The Vancouver Canucks Are Working Hard and Finding Ways to Win Together This Season

The Vancouver Canucks Are Working Hard and Finding Ways to Win Together This Season

The Vancouver Conucks have to be pleased with their early season start. Trevor Begs of Locked Conucks is going to discuss how they got off to a good start and what he’s concerned about. All that and more coming up on today’s Locked on NHL podcast. [Music] You’re Locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. Gil Martin here. Welcome everybody to today’s episode of the Locked On NHL podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I want to thank everyone who makes Locked on NHL your first listen every day. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. It is my pleasure to welcome back to the show the co-host of Locked on Canucks, Trevor Begs. And uh Trevor, another nice win for the Canucks on Sunday. What has been the biggest reasons for their early season success? Oh, the biggest reasons for their success has been the guys between the pipes, Gil. It’s been Thatcher Demco and it’s been Kevin Lankin and you know Thatcher Demco for um his starts this season. He’s given the team a chance to win each and every night and uh there hasn’t been a bad showing yet for him. There hasn’t been a bad goal against for him. Uh it’s just been a rock solid per rock solid performances for Thatcher Demco in that so far. Uh four games played. I believe only got one loss in there as well. And Kevin Lanin, he had one human start against the St. Louis Blues. you know, about four expected goals against led in four goals and then he really gave the Canucks a chance to win with another heroic performance against the Blackhawks. So, you know, they’ve had, you know, far above average goalending in five of the six games so far. And, you know, that’s been the big reason for the success, man, because up until the game against the Capitals today, uh, the Conucks have basic basically have been starting games like they’ve been hung over. You know, they’re like me trying to stumble into work after pounding back a few the night before. You know, it’s just they’re just asleep at the wheel for the first 20 minutes. And you know, a couple uh you know, they were down two nothing against Dallas, two nothing against Chicago, came back and won those games. Uh but man, oh man, the slow starts were becoming a bit of a problem until uh they put three on the board in the first against Washington here on Sunday. So hopefully hopefully things are turning in the right direction and yet they get off to the fast start and then they have to hang on in the third period. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But you know, it’s it’s hard to fault the team. Again, yeah, Adam Foots talked about, I’m sure every head coach has talked about the condensed schedule this year, but it was a little extra crazy for the Conucks. I think, you know, on the graphic uh for Sportset, the broadcast for the Conucks, it basically it was like three games in 65 hours, right? Like they played Thursday night, they played Friday night, and they played Sunday morning. Uh that’s a lot of games in a short period of time, right? So, um yeah, you kind of figure they were going to run out of gas. Not only run out of gas, but they started missing bodies, too, right? Um, you know, Brock Besser all of a sudden out of the game on Sunday. Not much of an update on that. Hard to hard to know when there’s not many guys on the road. Philip Pedle, of course, takes the hit from Tom Wilson. Potentially another concussion. Like that’s a massive blow to the Canucks. Would be a huge story if he ends up being out long term. Jonathan Leer Mackey, our young rookie, gets injured. Then Teddy Bluger gets injured. Now it’s like, “Oh my god, Gil, here we go again.” So those are some things to monitor with the Conucks. I mean, you know, four guys that were in the lineup at some point this season could all be out of the lineup as this road trip continues on here. You mentioned the goalending, but it also seems like the team has played good defense in front of the goalenders. Talk to me about that. Yeah, I think there was such a high bar for the defense, Gil. you know, um you look at this team on paper and it’s the offense is kind of middling but the top five defense in the goalending to be honest the defense has been a little more permissive uh than you would have liked to believe. Um you know I think even Quinn Hughes Phil Pronic have been had a bit of a slow start. Um you know Tyler Myers he played great against Washington but he had some chaotic moments earlier in the season. Um I with Hughes Heronic and Marcus Patterson there’s a solid top three formation there right? Um, so you could believe in those guys to figure it out, but it has been a bit of a slow start for some of the top guys. Um, and the connects are really rotating out two guys who are pretty much rookies in this lineup, right? So Derek Forbert was a bottom pairing defenseman. He’s injured and now they’re playing the other Elias Person and Victor Manchini who had a f both of them had really fantastic preseasons, but they’re both still, you know, relatively young defenseman. You know, Victor Manchini came into the season with 31 games played. DPD came into this season with 28 games played. Like these are young NHL defensemen. Um, and that Adam Foot’s had to get creative. Like he’s kind of double shifting Hughes and Heronic and pairing Heronic with DPD and pairing Hughes with Manchini. So I think it’s been a bit of a work in progress so far, but thankfully they’ve had the goalending to build them out. And again, not like the defense has been bad, but if you look at the stats, it’s kind of been a bit below average and they’re allowing more shots and chances than you’d probably like to give up. Is there any player early on in the season who’s been a pleasant surprise so far to you? Yeah, that’s a good question. I think I’m going to shout out the uh the Calder Cup line. The fourth line, baby. Let’s go. These guys always deserve some love. But uh the Conucks have had a fourth line of over the last few games of Archie Baines, Siri, BC native, local boy, Max Sassin, and Lenus Carlson. And you got to credit Patrick Elvin and his staff for uh for finding these guys, for signing these guys. Ironically, Baines and Carlson were two of the first signings Alvine made when he came to Vancouver. Um, but none of these guys have high pedigrees, right? Like Archie Baines and Max Sassner are undrafted. Lenus Carlson, a third round pick that we got in the Jonathan Dalene trade uh way back when. It’s taking him a while to develop. But these guys, they were the top line for the Knuck the Conucks AHL team, the line that helped them win a championship in the AHL. But I think it was fair to have some skepticism that they were actually going to work out in the NHL level. that, you know, not only have they been successful so far, Gil, but in that game against the Dallas Stars, the first game they played together, they single-handedly turn the momentum for the Conucks. Like, the Conucks are just getting their asses handed to them in the first period against Dallas. All of a sudden, this, you know, Calder Cuffline comes out, has a great shift. They end up um, you know, contributing for the game, the go-ahead goal against the Stars, uh, the game tying goal against the Blackhawks. So, they’ve been a very pleasant surprise. The other guy that stands out would be Philip Pedle. Um he had three goals in his first four games. Um and of course let’s again let’s let’s hope and pray that Filipino doesn’t have another concussion because it didn’t look good for the hit on Sunday. Yeah ne never like to mess around with concussions. That’s for sure. How about special teams? It seems like you’re kind of middle in the pack on both the power play and the penalty kill. Any concerns there? I’d say I have less concerns now to be honest. I know the PKs have been kind of giving up goals, but for the most part, I thought they’ve done a pretty good job of not allowing too much pressure. Um, it looks like they haven’t given up a lot of chances. You know, when you start digging into the numbers a bit, I think to me, one of the biggest surprises on both special teams, and maybe this is another guy who’s impressed so far, is Connor Garland. You know, the smallest forward in the NHL. I’m telling you right now, he is the Canucks best forward. And for this team, it would be better if Elias Person or Brock Besser ends up being one of those guys as the season goes on. But since the beginning of last season, Connor Garland has been the Canucks’s best forward. He leads the team in points. He’s skated more at even strength than any other Canucks. And now he’s the top penalty killing forward on this team. You know, I think the loss of PU Sudter was a pretty big one in the offseason. I still don’t love the the idea of giving up PU Sudter and adding Evander Kane to this lineup. I think it’s been outside of a couple plays, a bit of a shaky start for Kane, but Connor Garland’s now on the first penalty killing unit. Uh doing pretty damn good in that role. and to start the season he was on power play two. They quickly move him up to power play one and boom they get three power power play goals in two games there um against Dallas Chicago. So um I think things are trending in the right direction there. I think Elias Patterson starting to show a bit more on the power play as well. Um but I think on the power play too like you have Quinn Hughes quarterback and then you have four guys who really are all contributing equally right with Besser with De Bruss with Garland with Person. So again, special teams might have to be a differentiator for this group, especially if they’re going to be missing guys long term up front at five on five. U and I have I have the confidence that they can be above average on the PK and on the power play. Besides injuries, what are your biggest concerns early on this season? Yeah, besides injuries, that’s I’m glad you said that. No, I think for me it’s it’s the offense and specifically Elias Patterson, right? Like can Elias Person bounce back? is something that we’ve talked about adnause about locked on canucks. I think I don’t think there’s an NHL player that has more pressure on him than Elias Person to be honest. And in the first three games it looked like the same old person, the same guy that was bobbling the puck, looking kind of slow, making mistakes. I like to think that things changed in that Dallas game. You know, a puck ricochet off his stick, goes into his own net, and you’re thinking like three bad games, he a goal, he basically has an own goal when he hasn’t scored yet this season. But I think he’s kind of turned the tide at least over the past three games. Um maybe it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. I believe he only has one goal and three points in six games so far. Um but it looks like things are turning in the right direction. And and look, I know there’s guys that’ll point at the fancy stats and be like, “Oh, look, Patterson’s playing better than you think.” Um even though like through the first two games, he really didn’t look good, but it finally seems like things are trending in the right direction. Some of that elusiveness is coming back. You know, almost scored a a highlight reel goal in overtime against Chicago and gets stymied by Spencer Knight. So, if Person can bounce back, I think there’s enough depth to at least be average offensively, and that’s the recipe for the Conucks. They need to be one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, uh, have the one of the fewest numbers of goals against that tandem, and just be average offensively. But to me, it’s still a bit of a concern if they can actually be average. Trevor, why don’t you tell our viewers and our listeners where they could find the podcast, where they could find you and your co-host on social media. Well, Gil, always good to talk to you, man. Keep taking care of my boy Bo. I see him wearing the Iron Man mask now. So, uh, there you go, man. Iron Bo. Uh, you can find Lock Onucks on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast, Spotify, Apple Podcast, all that good stuff. You can find me at Trevs on Twitter. You can find Locked On Twitter as well. All right, Trevor. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer that you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if that first $5 bet wins. That’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love how FanDuel gives me so many ways to play. I’ve built parlays to increase my odds. I’ve tried player props, and I’ve even followed the live lines during games. 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The Vancouver Canucks are looking better so far this season with improved chemistry and better team defense and goaltending.

Trevor Beggs of Locked On Canucks joins us to discuss the keys to the team’s success going forward and how Elias Pettersson may hold the key to greater success this season.

All this and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Gil Martin.

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