The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Matt Sekeres

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Matt Sekeres joins Jeff Marek to discuss JT Miller's return to the lineup, Rick Tocchet getting testy with the media over Elias Pettersson, and the potential over-use of Quinn Hughes--------------------------------------------Connect with us on ⬇️Daily FaceoffX: https://x.com/DailyFaceoffInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailyfaceoff/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoff/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyfaceoff?lang=en Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/The SheetX: https://x.com/thesheethockey Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesheethockey/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesheethockey Daily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff#Nashville #Predators #NewYork NewYorkRangers #dailyfaceoff #jeffmarek #buffalosabres #nhl #nhlnews #hockey #hockeytalk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at one you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. All right. One half of Secaris and Price on a big day for the Vancouver Canucks. A couple of days ago, they welcomed back Thatcher Demko. Tonight, they welcomed back JT Miller, and he ain't saying nothing about nothing.

Here to comment on everything Vancouver is a great Matt Sicaris. Matt, how are you today? Thanks for being on board. I'm fantastic, Jeff. Thanks for having me on the program. And congratulations. Thanks, my man. I think we have a frozen shot of you right now.

We'll see if we can fix that. But nonetheless, we have the audio and that's great. So off the top of the show, I was telling a story about 2008 Beijing, working at CBC, working at the Olympics and leaving the IBC after filing report for some sport and then walking next to Usain Bolt. And I was embarrassed to be a human being because he was walking beside me and he was prancing and I was clopping along with my heavy boots. I was clopping along with my heavy boots. And the thin line between that story and today's show is you were working at that same IBC for CBC. Yeah. At that point.

What do you remember? Really quickly before we get to hockey. What do you remember from the 2008 game specifically? Well, for some reason, it worked out that I was able to take a hour or so off to go over to the Bird's Nest Stadium and watch him run the 100-meter final. Yeah, you did, eh? So I was in the press load. Like, it just so happened to work out, Jeff. As you know, in the Olympics, you're usually, you know,

a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. You're traveling all over to different venues. It's true. And so I sort of looked at the schedule. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. I can walk over and watch this incredible athlete. so i did i sat in the press lodge i was probably 20 rows high or something like that yeah and the flash bulbs that went off when that gun went off and what was it 80 or 90 000 people in the stadium that day. I still like when, when people ask me what moments in your career stand out that you don't

think you'll ever forget. It's not when I covered per se, I was just there as a spectator, as a fan, but absolutely. That's one of them. Yeah. Yeah.

See for me, it was why excited. I didn't get to watch the a hundred meter. I didn't, I didn't make it to a, to, to the bird's nest for that one, but I got to watch Phelps swim.

That to me was Christmas morning. Okay, anyway. All things considered, Jeff, what are the Olympics to cover with Phelps and all those gold medals and both setting the world record like you did. And an opening ceremony for the ages. Oh, for sure. Like one of the most gorgeous things. I don't know if you got

to do any tourism things, but I mean I did the wall and I did Forbidden City. I missed Terracotta things. I don't know if you got to do any tourism things, but I mean, I did the wall and I did forbidden city. I missed, I missed terracotta warriors. I should have stayed and extended for a few days, but I had to hustle back home. Anyhow. So JT Miller returns.

I want you to bracket that for one second, because I want to go back to, and haven't listened to today's show yet, but man, Blake was spitting bullets about that talk at presser. I'm a big fan of your show, but hearing Blake go on like that was, that was fun. That was fun. That was fantastic. How did that go over to the, to the wider markets?

Well, first of all, he's sitting a few feet to my right here. So I gotta be careful what I say. And if you hear hear anyone chiming jeff you'll know who to think uh so the question was from tsn's farhan lalji about elias petterson picking it up in jt miller's absence and to be fair petterson had found his game before miller left the lineup and good thing he did, because who knows where the Vancouver Canucks would have been had he not. So it was, and honestly, it was like, this was not a fastball. Like, this was batting practice. Yeah.

And Rick answered the question and went, oh my God, Petey, Petey, Petey, all you guys want to do is ask about Petey. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Yeah, no, exactly. And then went on a bit of a diatribe about when I was at TNT and, and then he circled back and then he circled back and he got friendlier and his annoyance said, you know, he'd got it off, off his chest.

Yeah. Um, but, but yeah, it was an interesting question because Rick has not lost his cool with us at all. Like I know everybody hears about Vancouver, the big bad media market and all that Rick in almost two years of coaching and messaging to this media and to this fan base has had infinite patience so much so Jeff that it's pretty clear that he relishes it he enjoys it he loves talking hockey and i think he loves the fact that he is surrounded by hockey-minded people here in vancouver which let's face it is a little different than his

his two previous uh coaching stops so you know my point was hey if this is the first time in two years he's gonna be a little annoyed at a question let's just give him a pass others saw a little bit deeper into it about like why did he go off on a patterson question and look um rick has been so honest with us at different times that i think he has said a few things that haven't always translated and done well and landed well with players in the school and i think eliz patterson is one of those players. And I will bring you back to last year, post round two loss to Edmonton, where Elias sat at the dais in his final press session

before heading off to Sweden for the summer and detailed a knee injury that was to blame or was a contributing reason why he was so quiet in the second half, in the second round of the playoffs as well and when talkett who had consistently said he's not hurt was asked about that he was quite dismissive and said oh yeah he's got knee tendonitis so i think talkett is minding his p's and q's with what he says about peterson understanding that he's more of a sensitive soul and that if he says the wrong thing, it's not going to land great with number 40.

So you mentioned knee injury there, and I always mispronounce it, so I'm going to ask you to pronounce it. Thatcher Demko's injury was, it starts with a P. I mangled it yesterday, and I continue to mangle it. Popliteus. Popliteus.

Popliteus for all of you undergrads at home. Pretty good travel score too. Okay. So I mentioned this. I mentioned that the conversation that you and Blake had yesterday with Pierre Maguire and we sort of had our own little conversation about something you started on your podcast, which was the Vancouver Canucks contemplating life without Thatcher Demko, who they are pretty close to extending.

Like I'm like... They haven't had to contemplate. They've lived it for 26 games, right? They lived it for what wound up being 12 postseason games last year. And these aren't the only injuries in Thatcher Demko's career. So, you know, at this stage of the game, you've got to consider him a, you know, injury plagued, injury riddled, however you want to phrase it now the good news is is that he finished the game tuesday and seemingly felt great afterwards at least that's what he's told

us and that was not the case the last time we saw him play which was game one of the first round last year against nashville when he you know had come back from injury late in the year and just wasn't able to go in game two and then wasn't able to go the rest of the post season and then wasn't able to go at the start of this season. So, you know, we've talked about it when you've joined our show, you know,

he signed right at the death for low money, but I think you can argue that Kevin Lankanen has been the most valuable unrestricted pre-season signing of the summer, which is extraordinary, right? Like where would the canucks be without this guy tending goals so yeah there there's a big decision coming up because demko is going into the final year of his contract next season which means he's eligible for an extension

in july and um i think what the canucks management group has to see between now and the end of their season whenever that may be is can thatcher demko hold up to the workload and i don't even think we're talking like a uc cyrus connor hellebuck workload here jeff something short of that just the regular not the uh the hyperinflated you're going to play close to you know grant few grant for your numbers. Right, 57 games as opposed to, you know, 63 by regular season context because, of course, you're hoping to play a lot of them in the playoffs and you would think he'd be the guy each and every night there. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe,

Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.

So here's, and this is a talkative question too. I wonder what is going to be left of Quinn Hughes by the end of the season if he continues to play half the games. Every time I look up, Quinn Hughes is on the ice and generally he has the puck. What is going to be left of Quinn Hughes playing 30 minutes a night? You know, he's he's so small. Blake and I talk about it all the time.

The moment he walked into a conference room in dallas when we were doing our show in advance of the draft and he walked in and he looked like a child who had lost his way right like who's this kid and what is he doing here oh no that's the kid from michigan we got to interview um you wonder playing 30 minutes a night whether he will just like evaporate into air like there will be no physical matter there at some point. But I got to give him credit. Like pound for pound, he is a tough son of a gun. And the workload, I think it's fair to say that the workload last year eventually wore him down a little bit.

He said when he reported to camp this year that he was not as good in the postseason as he would have liked he said i don't feel like i had a poor postseason but i've got to do more and i you know and he made it his mission to be prepared for this season and to deal with the workload now part of the other problem they have right now jeff is that philip ronick his usual partner is out of the lineup and will be till the end of January at the earliest. And they have not only formed one of the better defense pairs in the National Hockey League over the year plus that they've been together, but the Vancouver Canucks are not particularly structured on defense

to have defensemen move the puck. And so you're seeing higher minutes now for Hughes because when he's not on the ice, they don't have a lot of puck transportation from their zone to the other team's zone. And that's a significant problem. It was a significant problem Tuesday against St. Louis. And it's also a problem that i think is going to have to be addressed at a philosophical level with the organization

rick talkett and adam foot who runs the defense here as the assistant coach they believe in redwoods they went out to build a forest around quinn hughes this offseason they knew they were going to lose the door off that they didn't have the money to resign the door off. And it turned out Ian Cole got a pretty nice contract as well. Their response was signing Derek Forbert and Vincent Deharney who fit the profile. The problem is, is that when Hughes is not on the ice or when Hughes and Ronick are not on the

ice. And so far we've seen little appetite for splitting them up and balancing out pairs, they have to get through half the game with guys who aren't particularly great at moving the puck. And so I know Talkett and Foote like that style of defenseman. And for the most part, especially at even strength, it was quite effective playing that big space occupying defense against mcdavin and dry sidle and of course edmonton's their derby right like edmonton's who they got to get through um but i do think at some point that jim rutherford and patrick alveen are going to need to sit

talking and foot down and say okay we understand your preference but we just don't move the puck effectively enough with nothing but that profile of defenseman on the team beyond our top pair. So they are one of the many teams, Jeff, that are in the market for a top four defenseman, if not two, by the trade deadline. And I would have to think that Alvin puts foot down here and says, we need another puck mover, not another red one. JT Miller, closing question. JT Miller returns. What do you expect out of JT Miller tonight against the Florida Panthers? As if he left because of a physical injury. No, correct.

Well, he himself this morning said he would anticipate some rust. He's missed 10 games here. I also think you're going to have a very friendly crowd there. crowds there they have come to rogers arena the the game here is they love all saying his name alongside pa announcer al murdoch jt like yeah exactly so that's gone viral and so we saw a very nice ovation for thatcher demko on tuesday upon his return i would suspect you're going to see the same sort of ovation for JT Miller from the crowd tonight. The question is, will that spur him on emotionally? Is he going to be too, too focused on just knocking off the rust and the details of the game and things that he hasn't practiced or hasn't put into practice over the last three to four weeks. He gave an interesting answer this morning when asked if he could still be the same emotional player

that he is for the Vancouver Canucks, given what he's gone through. And he didn't want to answer it. He said that toes the line a little too close to what I've been through. So it's sort of hard to predict what Miller is going to be like given we have so little information in terms of what took him away from the Vancouver Canucks for the last

three or four weeks so yeah that that's the big question that I think is going to be on everyone's minds not just tonight but for the next little while is that is this just the same JT Miller and it's plug and play, or is this a player and or a person who has fundamentally changed over the last month? We shall see starting tonight. Always great. Maddie, thanks so much for stopping by memories of Beijing.

Nice to catch up with you again. Thank you, sir. My old pal from the IBC, Matt's carous one half of security and price. Make sure to check out that outstanding offering here at Daily Faceoff. I had lost all ambitions day to day. Guess you can call it a run. I went to the doc, man. He tried to give me a little medicine.

I'm like, nah, man, that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but I knew. It's me, myself, and others gonna be fixing my mind. I turned on the record. I turned on the music. I turned on the music. I do want a bracket. I turned on the music. It's enough, enough, enough.

Don't you sometimes lose it. Have been on the days that went wrong. Mmm, in the way I roll. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest.

And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.