CKSTAM

Patrick Johnston of the The Province joined Matt and Blake for his regular Tuesday spot. PJ ran down what he thinks the breakdown of the make up games will be, best he can tell. It will be a tough job to juggle around. Talked about it being 50% capacity. There was alwasy going to be questions this winter. Not neccessarily expecting Omicron but here we are. Talked about new covid protocols. Talked about getting back to the country when you have tested positive for Covid, depending on which passport you hold. PJ answered the poll question. He thinks that QH43 is the bigger all-star snub. They are completely hooped if they don’t have him. Talked about postponement of Rugby 7’s.

Former Canuck player and coach, Nolan Baumgartner joined Matt and Blake. Nolan talked about coaching the Canucks and the upcoming Olympic Tournament. 

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Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk joined Matt and Blake after the Super Wild Card Weekend. Talked about the officiating in Dallas. Says that any criticism is unfair. Have to put it on the Cowboys. Talked about Jerry Jones. Talked about the process in finding a new coach, should they want to replace Mike McCarthy. Talked about the QB carousel in the NFL. Talked about the RW3 saga and if he will or won’t explore his options oustide of Seattle. Wouldn’t be suprised if he moved on. Charean asks who would be the QB for the Hawks if he does move on. Starting QB’s don’t grow on trees. Talked about the AFC matchups. Thinks the Bengals and the Bills are playing the best. Would be totally unbelievable to see either of those teams in the SB, going up against the Packers. 

Our Canucks reporter and one half of the Rink Wide Podcast, Jeff Paterson joined Matt and Blake for his daily regular appearance. Talked about the skilled players making skilled plays in the win against WAS. Talked about the game EP40 had. There was no better story but others had a great game as well. Talked about who they might see this week, in goal. Will be three straight opponents coming off a game the day before. Talked about EP40 post game comments. Says he has to own his performance this season. If he was prominent on a few more nights, they would be sitting in a better spot in the standings. Talked about EP40 on the wing. Can’t declare that this is the start of something incredible. Talked about the Botchford Project fellows and when we might see them at Rogers Arena. 

John Shannon, NHL insider, joined Matt and Blake for his regular Moday appearance on the show. Talked about all the snow at his home. Started off chatting about Scott Mellanby and Sean Burke. Scott has paid his dues. He used to work for Mike Gillis as a consultant with the Canucks. It was Scott that convinced Gillis to put an offer sheet on David Backes. He has worked very hard at the craft. Was a very good hockey player. John says he would be a great choice. Very quiet and discrete guy who would do a very good job for the Canucks. Talked about Sean Burke. He has worked hard at the craft of being in the business. Worked hard in MTL as a consultant and goalie coach. Was on the short list in EDM that Holland got. Solid person in the game. Talked about why Mellanby quite MTL. Talked about the past legal troubles in the past. John says that he is more of a complete person now than when the assault occured. Thinks that Mellanby can do the job without the tutelage of Rutherford. Talked about the plans outside of Allvin. There needs to someone who can be a capologist. Talked about the schedule moving forward. Says that fifty percent capactiy is better than zero. Thinks we will hear about the Olympic team a week from Monday, likely the 24th of January. Talked about Eric Staal. He isn’t on the list right now but the key word is “yet”. Likes the American team. Not sure about their goaltending but they can skate and shoot the puck. Told a story about being in charge at the Nagano games. He had better access the Gary and Brian Burke. Say former Blackhawks owner, Bill Wirtz standing in line to watch a hockey game. Doesn’t think we’ll hear about a new GM this week but he could be wrong. 

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Vancouver Canucks head coach, Bruce Boudreau joined Matt and Blake for the first time. Says that any coach when they lose is not happy. No matter how well you play, you want to win as often as you can. Thought they were only ok in FLA despite the layoff. It’s pretty good to keep them to 21 shots but you still want to win. Talked about his apporach and how his mood affects the team. When they are winning, you have to push the team harder or they get complaicent. When you are losing you have to have more of a parental approach. Today was an all positive day because they are doing a lot of things right. Talked about going into Carolina, against a top team, they are in for their best game after CAR got spanked by CBJ. Talked about players that have suprised him. Mentioned Demko. Knew he was a good goalie but he was so good when he first got here. QH43 is a better player than he was from a distance. JT Miller is a really competetive, good hockey player. A lot of them came as advertised. Talked about wanting Tyler Myers to shoot more. Wants OEL to be the OEL of 4 years ago in ARI. Talked about some of his high-scoring d-men that he has had before that allows for a high tempo game. So far as not sacrificing the defensive game. Talked about moving Petey to the wing. Had some good passes, one to Horvat and another to Garland. Was in on 8 offensive chances yesterday so it sort of helped him. Gotta go through the bad to get to the good. When he starts scoring, hopefully from that LW position, he will start scoring that pace Canucks fans are accustomed to. Drives him crazy that people would start to write off this season with so many games left. You don’t need a 20 game win streak but if they get through this road trip with a couple wins they will be right there with everyone else. Talked about Jaro Halak and his utilization. Says he doesn’t care about his contract situation and that Jim hasn’t managed any of that. Talked about Ovi and how to defend him. Says that you have to take him for dinner and leave him there. 

Our Canucks reporter and one half of the Rink Wide show, Jeff Paterson, joined Matt and Blake for his daily hit. Talked about the Florida road trip. Thinks that FLA is one of the best stops for the Canucks with the hotel right across from the arena. Talked about the best players not being good enough for the first 2 games of this road trip. Wonders how you can have 8 minutes of PP time and only log one shot on net. Nobody will argue with how they beat Tampa. You won’t beat them with only your 4th line producing. Says that the Canucks need 10 chances to get a goal when Tampa can have Stamkos go with one chance and it’s in the back of the net. Talked about the poll question and who the most charismatic coach in Canucks history is. Lots of good options, JPat says. Talked about dealing with Pat Quinn as a young broadcaster. Told a story about Pat Quinn telling Jeff to start over as Pat could tell he was a bit out of his element, not being able to get the first few questions out. Talked about Bruce Boudreau interview and how Bruce came to the decision to put EP40 on the wing. Talked about the red flags from EP40. Not writing him off but we haven’t seen what makes him such a great player at this level. Hasn’t been an even strenght point in the 5 games since Christmas. They can afford to put him there because they are completely healthy, as far as the top 9 forwards. 

RIck Dhaliwal of The Team joined Matt and Blake. Started off with what he knows about Sean Burke as a potential GM. He impressed and has a chance at a 2nd interview. Allvin is still a guy that everyone thinks that it’s his job to lose. Says that you can reference teams calling Evander Kane that they don’t care about past transgretions, as is the case with Burke. Talked about the timeline for Kane. They still have teams to talk to but than news broke about him crossing the border with Covid. Rick says he understands the hesitation from the public but it’s about winning. He is going to come cheap. Yes there are issues and baggage but he is still a top 6 winger that could put a team over the top. Talked about bringing a woman into the front office. Thinks they would like to add a diversity hire. Had heard Kevin Weekes but that was shut down. Jen Botterill was a name that was out there but it’s probably not going to happen. Talked about QH43 needing more help for offensive production. Wondering if Hamonic is a guy that could possibly move. Motte is another guy that could move as Will Lockwood is a guy that could step in and fill that role. Talked about Halak and him being on the move. Rick doesn’t think he will waive. Talked about Sutter. He is a guy that you feel for, right now. 

Rob Williams, of the Daily Hive, joined Matt and Blake for the first of his new weekly hit. Talked about what he will be joining us for, down the road. Started off talking about Kodak Black. Had to admit he had never heard of him, for being the young and hip guy. What a story for Canucks Twitter. Had to go back to 1974 to the time the Penthouse hired 3 streakers to run onto the ice. 

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Trevor Lai, the artist who created the Canucks Lunar jerseys, joined Matt and Blake. Talked about how the association with the Canucks came to be. Says he is the biggest hockey and Canucks fan in China. Says he reached out to the team and the league to find out how to grow the game in China. Talked about BOOMi, one of his characters, who has accumulated over five billions views. He pitched that the best way to grow the game is to grow it through kids and cartoons. He created a series on how to play hockey. Talked about how the anti-asian sentiment really hurt. The Canucks reached out to see what they could do. Talked about how he integrated the Chinese community into the design. Credits the Canucks for giving him so much creative control. Talked about playing beer league hockey in Shanghai.

Vancouver sports broadcaster, Scott Rintoul joined Matt and Blake in his regular Thursday spot. Started with the Canucks and who could be coming to the front office. Shared his thoughts on Sean Burke and what he would bring. There would be some PR that is needed with his domestic violence allegations. It was short lived but needs to be addressed. Feels there is a way past that due to his relationship with Rutherford. There are a lot of reasons that make sense. Talked about Patrik Allvin. Thinks he makes the most sense among the finalists becuase he is the kind of executive that Rutherford has described in the past as to what he is looking for. Talked about Rutherford bringing in a female AGM. Says it is good becuase this organization needs more diverse opinions and there are many qualified women. Talked about Clancey and his view on analytics. Talked about when EP40 will figure it out. Thinks it’ll be next season as every game goes by. Not worried about his level athletisicm. His hockey IQ and vision are top level. That doesn’t just disappear. Talked about Luke Schenn, who recieved his Stanley Cup ring. Scotty loves his story. He was told he was done in ANA and took his opportunity in VAN and turned that into two rings in TBay. Talked about the Cowboys vs 9ers matchup this weekend. 

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NHL Insider and host of Ray and Dregs, Darren Dreger joined Matt and Blake for his regular Wednesday appearance. Talked about the difficulty in chasing around rescheduling. Teams are eagerly waiting the release of the full schedule. As nice as it would be for all teams to have a 5-7 day break, the NHL needs that calendar real estate. PA hasn’t had that conversation with the league yet, where the season would be extended. They are going to have to use every day available to them. The concern is how many back to back games there will be, how the travel looks. Talked about Evander Kane and where he might go. Doesn’t understand why it’s the NHL looking into the cross-border transgretions. Thinks that Kane’s team was blindsided by this. The NHL doens’t know what the outcome will be. Talked about the potential of him going to the Oilers. Connor McDavid would involved in those conversations. Dregs understands that Connor isn’t shy about letting managment know what he thinks should be done. Talked about the Canucks GM chair that is still open. His sources are reluctant to say who is coming in for in-person interviews. Talked about the potential of Pat Verbeek. Dregs can’t distance that name. Talked about Verbeek as a player and the sandpaper that is there. Talked about Bobby Clarke throwing Ron Hextall under the bus. Says that Hextall wasn’t that great at sharing his vision around the rest of the organization. Just seems wierd taht Clarke would throw it out there. 

Jeff Paterson, our Canucks reporter and one half of Rink Wide, joined Matt and Blake. Talked about all he has learned in the last 24 hours with the “Kodak moment” last night. Talked about how good the Panthers are as a team. They are a deep team that can spread their goals around. Goals from defense has become a topic in this town because the Canucks just aren’t getting enough production from the backend. Talked about getting Rathbone in to boost those numbers. JPat has all the time for the conversation but how much longer are they going to get nothing from the right side. Talked about how this team needs to score more goals. Five of the games Bruce has coached, they have scored 1 or 2. You would take contributions from other parts of the lineup. Talked about EP40. Says he couldn’t even figure out how to get shots on. This simplest of tasks are difficult for this guy. One point in four games since Christmas break. Jeff is worried about Pettersson. Talked about Tanner Pearson. He must have gotten a membership to Fight Club for Christmas. Thinks that he has held his own in the last couple fights. Says that he has played to his strengths under Boudreau. 

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