The Athletic Hockey Show - Amid Canada-U.S. tension, will Canadians cheer for Oilers in Stanley Cup Final?

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

The Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and the Oilers begins tonight in Edmonton. Gentille, McIndoe and Corrado look ahead to the final rematch between the Panthers and Oilers, which team's depth plays better, what goalie will rise to the occasion and who's stars will come to play? Frankie presents his top 5 'Dudes of the Final' Plus Sean and Sean wonder, will this Stanley Cup Final play differently this year, with rising political tensions between Canada and the United States?Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, what up? The athletic hockey show Wednesday edition. It's McIndoo. It's Crato. It's Gentile. We are here. Boys,

there's going to be a hockey game tonight. Can you believe it? It's been so long. Refresh my memory. Which one is that? A 17-day gap between the Eastern and what. You know it's going to be longer, too, by the way. Did I tell you guys this?

It was. if one of those was going to go, if one of those series went six, we would have started on June the 7th. So we could have potentially had a five, say whatever, Panthers eliminate hurricanes in five, but if stars,

Oilers would have gone six, we would have had to wait three more days. Dude, I don't know what you guys are talking about. There were plenty of hockey games happening in Ramoski. I don't know what you guys were watching, but there was hockey being played. We're going to talk about that.

We're going to head up. Memorial Cup a little bit later in this segment we also this is a this is a frank heavy show we're working you out today bro we got the dudes in segment two we will start with game one of the stanley cup final um over this in terminal break because like we said it's been uh 29 days since the conference final is there anything you guys have learned about this matchup have you guys come to think of it in any way that maybe you're in any spot that you weren't at last week? The short answer is no. Don't we know everything we need to know about these two teams and about this matchup?

Like it's all the same stuff we went over last year with like minor variations and differences. But it's always, it always boils down to the same things. Which best players are going to be the best players? Which goaltender is going to play better? can you get some depth production? I don't know outside of that. It's kind of just boilerplate stuff. Of course it's going to be interesting.

The Florida Panthers are not getting out to a 3-0 lead this year. There's no way. The series is going to look different. Are you sure? Are you sure about that? There is no way it's going to be a 3-0 lead. Do you think that could happen? I think in Stewart Skinner, all things are possible.

I know he's been good. I don't think it's, I don't know. I'm in no way willing to rule out the possibility that he, you know, turns into a pumpkin for a few days there. It happens to him with some regularity. I was going to save this for the second segment. But I think Stuart Skinner is going to have at least one game where it's a complete disaster. But the thing is, who cares?

Whether you lost the game 2-1 and he made 45 saves or you lost the game 7-2 and he made 19 saves, Like, it is what it is, man. It's a loss. So you move on and you get ready for the next one. It's just, can he just do it one time? Can he not do it two or three times? And can he, you know, you're not going to go save for save with Bob, I don't think. But can you just give your team a chance to win and make the saves you're supposed to make?

Sean, I have not learned anything in these 34-day gap between, the last series. But what I'm looking forward to learning because of that gap is, was that enough time for Matthew Kachuk to get any closer to back to full health? Because we're three rounds into this thing and we're still kind of waiting

on the Matthew Kachuk playoff experience. He's been okay. He's been fine. He hasn't been great. He hasn't been the dominant guy. And that's full credit to Florida because you wouldn't necessarily have thought at the beginning of this postseason that they would be here if he hadn't been able to get to that level.

And yet they are. And if he, you know, if all these extra days off were enough to get him somewhat back to what he was before the four nations, then they're in really good shape. I'm not convinced that's the case. I have a feeling by the end of this, we're going to find out he was playing through something that is, you know, gonna take another, another broken sternum or whatever. A summer, if not a surgery or something to coughing blood for months.

I had that thought, I had that thought today, because this is how it works in the States, by the way, fellas, like you hear from media outlets that would never bother talking to you in a million, zillion years whenever the cup final starts. So I did NPR this morning. I went on, I went on morning edition with Steve, with, with, with Steve Inge. Correct.

Right. NPR loves random hockey stories. We did. Remember when we did CBC? That was CBC, right? You and I did CBC together, which, you know, for the, for the, for the first ad, bad commercials. That was how bad the sports world was hurting in 2020. I don't, I don't think the gravity of the pandemic really set in for me.

until I realized that I was going on CBC to talk about commercials with Mac and Do. National news in the middle of 2020. But outlets like that will bug people like me and bring me on at six in the morning or whatever time it was for three minutes. And they're like, all right, we have Sean Jusili from the athletic here.

Like just tell us what's going on in hockey. What happened in hockey this year? Stanley Cup final apparently. Who are the teams that are playing? like just give us anything. And the question basically was like, who are the star players on either team? And of course you talk about McDavid and Dry Seidel

and you talk about how the Panthers have all the elite players at the top and blah, blah, blah. You go into like our canned ham answers. But I literally like in the middle of it, I had that thought about Kitchuk. I was like, he kind of has like, of course you're going to talk about him as the star of the Florida Panthers. because he's got the juice and the X factor and whatever.

It's been on TV here more than, more than most NHL players for the last 25 years and blah, blah, blah. But it was like the light bulb went off when I was talking about him. I was like, he hasn't been super productive and maybe he's heard again. I mean, there were moments against Carolina where he was incredible. Don't get me wrong. But the whole, the full game impact, yeah, it hasn't been there. So we're going to find out that his groin was torn off during the Four Nations tournament in a couple days.

Something. But to McIndoo's point about Matthew Kachuk, so most Stanley Cup playoff points since 2023, this is, this is from ESPN. It's McDavid at one, dry sidle at two, Bouchard at three, and guess who's number four? Matthew Kachuk. Like that's, that's the guy who's got the most points in, you know, a couple of years now for the Florida Panthers in the playoffs. So, yeah, you want to, you want to win Stanley Cups. You want to have. have big moments and big series. It goes without saying the big boys got to push through. But isn't it crazy though?

Like he could have the playoffs that he's having, which we will fully acknowledge. Like there's definitely something holding him back. And the Panthers are still right where they're supposed to be. And not only are they where they're supposed to be, they steamrolled two of their series on route here. I think that just speaks to like how deep this group is. you know, call it game plan mentality, whatever you want to call it. Like, you know, Paul Maurice, he loves to have the chuckle factory after games when they win.

But clearly he's a good coach and he knows how to kind of not pander to the group, but knows the strength of his group, you know, as much as he loves the chuckle factory. I think he does also know how to pander to groups. Yes. Certain groups. One in particular, he's really good at pandering too. Um, yeah, I, the thing about the Panthers, man, Frankie, I think you kind of said it too. Like, if you look at the stats from the single game stats, obviously not, not the overall ones against Carolina.

You would think that that series was closer than it was. Like it, it points, it points it fell close. There were period, especially, especially that first game for like game two was a disaster for Carolina. that you know they tank that one obviously but like one three four you're like if you didn't watch it and if you didn't have a sense of you know the run of play and the way things were going you could get fooled into thinking that Carolina was closer than they actually were I think in a way that's like that's like one of the gifts of the Florida Panthers is that like they're not they weren't at their absolute peak for 100% of these

games, but everything felt it always, it felt like they knew exactly what buttons to push and exactly how much to exert and how to exert at like the exact right times. Even like from shift to shift, it was wild. They were in complete control of that series from the start.

And that's like one of the things, you know, when we're talking about making picks and all that sort of stuff. Like that's sort of that's something that I keep that I keep going. but I just, I can't get, I can't get the, the, the, the, the, the overall control that they seem to have on a, on a game to game basis out of my mind when it comes time to like really put the chips down here. And we said in two of the three series, even that Leafs series, obviously we all remember how that ended. We remember games five and seven of that. I think you could argue that other than a little blip at the very start of that Leaf series and the Leafs took the two nothing lead, it's been.

15 out of 17 games now of just total control for the Panthers. And they look like a team, you know, we pull out the cliche, I'll try to look like you've been here before. They look like the team that's been here before. They, they in the playoffs look like a regular season team, you know, like just everything's fine. We know what to do. If it's not tonight, we'll get them tomorrow night and all of that stuff.

And then in the, this year's regular season, they look like a preseason team. They're just working on a few things and just get through it before the real season starts. So they're a real, I mean, it's been said over and over. They are almost designed in a lab to be an NHL playoff team. You're right about that. There were some games towards the end of the season there. And it largely due to the personnel they had on the ice, they had so many guys sitting out. It did have the feel of a controlled scrimmage.

and load management is a word that gets thrown out there all the time. But with the way the last two seasons have gone for the Panthers, they had to be careful. They had to be mindful about how much they were grinding these guys prior to the playoffs. And now we get to the point where they're back in the Stanley Cup final, third year in a row. And I, like many, would have had the thought. I don't know if you guys were like this as well.

well, three years in a row, like there's a lot of mileage on those bodies, and especially two years ago, when they were basically grinding from January 1st all the way through to the end of the regular season, the wheels got to come off at some point. But guess what? If the wheels didn't come off already, they ain't coming off now because they steamrolled Tampa. They found a way in the later parts of the Toronto series to put the boots to them and they dominated the Carolina hurricanes. And now they had all this time off. That's only, going to serve them well. And here's the kicker. They're going up against the team that's not much fresher than them. Like Edmonton was right there with them last year. They grinded their way to the final. Two years ago, Edmonton lost to Vegas. And not to mention, you know, the last two regular seasons for the Oilers, they have been like, they've been in close to, well, two years ago, for sure they were in the basement of the league. This year, they had to grind, you know, for for large sections of the regular season, don't think that doesn't take a toll on on a team because it does.

And so there's, for me anyways, there's no advantage as far as who's more weathered and who's got more mileage at this point in the series. Like there are there are even Stevens as far as I'm concerned. So is, is there another X factor for you guys? You know,

that's like a boring question. But like we're just trying, we're trying to find like different, different strings to pull out here where, where it's like, you know, what's, what's changed? Like, what are, what are the new angles to take? Like, is there, like, where, where is the series going to, get to hinge?

Because I've, I've been thinking about it. Here's, here's something that's changed from last year. And, and to me, Zach Hyman not being there is huge for Edmonton, obviously. You're talking about a former 50 goal scorer who's not going to play in the series. to me that makes Edmonton's X factor Evander King because he didn't play in most of last year's series and the two games he did play he did nothing at all. He was basically a non-factor. So you could almost from a simplistic standpoint say what's changed from last year this year, Zach Heiman out, Evander Kane in.

And Evander Kane is not Zach Heine. at this stage in his career, but he's got some of the ability that if, especially if he gets elevated up the lineup, if he gets some more power play time, he could be a guy that we look back on at the end of this series and go, okay, this was, it's not going to be the Evander Cain series.

He's always going to be, you know, well behind. I mean, nobody on that Edmonton who isn't Connor McDavid and Leandro Settle is going to be the guy. But is he the guy where, you go, you know what? He chipped in. He had a couple of big goals. He, uh, you know, he got a few things done.

You noticed him out there in a good way, which is sometimes a challenge for him. That's what allowed them to push back because, I mean, he's, he's not only is he a guy who can contribute offensively, but you look at the style of game he plays. It matches up against that Florida Panthers dirt bag style pretty well. So is he the guy that can maybe settle some of this stuff down? I love it. It's like an even split between affection and just total, total disdain. I mean, honestly, at this point, if you're a Panthers fan and you're not taking dirtbag as a compliment, then I don't know. Grow up.

Yeah. There are going to be teams in the offseason sitting around their boardroom with all the whiteboards and they're going to have some buzzwords. and one of the buzzwords is going to be we got to find a way to make ourselves a dirt bag hockey team. That's what we need to be. And it's going to be all into our inner dirt bag. You think Sam Bennett's agent is going to put together like a sizzle reel of just him blatantly injuring people

and send that out to everyone? I don't know if he's going to. I don't know if he's going to need to. I think the- I think the tapes out there already. If you haven't seen it, you haven't been paying it. The pitches are going to be in, too. I've seen people have the takes in recent years that, like, the NHL is so much smarter because we don't do David Clarkson contracts anymore.

Wait. How much money? Give it a minute. We'll see. How much money would you guys each of you give Sam Bennett? What would the number be? If I really know part of it. If I really needed a centerman, which there are teams that are desperately in need of a centerment, I'm going in the high sevens, low eights.

Yes. On a max like deal, would you go seven years on that? I would like to go six years. But, yeah. If I do five times seven and he wouldn't, he wouldn't return the call because he's going to have a better offer from me. Why would he return your call? Well, yeah, but I got palm trees. What about you?

What's your tax rate like, Frankie? My tax rate where I have? Yeah, it's not great, eh? Yeah. Wait, where were you earlier this week? Where was I earlier?

This week. Where was that, where was that located? Where was the Memorial Cup being played? I was in Ramoski. The tax situation is not any better out there. But it was good. It was good.

The tournament was awesome. We were spoiled with the, with the games. I have a couple takeaways for you guys from that. And I think, you know, with teams like, London and Ramuski and Moncton and Medicine Hat. We try to cater to how does a national audience care about, you know, these players and these

teams? And really, it's all about the individuals, right? And I think there's a couple things that stand out to me. Like, I think from the Toronto point of view, Easton Cowan, you know, people want to rush him into Mitch Marner's position. Let's, let's pump the brakes. He's a good player. and he's going to be a good player to say that he's going to step in right away and replace Mitch

Marner is not fair to the kid, which he is just a kid. But the one thing I'll say about him is he's got, call it a B game, call it like a secondary skill set. But if it's not like the playmaking or the skills, like the guy hunts and hounds pucks and just works his tail off. So I have a sincere appreciation for a young player being like, hey, I'm going to bring this no matter what. And then the other stuff will kind of follow. All the skill stuff will follow. So I like that from him. The kid, Caleb de Noye, who was playing through something at the Memorial Cup, like, you know,

wasn't, wasn't the most fruitful as far as like offensive production. He is going to be a top 10 pick. And I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't make it to six. Like, I think that's how good he is. He's going to be a legit two-way centerman who helps you win. And I think there's teams that have recognized that outside of the Memorial Cup, obviously, but teams that have recognized that. Like, I think that kid's going higher than people may think.

I was really impressed. And I don't know, outside of that, a lot of good players on London, medicine hat, like Gavin McKenna. I was going to ask, I was going to ask about it. I tried to explain it this way about Gavin McKenna. We come up with all these different ways to say things. If he has a six-inch opening to thread a puck for him, that's the size of the Atlantic Ocean. Like that six inches just looks huge.

He's so precise with his passing and playmaking. And what a great kid. I had an opportunity to skate around with him, ask him some questions. That was really cool. He just super, super humble, awesome kid. but he is he is the real deal holy field man really good player did you give him uh did you give him some tips on on pittsberg as well for whenever the penguins lose that you know win the

draft lottery and draft him next year we'll get we'll get there i'll let him know about all our spots in cranberry p a let me tell you a little a little story about the juniper grill my oh yeah yeah exactly all right let's hit a break we'll come back we got frankie's dudes the playoffs the dudes the dudes the dudes of the stanley cup final Guys, how many times have we done the dudes, Frankie's dudes? Is this, I feel like we've officially done it once or twice, but there's always an undercurrent to it. I feel like we're always kind of like dropping, like we're always carrying the dudes in our heart, even though we don't have, even though we don't have the segment named as such. You started the dudes because you kept saying that is a dude right there.

Or he's playing like a dude. Cold per fetti after a four point game, I think was where all this started. Whoops. Okay. This is, you know, most intriguing dudes for the Stanley Cove final. These are the dudes, Sean. I mean, Frankie. For my point of view.

And I'll give you a reason why. We'll chew the fat on it. And we'll just talk about these dudes. Let's go. You guys ready to go? We'll start at number five. We talked about him a little bit already, but we got to circle back on it. Number five dude of Vander Cain.

And here's my reason why. As much as he could be a quote unquote X factor with his play, I think it's the extracurricular stuff. I think there's something to be said for when guys are yapping at you on the ice or on the bench and it's like there's just sometimes nothing you can do about it. Like there's certain players that someone's yelling at you and you're like, well, I can't go. Like what am I going to say?

I'm going to go beat you up? No, he knows that's not true. A van der Kaine can yap back and say, I will come punch you in the face. And chances are he can beat up a lot of. those guys. Like that, it may seem like a small thing insignificant, but I can, I can assure you it's not when you're on the ice. And Evander Cain has that, that little element of pushback or call it F you that the Oilers will need in a, it's going to be a war. Like the Florida Panthers are going to make it a war and you need guys that are willing to go to war. I think Evander Cain can

do that for them. Did anybody ever come up to you and say those exact, that exact combination of words like, hey, I'm going to beat you up. More like. I'm going to jump you. I'm going to jump you. If you, if you stick me in the back of the legs again, I will jump you. And that's more in the minors, you know. 22, I'm going to beat you up. Yeah, that's the censored version for the athletic podcast.

Let's put it that way. Thank you very much. We're on every, we're on every show. We have to be, we have to be very polite. Frankie, if you don't come up with an A plus segue at some point on today's show, Producer Jeff, he's going to yank that hoodie over your head and just, I know, uppercuts.

All right. Let's see if we can work in a segue in the dudes. Okay, number four, dude. And we talked about it in a while already, but it's worth bringing up again, Stuart Skinner. Which Stuart Skinner are we getting? And how long is the leash on Skinner?

Because I think he's got wiggle room for one stinker. I really do. But two stinkers? do you stick with him after that? And is he in the mind space where he's going to have two bad games? The other thing I'll say about Stuart Skinner is you can almost erase everything from this year. The start to the L.A. series, the regular season, who cares? If he's in the zone, if he's in the quote unquote flow state right now, that is all that matters.

And all will be forgiven as long as he plays, you know, his better to best version of himself. There's always going to be skepticism around this guy. That's just the reality of Stuart Skinner, but he's playing better than he has been all season long. So it's not like it doesn't feel like he's a complete liability at this point. I like how now it feels like the range of how long is the leash is like, is it a long leash? Is it a medium-sized leash? Is it a little teeny tiny leash or is it the Jake Ottinger in an elimination game leash? leash.

God. I feel like Stuart Skinner's probably earned. How weird is this? He's earned a lot more of a leash than Team USA superstar Jake Onger. That's outrageous stuff. I think it's almost, I think it would almost be better for the Oilers. If he, maybe not game one.

We know he's, we know he's going to suck at some point in this series. It's going to happen. He's going to have a stretch where he's bad. I think it's almost better if he's, He's so bad in, like, say, the first two periods that he just gets yanked from a game. And you pull him, you throw a pickard out there for the third. And that can be the reset moment. And then you go back to him in the next game.

And you're like, all right, we get that. We get that out of the way. He had his terrible two periods. We, you know, push the Calvin Pickard button for 20 minutes. And now after one of these four day breaks in between games in the middle of the series, like we can just, we can just go back. to him. I feel like that's kind of the ideal outcome. Because like I said, we're like, it's going to, it's going to happen.

We know he's going to be bad at some point. That's the thing. Like I don't, I don't know if anyone's expecting brick wall all the time, Stuart Skinner, but like there have, there should be moments where it does feel like that way. And I think there's another guy who has the feeling of like this guy is a brick wall when he plays. And no, I am not talking about Sergey Brabrovsky. He's consistent. We know what we're going to get. You know who was a brick wall for this team last year? Florida Panthers. Number three, Gustav Forsling. This guy is going to have to do a capital J job on Connor McDavid or Leon Dricidal or whoever he's on the ice against because that last

year was, this was his coming out party in the playoffs last year, watching Gus Foresling go toe to toe against the league's best and skate with them and like be in their face and not give any room one on one. That like that's going to be instrumental. again to to to their success and it's going to be different because the florida panthers are starting in edmonton so you're not going to get the hard matchup that you might want early in the series but i don't know if paul maurice is going to be overly married to it like i don't think we're going to have a scramble at the panthers bench because you can't get forsling on or you can't get barkoff on you're still going to have the lundel line you're still like nico micola has been a revelation

so i don't i don't feel like i have we have we told hold i'm not to derail anything I don't think we've talked about Nico Mikola. It's crazy, isn't it? What, I've never, it did not occur to me that he could even physically do some of the things that he's, that he did, especially in the Carolina series. Yeah. He's like joining the, he's up and he's up, he's joined the rush, like constantly. Like, he looks, he's looking like, like, like, all coffee out there. Like, what is going on?

I had someone tell me that, like, when they watched him play a lot in, in, in New York. York. They're like, this guy's nowhere near the defenseman he was in New York. Like, he's, he's got a little snarl to his game. And isn't that just the Florida Panther factor? You go there and it's like, you're surrounded by a bunch of animals and you're like, I'm going to unleash my inner animal as well. And I'm going to be a beast. I just thought he was, I thought he was a stiff. And now, now you see him and he's like, he's a tank. He's huge. And it's like, oh, who's this? Who's this on the break? It's, it's Nik, Nico, me. Nicola. It was incredible. B. Borselings 3A, Mikula's 3B. Thank you. We did it. We worked good in. Bonus dude for everybody. Everyone loves a bonus dude. Yeah. The top two are pretty obvious.

Number two, Sasha Barkoff. You know what I found fascinating? You guys are probably more analytic guys than me. So maybe you don't care about plus minus at all. I care about it a little bit. I still think as long as it's a stat that's on the page of NHL.com, it has to tell us some kind of story. We're allowed to care about plus minus again, by the way. You just repackage it as goal differential and say that it's only a five on five. We've vented a due step.

We're allowed for after, after 10 years of being like, oh, yeah, plus minus sucks actually and it doesn't mean anything. Now, now everyone's a genius for citing strength. Gold differential. On ice goal differential. What else could you call that? As opposed to like at the concession stand. Yeah. It's so ridiculous.

Anyways, last year. Barkoff was minus two in games four, five, and six for a combined minus six over those three games. And wouldn't you know it? Like that's when the Edmonton Oilers really made their charge back in the series. So, you know, Barkoff, yes, great with the puck, great without the puck. But I think a lot of the Panthers success is kind of based on how he can control the flow of play. And plus minus slash goal differential may not mean every. everything, but in small sample sizes like that, I think it does tell us a little bit of a story

and especially as far as what kind of impact Barcov can have. What kind of stuff that may be the average person or the average NHL writer watching a game that involves Sasha Barkov doesn't pick up on? Because like I asked some of the guys on the Panthers that or in, it was maybe, I think unfortunately it might have been Scott Morrow on the, on the hurricanes. rough rough rough rough rough rough couple days for a nice kid yeah like what what kind of what kind of stuff are you looking for i know it's like the stick lifts i know i know there's like stuff like that like little like little bits and pieces that he does over overrun a play to just kind of take control of it's

a lot of it is the stick lifts a lot of it is when he gets you in tight i find like a he's like a he's like a fridge so he's just hard to maneuver around and he'll lean on you but there's just like that little bit of like, I'm not going to call it clutch and grab, but it is a little bit of that mentality where it's like, I could just, I'm going to swat your arm this way and then now I get the stick lift.

There's almost like a little preceding move before he's going to mount his attack on you. You would see it on an ISO or a close-up camera. It would be hard to tell from the live camera. He's good at a lot, like the subtleties, the little subtleties mixed with the big frame, I think is what makes him really

difficult. And as far as with the puck, like watch Barkoff, there's times when he might have it on his stick for like a split second. And it's like, it's like a micro touch of the puck. That's a term that I used a skill. I heard a skills coach use recently. Micro touch. Thank you for introducing that to my life. I'm going to use it constantly. I love micro touch. Anyways. So yeah, that's that's something he does really, really well. He doesn't have to like load it up on his stick and he doesn't have to dust it off very much. Yeah, you can ask. And one of my favorite

character archetypes in sports and especially in hockey, the guy, the lady being candidate on the team full of scumbags. I love it. I like, I,

and the leader, no less. He's the captain. 20 years ago, 20 years ago, that leaps, the Pat Quinn leaves, a bunch of dirt bags. And then you had Sundin and later McGilney on the first line, just little angels,

they're little halo. just sitting back, hey, how you doing? You know, while Darcy Tucker was jumping into the, into the bench to fight some dude. It's like, it's like, love it. It's like the scale of justice. Like, yeah, just imagine dropping those guys. It's like, all right, Bennett.

Yeah. Martian. And you like all by himself. It's like, I guess maybe for sling. I feel like he, he's like, pre's pretty clean for, for it for a demon. Other other than that, nobody else. Also, by the way, yes, I agree that. I agree that Alexander Barkav is a very strong.

hockey player. You can ask Dimitrior Love for his thoughts on that. Yeah. If you can find him. If you can find him. I think he's down in Florida. I saw him on Instagram. He was down in Florida. He'll be fine. Someone's going to overpay him in three weeks anyways. He'll be okay. Number one dude

obviously, thanks Captain obvious. Connor McDavid. But let me try and find a different angle for you. Okay. Like he lit it up early in the series last year. Big reason why the Edmonton Oilers were able to get to game six, but then in game six, he had no points.

And the narrative was, I remember doing this hit on SportsCenter before game seven. Connor McDavid is about to have his moment. There is no way he is getting shut out in game six and game seven with a Stanley Cup on the line. And you know what happened? He got shut out in game seven as well.

The best player in the world went two games in a row without a point after torching the series after game one. So, like, yeah, I think this series is going to go different. They're not going to be down three nothing. They're going to be there at the end of the series. It's going to be tight. And Connor McDavid is not going to go two years in a row in game six and seven without having a monster game.

There's just no way. He had the big goal at the Four Nations. He's going to have his moment here at some point. I just, I can't fathom that this guy, after everything he's been through for the last year probably replaying that game seven over and over in his head is not going to have a big moment to win a Stanley Cup. And there's my prediction. I was going to say, is this, Francesco Carrado picking the Edmonton Oilers. There's my prediction. Oilers in seven, McDavid, huge game six and seven to win the series. I like it. And not only Connor McDavid getting

shut down in game six and seven, I had forgotten until I, I had forgotten until I, I went back and started looking at this. If Leon Drysidal last year, seven games, zero goals, three assists, basically a non-factor. In a series in which you could make a good argument,

the Oilers were one goal away from a Stanley Cup. And he got hurt too, remember? He was battling stuff. Like it was a wrist or something. Like he is, there was. He has switched on to Beast mode again.

If he goes Beast mode, because he goes, he does have the beast mode switch. This is, you know, we've been tracking this for, uh, for the star players.

Leander it dry sidel does have it. He has, he has, he has the largest, easiest to access beast mode switch. I think it's the most noticeable. Between him and Nathan McKinnon for like actual, uh,

beast mode impact. So I think I'm with, I'm with Frankie. Boilers and seven here. Which means legally, Sean, you have to go. Panthers whether you want to. Yeah, because we can't, we can't have the

Chiron of like, we can't have the graphic of like under under the three of our jackass faces being like oilers, oilers, oilers. So whatever. You know why you can't do that either? Because then some dirtbag admin, I hate that I'm using that term now, but McIndoo's got me using it. He's going to grab it. He has a way of doing that, by the way. Yeah, oh, I know. Self-adopting phrases from it. Some admin is going to grab it and throw it in like the the post series um you know like dunking on you real i hate that stuff like give me it happened us in the first not the three of us but the but the

writers we had to vote they make us do this before every round and i'm getting increasingly annoyed by it where where we where we pick the results in the first one we all picked the lightning it was like it was almost all well where were we were Why were you not on the graphic? You could have saved us. This was for the pod, actually. They pulled us for the pod and then made a graphic. And it was like 10 people and we all picked the lightning.

So thanks for not checking Slack that day, I guess. Because you could have you could have saved our ass. We look like fools because of you. I may have also done the thing where I pick different teams based on who's asking me so that I cover my bases. but that's Howard. What a smart man. Frank,

you know what that is? It's a dirtbag move. Putting a pin in it, brother. Frankie, where you at this week? Where's TSN got you? In the studio. Studio tonight for a little post game.

Yeah, be there Friday as well. Good stuff, boys. Hang in there, man. We'll talk you next week. Okay. See you fellas. All right, there goes Frankie.

Maconoo. It's just me and you. What have we learned? What have we learned, Sean? I'm going to mix it up this week. I'm going to tell you what I have not learned or what I have not been able to figure out. Can I already see where this is going? Okay.

I can't figure out whether Canada feels differently about this Stanley Cup final, given recent events, given the politics of the day, given this 30-plus year cup drought. I can't get a handle on, is there for once an actual ground? so well behind the last remaining Canadian team or is there not? I go back and forth because there are times where I go, you know what, maybe there is. You know, we remember February with four nations. Whole country, absolutely united. I mean, every house in the country was watching that gold medal game. Every house in the country was talking about that first game against America with all the

fights and all of this and, you know, elbows up and we all had the flags. And I'm thinking, okay, here we go. and then you bring it up and it feels like a lot of Canadian fans are going, no, we're not doing that. We're still not doing that. Like, you know,

I don't want to root for Edmonton. I'm a Calgary fan. I'm Vancouver. I'm, you know, they're not rooting for, for Edmonton, but then every now and then,

like this morning, I throw a post up there and I look in the comment section and I got a bunch of people talking about, uh, you know, no, we got to do this for the country. I,

I can't get a read on this. It feels like it changes. it changes every day. It feels like it changes year over year for sure. That was, it was a story or maybe not a story, but last year. Yeah.

In our bad ad roundup, we had a, we had a Boston Pizza National. They're doing again this year. Are they doing it again? Land the parade is their, their, their fun little tagline.

So they're, so they're leaning into it too, like Boston Pizza's back. Like, it feels like most years. Because I did this, uh, Myrtle and I did like a,

a debate a few years ago on this. And it felt like every year the non-fans, which is, you know, the casual fans as well as the companies and the PR people and all of that would say, hey, let's all get behind Canada's team. And most of the diehard hockey fans would say, no, we're not doing that. That's not how this works. one thing you'd hear a lot is people would say Canada's team is team Canada

if it's the Olympics or four nations or whatever if they've got a red maple leaf that's Canada's team I will cheer for them I'm not going to cheer for the Oilers or the Canucks or the Leafs or whoever is the last remaining Canadian team that's not how fans do it this year in theory it could be different

but again I'm not quite sure that it is. I know that Canadians are sick and tired of hearing about the cup drought, but even that, I mean, that's, that's, that's, we're used to it by now. So I don't know. What about down there? Is there anybody down there who's like, go Matthew Kachuk, American hero. No. Captain USA, whatever. I don't think, I don't think it's, I don't think it's framed in those terms. And I think generally, you know, in terms of, bigger picture. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he plays for the Panthers. I think like it's it's good for South Florida and Kachuk definitely has surfaced, uh, in ways that he, you know,

a lot of hockey players haven't. But I, I think, I think we're getting it something similar here on, on, on both ends of it. We talked about this during four nations. My uncles who are like,

to me, they're like the barometer for like the casual, hockey fan, right? They care about the penguins and they care about, they care about international hockey. They care about Team USA. Those guys were texting me during Four Nations being like, like, like Matthew, like who is this guy basically? Like, is he Keith Kachuk's son? Like, yeah, yeah. Like, I'm introducing them to Matthew Kachuk during the Four Nations tournament. And they're like, they're like, awesome. Like he's my guy for, for reason, for one reason or another. you know who I haven't heard from during the run of the Stanley Cup playoffs is my uncle Steve and my uncle Billy and in and whoever else being like, all right, there's my guy.

There's, there's, there's Matthew Kachuk. No, there are nowhere to be found. Where does this one rank on the uncle's scale? That's it. I got to, that's going to be my recurring segment. Frankie has his dudes. I have, I have, I have my uncle's dudes. You know what I, but that's the difference between NHL hockey and international hockey.

That's it. And I think, I think we're seeing that play out right now because we got a taste of it after that big break in February. We saw how people can connect with it in, in a very real way. And that's, that's where all this stuff that were edging around, all this stuff that were talking about really, really plays out. And of course, this could all, this could change. This could change with one social media post or, you know, certain, certain people decide to weigh in. then it changes. But for now, you know what I think ultimately is, I feel is a big factor in Canada is that we won the Four Nations.

Yeah. Because Four Nations was when all of this, the nationalistic stuff was at its height, partly because it's a national tournament. But that was right when all of the, you know, the geopolitical stuff was peaking. I mean, sure. There was an election going on. All of this stuff. There's a tariff stuff going on. You have the president of the United States calling out the Canadian prime minister.

We have the 51st state nonsense. Mike Myers is going on Saturday Night Live and the, you know, and, and then also the way it played out. I feel like if overtime goes different in the gold medal game of four nations, if Austin Matthews nails one of those chances instead of being Connor McDavid, then I think sitting here three months later, maybe you have Canadians going, okay, we need this one. But instead it's like, we got the big one. We got the one that really mattered. We got the one where we all were really behind the same team. This would be nice.

This would be a nice bonus, nice icing on the cake. But this doesn't feel like we have to have it in the way that I think it would have if we hadn't won the four nations. Yeah, that's a good point. And I'm wondering what this is going to look like moving forward to, if say the drought continues, you know, and then we go in the Olympics and Connor McDavid's going to have a chance to win a goal, to win the gold medal that everybody wants, because that, that feels like still, and this is like a retrograde way

of looking at it in some ways, but correct me from wrong, obviously, that's what feels like elevates hockey players in Canada to a whole other level. When you can say like they were, hey, he was the best. best player on the team that won gold in Vancouver. I watched it happen with Crosby. It felt that the whole vibe around him felt completely different from a, even just from a public perception standpoint after, after the Vancouver goal.

And God bless, like, we all, Four Nations, it was a blast, all that stuff, but ain't the same. It's not the same. It was, I'm curious to see that because four nations, you know, And look, four nations, it's the World Cup is what it was. It's a World Cup with a different name. And the World Cup has always been, even when it was the World Cup, Canada Cup, a little bit below the Olympics as far as where it matters.

Again, the circumstances around this year, plus like the pent-up decade of not having best-on-best, kind of elevated it. So I'm not sure where it ranks as far as the Olympics next year. But I'll be real honest. if you grabbed a random Canadian hockey fan off the street, he'll come up to a lie detector and say, does it bother you the whole cup throughout 30 years? I think the average fan will go, yeah, it does.

It's, I mean, it's just been so long. It didn't bother me when it was 10 years or 15, but I mean, it's become such a story now, and there have been so many near misses. I would love to see a Canadian team win just so that we don't have to hear about this for a while. But if you said to them, right now

team Canada wins all the gold medals in the Olympics they win the World Cup they've won everything in the last 25 years other than 2006 Olympics

other than that it's been all Canada all the time best on best would you trade that for a bunch of Stanley Cups but now it's Sweden

and Team USA are winning all the internet I don't think you'd find a Canadian fan who would make that trick so Yeah, literally, literally none.

That feels like that feels like that feels like that feels like. That feels like something that everybody would pass on. All that being said, the Oilers are an easy team to root for. Got Connor McDavid, good Canadian boy. And the Panthers, I don't know if we brought this up. Kind of dirt bags. So it's if even as a casual fan with none of the nationalism or patriotism or whatever in there, at least it's not hard to say,

yeah, you know, this is the team I'm going to root for. This is, these are the guys I like. But I just, I'm not feeling that ground swell of, you know, you're, you're not going to, when the Oilers score the cut, the overtime goal to win the Stanley Cup and you see the fans going crazy, they're not going to cut to like a plaza in Calgary. Right. With a bunch of, you know, they're not going to, they're not going to young, half

blames, half oilers, like when Canadian flags dancing around. That's just, it's not going to happen. They're not cutting a young. Dundas and you know. Yeah. It's not the way it's going to win. If you see that, if you see somebody in a flames, oilers, half jersey, count their fingers, because that might be AI right there, I'm thinking.

Also, we should say about 10 a.m. on Wednesday, got 10 hours until puck drop, brother. A lot of things can happen between now and then. So this might be out of date by the time the series starts. Sure could. All right, man. Anything else? What are you up to this week?

We had our, we had our commercials thing run today. That's the big one. I saw yesterday. I saw it had another, had another one go up today, right? Yeah, I got my, my cup rankings.

And then I have a piece going at the end of the week. There was a lot of fun. And I got to admit, somebody, this is one of those times, somebody else gave me the idea. They sent it over to me. It doesn't,

it doesn't happen often. But our buddy. Is it a reader? No, it was an editor, believe it or not. Shocking. I mean, that's stunning. Our good buddy James Myrtle had his listing, his ranking of like the Mitch Marner, where's he going to go? I saw that.

So I've got Mitch Marner, forget about where's he going to go? It's the pain rankings. Which would twist the knife on Leaf fans? What would hurt Leaf Nation the most? some people would call this the you know the villainy rankings some people call it the comedy rankings I feel like a lot of the audience I go with that worry you got gonna count them down specify who's in pain here man and I'm just saying Mitch if you're out there and you're sitting there going what can I do to leave the most damn all right this is your ranking man check it up

welcome to Montreal Mitch all right brother we'll talk next week we're going to have Three games done by then, spitball. Will we? I think it might be, we might be doing game two preview the way this schedule works. Yeah, yeah. Game one is actually on June 11th. They just,

they just changed it. So we get seven more days of rehashing the same tired preview content. Frankie's dudes volume two. We're set. Thank you for listening, folks. Me and Haley are back tomorrow with the Thursday show. Enjoy the games. Enjoy the cup final.

We will talk to you real soon.