Game over.

Let's try that again. You can tell I'm Rusty. It's the first show of the New Year. Welcome, everyone, to Game Over, Vancouver. I am I'm your host, Clay Emo. I am Knuck Clay on a night where the Vancouver Knucks defeated the New York Rangers 5:00 to 3:00 at Madison Square Garden. It is the first show for me of the year, and I will work out all the kinks just like the Knucks did in their first game of the year earlier, but now they've won two straight after knocking off New Jersey on the weekend, and now the New York Rangers. Five to three game, had a lot of really great goals, some good goal tending, a really good energy. You put one of the top teams in the West against one of the top teams in the East, and there is a lot to like about this game. I have a good friend of mine, a former boss of mine. I'm not sure if he's willing to admit that, that he's going to join me in about a minute. But before we get going, now that I'm back in the saddle, now that I'm going here, I want to invite you to do a couple of things.

This video, like the fact that the Knucks won, like the fact that the Knucks are battling Winnipeg atop the Western Conference, and they are opening up, believe it or not, they're opening up a lead in the Pacific division. You can also subscribe this channel, Sdpn, where we cover all seven Canadian teams with postgame shows. Hit the notification bell if you want to be notified of these shows, reminded of these shows. But the most important thing to do is subscribe to Sdpn, like this video. If you want, you can also follow me. I'm at Knut Clay, both here on YouTube and on X/Twitter as well. But I don't want it just to be me talking tonight. I do want to bring in someone, like I said, who I've worked with, I've known for almost a decade now, and he's doing such an amazing work as the managing editor of Daily Hive. I'll let him talk a bit about his work and his thoughts on the game, this team, and where we go from here. So please welcome everyone, my good friend, Mr. Rob Williams. Hey, Rob, how are you?

Hey, Clay. What a game. I picked a good night to make my postgame debut here on your show. This is great. What an awesome showing by the Knux tonight.

It was. Before we get in the game, I'm so grateful that you're joining me tonight, Rob. I've asked you for a couple of years now, and because of your media credentials and everything you have to do, you are often at the arena. An away game made sense. Why don't you, before Before we talk about this game, why don't you tell everyone what you do, especially for Daily Hive, and how that works for you?

I wasn't positive enough about the team to come on your show until now. I'm the National Sports Editor at Daily Hive. We cover Canox and whatever else is interesting to people, sports-related in Vancouver, as well as Daily Hive is in five Canadian cities now. So we're in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, and we have a whole team of guys, sports writers, that cover the team, different teams across the country.

Awesome. When you say national editor, you said five cities in Canada. So you are also technically in charge of those other four markets. Is that correct?

Yeah, listen to me.

That's amazing. You're a good boss to me when you got me started off at Daily Hive, or Vancity Buzz, as it was called back in the day. I am very grateful that you are here for sure. By the way, I think we've had some Daily Hive writers and content creators on here, including, I think, Trevor, most recently. Who else has been on? I don't want to put you on the spot either. It's okay. We What do we want today? Before we get in this specific plays, what do you think? What were your thoughts coming in this game? What were your hopes for this game for the Knoxan? And overall, did they exceed those expectations for you for tonight, specifically?

Yeah. Other than getting out shot, which I don't know if that told the whole story of this game. It didn't seem like a game where they were necessarily under siege. I think Demko had to be great in a few spots, certainly. But if you look at the goals that they scored, I mean, did they score an ugly goal? Maybe the empty netter wasn't a beauty, maybe. But the other five were just outstanding highlight reel type goals. Yeah, I thought that they were exceptional in this one. The Knucks also, I think the one thing that's hung around them, other than the whole talk of the PDO and the fuck luck that they've been getting, has been, okay, well, they've got a lot of wins against some bottom feeders, right? And they've taken care of them, and that's all you can do. But they haven't necessarily racked up a ton of wins against top teams. The Rangers are one of the best teams in the National Hockey League this season, a top five team in the standings, one of the favorites to come out of the East and make some noise in the playoffs. So this was a really tough test for the Canucks.

To me, this is a statement game, the way they played. And I think it's also going to be a statement game in terms of media attention, given that there was only one Canadian team playing tonight. It was the Canucks, given the fact that they played at 4:00 PM Pacific. You could just see the reaction from the Eastern media who say... They always claim that they stay up late to watch the games, but you don't see them reacting so much on Twitter as you do tonight. So I think this is a big statement game under the bright lights in MSG, and they were able to pull through and put through a really impressive performance against a very good team.

That's a great point, Rob, about it being a statement game. Yeah, you're right. They lost to the Rangers here. They got blitzed by Vegas here. They split the season series with Dallas. They haven't even played LA and Boston yet. There hasn't been a lot of domination yet, and they've taken care of who they need to take care of. You're right. This was a really good start. Yeah, this road trip overall, we won't get into too much, but isn't that tough? It's great after laying that egg against St. Louis last week that they've now won two straight against New Jersey and New York. Okay, let's get into the goals. Just for everyone watching, thank you for being here. They're already peaking at 75 people in here. My number just shot up in front of me. It's like my weight. It went up to 82 now, so that's pretty good. There's 80 of you in here. Make sure you hit the like button. Make sure you subscribe. This is what we're going to do. Rob and I are going to break down the game, the goals, especially, because so many nice goals to talk about on both sides for the first 20 minutes.

Then for the second part of the show, we'll talk about just where the Knux team sits in terms of the mega powers across the league and what they may have to do to ensure that they're sniffing around the top of the league when it comes to playoff time. Then, of course, the third segment will be the SDPN Presser, where we'll fire three or four questions at Rob coming from all of you. You are welcome to ask questions in the chat right now. I may not get to it because we do have a lot to get to, but definitely at the end of the show, I'll be asking you to resubmit those questions as well. All right, sounds good. So Rob, starts off good for the Rangers of early power play and a crazy goal. Just a crazy goal. Demko had no stick. He was on his back. No one knew who was covering who. Trochek That Trochik, Panarin, Zbanajad, Fox, and I don't know who their fifth guy is. That's a pretty good unit.

Yeah. Best power play in the NHL. And that was a funny one because there was a lot of fortunate bounces on that. I think it hit a discarded stick at one point and took a couple of bounces right to rangers' players. But at the same time, they were moving the buck around so quickly and were able to adjust and do that cross-team pass. And when the fuck went in, you thought, Oh, boy. And how about the atmosphere, Madison Square cards? That just looked like an unbelievable atmosphere. Even when the rangers were losing and they score the What was it? The 5-3 goal. They roared. It's probably too little, too late. But that goal was made you go, Okay, this might be a tough night, right?

Yes, absolutely. That is only three and a half minutes in. You're right. But then just a minute later, not even, it's the lotto line. It's a really nice play from Bester bringing it up to the blue line on his beforehand, ringing it around with speed. Petterson, one touch with speed to in the slot. That was just a beautiful display of their skill. It was a sign of things to come, but a really good bounceback goal by the team.

I called it a natural lotto line goal because it was 6 to 40 to 9.

Very nice. Don't let Thomas Durant hear that. Yeah.

But yeah, no. What a response, right? They're still announcing the goal in MSG, and you get the response with that a goal. Great ring around the boards from Bester to Petterson. Just like you say, a one touch right out to Miller and unleashes that great one-timer of his and blows it by Shesterick. To just have... Then, of course, Miller, that's got to feel a little bit extra good playing one of his former teams. Scoreback and MSG, just the perfect response.

Miller was a beast. I know they talked about it in the first intermission. Not sure if you saw how he trucked Keandre Miller once. I think it was Trochek or someone else later in the period. He was all over the place, very motivated. Then just two minutes later, it's Niels Huglander getting his first of two. Actually, Hughes makes a really nice play through the neutral zone, gets the buck over the blue line, and that fourth line combines a nice little tic-tac-toe. Lafferdi, Niels Zeman, looks up and sees Huglander alone. It was a one-timer, right? He just snapped it above Shoshir Shoshirkin. I can't even say the guy's name.

Yeah, it was a bit of a tricky one, I think, to one time. It was in his feet. He had to adjust his stick and his body to be able to get that. But he gets all of it on it and just roots it right away and was able to put it in the eye. I think he made it It was a little bit easier than it was, but just a great goal by Hoegland.

That's the skill, Rob, that Knux fans are clamoring for. He's on such a good contract. If he can outplay that contract, it's so important for this team. That was his 11th. He gets his 12th later, which is even nicer. But yeah, that's what we want from guys like Kuzmenko, I think. It's 2-1. Then before the period ends with just 16 seconds remaining, this was a beautiful play. I thought this was going to stand up as the nicest goal of the game, but it's got some competition. It was Quin Hughes from his own zone off the boards to Petey. I keep saying beautiful, but how else can you explain it? A nice feather pass past the defender to Bester, and he shows his not just a snapshot or a wrist shot, he can score with some dangles as well. What do you think of that one?

When I'm on Twitter, I don't react to every goal. I'm not like, Oh, my God, what a goal. But tonight, it felt like it. It was just like, What? This is incredible. This is unreal. But yeah, that great stretch past in Petterson just delays and just waits for that. If that seemed to open up, gives it to Bester, and then just a perfect finish. What else can you say? It's just another one of... Every goal was a beautiful goal tonight. It was incredible.

I tweeted about the goal as well. Then I said a couple of observations after the first period is that great pace to the game. That was very entertaining regardless of who was winning 3-1. I said, our D look big when you have Sussi joining Zdorow and Myers and Cole, who's not tall, but he's thick. So there's some good beef on the blue line, like a playoff type blue line. And then I said, maybe this is a preview of the Stanley Cup final. And then I said, actually, maybe that's getting a little bit too far ahead of ourselves.

It could be, Clay. I mean-30 years later? I like the way this team is playing right now. Look at the Knux and their forecheck. I don't recall the last time that we saw a Knux I've seen forecheck like this. They've got four lines deep. They can come at you in waves. I know not every line was really firing on all cylinders tonight necessarily, but you're seeing that. I think That's why I give Rick talk a lot of time for his reluctance to play Kuzmenko right now. He's not forechecking. I think he needs that engine to be going. If you have one cog not doing what they should, it doesn't work. He's got everyone rolling right now and playing that style of game.

We'll get into that in the second segment, just why the team doing so well. Thank you. A couple of people are correcting me, or at least advise me that Kreider is the fifth member of the Rangers power play. Of course he is. Of course. They start off the second period, and it's New York who opens the scoring once again in the period. A bit of a lazy pass from Bester at the blue line. This is the one that sends Laffanier away, and he drops it to Panarin. I noticed with Demko, he's letting in a couple... I'm not worried, but he's letting in a couple more goals from the slot, almost uncontested. This was one of them. Everyone that scores in Demko, they seem to score high on them, as Trochek did later. But what do you think of this goal? No big deal. Were you scared now? Because this made it cut the lead to 3-2.

I don't know if I was overly worried. I mean, it makes it a game again, certainly. But yeah, no, I think that it was a wild second period with a lot of chances back and forth. It became a bit of fire wagon hockey at times in this game. Yeah, the Panarin goal didn't worry me so much on Demko. It was more the Trochek one, I think, was one that we probably would like to have that.

Yeah, and we'll get to that one. Yeah, you're right. The Rangers open the scoring in all three periods. I'm going to let you take this one. I'll set it up for you. Haronic, a nice pass to Bluger in front of the bench. Bluger, a quick pass to Petey as Petey gains speed over the blue line. Take it from here, Rob, the hockey guy.

Oh, jeez. Where are we here?

What goal are we on there? This is goal number 4. This is the one where he walked the defender. Too many goals. Yeah, I know. But this is the one where Petey... Not to put you on the spot, where Petey walked the guy and did that really nice. Oh, yeah.

I just had that do your deeks thing in my head immediately. Just Petterson was just quick hands, like all night. He was doing it all night, but it really was on display on that goal in the second period, where he He just dangles one guy, the goalie makes the first save, and he deeks around him and tucks it into the goal from going around the goalie. So, yeah, just fantastic. What else can you say?

Now, I know you're a good hockey player. I've never played against you, but I've seen your stat line. You know that I'm just a good dad just trying to get some exercise when I'm out there, when I'm not rupturing my Achilles tendon. I would have never had the wherewithal to have I wouldn't have been able to deke that first guy to even get the first shot off. But for him to then gather the rebound, go around Shesterken, knowing he's going to get cross-check in the back, and then to bring it back in front. Talk to me how much skill that takes because I know you know how to play hockey.

I can't stick out like that. They're even close to it. But yeah, no. I mean, it's just instinctual for Pederson, isn't it? He gets the fuck on a stick, and then he's just doing it without thinking, right? He's not thinking. It's It's not like he has to think about it, right? He just does it. And that's the mark for someone with elite skill as Pederson.

So I thought the Bester goal was nice, Rob. Then I thought the PD goal was nicer. And then I don't know, this Hoaglander goal, Hronik, again, a nice pass up to Suter. Suter comes in on his backhand, draws both defensemen over and ships it over to cross-crease to Hoeglander, who then puts it between his own legs and then scores. It sweeps the punt past Shesterken. Maybe Shesterken was mesmerized by that play through his legs, but that was beautiful. I was yelling at this point. I was yelling.

Yeah. So quickly after the Pederson goal as well to really put their stamp on the game. I thought it was a really smart play by Suter, right? That's a one on two. He drags two rangers players towards him. He just patiently just turns, stops, and finds Hoeglander, who has space to do that little between the legs move to give himself even more space and score. Yeah. And that's your what? I guess that's. I don't know what line is which anymore, but a couple of different guys on different lines. But yeah, to Have your depth players really contributing like Hoeglander did tonight, scoring his 12th goal. I mean, he's on pace for what? 24, 25 goals now. What a fantastic season for Hoeglander. Hopefully, he can keep it up. And I just love the way he plays, not even just with the fuck on a stick, but the way he's so tenacious on the fuck and the way he plays physical and drives the other team bananas sometimes. It's really great to see from Hoeglander.

The confidence or the swagger or whatever objective you want to use to pull that off. Maybe, I don't know. I don't know how quickly you can think about this. Maybe he knows they're up for it, too, or maybe that's his only play. I don't know. But it was just so impressive. And yeah, it got me there.

But I think that move from Hoeglander, that's an easy move for him. Again, it's a little bit instinctual. It's just like, I think it's almost like a basketball player that puts the ball behind their back on their dribble, right? That's right. It just gives yourself a little bit more space and gives you your body as a blocker to be able to give yourself more space and protect the pocket, protect the ball.

Actually, that's a great analogy about an instinctual play for a basketball player. It'd be like my son bowling between his legs. Something that just not everyone can do, but it's instinctual for sure. Awesome. It's five, two. We're laughing. You and I meet for our tech test over the intermission. We're saying, Yeah, we're not guaranteeing a Knacks win just yet. Sure enough, just like the other two periods, the Rangers open the scoring, get the first goal of the third period. This was early, so you're right. It wasn't like we had the game in the bag. This was only three and a half minutes in. Yeah, a really good... Laffinier is showing his hockey IQ tonight with two really good assists. And this is Trochek just blowing it by Demko coming down the left boards.

Yeah. I think it's one that Demko would like to have back. I think that's one that when he's really at the top of his game, as he was earlier in the season, I think he has that. He It's that safe. And it feels wrong to be slagging Demko at all tonight, given the amount of shots that the Rangers put up on him. The Rangers had 42 shots on goal tonight. So that's It's by no means a poor effort from Demko. But that's one I think we're used to seeing him stop. But the Rangers have firepower. And Trochek, that's his 12th goal of the season. So he knows how to score goals in this league also. But yeah, I do wonder. At that point, there's a lot of the third period left. And I think I felt pretty comfortable still with the Knacks. If If they give up the fourth goal and make it 5-4, now look out. But I think at five, three, still feeling pretty comfortable. I think the thing that made me feel a little less comfortable, and I wonder if this plays into the psyche a little bit. At some level with the players, when you just hear that crowd like I was talking about at MSG, that crowd just roars.

That was a roar of a crowd that thought they can come back Nobody had given up hope in the stands in that game. You just wonder. I know I go on about these random things, and it's just what I do. But the goal horn at MSG, how good is that goal horn? How good is that goal song that they have with them? I don't even know what you call it. It's like their own rangers goal song that they've had forever. It must be such a... What a life it must be being a rangers fan where you don't the goal song and you don't debate the jerseys. You just roll up the same thing for 100 years. But anyways, my point is the goal song made everyone nervous. I don't know what I'm doing with this. But yeah, I think the The Knucks, they're still in control at that point. Last year's team, they would have crumbled and given up the lead in the third period if they were so lucky to have one. But this year's team's built differently. They They haven't blown a lead coming into the third period yet this season.

Yeah, 23 and over, whatever the stat is. That's pretty cool. That's a really good point, Rob, about the momentum and how, maybe because the goal was so early, and you're right, it was a racus environment there. The previous three Canucks wins, San Jose at home, Ottawa at home, and then New Jersey away where the Canucks had big leads, and then the opposing team scored one or two to make it. I was never nervous with the San Jose because they're San Jose. I wasn't I wasn't even nervous about Ottawa, and I certainly wasn't nervous about New Jersey, given they were missing all their firepower. But tonight I was a bit nervous. I can't sit here and say a guaranteed win. I had my tweet in my drafts ready about you and me talking about a big Canucks win, but I just make sure I didn't press send too early. But yes. Then the Knux, they did, but they've done 22 other times this season. They protect that third period lead. Pee Dee salts it with the empty air. We don't have to talk too much about that. I keep saying five or three victory is a six three victory.

I kept forgetting about the empty netter. So six, three, a doubling of the of the Rangers. It sends the Knux to 55 points. It sends the Knux to a record of 15 games over 500. That's the 55 minus the 40 games played. They're 26 and 11 and three, which is pretty cool. They are now, as of now, second in the Western commerce behind Winnipeg and second overall in the league behind Winnipeg by points. We don't have to worry about points versus points percentage now. All the teams are close enough.

First place. The biggest part, though, is first place in the Pacific division, and they got a four-point cushion on Vegas right now. That is going to be huge. If they could finish first in the Pacific and avoid LA and Vegas in the first round, I think that would be pretty big for the Canucks. So that's the big one. The first in the league is a cool thing to look at, but I think first in the Pacific is the one that really matters.

And that's a perfect segue, Rob, to our second segment where we're going to talk about the Canucks looking ahead to the playoffs and what roster moves they may have to do. But before we get to that, I have a really interesting question. Well, I think it's interesting. You just mentioned that if you finish first, you avoid the two or three hole, and it's going to be either LA or Vegas What happens, though? Do you have any time for the argument of, But heck, I don't want to play the Emerson oilers if the wild card versus number one is not guaranteed that you're in your own division, but it could happen. Do you worry about the oilers at all? The second part of my question is, do Do you think the oilers could actually catch one of the Knux, Nites, or Kings before the season ends?

Yeah, I think it's definitely possible. I think that the Oilers would definitely be a tough out. Mcdavid and Dreisuttle should scare you at any time. But At the same time, I just feel like they've got a lot of question marks with that team. They've had an up and down season, to say the least. That's more of a team I feel like is a bit more vulnerable when it comes to playoff time. They're not confident in their goal tending. There's a few warts there that I think that they could expose. The thing that worries me about LA is you've got Kopitar and you've got Dano and two selky level centers, and you've also got Dubois. What a power up the middle. Don't you just worry like, wow, they could just shut down the Knux? I was always thinking about the top two lines with Miller and Pederson playing on separate lines. They're well positioned to shut down the Knux top guns in that way. And if you're loading up just one line, I think with the lotto line, I think that they're vulnerable again for that. If you're looking at Edmonton, I don't know that they are a team where you have a goal, they're going to shut us down.

They're just going to try to trade chances, right? Right, right, right. And I I think that the connects are deeper. I think they're probably a little better on defense, and they're definitely better in goals. So I think there's those. And then Vegas. I mean, obviously, Vegas, the reasons for scaring you should be obvious. Stanley Cup champs. They've already shown they can get it done. Aiden Hills being excellent in goal. So that was the concern going into the playoff last season. There's not that concern this season. They're big, they're mean, they're tough. There's a lot of things that should be concerning about that. But Ben, how nice is it? We're in January and we're talking about playoff matchups. It feels like we're in make believe land. It's been so long since we've been able to do this.

That's a really good point. When Stuart Skinner has 16 wins, he's near the top of the league, but it doesn't seem right. If you had to pick one guy that doesn't fit in between right now Demko Talbot Hill and Skinner, I'd pick Skinner as well. So I agree with you about their goal tending. Let me ask you a two or three Rob, just setting up this whole thought of, you're right, 40 games in. So one more game to the halfway point. We are on a 110, 120, 12 point pace. So you win first in the Pacific. You get home ice advantage for the first two rounds. So all these things that the Knots can have in their crosshairs. Let me start with this first one. A lot of talk about this lot of line. They've obviously combined for multiple points in the two games. Is it to avoid what you said, getting shut down completely, you got to split these guys up when it comes to play off time and then put them together when you know that you need something or an emergency basis thing? In regular season, do you ride these guys as long as you want or do it for five or six games?

Say, Okay, we know what we have here. Now, let's round out the team thing.

Yeah, I think it's nice to have options. Now they've got this lot of line option in their back pocket so that you never want to... You know when they say teams that haven't faced adversity, and then they have to face adversity, and it becomes really tough. It's almost better to face a bit of that during the season. I think that's true in this sense in terms of if you had the set lines all season and you didn't really change them up much at all, and you get into trouble in the playoffs and you go, jeez, what do we do? We're down two nothing in the series. You know what I mean? Or you're down three, one in the series. What do you do? Do you shake things up and go with something that you haven't done all year? I don't think that that's something that you be doing. So to have this now where you go, okay, the lot of line, we know that they can load up maybe for a shift or two here, maybe just when you need a goal in the third period, maybe that's what you do. To be able to do that and know that it works and know that it has worked within...

We knew it worked a few years ago, but to have it in modern day here now, I think is a really encouraging sign. I think ultimately you want to have Petterson and Miller on separate lines. So you're not just putting all your eggs in one basket. You want to, at some point, be thinking about having a line that's your match-up line that can worry about the McDavid's and dry of the world if you go up against them. So I think having different options is definitely key, and they've got a few of those. But still, I think the hope is that Kuzmenko turns it around. Kuzmenko is the wild card right now. He is. If If he can get back to being close to the type of player that he was one year ago and play Rick talk at Hockey, that's a game changer. Now you can spread it out on two lines and go from there.

It's funny. On my own shows, Rob, I would say Kuzmenko is the type of forward that you need in the playoff, someone to score. But then I'm thinking, defensively, Kuzmenko is not the type of forward that you need in the playoff. Just because we haven't seen that part of his game yet. We didn't make the playoff last year when he had 39 goals. Are you confident that Kuzmenko is more of a net asset than a net liability when it comes to playoff time?

No. Yeah, no. I mean, it really comes down to, can he adjust? Can he make the adjustments and play for this coach? I think he wants to. I think he's trying. I think he's just having trouble adjusting. It's playing a style that he's not necessarily used to. I think it's hard to break old habits. From everything we've heard, it seems like he still has a good attitude about this. He's not demanding a trade. Those are the latest reports. So I think there's still some hope there. They've still got half a season to turn it around. But you just hope that he can do it because that's a game changer. They're missing a top six winger right now because Kuzmenko is not scoring and doing what he did one year ago.

Yeah. It's funny that you hear, all we're missing is a defenseman at a top six winger. I'm thinking, we have a few of those top six wingers. They just got to We're due. I'll jump back to the boards in a second. I do want to ask you about the D with Carson Susi, Healthy Now. It didn't happen last game because Zdorow was dinged up, but this was the first time that we saw our complete six now that Susi is healthy in Zdorow since there's Zdorow Trade. I forgot that Susi and Myers played so much together because I automatically thought it was going to be Zdorow, Myers, Susi, and Cole, with Cole jumping in the right, but obviously they went Myers-Cole… Sorry, Susi Cole, Susie Myers, and then Cole and Zdorow, with Zdorow playing on the left and Cole on the right. Do you like that lineup? He was Hironic, Susie Myers, Zdorow, Cole. Are you fine with the fact that it's Juleson on the outside looking in right now, and I think we know he's going to get a chance to go back in. They're not going to stay healthy for the next 42 games.

Overall, I guess, what do you like about the composition of our blue line? Do you think it would behoove them to go out and get one or two more, at least one more bonafide the HL defenseman.

Yeah, I think this is the best their D has looked in quite a while, I would say. There was a part of me that was wondering, would talk it be so So hell-bent on having the lefty-righty thing that he would bench one of these guys. But just given the contracts of their top six, there's a very clear top six, and then there's a drop off before Juleson. I think this is Puts Juleson in a much better spot being the number seven guy, not being an every night player. Yeah, I like it. At this point, I'm not sure what pairing is going to be getting second-pairing minutes versus third-pairing minutes. My guess would be they'd probably be pretty even. But now you're not in a position where you have to rely on Myers in a top four role. Hopefully, Cole plays just fine on his offside. But Cole, I think, has been such an important piece that they've added this year. Went under the radar, I think, in the offseason. There was a lot of talk about Susie, a little bit less talk about Cole. Cole's leadership, I think, has been... It just oooses out of him.

He's just a guy that has so much experience, so well-spoken. We go on this a little bit by how these guys talk in the media. Cole's a media darling, so take that for what it's worth. But he just seems like a guy that's... I've asked, talking about him before, and I think by all accounts, he just seems like a guy that really provides a lot of value for his leadership, just the way he plays, a warrior out there, and all of his experience. I think he's been a real key addition to the blue line. To have him, and you don't have to have the two gunslingers and Zdorov and Myers together. Now, you can put a steady guy like Cole with one of them. I think he's a pretty steady guy back there as well. I like the look of their defense a lot better with everyone healthy.

Yeah, I do like the way Sussi just makes smart, subtle plays with his long reach with his stick. I did a couple of them today as well. But great point, Rob, an interesting point about the ice time. Tonight, with all six, no one had less than 18:46. That was Sussi. No one had more than 21:49. That was Hronik. Sorry, Hughes. All six defensemen were within three minutes of each other. I think that's awesome. That bodes so well for this team trying to stay healthy going down the stretch. I have one more question for you about just the way... We're two months away from the trade deadline, and I think you and I agree, no one would expect the Canucks to be second team overall in the league at January eighth or whatever the day is. So are you fine? Take your reporter hat off for a second. As a true Canucks fan, which I know you are, are you fine with them, whether you call, use the term all in or being true buyers? Or is it like, why not? We might not get in the spot again in the next three or four years, and maybe it helps Petty resign here.

I don't know. What do you think?

He's not ready to talk until after the season. I don't know. We don't know when he's ready to talk, but I don't think it's an all-in year. I do think they should be buyers, though. I think that they have a legitimate chance to win the Stanley Cup this year. That doesn't mean they're the That doesn't mean I'm betting the house on it, but they have a legitimate chance. As we mentioned, they're going to have a tough road within the Pacific division. That's not a cakewalk. But I do think that they should be in a position where they're looking to add to their team at the Trade Day. Now, what does that look like? I think it really depends on what's available, what the prices are. I don't think that they should be jumping out of their boots to be acquiring rent and giving up the few prospects that they do have available. But I do think that they're in a position where they can look to see what they can acquire. And now the second question is, what do they need? I think I said on Twitter the other day, this is when they had Miller and Petterson playing on a separate lines.

They need a 2010 Alex Burrows and they need a 2015 Chris Tanev. Because that Miller line was missing the... Di Giuseppe works on that line, but Di Giuseppe is realistically a fourth liner. You need a guy that plays that type of game, a la Alex Burrows 2010, a guy that can finish off chances, play in a top six role, and four check and get extra looks for the two other more talented guys on his line. Then I see there's 2023, Krisztaniv is available, but you'd prefer... That might be nice, but you'd prefer 2015 Krisztaniv, right? Yeah. A guy that can play big minutes on the back end, that can block shots fearlessly, that can be a match-up defenseman, play against the other team's top lines, shut them down, move the pocket. That's That's a dream. And be right-handed. All of those things is what you want, I think, for this team as well. I know they've got the top six D now. They all have contracts that say they should be everyday players. But I view the Knucks that they have a number one defenseman, they have a number two defenseman. They have a number four defenseman, maybe.

And then they've got three Three number five defenseman. They're missing that number three, that true bonafide second pair of D. I think they're missing that. So if you could get a time machine and get those two guys, that'd be great. Failing that, I think you try to get as close to those two types of players and bring them into your lineup. And if the winger is easy to acquire and you can do it, and the player has maybe a little bit term, maybe not an onerous contract, you Or if there's a defenseman available, you try to do that. So that's where I'm coming from. But I don't think you want to be... They've got guys that they need to resign after the year. I don't think you want to be trading really valuable future assets for guys that come in the door, and then you have to lose a free agent. So you don't really win on that deal long term.

Right. So Patrick Alvian, you heard it first right here from Rob. He says, go find 2010 Burrows and go find 2015 Tana, and then we'll be set. One more question, Rob, and then we'll get to the people. Refresh my memory, were you in the locker room last season as well, or this season only, or last season as well?

Yeah. That last season also.

I'm really curious. Hopefully, this doesn't catch you off guard. Do you sense a difference in mentality and in mood this season as opposed to last season? I'm really curious. I like those nuances and stuff. If there's anything to share, or is it the same?

The one thing I'll say is the whole dressing room postgame thing has changed quite a bit, I would say post-COVID. It's almost like... You guys remember the Zoom pressers afterwards during COVID, where you just have one guy comes out and another guy comes out? It's not that dissimilar to that now, where it's like, bring out a guy, bring out a guy, and everyone swarms the player, whereas there was a bit more of just opening up the room and people would go all over the place within the room and had more people available. So it changed a little bit, I would say. So I don't know if you... I think fans maybe think of reporters going into the room and there's this always hubbub going around. There's not a lot of that anymore. And pre-COVID, there was a bit more of that where there was more things going on. In terms of mood and attitude, definitely. But I would say, I must comment the Canucks on this. They have a real business-like attitude about things. You can just see they do not want to get too high. They don't want to get too low. They don't want to make too much of anything.

They haven't accomplished anything yet, right? That's like their mentality.

Yeah. Inevitably, after a win, they're going to be happier. And after a loss, they're going to be not as They're not as happy. But at the same time, they're not hooting and hollering after wins. They're not joking around very much. I think that's maybe a testament to Rick Tucket and him having them all focused and thinking the right way. But I think it's also a little bit about, especially with their star players, these are guys that have lost a lot of games. They've had a really tough time in the last few years, and they're finally winning, and they want this to continue. So that's how I read the situation. Remember 2010, 2011, when Kessler was doing the Kessler bombs or he's in the doctorium when he beats it and stuff? There's none of that in the room. And I just think it's a bit of the fact that they've had those failures in the past and they've come just hyper-focused this season.

Well said. No, that's pretty cool. That's neat to hear. And yeah, I do like their workmanlike attitude in that they don't want to get too high because they truly haven't accomplished anything just yet. Okay, for the last 5 to 7 minutes, let's pepper Rob with two or three questions. So I'm going to scour the chat now or get one in right now. This is Rob Williams of Daily Hive, and he's been with us for the past 40 minutes, breaking down this Canucks game. Looking ahead at what the next two months might hold for this team that we are so enamored with right now. I want to be enamored by your question. Let's get some questions in for Rob, and we will ask him right before he goes. Okay, first one from Fangirl. Would you trade Friedmann at the deadline for depth or a draft pick? He's not getting a lot of chances in the lineup recently. I guess the second part to that, or should we keep him for the depth that we might need in the playoffs?

Yeah, I think he's the depth guy you want. I don't think he's going to have… They got him off waivers. I don't think he's going to have a huge trade value. I don't know what you get for him at the deadline, the seventh round pick. I'm not sure you really want to do that. I think it's nice to have an extra defenseman around to have Having him in a number eight role. Perfect. They're not going to be healthy forever on defense. We know this from... Canucks fans know this, right? Their defense is almost never healthy. So I think there's going to be a situation where Breedman gets in the games this season, and it's good to have that a depth guy available. When he came over after the trade, he looked really good. They had him in a top four role briefly right after the trade. That didn't necessarily last, but I do think that it's nice to have a spare piece that you can have some confidence playing.

Awesome. Chris asked, had to pick one team. Who do you think the Knux are going to meet in the first round?

I'm putting my Knux fan hat on here. And then when you do that, you just expect the worst, right? You expect Vegas in the first round, right? They have this fantastic season. And of course, who do they end up playing? They play Vegas in the first round. I think Vegas probably in the end takes first spot in the Pacific, and you end up with the Canucks playing LA in the first round, and that'll be a really difficult matchup. But But yeah, I guess if I had to guess, that'd be my guess, but I'm not uber-confident on it. It's a tight race.

Yeah, absolutely. You think we can shake another question from B-I-G-T? I know that's Big T, whatever it is. Do you think we can shake Elias Lindhol free from Calgary? Although, does he want $9 million or something for his next contract?

That's a tough one. Yeah, I just think that's so tough to be bringing a piece like that just based on what their cap situation is. And Petterson and Hironic meeting new deals. I think that's going to be a tough one. And you're going to have to give up a lot of assets to get a player like that in. So are you willing to trade like Leclerc-Macky or somebody like that? Guys like Lindholm don't come cheap. So I don't think they're in the market for that type of player. I think they're in the market for a tier below that.

Sure. Fair enough. A couple One more lefty all around ask. May I ask your guess? Yes, you can. May I ask your guess if he thinks Dman Julson is worth a second round pick at this point? I'll prelude this by saying, I guess the answer is similar to the Friedmann answer is, these are the guys you want as depth in the in the in the playoffs because I don't think you're getting a second rounder for Noah Juleson as well as he's played.

No, the Noah Juleson Hype train has left the station, clearly. Yeah, no, the second round pick is not happening for Juleson. I think you'd be lucky to get a seventh pick. Somebody would like him just right before the playoffs to add a death piece as a seventh or eighth D-man. But yeah, no, he's in the right spot for... This is the right spot for Juleson to be in, to be He'd be a number seven defenseman on an NHL team, I'm sure he's thrilled with being in that spot right now.

You just think the last time the Coutts were in the final is in 11. He's got hurt, hip-checking Lucic, and Rome got suspended, right? So then that's why you had to bring in. I can't remember who came in for them.

Was it Albert? Chris Tana. Chris Tana was a call up from Manitoba that year. And they had guys like Andrew Albert.

Keith Ballard. Yeah.

And Aaron Rome and Ballard and all these guys. So you're going to need a lot of bodies. If you hope to make a long, blunt playoff run, it's very rare to be able to march through the playoffs and keep all your defensemen intact. They take a beating from the opposition. So you're inevitably going to have injuries. So it's good to have extras.

Yeah. Awesome. And then finally, there's another question. So I got one last one, and then we'll wrap up. When you see Hughes tonight, I was just thinking off the top of my head, I see Hughes versus Fox. Fox is a former Norris trophy winner. Of course, Keel McCarra has won one, and Quin Hughes is the only one of the, I guess, and Darlene, they haven't wanted either. Do you take joy or do you care when you see Hewes outplay or play just as well as these other guys that have technically more NHL accolades? Or do you not worry about it? If it happens, it happens. Because as a fan, I'm not a reporter like you, I get totally proud and defensive, and I want Hewes so much to be respected and all that thing. Maybe he is. He's going to the NHL All-Star Game. But do you care? Do you notice those things or just let it be?

Yeah, I think all these things matter. And I think Knox fans desperately want Hughes to get his due because I think the reputation that has followed him has been undeserved, and he's somehow got this reputation that he's not a Norris Trophy level defenseman. I thought his... I can't remember what position he finished in the Norris Trophy voting. I think it was seventh or eighth or something like that. I had him third on my ballot, and there weren't a ton of people that had him top three. I don't think you're going to see... I I think you're going to see a lot more respect for Hughes, given the way that Canucks have played, given the attention he's received around the league. I think even just having the C on his chest, I think that's going to... That just changes the perception. Voting for these awards are They're NHL writers and reporters. Let's be realistic. They're not watching every Vancouver-Canucks game. They're watching the highlights. They're watching a few games. So there's reputation goes into this. Stats go into it. So I think that every little thing matters. And I think, especially if you have a strong start to the season, that builds momentum for your case.

And I think that that's what's happened with Hughes. And he has taken a step from last season. I think there's no doubt about that. This has been his finest season in the NHL. I think that he's making a very, very strong case for the Norris Trophy. Remember when they played Colorado and Makar had that massive game that was like a not-so-fast Quinn game, right? To have one where Quinn out plays Fox was great to see.

As we're We're wrapping up here. I see Thomas Dranson, Jay Fresh, fighting on X about it right now, but we can look at that later. Well, Rob, this is awesome. This is a very quick 50 minutes. I'm so grateful for your time and your willingness to say yes. I know you have a lot of responsibility, especially running your own media and your own website. But the fact that you were able to hang out with us here on SDPN, we're very grateful. Once again, let's do this. Tell everyone where they can follow all your work. I'll do a quick wrap up and then we'll be off. Where can people follow all your good stuff?

Yeah, shout out to Noah Strang. He's written the post game for us tonight, so you can catch his post game up on Daily Hive. But yeah, I can't remember your question. Oh, yeah. And follow you? Find me on Twitter, X, whatever you want to call it, Rob the Hockey guy, and dailyhive. Com.

Awesome. For all of you watching, make sure you follow Rob. You can get me at Knuck Clay on your way out. Hit the subscribe button. Sdpn, we're only 500 away from 100,000, which is pretty cool. Make sure that you like the stream as well. Like the fact that we got a cool guest, we got a cool host, and the Canucks won 6-3, not 5-3 like I so embarrassingly said at the start of the show. Tomorrow night, love me or hate me, you're stuck with me again. I'll have up and coming Canucks YouTuber, Rev Trev, Trevor Kempner, joining me to break down the Canucks versus the Islanders. It starts half an hour later than today's game, so just bump everything by half an hour. I should be online somewhere around 7:15 tomorrow night. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your night. Hope you're able to watch the game tomorrow. Follow Rob, follow me, and go to bed smiling because the Canucks are number two in the entire NHL. Stay safe, stay healthy, take care of yourselves, and take care of each other. Good night, and go, Knucks, go. Game over..