Chapter 1: What went wrong for the Vancouver Canucks this season?
Welcome back to Canucks Talk here on Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd, Thomas Drance. We are broadcasting live from the Kintex studio. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. This hour of the show is presented by Waffle House Diner.
Enjoy chicken and waffles, the Waffle House Special Classic, full breakfast, and more. dine in or order on your favorite delivery app breakfast done right and now joining us in studio and he's such a trusted guest now that we let him plug in his own headphones our producer declined to do that for him
and i can click my own mic button you can click your own mic i've learned a lot in two years this is like when someone gets like such a consistent house guest or familiar house guest that you stop cleaning up for them when they come over you're like whatever this person's been over enough they know how they're on the chore sheet you're like you gotta start chipping in here yeah that's you at this point he is former nhl player and sports that analyst now landon ferraro uh what's going on man
Not too much. Enjoying playoff hockey, enjoying the sun. Like honestly, playoff time is the best. And if it was just destroying us with rain outside, I'd still be very happy. Yet you throw some sunshine in there where you can go for a little walk and then just dive back into a cave of hockey again. Life's pretty good.
Chapter 2: How does Elias Pettersson's leadership style impact the team?
It's a good combo. It's a good combo. Yesterday, I got outside early and then I was inside by noon and I spent a lot of hours on the couch. I didn't feel guilty because I'd already been out in the sun. It was very good. All right.
Before we get to the Stanley Cup playoffs, let's talk a little Canucks and specifically, let's go back to Friday when we heard from, of course, Jim Rutherford, who we've talked a lot about, but also the Canucks players. And, you know, we heard from Pretty much the entire roster with the exception of Evander Kane, who was not there.
Overall, did you have any kind of like big one or two takeaways from listening to the Canucks players on Friday?
Player-wise, you know, like for a team that finished last by a decent margin, like the excitement and youthfulness, right? Like there's a ton of young guys, but like,
the fact that a lot of them, well, not a lot of them, basically all of them were all just like, it was a really tough year and, you know, whatever else each kind of individual guy said, but it ended with, you know, for the last month here, like we've been getting a lot closer as a team, you know, it's easy for all of us to see the product on the ice was better just in the sense of sticking up for each other, playing to the end of the game and all of it.
So like that was, from after a year of covering this, like, that felt good.
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Chapter 3: What role should veterans play in the Canucks' lineup?
I don't know how that made you guys feel, but it was nice to see that.
It felt like there was a baseline professional effort in the last 12 games with a higher degree of consistency than we've seen from this group since, I don't know, something like January of 2025. Yeah. You know, like, sometime in around January 2025, it felt like this group was liable to mail it in every second. You know what? I'm... Heck, I think that's probably wrong.
We were talking about the inconsistency of the group is in the fall of 2024. Yeah, for sure. So really, maybe it's training camp 2024 vibe was off the entire way. And it's like from that point on, I think this team was liable to put in efforts that were substandard, you know, just just based on like a basic NHL standard. And it did feel like.
Yeah, the standing up for one another, the belly in the fire in the belly that we saw like that Florida game where the Panthers were trying to little brother them and they actually kind of pushed back and and handled pressure. I mean, they were still liable to get blown out every other night, but they had they had some measure of fight in them.
It's how you get blown out.
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Chapter 4: How can younger players maximize their potential in the Canucks' rebuild?
Everyone knows they're the worst team in the league and they're going into a rebuild. No one's expecting you to win 6-2 in a rebuild every night. Then you're not in a rebuild. But it's just the... I don't know. Now that I'm not on the playing side and I'm working, but I've still got to drive through traffic. I've got to find my parking. I've got to get in there and whatever.
You do all that and you're like, I kind of get it now of like, all I want is effort. Like I've made the effort to get here and I'm covering it. And all the fans I talk to when I go up to the little studio and stuff, like all they care about is seeing a team care. And that's what we saw at the end.
And then, I mean, to me, the next biggest thing is obviously Rutherford talking and, you know, talking about the room. And I mean, really clarifying slash, giving you like making sure you understand that it's fact what we've all been hearing and knowing and you know for the last couple years of the room is not wasn't the best place and how different the guys are talking about it now um
Chapter 5: What insights can be drawn from the NHL playoff landscape?
But it just shows again like how important it is to make sure that you have the right people in a rebuild. Like the one line of, you know, it's not an issue now of young guys coming in and feeling like they're going to get belittled or anything. Like I've been that young guy where you walk into a room and like you have to remember like these kids are 20.
And all of a sudden like you're in a dressing room supposed to be equals with a guy that's like 37. Yeah. It's very different with the Canucks. There's not a ton of old guys, but speaking for mine, I was in Detroit. All of a sudden, I'm in a room with Datsuk Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Bertuzzi, all these guys. If they want to make my life miserable, it would not take much.
They don't even have to say anything. Just give me some dirty looks once in a while. I go pick up tape and put it in the wrong thing. They give me a look. I'm going to be thinking about that for a week. Right.
Chapter 6: Who are the potential front office candidates for the Canucks?
But because you care what the older guys think and to make sure that you have the right people in so that the young guys, as they're working on their game and trying to get better, like they're also developing into adults and figuring out who they are. Like you can't be crushing them in any way. You got to make sure you're on top.
You got to be that big brother that holds them accountable and messes with them, but in a fun way where they're a part of it and feeling it.
So I buy that the vibes got better. down the final 10 games of the year. I don't really buy that you durably build a better culture at the end of a season like that. That I don't believe at all. The proof will be at training camp. The proof will be in the future if they can sustain this and sort of build off of it. But for me, the takeaway is not like, well, now they have the right mix of vets.
For me, the takeaway is you've now got enough young guys that carry themselves like they get it. Like Zeep Booyam. Yes. Carries himself like he gets it.
Chapter 7: What lessons can the Canucks learn from other teams' rebuilds?
Linus Carlson and Max Sasson, the Calder Cup winners, like they carry themselves like they absolutely no doubt get it. Secretly, a guy who I think carries himself like he gets it. Atu Ratu. Like he's last guy on the ice a lot. You know, there's a lot of work behind the scenes in his game.
I know he wasn't able to appeal to the coach, but I don't really hold that against him given the quality of the coach's work. Like I think there's now Tom Volander and Elias Pettersson deserve credit for this too.
I was waiting to see those two. Like they're fully in that too. But, and I totally agree with what you're saying. Like you don't fix your culture. One, whether at any time of the year, you don't fix your culture in a month. Yeah. Like, it doesn't happen, but you do have to have the first step down that. And I think the biggest thing is that it's one thing to be in the room and feel it.
Chapter 8: How do the Canucks plan to move forward after this season?
Yeah. It's another for it to get to the coaches and they feel it, the management feel it, to the point where they do make some changes and it was that easy for them to see. Like, once you get out from the clouds and you bring in some sun, all of a sudden you're like, oh, like... We were just kind of prodding along here, and it was a lot worse than we thought it was.
We knew it was an issue, but we didn't know it was this. Because within a couple moves, you see how the guys are talking and seeing how much lighter they feel. Clearly, it was bigger than they thought it was even.
I have an analogy here because we did hear the young players talk about the veterans helping them, but we also, and this really struck me, a lot of the vets talked about the energy the young players brought, right? And how nice that was for them and how kind of invigorating it was for them.
And this might be a torture analogy, but okay, right now on the station, we're running ads for like the Canadian blood services and their slogan is who's saving who, right? And it's like, it's not just an act of charity to give blood. You're also getting this like sense of purpose, right? out of it, right? Sure.
And I think you hear about that sometimes with like animal adoption shelters, you know? It's like, it's not just you're doing an act of charity to the animal. It's like, they are going to help your life and you're going to get all this sense of purpose. That's what I think is going on here with the Canucks. It's like, it's not about the veterans. Yeah, I love my dog. Oh, we're doing it.
We're being so nice to the young players. It's like, the young players are bringing the energy to the veterans. It's a real who's saving who circumstance.
And clearly, like clearly that's what's happened here. And so keep bringing in young players who get it and carry themselves the right way and prioritize characters significantly in bringing those guys in and keep clearing out the veterans who, you know, took until the NHL trade deadline to assert themselves in this locker room.
Like as much as I buy that guys like Marcus Patterson and Teddy Bluger and Brock Besser are And Kevin Lankanen and company stood up like, you know, they also weren't able to keep it off the rails for years before that. And that's part of the story too. Like at the very least what I'm not buying land in here, like what, what I'm just not going, what, what,
The team had a better vibe toward the end of the season. Buy it, right? The team's young guys seem to get it and brought new energy to the room. Absolutely buy it. The Canucks have the right veterans to keep this on the rails and continue to teach the right guys. Don't buy it. And not to say that I'm like blaming them either.
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