Patrick Johnston: Is this who Elias Pettersson is now? Will the Canucks be ok when they’re healthy?

Patrick Johnston: Is this who Elias Pettersson is now? Will the Canucks be ok when they’re healthy?

Here’s Patrick Johnston, columnist with the province. Dodge a bullet this week, son. Thank you, Matthew. The entire media operation. He sent us a cease and desist letter. We may no longer call him. Untrue. No, that wasn’t you, right? That wasn’t you. No, that was wrong. That’s what they do at Daily Hive. What? Shade from our two be clear. They don’t You’re gonna get sued for that. Exactly. There’s static amongst the bald heads on this program. Oh. Oh, yeah. What stood out to you in last night’s loss? Oh, you know. Oh, man. It honestly like it was a fun game. It was um ruined. It was like even if you know I mean there was sort of you’re like the Conucks are getting a lot of shots. Are they actually these dangerous? I don’t know. I don’t think so. And that became sort of the line of questioning because then you start discovering that actually by design the Chicago Blocks don’t block shots and they want Spencer Knight to see everything. Um, and which led to a very interesting answer from Madden Foot, which was basically saying, “Our guys didn’t stay the net long enough, and that’s fine.” But anyway, the the heat map disagrees with that though, right? Like you saw the heat map, it is glowing in front of the heat map. Fine. I It’s more Well, no, but it was more the qual like the goalie saw the shots and if the goalie sees the shots, he’s supposed to make the save. Certainly in the way that you know, goalies are taught playing now, right? The whole point and like three wrap rounds. Three wrap rounds are going to glow. But goalies don’t let in wrap rounds anymore. So yeah. Like anyway, listen. The Conucks had a lot. The point is the Conucks had a ton of possession, right? They had a lot of the puck. They were actually doing good things and they pro they should have scored like on the whole given possession. They should have they should have scored and they did. And then they did what JPAT highlighted after the game. 25 goals in the third period this season. half the goals they’ve given up have been in the final frame. And that is a massive massive problem. And I it’s it’s whether it’s fatigue, whether it’s just a lack of execution, lack of preparedness, whatever it is, the third periods are a huge, huge problem for a team that can afford few problems. It sucks. And like this isn’t fun to discuss partly because you know it was actually a fun home game even if they weren’t scoring back and forth. There’s a lot of action. I think you know people go to be entertained and have fun. Obviously they want to see the goal scored and it just they they didn’t have it. They didn’t score and then they lost and that this the sort of feeling of deflation that you felt covering yet another game like this is no fun. Like the people think oh you just you guys are here to rag them and drag them down and yada yada. Oh, believe me, the 2024 Stanley Cup finals were the best hockey coverage experience of my career. The games were fun. There was a lot of, you know, whatever. But like for what we have to deal with, but the playoffs are fun and you don’t get to the playoffs giving up 25 goals, giving up half your goals on the season in the third period. Let’s ask you the Redwoods Golf Course poll question. Will Elias Patterson get his confidence back? I mean, I don’t I I’m not even sure confidence is the question at this point. It’s an acceleration skating fast question. Um ask it because he’s deferring on the the breakaway and the two he’s got more than enough separation on those two plays. You know, like I see a Yeah. Like fair fair other like outside of that I see a player that’s doing lots of good stuff and he’s going to the net and you know he almost that like people missed that rebound chance off the end wall that he that was an incredible save by Knight but no absolutely like the I I just want to by the way while we’re talking about I just want to highlight think I think people didn’t process the the flubbed pass by Kane on the almost breakaway for Person like part of the reason why Pison’s trying to time that out because it’s the end of their shift Yeah, those guys have been on for a minute. Like that was a that was everything has to go right moment. Now the later chance when he deferred and dropped back and like instead of just driving the lane. Yeah. Like that’s the kind of thing that still is there. And is that because he still anxious physically about his knee or whatever it is like that? Absolutely. Will he get those moments back? I’m starting to say I don’t know. Like I don’t know. like I I do see a player that is playing smartly otherwise and I think is doing lots of good things and passing the puck well and um I I but still struggling to kind of find shooting lanes. So is that confidence is that ability I mean I guess if you’re asking me see will he get it back and I have to be negative I’ll be no but I’m not sure confidence is the issue here. Um but yeah if is he going to get it back? He’s certainly not looking like it. If that’s the thing we’re talking about, finding that finding the the way to the the the to the shooting lane, um, right now, given where he’s at, given everything else, I got to say no. My template for that play and and I still think on the Kane one, you still take that shot. In fact, more so because you’re tired, but the the idea should be getting the puck furthest away from your net regardless. Sure. So if you if you fire and you miss, that’s fine. You peel off in your change. Um my biggest template for this, best template for this is he is the eighth highest paid player in the National Hockey League. Yeah. Find me a player on the list that’s a forward that doesn’t take a shot there. And I I defy you to find one. I defy you to find one. Yeah. I think that’s in the end Yeah. I think that’s well put and in the end is is essentially why I’m saying no to this question because it’s been too long like it’s it’s been so long. It is it is rather it’s all you know we’re at almost two seasons now. It is a bit mind-blowing. I clearly whatever happened there physically in 23 24 and he would never talk about he’ll never ever talk about it. There was that fear of well I don’t want to make an excuse and we’re like don’t make an excuse. We’re just trying to understand what’s going on. Yeah. and he will never, you know, he’ll just say, “Nope, just I got to be better and like fair enough.” So, but it’s not has not been there for a long time. The existential question for this year is what is management thinking right now? Um, injuries injuries were an excuse as to why they weren’t putting their best foot forward. I I I was cautioning and I still am, okay, but even when they get healthy, how much better are they? They are better, but how much? And if they’re only eight to nine% better than they were, what is what’s the point in waiting to get healthy here? Um, do they have the timmerity to sell off pieces? They don’t really have pieces that are great to sell off outside of the Kefir Sherwoods of the world, which you know aren’t exactly going to rebuild your organization. Do you find a way to acquire new talent? Like they are so stuck, Patrick, I don’t know. I don’t even from my easy pull pit from my undefeated chair here in our Pacific Toyota studios. I don’t even know what to suggest to them because they are with their roster construction. They’re very stuck right now. Like I don’t Yeah, rebuild. How? What? Who? Hughes. Well, I mean just no no hold on hold on hold on. Yeah, Blake Hughes. Okay, it’s very simple. Okay, the most this season is going to pot and Quinn Hughes is unwilling to sign an extension this summer. Your rebuild piece is Quinn Hughes and he gets you three to four good assets and and that one is really easier said than done right now. You know, like especially at this stage, Matt, you know, if you’re talking 10 months from now, sure. But right now, no, this deadline. Okay. What do they do between now and then? Lose a lot of games. I mean, it’s funny. I I I find myself looking a little bit at well, here I’ve opened up the NHL media site and right now the Global Series banner is there and it’s the National Predators and the Pittsburgh Penguins. And if you think a little bit about how where the Penguins are at at the end of the Rutherford era. Now, the Penguins did not have a lot. They’re they’re they’re still kind of stuck in that window. Can they really I mean they in their heart of hearts they probably Kyle Dubis and his crew probably know that they they they would probably best serve to trade Crosby Malcin tank but those guys are not going anywhere as far as we know. I mean maybe it happens. Maybe this is the year where it happens and that would help them a lot. They don’t have a ton in the system. They’re playing great. Let’s be clear. They’re playing great. They’re punching above their weight. Good for them. But there’s not a t lot of top end guys coming through. Although they’ve done a decent job sort of restocking in general. Now, the reason why the Penguins were in that state was because they were winning winning the Stanley Cup and trying to win the Stanley Cup. The Conucks are far from that. Um, so they’re in a pickle now. Like, if they do do the quote rebuild, which we know ownership will never actually go for, but they may not have a choice because as you said, Quint used is not willing to stay. Um, okay, you can start thinking about some of that and there are things to work with, but there’s no budding future stars in this lineup. I mean, Tomander is playing well. I’m enjoying Tomander, but I think there’s still a long way to go for him to be an out-out out star defenseman. Um, but let’s go look at the injured list. Like, you know, just to to go to Blake’s original question, like who is there available to come back? There’s Neils Hogland. There’s Jonathan Laramaki, right? Like there’s also I suppose Eric Forward to Teddy Bluger, Victor Mancini. Of those five guys, I mean I’m putting Vic Flip Heedle aside because I don’t think he’s going to I mean I hope he comes back but such a question mark. Yeah, right. You can’t. So of those guys, Hogland and Lair Mackey have ability to put the puck in the net. So they make the team a little bit better, right? Like this is a team that the team that does need to score more. They’re minus 10 in goals for and against, right? Like you could survive 50 goals against is not worse in the league. you could you could see that you can squint and say, “Okay, they get those guys back. They get back to even in terms of goals for and against.” You know, that gets you in the direction of being a playoff team, but as I’ve been pointing out, you know, we already starting to go on a countdown where they’re going to have to play like 600 hockey the rest of the way to make the playoffs. So, like that’s not being me saying the sky is falling. It’s just simply the reality. You need to get 95 points and they have 14 points. So, like you’re absolutely right, Blake. what else is there here? And it’s it’s a team that, you know, when the season started and things we you could not expect them to end up with eight, nine guys out injured at one point, right? Like that is that is a a thing that they will be able to say, listen, we had a pile of injuries and it set us behind the eightball right off the top. That said, look at the team they played last night. The Chicago Blackhawks have a superstar talent like Conor Bard has finally found his way. They have a a fantastic firstline center. They have a couple really fun young defenseman. They have a quality goalie, right? But the rest of that lineup is not that spectacular. No. Pre flood. Yeah. The like like the Canucks is not unreasonable to say the Canucks are at least as good as that team. And yet they lost because in the end their 11.6 million number one center is not shooting and scoring enough. Their star defenseman, and I’m not blaming Quinn Hughes on this because I think he’s doing everything he can. It’s just a statement about how badly things are going right now, has one five on five point this season. Like it’s it’s it’s a baffling case. I mean, we talked with this early on in the year that, you know, they got that opening night win against Calgary and it was a win built off everything but Quinn Hughes and that was a good thing. Like, you need the rest of your lineup going and to a degree they kind of had that going. You know, Vander Kane actually I think is playing pretty well and is getting goals and they got a goal from Matu Ratu who has five points and that’s what you need from your third line center. Um, and yet there’s just the top end is not there. Like they’re just not PDS3 goals, right? Like I said, I’ve already said the like Hughes is doing what he can. Um, but the cohesive hole is not there. They are near the bottom in all these shot categories, right? Like they just give up shots. They’re not getting enough shots to counterbalance against that. You know, there is a reason why, as much as people may malign his tenure, there is a reason why Rick Tocket was so focused on defense because the overall challenge here, it’s a lot easier to prevent goals than it is to score goals. And if you focus on preventing goals, you’re going to give yourself a fighting chance. And I, you know, one of the clear flaws so far to the Adam foot game is that I think he lets his guys play too loose. It’s not that they’re making lots of mistakes, but they’re trying to play a flowing game and they don’t have the talent, the offensive talent to make the flowing game work. Um, and certainly not without the likes of Hogland. They need Leer Mackey to hit. Like there’s just no doubt when he comes back, they need him to be an impactful player because there’s just not enough there. I I I mostly like Brock Brock Besser’s brought to the game, but you know, Brock Besser is you can’t have him being the only guy scoring. You need other guys scoring. and Connor Garland’s playing fun and he’s a fine player, but you know, you’re not getting goals from him. You’re not getting goals from Jake De Brusk. Jake De Brusk, um, you know, I think Jake De Brusk, he’s a he’s a lovely guy, great guy to talk to. He cares and he knows how badly he’s playing. Like he had a little bit of an exchange postgame with some of couple of us and and you know, you can see in his face how bad he feels. He looks at what’s going on. He is not contributing. And so if this team is gonna go anywhere, all those things have to do better. Like there’s just fundamentally all the guys that are there to score need to score more with perhaps the exception of Brockmaster because he is scoring like he won, you know, the winning goal on Tuesday night, right? He’s not going to score every night, but you need more from so many more guys on offense and that is a huge problem right now. And I don’t know if you can do that with the way, you know, like I said, counterbalance against the struggles they’re having defensively. They’re just giving up too many goals. even if they’re not giving up too many goals in relative comparison to the rest of the league. It’s just there’s just it’s just a a incoherent sort of way of playing right now and that’s just not going to work. Were they too hasty in giving Lincoln in that extension last year? Maybe. I mean, they were in a bind. Like I weren’t No, they weren’t they weren’t in a bind. They were in a bind when they brought him here. They were not in a bind when they gave him the extension. They chose to give him an extension. They didn’t know what Demco was yet. They didn’t know what Demco was going to be. They didn’t know what Demco was going to be. So, so locking locking Lankin in made sense. Did it make sense at the number they did? Did they have to at the number they did? I mean, I suppose you could say that that was a payback for him simply saying, “Yes, I will take far less than I’m worth for this season.” And they were just paying him back for what they couldn’t pay up this last season. Anyway, Kevin Lankin in like sitting there last night and you know the player grades and thinking about this the first three goals in fact all four goals if you will but goal one back door play nobody covering anybody in the back door goal two Tyler Batusi doing the exact same thing again on a power play nobody cover Tyler goal three which is is that that’s IA right goal mouth scramble Like Kevin Lankin is doing everything he can. He’s literally spled out, arms reaching out to try to stop Ilia Mcca from scoring. Goal four, Tyler Petusi cross ice, cross seam pass. Like maybe he makes a glorious Kirk Mlan style save there. Sure, but that’s they didn’t lose. The loss was had nothing to do with Kevin L. It had to do with defensive miscues and you know Tyler Myers having his worst game of the season. I I’m a very pro Tyler Myers person. I think he’s had a fantastic season given everything. Uh, and but like he like the rest of his mates could not keep up with the likes of Connor Bard. Bard was fantastic. I mean the the way he from the get-go had people chasing him. Um, T Myers got lucky that he had called for a tripping penalty early in the game. There was a there was a hooking hook by Atu Ratu in the first period that got he got away with. Like Bard was causing chaos and the Cucks just couldn’t react and eventually it all came home to roost in the third period. Hot hot hot take. Derek Forbert puts all the pieces into the right position on Kucks D. I think he or at least the PK. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. I I think you know like every time we’ve seen him play I’ve been I’m like this is a player that you I can see why you like. Problem is you can’t stay healthy. Can’t stay healthy. He would be a massive upgrade. Listen, he’s a massive upgrade over Pio Joseph and like I think Junior Patterson has not been very good this year and and Forbort clearly would be an upgrade over him. So yes, does he make a difference? Yes, but he’s not here and we don’t know when he’s back. He’s on LTIR. Like he’s not back for ages with whatever ailment is a, you know, he’s dealing with. So I I it’s not worth it to talk about right now. This is who they have. this is what they have and and in similar terms to needing more on offense, there is a couple defenseman they just need a lot more from right now. Last question from me. Uh is this game different if Blazil doesn’t challenge that Okconor goal? And did you understand the ruling on that challenge? Oh yeah. No, I mean the the the contact was obvious. I mean the moment we saw it, we’re like I mean I looked over at Woodley and he just started shaking his head. He’s like there’s no way that’s standing up right. like the the the one the the one but he reestablishes outside the crease like the puck actually takes several seconds after the contact before he’s out of his position to begin I get what you’re saying but he’s already out of his position to begin with before the puck gets shoveled under him. Yeah. Right. Like he’s already swimming. He’s swimming from the start. The call last week on Mackenzie. I mean he’s down already. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I didn’t like last week’s this one made a little bit more sense. It certainly makes more sense to me. But um it just there’s you what I don’t like is he just throws his arms there. He’s you know it’s almost like Justin Dean in center field with the ball lodged. You know he’s he just sort of quits on the play because oh I was bumped. Yeah. But that’s you know in the end that’s what that’s that’s the if you get bumped I mean almost every time you get bumped it’s not going to be a goal. Now, that’s why in the end the Mckan uh or sorry, the Kane goal got pulled back on the McKron contact. It was it was it was the slightest bit of contact. It was absurd, but there was contact. And that’s almost every time the NHL will say there was contact. Goalie goalie was not allowed to play his position. Yeah. I I just wonder like, you know, how much license does the goalender have? Like if the goalender goes, “Oh, I’m bumped.” And just sits there like a dead fish for, you know, 5 10 seconds. Like are they going to give him that benefit of the doubt as well? Well, it probably depends. It probably depends on Does the game change otherwise if the Canucks have a one- nothing lead there. Do do you see a Yeah, sure. I maybe Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, like the Blackhawks were playing well, right? Like it was a like I said, it was a good hockey game because both teams were playing well and creating chances. Um the Conucks needed to find a way to get more than, you know, a non-goal in those first two periods. They had a bazillion shots and a ton which meant they had a ton of possession like like they they at a certain level they were kind of being sucked in by the Blackhawks trap like the Blackhawks wanted the wanted these shots. Shoot from here, shoot from here, shoot from here. There’s your shooting lane and the Conucks probably their I mean it’s right you look at the heat map and there were lots of opportunities on top of the crease but if you actually thought about the game and what those how those shots added up there was not a lot of kind of pre-shot movement there was not a lot of screens there was not a lot of difficulty other than O’ Conor’s goal or non-goal you know there wasn’t a lot of chaos in front of in near night it was something that and that that was something that I got Adam foot to admit last night like he just said in the end that that we we didn’t anchor long enough in front. We weren’t staying in front long enough. You know, we were there but then u and I really think that was because I mean they would you know I tried to ask Queen about it but I really think because of the fact that the that the Blackhawks allow you to see the goalie. I think that threw the Conucks off. I think they they didn’t they were almost perhaps quicker to shoot or what have you. But anyway, let me ask you this. after this start, are they more or less likely to pay a steep price for a legitimate second line center? Do they look at this and go, “We’re just too far away,” or do they say, “We need this now. More than ever, we need to I mean, I think what we know about Jim Rutherford and and certainly, you know, I mean, he’s his view of it all is that you are constantly trying to make your team better, right? So, as he would say, if there’s a trade that makes sense, you know, there is an opportunity to add a second line center and and a center who will make your team better, I I would not be shocked for it, even even as you know, thin and in their in their trade chips bag they might be. Have a good week. We’ll catch up next Thursday. Okay, take care, guys.

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