as the Edmonton Oilers emptying the tank because them emptying the tank is McDavid plays for 27 minutes or as we saw in the first two periods of Saturday night and elimination scenario, him and dry cycle were up around what 16 or 17 minutes through 40 minutes of play like, you know, the last game seven that McDavid played, we were just talking with Bob Stauffer, he played 27 minutes had a goal and an assist and they dominated the LA Kings on the back of Connor McDavid. So the Canucks emptying the tank isn't as formidable as the Oilers emptying the tank, but the Canucks can have a better team game than the Edmonton Oilers, I believe. I think that depends on how much they have left in the tank to empty to begin with. Right. You know what I mean? And I think if if Connor is able to get to that level, okay, but how much of that have we seen, not only because of how well he's been played by the Canucks generally speaking, and he's had some good moments, but how many times have you watched the series and thought this guy's unstoppable? I felt it more about dry cycle in this series honestly than I have about McDavid. I would agree with that. And as much as yes, they're hard to be when those guys play a lot of minutes, but the Canucks have also beat them when they've played 30 minutes each, pretty much. Yeah, they won game three with the that being sort of the game. So it's their nuclear option, but it's not killing the opponent necessarily, right? Like it still leaves chances to go the other way. And it does put a lot of pressure on the rest of your lineup. So I don't disagree. I think in theory, if you can get the best out of Leon Dreyse, I don't make McDavid, then that's unstoppable to some extent. I'm just questioning how much their best truly is better than what the Canucks can do tonight. So the question is, if you load up Patterson and Miller together on your top line, we assume Joshua Lindholm and Garland will be the Canucks second line. That's what they played at in practice yesterday. So I imagine it's going to work that way today. And we can maybe surmise from practice that McKayev might be the third man in on the Miller Patterson line because he was playing with Patterson in practice yesterday. Honestly, I think it's ordained that McKayev is going to have a big game tonight. This is the McKayev game. This will forever be known as the Iliya McKayev. It would not shock me at all, man. Good or bad. Given how given how his season is gone, would it would not surprise you if all of a sudden this is the game he scores in coming off of two healthy scratches? Yeah, man. And he's probably playing with, he's probably playing with Patterson and Miller. But that would be my guess. As long as he takes a shot and doesn't shoot it directly into the Goldies chest, that's enough to get me happy about Iliya McKayev's game these days. So if we think that's the top six, then what does the bottom six look like? And I think this was one of the interesting wrinkles of game six. Not that Sam Carrick made a massive difference. But them bringing a little bit more speed into the Oilers bottom six, I think helped them execute their overall game plan as a team. It did, right? And I think having guys that had designed roles and what to do. So if you let's say you are putting McKayev with with Patterson and Lynn Holman and Patterson and Miller, for instance, I think then you probably want to put Hoaglander with Souter. Yeah. They've played together earlier in the season in that fourth line type of role. Right. So then you have Lafferty, PDG and Oman to choose from on the wings because blue girl would then be the center. So I mean, if you look at it, you say, okay, well, you won't have a more offensive look with Souter and Hoaglander. Then you can look at it and say, well, PDG and blue girl would be your like defensive kind of guys do. Oh, yeah. And probably you put Oman there. You probably are not playing Oman, for instance, a ton with Souter and Hoaglander, right? You probably have him playing there. So what, Lafferty? Yeah. And there's your there's your 12th Lafferty with with Souter and Hoaglander. I mean, look, it's it could be a really interesting lineup. Decision and how they make that work. But it's not that you need those guys to score, but you need them to help carry play so that you're not always in the defensive zone, right? You're not sending Miller and Patterson over the boards to take another defensive zone, pay soft or same thing for the the Lynn home line. Like those guys got to start every shift in the defensive zone. It's going to be very hard to start tilting the ice the other way. And that's essentially what happened as the game progressed on Saturday night. Yeah, no, absolutely. Right. And I think it's interesting if Hoaglander is playing down the lineup. Do you think that was a match up? He won a ton. Well, exactly. And he brings a little bit of an edge, you know, and it's given how if you look at Edmonton, they had Holloway score that goal, which was huge for them, right? But outside of Holloway score, and they haven't been getting a lot. Yeah. From their bottom six, like you look at the season, the Canucks bottom six guys had, right? Hoaglander, who scored a lot of his goals playing down the lineup had 24. Lafferty had a hit double digits and goals. I mean, these guys can score a little bit, right? So, I mean, can you get that going a little bit? And it was Lafferty playing with with Hoaglander, like they were together a lot of the success that both those guys had together. So, could you rekindle something there, right? And I think the coach mentioned today, anybody can be a hero in a game seven. Yeah. And if you put say Hoaglander with with suitor and Lafferty, it gives us a chance for a spark to happen with that trio offensively. Can they give you a moment tonight? Yeah. Talket make gave the most like coach, coachy coach answers about game sevens. Just like, who do you like? What's a hero in a game seven? It's not the guy that scores the goal. Yeah. It's guy taking a short shift. Well, the guy who blocks a shot with his face. Yeah. It's a guy taking a short shift. Yeah. That's the hero of game seven. But I get it though. You know what it is though, like in a game like this, if you can have every single one of your details be as close to perfect as possible, you honestly give yourself the best chance possible to win this game, right? So, I think it's you want to be a hero, but I think being a hero also means don't do too much. Yes. Getting off quickly is valuable. You know what I mean? Like, don't don't do this a little bit of extra. And if you, well, that's that's talk, it's point, like kidding aside, it's going to be a close game. It's going to be tight. Are you going to be able to handle your emotions and be okay with playing within your structure in a tight game in a game seven? And the guys who do that are the heroes for me. Because the guy that scores the goal is obviously a hero, but everybody contributing to the team game plan is also a hero in that sense. All right. Let's quickly get to the Conoc Central Roundup. As we discussed, you know, and Elliot was the first to mention this could look like Patterson and Miller together on the top line with Brock Besser out for anybody that missed the news on Brock Besser. A blood clot issue is going to keep him out of the lineup for game seven and likely out for the remainder of the postseason should the Conoc survive beyond tonight. Thankfully, though, the news on Besser is that he is going to be all right. This is not career threatening and it's certainly not life threatening from what we know right now. So those are good signs. We just hope Brock Besser has a quick, full and speedy recovery. McKayev and Lafferty getting into the lineup for Besser and Pod Colson. The Oilers not making any lineup changes for game seven. I don't think that really comes as a surprise given the way they played on Saturday night sets. No, not surprise at all. Yeah. And there was nothing extra being brought there anyways, right? And I think if you're looking at it in a game like this, having guys who have some experience coming back in the lineup makes a lot more sense. Conocs are Moneyline underdogs at plus 140, depending on where you look, a 41 to 42% implied probability of success. So, I mean, they were going to be the underdog no matter what against the Oilers in a game seven scenario, but now without Besser, it just sort of piles on a little bit to the Conocs implied probability of how they could win this game. Well, I mean, what was the percentage odds that Conocs had by the odds and makers? It was already 30 some 30% was a chance of winning this game again, you said 41% 42%. So it's a better hey, listen, they have a better chance in game seven than the odds makers thought they had coming into the series. So you can look at that in a positive way. Coming up here on Conocs Central, we're going to have Mr. Game seven. Justin Williams is going to join us sports and analyst is coming up next. Conocs playoff coverage on sports at 650 brought to you by Jam Pro. The leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial, if your workplace demands a clean environment, contact Jam Pro for a free no obligation quote. Visit Jam Pro.ca. You are listening to Conocs Central.
