Elliotte Friedman on the Canucks weekend, Thatcher Demko’s health and rebuild talk

Elliotte Friedman on the Canucks weekend, Thatcher Demko’s health and rebuild talk

Donnie and Dolly, the team is supported by abblections.ca. Closing your business. We can help. [Music] It’s Monday and all of our guests today, including Elliot Freriedman standing by. Sponsored by Bassant Motors. Bassant is the home of No Tax November. Let Bassant pay that pesky GST on your next vehicle purchase. Stop by their dealership at Simple. It’s located at 16315 Fraser Highway in Suriri or check them out online at basantmotors.com. Avalanche defeating the Canucks 54 in overtime in the wake of the Avalanche crushing the Edmonton Owners in Edmonton 9-1 on Saturday. Here to talk to talk about that and other matters NHL from Hockey Night in Canada and the 32 thoughts podcast, Elliot Freriedman. Elliot, thanks for doing this, sir. How are you? I’m good. I just had some butter chicken, so everything is fantastic. Wow. Awesome. Awesome. Any recommendations restaurantwise in Toronto that serves up good butter chicken? The place I’m at right here is called Angara. It’s it’s supposed to be one of the better places. And I got to tell you, the food was fantastic. Oh, all right. All right. Well, now now you’re ready to talk to us. It’s all it all it all works out here. What’s going on with the Oilers? Uh Elliott, other than other other than losing 9-1 to to Colorado, are they looking for a goalender? What are they going to do to to to fix this thing? And we’re talking about a team that has made it to the Stanley Cup final the last two years. Well, first of all, like I think we all understand, Don, that they haven’t been a great uh starting team the last couple years. I think also, you know, there’s a little bit of, hey, we’ll be fine. We, as you mentioned, we’ve been in the Stanley Cup final twice in a row. We have a couple of nuclear weapons on our roster. Heyman hasn’t played a game yet. Like, but I think they’ve been way too lastly fair. Way too lassie fair. They haven’t played with any energy. They hadn’t played with haven’t played with any spirit. And I know the goalending is a thing and I understand everybody’s concerns, but you look at some of the quality of the goals they’re giving up. People are just walking right down the ice and doing whatever they want against them. They have six uh blown twogoal leads this year. And you look at some of those goals the other night against Colorado. We all know the Avalanche are a great team, but you got to try to check them. They did whatever they wanted. And you know, I think a lot of it, you know, they don’t have Evander Kane anymore, and I know Kane’s struggled in his start in Vancouver, but they don’t have Cory Perry anymore either. and he’s off to a great start with the Kings. Like, you know, it’s not the 80s anymore, Don, but at the end of that game the other night, it just like nobody did anything. Like, nobody tried to start anything. Nobody tried to run over somebody. I think the Oilers have to rediscover some passion here that when I look at them, for all their other issues, for me, they’re very blah and meh to start the season. Well, what do you think of the Canucks? Uh let’s talk about them. Elliot, uh no trade yet. We know why there’s no trades. It’s quieter on league. You know, parody’s up. A lot of teams are banged up. What are you What are you hearing about the Canucks on the trade front, Elliot? Well, I mean, look, I mean, we’re going to repeat this until it happens, Rick, but they continue to look for a center. Like, you know, every time I speak to somebody out there just, you know, hey, what’s going on? Is there anything I’m missing? Um, you know, you hear a bunch of things, but one thing you always hear is Kuck’s still looking for a center. Kuck’s doing what they can to get a center. So, this is going to be a story until it’s over. Until they get whoever that person is. What do we know? We know they don’t want to trade Coots. We know they don’t want to trade their first rounder. Um, so I think if I think if they were to trade that first, it would be for a young center with term or team control. I mean, how many of those guys are available out there? Not many. I I’ll say this though, Rick, like they play hard, man. Like on Saturday night, that that game could have gone in a lot of different directions. They won it. Um there were a lot of excuses for them not to get a point last night. Uh they got it. Um you know, they most nights, every team has their stinkers and their bad games, but most nights that team plays really hard and we’re just going to be on the center chase until it actually happens. Well, you know, Kucks Twitter, U Elliot, uh, you know, a lot of lot of people freaking out about Demco not dressing on the weekend. Um, what are your thoughts about Demco going forth? Well, first of all, I thought that there was absolutely, especially after they got the win on Saturday, there was zero reason to play him on Sunday, right? Like, like I I got to tell you this on Rick, I would much rather people freak out on Twitter. Yeah. Which is what fans do. and and that’s uh which is what fans do and that’s totally fine. I would much rather people freak out on Twitter than I dress that Demco when he shouldn’t be dressing, right? Like if something’s bothering him or he doesn’t feel right, you know what? That’s why you’ve got Kevin Lankan in. You can play him. And and and and I I just feel that take your time, relax, don’t do anything you’re going to regret. You know, I I I understand the concerns like It doesn’t seem like they’re too worried about what Demco is dealing with right now or whatever it is. But Rick, you know, people are like, “We’ve heard this before.” So, I understand the worry. I understand the skepticism. Don’t fool around with this. You’ve got Lankanin. Just be smart and wait. If you have almost for me, it’s almost like with Demco, if you get to a situation where he feels um good, you say, “You know what? That let’s wait one more day.” I I think that’s the smartest way to play it. Absolutely. Hey, I’m looking at the top NHL uh point getters. I see a couple of Vancouver kids there. Mlin, Celibbrini, uh Elliot and Connor Bernard. Uh boy oh boy, what a great start for both those kids. Well, you trying to are you on luring them back to Vancouver already? No, no, that’s No, that’s a group of guys on Twitter. Yeah, no kidding. Uh it’s you know, it’s it’s phenomenal. You know, Rick, I and Don, I think one of the things I like about the start of this league is that there’s new teams and new players to watch. Yeah. Like in the last few years, you’re kind of watching a lot of the same teams. Like now I’m watching Anaheim. Now I’m watching San Jose. Now I’m watching more of Montreal. Now I’m watching I was watching obviously a bit of Detroit. Like there’s there’s Pittsburgh. I’m watching Pittsburgh a lot more than I thought I was going to watch Pittsburgh. And there’s like Celibbruni. He’s phenomenal. Badard. He’s phenomenal. Like a bunch of those Anaheim kids. Uh they’re phenomenal. And you know, I ha I have to watch all of Patrick Alvine with Scott Oak from the weekend. And you know, it it’s interesting like I know there’s a lot of people out there saying rebuild, rebuild, rebuild. And you’re not necessarily wrong in the sense that if you’re going to win in this league or get one of those top kids, you have to do it at the top of the draft. I think the biggest challenge for teams like Calgary and Vancouver to do that is that no matter what, like I I’ve had this conversation with with a couple owners and and and a couple of uh team front office members and they say that people will accept a rebuild, but the data indicates that that’s not always true while you’re going through it. Like maybe at the beginning they will and maybe at the end like if Vancouver had a team like Anaheim now the city would be buzzing and everybody would be buying tickets. But if you look at Anaheim the last few years, what scares uh markets like Vancouver and Calgary and not only those two, but other markets around the league, I’ve heard this from places that aren’t maybe in the most me heavy media intense hockey markets is people say they’ll support rebuilds. The data indicates that while you’re in the middle of them, it’s not always true. Yeah. Look at Chicago, financial powerhouse. Um, and and they were in the wilderness for a few years, and now they’re coming out of it. And I just think that that’s the thing that scares owners and teams is people say they’ll support the rebuild, maybe at the beginning, and definitely at the end if the team comes out of it. But in the middle, it can be really financially ugly. You know what scares a lot of people in Vancouver, Elliot? No Stanley Cup since 1970. Yes. And right now not much hope for the future. So that scares maybe not owners but that scares a lot of people who have been following this team media members and fans uh for a long time. What about Celibbrini and and and Bard and Shley and Suzuki? Is there enough spots on on on team Canada when we’re talking about going going to Italy? Can any of them play goal? You know to me that’s the best problem to have. Like you look Bo Horvad too. Horvad. Yeah, I forgot. I’d forget him. Don’t forget, Don, like you remember in 2022 when they were still before they canled going to the Olympics, I believe it was Doug Armstrong who showed up in Vancouver out of nowhere to watch Bo Horvat play like right before they were potentially going to name the team. So, they have a lot of good forwards. I don’t worry about the forwards and I really don’t worry that much about the defense, but right now the goalending like to me Bennington’s a lock. I don’t care if he gives up a thousand goals a game between now and then. What he did the Four Nations like he’s a lock and I have to think that Logan Thompson’s a lock too, but you know, like you look at some of those other teams, you feel a lot more comfortable with their goalending than you do about Canada. Yeah. And the start has not been great for Canadian goalenders. And just one more thing about about the the Ducks and and their success, all those great young players, uh the coaching of Joel Quinnville. What are the main reasons for success down there? They win again last night. Well, like the thing is like they’ve got a lot of offensive talent. Like they can like Donnie, they can really score. Like go like Carlson is a hell of a player. Um when when Anaheim ended up with that second pick, the story goes that Pat Verbique told his staff, “We’re taking Carlson. like you’re going to have to give me a good reason not to take this guy. And and they didn’t get it. And they they got a great player. Goce is just a hell of a score. Like just a great score. Mc um you know, McTavish is a great two-way player. Like they just have a lot of really talented young offensive players and you just have to take your lumps until you start get there. Like Lome is one of the most unknown good defenseman in the league and that Docel, he’s a stud. So like all they’ve got a bunch of young players who are finally finding their legs. Like look at the ass kicking Chicago took for a couple years and now they’re finally starting to find their way. Like I think what happens is you you you take your chances, you hope you hit, you hope you get a stud or two and you you have to lo like basically you lose. you get your butt kicked for a couple of years until your guys start to figure it out. Now, Donnie, it’s still game what, 15? There’s a long way to go here. We’re going to see who’s got staying power. But I look at San Jose two weeks ago, they couldn’t defend anybody, and now they’re beating Florida 3 to one. Like, you have to figure out your lessons and you have to be able to check. And once these teams learn how to check, look out. It’s big trouble. Hand in Canada intermissions brought to you by Ompic and Angaraa. I’ll tell you, my buddies, my buddies love it. When I end up under like the Ompic banner, my phone lights up. My buddies are like, “Ah, Zmpic Elliot, Ozmpic Elliot.” Like, they love it. They just love it. They’re sending me pictures. Like, there’s pictures today of like Megan Trainer and they’re like, “Me and Megan Trainer, like the Ompic picture people.” Like it’s crazy out there. I wonder what those guys look like. Elliot, I got to tell you something. The reason I hang out with those guys, Donnie, is none of them definitely none of them are better looking than me. There you go. There you go. Why do you think I’m doing this show with Rick? I get it. I get it. Thanks for this, Elliot. We’ll talk to you in a couple weeks. You bet.

Hockey Night in Canada Insider Elliotte Friedman joined the guys and talked about the Canucks continued search for a Centre and Thatcher Demko’s absence.