Elliotte Friedman on David Kampf, review of the job Adam Foote has done so far and more

Elliotte Friedman on David Kampf, review of the job Adam Foote has done so far and more

Donnie and Dolly, the team is supported by abblections.ca. Closing your business, we can help. [Music] It is Monday and all of our guests today, including Elliot Freriedman standing by or at least in a few moments. Sponsored by Bassant Motors. Bassant is the home of No Tax November. Let Bant pay that pesky GST on your next vehicle purchase with them. Stop by their dealership. It’s located at 16315 Fraser Highway in Suriri or check them out online at Bassan Motors. Basmo.com. We’re just waiting on Elliot. We got him yet, Ryan. No. Okay. So, we we waited on him. In the meantime, in the wake of the Conucks 6-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Tampa Bay uh yesterday, the Conucks play again today. Two games in two uh nights. And uh Rick, we have some information in case you were uh not watching earlier or listening earlier on the Conucks starting goalending situation tonight. All right. Uh don’t be surprised, Donnie, if uh Yuri Patera plays in the NHL tonight for the first time in three years. Um, somebody saw him at the practice rank in Florida this morning with the goalie coach, Marco, uh, Tronius. Trinius. Yeah, Trinius. So, uh, also known as just Marco, much like Marco is a great name. I had a buddy back in the 80s, Marco Dent. Yeah, I’m serious. Marco was a great name. Just listen tonight. Uh, don’t be surprised. And also, uh, Garland tweaked something in that fight yesterday in Tampa, uh, Tampa Bay. Don’t be surprised if he takes a rest tonight. Okay, Elliot’s good. Okay, Elliot Freeman joins us now. Elliot’s also a great name. Oh, great. Right. Right up there with Marco. Elliot Freeman joins us uh now from Hockey Night in Canada and the 32 uh Thoughts podcast. Elliot, thanks for doing this, sir. How are you? Hey, uh I heard Rick, you were giving out medical information on me earlier on. Yeah, you you had a foot injury a while back. Yeah, it was uh it was bad. Like I used to have I used to have a gout. I manage it much better now. But one thing I I I was doing like some working out and I injured my toll. Oh, right. And I didn’t realize this that uh like if you trauma can aggravate it and man it kills. So that was that day. Yes. Yeah. All right. The gouts gouts under control. Bottom. It is under control again. Yes. It is under control. Good to hear. Hey, uh tough transition, but what are the Conucks getting in David Kemp, former Leaf? Um well, Kemp is, you know, he’s not much of an offensive threat, uh to say the least. Um you know, it’s funny like, you know, I saw Patrick Aline calling him a two-way center and I think that uh basically that’s a euphemism for a guy who can defend and he can defend. Um you know, he is a a good checker. Um, and he is a positionally sound player. He’s not going to get you a lot of offense. You know, simply what happened here was, and I, and honestly, Don, you can never blame players for this. He got a salary that was too big for what his value is. And he like, what’s he supposed to do? Say no? He gets offered $10 million over four years. He’s not going to say no. Of course, he’s going to take the deal. He’s going to sign the deal. But then all of a sudden, I think Toronto had a lot of very similar players. They had a cap crunch. They had a roster crunch and he was kind of the victim. I don’t know that he was a huge stylistic fit with Craig Barub, but you know, the one thing he can do is he can check, he can defend, he can kill penalties, he’s not going to get a lot of points, but he is an NHL player. And you know, he went down to the American. It’s kind of weird now because you know, Don the Matthews is hurt now. Nick W’s hurt now. he won’t play tomorrow. Like their centers tomorrow night are going to be Tavvaris, Max Doli, Steven Lorent, and Jacob Quinland playing his second career NHL game. So all of a sudden, you know, camp, if he was there, he’d probably be playing right now. But he was he was unhappy in the American Hockey League. He didn’t want to be there. And I’ll tell you too, Don, one of the reasons he didn’t want to be there was because he wants to play in the Olympics. and he was concerned if he spent the whole year in the American Hockey League, it might cost him an Olympic birth. So, um I he’s going to be motivated uh to be in the NHL. He’s going to be motivated to get in a fresh start. He’s going to motivated to play in the Olympics. And like I said, he’s not going to get a ton of points for you, but he can check and he can defend. Yeah. And of course, he would be representing the Czech Republic. Uh the Canucks beat Tampa Bay on Sunday. They come back to do that with five third period goals, 6-2. the final. They’re a resilient 99 and and two. So outside of Vancouver, uh what’s the early word on the job Adam foot is doing in his first year as Kucks head coach? You you know Ryan, I think this I I always look to see is a team playing like is a team playing hard and you know we can take a look at the Conucks roster and we can take a look at the prognosis and everybody can disagree about which way they think the Conucks can go. One thing that you cannot argue about is that this team plays hard. And I I think that to me that’s one of the things. What do coaches control? I think coaches control the way you play. And coaches control, do they have their players ready to play? And you’re going to have stinkers. You’re going to have bad games. But generally, I think we’ve seen a lot of games where, you know, like where you like the game in St. Louis, right? I I everybody thought I think that the Conucks were going to get killed that night. They won. Uh the game in Carolina when Quinn Hughes couldn’t play right before the game. I think people thought they were going to get stampeded and they took it to overtime. That one last night where they were down two nothing. Um you know, I was a bit surprised by that one because I wondered how much Tampa would have left after that emotional game against Florida on Friday and or on Saturday the day before. And when they got that lead, I I was surprised, but then I don’t know what just happened. Like Vancouver pummeled them. Um I I just look at Vancouver and I see a team that plays hard. And I think that’s a that’s something that says a lot about the players. And I think it also says something about the coach because it’s clear that he has them ready to go most nights. And that record 99 N and N as you said Don I don’t know if that is a record so much of their ability or the f or the effort they put into a lot of these games Elliot uh Adrien Kempe big contract with the Kings yesterday who’s left for July 1st Elliot who’s left I mean Alex talking or Tammy Paneran and and Schmaltz Schmaltz should do and Nick Schmaltz Nick Schmaltz is another one yes like He’s he’s absolutely another one. Um, you know, just, you know, it’s funny like somebody said to me, “It gets worse and worse for you on July 1st.” Wow. And and I said, “You know what? Maybe I’ll take vacation this year on June 30th so I don’t have to work that one.” But look, I I think Schmaltz, I don’t know. I think a lot of people seem to believe that he’s going to test the market. It can always change. Paneran uh right now the issue there seems to be um term um and also the number uh you know the Rangers asked him to take a Copitar like deal this year or consider it that didn’t happen you know tuck to me um that’s almost as much about you know where’s Buffalo going as much as anything else you know how does the player feel about where the organization is going but suddenly those are I I would agree with you the three biggest names out there. No question. Hey, uh the Maple Leafs picked up Troy Ster, Richmond kid on waiverss. They’re 15th in the Eastern Conference. What’s going on, Elliot? One and five on the road. Uh what do you see happening in to I think they’re really leaky, Rick. Like they they don’t defend very well. Um they they’ve never been a great defensive team. last year their goalending duo Stallers and uh Wool on close in shots like Slot or Inner, they were top five in the league. Top two in one of those numbers, top five in the other. When I checked earlier this week, they were 31st and 25th. So saves that they were getting last year, they’re not getting this year. And that’s not all on goalending, Rick. That’s also just the fact that um they give up a lot of good chances. like they’ve had some games this year where they just the the quality of chances. They had a Carolina game last Sunday where I think they had like four breakaways in a row. Um they had a really good defensive period on Thursday at home against LA. They were up two nothing after one. But they’re just not wired to play that way and they lost the game. And cross ice passes happen a lot. Um you know, I definitely think the whole Marner thing, uh uh Rick, you know, he did a lot for them. He was a 100point guy. He carried the puck puck. He was a top penalty killer. Um, you know, and also I think he was a big he was a big personality in the room. He was a lot of their social convenor. So I I think they’re really missing him on and off the ice. And uh, you know, right now they’re really banged up. They’re really hurt. And you know, I’ll say this about Vancouver. We talked about it a few minutes ago. I think the Canucks have been more than the sum of their parts a lot this year. Toronto has not been like that. They have not been more than the sum of their parts and that’s a big problem for them. Jack Hughes finger surgery. Something happened at Chicago Cut restaurant in in the Windy City out for two months at least. So what are you hearing Elliot? Any chance he’s going to be available or any chance he’ll miss the Olympics? Not right now at this point in time. Um, like they said, basically he they said that he’ll be re-evaluated in six weeks, Don. So, and whatever injury he has there, they have to see how it heals after the surgery. Um, when I first heard about it on Friday morning and I was working on it, Don, there were people who really thought he was going to be out for the Olympics for sure. Wow. Now, the way it works now and we’re not at that point. So, the news was actually better than I think uh New Jersey and Hughes were expecting. So, they were happy about that. Um, you know, the way it works is the you have to submit your team on new by New Year’s Eve. I think Canada and the USA are planning on doing it July f or January 1st unless that changes. Um, so what you can do is you can name someone and then basically you can change them right up until you go to the Olympics. So, if Hughes is going to be on this team and he was off to a dynamite start, I think Don, they name him and if they have to switch him, they’ll switch him. I I think that’s the most likely scenario here. Um, you know, I was I was joking today on the pod, like when I was looking into it, somebody said to me that from what I understand about you and the guys at Hockey Night in Canada, it’s the kind of thing that would happen when you guys go out. So, I don’t think there was anything nefarious here. I think there was just um you know just something unfortunately fluky that happened while people were out celebrating. Elliot, by the way guys I I don’t I don’t also John Beecher on waiverss today. I’m curious to see if Montreal looks at him at all or anything like that because they need centers. They got injuries. But also, I I don’t think even though you guys got camp, I don’t think that stops Vancouver’s search for a center, which we all know is a hard thing to find. Yeah. The ongoing search for a center. By the way, I’m looking up this one of these words I’ve heard all my life. Gout. I’m looking it up. That’s take care of yourself. That’s serious stuff. Well, no. Like, you know what? I I I changed a lot of my diet and lifestyle a couple years ago. Um, so and it’s very hereditary too. Like some of it is some but you know but some of it is diet and I’ve really worked on that. Uh, but my father had it. So when I first got it like the the first thing my doctor asked me was, “Is there anybody else in your family that has it and my my dad and they’re like, “Oh, you’re doomed now.” So you you have to be really smart about these kinds of things. And I’ll tell you honestly, uh, Don, like I’ve had injuries before. Nothing hurts like this hurts. No, it’s a killer. Just just looking it up. I I I feel for you, buddy. All right, we’ll talk to you in a couple of weeks, Elliot. Outstanding as always. All right, guys. Take care.

Hockey Night in Canada Insider Elliotte Friedman joined the guys and talked about what the Canucks are adding in David Kampf and the review of the job Adam Foote has done as Canucks Head Coach.