OverDrive - Pang on the Maple Leafs' playoff goaltending choices, Skinner's injury with the Oilers and the best contenders in the league

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

NHL on TNT Analyst Darren Pang joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NHL, the best contenders leading up to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Stars' direction towards the prize, Stuart Skinner's injury with the Oilers, the Maple Leafs' starting goaltending in the crease and more.

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Here he is from the NHL on TNT joining us here on the Maple Tidal Hotline. Here's Darren Pegg. What's up, Pegger? Hey, Z, I'm doing fantastic. I mean, you brought in the right guy. I mean, the guy that won 27 career wins and had zero shutouts. I can, I'll break this down with the best of them. How are you doing there, old dog and strutty? Good to see you guys.

Good. We're doing good. It's nice to have another former professional athlete on the show, Panger. I give you a salute, pal. Thanks, pal. I appreciate that. I just got back from Atlanta where we had a nice little studio show last night. Beautiful. You know what, Panger? I was just talking about the Atlanta Thrasher's and I was talking about dealing with bad teams in the NHL. And the approach with the Atlanta Thrasher's always was, you gotta be prepared because they can usually hang with you for 20 minutes.

And then after 20 minutes, they just fall apart at the seams. And I don't know why that is, whether it's lack of talent, lack of coaching, or lack of discipline But after 20 they're all over the map their goaltenders collapse They take penalties and it's a zoo and you get a 5-1 win every time And that's when you you went and played peach tree a country club or something and you cashed in on two and one yet Three and you were plus one. I know that story. Oh, dog buddy three three hat tricks? Two of them are in that building. I feasted on those thrashers. See Strudy? I knew where he was going right there.

Well, I would say this, that the non- I mean, listen, that's scary right now when you watch some games and you go, oh boy, like Jersey last night was in Chicago and although Jersey kind of ran shotgun and went to the net hard and had a lead, next thing they know it's a one goal game and it's like, whoa, we're supposed to come in here and win, we're going to Winnipeg, we're going to Minnesota, these are the two points we're supposed to cash in on and that's the funny thing about the NHL right now with the lack of discipline and lack of structure, how easy it is for teams that are so desperate for points to take their foot off the gas for three, four, five minutes and check out.

And you check out that quickly, bang, you're back into it. Look at Dallas last night. I mean, I never didn't think for a second that Edmonton was going to be able to climb back in that hockey game. And all it took was their goal tenor get dinged in the head and left the game. And that next thing you know, it is a different hockey team for I think about 12 minutes I was like what where were you at the beginning of this hockey game but that's why a lot of guys say back to me panger like they say it's just chaotic

like you think it's back in the day where you're up to one in the beginning of the third period lock it down get no it just it's chaos it could be four three for the other team in 15 minutes and people don't know what the hell's going on it must be awfully difficult to coach well that's why i mean how many times we heard towards in a lot of people take some of his quotes out of context but i've ever do the game last year is in philadelphia and we had towards on uh... via the headset

you know in one of the locker rooms uh... around the flyers' lockroom, and the studio asked him a question, and all you could hear was, yeah, the players are young and dumb, and that was the quote. But what he was saying, you know, what he was saying and the substance behind it was very accurate, and it's exactly what you just said, oh, Doug, it's kind of freelance, checked out, chaotic. Struddy would come behind the net and make a pass to the left winger, and he knew 100 times that that left winger was there,

and he'd have a strong stick, and he'd make sure he got it out of the zone. I swear nowadays, the defenseman wheels around the net, he looks at the right winger, and he goes, like, where did you go? Like it's like a Sandlot football sometimes, you know? Well, Darren, I think part of the problem is all that kids do, and I know Struddy has a defenseman camp at Edmonton and I'm almost positive that the proper philosophies would

be implemented in things to do that are game ready, but all kids, all kids, all they want to do is get plastic sticks out and do Connor McDavid drills and fly up and down the ice and try to rip it under the bar the idea of coaching to win in simple things in getting parks out and do i thought talk about the world juniors all the time like that guy just angle down the ice in in tow dragged in this and that got a shot in that but look at this goal here he could not get the park out it's like it's not pot it's not even an essential to move up you know we talk about in broadcasting

in the great john davidson was one of my mentors early on but he said there's always cause and effect go find it you know and and and you're right i mean only gonna suck great rush chance uh... primary assess but you know it's the little things behind the play that uh... that we we'd really have to focus on that's why there's a team right now, I know we're going to segue probably into something else, but there's a team right now I think that has done a really good job in developing some young character players.

One of them is from Edmonton and that Jake Neighbors. I think when I first saw Jake Neighbors go into St. Louis and be brought in by Braden Shen where he lived at his house, and now I'm seeing some of the other guys like maybe it's a Zach Bolduc or maybe it's a Well now we see Dylan Holloway, you know That's why the st. Louis Blues are rolling right now because they're playing hockey the right way. They're playing playoff hockey They're taking hits to make plays. They're getting pucks out. They're coming up the ice as a team with speed So those are the ones that you got to look at here as we get closer to the playoffs because they're the ones that are

Going to make a mark in my opinion. We're paying and yet it's interesting like we you know you talk about culture and you talk about certain players sticking around and you mentioned brain shen and his name was out there a lot leading up to the trade deadline and obviously tug armstrong company are happy to cap them you know never approached him with the idea of trading them because you look what's happened since and they're in the playoffs and they look like they can make some noise you take you you know,

who was taken out of Boston out of their, out of their locker room, out of their dressing room, you take, you know, Scott Lotton and others out of the dressing room down in Philly. Those two teams are a disaster. Like Boston's quit. Like the Bruins have flat out quit. Like they are done. They are a disaster. And Philly is a mess. Like they just rolled through town panger. We watched it with our own eyes the other night. It is brutal and I guess Danny Brear's like Tortoil I got fired today. We'll get to that and Danny Brear is speaking with the media right

now. I just saw a quote come across saying you know quote we really hope this is our rock bottom end quote. Obviously you hope that but it better be if it's not like if there's more of a bottom here That's got to be very very Anxious man, that's gonna make that's gonna lead to a lot of anxiety around that team and that's very unsettling the idea that you really You're there's no guarantees. It's it's going to get better Maybe it gets worse in Philly in Boston and other spots where they're trying to kind of retool on the fly here Whoa, it's it's hard when you're watching and you've you can tell that a team has lost its soul

and then that is that is really disturbing to just to watch the checkout part of the game and And you're right this happened very fast with with the Boston Bruins in their hundredth year of the National Hockey League Philadelphia came through Chicago Chicago put seven on them. They played Fedotov after he gave up two on three shots against them. Dallas the night before they played him again. He gave up seven. Yeah, there's a, I have, I have great faith in Keith Jones and in, and, and Danny Breyer. I think that there's, they've got some old school positivity about them and I think maybe the next head coach for a number of different teams are gonna be, you gotta hit it right out of the park,

don't you? You have to. I'm looking at a team like Washington right now, I don't know, I know I really speak highly of Washington but I've done a ton of games there and I just love that coaching staff. Maybe we're going back to something else here Maybe we're going back to great spirit in the night as Bruce Springsteen once saying and and and the you know the positivity or the

You know Getting everybody on this pulling on the same rope and all that kind of stuff Strutting this like maybe that's where it's at right now And maybe maybe we can't teach the old school way all the time because the kids or not all of them I shouldn't say that you're not going to put them and cast them into one little basket here. There are so many of them that get it they understand it they've been taught hockey the right way but boy if you don't pick those players right too you're wow you're in it for a ride and it's dangerous at both ends. You know Pangora Dallas Stars are an interesting team to me I've

seen them play quite a few times. I like a lot of their players, especially since they added Miko Rantanen. You know, as I watched them, especially the last couple weeks, they don't seem to play fast. I don't know if it's because they don't move the puck quick or they don't skate fast. I mean, they get the odd breakaway, but just coming out of their zone and maybe they're missing high-skidding. But is that a fair comment about a team that has tons of talent in their top nine and tons

of goals there? I think it is, Shorty. I thought you were going to say they added a player at the deadline. His name was Jason Robertson. Yeah, he's alive now. He scores every night. He's on fire. What a shot.

What a shot. Wow. Has he turned it up? We had him on the air after the game and I didn't realize that that foot surgery that he had was so severe and that, you know, missing camp and, you know, he's not the fastest guy anyway, but it does explain, you know, besides the pressures maybe of trying to make Team USA that he struggled early on. But you're right.

I think, you know, I even watched them last night. The Edmonton Oilers with that lineup, which I would say was a pedestrian like lineup. And if you took that roster or that line combinations last night from the Edmonton Oilers, they're not a playoff team. And that's why you, that's why you pay $5,800 million from McDavid and Dry Settle because it was bland. It was, you know, it didn't have any pressure. It didn't have anything to the game. And then, I know they turned around a little bit, but they had 14 really good shots in that first period. If not for Oddinger in that first period, it probably would have been 2 or 3-0 if they had any finish whatsoever.

So yeah, I was watching the game too, being a little concerned with the defensive lapses and the type of quality chances that they gave against Jake Ottinger. And I said it last night, I said, hey, if they're going to win the Stanley Cup, that he's going to be the Consulate Trophy winner. That'll be it. Like Jake, Jake Ottinger will be the Consulate Trophy winner if the Dallas Stars beat Colorado, beat Edmonton, beat Vegas, whatever. And they end up winning the Stanley Cup.

So yeah, I think there's a part of their game that that Pete DeBoer is probably not happy with and either of the players. But if you look at them, like I don't think Wyatt, listen, Wyatt Johnson's got those quick little spurts. Jason, I mean, Ben's, Jamie Ben's not fast. He's got to move the puck quick. You mentioned Robertson, the same thing. You mentioned Ranton. There's not that's not a that's a big horse, but that's not a that's not a quick fella. It's not it's not Seabiscuit getting around the track. It's, you know, it's sometimes it's one of those, and I say this with a great compliment, because I love him, but I say that like,

he's the Budweiser Clydesdale that's sitting over there in the St. Louis area, and he's plowing through things, and he's grabbing onto people, and they're hanging onto his hip, and he's dragging them along. So I love Ranen. I think that the mix there is going to be very good But I do agree with you straight that they could move that puck a little quicker and play a little bit more of a faster

Game that rent has got to be the guy that needs to do I know you mentioned he's a big dude, but he there's whispers and you just look at the comments on Twitter He's starting to hear it a little bit out there in Dallas now to where it's like is this guy gonna start dialing it in here where it's like, is this guy going to start dialing it in here? Because it's, everyone talked about him the proper way, which is one of the most dominant offensive players in the game, but he didn't bring it in Carolina. Clearly he was not happy there.

And then in Dallas, it's kind of been a bit of a shaky start, so he needs to really get it going. Yeah. Yeah. I do not disagree whatsoever. I do not disagree. And I think in the playoffs, when you're hunkering down low and you're moving the pucks down to the goal line, I think you got to get used to the way players play.

And once he goes down to that goal line, the puck has to go there. For me, that's it. You know, he's not going to transport it through the neutral zone. He needs the speed through the neutral zone. Then he can get it at the down low game and wear your right down. And that's where he's going gonna be great. With Darren Pang and you know Rantanen was the guy that ran into Skinner last night and he's not even in the crease he's in the white paint and Skinner drops it was fluky yet Perry was was not happy with

himself after the game that he didn't see it didn't address it you know you speak for the goalie for eternity here, Panger, in terms of like, what is reasonable to expect in terms of goaltender protection, but furthermore, how your team is supposed to respond to it when it was clearly a fluky play? Yeah, this is a nothing play. And I think the goaltenders like Skinner,

he makes the save upwards, lunges up, which is a classic, you know a lot of the goaltenders kind of do it, but Skinner does it a lot, so he lunges up. When does the body turn this way and end up? It's his head. You know, you don't usually make a save and end up on your belly. And that's a technique that I don't like that for a lot of reasons. Mike Smith was like that.

That looked like a Mike Smith kind of save right there, if you guys recall. And now he's going forward. There's nothing that Ranton is doing right there that's wrong for me. He actually lifts up his left leg trying to get it around him, I thought. So it's a really unfortunate one because I've had those stingers or burners before and they're bad. You guys probably have had them the same way. You don't expect it. You're looking one way. Your head just gets clipped. It could be the pants. It could be the shin pad. It could be the thigh pad. And man, it sends a ripple right

down your neck for sure. And in fact, I'm getting goosebumps just thinking of that because I could, you know, I mean, but Corey Perry afterwards, so there was another little bump in but Cory Perry also The worm does what the worm does you know he he goes do you remember what he did he went right to the net? He put on the brakes, and he went skates first You know right into Ottinger and that could have been a pretty dangerous play too And that was right after a couple of sequences right there, so I mean that's part of the game That's you know I we've been around it forever Glenn Anderson was pretty darn good at it we've seen Chris Kreider that that's a little accidentally on purpose stuff

as well but at the end of the day I didn't think that there was motive you know to go go over and have a five-on-five brawl with with ranting and because of that one particular play it is unfortunate but there's no way there was this was an intended play in my opinion no I think we're all with you on that with Darren Pang so the Leafs they're in San Jose tonight and you know as of right now they're there in first place in the division and it's it's a tedious lead because Florida's technically tied in points and Tampa's two points behind them but we're 11 games out and you know

it's been a pretty consistent discussion all year in terms of who should start game one of the stanley cup last for the leaves should it be stole or should it be wall i mean subject to change between now and game one clearly but if it were to be going down tonight of game one was happening tonight who do you think should be starting in that for the leaves

by i'm still leaning towards my my guy St. Louis. I'm still leaning towards Joseph Wall. I really think that he's a rhythmic goaltender. I think that I think in relief I think Stolarz can come in and because of his lack of like movement, his good puck handling and the size of him him I think if it doesn't work and you need to make the switch I would rather this is just me I would start with wall and I would you know If you have to make that move I think it'd be an easier transition getting stole ours in there rather than the other way because I like to get Joseph wall Into a rhythm. I like to get him into into these games and I found that you know the more he plays and the more that he's

That calmness in the net everybody feeds off of that as well. So that's just what I would do, but not being there every single day and not seeing every single movement or practices, it is hard. But that would be just my outside opinion on that. It's an interesting thought though, the idea that you'd have to consider if you're a Baruba and company, who is more comfortable with possibly being replaced or being the one that will replace the other guy. And that's very, I don't think that's overly comforting,

the idea that you have to plan for possibly replacing a guy. I mean, they're not doing that in Tampa, they're not doing that in Florida. They're not gonna do that in Winnipeg, right? It doesn't matter what happens in game one, Hello Bucks going back in in but the idea that's easy Can I interrupt you for a second? I interrupt you for a second. Just just because I'll forget what I was gonna say

That comes with age you guys. That's what happens. We got but but I Did the luxury of all the teams that you said? They can't go to number two most of them The depth and the depth in the net the crime. It's such a drop the second guy. Yeah, it is They can't go to number two, most of them. The depth in the net, the quality of the second guy. It is. I mean, so, you know, that's the luxury that they have. And that's why I wouldn't mind talking about it.

I believe that if the Toronto Maple Leafs, hypothetically, are going to go all the way to conference final, they're going to use both goaltenders. I don't believe one guy is going to run the table anyway. Really? So it's just the way that the quality of chances, the pressure on the goaltenders, the scrutiny of every goal against, I think there's going to be needing some relief. And I think that's fine. I mean, I wouldn't have an issue if I'm the goalie coach or chief and you know one guy's

running out of gas a little bit it's wearing on you this is still tron this is still it's it's not like the plane out in in and other cities that don't demand it don't have an eye on every single little he is doing every coffee have in the morning big time he is the guy that you put in second has got to be dynamite what that is it is a lot of men and i was not a good panel yeah but if you put a man you're generally under distress or it's after

a loss the other guys got to get in there when the game in the unbelievable because if he's not then you just got two guys that are getting it done pretty simple comment well yeah but that but it's true and i can i wonder if that was solid that was rock solid about that was there's a lot of doubt that i like it and it's right I appreciate it but I wonder if what we're saying here is that instead of focusing on who starts game one it's more importantly who

would start game seven like who do you have more comfort in when the lights are the lights strutting we're jump to game seven already every year up here it happened having one playoff round win in 10 years. You gotta think ahead. Game sevens man, you can And then I was on the call, it was the last two years ago, for their first round playoff series win against Tampa Bay. Crazy. I've seen both of them since 2004. That's it. I'm there.

In 21 years, there's been two of them. There's been two wins. But don't you think, guys, I can't make that decision, or can you pang or make that decision now? I think it depends what happens in the series. How the guys are playing. If one of them is running the table, then you leave them. So I can't say it's... I don't know.

I'd have a hard time making that. I'd maybe think who I'd want, but I think that changes in the moment, doesn't it? Oh, you don't think in that back door hot stove when after a game, having a nice cold one, morning skate, having a nice brew of Tim Horton's coffee, and the boys are sitting there without any cameras and going, okay boys, what do you think? Of course they are, what do you think? Who do you like? And I bet that room is like, you know,

it could be split, it could be unanimous, it could be a what happens if we get into a game seven? Who's our horse? No question, that's what I love about hockey, is hot, stolen, throwing things around. That's a beautiful thing. I would love hammering a beer in the back of the bus saying that guy sucks that guy stinks Never been a good player It's funny it's funny oh dog I I usually slide a couple of cold ones in the back of the bus

It's the I don't know if there's a better There's lots of good beers out there panger, but a victory and maybe a couple goals. I was always about the team success though. A victory and a cold one on the bus, there's not a better beer. Do we have time for my best beer story? Absolutely. Always have time for that. I just found out from Bob Pohlford, he said that I could get an apartment. We were on the road and it was like early November of 87. Made the Hawks, but I wasn't sure if I made them. I was staying at this old Bismarck hotel that the Wurz's own.

Finally, he said you can get a place. So we're on the road, we're playing Detroit. We're at Joe Louis Arena and it's my first time playing a game against Steve, which we've grown up and it was, you know, it was quite an exciting dream to play against Steve in Detroit. And, and so we won the game. So I'm in the shower. And I didn't, you know, we didn't, we hadn't won very many games. So and I wasn't part of, I don't think any wins or maybe one. I go in the shower and there's a nice cooler in the back and there's all this cold beer. And I'm sitting there with this cold beer and I'm thinking to myself, a hot water, a nice crisp cold beer and I'm 135 pounds and I'm just soaking wet and I got this nice cold Pilsner

and this is a bad thing, but it's warm water there, cold beer there and something's warm hitting my leg. Steve Thomas at Stumpy says, great game, Spank. So I've got, you know what's going on. Stumpy, man. Come on. So you had three different temperatures all at the same time. Is that what you're saying, Panger? That was your introduction to the Joe Louis Arena. And that was my introduction to a win, cold beer in the shower and celebrating and just one of those team moments, you guys. There you go. That's what happens behind the scenes. It is a thing of beauty. We appreciate that as always and we appreciate you finding time for us, Pangar. We love having you on. Thank you

for doing this It's always my pleasure. Take care. You got it. Oh dog be good out there There it is there and pang at the NHL and TNT joining us here on maple Toyota hotline drive the built-in Canada fuel-efficient Fun to drive Toyota rav4 gas or hybrid models available visit maple Toyota calm Introducing Brian Adams Radio on I Heart Radio. Hosted by Brian Adams himself. Join me for an insider look on a wild ride through 40 years of global rock and roll.

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