Jonathan Lekkerimäki: Listener of Canucks Conversation | Canucks Conversation

Jonathan Lekkerimäki: Listener of Canucks Conversation | Canucks Conversation

[Music] Hello, Kucks fans. Welcome back to another episode of Kucks Conversation brought to you by Bet 365. We’re coming to you from the Pacific Toyota dealer studios. Visit shoptoyota.ca or visit your local Pacific Toyota dealer today. My name is Delli. I’m joined by Harmon Dial. Harmon, I must say your Pacific Toyota dealer studio is looking new today. It’s looking very nice. I like what you got going on here. Thanks. It’s uh it’s not complete yet. I’ve got one or two more things I want to add, but this is year three of doing the show with you full-time, and it’s it’s about time that we graduate from the blank beige wall. Uh, plus I wanted to dunk on you in style today. So, I I Hey, you’ve succeeded. And that was the question to Jacob and I were asking before we went to air was uh what’s uh what was stopping us in recent years from using this space. We didn’t know this space existed. But hey, we’ve got it now and we’re not going to ask questions about the past. We’re going to move forward. That’s going to be a theme on today’s show because I don’t want to talk about what I said about Jonathan Lucker Mackey last week. I’ I’d appreciate if we left that. Oh, we’re going to have to talk about it. Of course we are. Our opening segment today is brought to you by our friends over at Greta, which by now you know is a great spot to watch the big game. But did you know it’s even better spot for your upcoming party or event? If you need a venue for a team building or summer social event, check out Greta. And hey, if you’re looking for a time to check out Greta, might we suggest October 11th. It is the first watch party of the year. October 11th, Canucks, Oilers. Uh we’re going to have a great time. Come hang out with us. Going to be a lot of fun. Uh, Jacob, I’m sorry you’re not going to be able to use that in a ad read or clip or whatever because I said Kucks and Oilers. So, anyways, um, Greta, come hang out. We’re going to have our first watch party October 11th. Going to be a ton of fun. All right, couple preseason updates and both of them are about Jonathan Lacrimacki. It feels like Friday the Canucks win 42 against the Seattle Kraken. Sunday, they lose to the Edmonton Oilers. the NHL lineup looking Edmonton Oilers and they put up a pretty good fight and in both games harm Jonathan Leer Mackey who I kept making fun of for never seizing any opportunity. Oh, he seized the opportunity and he was dynamite honestly. Like I I think I was higher on him. It felt like when I was looking at what people were saying about the game on on on Twitter and stuff like I thought he was their best player in both of those games. I don’t think that’s too far to say. I think all of the things I was criticizing of being too much of a passenger, not getting involved, all of that was gone. The Coots goal in the Kraken game created from Leer Mackey’s work on the forche like gets the puck back from a Kraken defenseman. And yeah, sure, there were some AHL guys in the cracked lineup, but you don’t really have that argument when you look at this Edmonton game as well where Leer Mackey was also great. But on Friday in on the forche, helping the cycle get started. Um, creating space. And again, the Coot’s goal is a deflection off of Coots from Electra Macki shot. Like Leer Mackey created that space for himself. Like he used his skating, he used his angles to get into the middle of the ice and blast a shot that bounced off Coots and went in. Like that was that was everything that I was criticizing and more. He did so much more than I was expecting of him. And hey, I I got to say I was absolutely wrong. If this if this is the version of John Leer Mackey, this dude’s making the team and he’s playing in the top six. Well, I noticed two main differences in his game compared to, let’s say, the preseason opener against Seattle where he was very quiet. Uh, number one, he’s getting more puck touches in attacking areas, and that’s he’s initiating more things to put himself in positions where he can actually have time and space with the with the puck. You see the way that he was demanding a pass um ahead of the the Coots goal where he made the load high pass. He he he made the off puck movement to give himself space and then he’s demanding the puck. um he’s putting himself in positions where I think back to even let’s say the the training camp scrimmage in uh in Pantictton where when he’s uninvolved offensively, it’s typically because his line might have possession in the offensive zone off the cycle, but he’s not able to move enough off the puck to put himself in positions where he’s open to receive a pass and actually start to make plays happen. And that’s really the story of even when Lacer Macki was let’s say a little bit quiet in the AHL playoffs. It just it’s not that he’s playing poorly or that the effort’s not there. He’s just not able to put himself in enough positions to get puck touches in dangerous spots of the ice. And now so he’s getting more touches and and then secondly when he is getting those touches he’s a lot more decisive and he’s playing with some swagger. If you think to one of his first shifts last night against Edmonton, he’s deing pass guys, one v one in the neutral zone. He’s driving uh offenses on entries. As a playmaker, even off the cycle, he’s able to leverage the threat of his shot to also find passing seams that are open. He set up Pio Joseph for he he had a shift where he where he first set up Pio Joseph for a chance and then somebody else as well. So, it’s not just that he’s a shooting threat, but I I really feel as a playmaker, he’s seeing the ice uh so well uh the the goal last night with um with the goalender pulled. It’s the quickness of the release. And watch how much velocity he’s able to shoot the puck with despite there basically being no back swing, right? like there is no back swing yet he’s able to still generate a ton of power and that helps him get the shot off that much quicker which when you’re making that kind of shot off an east west pass there’s such little time for a goalender uh to be able to move across and then the accuracy of course to to place it exactly where you want uh he’s so poised with the puck right now you always notice that on the power play even when he has maybe been quieter at five on five on the power play you notice just how poised as he is with the puck. Even in high pressure spots where it feels like defenders are closing in on him, he is so smart. Uh he’s cool as a cucumber. I think back to a play late in the first period. The Conucks I think Heedle had had been off for uh for a penalty. So it was 4v4. The Canucks had just been hemmed in for a long defensive zone shift. Leer Macki finally got the the puck just as both players were coming back on the ice to make it five on five again. My immediate thought when he regained possession and what most players would have done in that spot would have been just clear it to relieve pressure, get off and change. But Leer Mackey again that poise, he held on to it for a couple beats longer, made sure to to pass it to defensive. So the so the Conucks held on to the clear puck possession and then as soon as Heedle came out of the box, that’s when that Kucks defenseman, I can’t remember who it was, was able to spring Heedle for a breakaway. That breakaway for Heedle doesn’t happen if Leer Mackey clears the puck like most players would have done in that spot instead of making this smart poise decision to hang hang on to it. So, I love the confidence that he’s playing with uh right now. And it’s that involvement level to make sure that he has more puck possession time um to make plays. A really good weekend for him. And it’s like you said, there’s just he just looks different than than he did before. And um yeah, like I said, like we wrote in the title, clearly a listener of Kucks Combo because I was going pretty hard on him last week. I’ll be honest, I was that was probably I must have been his uh Jordan and I took that personally moment listening to it on the way to the rink on the drive to the rink. Um yeah, I know he was he was so good. Like give him his flowers. He was really really good. And it’s our poll question and I want your answer as well, but I I know I’ve already given mine. I think he makes this team. I think he makes this team and I think he’s going to be a top six contributor because again when we talk about the roster construction if Jonathan Akramaki can be in your top six that opens up Connor Garland to drive his own line on a third line and you know Connor Garland can do that. So if you don’t have to put Connor Garland in the top six because Leer Mackey can skate there like if you can get a Kane Heedle Leer Macki line to work that’d be a that’d be a really good solution for this team. Definitely. And it’s such a bonus. I’ve brought this up before, but Leker Mackey’s defensive details and positioning um his lack of turnovers. It also helps as far as that second line spot potentially with with Kanan Heedle because if Leer Mackey was still inconsistent defensively and coaches felt that they couldn’t trust him in his own end, well then you look at Kane on on that left wing and historically he’s been below average defensively. You would have looked at that and gone, boy, can you really have Kane and Leer Mackey on the same line together? For example, I’ll I’ll give you if if Hoglander was still healthy, I don’t know if you can have Kane and Hoglander on the same line with their with their below average defensive play. Whereas with Becker Mackey, that’s just not as much of a concern. Uh he’s pretty advanced in that area. So, it’s it’d be massive if if he can stick in that spot. Um chip in with some offense and then like you said, allow Garland to really drive a third line where they obviously don’t have an ideal three seed. Now, of course, it is just two preseason games and we got to see it more from Leer Mackey, right? You got to keep seeing it and he’s one of the guys that was named in our article today at Kucks Army. Eight guys we still want to see uh in the Canucks final two preseason games see more from. Leer Macki is one of those players you’d like to see him get into another game because he’s fighting to make this team and so is Braden Coots who’s another guy I want to talk about from this weekend’s game. Um both games really really strong. We’re just waiting for Braden Coots to like there’s other guys Vatelli Kratzov being one of them who I thought was really bad on Friday by the way. Um lost his man on both goals. Anyways, uh that’s aside from the point. But unlike with guys like Crafts and really other guys during training camps, you’re like waiting for them to stand out. For Coots, you’re waiting for a sign of like, okay, clearly he’s not ready. Clearly this kid needs to go back to junior. There’s two games left. He hasn’t shown you that yet of oh clearly this guy can’t make this roster. We’re waiting for it. Hasn’t happened yet. I had someone from another NHL team reach out to me after the Friday game and say that he thinks Coots can hang in the NHL and he thinks he’s Coots is actually slightly ahead of where Jet Jet Lenko was. uh who we’ve brought up numerous times on the show before as an example of an 18-year-old centerman drafted in the middle of the first round making an NHL team um out of camp as as a surprise. You see with Coots the the quickness that even though he’s a little bit undized and and maybe has a strength disadvantage, he’s able to use that speed and quickness to still get to pucks first and win battles that way. He’sing defenseman on the forche and forcing turnovers. One of them directly led to Alker Maki Chance during uh Friday’s game. I like Cutz’s speed and ability to drive zone entries. He’s in the right spots positionally and even the it’s it’s the mature details right for an 18-year-old where I can think of a couple situations one in the third period where uh at the end of a shift he was on the ice and um and some and one of his teammates had iced the puck. It’s a Dzone draw. his line is tired. That’s a key spot where if you lose that draw, you’re going to be stuck defending and as a head coach, you’re sweating a little bit, especially for an 18-year-old. Um, as far as are they going to be able to defend tired, but instead Coots won the draw. And because of that, he was able to get off the ice pretty quickly. It’s it’s those kinds of details as well where where, for example, he’s not getting dominated in the faceoff dot that really helps his odds of um of being able to make the team. I should clarify what I just said because different Irvin in the chat uh said may said it may what I said sounds like I’m banking on Coots to Phil. What I was trying to say is that relative to expectations of what we expected 18-year-old kid 15th overall pick like think about the conversations we were having two weeks ago when we even suggested that oh maybe he gets nine games we like oh shut up like not gonna happen it’s just training camp. Well now it’s just preseason games and now he’s still continuing to look good. So, what I’m trying to say is I’m waiting for the time where you look at him and say, “Oh, that’s why he fell to 15th overall.” Or, “Oh, that’s why he’s an 18-year-old kid and clearly still needs to go to junior.” I haven’t seen that yet. I’m saying this as a positive. I’m saying that I’m waiting for him. Again, not like, oh, I can’t wait till he fails. I’m just saying my expectations were that, oh, okay, he’s in he’s going to have to go back to junior. What I’ve seen if if you didn’t if Okay, put it this way. If I didn’t know he was 18 and I didn’t know, you know, all this stuff about AHL rules and everything, I would look at him right now and say he should be on the NHL roster based on what I’ve seen. That was that that’s the honest truth. Definitely. And also to take a big picture perspective on this, too. How how good do you feel about the Canucks having kept that pick and drafted him as opposed to, let’s say, having panicked and traded him for somebody like Pavo Zaka? Yeah. And this is why when we reviewed the Kox off season, we were sort of grading them on a curve where yeah, they didn’t accomplish their stated goal of landing a top six centerman or just elite an elite forward in general, but it came with the context that swinging those types of trades were really difficult. And if you weren’t able to land your ideal target, well, at least they didn’t mortgage the future by trading that 15th pick, which in the leadup to the draft, a lot of us, myself included, thought that there was a a better chance than not that they dealt that pick. I’m glad that management didn’t panic and trade it for some mediocre middle six centerman um in a desperate attempt to bolster this team’s short-term chances of winning. Because now you look at Coots and how far along he is and and how excited you feel about his uh his long-term potential and especially as a as a centerman, how rare like the Canucks should know now how hard it is to trade for these guys. So now you’ve got an got an in-house guy that it’s going to take him time to really hit his prime and and peak and and obviously hit his ultimate ceiling, but in a few years when he ultimately does do that, how valuable of a piece could he be to this organization? Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, some good stuff coming into the chat. People in the chat are reminding us that Braden Coots was 13 when COVID started. That makes me feel really Yeah, 13 years old. That makes That’s wild. Yeah, that makes me feel really old. Um, yeah, it’s it’s kind of segueing into a conversation naturally about the nine games, right? Because we when we talk about K who’s making the roster, it’s always with the okay, well, he’s just going to play nine or fewer games, right? I stand by that that it still should be that. And of course, it might change how he shows in that nine games. But the thing that I said a week ago, and I think I should stand by it, unlike what I said about Leer Macki a week ago, you’re not going to see the effects of an 18-year-old kid playing in NHL games in the first month or first two months of an NHL season. You’re going to see it later, and it’s going to be harder for him later. and it’s going to be a fall-off that might, you know, that that that might um hurt him in the long run, right? So, that’s what we have to keep at the forefront is okay, what’s the best thing for this player? And I I I don’t know if staying for a full season is like I’m trying to think of like comparables of guys who have done this right after being drafted um playing in the NHL like was Macan right away Jared Macccan or did he spend a year in junior? I think he spent his year in junior I think it was his age 19 season. Uh there was I want to say n would have done it. Cole Cinger. And I’m thinking of guys that Well, yeah, but I’m specifically trying to find guys that weren’t top 10 picks. So, you have Cylinger who in 2021 was 12th overall to Columbus and in his rookie year had 16 goals and 31 points. But you’ve seen since then he’s kind of stagnated. He’s still a 30-ish point guy. So, okay. Yeah, I hear you. But also, Cole Cinger might have just always been a 30 point guy. I like what what what do you think? What’s your takeaway from that then? Are you saying Cole Cinger was stagnated because he played to her? Well, for me, I I would be worried about stunting his offensive growth, right? Like you said, you wouldn’t necessarily feel the effects in the first month or two of the season. it’d be January, February, the midpoint of the season where especially as an undersized guy, I had this conversation with Coots where when he’s battling with bigger, stronger NHL players, it takes so much more out of him and and he told me straight up he feels exhausted sometimes in shifts because he’s having to work that much harder compete in energy-wise to compensate for the size discrepancy. I think that’s the kind of thing that when you’ve got your adrenaline pumping like it would be right now and when you’re so excited and when everything’s when when your body’s 100% right physically, you’re able to go 110% all the time and and have that sheer effort level, but can you sustain that longer than 40 games, for example? Is there going to be a point where you hit a wall where your body just isn’t equipped to handle the rigors of an NHL schedule, especially being out in Vancouver, how bad the travel is? And I referenced earlier the the person I talked to on another NHL team that was impressed by what he’d seen from Coupe preseason. I I asked him out of curiosity of his take about can he stick and and his response essentially was he can survive in the NHL. But same sort of thing where around the halfway point of an NHL season, you’ll probably regret not having him not having sent sent him back to junior where where he’d be able to dominate offensively and really grow that part of his game, right? where if he does stick in the NHL, there’s still going to be a lot of learning for him defensively and positionally, even though he is so mature for his age, and he’s going to be so focused on not making mistakes, whereas there may not be as much of a focus that he can place on developing his offensive skill. Uh, and that’s where going back to junior. Put it this way. I don’t think there are too many examples of an 18-year-old that has been hurt by spending an extra year in college or the NCAA, but I can sure think sure think of examples of players that were rushed to the NHL at 18, 19 years old and it stunted their offensive growth and potential. Yeah, absolutely. And again, Jacob just rattled off a list in our private chat here of regular 18-year-olds since 201819. Celebrini, Bernard, it’s these guys that are top three picks. So, I I agree with you and it’s it’s what I was saying before, right, about how you you you want to see him go back to junior after the nine games. Like maybe it’s fewer than nine obviously, but in the end, like it’s exciting. It’s super exciting, but you probably want to be patient here uh and send him back Junior. We’ll see. We’ll see. again like we’ll see if we’re having a different conversation after six games or whatever it is. So, um yeah. Anything else from the weekend? I was going to say this, the goalies just the goalies look so good. Tolo, Lankin, and Deco all just look absolutely dialed in. Um did you have anything to add about uh the games from the weekend? Uh I wanted to make to have a broader discussion around Adam foot hockey because you can see the difference especially the last couple of games when we’ve seen more of an NHL lineup of all right this team is going to play a more wide openen high style. There are a few differences and it has resulted in them I think looking more dynamic offensively but also giving up more particularly off the rush defensively. There are a bunch of tweaks. We can talk about them. Some of them we reference in camp. The the one I like the most um the one the the tweak that I’m highest on is the Canucks having an F3 high in the offensive zone more often when they have control of the puck. Uh you look at that Coots goal against um Seattle for example. This is one of my only complaints last year of Rick Tocket is I felt that their offense’s own strategy was very very rudimentary. It was too static, not enough movement. It was too much of win the puck back on the forche, pass it back to the point, all all three of your forwards crash the net, and then you’re just spamming point shots, hoping for deflections, tips, rebounds, screens, that kind of thing. Well, when you look at that Coot’s goal against Seattle, which he he deflected, it was Leer Mackey making the low to high pass, but instead of circling to the slot and having all three of your forward just jam-packing the middle of the ice, he he peeled high and you essentially had three players um at the at the point at the blue line and then he was able to attack dynamically downhill and and I like that because it spreads the offensive zone out a little bit. Uh whereas when you have all three of your forwards kind of crashing the net, it’s tougher to get shots through the the slot area in general. You’re not going to you’re not going to have passing options to get many inner slot chances. Uh there was another example in the first period of that Friday game, too, where Basser came up to the right point and it it forced Seattle’s defensive structure to kind of open up a little bit rather than they’re all concentrated in the middle of the ice as as well. Now, if you have three players high, they have to pressure they have to send pressure high, which means you got more space down low to work with. And and so Besser sent a pass down low to I think it was a Vander Kane behind the net, who quickly popped it in in front to Person for a great a scoring chance. So, I really like that extra bit of movement and and encouraging a forward to come high and play off of the defenseman. Did you see the clip in uh Philly of Matt Vishkov working with Yogi SKovsky on passing to the point? No, I didn’t see that. It was It was like Flyers. Okay, I don’t know if it’s because Kucks fans are like retweeting and interacting with the Flyers fans that are upset with it, but all I’ve seen on my Twitter feed is just like Flyers fans being like, “Are we really just going to shoot from the point and send forwards to the net?” Be like, “That was the drill was like pass to the point, go to the net.” or it’s like, is Noah Jolson really gonna be in our top four all season long? These are the these are all the all the tweets I’m seeing. And again, I’m very aware that it’s probably because I have Kucks fans that are putting it on my feed and that’s why I’m seeing it. But, uh, it it it it is true that Adam put hockey so far at least is different than Rick Hockey. And this was a big conversation that we were having in training camp was, okay, great. They’re working on rush offense. How long is it going to last? Because it last about four regular season games last year. And as you astutely pointed out when you had the NHL lineup that was what the most encouraging thing was was that they were still doing it uh with the NHL lineup or is it more encouraging that with kind of a mix in Edmonton mix of the NHL lineup right that they were doing it there and that it was working like it worked against the mighty Oilers the the Oilers with their uh you know pretty close to an NHL lineup. I will say this I will say this about the system stuff. If you’re going to play a style of hockey that’s going to lead to more oddman rushes against, you’re pretty damn happy that you have Thatcher Dempo and Kevin Lincoln back there. Yeah, you need those two performing at their best and giving you consistent top 10 caliber goalending. That is going to be necessary to make this work. And outside of just a third forward high in the offensive zone, you’re also noticing that the defenseman have more license to apply pressure skating forward in a bunch of different areas. Number one, joining the rush. You look at that Derek Forbert goal last night, which was disallowed. It started as a pretty uh unexciting twoon- two sequence where I believe Heedle had the puck, but then it was Forbert sprinting up the ice to join and turning it into a threeon two opportunity. He drives the net and ultimately it was ruled that he pushed Skinner’s pad in into the net, but that’s a great A chance that otherwise wouldn’t have been created um if he hadn’t stepped up. Heronic off the post. Um had a chance in the Seattle game on on Friday. Again, a non Queen Hughes defenseman aggressively sprinting up the ice to to be that um second layer uh threat offensively and even on the pinches, right? Yeah. Even under hockey, the defenseman did pinch, but it’s extra aggressive. I’ve noticed the the raw goal, which by the way, nasty. What a nasty shot by him. and he needed that after pretty quiet start to camp at preseason. It started with an aggressive Heronic pinch keeping a play alive and and Heronic especially was doing that time in time uh timeout. So was DPD. The key to making that work is going to be having your forwards reload to make sure they’re covering for the defenseman. A couple times they did it correctly. Once Sherwood didn’t reload and it led to a twoon one chance back the other way. And if you’re just casually watching, you might look at that and say, “Well, why is Heronic that far up the ice, but you watch the playback, it was absolutely the right play for Heronic to pinch. It’s just on the forward, the F3, to reload and cover for the defenseman.” So, your rotations are going to have to be on point. It’s going to require extra attention to detail from your forwards. Otherwise, you are going to bleed more um rush rush chances and and even just not just in the offensive zone, stepping up to to pinch in the neutral zone as well. They’re really aggressively like you saw plays where DPD was surfing across. I was just going to say I was just going to say DPD every time in the holy I think DPD is going to love this style because it’s just apply vertical pressure. Go hit the guy. Yeah. Go hit the guy that has the puck. Yeah. And and you notice like on on when DPD did that, there was always a forward behind him to cover um to provide support. And what that does is the quicker you’re able to pressure the opponent, the quicker they have to get rid of the puck. And what could have been a controlled entry now becomes a dump in uh that you can go back and hopefully turn into a controlled breakout so you can possess the puck and and have uh play going in the in the other direction. Well said. Very well said. All right. Uh anything else on the games? I want to get to our poll question which is about Leer Mackey. Uh let’s move to the poll question. Let’s get to our poll. Our poll question is a presentation of the daily faceoff survivor pool. It’s officially live and if you think you’ve got the hockey knowledge to go the distance, this one’s for you. It’s a game of elimination strategy and a $2,500 grand prize for the last fan standing. Here’s how it works. You start with two lives each round. You pick one winner from the slate of NHL games. But here’s the twist. You can only use one or use each team twice throughout the entire contest. If you get a pick wrong, that’s one life gone. Lose twice and you’re out. The pool runs until there’s just one person left standing and that winner takes home 2500 bucks. So, are you ready to outlast the rest? Sign up now at dailyfaceoff.com or hit the link in the show notes. May the best fan survive. Uh I am taking part in a daily faceoff fantasy league today and we’re live streaming it. So, I think Daily Faceoff YouTube channel. I was texting with uh Brock from from uh Daily Face Off. I’m excited. I’m drafting another team. They’re going to be stunned when I take Jonathan Leraki as my third forward. Um, okay. John Lack, who was it? Who was it in the chat last week who had commented saying I when you were going off against Leer Mackey that I can’t wait for Leer Mackey to go off and and score the next game and for quads to come on come on the show next time and be saying Leer Mackey for for Calder or something. I don’t remember who it was, so I apologize. Uh because that person deserves a shout out for sure. It’s one of the regulars for sure. One of It was definitely one of the regulars. And I’m thinking in the next 20 seconds they’re going to claim themselves and they’re going to get their shout out. But yes, it wasn’t it wasn’t just that he scored. Okay, it wasn’t just that he scored obviously. It’s that he was doing all the stuff off puck. It was that he took took advantage of the opportunity. That’s what I was saying, you know, in the grand scheme of things. go back and watch the tape. I was pretty measured in my criticism of him. All I said is that it’s disappointing for a guy who scored 19 goals in the AHL last year, a 15th overall pick to come into training camp and just be absolutely quiet once again and not seize the opportunity when he’s given the opportunity to play in the top six. And hey, I’m not saying he listened, but hopefully someone got in his ear and said the same thing that I was saying. Maybe a coach sat him down and said, “Hey, like what are you doing? You got to start seizing the opportunity.” And that’s what he did. It was one preseason game, quads. It was one underwhelming preseason game. Oh, no. Okay, first of all, no, it was two. He was in two preseason games and it was a bad camp before that. And it was a quiet scrimmage. Don’t give me that. Uh, dude, you were we were I I I think we had this conversation after the first preseason game. I think it was two. I’m pretty sure it was after one. But the point being, you don’t freak out after camp and I do one preseason game. That’s the thing. I do. Especially when, not to rehash it, but he’s 21. Even even if he fades now and has to go back to the A, it’s not the end of the world with respect to his long-term development. But also also, all right, this was with the context of Braden Coots standing out, and I all I was saying was that Braden Coots is allowed goes and sees the uh seizes the opportunity. Yeah, but an 18-year-old doing that is rare. It doesn’t happen very often. Yeah, that’s fair. Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. I was probably Look, I’m I’m not saying I was right about Laki, obviously. But I uh Yeah, I just wanted to make sure we gave him gave him his flowers and Yeah, I was wrong. I was wrong. I’ll say it. Okay, I was wrong. I was wrong about Leaki, I think. And Okay, now now let’s go to our poll question. Did I do the read already? Yeah, I did. Okay, our poll question. Uh, will Jonathan Leaki be in the Canucks opening night lineup? 74% say yes, 26% say no. I say absolutely yes. Like and and I hope in the top six. Like I hope they they I hope they’re able to put Connor Garland on the third line and I hope that they’re able to have three really strong lines because of how good Leer Mackey was in these last two games and how good he can continue to be hopefully. So yeah, I’m saying yes. Well, he’s also just their highest ceiling option among all the the players on the bubble who are aspiring to to make this team and especially with Hoglander out. This team needs more offensive drivers. He deserves that opportunity. We’ll see uh if he’s able to carry the momentum of the last couple of preseason games to the games that actually count um once the regular season starts. But at this rate, the the confidence that he’s playing with, he definitely deserves an opportunity to be part of the opening night lineup. Yeah. Yeah. No, of course. Yeah. I absolutely agree with you. And again, two preseason games left to figure out if that’s going to be the case. Uh the first one is on Wednesday and now I can’t remember when the second one this week is. Friday. Friday. Edmonton at Vancouver. Yeah, that’s going to be uh that’s going to be a good one to kind of close out the preseason. So, yep, yep, yep. All right. Uh, beyond our poll question, let’s get to anyone else, which is presented by Pacific Toyota dealers. And the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid, a no compromise approach to electric vehicles that offers the best of both worlds. Drive up to 72 km on battery alone. Seamlessly transition from electric mode to the gas engine for a combined range of 962 km. No sacrifices when it comes to horsepower style with its sleek, low and wide exterior and sophisticated interior. Loaded with tech that’s actually easy to use. Plug in to recharge at home or at one of the over 2,000 public charging stations in BC alone. Now you can lease a 2025 Prius plug-in hybrid SE from $99 weekly at 3.49% APR for 60 months with $3,800 down. And it includes a $3,000 discount. Visit shoptoyota.ca or your local Pacific Toyota dealer today. Uh Dr. Hos asking if I drive a Prius. I do not, but I haven’t been lucky enough to get my hands on one of these. But hey, I will say Priuses look a lot cooler than they used to. Oh, like you see them on the road now and you’re like, since when did Priuses look cool? I literally had this thought a couple times where I pulled up behind a Prius and they say Prius and I was like, oh, Prius. Like, yeah, it’s like the ultimate joke of the mid 2000s. I think Toyota will be okay with us saying this is that Prius is a, you know, not not the coolest looking car, but go look at the car I’m talking about right now. Seriously, Jacob, book a Prius on the show. Get get one. You want me to book a car? I It’s up on screen. We We can see the Prius from our friends. Yeah. Like seriously, that’s a nice That’s a nice looking vehicle. I would love to be driving one of these. Anyways, um Yeah. All right. Uh, anyone else? Let’s get to anyone else. What a sporting weekend it was. Harm, what? Okay, all three of us, I want to hear what was your TV setup. I had Red Zone on my TV, so football. And then I had beginning, which is baseball’s version of Red Zone on my uh on my laptop. And that was what that was kind of my trio. And then obviously Canucks later, but that was my trio during the during the day. And I totally missed the RDER Cup because I watched the first two days of the RDER Cup and the US was so far down I was like, “Oh, this isn’t even a competition anymore.” They made it interesting on the final day, but Europe came back um or not came back. Europe took care of business. They win the RDER Cup. So, I didn’t even watch the Ryder Cup on Sunday, but what a day it was. I’m probably the worst person to ask about this because I don’t watch the NFL. I don’t watch golf. I was keeping up with the scorers uh for the AL East games. You know, Blue Jays. So funny. Your answer is nothing. You were just like Instagram reeling it up. Well, no. I was keeping up with the scorers of of the MLB games because I wanted to see my my Blue Jays clinch the AL East. Um but you really other than that it was an ordinary uh ordinary kind of kind of weekend. Hockey first. I love it. Okay, that’s fair. Jacob, uh I had I I had to do some cleaning around my place. like we we really needed to mop the floors. Had had to do like the deep clean, right? So, I had um I had the Blue Jays game on the radio and I was carrying my speaker around as I was going around my condo and then I had Red Zone on the TV. So, when I was back in the living room, I could watch some football and I was listening to the Blue Jays game as I was uh cleaning my place. So, uh yeah, it was good. There were so many sports, right? The RDER Cup was going on. We I saw a couple comments here about Canada’s women’s rugby team. They were in the final for the women’s rugby world cup. It’s just this is such a fun sports time of year because you get all sorts of random like one-off events like the Rugby World Cup and then you also get baseball, you know, down the stretch into the playoffs. NFL is up, college football’s up. I was watching some of Washington Ohio State over the weekend as well. Like it’s it is my favorite time of year. Yeah, it’s it’s Yeah, I can’t wait. like baseball, playoff baseball starts tomorrow. You got Yankees, Red Sox. There’s not much more you can ask for. All right, give me a Blue Jays Mariners ALCS. It’s It’s Yeah, it’s written in the stars. I I am so hoping for it because uh there’s a good chance I get to go down all expenses paid from work to, you know, do some sixth inning stretch content down in Seattle. So, fingers crossed we get the Jays Mariners ALCS. Also, like I’m a Blue Jays fan. I want the Blue Jays to win. If the Blue Jays were to lose in the ALCS and I have to watch another American League team go to the World Series, I would want that team to be the Mariners. Like I would be able I would I would be able to look at it and say, “You know what? I’m devastated the Jays lost, but I hope the Mariners go out and win their first championship. Anyone but the Yankees.” I always liked the Yankees growing up, but they’ve become so unlikable in recent years. It’s actually crazy. I like Aaron Judge. I like Aaron Judge a lot and and Bellinger. But anyway, um yeah, we’ll do our we’ll do our baseball brackets for uh another show later this week. We got some hockey questions. Let’s get to them. Uh this one, Amber Gilmore, I like this. Can we talk about DPD singing along to Unwritten in the penalty box? Please tell me you saw this harm. I I saw the clip. Yeah. Absolutely awesome. Like we couldn’t love this kid anymore. Just Yeah. That that that would be what I’d do if I was if I was an NHL player. 100%. you would catch me all the time sing along to the uh the audio in the building. I guess the the young kids call it music. But anyway, uh I wanted to mention from the Friday game, I liked what I saw from EP40. I thought it was a solid first preseason game for for him in that line as as a whole. To me, he was decisive and confident in handling the puck. His shot looked heavy. Um he wasn’t double clutching it. that line had some good chances and most importantly I thought the power play as a whole that first unit looked dynamic. I like their movement. I like the fact that players were uh interchanging and you had the one play for example where Hughes ended up on the right flank. Pety was at the point and he and he set Hughes up for back door one-time chance. Um even the the goal they scored um in the third period, it started with with movement, right? Where even though De Brusk is technically the bumper guy on on paper, he and Brock were flip-flopping really the the entire game on the power play and it ended up being Besser in in the bumper, which is a key distinction because Besser’s a right shot, De Bruska is a left. And so when Quinn had the puck up top, having a right shot in the bumper, it opened the play up for the shot pass. Besser redirects it and then it’s to Brusk at the net front for the goal. They’re going to need movement and guys interchanging. I like to see um that kind of stuff even even if Kane ended up in different spots. So you like to see that that movement because it really felt like at times last year the first unit was a little bit too stagnant. Yeah, that was a really encouraging first look. We got this question from K who said, “Given how Hedo’s looked so far, should he retake Kane’s spot on Power Play One, seems like he can do more than just zone entries.” Too soon. Like Power Play One looked great and you just you just named dropped Kane as well. Kane looked great as a part of Power Play One. Far too soon to be talking about it. I think like again, we’re talking preeason. I I said it before and I will say it again, Ka. As soon as power play one goes through a dry spell, the first personnel change is going to be Heedle going on for Kane, I think. Or or maybe Leer Mackey if he plays with this level of confidence. I want to see that shot on the left flank. And there’s another thing like power play two. We don’t talk about them much obviously, but like you’re going to have Heedle there. And another factor of Lemaki cracking this this roster and this lineup is you would really love to have that shot on power play too. You really would. Um, so yeah, I think that’s a really important part to be discussing as well. Uh, where did this go? I had one. Where’d it go? Oh yeah, four Canucks hit waiverss today. Yuri Patera among them. I don’t think anyone’s going to get claimed, but on there today, Joel Leate, Mackenzie McKern, defenseman Jimmy Schultz, and of course our boy Yuri Peter. Uh among the other cuts, they made 17 total cuts to their preseason roster today. Uh Braden Coots is not one of them. Jonathan Leeraki is not one of them. Uh Denil Climovic, Aku Koskamvo, Tai Mueller, Vilmerson, Krill Katzv, Chase Stillman, Henri Ravinskus, and Tai Young have all been assigned to Abbottzford. Um and then yeah, released from PTO’s and assigned to the Abbottzford Canucks. Joe Arnson, Jaden Lee, Chase Waters, Nikolai What? How do you say this guy’s last name? It’s gotten me all camp. Nizovv, what did we say? That’s what I’d guess, but I don’t know for sure. Okay. And then Parker Alos returned to his junior club. So, those were the roster moves today for the Canucks. Um Jim Rutherford was on the 100% hockey podcast and he said an interesting thing. I I found it interesting because it came now. Um he said they would feel more comfortable about their team. Kucks of course more comfortable about their team if they could upgrade at second line center. Um again nothing new but interesting that he says it now. I think I at least I don’t I didn’t find that I I think that’s just obvious. Okay, fair enough. I just thought Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. Maybe I don’t think it nec I I I think what you’re maybe insinuating is that they’re still looking and oh the fact that they’re season’s about to start but I think we all know that they’ve been hunting a center for a while and I I just assumed that they’re going to continue turning over every stone they can to to land an upgrade at uh at center and and obviously it’ll if the team gets off to a good start and some teams fall out of the race pretty quickly. That’s what the organization is probably banking on to help land uh another centerman. Elias Lindholm, bring him home. Bring him home. Okay, last thing for me. Um JT Miller, did you see this today? Scary looking injury at Rangers practice. Dies for a loose puck and then like do you call this a non-cont injury? Like all he did was make contact with the ice and the puck. He extends. He lays out. Did you see the video or No. No, I didn’t. I didn’t get a chance to. So, he extends for a loose puck and he kind of like dives at it and it looks like he gets there, but then he’s super slow to get up. Clearly favoring his leg and then he hobbles off the ice. Like he was on his own power. It wasn’t as bad as Barov where he needs to get helped off with two guys on each arm. He He gets off by himself, but still looked really really bad. Mike Sullivan didn’t have an update. Just said he’s going to be evaluated. That’s a really it hopefully it’s a bullet dodge, but it did not look good. I thought when I saw the video, it did not look good uh for Miller. Hopefully hopefully it’s a bullet dodge. Hopefully it’s nothing. Um obviously that’s an interesting one to pay attention to as Miller who was named captain of the Rangers just recently uh visits the Canucks. What day? Late October? October 28th, I think it was. Where’d it go? Yeah, October 28th, the Rangers visit the Canucks. So hopefully Miller’s there and we have the video of it here. But you see what I mean, right? Harm, like look, like a little slow to get up and um it looked like he tweaked something there for sure. Yeah, it looks like he tweaked something, but hope again hopefully like sometimes you can feel that and then it goes away. Um yeah, hopefully uh hopefully that goes away. And S little Boston says yes, that’s not in contact. contact as if it’s with another person. I wasn’t sure if one of his teammates bumped him uh when he was on the ground like when he extended, but that video would suggest no that that is a total non-cont injury. So hopefully uh hopefully he’s okay. All right. Anything else either of you? I’m good. Beautiful. Let’s get to our about 365 bet of the day. Jacob, how we looking on feud surveys? Uh a little low. We do need some more. It’s in the description on YouTube, on Facebook, on the audio podcast, whether you’re on Apple or Spotify, wherever, in the description. Please fill out the survey. It would be nice to have everything full by tomorrow so that we are good to go for Thursday. No show tomorrow. Uh, but we will. Correct. Yes. No show tomorrow, which is why I want every I want I want you guys tonight to get that survey filled out so that I’m not panicking on Wednesday having to send it out to the to the public on on Twitter. We we we don’t like doing that. Yeah. Tomorrow, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. No show. Uh believe the Canucks practice tomorrow, so we’ll be updating that on kucks army.com, but no show from us. Uh and then we’ll be back Wednesday and then Thursday, Family Feud. So, fill out that damn survey. Let’s get to our bet365 bet of the day. What football game is on tonight? Bengals, Broncos, Jets, Dolphins. O Whoa. All right. Should we just take Jets money line? Do you like Jets moneyline harm? I think so. I think we’re going to do it. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t bet on that. I wouldn’t touch that game with a 20 foot pole. It is going to be a wild game. Both these games look so uninteresting. Can someone explain to me why the Jets have been terrible? Jacob, you want to take this one? For so long. I mean, there’s just so many things. It’s the Jets are just one of those franchises where like whether it’s bad head coaching hires, they they haven’t had a quarterback, they’ve swung and missed with top five picks on multiple quarterbacks. Just for them to go off and be good elsewhere like Sam Darnold was terrible with the Jets and he was really good in Minnesota last year and he’s really good in Seattle now. Um they’re just the team that never seems to get anything right. And uh like the last time they were in the playoffs was like the ear like right around when the Canucks went to the cup final. Like when the Conucks were good and getting good. Uh so like the Jets were getting good in the late 2000s 0809 and then I think it was 1011 they went to back-to-back conference championship games and they have not been in the playoffs since. Um so yeah. Was that when Mark Sanchez was still quarterback? Mark Sanchez was their quarterback. Yeah, he was That’s wild. And he was not good. He was like a bottom half of the league quarterback. The They just had a really good defense and Rex Ryan was at the time a good head coach, but yeah, it just it’s that it’s the franchise that never seems to figure it out. They’re like the Buffalo Sabres, right? Which is insane when you’re a New York team. Yes, it is. Well, even the Giants, the Giants for the last 15 years have either won the Super Bowl or been one of the worst teams in the league and very few years in between. Hey, Jackson Dart that I’m Jackson Dart looks good. But like, yeah, both New York teams are pretty sad franchises. The only difference is the Giants mix in Super Bowls amongst their years of sadness. Well said, Jacob. Well said. All right, so there’s your answer, Arm. Why the Jets suck. We’re taking Jets money line tonight. Plus 125 odds. You can get it at bet 365. They’re playing the Miami Dolphins who also aren’t very good. We’re taking it plus 125. Uh wherever your bet is, it’s never ordinary at bet 365. Download the app and get in on the game. Use the code nation at bet 365. Must be 19 plus play. If you choose to play, please play responsibly. All right, we’ll wrap it up there for my co-host Harlem Bruce, Jacob Bazar. My name is Dave Vali. Thanks so much for this episode of Kucks Conversation. Kucks Conversation is live Monday through Friday, every weekday at 2 PM over on the Kucks Army YouTube channel. Make sure you like, subscribe, and interact in the YouTube live chat every day with us, folks.

Jonathan Lekkerimäki stepped up and tallied a goal and assist over the weekend. Quads and Harm talk about how this impact his ability to make the opening the roster.

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