Halford & Brough in the Morning - Sat Talks Canucks + What We Learned
Episode Date: December 9, 2024In hour three, Jason and guest host Jamie Dodd get the latest 'Nucks news from Canucks Central host Satiar Shah (1:15), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by And...y Cole and Greg Balloch. 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.
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welcome back to halford and brough here on sportsnet 650. I'm Jamie Dodd filling in for Mike Halford.
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you've learned in the last 24
hours in sports, or really the last 72 hours here on
a monday uh but before we do that gonna chat some canucks with our next guest from right here
on sportsnet 650 he is satyar shah sat what's going on buddy what's going on gentlemen uh so
how are you feeling being alfred i mean yeah being alfred this week i love it it's great i don't know
no it's fine i treat jam Jamie better than I treat Alfred.
He definitely does.
We don't have the history, but the
bad blood. It's kind of like a new partner, right?
Yeah. You have to
be with somebody for six months before you see their true side.
Exactly. I like Jamie.
You know, I think that would be the big
difference. So, Sat,
I know this is not what like
a sports talk host is supposed to do, but I came
in earlier today and I said, I want to hear everyone else's thoughts on the Canucks because
I can't figure this team out. And I don't know if they're having a good season or a disappointing
season because I look at their record and it's pretty good. And then I watched some of their
games and I'm like, oh, this doesn't look like a great team.
But then I think,
well,
they're missing a bunch of guys.
But then I also think,
well,
there's no guarantee those guys are going to be back in at top form.
What are your just like opening thoughts?
If someone were to come up to you,
you're like,
how's the Canucks season going?
How would you answer it?
You know,
I've been thinking about this because I saw your,
um,
the post you had on, on, on social media about this last night and the amount of responses to it.
I think overall, the way I would view it is they're fine.
Like, that's how I would view it.
I mean, they've done fine.
And I don't know if you can be overly negative.
I know fans are a big concern about style of play, of course, right?
Some guys have struggled.
It doesn't look 100%. But I think if you don't look 100%, you've had the injuries you've had,
and you're still kind of within the top three of the division,
and your point percentage is fine,
and you're almost a third of the way into the season.
I don't know if you can look at that negatively.
I do agree that we haven't seen the ceiling of this team.
What we've seen ceiling-wise hasn't been impressive.
I don't think based on anything we've seen,
this team looks like a contender,
but we haven't seen them be healthy.
We haven't seen their top guys play at the same level before.
And it's kind of like just a push,
a third of the way into the season.
And I think generally speaking,
we have a good idea of what a team is
when we get to this stage of a year,
or at least what they're trending towards being.
And I think the reason why there is a lot of concern
and unknown is because we just don't know.
And I think that's, it seems like a bit of a cop-out answer but i don't think it is like i really don't think
we've seen the true nature of what this team is all about and what we've seen so far hasn't been
overly convincing but it's all with the context of look at the injuries look at the situations
going on with demko look at the whole jt thing you look at the code of joshua and it seems like
it's one thing after another and the head coach was mentioning last week that there's noise
that they're trying to block out of the team,
especially with all the JT stuff going around
before Jim Rutherford came out and kind of quieted all that stuff down
last week with the comments to Patrick Johnson.
So I'd overall just look at it and say it's positive, I think,
because I don't think we can sit here with a record
and considering the context of the injuries and talk about
what a failure they are a third of the way into the season yeah and one thing we've heard most recently from
Friedman today on the latest 32 thoughts but we've heard from reporters in this city as well
is that management kind of wants to see what this team looks like with either a full lineup or maybe
a full lineup minus Filip Rona because he's going to be out for you know eight weeks before they
decide what they want to do ahead of the trade deadline. And I guess I'm curious, you know,
how long do they need to see the full team together? Right. And what bar does the team
need to hit in management's eyes before they decide, OK, we're going to be aggressive at
the trade deadline? Because, OK, it's great. Like, hey, you might get Demko back tomorrow.
You might get Miller back this week.
But to expect the team just to immediately transform into, you know,
a Stanley Cup-like team once those guys are back in the lineup,
that might be a tall order.
So, you know, I understand, okay, we want to see everyone together.
We want to see how they look with all their players in the lineup.
But, I mean, how good do they have to be and how soon, once that's the case,
to kind of convince management to go out and be aggressive?
So I understand the entire point of they want to see everybody be healthy.
I think they're not wrong.
I don't think it's wrong to portray it as such,
but I do think that if they had a bit more cap space,
they may have already done something.
I think a big reason why they are being patient is they also have to figure out okay if we if we're actually moving out say a
dance at high and i'm just throwing this out as a hypothetical do we want to move him now or do you
want to kind of see where he fits in because the hope had kind of been that he might be able to
play up and down a lineup a little bit maybe play with jt perhaps even play with pedersen if need be
we haven't we haven't seen that unfold we've seen him play down a fourth line for the most part
especially his game struggling these past couple of weeks.
We know DeJarne, for instance, he's had his struggles.
I'm not even sure he can even move that contract at the moment.
But I think it's maybe more about right now,
considering how capped out they are,
they can't make a trade without sending money out.
People keep bringing up,
why don't they trade Nils Hoaglander for Marcus Pedersen?
Well, they can't do it straight up now to begin with.
Hoaglander's making $1.1 million.
Pedersen's making over $4 million.
And even if you ask Pittsburgh to retain half the salary,
that's a huge extra price you have to pay for them to retain that much
at this point in the season.
I just don't see a pathway for them right now to make a trade
without making money in and money out.
And I think that's what complicates things.
If they had more cap space, I don't know if we'd hear as much about oh we're going to see what happens because i think what
we're going to see what happens means do we have to move somebody off the roster that's making a
little bit of money to make a move and right now perhaps you're not quite as willing to do that
until you see some more information but i think this this front office even as we speak i wouldn't
be surprised if they already got off the phone with somebody looking at improving their team i
think it's going to be hard given their cap situation to do so before the roster freeze,
and they're going to have to wait.
It's going to take time.
And as far as how this all works out, by the deadline, if you can accrue a few million,
if you get healthy, and if you have to go with the LTIR, now you have more money to
play with closer to trade deadline.
That's a lot easier for you to make trades.
So I think a lot of it is positioning yourself for the best time to make a trade.
But I don't think this front office needs to be sold, so to speak, on the direction
of the team before they make trades.
And I do think that they're going to do something at some point.
And if this season isn't going the way they want it to go, I still think they'll make
trades.
It just won't be the type of trade that people expected.
So, Sat, I think a lot of people might be listening to this and being like, what, cap
space?
They got Hronik on LTIR?
Cap hits like $7 million.
Why can't they use Hronik's cap space to make a trade?
Well, I mean, they could, but the expectation right now is for Philip Hronik to return in
a couple of months.
So if he's going to be back, say, by the end of January or perhaps even sometime in February, then you have to
activate him off LTIR. You have to have the cap space to do so. I know people look at it and say,
why not do what Tampa did? And yeah, you could LTIR somebody until the end of the season and
bring him in for the playoffs. But right now, that does not seem to be the desire of the
organization. And it certainly does not seem to be the desire of Philip Gronick. I think think a big reason why philip ronick took so much time to figure out what to
do with his injuries is a lot of it was how can i take care of myself and also be back to play
before this regular season ends so as long as the plan for philip ronick and the organization
is for philip ronick to come back and play for the team before the season ends you really can't
dip into that ltir space Right, because you could paint yourself
into a corner then, right?
Like you add salary and then Hronik's ready to go.
He's like, all right, time to activate me.
And it's like, oh, here's the problem.
We got to move money.
And then you're in a tough position
because the other teams are like,
oh, you have to move this money.
Well, that ain't going to be easy for you.
No, exactly.
And I think think you know if
if the player was say slated to come back sometime in april right before the season ends you can
easily be like hey just let's just wait he'll come in for the regular for the playoffs but when
that's not the case you just can't add the money and then find a way to get rid of it because
there's no way you can get rid of seven million for instance if you add a seven million dollar
contract by the time you get to the trade deadline like even if you
cobble together a couple of you know let's say day harney and hein and again i'm you know poor
dance and i'm throwing him under the bus today but you add his salary you add day harney that's
4.25 million for instance right but that still leaves you another three million you got to figure
out how to create cap space for so right now i get it and maybe it changes? Like we don't know how the recovery for Gronk is going to go.
What if we hear about a setback in a month or so,
and he's going to be out until the end of the season,
or at least end of the regular season, that changes the equation.
As we sit here and speak today,
the expectation is Philip Gronk to be back before the regular season ends.
So I always like asking you this question because I'm known as one of PD's
biggest critics and you might be known as one of PD's biggest believers. Where are you right now with Elias Pettersson? three or four games, his line hasn't been good enough. And I think, you know, not even offensively, because they've scored, you know,
on the power play, they've had decent production.
But I think defensively, that line is getting killed.
You look at five on five, these
last four games, they've given up six goals.
Eight goals, I mean, consider
even strength of empty netters going in.
I'm okay with that line not
crushing and scoring, you know, two or three goals
every game, especially when they're going
to have to tap the tough matchups
and play big minutes.
I get it.
You don't have JT Miller.
I'm not expecting you to go out there and then have three or four points
every night.
But I don't want you guys to get scored on as much as you're getting scored on.
And I know part of it is the defensemen.
Again, DeJarne's had his struggles,
and we've seen how that's kind of, you know,
gone a while when he's been on the ice with Branstrom a few times,
and that line's been with them when that's happened.
But when I look at Patterson's game and I look at him being
at his best, he's a two-way
player and he's excellent defensively.
In these last four or five games,
sure, there's the power play production
offensively creates some chances, but
I don't think that two-way game is where he needs to be.
So we're still back at that same point where
we're not seeing Patterson fully put everything
together. He's far better than what he was, obviously,
the first seven, eight, nine games of the season.
But I don't think these past four or five games,
that line in him in particular, have been a strong enough two-way force.
The word I keep coming back to is deferential.
He's way too deferential.
And again, I kind of made this clear earlier.
I'm not just talking about shoot, shoot the puck,
you know, whenever you get it, shoot the puck.
But at least look like you might shoot and attack players.
More attacking.
You can attack by shooting or you can attack by trying to beat a guy.
The kids like to say, do your dekes.
Like, do that, right?
And I don't know where that's gone.
But when I watch him on the power play he's just kind
of uh yeah he'll get the puck and then he'll pass it he'll get the puck and then he'll pass it but
it won't be like a a gunslinger pass it'll more likely to just be like all right pass it back to
Quinn at the point yeah it's like you want to see him take some guys on right and I think when he's
at his best he'll do that and if he takes a guy on you know create some space for somebody else because he'll drag somebody else out of
position and he's just not i don't know if it's confident i don't know if the mentality but he's
just not doing that enough on the power play either and a lot of it is being deferential to
quinn it just seems like as soon as we can let's get the puck to quinn and quinn's gonna do his
thing and at some point you know teams and you're seeing teams defended fairly well and to be fair
i mean the tex power play before um you know yesterday teams, and you're seeing teams defend it fairly well, and to be fair, I mean, the Canucks power play before,
you know, yesterday afternoon against Tampa was clicking
at 30% the past 15 games leading
into it, so they've been doing fine,
production-wise, right? But you're right, we're not seeing
Pedersen take guys on as much, and
there's a couple of instances where he has
space to just take a guy on. It's not
even about getting the shot off, to your point, but
if you beat that guy, then all of a sudden,
you create space for somebody else, and that's when he's at his best when he's dragging guys
out of position and dishing it off to somebody else in open space and right now that that that
type of belief in his game isn't there right and i am a bit surprised that we haven't seen it grow
the past couple games considering how much better he looked on the road trip yeah it really seemed
like it was trending in the right direction as And as you said, taking a step backwards over the last few games.
I wanted to ask you, Sat, about Jonathan Leckermackie as well,
because he came up, obviously came up for the five games,
scored a goal, goes back down.
You know, I think he was up just for a practice last week as well
before they sent him back down.
And when he was initially sent down to Abbotsford,
he didn't kind of go immediately back to dominating
like he had been earlier in the season but over the weekend back to back two goal and one assist
game so four goals and six points in two games over the weekend and you know I especially look
at just the amount of guys the Canucks have cycled through in that fourth line role right with
Max Sasson up now Arshdeep Baines has come up and gone back down, right? As you said, like, Dan Heinen slid down to a fourth-line role.
I mean, how long is it before we see Laker Mackie up playing games again?
And could it be more of a permanent call-up
the next time he does come back up to the big club?
I mean, I would be surprised if it is a permanent call-up
because when I watched Laker Mackie last time,
and I went back and watched a couple of his games
because Yannick really made me think when we had him on
after the first couple of games he's like he's just that fast enough he's that quick enough like
is he not like he moves pretty quick and then you go watch his first few steps and it's like okay
that burst isn't quite there he needs to get stronger obviously i'm just i'm just not sure
guys he's ready to have a full-time nhl role yet i think that he's he's a guy that still has to
work on his game he has to get quicker he's got to get role yet. I think that he's a guy that still has to work on his game.
He has to get quicker.
He's got to get stronger.
And he can come up and play a few games.
And maybe he comes to the States for, say, 20 and provides you a little bit something.
But I just don't know if he's ready to be able to handle the minutes and also to handle
the up-and-down nature of the NHL as he's still trying to develop.
Because the thing is, you're still looking at a kid who's 20 years old, who's still
growing into his body, still becoming confident, still mentally trying to develop. Because the thing is, you're still looking at a kid who's 20 years old, who's still growing into his body,
still becoming confident,
still mentally trying to get stronger.
Do you want to have him be here full time
and then go through the rigors of the NHL,
the ups and downs,
the, hey, today I'm playing well,
I'm playing with Pedersen.
Well, tomorrow I struggled.
I'm back on the fourth line.
Now I'm playing with guys
that don't have the same level of offensive contributions
and now I have to play more of a grinding style.
I can't use my skill.
And that gets into a perpetual cycle of a guy getting down on himself.
And I just don't want to see him go through that.
And I'm not sure he's quite ready to play full time yet.
And I'm okay with him coming up and getting, you know,
a bit of a taste here and there, maybe a few games here and there,
but I don't think any of these young guys, you know, fellows,
whether it's even Sasson or Ratu or any of these forwards,
Archie Baines, I don't think these guys are helping you win this year.
I think they can help you get along.
I think they can help patch together.
I think they can provide you depth and call-up options,
and it's great for their experience.
But I don't think these guys are going to help you in a meaningful way
this season to win games in the playoffs.
It's probably pretty easy for Yannick to say.
He's not quick enough.
Yannick could say that about like 90% of the guys in the league.
He was such a good skater,
but it actually brings up a good question.
And someone texted this in earlier.
Do you think the Canucks as a team are fast enough?
They haven't looked fast enough the last couple of games,
right?
Like they,
they've looked,
you know,
quite slower than they were.
And it's surprising because they looked a lot faster to begin the year.
Part of that,
of course,
is you don't have Philip Hronick
transporting the puck as efficiently.
So you're not that quick getting out of your own zone
without him being there.
And JT Miller, I know sometimes when he's not skating,
he looks pretty slow.
He's one of the quickest, most powerful players in the league
as far as burst goes.
And on this team, he's easily one of their fastest players.
So when you replace him as your second liner or one of your top two centers
with a guy who's not very fast, a few suitor,
that's going to take your team speed down a notch.
So I think this team is faster than what they have shown because of the injuries.
But I am a bit surprised that on the wings,
they haven't looked quite as quick considering the guys they have should be decent skaters.
Sad, here's a question for you.
Which contract extension do you think more about?
Brock Bessers or Rick Tokets?
Ooh.
Well, you know, recently I've been thinking more about Bessers
because Tokets, you know, the team will always say
we have one more year for Tokets with the team option or whatever.
So you can kick that can down the road another month, another year.
I do think more right now about the Besser one because it's gone quiet,
and I'm not saying it's gone quiet that they're not talking,
but you're just not hearing a lot and you're asking about it.
And I keep wondering, I mean, do we get to a point where this comes to a head?
And part of maybe waiting to see how the season unfolds is how does Besser
fit into this, right?
Are you still confident that he fits in here long-term or not?
And if it does, great. If not, right? Are you still confident that he fits in here long-term or not? If it does, great.
If not, what do you have to do?
Because there's no way they're letting him walk as a free agent.
I don't think they can be in that position.
This is not like last year where you're loading up
and you trade for Lindholm and you're okay with him leaving.
I don't know if you're okay with Besser leaving for nothing
when you get to that stage.
So that's more immediately on my mind.
But I do wonder about Rick Tockett as well,
because he's a guy who's going to have a lot of options in a year's time.
And depending on how this year goes and the type of bargaining position that
can actually take with him, I am intrigued.
Because I think having won the Norris Trophy and having been a guy who's,
you know, had a couple of jobs, has a great reputation,
I wouldn't be surprised if he's going to be a guy
who's going to be wanting to be paid
as one of the highest paid coaches.
And we'll see what this organization does.
And I think the team will have to feel very confident
about the direction they're in
to fork that type of money over.
But I think it could be a really, really interesting discussion
about a year's time
if the team has any hesitation
about wanting to pay their head coach
as one of the highest paid coaches in the league.
Sat, always fun to chat Canucks with you. Sorry about the Browns,
but I guess you got Chelsea.
Yeah. Yeah. Chelsea won.
It's hard for my day to get ruined when I wake up and watch Chelsea win.
So I'm pretty happy still today.
All right, buddy.
Glad you had a good weekend and looking forward to hearing you on,
on the station this week.
Thanks fellas.
Chat soon.
That is Satyar Shah.
We're from right here on Sportsnet 650.
Of course, you can hear him in the afternoons on Canucks Central.
We've reached Joe Satt also doing the pregame, intermissions, postgame coverage.
We make Satt work an awful lot here at the station.
He's kind enough to come on with us today as well.
You asked him about Besser there, and we got a text in earlier you know are they gonna have to trade besser at the deadline and i know
sad said like well maybe it's a different situation than last year they're not comfortable going past
the deadline with a ufa you're telling me like if they're third in the division they're gonna
trade brock besser at the dead like no chance we got a first round draft pick. Yeah, like there's no chance. And you're not, it's not like
you're doing a hockey trade, right?
So I very much, if you
had to ask me to
put odds on it or whatever, like I would say Besser's
going to sign an extension. I don't know if it's going to be before the deadline
or it's going to be after or whatever,
but like I would bet on Besser signing.
I think both sides will try and do it before
the deadline just because
I guess it makes everyone a little less nervous.
But the idea that the deadline.
It always depends on the number that he wants.
I mean, that's always the wild card, right?
The idea that the trade deadline is like a hard limit,
a hard deadline for these negotiations.
Like, oh, we'll have to move on.
It's like, no chance.
No chance if they're in a playoff position or they trade in Brock Besser
just because he doesn't have a new deal yet.
Yeah, exactly.
Let's do some what we learns here.
We've got a couple minutes.
I've got one, and that is anyone who thought an expanded playoff field
in college football would mean fewer controversies was extremely naive
because, yes, there's an expanded playoff field now.
Twelve teams get in, which means the 13th team is upset.
It's ticked off.
And there's also all sorts of arguing about how the teams are seeded.
And usually, in fact, always, the debates come
because there are some teams, alabama that plays in
the sec and the sec has a lot of good teams so you're more likely to lose some games and alabama
lost three times this year meanwhile there are teams like boise state and SMU, I would say, or even Clemson,
that don't play in such strong conferences,
so they're going to have a better record.
So where do you put that?
If Alabama's 8-3 and Boise State is 10-1, who's better?
Yeah, and Boise State, I believe, was an automatic
because there's three, like I think the Big Ten winner,
the SEC winner, and the Big 12 winner,
and maybe the ACC winner as well are all guaranteed.
And then there's like all the other conferences,
the highest ranked team that wins their conference gets in.
And that was Boise State.
So Boise State was an automatic. But do they deserve a bye? Well, that's what I don't get. Deserve a first round bye? highest ranked team that wins their conference gets in and that was boise state so boise state
was they deserve a buy that's what i don't get and deserve a first round buy especially because
if you look at it it's like well we're they're ranked like 10th in the field but then we seeded
them third and gave them a buy so i guess it's just well you won your conference and you got
one of the automatic bids so you get a buy but that that's confusing to me that it's just, well, you won your conference and you got one of the automatic bids, so you get a buy.
But that's confusing to me.
It's like the ranking and the seating are different.
And if they were hoping to avoid controversy, which I don't think they really care.
I mean, it helps generate conversation and all of that.
But if they were hoping to avoid controversy, this was the worst case scenario because Team 13 is the ultimate blue blood Alabama.
Right.
So it's like if it could have been almost any other team that was Team 13 missing out.
Right.
Like if it had been, you know, Kansas State had a really good year, but they just missed out.
No one's like, well, whatever.
You're Kansas State.
The fact that it's Alabama creates like that is a big deal in the States.
Right.
Like the Paul Feinbaum show.
It's like all he does is talk about Alabama football. Yeah yeah and it's like a huge national show in the states we're able to kind of take a
less emotional yes stance up here in canada i do find it interesting i know not everyone's into
college football but i i love the spectacle of college football i love the games around the
holidays yeah i think i think i'm excited for this especially like the playoff games the first round
is going to be on campus, right?
So rather than a neutral site.
So I think that will be really cool.
That's awesome.
But Boise State is a three seed.
Yeah.
If they were playing a neutral site game against Alabama,
what would the point spread be?
I have no idea, but Alabama would be favored.
Alabama would be favored, right?
Absolutely.
It would have to be.
Yeah, Alabama would be favored.
And meanwhile, Oregon, they're the number one seed,
and deservedly so, undefeated, and they play in the Big Ten,
had some big wins along the way.
And yet, if you're looking at the bracket,
Ohio State plays Tennessee.
Ohio State will be favored to win that, I imagine.
And then that's Oregon's first game against Ohio State?
Yeah.
That seems tough.
And there's a good chance they'll have to play Texas if they make it past that, too.
And Texas was like the number two or three team for most of the year until they lost
over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Penn State, the number six seed, yeah, they got to play in the first round,
but they get SMU.
They should beat them.
And then they would go and play Boise State.
So who actually has an easier path here?
Is it Oregon or Penn State?
Yeah, the the seating is very
strange i will say i was looking a couple weeks ago and the projected bracket at the time had
boise state still finishing third uh in their third seed so they get a buy and the game to see
who was going to play them at the time it was projected to be notre dame and alabama and i
just thought i wanted that to happen so bad. The idea of Notre Dame and Alabama,
the two most storied,
historically successful
college football programs,
the ultimate blue blood teams
fighting for the chance
to play upstart Boise State
out of Idaho.
I was like, oh, I want that.
That would be so perfect.
Sadly, it didn't happen.
Well, Curtis Rourke will play Notre Dame.
I mean, that's going to be a massive game.
Two Indiana teams going at it in the playoff.
It'll be cool.
Anyway, give us a mookow on that.
Five of you cared about that segment.
We got multiple texts in responding to it.
So there you go.
Two of the five.
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i'll start i think laddie has one as well before we dive into the listener submissions and this is
not necessarily something i just learned over the weekend it's something that's been obvious for a
while but it's always fun to kick dirt on these teams what i learned is uh the new york football
teams are in a bad, bad way right now.
The Jets lost.
They blew a late lead over the weekend,
so they're officially out of the playoffs.
They have the longest streak for missing the playoffs
in North American professional sports,
14 years now outside of the playoffs.
And the New York Giants, they lost an ugly one,
14-11 to the New Orleans Saints at home.
They're now 2-11 and that wasn't
bad enough they're in the stage which we remember here in vancouver of your organization being a
mess where fans are taking to the skies to complain about it flying a plane above metlife stadium
before the game saying mr merit with a banner behind it, Mr. Merritt, enough.
Please fix this dumpster fire.
The banner read, of course, John Merritt is the president and CEO of the team.
I mean, I like that they were polite, at least.
Please fix this dumpster fire.
Although they did shorten to PLZ, I guess.
You probably pay by the word for a banner letter or something,
or pay by the letter.
So got to shorten it.
But that's tough for the Giants
when you're getting the old
plain message before
your game calling your team a
dumpster fire and imploring
that the owner fixes it. You know
what I think as a Seahawks fan?
We lost to this dumpster fire.
Classic
bruh. That New York
Giants game was like the New York Islanders game
that the Canucks played.
You're like, oh, what is going on here?
Are you getting dominated by the Islanders?
And it's the same when we were watching the Giants.
It wasn't a lucky win over the Seahawks.
They came into Seattle and beat them.
Weird seasons for the Seahawks, weird season for the Canucks, I would say.
Absolutely.
You mentioned the Jets I would say absolutely you mentioned
the Jets 14 years yeah do you hear the Aaron Rodgers post game when they asked him about it
what was it well I've been part of one of the years that was his answer
way to take responsibility there yeah way to be a leader stepping up taking responsibility
he had that other one where he was like well there's there's 11 players on the field. Oh, my gosh.
Great teammate.
Is the quarterback important?
Which one's the most important in your evaluation?
We just talked about Quinn Hughes as how he always is about his teammates.
He's always a great leader because he puts his teammates first.
And then there's Aaron Rodgers.
He put his teammates first.
In front of the bus.
Run over.
Our second tight end really let us down in this one.
He's one of the 11 players out there.
It's like, come on, buddy.
Give us a moo cow there.
Laddie, you have a what we learned.
Yeah, we are fully in teddy bear toss zone this time of year.
As everyone knows in junior hockey, it's a great tradition.
The Giants have theirs coming up against the Royals on the 14th.
And there was a couple of interesting ones that happened over the weekend.
The Everett Silver Tips.
There was a Grinching,
my friends.
Raiden Legale
got a 29 save shutout
in Wenatchee
on their teddy bear toss.
No!
So that's the first Grinching
I've seen this year
in any of the leagues.
So what do they do?
They just kind of like
final buzzer?
You just huck them
when the buzzer goes.
Just huck them in anger?
Yeah.
I'm keeping this teddy bear.
Are you stuffing rocks in the teddy bear? And then. I'm keeping this teddy bear.
Stuffing rocks in the teddy bear.
The other teddy bear toss.
Wow, that took some distance there.
The Ottawa 67s and
Barry Colts, the one in Ottawa,
the goal was scored
and then a full line
brawl broke out.
So the Bears are coming down.
The Grinch is on the ice.
They just kept chucking the bears. I'm like, they're
hitting the players as they're fighting and wrestling.
And yeah, there's a guy in a Grinch
costume walking around on the ice.
The lights are flashing, the bears
are coming down, and guys are just giving her.
And it's a great visual
if you go on Twitter and social media.
I retweeted it from my account.
The Grinch is doing classic mascot stuff, too,
where he's doing pantomime of being surprised.
He's like, whoa, what's happening out here?
Because he's just trying to react.
It's just such a weird visual to see the bears coming down.
And the Ottawa team's waiting to get off the bench
because they want to help clean up the bears.
So it's very precariously close to being a full lineup brawl.
It is. It kind of reminded me to being like a full lineup brawl. It is.
It kind of reminded me of the Canada-Russia brawl at the juniors
when they're turning the lights out and everything's going crazy.
Like, what is going on here?
No one was throwing teddy bears on the ice there.
If you're an official in that situation, that's probably like a nightmare scenario.
Absolutely.
Like people running onto the ice because they're going to go pick up the bears
and then a brawl breaks out.
The Grinch is there.
It's like parents getting mad at their kids, flicking the light switch on and off yeah that's exactly what
do you think the refs went back into the referee room afterwards and just looked at each other and
started laughing and was like well that was pretty crazy never done that before survive that i wanted
to get this one in the show because of course last week when i was filling in with izzy one of my what
we learned was michael misa getting suspended for shooting three teddy bears back into
the crowd I don't know if you noticed that
top draft prospect for this year Michael
Misa he was at the other
the visiting or he was the visiting team
for the other teams got suspended
he shot three of the teddy bears
back into the crowd he got a one game suspension
come on the funniest suspension
I've ever heard I'm gonna I'm gonna continually bring
up his character issues for now.
Exactly.
That's what I'm saying.
This is a guy that thought it was acceptable.
So teddy bear tosses are having a tough time in the OHL.
I don't know.
The players are fed up with them or something.
We don't like it.
Have you ever been to a teddy bear toss?
Oh, yeah.
I go to the Giants one.
Have you ever thrown?
I threw my arm out.
Like, you think you can throw those things?
Yeah.
Especially from press box
level, it's a little bit of a challenge.
Yeah. You can always just... Well, that's why
I do what A-Dog does. I load it up with a brick.
Yeah. The trick is to do the underhanded
and really, like, swing it around. Oh, like
granny shot? Yeah.
You gotta go up to the glass and dunk it.
Yeah. I figure if it falls down on somebody
in the front row, a kid will pick it up and toss it.
Yeah, right? It's like, someone will throw it. People aren't just gonna stand and look at it. A kid in the front row, a kid will pick it up and toss it. Yeah, right? It's like someone will throw it.
People aren't just going to stand and look at it.
A kid in the front row just getting pelted from the desert.
Oh, no.
All right.
Give us a mook on that.
Let's print out some submissions into the Dunbar Lumber text line.
Jason, you've got some business to take care of.
What we learned is brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway.
Celebrate every goal at AJ's Pizza.
Get $6 pints of Pilsner during Vancouver hockey game nights only at AJ's Pizza.
This is from Jason from Burnaby.
What we learned after Lekker Mackey's first goal this weekend,
Brandon Assel, the play-by-play guy for the Abbotsford Canucks,
christened the nickname Johnny Canuck for him, which I really hope sticks.
Johnny Canuck for Leckermackie.
I get it.
Jonathan Leckermackie.
I like it.
His name's John.
He's going to have to grow his game a little bit.
Yeah, he's going to have to be a significant player.
You have to be one of the better players in franchise history to wear the
moniker johnny canuck he's his johnny abby canuck right now yeah he's gotta he's gotta work to get
rid of that don't you have to grow a bunch of like facial hair and stuff like wear two yeah
you just have to be really carry around an axe you wear a plaid armband out there like you have
to be exceptional to be to wear as part of your nickname the franchise's name
You can't just be a guy coming up speaking of nicknames. Do we still call Crosby Sid the kid?
Yeah, that's still his nickname. Yeah, is that isn't I see that? I think that's his most
You know where I'm going with this yeah, we're not a kid. He's not a child anymore man an ancient decrepit old man
He's an angry old man
I hear people more just call him Sid now
They've dropped the kid
I guess it's still some people might say it
But I think they've whether
I don't know why maybe it's just because he's older
But you hear just a lot of Sid
Instead of Sid the kid these days
Unsigned what we learned at least Pedersen is paid
To contribute like Kucherov and he does not
that was one of those games where
rick and rick dog had started it when he said after the game yeah they're top players
were the difference and you know everyone's like oh is that a shot at Petey? Probably. Yeah. Probably.
Look, it was what the goal scorers, Kucherov, Point, Gensel.
Kucherov set up both of the two goals for Point and Gensel.
And, I mean, they cut them open, especially on the power play, right?
But we were talking earlier, you know, hey, it's great to have Quinn Hughes
playing at his best and dominating.
It's not a one-star league, though, right?
You need multiple stars to be a really successful team.
And as much as Elias Pettersson had a really nice stretch in November
where he was picking up a lot of points,
can you point to performances that resembled that Kucherov performance
where he was clearly the guy making it happen,
slicing up the other team and winning the game for the Canucks.
The phrase driving play has almost become like a throwaway line at this point, but we all know
what it means. It's the guy who's getting the puck moved in the right direction. Whether it's
up the ice and Quinn Hughes drives play from his own end or whether it's towards the goal offensively.
And, you know, the forwards also have a job to do,
driving the puck up the ice.
But, you know, when it comes to the goal scorers,
it's like, are you in control of the game?
And that's what the top guys have.
When the puck is on their stick, you think,
uh-oh, if the guy's on the other team,
and ooh, this is exciting if the guy's on your team, right?
And I don't feel that with Pedersen right now.
When the puck is on his stick, I'm like,
ooh, he's going to pass it to Quinn,
and then I get excited because Quinn might do something with it.
Iron Blair texts in, what I learned,
Shane Wright has three goals in three games.
He's been challenging his anti-bruff jinx with 11 points on the season so far.
And even beyond just the last three games,
I think six goals in his last eight games for Shane Wright.
Just a wonderful player.
Terrific.
Terrific player.
In those eight games.
I never doubted him.
He has 14 shots on goal.
So he's shooting over 40% in those eight games.
So, hey, it's great.
Maybe this is the confidence boost he needs to get going.
But if you're still wanting to jinx him,
and I don't know what.
I don't listen to his shows.
I basically had an opinion that I didn't think Shane Wright was that good.
And I'm like Drance, right? Like I'm so married to my opinions that I don't like to his shows. I basically had an opinion that I didn't think Shane Wright was that good. And I'm like Drance, right?
I'm so married to my opinions that I don't like to be wrong
that I would prefer his career to crater
as opposed to me being wrong about this one little thing
on a sports talk radio show in Vancouver.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Well, I live it every day with the host.
Yeah.
It absolutely makes sense.
And look, I'll say before this streak,
he had 13 games in a row without a point and six shots on goal.
Yeah.
So like, it's great.
Hey, that's nice for Shane Wright.
But if you're looking for ammunition to cast doubt,
you still got plenty to go on.
I am the classic guy that watches no junior hockey,
no college hockey,
but I'll watch the world juniors
every year and have a hard opinion.
I'm like, I've never got the
Quinton Byfield excitement like
I watched him during the juniors. He wasn't very
good and I'm still absolutely
flummoxed that Dylan Cousins hasn't turned into
a great player because he was so good during the juniors.
What I find also is like the
first game these guys play
against the Canucks
sticks in my mind, like anchors my opinion way too much.
You know what I mean?
It's like either good or bad where it's like, and it'll be years on.
And it's like, I don't know about that guy.
It's like, cause he turned the puck over twice against the Canucks or something.
That's why I always, uh, McKenzie Weeger had two bad turnovers in the playoffs.
Once I've held it against him for years.
I'm like, I don't know. You didn't want him on Team Canada.
Yeah, no, actually I did. I came
around to it. I'd reached the level of
forgiveness. But you know what that was more
about? That was more about as long as
Bouchard's not on the team.
And he wasn't on the team.
Let's do some more of what we learned
into the inbox here.
This is
from Burke from The Loops.
What we learned,
seems the Canucks coaches
need to evolve.
Talk staples were needed
after Boudreaux,
but sometimes too much structure
limits creativity.
Canucks are
at a crossroads.
Maybe let Sedins run the power play
or more skill on D.
Too many pronger-like defensemen.
That would be a good problem to have.
You don't hear that.
You don't hear that problem.
You know who I really see in Tyler Myers?
Chris Pronger.
Too many tall guys.
I mean, Pronger can move the puck.
But you know what Pronger was like?
He was like Tom Brady.
Like Brady, not mobile, but always made a good pass.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
I think he was a little meaner than Brady.
A little meaner.
Certainly on the ice he was.
At any rate, the coaching staff is, they've got a tough situation right now.
And I think earlier, Jamie and I both agreed that the coaching staff is not the number
one thing we're looking at right now.
And the fact that they've been able to get these results,
I think is more a credit to the coaching staff than, you know, yeah,
you watch them play a little bit and you're kind of like, Ooh,
it doesn't always look pretty, but that's the way it was going to be.
That's the way they were going to get results.
It wasn't going to look pretty.
I know the fact that they found ways to get those games on the road to overtime
and then the bonuses were that they won a few of them.
They found a way to come
back in the Columbus game. They didn't
fold the tent after
that dreadful first period and go, well,
we just don't have it today, boys. They took
advantage of the breaks.
Maybe Columbus got a little bit tired near the end
of that game because they were playing the second of a back-to-back,
but they hung into that game and they won it.
They made a game of the Tampa game after getting dominated in the second period.
So, yeah, it's not great right now.
And, yeah, you do wish the Canucks would put together more complete games
and the cliche is play a full 60 minutes, right?
You do wish that would happen.
They're missing some key guys right now.
They don't have JT Miller.
They don't have Philip Peronik.
These are very important players to them,
and they don't have them.
And guys like Pedersen still aren't up at that high level.
The fact that they're in a playoff position right now
is actually almost surprising.
I just think you look at,
especially with Peronik out of the lineup
and JT Miller, but you look at the blue line that they're rolling out
beyond Quinn Hughes.
I completely disagree with the idea that there are obvious
or straightforward coaching tweaks they could make
that would transform this team into a super creative,
up-tempo offensive dynamo.
And if they did do that, guess what?
They would probably be
way less sound defensively than they have been because they've still been pretty decent
defensively certainly at five on five but i mean like we see like guys like day harney tyler myers
noah juleson in the lineup you're not coaching them into being elite puck movers that's not
happening if they're the talk it yes obviously i think he prefers a defensive style
but he's also making decisions rational decisions based on the players he has available yeah did
they make a bad bet on dna it certainly looks like it right now yeah the fact that there's
another year like the fact that i mean look we no one's gonna bat a thousand no and your free
agent acquisition and i think we can all agree that this current management group has done really well when it comes to adding free agent pieces
and i'm not talking about high-end free agent pieces i'm talking although debruska is looking
pretty good now yeah uh i'm talking about pew suitor and you know teddy bluger and keifer
sherwood right although i don't think bluger's been playing that well lately. That's fair,
but he was good
for them last year.
Yeah.
Heinen,
I thought he had
his best moments
when he was on
the third line
with Bluger
and Sherwood.
Yep.
He seems a little
bit lost now.
Yep.
And there are
too many times,
in my opinion,
that he looks a little
light on his stick
and he's not getting
pucks out when they
need to get out,
especially on the PK.
I thought it was
very interesting that Sat brought his name up
as a potential guy to trade it out, right?
And for a while there, it was Nils Hoaglander
who was constantly the fewest or least time on ice every game.
It's Dan Heinen now.
Dan Heinen played the least on Sunday against the Lightning.
The thing with Heinen too is his cap hit is double that of Hoaglander's
because Hoaglander's still on his old deal.
His $3 million cap hit doesn't kick in until next season.
Heinen's at, is it two straight?
2.25.
2.25.
So if you clear that, and who else did he bring up?
Darnay.
Darnay, right?
If you clear that, that's four and a half.
Even when they signed him, I was like, really?
Darnay? I did not understand that signing at all, even from the start. You clear that, that's four and a half. Even when they signed him, I was like, really? D-R-N-A?
I did not understand that signing at all, even from the start.
I think it just comes back to it's hard to find defensemen.
Yeah, it's hard to find right shot defensemen.
And they thought, all right, we've got a plug-and-play system here
where if you've got length and size and toughness,
then you can play in our system.
The hope, right?
And it was a bit of a project.
And Darren A, to be fair to him,
played almost every game for the Oilers last season.
Now, ultimately in the playoffs,
he was deemed too much of a liability
and he came out of the lineup and Broberg came in
and St. Louis looked and said,
wow, that guy's pretty good.
And they got Broberg out of Edmonton. But, you know, I think Darren A, when I see him on the
ice, he just looks really raw. You know, like he doesn't look like he's particularly detail
oriented. He's game. Like he wants to make an impact. He wants to stick up for his teammates.
He seems like a good personality, but I just think he's, I don't know,
he's just, he doesn't have the details down.
No, he's, well, they even said he was a project.
And the thing that always stuck out to me was, okay,
that's fine to be taking on a project, but two years at $2 million per,
that's a lot for a project.
In a situation where you're still tight up against the cap,
you know, if you've got the OEL buyout money coming, all that.
Isn't a project more of like a
like a Daniel Sprung,
one year, 800,000,
and we can move on really easily.
Yeah.
Project at that much money,
that much term is a bit
of a different proposition.
Sprung was scratched by Seattle
last game, by the way.
Well, yeah.
That's why he was on the market
when the Canucks signed him.
Yeah.
We'll end with this one.
We spent a lot of time
talking about Daniel Sprott.
Did we ever.
Troy, the retired bread guy, texts in,
The days without Halford and Brough were like having your grandparents look after you.
It's fun for a while, but you can't wait for mom and dad to come back.
It's good to have mom back.
I guess you're the mom and Halford's dad.
That's not how I would have decided it.
I'm the Karen of the show, people say.
I would like to speak to your manager, please. One more day before dad's back, too. I'm back Karen of the show, people say. I would like to speak to your manager, please.
One more day before Dad's back, too. I'm back on the show
tomorrow. Thanks for listening here on SportsNet
650.