Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - NHL SQUAD SHOW: Can The Edmonton Oilers Figure Out the Florida Panthers? Plus The Dallas Stars Need A New Coach

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

Welcome to the NHL Squad Show! Today our hosts Gil Martin (Locked On Islanders), Seth Toupal (Locked On Wild) and Tom Callahan (Locked On Mammoth) are here to talk about how the Panthers are outclassing the Oilers, as well as the coaching drama happening in Dallas! Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more!FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Stanley Cup final is getting pretty rough out there. We're going to break down where we're at and where we're heading and a lot more coming up on this week's NHL squad. You are talking puck with the NHL Squad Show, sponsored by game time. From the Oilers to the stars, Golden Knights and the Panthers, the Rangers, Avalent, and yes, even the Maple Leafs. The Locked-on podcast network brings together all its local experts to provide the scoops, breakdowns, and comprehensive looks at all the NHL, with plenty of trash talk to go with it. Don't miss the hard hits and glove dropping hot takes on the Locked-on NHL Squad show. It's time to drop the puck.

I'm Gilmartin. Welcome to the NHL squad. Sit back, grab your favorite beverage, and join us as we get you ready for another wild week across the national hockey league. We are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase.

We have a great panel today. Seth Tuple of Locked on Wilde is here, as is Tom Callahan of Locked On Mammoth. I still got to get used to saying Mammoth. Great to have both of you here. And guys, I got to say it, game three of the Stanley Cup final, a little Broad Street Bullies flashback for me anyway.

If I'm old enough to remember those teams, but it seemed like hockey almost from a different era. Yeah, it was something to say the least. And it kind of reminded me of in Major League Baseball, when a manager gets ejected and, you know, throws things out onto the field, grabs a base, and brings it with them as they are headed to the dugout. As that game went on, it seemed like the Oilers just kind of went further and further into, like, frustration mode.

And it just, I don't know if this was a culmination of what we've seen over the first couple of games of the series or if it just, they just ran into a wall in game three and couldn't really figure out how to get around it. But it just felt like, and Brad Marchand had a lot to do with it. It felt like the Panthers got in Edmonton's head in game three, and they could not get out. They could knock it out in their own way, and it ended up looking pretty ugly by the end. You know, Seth, it's a great point because the only guy on Edmonton, I expected that from who you can get inside the old coconut is Evander Cain, right?

You can really get inside and mess with him. but for the most part, I didn't really think Edmonton was flappable in that manner. And not only did one wheel come off, pretty much all four of them came off in that game. And there were a couple of consequences from it. Number one, just the insanity of how that game ended. Number two, because Edmonton continued to take runs of Florida players, there was no chance of an Edmonton comeback. They had to leave dry sidle and McDavid on.

the bench because they were afraid of what Florida might do in retaliation. So that changed the tenor of the game. And I'm wondering, because, you know, we're going to be dropping right at the start of game four. For tonight's game four, I cannot wait to see what impact that has on game four, especially because it's in Florida. The matchups, obviously, Florida getting the last change helps with that, although two of the last three games, if necessary, would be back in Edmonton. But, I mean, you got to figure that, A, the fact that it works so well is only going to encourage the Panthers to keep doing it. Let's start with that. And then if you're the Oilers, what's the best way for you to respond?

Well, I think the best way for the Oilers to respond is to go try to score a couple goals. Go try to get something past Sergey Bobrovsky. Like as much as you don't want to be the one that moves on from the fight, so to speak, you have to. And the only way that Edmonton is going to win this series is by trying to go crack Bobrovsky. If they try to get into a drag it out slug fest with the Panthers, they're going to lose. They have no real chance in that type of an environment. So they got to go in with the skill. Florida as much depth as they have, they do not have

Connor McDavid and Leon Drysadle on their roster. So you've got to find ways to help those guys really take over in this series. And if we see trying to kind of clean up the mess after game three at the start of game four, Edwinton's already lost. If they come out and they just say we're going right after, we're going right into the hockey. then that shows me that they have moved past it and they're now trying to win some games. You know, two things I take away from that, Seth, is that number one,

Edmonton can't play that way. They tried to take a page out of Florida's book and they looked inept at best. They were terrible at it. They crossed the line too much. They kept themselves in the penalty box. It was absolutely terrible. And so, no, Edmonton can't play that way. Otherwise, the series is going to be over in five.

But the other part of that is, let's rewind to the first period and why the frustrations were there and even into a bit of the second period. Florida's penalty kill was suddenly finding away. Now, I know Evanston's goal came on the power play, but they were suddenly finding a way to take a 50% power play and at least somewhat contain it. And I think that led to a lot of the frustrations because Edmonton accounted on cashing in on those opportunities. They're five on five hasn't been great. At one point, they gave a stat. And I don't remember what the score was, so I can't tell you. But it was nine of the last 11, even strength goals in the series.

And actually, nine of the last 11, I think it was goals in the series, have been scored by Florida. And by the time the game was over, that could have been 12 or 13 of, you know, the last 15. So that's crazy to me that Edmonton hasn't been able to find a way to put the puck in the net. So set to piggyback on your point, absolutely, that's got to be their focus. because if they try to go and rewrite what they think of the wrongs from game three, the series is over. Technically speaking, shouldn't there have been some suspensions for late game incidents like that?

I mean, isn't that part of the rules? I know it's not going to happen in the Stanley Cup final. But technically speaking, if you are in a one-sided game and you go after someone late in the game, isn't that a match penalty? If a cop busts a party at a college campus, they're only going to go after the people that they can actually catch. Even though everybody else that was there was taking part in the law breaking, if you get away, you're not going to, and you're exactly right, Gil.

It's the Stanley Cup final. You could, even if Department of Player Safety, even if they functioned at a high capacity, they probably would not go in that type of direction with the discipline. But I mean, we have already seen multiple fines thrown out that that's going to be about the extent that we see as far as discipline goes. You know, it was I will say that. So, Walman got fine for two separate incidents, which is why it amounted to 10 grand for him. But the dangerous things, and we've seen Corey Perry do this in the past, and you guys know I'm not a Cory Perry fan, but the spearing. the butt ending, those kinds of moves.

The ones that can hurt guys, slew foots, those are the ones I think you need to crack down on. And to that end, honestly, I don't know if the officials hit reset for game four or not. I think they have targets on guys to start game for if they're going to keep the game within check and within reason early. Now, look, again, I don't expect Evanston to come out and play that way. And I would imagine no blocks in there saying,

hey, you guys got to stop running around and playing Florida's game. And let's get back to some Oilers hockey. Is there one player on Edmonton who you think can play that game? If they just wanted to like settle one thing, like just start the game off, get it over with, you know, 10 seconds into the game. Is there one guy on Edmonton who can handle that kind of duty if need be? I mean, flip a coin. Evander Cain, Corey Perry.

And, you know, if they, if you're talking about like a let's drop the gloves at the opening face off and just settle this, I mean, those two probably aren't the ones that are going to be dropping the gloves per se. I just would really like to see Edmonton just put all of their focus into let's win this next game. Let's leave what happened in game three in game three. you know though Paul Maurice on the other side of the aisle is saying guys we uh we we got him a little bit there in game three and it's Marcii if you get the opportunity to poke the bear a little bit make sure you start you sharpen the end of that stick now wait a minute do you really think Marcion needs to be told that that's what he does Maurice just says, do whatever. Do the thing. And by the way, the guy, honestly,

I probably wouldn't dress him for the game, but the answer to this question is Trent Frederick. Yep. That's why I send. But I don't dress him for this game, honestly. I leave him out of the equation because I don't want more of that. The Oilers are, you know, it's funny. At the end or towards the end,

game two. Some of the American national TV commentary was well, this is turning into a must win for Florida. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Florida just won a series in which they were down 2 O to start on the road. But I didn't feel that way about Florida.

But now that I watched Edmonton in game three, I didn't feel bad about the Oilers going in. I feel bad about the Oilers now coming out. And so now I kind of feel like they have to win game four. And that's an awful lot of pressure and a couple of days to think about it. Yeah, sometimes it's not whether or not you win, but how you win or lose that carries over to the next game.

And we'll see how the Oilers respond. We've got a lot more to get to here on the squad show. We'll talk a little bit more about the cup final and a surprise coach and change in Dallas. We've got all of that and more coming up on the squad show. Today's episode is brought to you by Wonderful Pistachios, looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious. Crack into a good source of protein with wonderful pistachios. Wonderful pistachios is one of the highest protein nuts. Each one ounce serving has six grams of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value. Plus, they're packed with fiber and better for you unsaturated fats to help keep you feeling full or longer.

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the trade deadline every year every team that's in contention is looking for that missing piece how important was the acquisition of brad marsh and to the florida panthers this year well we can put it this way he was the most frequent score in round two against the maple leaves he basically won that series against Toronto. Now, Sam Bennett has just led the world in goals throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs, but it really felt like Brad Marchand was just had his fingerprints all over that series. And now he's doing it again here in the cup final. He's got four goals in the three games. And he was 100% the puppet master in the game three meltdown for the oiler. So I don't think, I don't think the Panthers expected that it would work out to this level.

But this is one of those times where if you're Bill Zito, you are telling the Bruins, take the first round pick. I don't even care. Like it, it was a conditional second initially with conditions, I think, to make it a conditional first. Bill Zito's saying, go ahead. You, you can have. it. We got the better end of the deal here because he just is he is elevated on a third line role. He's elevated into just a huge figure for this Panthers team and has he's been a massive part of their success so far. Yeah, the minute they made the conference final, it turned into a first rounder. But if your trade is a first round for a Stanley Cup, okay, because it's picked number 32 anyway. So, you know, it's it's working out so well for Florida. It really,

really is what's pushed them over the edge. And here's the other amazing thing about this. What Marchand is done for Florida is taking the discussion away from Kachuk, away from Bennett, away from those guys in a good way. Because before that lens would have been on them, talking about are these guys crossing the line? What's going on here? Now, this is the unbelievable part. Kachuk's a sympathetic figure. He's the one getting jumped at the end of game three. Did anyone have that on their bingo card? That's the incredible power of what that acquisition of Brad Marchand's been for the Florida Panthers. This more than any other deadline get was probably the biggest one in the NHL.

As far as the Oilers are concerned, I mean, guys like McDavid and Dry Seidel, they've probably been chased after and picked on since they were, you know, kids in hockey games. but who besides that duo needs to step up for the Oilers to get back into this series? It's a great question. And I would- I would- Roster or so. Let's start in the net.

Now, is it all, is game three all on Stewart Skinner? Absolutely not. No. But at the same time, going up against a guy like Sergey Barbravsky who's been as battle tested in the Stanley Cup playoffs as you'll find, your margin is so small if you are the goalie going up against him. And that's why I think there's such a reaction when you see any sort of a goal that could be qualified as a soft goal.

You know, I think of the goals that come from the perimeter of the zone that a goalie just can't quite handle, those are amplified because if the goalie you're going up against isn't giving up those goals himself, that can be the difference between winning a game and losing a game. So whether it be Calvin Pickard again, whether it be Stuart Skinner, the Oilers, they were operating on a Razor's Edge when this series started, they just, they have to get better goal tending to match what Sergey Bobrovsky's done so far in this series. And guys, can I just say, if we want to talk about goals, tending here for a minute. I actually think it's a mistake by Coach Naublock, not the name

starter, and to let it twist because that takes the confidence away. I think that could be there if you need Stuart Skinner to rebound and you go to him on Thursday after skate and go, you know what, I am going to go back to you. For two days, he's been twisting in his own mind. And I don't think that's good for a goaltender, especially when you look at who he's been this playoffs, right? He's either been unbeatable or completely beatable. So you want the unbeatable, Stuart Skinner. And I don't think you're going to give him the time to sit there and go, you know what, I am the number one.

Coach said, we're going right back with me. I'm going to win the game for it. So I almost feel like you kind of have to go to Pickard at this point. But the other thing, too, that's interesting. We talk about the depth of this roster and who needs to stand up because McDavid and Drysiddle have been carrying it, but the guys that they do need, Perry has been chipping in pretty well. I will give him credit. I know they would love to see a little more out of Bouchard, but now we're going to take a look at the secondary guys who do need to chip in. Where is Zach

Hyman? You know what I mean? Where is Ryan Nugent Hopkins? Even Victor Arvinson, who's not a huge point guy, but you need him to be something. Can you throw a Jeff Skinner into the lineup and hope that he captures a flash of some goal scoring here? But the question is, where are these guys? And when are they going to produce for you? And so, I mean, why did you get Jeff Skinner? To have him hang out in the press box and eat popcorn? No. You got him because you're hoping he captures a little bit of the old flash and can score some goals for you. Well, it's time to take a chance. Zach Hyman is out with an injury, correct? True, true. Hyman is out. Yeah.

Right. So he can't, he can't give it to you. But yeah, some secondary scoring, some people other than Dry Seidel and McDavid do have to stay. up. And I will, I'm going to throw a little bit of it on Chris Knoblock, too. You got to find a way to get Alexander Barkov off of Connor McDavid because that has been, that matchup has been thoroughly won by Barkov so far in the series. And it's easier said than done. But I feel like you kind of got to get a little creative here to get some matchups that are in McDavid's favor. If you just keep ramming your head against the, against the Selky trophy winner, you're not going to win that battle even if you are Connor McDavid.

So if Chris Knoblock can find some ways to just put him other spots in the lineup to get him some better looks, I would, I'd look there too. Would you double shift him? I mean, at this point, you have only a couple more games that you can lose and then your season is done. So at this point, you got to just, you got to throw everything you have at it to try to win game four. Tom, do you think it's possible that the Oilers privately named a starting goalie but are not announcing that publicly? Is it possible? Yes. Do I think that's the case? I'd be shocked because the press is going to be breathing down your throat and the goaltender's throats for the next two days by not putting that to bed. Look, they're going to find storylines to concentrate on. I just think for Edmonton, probably the worst one.

one for them to harangue is goaltending because it has been an issue already in these playoffs a couple times. They've already switched back and forth between these two guys. So, yeah, I don't think it's doing anybody any favors. If they have named it internally and they're just like, we're going to let it twist unless they're trying to deflect from somebody's injured or they don't want them knocking on another issue, which I, I'll be honest with you. I don't think they're that smart.

I don't think they think that far ahead. I just don't think they know. I don't think Noblock knows yet who he wants or can even trust. That's the other thing. Who can you trust at this point? And it kind of stinks for Skinner, but let's face it, at the end of game three, Picker didn't look bad. True.

Very true. Well, we'll find out shortly who ends up starting game four. And then if that same person continues in game five, lots of unknowns. and yet, despite all this uncertainty, back-to-back Stanley Cup finals for the Edmonton Oilers, which maybe tells you how good their offense is, all things considered. All right, we've got more to discuss here on the squad show. The Dallas Stars changing coaches after going to, what, three straight Western Conference final? I know Seth is crushed.

We're going to talk about that and more coming up on this week's squad show. All right, Seth, you're ringing your hands with experience. excitement to talk about this. So let's start with you. How surprised were you that Peter DeBore is no longer the coach of the Dallas Stars? And do you think this was a good move by the Dallas Stars or not such a good move? Pete DeBore did a lot of good for the Dallas Stars on his watch. Let's let's start with that. He did the one thing you can't do. You cannot throw a high profile player. a franchise goalie under the bus to the media. You can't quote a stat saying he's lost six of his last seven starts to a team,

whether it be true or not, because guess what? Guess who was the coach for those seven starts? Pete DeBore. And Ottinger is just starting his massive extension. And it doesn't matter if there was. there are reports that there were a lot of players that were frustrated by how a lot of things went down. I get that DeBoer was trying to galvanize the team in a must-win game, but you've got one of the five best goleys in the league. And yes, you do give up goals on the first

two shots of the game, but where was the team? Where was the team scoring goals? Where was the team that we saw against the Colorado Avalanche where we're saying, this team is shorthanded and they're giving the abs everything they can handle, that team disappeared. And choosing to throw one player under the bus, that was basically signing his own pink slip. You know, it's, so I, first of all, I covered DeBore every single day when he was coach in Vegas. I was working for another outlet at the time and Vegas was my beat. So I watched day in and day. And, out was it all the press conferences heard all the excuses all the time and fellas you probably remember and some of our viewers and listeners will remember when that graphic came out with the

sword through the back of mark andre flurry yeah that was smack in the middle of when i was covering that um so and that's why i thought it was funny when the graphic resurfaced with ottinger with the sword named deborre going through him again same thing different team uh he's he unfortunately has the snack for trying to blame gold tenders and in some cases ruin relationships with gold tenders. Make no mistake, Pete DeBore is the reason why Mark Andre Fleury didn't finish his career as Vegas Golden Knight. Like he's the reason. And pretty much drove him out of town himself. And unfortunately made the mistake of going for Robin Lennar who had all kinds of problems, mental, physical, just everything, never put it back together. They ended up with Aden Hill.

and quite frankly, they were good enough to win with whoever was there as long as they were average. But that was not Pete DeBore. Pete DeBore was gone by then and caused some issues there, then also caused issues in Dallas. Looking at the star's success, once Miko Ranting cooled off, things became a lot more difficult for Dallas. They weren't getting production outside of Rantan. And Ottinger was the guy who was keeping them in games. And you look at a lot of goaltending completes in the playoffs this year. They center around what people don't look at,

which is run support for your goaltender. Connor Hellebuck was losing some big games, but he was losing him. One nothing, two, one. Yeah, he's still losing. He's getting blamed for the loss, but score some goals. You know, and other, and look, that's a great example. Jets are a great example.

Florida is a great example because they lost two games of Toronto. Did Paul Maurice panic? Did he go out there and go, well, my goal, he was better? No, that's not how you handle this stuff. And to me, it sounds like you're looking for a scapegoat trying to save your own job. And it bought him another year in Vegas, which eventually ended poorly anyway. And I think Dallas was actually really smart to cut bait with it right now, because if you want to repair the rift with Ottinger and Jim Nils getting tired of repairing rifts, he's getting tired. He had to do it a couple of years ago, right?

Ownership literally called out then in Sagan. and he had to be like, oh, boys, all right, come on, let's talk this over. He's got to do the same thing with Ottenger now. And probably the easiest way to do it was to get rid of DeBoer, and I think they'll be better for it. Do you think DeBoer finds another job soon? Like, let's say December, there's a team that's really struggling off to a bad start. They're looking to replace their coach. Is DeBoer one of the top candidates?

Or does this problem that he's had both in Vegas and, And in Dallas, follow him. And teams are like, yeah, he won, but no. There are enough teams out there, I think. And this is such a GM thing to do to look at what has happened to DeBoard his previous stops and say, well, that's not going to happen here. Like, I would not be shocked whatsoever if he's one of the top candidates for whoever ends up being the first team to fire their coach during the season.

Like he just, he, as much as he has had public squabbles with goalies and has been, you know, there's very clearly as a ceiling to what he brings to a team. There are GMs out there that will say, I mean, he gets to the Western Conference finals. That's what he does. And if we maybe just talk to him about, hey, maybe you don't publicly call out the goalie this time. The NHL loves to get former coaches back in the mix. So whoever is the first coach to be let go, he's going to be one of the first names mentioned as a possible replacement. The NHL loves to recycle coaches.

That's very environmentally conscious. But Tom, do you think that, I mean, who do you think the stars might look to hire now? There's only one vacancy in the whole league. You know, boy, that becomes interesting because do you want to look internally because you've had success? The team did have a great regular season. Changing the system probably isn't on, you know, if you don't have to change the system, it ain't broke, don't fix it is what I'm saying. You know, that's not a bad thing to do is to look at hiring internally.

But, you know, Gil, you mentioned it and this league does it. They have such a hard time bringing in first timers or giving some. I'm going to look, even if they've had success at other levels. I would love to see Dallas get outside the coaching retread box. I really would. And we're just hung up on past glories. And, you know, whether you've won as a player, you've won as a coach, whatever it is, everybody believes that, well, hey, I'm sure they'll be just fine.

Why do you think Wayne Gretzky got a chance to be an NHL head coach? because there was some shine on that. And so honestly, at the end of the day, I don't know what Dallas is going to do. My expectation is they'll retread somebody else, but I hope they don't. I hope they actually take a good look. You know, there's some really good up-and-coming coaches,

minor leagues, junior hockey. You know, I don't know. I think this current cycle has kind of worn itself out. If you're not a cup winner by now, in this current cycle of coaches, I just, I don't think you're it. And plus, here's the other thing, DeBoer's not coming cheap.

So if you do have to fire him out of that contract and you know it's going to cost you, I don't know. Like a team like Buffalo, for example, do they chase the shiny thing? You know, you hope they don't, but then that gets expensive too. Buffalo might actually do that.

Yeah, I know. And Lindy Ruff has made a nice little turnaround at the end of last season. but if he starts really poorly again this year, could be Buffalo. We shall see. It's going to be an interesting situation to follow Dallas AHL affiliate doing really well.

Maybe they promote from within. That's another possibility. Wouldn't have to change the system much, but you don't know until it happens, and we'll certainly keep tabs on it. I want to thank Seth and Tom for joining us today. Always a pleasure talking hockey with you guys. I want to thank everyone for making the squad show your first listen today for your second listen.

Check out the all new Locked-on NHL game night every game every night until a Stanley Cup champion is crowned. Get local analysis on a national scale. You could find NHL game night on Lockdown NHL on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. It's part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Gil Martin on behalf of Seth Tupil and Tom Callahan. Thanks so much for watching. and listening to the NHL Squad Show.