OverDrive - Kaplan on the Oilers' impressive run, Edmonton's depth production and Stars' bounce back mindset

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

ESPN Hockey Reporter Emily Kaplan joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines from the Oilers and Stars' series, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl leading the team, Edmonton's depth production in the spotlight, the Stars' mindset to bounce back, Stuart Skinner's intriguing role, the Panthers' commanding lead and more.

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Here's Emily Kaplan of ESPN who's out there. How much fun is this Emily watching McDavid and Dry Settle play every night? Oh, it's such a treat. I take it for granted, right? We live in an era where the hockey is better than ever. The guys are so skilled and so fast. I just remember game one, right? They lost, but they were just buzzing at a different gear. You just see the motivation.

You see how badly they wanted. It just feels like a privilege just to get the vantage points and I do and the access that I do to get to talk to these guys. Emily, what kind of mood is your colleague Ray Ferraro in these days? Is he happy and bubbly or what kind of spirits is he in at this particular point? This guy, this guy, this guy. Yeah. He is the only one that I know of that got out in the one off day to go fly home to vancouver apparently i can be

run the pot chip get them all along walk the dog and got back here though he was very refractive warning uh... i don't know if you did in the laundry but he came with clean clothes and that's always a good time yeah we know so we spoke with yesterday and he's he's let that in that he was in vancouver i think he was actually cleaning up his golf clubs because he said he's closing in on the end of the season so i was actually a little

and they like all the new co-workers here in beautiful edmonton up another way to spend the day but i don't know that's very true very true and and you're right you know about the mcdavid and dry subtle kind of taking it for granted And how well they're playing but they're not alone like Zach Hyman is a guy We're obviously very familiar with here in Toronto and Toronto guy and played for the Leafs for a long time The other night he had two goals in ten hits like double-digit registered hits in the playoffs For a guy who scored twice in two beauties like high blocker on a breakaway and

Then taps one out of midair on a two-on-one to basically turn the lights out from a Vander Kane the other night Watching Nat live like how how physical he is how he skates and then he has hands like he did Pretty special player and like basically the definition of a playoff player the way that Zach Harmon's playing right now. Yeah I don't have to make any comparisons of oh what would it be like if he was in Toronto we can just focus on him where his feet are now. It's special. He's one of my favorite guys to talk to too. He's so humble right like when you ask him about those hits and it's really remarkable right like he's lapping the field more than a hundred hits so far in this playoff to lead the league. He's like, well, you know,

most of them are on the four check and he's trying to, you know, humble himself there, but I just think it's so unique. And just to see the buy-in from every other guy on this roster. And I think that that's the standard that Leon and Connor demand, right? Like we know what it takes. We've been to game seven of the Stanley Cup final. You've gotta ride this roller coaster. There's gonna be lows. You can't dwell there.

Like come on, let's keep going. But also, you gotta play on a high level to keep up with us, and we're gonna need some depth production because it can't just be the two of us. And I think Hyman is a guy that has bought in as well as anybody. He's just such a delight, again, as a personality, but also just in the way that he plays. It's just such a delight again, you know, as a personality but also just in

the way that he plays. It's such a good role model to younger players too of how you have to evolve your game and evolve your role to stay relevant and still do this at a high level. So Emily, you know, all focuses on Edmonton but it's such a swing game, either 3-1 or 2-2. You know, what's Dallas saying and what do they need to do to get back into this series to push it back to Dallas and regain home ice advantage? You know every time we've talked to Pete DeBoer he keeps the same line which is I know we lost the last two but I see our team getting better in each of these games as we go along and I don't know if that's just to spin the

narrative or actually what he sees but we all saw last game especially in the second period where they're not going away like they're getting a you know a dominant number of chances and they look really good it's just those pucks aren't going in the net and it's really tough when you're playing such a quick strike and opportunistic team like the i'd mentioned oilers are because, all of a sudden like they score one goal and then boom, two, three, four, five and you're off to the races. So I was talking to Tyler Sagan today a bit and he's been around forever and he's like, look, I've been in so many of these situations and so many of these different types of playoff

rounds where we feel like we're playing well and just nothing goes in. They just have to stay the course. I think they feel good about the fact that Jake Ottinger throughout his career tends to get better as playoff series go along because they know that he hasn't been at the top of his game so far. So as long as they mentally stay there, I think they feel that they're right in this. It's just a matter of, okay, well the other team's pretty good too and they're continuing to make adjustments because that's all that Chris Knobloch does It's just adjust and advance

Emily what's the deal with rupee hints like does he have a broken leg or foot or is he gonna play tonight? Like what's the what's the scoop with that guy? He's an important piece for Dallas Yeah, it feels like the slaps has happened to like the one area where you just can't take it I mean I was right in that upper foot, lower leg area. You know, I was really surprised when he came out for warmups and then he left early. He figured, OK, maybe he's just getting some treatment so they can play in the game. And the fact that he didn't go and suit up kind of shocked me because, you know, we know these guys are gamers and, you know, we know what they play through.

Rupesh himself has played through a broken foot at one point in his career in the playoffs. I think last game being an afternoon game was definitely helpful for some extra hours maybe to get that swelling down to heal a little bit. He practiced yesterday and honestly the way he was cutting and turning like he looked really good and there was a lot more than we saw you know from him in warm-ups where he wasn't quite doing that. Didn't skate today so you know maybe why risk it to aggravate it. He's gonna go out there for warm-ups again See how he feels my gut says he's gonna play

But we'll find out with Emily Kaplan of ESPN ahead of game for tonight. Oilers stars out in Edmonton The story of Stuart Skinner is quite compelling man. It has been a wild ride for him He's still a very young player feels like he's been in the league for 15 years the amount of times We've talked about him and the amount of great games He's played then poor games and then he's on a heater then he gets pulled and Pickard goes in and Pickard's gonna return We believe tonight will back up How do you cover the story of Stuart Skinner going into tonight and the rest of this series and possibly the cup final considering how well he's playing right now, how well he's

played the last two years against Dallas, but everything else that we also know about Stuart Skinner? Yeah, well, it's incredible that we're now talking about the Oilers goaltending at the position of strength. Like they're benching a guy who's been undefeated in the playoff. Like how many teams have ever done that? I think with Stuart Skinner, he calls it a roller coaster all the time and so you have to you know go with him that it is a roller coaster and when he got benched so early

in that first round I think that absolutely would have been gotten to most players in this league but because of what he's been through throughout his career, because of the work that he puts in, like this is a guy that's seen a sports psychologist since he was a teenager, he reads all these books by a stoic, like he really has leaned into the mental game. I think that he used that and framed it as an opportunity to work with the goalie coach and hone in on some technical aspects of the game. As you guys know in the playoffs, there's typically not that much practice time, so that was like a rare moment where he actually could, you know, train and work on some things.

And he came out of it so much stronger. And so I think right now in terms of like covering it, you celebrate the success because it's such an amazing story. We can learn so many lessons from it. He's got such great perspective in the way that he speaks about those vulnerabilities open. At the same time, he's the one that calls it a roller coaster and so you know it's going to be a roller coaster and you know at some point maybe it's going to give for him.

And so you've got to, you know, be aware of that. And then I think the next time he hits the low and know that like, he's probably not going to stay there forever because he always finds a way to get himself out of it now. So Carolina goes to the conference final all the time and yet they won their first game of the conference final and like twenty years last night uh... any of the played well as a a tough hockey game the watch it was a grinding

not a ton of entertainment value of that we call it a low events perfect express and explain what happened last night about one years so you know i think most of all four of us, and I think everyone still believes this is Florida and it's over, but the idea that Carolina pushes it to six or beyond, you know, like how much benefit do you think Florida would get from ending this quicker as opposed to allowing Carolina getting off, you know, the mat, so to speak? Well, I think Florida would really benefit from ending it quickly, especially because,

I don't know, I'm still gearing up for a long series here in the West, and they seem a bit banged up, right? Like, we don't know what's really going on with Reinhardt, Nicola, AJ Greer is not going to play. Like, if you just give those guys up to 10, 11 days to not play hockey and not have to play the physical grind, you'd have to imagine that's a massive advantage. Plus, of course, what happened last year in the Stanley Cup final where, okay, they allow one game and all of a sudden it's like, wait, is this the team that's capable of allowing

a team to climb back in? My experiences with Florida, specifically this year, they're just so advanced mentally. It's just such a disciplined and structured game of the way that they're able to toe the line of being a tough team to play against, but not allowing it to affect them. And so I feel like they always self-correct. Like, okay, maybe this is a wake-up call, a good opportunity, and they're gonna go down there

for rally and to take care of business. At the same time, like it just didn't look like the Canes team were used to, right? Like I covered them through the first two rounds at various points and I'm like, I get it. Montreal and Washington are not nearly as good of a team as Florida is, but like this also just doesn't feel like the Canes, they were unrecognizable. So now that they're starting to find themselves, maybe it's a bit of

confidence, maybe Freddie just needs to sit for a bit to reset so he could regain that form and Nikisha now feels like a weapon, right? Like Rod was so scared to put him in because he didn't speak English or to fit for a bit to read that we could regain that form and the key should now feel like a weapon right like roddick so scared to put in an exit in speaking with the word about communicating and i can look pretty good to last game so i think we have been a bit of a period now i just i feel like the platitudes are saying about florida are probably too

exaggerated but peace still feel like they're on a different here at a different level than carolina is yet they have been lights out for a while it's for sure but carolina stop uh... stop in the bleeding last night uh... all right i would do is a favor make sure you see and uh... the camera of the directors they have a shot of ray but everyone's jump on the ice tonight because i was a favorite shot the other night he looks so rattled for some reason he had his and i was a little happy game before it yeah exactly so we want more i so camera

rate we need more ISO camera Ray. We need more Ray on ESPN tonight. Please do us that favor. Yeah, I thought you were going to say like make sure Ray gets his snacks and his water, he gets cranky, but no, I love this. I'm totally on the assignment. Okay. Appreciate it.

Thanks Emily. Enjoy it tonight. Thanks guys. Have a good one. There's Emily Kaplan. This May, iHeartRadio celebrates Asian Heritage Month. Discover powerful stories, vibrant cultures, and unforgettable music. From inspiring podcasts to playlists that span east, south, southeast, and west Asian

artists. We're honoring the voices shaping our world. Listen now on the free iHeartRadio app and at iHeartRadio.ca