Thomas Drance on the 32nd place Vancouver Canucks

Thomas Drance on the 32nd place Vancouver Canucks

Donnie and Dolly. The team is supported by abblections.ca. Closing your business. We can help. [Music] Oh, did that go in the air? See, you got to tell me when the mic goes on. Well, when the music starts playing. No, but you got you don’t turn my mic on until I talk. Did that go in the air? People just got a glimpse of what Dolly Well does a lot. hum. Was that a Christmas song? I don’t know what it was. I hum Christmas songs. I know you do. You do. 12 months a year you hum Christmas songs. I love Christmas. It’s quite impressive. I could listen to Christmas songs all day. Friday and all of our guests today brought to you by Pastime Sports and Games. More on them a little bit later on in the show. Canucks waking up this morning and based on points. I’m going to do this so Thomas doesn’t have to scream about it. Okay. I don’t want to hear it. I I really don’t want to hear it. I’m serious. Here’s what I a little Ricky did in the 80s. We didn’t talk about percentage. We looked in the standings in the Vancouver Province in the Sun and we looked where the Canucks were in the Smite division. Yeah. And no idiots talked about, but we have idiots now that talk about point percentage. It’s just the standings. Here they are. The Conucks are 32. They’re looking up at 31 teams. That’s the bottom line. So based on points, as Rick said, they’re 32nd. Points percentage, they are a whopping 31st. Yeah. Oh, what a big story. Oh god. Thomas Dance now joining us from Sportset 650 and the Athletic. Thomas, you’re one of those guys yelling about points percentage. I know you don’t want to tap the sign, as you say. Well, I I didn’t know. I mean, I didn’t know that rate stats and percentages were woke uh until just this moment. Um I look, I mean, the Conucks are at the bottom of the NHL standings. That’s true. They are not the worst team in the NHL, right? like they don’t have first waiver priority this morning. Point percentage, it’s the best way to discuss where teams sit in season when games played are unequal and we should go with it. So, okay, 32nd, 31st, whatever one you want to subscribe to. What is the main reason why they are at that point right now? Well, they’ve been outshot by 125 at five on five. I mean, that’s that’s what you need to know. Like the How many games have they played? They’re being outshot by five per game. Five on five, right? I mean, they’ve played 26 27 games. I mean, it’s that’s it. Like, if you’re getting buried to that extent, you need superstar level goalending to overcome it. Uh, or you need to shoot the lights out and you need lights out special teams. And the Conucks, you know, have a good power play, but a but a leaky penalty kill. Uh, their goalending on the season, you know, they’re like 25th in the NHL in save percentage. Um, and they’re only 16th in shoot in conversion rate. So that that’s it. I mean, they’re getting buried territorially. Uh, they’ve fallen since the Heat injury be behind below a baseline level of functionality at center. Uh, their star players aren’t performing like superstar players. Uh, you know, that they don’t have enough depth and they’re getting buried on the shot counter every game. Like it’s pretty pretty easy to see. I guess the only thing I’d add here is there’s no signs of stuff that are isn’t sustainable, right? Like if this team’s going to get back on track and climb up the standings or ruin their draft lottery odds depending on on how uh enthusiastic you are about tanking. Um like they’re going to have to show us a level of form that you know through their first handful 27 games um we haven’t seen. that they’re going to have to play at a level that we haven’t seen any evidence that they’re capable of playing at if they’re going to rise up the standings here. Like they’re they are where they’re at and they kind of deserve to be based off of, you know, what the underlying data tells us. Rick and I debated this in the first segment and look at you can’t really argue that I think they are right up there if not at the top for man games lost so far due to injury. But how much how top five? Yeah. So, how how much can you uh how okay would you be if Rutherford had a press conference today and referenced that as a main reason for why they were 32? Yeah, it’s not true. It’s not true. Like that’s that’s wrong. Um in my opinion, the you know there are some teams that have been more injured than them. uh they definitely have had a above average rate of injuries over the course of the season. But among those teams that have been more impacted by injuries, especially when you look at the cap hit of those players impacted, you’re talking about the Vegas Golden Knights who are well ahead of them in the standings. You’re talking about the Tampa Bay Lightning who are well ahead of them in the standings. I mean, I don’t know if you guys are watching any Tampa Bay Lightning games, but I I mean like th those defenders on the back end, none of them are their bigname guys, right? Like they’ve been without CERN, they’ve been without Hedmond, they’ve been without Mcdana, you know, it’s like I mean they had an awesome shift in the first period against Pittsburgh last night and it was a dastu JJ Moser cooking the Penguins shift that like you know and then like that’s their top pair of guys. I mean, you know, and then uh and like go down the list the New Jersey Devils hanging on without Jack Hughes, right? Like the Conucks don’t have a player of Jack Hughes’s caliber out of the lineup. Uh, Vegas has spent long stretches without William Carlson, their 2C. Um, Mark Stone, Aiden Hill. I mean, honestly, they’re they’re one of the five teams most impacted by injuries this season. So, they’ve definitely dealt with their fair share of bad injury luck. But teams that have dealt with more are some of the best teams in the league. Um, you know, that the injuries are context for what we’ve seen. They’re not an explanation for it, if that makes sense, right? Uh good teams overcome injuries, right? Uh if the Canucks weren’t as injured as they were, you know, given what we’ve seen this season, maybe they’d be 25th, maybe they’d be 26th in the NHL by point percentage, but they wouldn’t be, you know, uh having a totally different season in which we’re talking about them completely differently. Um you know, that’s that’s how I see it anyway. It’s context, not an explanation. So, where now 32nd? Um, you know, if they stay 30, 31, 32 all year, you know, I don’t think Quinn Hughes is going to want to stick around. Uh, what now? Do they finally admit that they might need to rebuild? Like, where do you go from here? Uh, yeah. So, where do they go from here? Um, that’s a big question. Where do I think they should go? We all know, right? So, I won’t get into it. Where does the organization actually go? I I you know I I mean it there have been other moments where it felt very obvious that this team needed to pull the chute that this team needed to you know start to look further ahead uh rep prioritize away from sort of the win now desperation that has defined the last 13 years of Kucks history and begin to sort of make a strategic plan to to build the next great Vancouver Conucks team. Um, you know, I like one thing that we’ve seen in the past, Rick, right, is the reaction of the Vancouver crowd in the building, right? Has often shaped what happens next, right? I mean, that’s that’s what we saw in 2021, right? December 2021, uh, four years ago leading to Jim Rutherford becoming president. That was December 9th, 2021. So, that was four years ago, uh, almost today. Almost to the day. Yeah. Um, obviously the Fire Gillis chance, right, toward the end of that 20 uh 2014 season, right? That that that was the end, like it was the next day. So, you know, I I think ultimately like how long will this organization tolerate this? I think a lot of that’s going to come down to the appetite of the fans and how that’s expressed. That’s what history tells us about this organization’s track record. Um, and, you know, I guess we go from there. I mean, uh, it’s frankly a little bit surprising, I think, right, given what we expected two weeks ago when we heard that the team had, you know, had those internal meetings and was going to consider selling veterans that there hasn’t been any sort of more more material shakeup with the players involved. Um but yeah, so I I mean honestly we I think we are in all bets are off territory in terms of how the Canucks organizationally will react to this and and how much more tolerance they have for this level of ineptitude. Well, it’s quiet on Sherwood like I checked in last night. Very quiet. Uh and the Conucks are not in a rush to make a a big trade. They’re going to obviously they’re monitoring what teams are thinking of their players and it’s a due process and there’s no uh deadline in the next week or two to trade all these guys, but they’re doing their due diligence. Uh back to Quinn Hughes. Uh you know, I thought he was great in his uh uh postpractice news conference yesterday talking about, yeah, he gets frustrated. He’s an elite athlete. They don’t uh Thomas, they don’t like to lose, they like to win. He wants to win. He hasn’t done a lot of winning in Vancouver. Um, how important is the stretch down here for his future? I mean, you know, I don’t know what’s going on between Quinn Hughes’s ears. Um, he did do an excellent job yesterday. He is a well spoken guy. He’s a smart guy, right? I mean, he’s a very, very bright human being. And I mean, you like, are you asking me if the Conucks win 20 of their next 25 games and are battling again to to just make the playoffs to just sneak in? Like, do do you think that’s going to convince a really smart guy that this organization’s on the right track, Rick? Yeah, that’s what I mean, though. I mean, how are they going to get out of this mess and keep they because if they stay at 30 3132, he’s gone. I mean, I I think you’ve got to have a vision for what’s next and you’ve got to explain it to him and take your best shot and you’ve got to put the organization first, not Quinn Hughes first, just to do the pick me thing. I think you’ve got to have a vision for how this gets better and if he wants to sign up for it, great. Like, but that’s that’s what you have to do. That’s that’s how this works now. Um, you know, I don’t think you can adjust your overall organizational plans um or or sort of pretend that you don’t live in a reality in which this team has no path, right, without uh years of disciplined accumulation of elite talent to to rise back up the standings and have a chance against teams like the Colorado Avalanche uh just because Quinn Hughes signs, right? Like keeping Quinn Hughes would be awesome. He’s he’s the best defender in franchise history, but keeping Quinn Hughes itself alone is insufficient. You’ll you’ll just end up in the same spot we’ve been where you have one of the best defenders in the game who’s insufficiently supported for that to matter year over year, right? So, what does this mean for Quinn Hughes? I mean, you know, I don’t know. Uh I think he’s a really bright human being. I think he’s a really smart hockey player. I think he’s an enormously talented hockey player, obviously, but I also think he’s a really smart hockey brain. like he knows what’s going on. Um he and he’s going to have options. And so, you know, I think you try and keep him. I think you explain to him a vision of what this looks like if you’re able to sign Quinn Hughes up. But I also think you have to know bone deep that like, you know, the the sort of dead cat bounce um the sort of dead cat bounce down the stretch here that gets the Canucks like back into the mix for battling for a playoff spot like probably isn’t going to be enough to convince him anyway. And also whether he stays or not, um what’s coming and what’s necessary is going to be required, right? Like this this team’s still going to need probably to to get a top five pick to get a top three pick this year. They’re probably going to need another one the year after. And honestly, it might be another year beyond that before you’re uh, you know, set with the sort of baseline level of star talent required to to win a Stanley Cup to to, you know, deliver on the sorts of ambitions that a super competitive guy like Quinn Hughes almost certainly has for himself over the course of his career. Like at this point, it’s not like if you lose Quinn Hughes, right, you’re you’re in a rebuild. It’s like you’ve got to rebuild and that’s something you have to explain in trying to keep Quinn Hughes. Like these two things are not sort of diametrically opposed to one another. They they exist in on parallel tracks. They’re both true. You want to try and keep Quinn Hughes, but you’re also still going to need to look to the future in terms of your team building strategy because this team’s not close right now. The standings reflect it. What we’re seeing every night reflects it. Uh the way their games are going reflect it. The fact that they’re buried territorially every night reflects it. It’s time to just accept that, right? Surely, right? You hope so, right? I would think so. I mean, come on. Like, I don’t know. What’s What’s the argument for keeping Quinn Hughes and then being a contender next year? I mean, well, that’s the thing. Like even if you if you if you add Gavin McKenna to this group, if he’s first or whatever and Hughes sticks around, I mean, are are they what are they are they that like are they that much better really? I mean like that that to your point about adding these assets year-over-year building blocks like it can’t be two guys and then a bunch of stuff. See if Grandland’s esque. Yeah. I mean, I I’d also just like urge everybody like the the gulf between Colorado and everybody else right now is massive. Yeah. Right. I mean, there’s four or five great teams in this league and then there’s Colorado, you know, and then and then there’s, by the way, like 20 other teams and then there’s Vancouver, you know? I mean, we we just need to be real here about what we’re talking about, right? The the the process to turn things around in Vancouver is a multi-year one. Like, that’s that’s readily apparent. And you know, keeping Quinn Hughes would be amazing because he’s super fun to watch. I’ve enjoyed covering him. I’ve enjoyed watching him every night. Um, but I also think we have to be cleareyed about what that means. It’s it’s insufficient to to sort of continue to deliver a contender to keep Quinn Hughes. Like more more is going to need to be done. You’re going to need to support him with the sort of talent that that he’s got a shot if he ends up, you know, in a playoff series against McDavid or McKinnon. And you know that’s years away. Like that’s just the truth. Great stuff today, Thomas. As usual, we will continue to talk about the bright and sunny Vancouver Conucks as the weeks go on and the virtues of point percentage. Absolutely. Absolutely. A weekly education with Thomas Strand. Thanks, Tom. Appreciate it. Cheers. Hello.

Thomas Drance from The Athletic joined the guys and shared his thoughts on the Canucks dropping to 32nd in the league standings today based on points.