RINK WIDE POST-GAME: Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks | Game #25 – Nov. 28, 2025

RINK WIDE POST-GAME: Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks | Game #25 – Nov. 28, 2025

A power outage for the power play as the Canucks fall 3-2 to the Sharks in San Jose. We’re breaking it down now on Ringwide Vancouver. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] And we welcome you inside the Pacific Toyota dealers studios. Visit shoptoyota.ca or your local Pacific Toyota dealer today. Jeff Patterson along with Harmon Dial of the Athletic and Canucks convo as we come to you on this Friday matinea. An early start for the Canucks and the Sharks and a whole bunch of teams around the National Hockey League on Black Friday. More like black and white Friday with the officials playing a huge role in this hockey game. Nobody pays to see the guys in stripes, but they felt like they were the stars of this show. Certainly a talking point as is the Canucks power play which has been redot. It’s been hard to criticize the Conucks power play of late horn but boy you get that many opportunities especially against a team like San Jose, you got to find a way. Absolutely. And it’s frustrating because at five on five, the Conucks were controlling play well. I thought they spent a lot of their shifts in the offensive zone. They outshot San Jose at five on five. They out chance them. They had about a 2/3 share control of expected goals. But then the officials are calling a ton of penalties on both sides and it means your five on five performance isn’t going to matter as much compared to whether you can lock things down and execute on the special teams. And it’s not just the power play, but also the penalty kill again, surrendering lots of chances, giving up multiple goals that set them behind the eightball. And then the power play, it felt as if it got progressively worse throughout the game. I think through through the first two or three opportunities, demand advantage actually created chances in bunches. They looked dangerous. They spent a lot of time set up in their formation. weren’t able to convert early on with their first two or three opportunities. And then as we got to the third period power plays, it really seemed as if they lost uh some of the danger element that they actually kind of had in some of the some of their earlier uh power play opportunities. Uh if you want to know, officially they’ve got the Conucks at 0 for9 with the man advantage. We’ll see if they reconcile all of that. All kinds of penalties there uh in the final two seconds of the hockey game. It felt like everybody was getting sent off the scrum. Uh Elias Patterson was the target and uh it was both Barkley Goodro and and Tai Deandria. Uh it was good to see Kefir Sherwood and Brock Besser step in there and stick up for a teammate. Uh that’s been a question about this hockey club at times in the past. Uh anyways, uh yeah, Garrett Rank was one of the officials. The other uh we should get their names out there. We don’t talk about the officials a lot. Riley Bryce, one of the youngest officials in the National Hockey League, a former American Hockey League player not that long ago. Uh, but it seemed like Garrett Rank was the guy that he was the senior official and he seemed to be uh drawing the eye of Quinn Hughes and others. And again, I I think you have to give Quinn Hughes some latitude. He’s a captain. He’s a superstar in this league. And if he’s got some choice words for an official at some point as they skate up ice, he thinks he was, you know, on the wrong end of a mis call. You’re an official, you got to have a thicker skin than that. And I I just think again people aren’t there to see this the guys in stripes making call after call after call and that seemed to sort of set the tone for this game. That happened in the second period. Uh put the Canucks down and then Marcus Person takes the penalty. Now all of a sudden they’re down two men. They couldn’t kill it off and that was one of the turning points in this hockey game. Sharks officially go two for five, two for six with the man advantage. San Jose scored a pair of power play goals. Canucks didn’t get any. So if you’re just trying to break it right down, I mean that is ultimately the difference in this hockey game. But Quinn Hughes plays almost 10 minutes on the power play. Elias Person’s not far behind. So first half of backtobacks and these guys both log a ton of minutes as they so often do. Connor Garland at 2428 in this hockey game. We saw him play a bunch the other night in Anaheim as well and he’s part of that top power play unit too. So um yeah, I mean the Conucks difference makers couldn’t be the differencemakers in this hockey game unfortunately for them. And after the win in Anaheim the other night, now one and one on this 4game road trip. Rink wide brought to you in part by bet 365. We want to hear from you and already we have a bunch of super chats. So we’re going to get to those momentarily. So keep them coming. We love the super chats and so does the BC Mental Health Foundation. All super chats support our charity partner again this season. and the BC Mental Health Foundation, changing the face of mental health and addiction by supporting breakthroughs in care, public understanding, research, and knowledge exchange. Let’s get to a couple of super chats right off the top here and then we’ll get down into some more analysis of this hockey game. Justice, a regular contributor, says, “I missed the first half due to the early start. I was at work from what I saw. Game was meh. Quinn seemed detached and didn’t care. Uh, should he be worried?” A lot of people I saw people were cutting the highlight and posting it to social at the end of the second period where the Canucks on the power play and the Sharks cleared the puck past Quinn and he just kind of shrugged his shoulders. There was like two seconds left on the clock. I don’t think it’s a whole lot. I mean, everybody’s reading into his body language at every turn this season. Uh he’d be frustrated. 10 minutes of power play time and they don’t score. Uh it’s understandable if he’s frustrated in a game like this one, but I don’t know that there was anything in this game that, you know, stands out at me as sort of red flags around Quinn Hughes that advances the conversation about the future of the captain here in Vancouver. Yeah, there was no chance to go back, retrieve that puck, and make an entry in time to actually manufacture anything offensively. So, of course, with a couple seconds left, he I don’t blame him for not going back on that puck. It’s useless. Save your legs. You’re going to play 30 minutes in uh in this game. Plus, you’re going to play against LA the other night. I’d say if anything, it was his body language really early in October that was more concerning to me. I think about the first time they played Nashville where in situations where the game and and the period time of play things were still there to seize, there were a lot more of those rolling your eyes kind of moments from from Quinn. Yeah. Did he look frustrated at times? Absolutely. But his body language in the San Jose game didn’t concern me. And most importantly, his actual on ice effort never wavered for one moment. You saw him still spinning, creating tons offensively. And at five on five, you especially noticed it because those are the situations where you’re able to dictate a little bit more as a defenseman. I think on the power play a lot of times I I’ve always felt that it’s your flank forwards and like it’s it’s really on the forwards to to manufacture and yeah having a good power play port quarterback at the point helps but really when you’re on the man advantage you’re trying to set up chances from the inside. You’re trying to work it in into the middle into the low slot area. So a defenseman’s job is more to distribute rather than it to single-handedly create. And I thought at five on five he was still doing all his spin moves. Uh it was interesting. I I I felt that a lot of times when he would use a change of direction to create time and space for himself that there wasn’t an immediate lane for him to attack whether individually as a shooter to drive into the high slot area or even as a passer. A lot of times Quinn is able to buy time and space and then there is a teammate available and open for let’s say a cross seam pass. I actually thought the Sharks overall, they didn’t defend well in that game at all. They were very uh sloppy with turnovers and whatnot, but it went when when it came to their endzone defense at five on five when Quinn Hughes was on the ice, I thought they did a pretty good job of limiting the damage despite Quinn’s best uh efforts. Yeah. And again, like a snapshot in time with two seconds left in the second. I There are issues around the hockey club and we’ll get to some of them. What happened there at the end of the second to me not a huge issue. Uh, I thought Quinn was invested. Four shots on 11 attempts in this hockey game. Plays 28 minutes and 19 seconds uh in all situations. But another super chat, seven and seven says he was looking like Miller before he was traded last year. Uh, tuned out and given up on plays again. I mean, I know other people saw it there. I didn’t read it the same way. Uh, another super chat coming from Justice is second to the program. Again, we we thank him. He says, “Go Charity. Petey was looking like Pety of old trying to drive play.” That’s what we need from him. Also, I again I say trade Kane, we are done. And look, it’s taken us the first 10 minutes of the program here really before the name of Leas Patterson even comes up. That’s probably, you know, if it wasn’t for the officiating, I think we would have been spending more time talking about that looked like PD of old, the play that he makes on his goal to knock the puck out of midair, the spin move, and then to outweight Ascarov gets his eighth of the year at 404 of the second period. Um, and the goal was great and the hand eye and just the creativity and all that kind of stuff. I I think my favorite play though was when they were two men short. The high flip to cause chaos was incredible and he nearly scored his second of the game. So, uh no, there were a lot of good things happening from Malas Patterson and a lot of nights we said we need more. Gets a goal, was involved in this hockey game, ends up with five shots on goal. Uh I thought he dug in uh in this one this afternoon. 100%. The hand eye coordination on the goal plus the patience outweigh Ascrov is peak Elias Person at his best and then as you said the alleyoop to himself just the creativity the confidence the decisiveness playing off his instincts to really think outside the box he’s not attempting that play forget attempting that play I don’t know if he’s even thinking of that play last year but When you build confidence as a player, you’re relying on your instincts. It It feels like, and I’ve had conversations with players before on this, it’s as if the game slows down for you and you’re able to have just that extra time in your own brain to process and look for plays. And really, that’s a huge part of what made Person an elite player in the past is his brain. Being ahead of everybody else on on the ice in terms of processing plays because, yeah, when he was putting up 100 points, he played quick, had the nasty shot. He had those physical attributes as well, but really his his standout trait was that the the processing speed of his brain, uh the IQ and and just seeing plays that other players on the ice aren’t able to to foresee. So, love that one from from him. And even going back to the Anaheim game, the fouron four shift where Quinn bumped it back for Pey and and had him flying through the neutral zone. And earlier in that game, there’s a power play opportunity, too, where on an entry, he’s beating Ducks players with his uh pace to create rush opportunities. That’s the last part of his game that I’ve been looking for. Uh because earlier in the year, even when he was putting up points, I was still looking for Okay, I I love a lot of the things he’s doing offensively right now, but I want to see him still fly through the neutral zone and put defenders on their heels a little bit. And I thought that part of his game has been slowly rounding into form starting with that Anaheim performance. So definitely liking a lot of what I’m seeing from Leas Patterson lately. When he was two men down, I thought at first in real time like, oh, the high flip that’s going to kill off an extra couple of seconds on the clock. Why not? But that wasn’t the intent at all. It was to, you know, cause chaos. And the Sharks are looking around. They don’t know where that puck’s coming down. And he just charged through. And um I’m with you. Like the fact that he’s even thinking that it’s two steps ahead of anybody else on the ice in that moment. So uh a little thing perhaps, but a little different, a little wrinkle. I like it. Want to see more of that from Leas Patterson. I also want to see and I know he said he had five shots and and seven attempts, but harm uh they’ve officially updated. It’s eight power plays now. Not that that makes it a whole lot better. 0 for eight instead of 0 for nine. The one-timer. Where’s the one-timer? He scored on it earlier this season and it just feels like that’s the last we’ve seen of the one-timer. You have eight power play opportunities. You can’t squeeze in a one-time attempt somewhere. Like why wouldn’t Quinn put it in his wheelhouse? And I think that’s the key is it’s not on Pey. It’s to me on on Quinn a lot of times Pey on the right half wall. He’s bumping it back to Quinn. Quinn’s either looking to move it to Besser on the left half wall or he’s poking in proddding to find a shooting lane for himself to get something through and create some chaos, find maybe a shot pass or or deflection. But I would have liked to see Quinn mix it up a little bit. And and there were situations during one of the third period power plays they had where Pey had started sort of lifting his stick almost as if he was loading up for a potential one-time trying to show Quinn that hey I I’m here as an option not demanding the puck. Not not asking for it but just hey I’m an option for the one-time here. And you saw Quinn try and use his edges to create space for himself. his own shot deflected out of play. That’s the exact kind of spot where where I’d like to see Quinn tea it up for PD, especially when he’s playing so confidently right now. He’s feeling it offensively right now. Why not let him unload on the power play? Because even generally speaking, if you try and break down why they went 0 for8 on the power play, I want to say it was either the fifth or the sixth opportunity where they entries finally became an issue where Connor Garland had a turnover and then Evander Kane had one which led to a penalty. But outside of that, entries weren’t an issue. It wasn’t a problem to get set up. Most most times if you are ever going to go 0 for8 or 0 for seven on a power on uh on the power play during a game, you’re going to point to or entries were an issue. We couldn’t even get set up. We were spending uh half our power plays just going back for pucks in our own zone. That wasn’t the case for the Canucks tonight. They were actually winning a lot of their draws and getting set up. And it was their inzone attack that was lacking. I mean, not diversifying your your looks and sending PD up for one-timers, I think, is is part of it. Uh, just generally getting shots through, they if you zoom in on five on four specifically, so not counting the the five on three, 15 shot attempts at five on four, only six of them made it through to the net. And I think part of that is you’ve got to have an element of unpredictability to open up uh lanes and not sort of be a onetrick pony. Just generally speaking, I thought outside of the situations where Person was able to find the cross seam lane to Besser, which seemed to work and was creating opportunities, outside of that, they didn’t have a whole lot going. They weren’t able to get the bumper involved a lot. Uh they weren’t able to create really any down low passing plays. It felt like on a lot of occasions they were relying on Quinn at the top to try and get shots through which wasn’t really working. Uh the PD to Besser seemed which was working and then outside of that there just wasn’t a whole lot that they were able to execute. You know, it’s funny. I mean Jake De Bruss had so much success in and around the blue paint this year. Uh most of his goals come on the power play. He’s credited with five shots outside of Garland finding him on the short side for a quick bang bang play in the third period. I don’t remember much of Jake De Bruss. And again, when they have eight power plays, you’d think he would be more of a factor, but I think that goes to what you said that, you know, a lot of it was Quinn up at the top and pucks just weren’t finding their way uh to the parts of the ice that they had to ultimately. And so, uh missed opportunity. Um, you know, the San Jose Sharks pick up their 12th win of the year. They didn’t win their 12th game last year until January the 2nd. So, here they are on Black Friday. They’re 6 weeks ahead of schedule. Uh, they’ve been pretty good at home. It’s their eighth win of the year on home ice. They got embarrassed in Colorado the other night. They’re not the only team that’s been schooled by the ABS. So, you knew that they wanted to tighten up and bounce back and and they do. And for the Vancouver Conucks after the win in Anaheim, uh, you know, we’ve seen so much of this win one lose one all season long. They’re now 1013 and two. So stuck on 22 points at the 25 game mark. Let’s get to the three stars of this hockey game. They’re brought to you by Gretabar. Got some internal emails talking about our next Kucks Army watch party. Uh not ready to give you the details just yet. We’re trying to hammer out a few things on our side, but looking forward to getting people down to Greta again uh for another Kucks Army watch party. Lots of fun. lots of an opportunity to meet so many Kucks Army and Kuck Convo Rinkwide viewers and listeners and so uh uh yeah we can’t wait to share uh all of that info with you and of course Greta great place to watch all the games with all the big screen TVs and the drink specials game day specials with the the street food as well and then of course the arcade games too so Greta Bar the place to be 50 West Cordova Gretavar let the games begin I always have a laugh uh in San Jose I don’t think that the visiting team ever gets one of the stars. Like even in a onegoal hockey game, I’d have to go back and look at that 10-1 Canucks win from a couple years ago. I would hope that a few Canucks got stars that night, but it almost is always a clean sweep. Uh selected by the Sharks media, and that’s fine. Whatever. In house in the building. It was nice to see a fairly full house there. 17,435 the announced attendance. So, they’re starting to bring people back and you can understand why. one of the stars or a couple of the stars in this game uh worth the price of admission. But the three stars in the building, Yaros Ascarov, the goalender was the first star. William Ecklund was star number two and Adam Gdette, the former Kuck who gets the game winner. Uh no love for M. Cabbrini. Tough crowd, but I I think he got it wrong twice to have three Sharks and then to not have Mlin Cabin three stars. Don’t you think that speaks to the fact that he puts on a show every night? This is like a two assist night for for Celibbrini. big deal. Uh no, on our three stars here on R inquired saw it a little bit differently. Ascarov um was busy all the power play shots. Canucks had 11 on the power play and ended up out shooting San Jose 34-24. Uh so he was the first star. Got the hook the other night against the AS but he bounced back in a big way. There’s the pride of North Vancouver. Mlin Celerini two assists. He gets the second assist on the 1-1 power play goal by Will Smith. And then he gets the primary helper uh putting in the wheel. I was talking about one-times. Sharks got a one-time goal off the flank there. Eklund was able to sneak it past Nikita to Mlin Celbrini with a couple of assists. And then uh again, we talk about star power and like did he really need to get the unsportsome like contact tacked on to the cross check late in the hockey game? But the refs were having themselves an afternoon. So Mlin celebrating two points, 18 minutes and 31 seconds of ice time. just a single shot and uh was seven and eight in the faceoff circle. But uh my goodness, harm uh we watched the game here in studio. The way that guy attacks open ice uh in the first period, you could just feel it. He was dealing uh there were a couple of sequences there where they came in off the rush, backhand passes into space like he just knows where his teammates are going to be. And then he’s the guy that uh between Tyler Myers and Marcus Patterson, two veteran defenseman, long guys, rangy, and he’s able just to dart between them, draws the penalty that puts the Sharks up two men and they score on that and that was the tied the game. Uh and I said earlier, I thought that was one of the turning points, but uh incredible what he’s doing at such a young age. Well, what’s special about Celebrini and Baddard isn’t just the Ross speed and stick handling that they have off off the rush. There is a level of deceptiveness to fool veteran defenseman that I think when you look at the chance Celabbrini had where he split Marcus Person and Tyler Myers for the great opportunity, drew the penalty, it’s not just I’m going a million miles an hour and it’s my raw speed that beat them. It was he’s coming in pretty quickly on the entry, but then his head is scanning. He’s slowing down momentarily, and as a defenseman, you think he’s about to lay it back. It you he all his body language and and his positioning that leans towards I’m going to lay it off for somebody. And then just as a defenseman, you start to believe that. That’s when he turns on the Jets. And it’s the changing the gears where you’re able to beat a defenseman because that moment is when the defenseman stops skating and and now they’re flatfooted. And it’s that change of gears, the deceptiveness that really unlocked that opportunity. And then I mean, you look at the two assists, right? goals that Toolapo doesn’t really ha I don’t want to say he didn’t have a chance on but you can’t blame them for it where one of them he’s finding Will Smith on a back door opportunity which the Canucks penalty kill has given up a lot of and then the other one same thing with this deceptiveness he’s driving through the high slot area his head is pointed straight on towards toilo it everyone’s thinking shot first here for Celipini. And then with his head up, he’s able to sneak it back door to Ekkan in the dry settle spot, which is particularly deadly because Ekkan’s one-time is quietly one of the most dangerous parts of his uh his game. I remember around this time last year, actually want to say uh maybe a game in December, Ekkan also had a wicked one-time goal, and I remember that being the first time where I was like, I didn’t realize Ekkan, who’s a smaller body, can rip a one-time uh that dangerously. So that wasn’t just a fortunate goal. You’re setting up a guy who has a pretty lethal one-time in that spot. So Celibbrini is a gamebreaker and uh so much fun to watch. So he was the second star and we’ve talked about Elias Patterson. Again, I think of the Canucks. Uh he certainly uh deserves the nod there. He scores. So he’s up to eight goals now on the season. And again, it was just the creativity. It felt like Person of some seasons gone by. So uh wanted to include him certainly among the three stars. Three stars are brought to you by Gretabar YVR. Celebrating got in on the counterattack late in the game too when he set up Tyler Tofoley who I thought had a relatively quiet night and only got the five goals on the season. He’s there as you know veteran insulation lowmaintenance guy that’s good with these young players. In fact, apparently Tofuli had the whole team over to his place last night for Thanksgiving dinner. Um so you know that’s a good team guy there. Uh but he had a chance and uh Tolapilo made one of his uh what was it 21 saves on the afternoon. Interesting that his ice time’s down too. I was looking at the box score under 12 minutes against Colorado, 1309 against Boston, 1341 against Ottawa. He hasn’t played more than 11:09 today. Yeah, he he’s he hasn’t been above the 15 minute mark in since November 18th. Eight and a half at five on five. Like one of the low sharks. Uh I mean he makes up his 1109 with 2 and a half minutes of power play time and yet saying that he does Tyler to fully things. He has four shots on goal on five attempts and he had a really good scoring opportunity set up by Celabbrini there. Uh but Tolo there to make the stop. Uh let’s talk about Nikita Tolo. Not surprised that he got the start after the 37 save performance. I think he is ahead of Yuri Patera on the depth chart. Uh I don’t know if they’ve got a decision with backto-backs here. Although it’s an afternoon on Friday evening on Saturday. So a few extra hours of rest. Could you run Nikita Toapilo out there all three games in California? I suppose we’ll see. There were reports today that Kevin Lankin has been on the ice here in Vancouver the last couple of days and is expected to join the team, but I I doubt he would be an option after being off for most of this week. So I don’t think he’d be an option to face the Kings on Saturday night. But uh what did you see from a second straight start from Nikita Tolapilo? I thought he was solid. Now of course Ascrov stole the show and outperformed them. But outside of Ascrov’s game against uh car Avalanche, he’s been one of the best goalenders in uh in the league in November and really for the season as a whole. So you can’t realistically compare Topila to Ascarov. He gave them an a legitimate opportunity to win. Again, two of the three goals I mentioned earlier. I don’t think you could blame him on on either one of those power play one ones. The Adam Goddet one maybe he would have wanted back that but I’m still not saying that’s a soft goal or or a back breaker by any means. And on top of that, he made a lot of saves on legitimate gradea opportunities. There was a Sharks uh power play in the second period where he robbed Will Smith after a cross ice pass from Mlin Celibbrini. There was a Tofolei onetime opportunity that uh he stopped. There were a bunch of high slot saves that he made in the first period as well. The third period chance that you referenced were Celabbrini behind the net finds Tofoley in um right in tight on on the doorstep. Earlier in that third, Will Smith right up the gut had a pretty good opportunity and he stared him down after he made that save at 3-3 on Vrano the other night that I thought was like the game-saving stop. So, uh, no, I mean, he did his part to give this team a chance to get something out of the hockey game at the very least. So that’s an encouraging sign here that just given the unreliability of Thatcher Demco over the long hall of a season. Um you know to have an option now of a legitimate third string guy that you know when both Canucks starters are healthy he’ll probably go back to Abbottzford but who knows when Kucks both Canucks starters are going to be healthy. So he’s here in the here and now and again uh we’ll see what’s your gut tell you about Saturday against LA. Do you ever That’s a really interesting decision because historically the the numbers would tell you don’t play goalies on the second leg of a backto-back. Their save percentage drops a lot when they’re playing two nights in a row. And hey, the Conucks saw that during their season opener when Calgary had played the night before in Edmonton. the Flames rolled out Dustin Wolf both nights and Wol in that uh in that Canucks season opener really struggled uh in that game let let in a couple of soft goals so it’s a tough debate because Tolo has played really well through these first two games but generally goalenders don’t fare well on on backto backs and then you’ve got Peter who is a bit of a wild card it’s tough to judge him because yeah he let up eight seven or eight or whatever ever it was against uh the Florida Panthers, but that was maybe the Canucks worst defensive performance of the season in front of him. I I I I suspect that the coaching staff might lean toward again just because he’s played that well and they might be thinking Peter got lit up for how many against the Florida Panthers. But yeah, I mean don’t be surprised if Tolo plays again and he struggles. don’t like I’m not going to be pointing the finger at him because playing both legs as goenders especially with some level of travel involved is a is a tall uh tall uh ask now they can be in Southern California by dinner time on Friday and took it’s not your conventional backtoback so that works in his in his favor if they decide to come back with him again here uh we’ll see they likely won’t have a morning skate. Maybe an optional, but uh we maybe closer to game time on Saturday before we find out what the Canucks plan to do in goal. A couple other super chats that I wanted to acknowledge here before we go. Justice came with a third one, so he’s been busy here. Uh thank you for that. We’re not going to get into trade talk, but uh appreciate uh your consistency and your contributions. Uh another one from Dean talking about uh the body language. Watch to run Quinn Hughes out of town. Again, guys, it was just one little snapshot at the end of the second period. Uh, and Spatzilly, who’s a regular contributor as well, says he skips games, but he hates missing rink wide. Petition to make the show three hours long. Come on, Spatzilly. It’s a backtoback here. It’s three and four. We got to conserve some energy as well. I don’t know about three hours. I mean, the beauty of uh uh podcast world and the digital world, you can watch on dem. You could watch it three times. If it’s a one-hour show, you can just keep rolling it back. You know, if you need three hours of me and harm, there’s your solution. But, uh, appreciate the support. Uh, we do. Thank you, and so does the BC Mental Health Foundation. Let’s get to the staff that stands out. It’s delivered by Uber Eats. And Uber Eatats is enabling fans to maximize their fandom all season long with exclusive game day deals on the app. Every time the Canucks play at home, you can get a buy 1 get one six-piece chicken McNuggets from McDonald’s in Vancouver only on Uber Eats. From game day eats to paper plates and napkins if you’re hosting to all the ingredients you need to make your favorite game day dip before, during, or after the game, Uber Eatats is assisting every fan’s hockey experience all season long. # crave the stats. And uh we didn’t make note of this the other night when he tied Todd Vertusi, but Brock Besser’s goal to open the scoring is ninth of the year. Four and a half minutes into this hockey game, moves Besser into 10th spot by himself on Vancouver’s all-time scoring list. 23 goals, 237 assists. You add it up, it’s a nice tidy 450 points for the 2015 firstrounder. So, he’s uh on his way to 500 points and beyond. But with the goal today, he is now solo top 10. And I guess you know you’re around long enough you are going to work your way up the ranks but uh Rock Basser a top 10 franchise guy in scoring. So uh congratulations to him we thought even in a losing cause that absolutely that’s a a stat that stands out. Yeah longest tenur Vancouver Kak also credit to him this season. I wasn’t sure what his five and five production was going to look like without JT Miller and especially because I didn’t have a lot of confidence that he and Person were necessarily going to gel together as a duo just based on the last two, three, four seasons even when they’ve played together in short spurts. Hasn’t always felt like they’ve had that chemistry there. And I wondered who’s going to be the playmaker to tee Besser up for chances. And it turns out it’s been Connor Garland lately. I have really liked the the chemistry they’ve had together where it’s Garland again on Basser’s goal setting him up and even in the Anaheim game, those two finding each other for opportunities pretty consistently. And despite them having David Camp to play with, subpar center to say the least. I mean, is there as a top six winger for Brock Besser and and I suppose Conor Garland as well on that line, is there a worse top six center in the league to to have to play with right now? No offense to David Camp. It’s not his fault. He’s misplaced. He didn’t ask to to play second line center minutes, but it’s been encouraging to see those guys cook offensively. And it’s given the Conucks an offensive punch outside of just when Quinn Hughes is uh on the ice and even on that play as well, uh Tom Valander picking up another assist. So, him able to generate things with um with some puck play on that play on that Besser goal. It was him starting things by pinching up the wall, using his skating ability to cleanly retrieve it, extend the offense’s own possession, get it to Garland, who then loop back and and found Besser. Uh, but yeah, to bring it back to to Brock, six, five and five goals already this year, his individual goals per 60 rated at 55 is um the highest it’s been since his rookie year. So, that’s um a massive credit and testament to how well he’s played in the early going so far. Is it nine goals? team’s played 25 games. He missed two of those and he left the St. Louis game after his first shift. So, it counts as a game played, but he barely played it. Uh, so he’s got nine goals in essentially 22. He’s on pace for mid30s, which is, you know, what they want and what they’re going to need if they’re going to claw their way back into relevance here in the Pacific Division in the Western Conference. Uh what I liked about that goal, they’ve got him on the left side right now and sometimes with a right-handed shot, you know, your stick’s closer to the middle of the ice. He loops around and takes that feed from Garland and now boom, he’s on his forehand in a shooting position and snuck it low instead. Like a lot of times we’ll see Brock try and pick high corners, but he went low this time. Uh some traffic in front. I think camp was there and uh squeezed it through and and so yeah, the start the Conucks were looking for, they’ve opened the scoring in three straight games now. It didn’t matter uh ultimately and it didn’t matter against Calgary either. But instead of falling behind and having to chase games, at least they’re starting to find ways to open the scoring here, but uh need to build on it. And they had the one- nothing and two to one leads and uh ultimately uh they end up losing by a score of 3 to2. Brock Besser, five shots, 10 attempts. He’s a volume shooter. So that’s when you know that he is on his game. And I know that he and others liked one on the power play here that could have swayed this thing in a different uh direction. Just the second time all season that Brock and Elias Person have scored in the same game. So, uh, you know, need both those guys producing for the Canucks and obviously need them to do it a little more often on the same sorts of, uh, of nights. Um, we talk about, uh, back to back for the Canucks and, you know, high ice time. I mean, high ice time for Quinn Hughes, not a big deal. Connor Garland played 10 minutes and two seconds of the third period. You don’t see forwards playing half a period all that often, but Garland at 24-28. Uh you I mean it’s fair to wonder it’s going to be three and four. And again, just the schedule’s been screwy for the Canucks. They can’t even catch a break when they’re in the state of California and have to go from Southern California to the Bay Area, then turn around and go back. Both of their trips to California this year, and the second one comes like in the final five or six games of the season. It’s the same thing. And so they don’t ever get the back-to-back games in Southern California with just a bus trip between Anaheim and Los Angeles, whatever. That’s life in the NHL. They’ll deal with it. But um you do wonder as they turn around. Hopefully these guys get a good night’s sleep because they’re going to lean on their top players again because the ice distribution, Adam Foot makes a lineup change, sticks Lucas Reichel in, brings Atu Ratu out. Talked after practice about Ratu needing a reset. Ratu only played one shift in the third period in Anaheim. I know he had the breakdown on the Leo Carlson goal. Uh I don’t ever have a problem with a guy coming out for a night if coaches are trying to make a point and just get a young guy to refocus whatever. I mean I think I would take Ratu at center over Lucas Reichel all day every day uh for the rest of the season. But Lucas Reichel gets back in there. Made a nice pass to Archie Baines three minutes into the hockey game. But I think that was my only note on the night. And very little ice time for Riel. 4 minutes and 59 seconds. Bane’s a shade under 6 minutes in this hockey game. So uh Adam Foot makes the change, but uh I don’t know ultimately was there any do we read anything into it? Do you take anything away from the fact that the bottom line the the fourth line didn’t uh play much and didn’t do much? Yeah. Well, first I’d be curious where 458 ranks this season among like as far as lowest ice time in a game where the player didn’t actually get injured, where where he was healthy start to finish. Where does that rank this season for lowest ice time? It’s not overly surprising because even before they went on the road, I asked Adam foot about Lucas Reichel and what position do they view him as a as the best fit for? and Adam Foot sort of said, “We’re we’re still thinking about different possibilities.” Didn’t give a hard black and white answer, but he admitted I think he’s probably more of a winger than he is a center. So, to me, Riel drawing back into the lineup was more about, hey, we want to give Ratu that opportunity to reset. he had genuinely been struggling defensively lately. Even though I’ve liked his play as a whole this season because it wasn’t just uh the breakdown on the Leo Carlson Ducks goal, but even in the Flames game uh where they lost that one, he had a another similar defensive zone sequence where he didn’t pick up a rebound and it was a pretty bad breakdown. In the last five games, it’s interesting. Ratu’s underlying numbers for the season as a whole have been very strong, but last five games they’d been outscored three nothing. the shots and chances were pretty lopsided. I think they were 14 to six in favor of opponents. So, I like you said, I don’t mind sitting him out for a game. And to me, all Riel’s deployment says is I expect Ratu to draw back in against LA. And you would hope that it is in a situation where Ratu is in and out of the lineup that this is just a oneame reset for him. I I I don’t think it will be because I look ahead at what’s coming after Los Angeles and they can only focus on the Kings now, but they have to be as stout defensively as possible going into Colorado at the end of this road trip. But I just think u Ratatu can give you a little bit more defensively than Lucas Reichel can at the center right especially the diesel draw or like any draw situations with 1.9 seconds left in the game. You’re down a goal. Elias Patterson is in the box by the way. Two minutes for receiving three cross checks apparently. I don’t know. Ridiculous afternoon. Uh but all right. Right. So, you need somebody else to take the job. And ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter, but still to have David Camp out there. It says enough, but it does. I know. Like, I get what you’re saying there. And uh I’d rather have brought in that situation. And Conf had an awful afternoon. He won four of 15 faceoff. So, this guy that’s supposed to, you know, you’re not expecting offense from him, but the one thing that he might be able to bring you is some uh solidity down the middle, but if he’s winning four of 15 faceoffs, then he’s not uh excelling in that area uh of the job at all. Uh Kucks got cleaned in the faceoff circle, won 25 or 26 and lost 40, so 39% on the draw. All right, going to hear from Adam Foot here in a sec. This segment of Rinkquid presented by your Pacific Toyota dealers and the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid. And it’s a no compromise approach to electric vehicles. It offers the best of both worlds. You can drive up to 72 km on battery alone. That’s enough to get you from downtown to the rink to the grocery store and then home to recharge. It seamlessly transitions from electric mode to the gas engine for a combined range of 962 km. No sacrifices when it comes to horsepower or style. With its sleek, low and wide exterior and sophisticated interior loaded with tech that is actually easy to use. And you can plug in or recharge at home or at one of the over 2,000 public charging stations in BC alone. Right now, you can lease a 2025 Prius plug-in hybrid SE from $99 weekly at 3.49% APR for 64 months with $3,600 down and includes a $3,000 discount. Visit shop toyota.ca CA or your local Pacific Toyota dealer today. We haven’t heard from the coach, so we’re going to listen along with you. Although I see people on social saying listen to him talk about the power play here. Uh so I’m glad he was asked about the power play because obviously it was a focal point in a 3-2 loss to the Sharks. Here is Adam Foot postgame from the Bay Area. Adam, how much did special teams play into this game on both sides? Yeah, it was it um we got to we got to get one or two and uh stop them from getting one or two and it’s that simple. What was missing from your power play tonight? We seemed a little bit out of sorts. Um it looked like the emotions got into it involved and uh we were just out of sync and you know you got to reel that back in. It’s a game to win. We we had them all night and uh maybe had a little bit of a slow start the first couple shifts, but other than that, five on five, our game plan was working well. Um you know, there was a lot going on with the calls, so I don’t know on both sides, so I don’t know what to tell you with that one. Don’t know if you knew what was said, but did you do you have any issue principal about an unsportsman call? Well, I mean, you don’t know what leads up to it either, right? Um, you know, whether it was the last couple games, I don’t know. Uh, I know what was said. Um, I mean, I’ve heard worse that didn’t get called, but also I I also don’t know what led up to it, right? You never know. So, I’m not going to go there. There was lots of calls to both teams, so I’m not going to get into too much of what happened on that side of it. And review, what were your thoughts on that? I know with that one, they Toronto must have called that one in. Uh, and uh, they they obviously saw something they wanted to go over and there’s nothing we can do with it. Did you look at the review? You could tell that we we looked at it. You could tell it was something was going on there. We we weren’t sure on our camera angle. We thought it might have been in, but on our camera angle, we didn’t have the clear cut where I think they have more angles up there. I’m assuming they saw it clearly go in. When the power plays out of sync like that, Adam, do you need to have more of a shoot first mentality, you think? Yeah, I think so. I I didn’t like our shots. And you’re right. Um, you know, we’ve got to take a hard look at that and maybe, you know, maybe maybe maybe when it’s going like that, we throw 2d out and get Phil shooting in the net or but uh I think you’re I think you’re right. I think we’re getting a little bit too predictable and they were just jumping on it and uh you know, we’ll uh we’ll we’ll talk about it and figure it out. So, coach, what was the PG version of what you said during second intermission after the Sharks took over the lead uh during that second period? Well, I mean, it it was PG because it was it was a couple calls that uh they get a five on three, one squeak by our goalie there. Um, you know, uh, one from behind the net. We were in full control of the game. So, just stay the box for the most part was all I said and play our our our presc our our game plan was working. um you know and uh we I felt we had full control of the game even though we were in intermission. Uh we just got to stay out of the box and um you know score on our chances. All right, there you go. Adam Foot postgame. Couple of interesting things about the power play. One is he said he thought the emotions creeped into it. We’ve already talked about the fact that Quinn uh body language and some other things. So, I don’t know exactly what he was getting at there other than maybe uh frustration after not being able to convert with the opportunities, but then when he says maybe we got to get Phil out there with two defenseman, I mean, is that I read that as a criticism of Quinn Hughes essentially that there I know he’s looking for another shooting option, but it kind of feels to me like he’s saying that whatever Quinn was doing at the top wasn’t working. Uh there is the other one over there on the side 40. We talked about that at length earlier, but uh what did you make of the comments of the head coach? Yeah, it was it was interesting. Certainly the first moment about referencing emotion creeping into it a little bit is is worth keeping in the back of your mind. I don’t know if I love the idea of going to two defensemen on the first unit set. I think ever since Heronic has been there, that’s been an option they’ve reverted back to and it’s never stuck for a reason in my opinion. Now, does it maybe give you a jolt for a game or two? Sure. But Heronic, he’s got a heavy shot, but has it always been the most accurate? It’s not as if he’s been a goalcoring machine while he’s been here. And I understand that he’s not really had a lot of first unit time to boost his totals, but you’re talking about a guy that two goals this year, five last last year, five the year before. He’s not really a high-scoring defenseman despite having a heavy shot that you think would be able to beat goalenders more consistently. And I also go back to, yeah, tonight was an off night. However, we’re still talking about a power play that was what, eighth in the NHL before this game. Uh, well, that’s just dead. I mean, it’s been on a bender here lately. So, I don’t think that you need to reinvent the wheel and completely blow things up. Yeah. If it persists for a few games longer, sure, maybe you look at more drastic action. Uh, but I wouldn’t be immediately thinking that two defenseman on the first unit unit set is the solution. Hear me out, Harm. They need a shooter on the power play. Abbottzford loses four to one. Guess who scored the one? Leer Mackey, uh, who has scored a bunch and has been shooting a bunch since he got back in the lineup here. I do wonder, uh, Abbottzford’s in Tucson. It would be an easy flight to get him. Uh, it would require some roster manipulation, but I I do wonder uh, at what point they bring Jonathan Leer Mackey back into the mix. He was, it wasn’t like he was in Abbottzford when he got hurt. He was playing uh, in the National Hockey League. So, I don’t I didn’t mind the idea of sending him back to Abbottzford, get his feet under him, get some games, but if he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing at the American Hockey League level, um I just wonder at some point here. Although, offense really hasn’t been the uh big issue for the Vancouver Conucks uh of late. So, we’ll see where it goes, but uh good to see Lacer Mackey uh continuing to score at the American Hockey League level at the very least. All right, let’s take a look at our line of the night. and it’s brought to you by Bet 365. Uh Conucks are back in action in Los Angeles against the Kings on Saturday night. Back toback for both teams. We’ll talk about the Kings here in a sec. Los Angeles not great on home ice. Uh there’s some value here. You can grab the Canucks on the money line at plus 145. So just think about that if they’re going to be hungry if they can get this power play worked out. Uh that is our bet 365 line of the night. Whatever you bet, never ordinary at bet 365. Download the app, get in on the game, use code nation to get you started. And a reminder, you must be 19 or older. Please play responsibly. It was a battle of Southern California. So, the Canucks previous opponent to this one and their next one uh meeting uh on the pond in Anaheim. Uh they went back and forth. This is just the way the Ducks play. Uh they came out on the wrong end of a 5-4 score the other day and they got it right in a shootout. uh needed a late goal from Leo Carlson, but they defeat the LA Kings by a score of five to four in a shootout. So, the Ducks get a couple of points. The Kings get just one, and that’s not great news for the Canucks when uh other teams around them. All three of the California teams pick up points in the standings, and the Conucks get none on this Black Friday. Uh but the Kings are 11, six, and seven now on the season. So, they got seven in that OTL uh s column. Um, but they’ve been playing better of late. They went into this game 62 and two in their last 10. I mentioned the home ice struggles though, just two wins on home ice this year for whatever reason. They don’t score a lot. They got four and lost. That uh probably disappointing to them because I think if they get four, they probably feel that they ought to win. Usually a pretty strong defensive team. Adrien Kempe led them. I haven’t checked uh if he figured in the scoring, but he came into the game with 20 points. That was tops on uh the LA Kings. Kevin Fiala leads the team with nine goals. Um, and of course, this is the A Copitar Farewell Tour. So, 38-year-old closing in on 1,500 National Hockey League games. Guy that has just shown up and played hard for so long uh for the Kings. But, uh, what do you make of the LA Kings to this point of the season? They’re perfectly average. Yeah, that’s the best way to describe them. the offseason loss departures they had with Gabricov out the door bringing in Cody Cece and Brian Dumlain to a blue line that all of a sudden you you look at it and go Edmonson Dumalind CC you’ve got a bunch of guys that can’t move the puck in that bottom four and yet they’re that’s limited their ceiling and I think makes me look at them as as a team that probably can’t do any damage if they do get into the playoffs, but they’ve still maintained a relatively high defensive floor. They’re still one of the stingiest defensive teams in the NHL. It’s also helped that on the blue line, Brent Clark has taken a significant step, averaging about half a point per game, but more than that, it’s the increased 2A responsibilities. Ice time has ticked up significantly. And now a big part of that is out of necessity because Drew Dowy is out of the lineup. But Clark stepping up is a huge reason why the Kings blue line despite not being very good on paper has been able to stay afloat. And and really when you look at the defensive identity of that team, it’s because when you look up and down their top nine group, yeah, their forwards don’t put up a lot of points, but they’re so stingy defensively. I mean, you mentioned Kopitar. How about just down the middle, Copitar, Biffield, and Deno? Those guys aren’t necessarily going to produce a lot of points and Deno particularly has been struggling offensively this year, but good luck manufacturing a lot of offensive against those guys. Those are three big long bodies that check really well, don’t give you a lot of time and space, and then a ton of their wingers as well are intelligent at at both ends of uh the rank. They’re the speedy buzzsaw types, right? So when you’ve got guys like Kopitar and Kopitar and Deno down the middle, they’re not really burners, but then you pair them with like Trevor Mo is on Kopitar’s line and he’s a little bit like Connor Garland where he’s just constant buzzsaw, always winning battles, plays with a ton of pace and then you got Army and Leferier on the Denol line as well. Same sort of thing, non-stop mo motor, really aggressive on the forche. Uh this uh this Kings team is just average. It they they’re competitive enough that I still expect them to probably squeak into the playoffs, but they also played this past night. So for the Canucks, you would normally look at, all right, Vancouver’s playing the second of back toback. Is that a scheduled loss? No, because King has also played um Friday as well. Uh yeah, the Ducks uh moved to 31 points. LA second in the Pacific with 29. Um, and so the Canucks with no points in this hockey game. They’re stuck on 22. So that’s the gap nine points back of the Anaheim Ducks who have a game in hand on the Vancouver Conucks. Brian Dumlan played 25 minutes in this hockey game now. Easy travel for them as they go across town. And you know, it’s funny. We watch this penalty fest between the Canucks and the Sharks. They really didn’t have a ton of feeling until the very end. You got the Ducks and the Kings and you think a rivalry and top two teams in the division. Uh there were three power plays total in that hockey game. So most of it played at five on five. Kevin Fiala, by the way, got to double digits. He scored one of the LA goals, so he’s up to 10 now. Uh and we should note as well that there’s probably a goalending decision there. No travel for them. Uh but Darcy Keer played today, so might the Canucks see Anton Forsber? It’s possible. Uh we will see what Saturday brings ahead of the seven o’clock showdown at uh it’ll always be Staple Center to me, but it is crypto.com. Uh all right, disappointing afternoon for the Cox because uh again they controlled much of the play. They outshoot the Sharks by 10. Uh some individual efforts, but uh you know, they give up two power play goals for the ninth time already this season. And you know, it took me back to the Dallas game a week ago where I think we all liked what the Canucks did, but remember they had the five on three for a minute and 20 seconds in the second period when it was a two- two tie and they didn’t score. And here the Sharks had a five on three for uh a minute and 17 and they did cash in and that propelled them to the victory. So, the Conucks with a win in Anaheim, a loss in San Jose. Now they head south again to Los Angeles and then the road trip will wrap up on Tuesday in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche who saw their 10-game win streak come to an end. They got a point in Minnesota. Uh, but they lose in a shootout. So, ABS will have to start a new win streak and uh we’ll see what they look like by the time the Canucks arrive there uh to wrap up the road trip on Tuesday. Um, all right. Uh, I think that’s going to do it for us. Harm, always great to have you in here. Appreciate you. Uh, your partner takes the day off, but you’re busting in here, so I guess it’s hard to do a convo in the middle of a in the middle of a an afternoon game. Uh, they actually have another early start coming up the beginning of that New York road trip. They’re in New Jersey. It’s a 9:30 start. Another one of those uh on like December the 16th. So, this was afternoon hockey at the very least, but uh still a little peculiar on a holiday in the States, but uh not a holiday on this side of the border. So, great stuff. Appreciate you uh stopping in. Your analysis always appreciated. And we’ll uh look forward to your work at the Athletic and then you and Quads together again on Monday when you’ll have this game and the Saturday night game in Los Angeles to break down as well. So, thanks for doing this. Thanks, Jad. Always fun. Jake Lazar in with us here on this Black Friday afternoon as well. We appreciate his help. Thanks to everybody that uh tuned in, whether you watched this on the live stream or you’re consuming this as a podcast, we appreciate your support and we’ll be back to do it. Tyson Cole will be in with me as my wingman on Saturday when the Canucks take on the Kings 7:00 faceoff. Yeah, conventional puck drop time and then we’ll be on with Ringquite after that one. The final score here on Black Friday, the Sharks three, the Canucks two. That’s going to do it for us here at Ring Vancouver. [Music]

🚨 Welcome to Rink Wide Vancouver, providing LIVE post-game coverage after every Canucks game 🚨

It’s Black Friday in the Bay as the Canucks look to make it 2 for 2 on this California road trip this afternoon against the Sharks.

Thank you to all of our sponsors!

🔵 Powered by @bet365: Whatever the moment, it’s Never Ordinary at bet365. Download the App today and use promo code: NATION. http://www.bet365.ca/
🔵Greta Bar: http://lnk.to/GRETAYVR
🔵Pacific Toyota Dealers l https://www.shoptoyota.ca/british-columbia/en?utm_source=TNN&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pacific-influencer&utm_content=TheNationNetwork
🔵Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca

Listen to the podcast version on https://www.rinkwidevancouver.com/

#Canucks #VancouverCanucks #NHL #Hockey #Vancouver