Frank Corrado: EP40 hits 500 pts in nearly record time...are those days gone for good?

And here's former Vancouver,

can I con TSN hockey analyst, Mr. Frank Carrotto?

Frank, how are you?

Hey, Franky.

Well, I'm in Montreal,

and I just went for a walk to grab some lunch,

and it's a place I've never been before.

I wanted to get a burrito,

mostly because it was quick, and I like burritos.

And when the person asked me,

what do you want on it?

Do you want mild, medium, or hot?

I knew that at one o'clock Eastern,

you and I, we were gonna talk,

so I said I wanted mild.

Now, the mild is red, the hot is red, the medium is green.

I got a red sauce, like I said, never been here before.

Don't know which red is which,

but I got back to my hotel room,

and I sunk my teeth into this thing,

and my mouth was on fire.

On fire, and I had 10 minutes to gather myself,

I stopped sweating, stopped drinking water

out of the faucet in my hotel room,

and get ready for this head.

And I will never forgive that person over there

who did that to me today.

Wow, next time you have to be more specific,

I need gringo mild.

But secondly, and perhaps more importantly,

Frank, you were in one of the great eating cities

in the country and in the continent.

Not burritos, though, man.

Don't take the bait.

You can go to one of the best delis in the country,

go get yourself a smoked meat sandwich,

you can go to a cast crew,

get the famous steamy's with a puts in.

I mean, the burrito and Montreal.

I'm on the move, man.

I got stuff going on.

I got it.

It was, it wasn't like I went there as the destination.

I was doing a couple other things,

and it was on the way back to the hotel.

So that's why it worked for me.

Regardless, I will never go back there again.

If I see that person, I won't say anything

because I'm not the type to say anything,

but maybe I'll shoot them an ugly look.

That's there you go.

There you go.

You, you will be my old, you did to me.

Yes, exactly.

We were just talking before we went on air here

about the game and Liz Patterson getting to 500 points

last night, Frank, and doing it as the second quickest

Kinox second fewest games to get to 500 points in Kinox history.

I think that's catching a lot of people by surprise.

What was your reaction when you saw that last night?

Well, it kind of just goes to show you

what kind of incredible scoring pace this guy was at

prior to the last year and a half, right?

Like that puts it into perspective how good he was

and his trajectory, how good we thought he was going to be

for a long, long time.

And it's funny, like I was sitting with yesterday

in Montreal at Morning Skate.

I was sitting with a member of Swedish media via SAT.

They were just talking Swedish hockey and, you know,

we talked Patterson, we talked about the state

of the Swedish men's team and how, you know,

the sentiment now aren't exactly the sentiment

they used to have or you think about Henrik and Forsberg

or, you know, whoever, Zetterberg,

they don't have those high-end guys anymore.

But Patterson was kind of supposed to be one of those guys

and was tracking to be one of those guys for a long time.

So, yeah, when you see him, you know, hit the milestone,

it just kind of goes to show you how much of that groundwork

was laid in the, you know, the first, I don't know,

whatever you want to call it, six years of his career

prior to the, you know, the last little while, I guess.

Just before Patrick jumps in here,

I'll have you know, Frank,

Alize Patterson became such a non-factor on that Swedish team.

You had Vancouver calmness on the ground in Milan

who didn't go and bother to talk to him

for an entire Olympiad.

It didn't matter.

I told you.

And they don't, like, they don't even have the answer,

like, you know, we're talking back and forth

and it's like, this is guys boots on the ground

and Sweden, I'm like, what do you hear?

Is there anything that was just hoping,

just kind of hoping that at some point it happens again?

Frankie, you said it.

I mean, that was the first thing I thought about

when I saw this, he was gonna beat Thomas Gritty.

He was gonna be number one with a bullet on this list.

And then he just stopped playing.

And it's, it is truly baffling.

I mean, I wrote that story a couple of weeks ago

and just, even he doesn't at least have a public answer.

We, a member of Canucks Twitter did a deep dive

on this a couple of days ago.

We had the graphic at the time, Franks,

or I don't have it at the ready for you.

But it was something like the last three or four seasons.

Elias Patterson had between three and five goals

per season on like 20 to 25 tipped shots.

This year he's got no goals on tipped shots

and he only has but two tipped shots all season.

So, I mean, you tell me, but it sounds like an indication

he's not going to the net front area.

This, yeah.

Now, it's fair to say that.

And like, I don't know, that was something

that he was so good at and willing to do

along with the big bomb on the power play

and the fact that, you know, he could shake and bake someone

even though it wasn't the most blistering of speed.

You know, you look at some of the smaller guys

around the league who score a lot in front of the net.

Like, these guys exist, you know,

whether it's Brendan Gallagher.

You know, I'm in Montreal right now.

Brendan Gallagher has scored a lot in front of the net.

He's not big.

He's always undersized when it comes to who he's going up against,

but he wanted to get there.

You know, in Patterson, like, there's the graphic

which kind of tells you, you know, tells you a lot.

You know, not everyone is gifted enough to score from distance,

even the guy who's been the best goal scorer in the league

from the moment he stepped foot in it in 2016, 2017

is Austin Matthews.

Like, even he's not good enough to just rip home pucks

on a power player, fly down the wing and rip home pucks

because you're seeing what happens with him right now

when he's not necessarily scoring around the front of the net.

So, I don't know, it's a mindset as much as it is

any kind of skill you can think of.

Yeah, and it's so unfortunate

because Elias has some of the best hand-eye coordination

I have ever seen, Patrick.

Like, it's Mogilney-esque.

There was a play in the second period last night

where Anaheim's trying to clear the zone

and it's a pacy pocket.

Elias just takes it out of mid-air like it was nothing

in control, so that was a high stick, it was blown dead.

But the, you know, the aptitude is to be able to do that

is extraordinary.

And that paddle with stick, hey, like he's got that big,

like the blade of his stick, it's oversized

and it looks like a paddle, which is obviously advantageous

if you're trying to pick, you know, tip pucks in front of the net.

Yeah. Talk to me about that.

Why do guys have the big paddle?

Like, what's, what are the advantages?

What are the drawbacks?

So, I tried that a couple times throughout the course

of my career, like the oversized paddle.

And essentially, it's just so pucks don't bounce on you as much.

So you have like a little more surface area

to like corral a pass or knock it down

or even to tip something, like dry-sidle uses

that really oversized paddle as well.

His looks, you know, really odd.

When you look at it, a lot of defensemen use it.

The drawback and from my personal experience,

not that my hands were great, but when I had like the regular length,

my hands felt like I could stick handle just a little quicker.

Whereas the oversized, it felt like it was just a little more cumbersome

to have to move.

But for him, like that's, you know, that's not really an issue.

And for the guys that use it, they're obviously comfortable with it.

It's more for the guys that, you know,

turn the puck from a circle into a square

when they stick handle, kind of like I did.

That's, that's who notices it more.

And then there's guys like Yanik Perot

who used to play with like a shovel.

Why not all those face offs with the shovel?

I was going further to the tip shot.

You know, who's more tip shots than the Lea's better than the season?

No, our steep beans.

Oh my goodness.

Right?

Like that's how far it's fallen off.

Our steep hasn't been here for a couple of months.

I just looked, it's wild.

It's just been, it's one of many things.

I, it's been a bizarre thing to watch.

And, and at least last year, I mean, this is the thing,

at least last year he was tipping puck.

Like he was, he was getting in the middle.

He's just not getting, I mean, I suppose some of this

is about the system and the struggle of just to have the puck in the offensive zone.

But at the end of the day, this is a guy that needs to find a way to do more.

Yeah.

And at the same token, by the same token, let's not

sue room after it to assist night.

Because frankly, like, regardless of how we got it done,

the production was there last night.

And that's what's most important.

Yeah, here's like the thing on, on Patterson, right?

Like it always, it takes up a lot of oxygen in the market.

And it feels like for a little while now,

it's just been like, at some point, it's going to change, right?

Like at some point, it's got to turn around.

He's a better player.

Maybe it, it never turns around to the way it was.

Quite honestly, it might not turn around to the way it was.

But he, if that's the case, like he's got to find something else

that makes him productive to whatever degree he can possibly be.

And getting to the front of the net is a quick,

simple way to establish that.

That's your, like, that's your quick go-to solution

to being a little more productive.

I mean, there are some in this market, Frank,

that believe the conucks culture and their next generation,

as they messaged yesterday, cannot begin,

while Ali is still here, that he is too large a reminder,

to stark a remnant from a terrible era of conucks hockey,

that he has to go for the page to fully be turned over.

Do you believe that, or do you think it can happen with Alias

as part of the fold?

No, I think it can happen with him.

I don't think he has to go for the sake of the team

to play well and establish a new culture.

But for him individually, I think that's where the question

is more valid.

For Alias Patterson to take a step in the right direction,

does he have to be somewhere else?

Not in Vancouver.

Is it a quieter American market?

Is it with a different set of wingers

that kind of lead into how he can play

and have a little more success?

That's, ultimately, if guys are willing to,

and we've talked about this, if guys are willing to shed

a lot of the baggage that they've obtained here

the last couple of years with everything that's gone on

and make it a welcoming environment for new guys

to come in and thrive, and there's no reason

why Patterson can't do that and can't be that.

But I think the question more stems around,

can he improve as a player here?

Or does he have to go somewhere else?

And ultimately, that's going to be up to him

to figure out what's best at this point in his career?

I think, in the end, he's a guy talking to people around him.

I mean, obviously, he talked to him often,

but he's a guy that I think he's aware of

where he's at may make a difference.

I don't know if he's going to do that,

but I certainly know he's thought about it.

And yeah, I think you're spot on.

I think as much as anything, it is just that fresh start.

And I've said this before, he needs to find a way

to love what he's doing,

because there's a lot of time you're just like,

I'm not sure he loves what he's doing right now.

That's it.

Different vibe and different route to the rank,

different city, different restaurants,

like just all of it.

You put on a different jersey,

you show up to a different training camp.

I don't know.

Maybe it's something, maybe it's nothing.

Like we've kind of seen that too, where hey,

fall off and you're off, but I don't know.

Well, and the other thing is a different set of teammates

and people who you know have eyes on you

and that you're accountable to, right?

Like that's, to me, there is so much baggage here

in this market.

And I feel like one of the issues,

certainly over these last couple of years,

is he has felt like nobody has got his back.

That Patrick Elvine and Rick talk it before him,

before Adam Foot.

We're so critical of him publicly.

And I just felt, I just feel from afar,

I have no, you know, inside knowledge on this.

But from afar, it looks to me like,

oh, these guys have criticized me publicly,

question my work ethic, my dedication,

my place in the room, yada, yada, yada,

and he's just retreated and he's gone into the shell.

I don't trust you, it's broken.

And so that's it.

You have a liaison one side,

you have conduct management on the other side.

And I'm not sure if that's getting mended,

especially with the managers if they're still here.

I think it would absolutely have to be a new set of managers

and a code shoes not from the talketry to get to next.

Yeah.

And to your point, I think it's very fair, Matt.

And whether, you know,

whether people like it or not,

some hockey players just need to be built up.

They just need consistent reassurance

from whoever's in charge,

whether that's the coach or the general manager.

And it might be, you know,

it might be looked upon as like,

it's silver spoon kind of stuff.

It's like, hey, it's really soft.

It's not old school.

But okay, at the end of the day,

if the guy is a good player,

and he produces because of it,

why do you care that you have to like pat him on the back

constantly and tell him how good he is?

Like, I know like it's a lot of work.

It's not, not everyone needs it.

It not everyone wants it.

But like, that might be what he needs.

He might just need constant reassurance

that like, hey, it's okay,

you're doing the right thing.

Not the tension that we've seen

with him, players, coaches, like my god.

Like it's been a lot.

Like that's, that's a lot of baggage

to pick up in a year and a half.

Yep, absolutely.

And look, he hates being in the spotlight to begin with.

So then putting him in the spotlight

and for him to get a breeze and spoil.

And frankly, it's a whole generation

that requires that sort of.

It's different, man.

It is so different, Frank.

Yeah, like Matt, I'm not saying it's right.

Like I'm not saying that is the 100% correct thing to do,

especially for every player,

but in that case, I don't know.

Yeah, you've signed this guy for a long time now.

Maybe it's worth it to just have that approach with him.

Who cares?

I am not casting judgment either on right or wrong.

I think their incidents in specific incidents

on both sides of the ledger, where hard coaching

or, you know, Huggy Bear, love them up coaching are appropriate.

But it has so changed to the point, Frank,

where there was an episode in the Women's Basketball

Tournament this weekend, where female coach

takes her best player off the floor, meets her at the sideline

and is right in her face,

and including a few pokes in the chest.

And it is really hard coaching,

and the lip readers are there saying, okay, she's telling her,

I believe in you, I believe in you.

Don't for a second think, I don't believe in you,

but I need more right now.

You've got to get your head in this game.

And it is really hard coaching.

My visceral reaction to that, Frank,

was like, oh, can you coach kids like that anymore?

Whereas, I don't know, 10, 15, 20 years ago,

I probably wouldn't have even flinched

when seeing that because you saw a fair bit of that

in coaching circles in any sport.

Not the same, not the same.

Farhan tweeted something about that video,

and I seconded, but, you know, people might look at that video

and say that, oh, you can yell and you can scream

and you can get in their face,

but like the relationship that needed to be forged

for both sides there to have trust in each other

and say like, my coach is getting in my face.

It's because it's in my best interest.

And my coach trusts me that I will deliver after this message

and I'm not, she's not doing it every time, you know?

And, you know, if you use that example,

you're like, this is what we're in the tournament right now.

Are we not?

These are, this is it.

This is the cycle and the big game and it culminates here.

So the equivalent of that in the NHL

is not January 23rd regular season.

That is Stanley Cup final.

You know, that's what those types of things are reserved for.

It's not you nine in December because coach is grumpy

because Timmy didn't get a puck deep at the red line.

You know, so I think context is very important

when it comes to, you know, people seeing a clip like that.

Oh, absolutely.

And trust is the right word

because that's happening on national television, right?

Like it's one thing to reem a player

in the, you know, privacy of the locker room.

It's another to do it in front of all the television cameras

in the live audience.

I do want to ask about a couple of other players.

We spent a lot of time here on number 40.

I want to show to Drew O'Connor again today.

He's up to 17 goals.

That's finally tied for the team lead with key for sure,

but Bessar's there as well now.

But here's why I want to show him out.

And I know that plus minus is an imperfect stat,

but every single Vancouver Canucks skater this year

is a minus player.

There's a few guys who have barely played

who are still at a zero.

Drew O'Connor is at zero, guys.

He is flat even on plus minus alongside teammates

like Bessar at minus 34, Nebraska minus 24.

You've got guys rockin' like record setting scores

on the PGA Tour Frank and Drew O'Connor is at even far.

And just before I think, don't forget,

Drew Connor played part of the season at center, right?

That's right.

He was out of position.

We asked you to play a position that you don't play.

And not only did he play some of the season at center,

like he's still above 50% face offs.

Like is that 51%?

Which normally when guys play out of position,

they're like 39%, 35%.

Man, I know there's like a analytical world

where people say plus minus is this outdated stat

and we shouldn't care about it.

Well, we keep track of the stat.

And every game, guys walk into the dressing room

and the game notes, which you guys are very familiar with

that big stack of paper, there's multiple stacks sitting there.

And you can go through it and rummage through it

as much as you want and you probably should

just to know what's going on on the other side.

But when you walk in and you see that you're a minus player,

I don't care how much we talk about it potentially

being like an outdated stat, it means something.

It sucks to be a minus player.

Maybe not for everyone, but for a lot of guys.

And myself speaking personally, especially for defensemen.

Now I know he's not a defenseman, I realize that.

But yeah, the fact that he's an even player,

there's probably been a few shifts

where he slipped through the cracks.

But it's still something you could take pride in for sure.

Yeah, Blake can always say, it's an imperfect stat.

But when you're a difference of 35 from somebody else,

that probably says something.

Oh, I know.

I think you don't let your way to a zero

when you've got other guys minus 35 on the same team.

There's context there and I can tell you

watching Drew Conner every night.

I mean, Saturday night was an example of a team

that I think most of us thought had no heart.

Got, didn't ever even got started.

But Drew Conner was one of the guys that did.

And there was a play in the second period

where there's a loose rebound.

And he basically tried to use his length to reach.

He got to the puck, fall over, got the rebound.

And that was to me sort of the sum of how he's played this year.

And he obviously is an immensely smart player

and he's been very good in his own end.

And the reason why he's even,

and the reason why a lot of his stats are saying these good things

is because he has been able to get up the ice

unlike a lot of his teammates.

He can get the puck out of trouble.

You can get the puck out of trouble.

Yeah, exactly.

Straight line, straight line guy,

he skates it out of quite a bit of trouble.

And that helps him a lot for sure.

But they'll need, it was funny,

like leading up to the trade deadline,

kind of filtering through all the teams

and seeing who's got trade protection

and who doesn't like,

there's Drew, Drew Conner, baby.

I think he's got like a 10 or a 16 team no trade

just kicking around.

Yeah.

So he's here in that.

I was not expecting to see that.

Well, here's the thing though.

I think some contenders,

I don't know what the connox price was,

but this is a guy who could help somebody

in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And at a reasonable salary,

and I think he is a hidden gem here.

I do wonder whether they're going to try and resign him on July 1st

as he's eligible for an extension

or if there's going to be enough trade activity

that you can reap something of value.

But this is a good player with an excellent skill set

that could play down line up on a contender

and really help them out.

And the thing I love about him, Frank,

and Patrick knows this better than most

because he's in the room and he's at every game watching

on high and all the stuff

the television cameras don't catch.

But here's a guy who has consistently motivated himself

game in, game out,

during a nightmare season

where so much has gone wrong,

where it has been so easy to be

or in the corner with the droopy ears.

And O'Connor night after night, game after game

comes with a motivation.

Sadly, it's not been infectious just yet, Peach,

because you've got nobody's been able to match

this sort of consistency of effort night to night

or very few in the connox room.

But that says something about Drew O'Connor

and gosh darn it, I sure hope there are some young players

who are watching that.

Here's a guy who was like, no, this is an NHL game.

So I'm going to get up for it

because here's the thing,

you don't get to play very many of these in your lifetime.

So make sure you don't know when it's over, man.

You don't know when it's the last time

you're skating off an NHL sheet of ice like that.

And some guys obviously much more solidified

than others, but that's what comes

with the territory of putting your last name on

skating out in front of 18,000 people

and saying, I'm not going to embarrass myself tonight.

Someone else will, but it ain't going to be me, right?

And that's, I mean, that can be a motivating factor

in itself in a season like this,

just to have that mentality.

There is one other player I want to ask you about.

And in journalism school, Frank,

they teach you, can't be afraid of the no-shoot

lock question.

So I will ask it in this vein.

Jake DeBrusque is up to 15 goals on the season.

12 of them are on the power play.

He had another power play goal last night.

Why is he so effective scoring goals on the power play

and doesn't score goals at even strength?

Because the space on the power play is provided for him.

And in five on five, it's not provided for you.

That's like that as simple as that, right?

Like, you know, you can work the puck around

and get the penalty kill moving

and you can find a lane to the front of the net,

especially if teams want to kill in a diamond, right?

Like they're putting pressure on both half walls

and the point and they're killing in a diamond.

So guess who gets afforded a little bit of a lane

to the front of the net?

Just put yourself in the right spot.

If you're the low guy, you have a chance to bring it.

Whereas at five on five, you know,

you're working 200 feet of ice to try and score a goal

and everyone's trying to clog things up

and there's more support and that's, you know,

but he's been like, you know,

this season feels different for him.

Like he's been a better five on five goal score.

I think he's a little bit,

he's more of a casualty of what's happened

around this team this year.

He's a better five on five goal score

than what he's shown this year.

Well, I find myself thinking a little bit

of Frank, I don't know if you remember one of the first chats

we actually had was I was asked you about Bohorvat.

Why, why had Boh got so good

and you pointed out basically he'd figured out

where the scenes were in the slot

and we, you know, we talked about tipping down the line.

I'm for spot.

The bumper, but it was also a five on five.

Like I went and looked, I forgot.

Like he had 25 on five goals

before he got traded to the islanders

and that was in and around there

that you never chatting about this.

Yeah.

And you know, that's exactly the thing

about when you talk about the context, you know,

PD, I mean, PD perhaps a little bit of victim of this as well,

but like overall this team has not done well

working the puck to the slot

and getting shots from the point.

And he suffered a bit, but I mean, in the end,

you cannot only be a guy that's looking for tips.

Like, like, Debrusk, like Patterson

has had to find more has not found enough

that five on five.

And it's pretty simple, if you ask me.

Yeah, that's, you know, I think back

of Debrusk playing for Boston at times,

like really driving his feet, driving wide

and, you know, like that's, it's just,

he needs to be doing that consistently.

And that, that'll, it might not, you're like this,

you're not, you're gonna drive your feet,

you're gonna try and take someone wide,

you're gonna get pinched off 95% of the time.

But what happens when you get a step on a guy

or what does that open up?

If you pull up and maybe you start a cycle,

go on the other way, can you start a cycle

and then get to the front of the net

and clean something up that way.

But it starts because you're driving players back.

That's right.

Which is capable of doing the determination.

That's what I loved about Bo

when he'd go on those Pat and in Brahma,

Russia straight to just,

there was a determination that was greater than the next man.

And so sometimes it paid off.

But I remember, I remember doing drills with Bo

after practice, me and me, Bo and Dougie Lidster.

And Dougie was trying, like we were like spinning

in off the boards and then we had to get out of the turn

and drive to the front of the net.

It was just a generic drill.

Wasn't specific to forwards or defensemen,

but we were both doing it.

And so Dougie gives me a, like he's got a lean on you.

So Dougie gives me a little cross check.

You know, my hip swivel a little bit.

Dougie gives Bo a cross check.

I think Dougie stick snapped before,

before Bo was gonna feel anything like that.

And he kind of looked like he looked at it.

And he looked at me, he was like, man, that's a sturdy kid.

I'm like, yeah, no kidding.

Yeah, I find myself rooting for the islanders because I want to see Bo

and Shafer in the postseason.

And while we talked about it at the Olympics,

no one deserves all these accolades more than Bo

and the way he is working.

We're fresh out of time, buddy.

So we'll let you get about your day there in Montreal.

Maybe avoid the tamales and enchiladas for dinner.

After today's episode, get some more traditional Quebec

welfare and we'll catch up next Wednesday.

Frank, thanks for this.

Stake freets tonight.

Stake freets.

There you go.

Fun hit today, Frank.

Appreciate the time.