OverDrive - Lalji on the Canucks' issues in the spotlight, Pettersson and Miller's conundrum and the possible trades in Vancouver

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

TSN Canucks Reporter Farhan Lalji joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Canucks, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller's fallout and their performance on the team, Miller's trade value, how the team has declined this season and more.

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Alpine credits where home This relic is 12 6 1 6 here's for Lology from Vancouver Farhan Give us a little mood meter out there in Vancouver. How's the city reacting to the way the Canucks are playing right now? Well, it's a beautiful sunny day and how dare people suggest you're a fraud Brian To me, I appreciate that. Thank you for the support it's a beautiful sunny day and how dare people suggest you're a fraud right back to you that's offensive to me i appreciate that thank you for the support and all dot do me a favor please

since we've turned off your email auto message because every time i can't believe he had been hockey i get a bounce back from jeff o'neill saying i will no longer be checking this account far-haut far-haut i'd change i had the dumbest email of life and i hated spelling it out to people so I just changed it to something separate and somebody told me the only way to switch over is to write that email once you send one to the other one and it says this is no longer functioning so you got to deal with it bud, I don't know what else to tell you.

Every day I send something out and You're the only person that replies. Although now with the Kness playing this poorly, I get a lot of requests. My goodness, like watching this team, it is theatre. It's an adventure on so many levels and for all the wrong reasons, right? I mean, you guys, like Noodle and Odog,

you guys are professional athletes. Like what's the most offensive thing I could accuse you of? You were professional athletes, but you're always pros in my heart. What would be the worst thing I could accuse you of? Lack of heart, maybe? Like, you know, something like that. Like a dressing room problem. Well, like, the word that people have said to me before is don't ever tell an athlete they've quit and

The Canucks look like they quit last night and they've looked like that Games where you score a couple of goals on them and then everything around them Shuts in and they just have zero answer zero response zero pushback This is a team that looks like they've quit. I'm not saying they've quit on their coach. This is not a Rick Chalkett indictment. I think Chalk's done a great job, and he's as much a victim of what's going on around him. But when you look at what's happened with this team

and the storylines and the narratives around it, not a lot has changed in the last two to three weeks from when the Pedersen Miller conversation began to rear its ugly head again. What's changed or what really hasn't changed, they've gotten no better, right? Like they haven't done anything to stop that conversation. So people keep talking about it because they've done nothing. I mean, JT Miller missed 10 games. He's played in 17 games since and he's scored in one of those 17 games It's you know

When you look at how this team is playing Pedersen gives us a few moments here and there the one guy that you can count on night in and night out is Quinn Hughes Who I still think is playing at a heart trophy level not just a Norris trophy level But the rest of them look like they've checked out and that's as big an indictment as I can offer look like they've checked out and that's as big an indictment as I can offer. Well Farhan, it seems like the JT Miller-Peterson situation is now having an effect on everything and it's just like you got to ask yourself, we were talking about at the beginning of the show, like how did we get here? Like how did they go from last year being so great and they finally turn things around and the fan base has got to be thinking we got our coach our players are putting we're all dialed in we've got Quinn Hughes and

Demko and JT Miller and Pedersen and then all of a sudden this year everything's gone to hell in a handbasket again like they get how did it get to this point like what happened between these two guys yeah and and you know I don't know how much of it truly is their relationship that's led to this. Like, obviously there's been some of that, but it's been magnified and taken so far out of proportion because they both played so poorly, right? Like, it's not like they, this is a three-year-old story, right?

And potentially even longer when you hear Brad Richardson's comments of, you know, think of how long ago he was actually in the room with the Canucks. So I don't know that their relationship is any worse than it was three or four years ago. I just think the plane so poorly that it's not come back up to the forefront and certainly they've handled it poorly and the organization as a whole from a communication standpoint has handled it really poorly. Right. Um, the strategy around it is baffling, you know,

to the point where they're actually legitimately looking at moving one of these guys and the general manager away from the conversation. Like no one has shut this down. And two and a half weeks ago, when when he spoke to when Patrick Alveen spoke to Ian McIntyre and they said, yeah, like we're all things are on the table. We're looking at all of it. And, you know, the leaks have happened now and nobody can run from it It's just too big of an elephant in the room. So I don't know that that particular issue got us here I just think these two players playing so poorly have got us here

So obviously JT is dealing with a number of different issues in the case of Pederson This goes back to last year's All-Star game He came out of the All-Star game a completely different player and has just not been able to find his game First it was well the contract is creating too much noise Then he signs the contract and he just hasn't lived up to the contract. So that's creating its own noise So there's just so many layers to it. They've had the injuries There's been a bit of a market correction in terms of their PDO and their finishing rate and all of those types of things. Everything that went right for this group a year ago and last training camp going into

it Jim Rutherford said, so much has to go right for us to make the playoffs. And he was right and now all of that has gone wrong and this is the result. So Farhan, we were talking before you came on about you, it seemed like you were the only one that was asking some tough questions or at least asking some honest questions last night in the scrum. Like, did you feel like you were the guy that just had to kind of take the ball and run with it and be a straight shooter with JT Miller? Yeah, I did.

But look, I'll tell you, this market is not what people think it is. This market gets a bad rap. The reality is, there's only maybe four of us or three of us at best that are willing and in position to ask difficult questions. Heck, for me, half the time I'm traveling for football. For the Canucks as players to actually think this is a tough market is completely delusional. I know the national narrative is that this bad market, well the national insiders set the fire, right,

by talking about the fact that hey, Pedersen and Miller no longer get along again, and then someone's gotta ask a couple of tough questions, and then everybody talks about it, and now the market is bad. We've got a bunch of young bloggers that are thrilled they've got credentials, and they're not willing to ask difficult questions. Whereas you've got a couple of young bloggers that are thrilled they've got credentials and they're not willing to ask difficult questions.

Whereas, you know, you've got a couple of us, myself, Jeff Patterson, Patrick Johnson, Thomas Dranson, and that might be where it ends that are willing to ask a difficult question. And so it's when you go back to 10 years ago, I talked to Frankie Corrado about this when he was in the room, like there was some big boy journalism around here, like Gary Mason was still doing sports, Tony Gallagher, Jason Botchard was alive. There were people that would ask tough questions. So now you get the same volume of media and the same volume of cameras and microphones,

but it's an entirely different media landscape. These guys do not know what hard questions and tough journalism is, and they get completely offended and taken aback and blindsided when someone asks a tough question. It's not that difficult to market, guys. So Farhan, let me ask you, would you guess, what's the way out of this? It looks from JT Miller... One of them is going to have to get moved.

One of them is going to have to get moved. That's your point. And I would guess after watching JT Miller last night it might be him because it looked like, I don't know, it looked like, I've seen guys who are on their way out the door and that's what it looked like. Yeah, you're right. And I think if the Connex had their choice, they would move JT Miller because he has the ability to completely lighten the room, right, and be the most, Mike Shishiefsky talked

about this with, about Christian Leitner, right? That he has the ability to be the warmest guy in the room when things are going well, and has the ability to burn the house down when it's not. And that's where JT Miller is, and quite frankly, Miller's aware of that. Because last year when everything was going great, he actually talked about that, that, hey, we're winning, and that's why everything is going great. He actually talked about that, that hey, we're winning and that's why everything is going great. And you know, I try to make the point that usually when things for him are going good or bad, he's always that emotional engine and he's not that now. And that tells you to your point that he probably

looks like a guy that's got one foot out the door, even though he's got a no trade. But I think if you're the Canucks, it's going to be a lot harder to move the 31 year old than it harder to move the 31 year old than it is to move the 26 year old. And where Miller has floored me the most, I always felt that Pederson had the higher ceiling and the lower floor. And Miller was kind of in between there. You could always count on effort and intensity and passion.

Well without that, he's got the same floor as Pederson. So I think if the Canucks had their connects under choice they prefer to move miller but it's going to be a much harder deal to move then peterson is only twenty six that has the higher ceiling yellow or tracking it across the country as you know i think everyone in the hockey world's pretty fascinated by it and i know you're off the case the agreement the national championship game so it's safe travels enjoy the football

and uh... thanks for doing this today we appreciate it right Alright guys anytime and noodles and oh dog. I would never accuse you to quitting on his I just like to quickly mention. Thank you for acknowledging that myself and noodles were professional athletes and not Brian Appreciate it This far on all G from Vancouver's off to Kansas City