CKSTAM

Ben Boudreau, Bruce’s kid and head coach of the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets. Says he bought some ‘Bruce there it is’ shirts that he will be wearing next time he is in town. Talked about what his dad thinks about it. Says that Bruce doesn’t hate it, he just wants the attention to go where it should. Says he doesn’t worry about his dad too much. Hockey is a way of life. Talked about how many different cities the family has been through. Talked about all the opportunities he has chased and how his hockey career went from player to coach. Talked about what Bruce is like as a dad. Told a great story of how Bruce interupted his presentation. Can’t say if he shares the same coaching approach. Ben has never been in the same room. Says they have a lot of similarites in their “use” of the english language. Talked about family life through all the travels. Talked about the dream of coaching on the same bench as Bruce. Says he doens’t have the American experience and he is still cutting his teeth. Talked about some of the guys he has coached in the east coast league that have played in the NHL. Talked about what a Stanley Cup would mean to the Boudreau family. It’s the one elusive thing that Bruce hasn’t won yet. Says that he thinks it’s motivation to keep going. 

Patrick Johnston of the Province joined Matt and Blake. Talked about the adventure his family has been on the last 9 months with his wife actiing as a surrogate for their friends. Talked about Benning getting the Juolevi pick wrong. Thinks it was such a misfire. If they had hit homers on the Juolevi and Virtanen picks, the state of this team would be different. They missed on both of them. Thinks Benning would still be employed if they went in another direction. Talked about who they would have gone with instead of Juolevi. Talked about the upcoming road trip. This is the test to see what the team has and lacks. Finally they get to play a bunch of games because they are going to areas that don’t care too much about restrictions. The result today isn’t as important as the result in Tampa. Need to look back after the trip is done. 

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Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk joined Matt and Blake to wrap up Week 18 and the season. Talked about the day that was yesterday. Says that when the league announced they were going to 17 games that the last week would be awful. That was not the case. The most exciting week she has seen in a long, long time. Hoping that the playoffs carry the momentum of the final Sunday. Talked about some of these teams that had nothing to play for go out and make it interesting for teams that were still in contention. Talked about the Seahawks. Thinks that the team won’t make any signifigant changes. Would be over 50 million dollars to Pete if they let him go. That’s an awful lot of money to pay someone not to coach. Talked about coaching changes around the league. Talked about Flores getting the boot in Miami. He wasn’t on Charean’s list. This is a team that should be in Super Bowl contention. Wonders if Tua is the QB of the future. Talked about the New York area teams. Wonders if Joe Judge wants to be there with the Giants. Talked about the Vikings and the future of Kirk Cousins. Charean has real questions about Cousins and if he can take advantage of what is around him. Thinks he’ll be there one more year. Talked about what she is looking forward to next weekend. So many things that are intriguing about the weekend.

NHL Insider, John Shannon, joined Matt and Blake for the first time this year. John took issue with Happy New Year wishes so late into the month. Talked about postponments and adding to the 102 already that need to be made up. Suspects that teams won’t get many breaks from now until the end of the season. John thinks that will go into May. Talked about the all-star game and if it will go forward. Wonders if we will hear from players who don’t want to go. Thinks that players won’t care about one game, because of how many games have already been missed. Talked about why the Canucks vs Senators got postponed. John hears that there was a challenge from the public health authorities. Says he thinks that this was the Canucks doing a favour to Dr. Henry. Talked about the remaining road trip games OTT will have out west. Talked about hockey generated revenue. So much of the money comes from the 7 Canadian teams. Thinks the flexibility factor is something that will stick around. Perhaps they will do the first half and leave the last half to a later date. Talked about the Olympic team and who we might see on. Talked about who would even be eligible. Talked about if we might see a World Cup of Hockey. John would do 8 teams. Knows it will upset somebody but that will happen regardless. Talked about Evander Kane. Would be suprised if we see him this season but thinks that by the offseason Kane’s agent will have got him a tryout somewhere in the league. 

Our Canucks reporter, Jeff Paterson joined us. Started off by answering the poll question, saying he is excited about the upcoming road trip. Thinks the players should come out like being fired out of a cannon. Talked about the trend of winning one-goal games. Thinks they will have a trouble with a stacked Florida team. JPat talked about Canucks players in Covid protocol. Amazing that EP40 didn’t miss a game and Boeser missed minimal games with all his time. Curious to see where Boeser will be with everything. He was playing so well and scoring at a terrific rate. Talked about Travis Hamonic. He is not on the road trip. Was injured in 2nd game Boudreau coached. Jeff isn’t sure that this team needs Hamonic right now. Talked about Jason Dickinson. Talked about line deployment. Any line with JT Miller on it, has to be the top line with the way he is producing. Talked about the potential of Rutherford going out and getting a lefthanded defenseman. Talked about Evander Kane. Doens’t think it’s worth the hastle. Trouble will show up on your doorstep with this player. It could be a low-cost option but to Jeff it doens’t feel like Boudreau would want to take on this sort of thing in this part of the process. Talked about his letter grades for Canucks players at the midway point of the season.

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Rick Dhaliwal, host of Donnie and Dhali, joined Matt and Blake for the first time this new year. Started off with the frustration of being covid fatigued. Say’s it’s a frustrating time for fans. The people Rick talks to just want to watch the game. It’s not so much about going to the game. Talked about what drove the postponement. Was told it was due to capacity. Noted that the Warriors and Abby Canucks are going to play. It’s just this team that can’t. Talked about the possibility that teams might not get all 82 games in. Thinks that Boudreau is probably losing it after going on such a hot streak to start his time in Vancouver. Talked about potential GM’s. Talked about the possibility of Scott Young coming to Vancouver. Says that Rutherford is going after a lot of friends. Talked about Aidan McDonough. If you’re the Canucks, you want to sign this kid. Vancouver needs to wait a little bit closer to the NCAA season coming to an end. Canucks need some draft picks from lower rounds to step up. Talked about Jaro Halak and if he will play 10 games. 

Our Canucks reporter, Jeff Paterson joined us and referred to today as “Frustration Friday”. We heard from Bill Daly yesterday that he expected the game vs OTT to go forth. Says the players are hockey players, not hockey practicers. Hopes for the players sake that the road trip goes on without a hitch. Talked about the schedule getting hot and heavy. It won’t let up. It will be a difficult stretch, for a team trying to make up ground. This is the organizations putting profits over points. Jeff doesn’t fully grasp it as we are seeing the Leafs playing in front of empty seats. You’d think this game could be a good tune-up, leading into the extended road trip.

Gregg Bell joined ahead of the last Seahawks of the season. Talked about if the band is getting back together. Doens’t see Jody Allen in a regime change mode. What’s at play is how much drama RW3 wants following a 6-10 season. After 13-3, he was unbroachable. Talked about if they will want to go with Bobby Wagner. He is still plenty good enough. There is also nobody coming in behind him. Same with RW3. Talked about if this game means anything. Might matter for Rashad Penny and how much he makes next year. He has done it against the weaker teams but not the better teams.

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Scott Rintoul joined in his regular Thursday slot. After noting the snow he talked about why the Canucks are feeling so much better about themselves. Noted the final result of the ANA game. Says that a couple months ago, John Gibson comes out and plays that puck on JT Miller goal. Talked about what has changed since Boudreau took over. Says you can credit upstairs. Nothing as changed with on-ice personal. Talked about what to expect without EP40. Doens’t think they will lose momentum but will miss him in the lineup. Talked about the importance of Saturday’s game vs OTT. Doesn’t think it’s a must-win. Everything sets up well for them to win but because it is hockey, it probably gets away from them… Talked about Jaro Halak and his future with the team. Talked about his new company, Toul Kit Content. 

We crown our Take 5 Champion, you'll want to hear the outcome. 

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NHL Insider and Host of Ray and Dregs Podcast, Darren Dreger joined Matt and Blake in his regular Wednesday spot. Started off by talking about his outdoor rink twitter exercise. Dregs talked about what struck him from his conversation with Bruce Boudreau. He is a very cadid, good type of guy. Will be brutally honest with his players and the media. Says BB was worried that he wouldn’t get another opportunity. Usually he gets a job right away but he had to wait this time. Says he is well built to handle the waves of trouble that come with coaching in a Canadian market. Talked about who the next GM of the Canucks could be. Says the Canucks aren’t in a rush to find one because they have Jimmy. Talked about when there might be some concern there isn’t a move made. Talked about Jaro Halak. Says that JR will like the tandem he has between Demko and Halak. Talked about the goaltending needs around the league. Talked about the troubles in EDM. Talked about the GM search in Anaheim. Would be surprised if they didn’t keep it in-house. Dregs talked about who could potentially represent Canada at the Olympics. Talked about who came out on the long list that isn’t even eligible. 

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