The Athletic Hockey Show - Brad Treliving named Toronto Maple Leafs GM, Andrew Brunette to coach Nashville Predators, Paul Maurice's journey to South Florida and the Stanley Cup Final

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

On a jam packed Wednesday roundtable, Rob Pizzo, Jesse Granger and Michael Russo discuss a busy couple of off-ice days in the NHL with the Maple Leafs announcing Brad Treliving as their next General Manager, Nashville firing John Hynes and hiring Andrew Brunette to run the bench for the Predators and Spencer Carbery going home to DC to coach the Capitals.Russo in conversation with Panthers head coach Paul Maurice talks about his journey to south Florida, and a birth in the Stanley Cup final in his first season.Devan Dubnyk, the former NHL goalie and current NHL Network analyst joins Rob, Jesse and Mike to talk about the Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers and the all important matchup of Adin Hill vs Sergey Bobrovsky between the pipes. Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. And then there were two. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday Roundtable Edition. I am Rob Pizel from CBC Sports, joined as always by Jesse Granger, who's at home in Vegas, and Mike Rousseau, who is at home in Minnesota. How are we, boys? Good.

Good, exciting, excited to stand like a final. I can tell. You guys are just jacked up. It's funny because we've got a few days now before, you know, it actually gets underway. And I want to quickly ask you this before we get to previewing the series and our guests and everything else. The hell do you do when you've got a few days like this? Do you still immerse yourself in hockey or do you have like you catch up on shows and stuff? Jesse?

I personally have like 17 feature stories that have to be published before the series starts. So, yeah, I mean, it's been awesome covering this cup run. It's a lot of fun. There's so many good hockey games happening, so many good stories to tell. But it is a grind. I am just there's seven more games left, trying to put out as much good content as I can. And currently booking trips to Mexico for like the moment at all ends. So yeah, it's it's been it's been a lot of fun.

But yeah, these few days right here are beautiful in terms of giving me time to not cover games and letting me write these feature stories, these like personal kind of stories that those are my favorite ones to write. So I love this time right here that I can kind of just dedicate to those and then get back to the hockey here a few days. Yeah. And for me, I'm sort of the same way. I've become our de facto Florida Panthers beat writers since we don't have one. And obviously I covered the Panthers for 10 years. So this has been a hoot being down there and spending some extra time down there. Gathered a bunch of stories for this week. And then I'll head out to Vegas Thursday night to help Jesse and Pierre LeBron's joining us as well.

And so we'll have the full coverage at the athletic throughout the San Diego final. Jesse obviously, uh, wall-to-wall Vegas coverage, uh, and, uh, Panthers coverage and,

um, and Pierre in between. So it'll be fun. All right, let's get to it, guys. I want to let everybody know. We have two guests on the show today.

Russo was able to, uh, get Florida head coach. Paul Maurice, you talk to him for a few minutes. We're going to play that tape. And also Devin Dubnick, former NHL goaltender and of course now with the NHL network.

I'm going to talk a little goaltending, which is always going to make one of us very, very happy. Yes. And one of us is Jesse Granger. Yes, absolutely. Okay, boys, Florida and Vegas, one of these two teams is going to win the Stanley Cup for the first time. One of these two coaches is going to win the Stanley Cup for the first time. And both team and coach have been to a Stanley Cup final before. So this is another chance for them.

Let's start in Jesse's backyard, Golden Knights. What are you looking for going into this series? Is there a storyline that really intrigues you, a storyline that really is at top of mind for you? I mean, in terms of storyline, it's Jack Eichel. I mean, this guy, what a change in narrative for the career arc of Jack Eichael. Like, he's eight years into his career. This isn't, he's not, he's not like a rookie or a second or third year guy. And he's getting to play his first playoffs.

And this, this guy has been so good for his entire career, but yet has had to deal with the, you can't win with a guy like that. Yeah, he scores a lot of goals, but he has never won a playoff game. He's never been to the playoffs. So many unfair criticisms to Jack Eichel. He comes to Vegas. They have all these injuries. They miss the playoffs in his first year.

And of course, it gets lumped onto him. See? See what happens? You trade for Jack Eichol? He finally is on a talented team. He gets to the playoffs, his first ever playoffs. Everyone talks about how different the game is in the playoffs and how you've got to adjust to it. He's been brilliant, just spectacular for this team. He didn't score a goal against Dallas,

and he was probably the best player on the ice every night. He is back checking better than any player on the ice. His defensive game is so good. The way he transports the puck from defensive zone to offensive zone is better than anyone I've seen in these playoffs. He is just, he's brilliant. And the fact that if, like, to me, the storyline is how does he play in this Cup final. It's going to be a tough matchup. It's supposed to get harder as it goes on. It certainly will. But to me, in terms of the storylines, like, if you're asking me, like, where this series is going to be won, I think it's in front of the Vegas net. If Florida can get there, they're probably going to win. If Vegas holds them out like they have everyone else, they're probably going to win.

But in terms of storylines, it's all about Jack Eagle for me. Yeah, and that will be, I mean, that is Florida's M.O. is getting to the net. I mean, you know, Paul Maurice talks about it all the time how you know kachuk has all these different things in his system and then next thing you know he's at the net and bennett's at the net and they that's the way that they play this game they're a hard checking grinding a player it is amazing to jesse's point the change in narrative and in ikel and i remember telling you guys when i was at the n hl i think it was our it was actually like our first or second show uh that i that i that i was on the athletic hockey show uh on wednesdays where i was out at the n hl media um out in vegas and i told jessey i'm

Like the one player of all the players that totally changed my impression of him was how good it was to deal with with Eichol. He was so cool to deal with. And I remember when the wild were going after Eichel as well, there were so many times Marcus Fleino told me this guy gets a bad rap. He's a great guy, great player. Don't believe all the crap that you hear about him. And clearly he's gone there and shows it. But this Florida team, if Bob is the Bob that we've seen, they're going to win the cup. If he's not, I think that Vegas has all the ability to win this thing.

Vegas has impressed me throughout the playoffs in their ability to respond to bad losses. You know, Edmonton beats them 5-1 in game two. They go to Edmonton and win that first game. Huge response. They lose game four and they come home, have a big winner, and then go win game six. And the same thing, it looks like Vegas is melting down, lose two games in a row. With Jamie Ben, by the way, not in the lineup. How strange is that?

And next thing you know, you're thinking like, oh, my God, they're going to absolutely choke the series away. And what do they do? They go out and spank them 6-0 in game 6. This Vegas team, they're resilient, man. And if I were me, well, I know it was if it were me because I predicted it. I still think Vegas wins in six. But this Florida team has defied odds all postseason long. Only second team in NHL history beyond Tampa Bay that has beaten 350 win, 10-point teams.

and they, to doubt them is do it at your own peril. Are we at a point right now where Sergey Bobrowski could win the Kansmaid trophy in a losing cause, Jesse? I don't think so. I don't think, I don't think so. I mean, because if he loses in this, like, I don't think he's at a point where a bad series, like, he'd have to be brilliant and lose. Like, he'd have to, they'd have to lose every game that they lost two to one and he had

38 saves, 40 saves. And I just don't think that's going to happen. The Golden Knights aren't a volume shooting team. The Golden Knights under Pete DeBore were a volume shooting team. They'd put up 45 shots a game and maybe score twice. Under Bruce Cassidy, they've played differently. They only get

25 shots a game and they score on four of them. So your stats are awful. Look at the goalies they've played. Like, Connor Hellebuck in the first round, his stats were horrendous against the Golden Knights. Skinner, awful. You could argue whether he's an elite goalie or not, but awful. And then Jake Ottinger has the worst

playoff series of his career up to this point. He's been brilliant in the playoffs. And I think it's because the Golden Knights, the way they attack is not with volume scoring. They only get a limited number of chances, but they're a two-on-one that's a one-timer on the back door, like,

that you can't stop. So I think Babrovsky, if he's good, they're probably going to win the series, and he'll probably win Con Smyth. If he's not, if the goal Golden Knights win, I don't see a way that Bobrovsky looks good enough to win the consmise. And to Jesse's point, if the Golden Knights win, one of their contenders, whether it's Carlson, Marsha So, or Eichel are going to just erupt, I think.

Yeah. And, you know, I mean, to me, if you're going to pick a Vegas player, Eichl is by far the front runner. But, man, William Carlson, 10 goals for a checking center now. I mean, come on. And Marsha So is just, that guy, he's long been one of my favorite players in the league. does his score. And I think, you know, he's one of those people that if you, you give him a little spur in the ass, he's motivated. And for him to play Florida right now, I think, I think we're going to see the best of Jonathan Marcia So this series. Leave me unprotected, huh? Yeah. After I score 30

goals with you guys, well, I think he's, I was going to bring up Marcia So. I think he's got more motivation almost than any. And there's a few players, former players, but I mean, you look at him, like I said, 30 goals and you get left unprotected. You certainly want to, uh, to get back at them for that. But we'll obviously break this down. It doesn't kick off till Saturday. But we're going to hear from Russo and his interview with Paul Maurice in a second. But I do want to get to a couple of other things before we go, guys, because we have been seeing a little bit of musical chairs when it comes to coaches and GMs. And this one we had at the bottom of our page. Now we put it up to the top because according to Elliot Friedman, this is going to be wrapped up

today. And a media conference will be tomorrow. And that is that the Maple Leafs have found their man to be their new general manager, Bradtree living. All signs point to him taking over the reins. Thoughts on this one, guys, and a GM who's, boy, does he ever have to hit the ground running, doesn't he, Russo? Yeah, he's going to have one, you got the draft coming up, but he's got major, major contract negotiations that he's going to have to do in terms of extensions with Neelander and Austin Matthews. But, and then you got to decide on what the core is. I'm sure he's had that. Yeah, and yeah, you know, my gut, I still think the Sheldon Keith stays. I actually, I know that, and we'll get to it in a second, but Barry Trotz is getting a lot of heat with the way that they treated, treated John Hines and everything. But the one thing I'll say is that I always find it hilarious that a GM comes in there and they stick with the coach for one year and you know inevitably that person's going to get fired. I think that is going to happen in Toronto and I actually give Barry Trots props. If he feels like that John Hines is not the guy, just cut the cord now. Don't wait a year and waste it. So that would be my only thing there. But, but, you know, I think Keith stays. But I'll tell you what, I just think that.

that tree living's the right higher. I know that everybody's, you know, going to look at the Cachuk. He wrote trade and some of the moves he lives in Calgary. You need an experienced guy that has, that has a level blood pressure in that position and that is used to the noise that is that you get in that market. And he experienced it a little bit in Calgary. You know, Calgary's not Toronto, but it's still Canada. And so I think it's a great hire by Toronto. I think It was probably the only hire by Toronto, it was the obvious hire by Toronto once Dubas left. And now we'll see what happens there. But I think it's a good move by Toronto.

Yeah, I totally agree, especially with the last point about the experience. I don't think Toronto is a job for a GM to learn on the job. Like, it's very difficult to come in as maybe an assistant GM or someone without experience and take that job, especially with the expectations it is right now. It may be different if the team wasn't talented and you were coming in for a rebuild. But the expectations on that team are for the new GM to immediately make changes that work and get this team deep into the playoffs. So there's a lot of pressure. Obviously, the market adds to that pressure. I think an experienced GM who's done this and knows how to

handle those pressures. I mean, you hear Dubus towards the end. Like it was even getting to him. And he'd been there for a while. So I think it's like I agree with Michael. It's the right move. And I think it's the right move because they got someone who can come in and deal with those pressures immediately and still perform the job well. All right, Rousseau mentioned it. The Nashville Predators making a move. Barry Trots, who I'm not sure. I think he's still considered the incoming GM, but this was his first move as a GM. And more people are talking about how this move came out than the actual move itself.

Andrew Brunette hired as their new head coach, which means John Hines was relieved of his duties as head coach. but the news didn't kind of break that way. We don't know when John Heinz was told he was fired, but it kind of came out backwards. I don't know, guys. Am I the only one who thinks in 2023? How does this happen? How does this, you know,

shouldn't number one on your to-do list be at least let the coach know and put that out before you start hiring someone, Jesse? I mean, we don't know that he didn't know, though, right? Like it came out to us. That's what I said. We don't know when he said it, but I'm saying, shouldn't that be the, then your first tweet, your first press release, your first everything should be,

we have relieved John Hines, and then Andrew Burnett gets hired. I mean, I covered a team that literally did it in the same press conference. I mean, sorry, not the same press conference. The same press release. I thought it was a fake press release. I had to like zoom in on the email address and make sure it was actually from the Golden Knights and not somebody trying to punk me because the press release said, Gerard Gallant is no longer the coach and Pete DeBore is now the new coach.

I've never seen it in my life. So, like, these things happen quickly. And as long as Heinz knew, like, I don't, I'm not really that concerned with the order we found out in. I'm concerned with the order that they found out in. If John Heinz found out Andrew Burnett's been hired as the coach before someone told him he's fired, that is bad. And it looks bad on trots. It looks bad on the whole organization. But as long as Heinz knew, I'm okay with it.

Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, the only thing I'll say is that behind the scenes, my gut says that Barry, who is a class, person was at least letting John know like, look, I'm talking to people. And I will say that that it started to come out in the last week that he was meeting with people. He met with Spencer, who's just hired in Washington. I know that he met with Andrew Burnett. They were doing this in Nashville. So my gut says that also, you know, you're worried about people seeing you and things like that. And look, Barry did say at the press conference earlier this year, earlier this, when he took over, that they were going to evaluate the coach. So, you know, we got to, you know, frankly, I'm going to

try to reach out to John today and see if we'll talk if he'll talk about what happened. But in terms of Bruno, let me let me just transition to that. I love Bruno. I think everybody knows that I covered him here forever, both as a player, as an assistant coach, as a player development guy and his assistant GM. He is a great, great person. He has a certain mentality in terms of the way that he wants the game played. He's absolutely a player's coach.

The players will love him there. he's got a hard job ahead of him. This is not Florida that was on the rise that he wound up taking over and bringing him to a President's Cup. This is a team that's got a lot of work to do. They've got a lot of veterans, some tough contracts, a lot of kids, some inexperience. It's going to take a while. And as long as Barry Trots, who remember was a coach there forever, has that same mentality

where he's going to work with a coach and let him grow in that position. I think this is a great hire. But they are going to have to give him time and Barry is going to need. time to turn this team into a quality one. And one other coaching change. Spencer Carberry has been named the new head coach of the Washington Capitol, signed him to a four-year deal, spent some time in Toronto as the assistant coach there running their power play. And that was after Peter Labelat got fired. This one seemed like one of the worst kept secrets. Not a big shocker here, right? Yeah. And I mean, shocking, getting a four-year deal. Usually it's three years for

a coach, especially your first job. But he just seemed to be sort of like, wherever like i know anaheim talked to him a bunch of teams talked to him same thing bruno by the way bruno was making the rounds um because i was just in florida and bruno was not in town he was going you know and he lives down there he was doing the rounds of of meeting with teams um but obviously uh brian mcclellan uh loves this guy um you know right down the road in her she did a great job there and um and we'll see what happens and the other one guys that i'm interested in his pittsburgh what's going to happen with kyle dubus is he going there is he not there's all sorts of conflicting reports is Edzo going with him. That's what I'm starting to hear. Um, you know, it'll be interesting.

Save it for rapid fire. That's one of our rapid fire topics. You're jumping ahead again. I don't read the, like I told you guys. Read the lineup. Read the lineup. Thank you, Russo. Um, anyways, let's move on. Paul Maurice in the Stanley Cup final for the second time in his career. Uh, he's 0 for one. Look over that Stanley Cup ring. And Russo, who jumped ahead again, had a chance to chat with him. Here's that interview, Paul Maurice with our very own Michael Russell. You essentially in your mind retired, right? Yeah. What, like, I know you talked about the other day, but what was the thing that drew you

to come out of retirement? By far, the big one was the first conversation I had with those evening. And maybe I had some sort of need to have a hockey conversation because I hadn't talked a lot of hockey. But it wasn't even the job. It was kind of, this guy's a really interesting guy. Mm-hmm. So we just kept talking. And even to the, I'd like to work for this guy.

I hadn't really know a coach for him, but I knew they were at that point, they were considering it. Wow, this guy's a really interesting guy. And then we, you know, the first, I think we had two longer calls and then I came down. And even with that, it really wasn't coming to interview. Probably about five hours that night at his place. Got to meet his family. And then it was 10 hours the next day. We're here all day.

And all we did was talk about hockey, what he was trying to do, where he thought his team was. and then would probably So what's the hook though He had a really strong understanding Of the adversity that they were going to face this year So if he had If he had 222 points

We'll probably be pretty close to the same I thought Well I'm not sure that's what's going to happen here But these guys aren't coming back I can't do anything with the cap here The expectation is in this market That we're going to continue This is probably going to be pretty rough

This might be a sideways year, and we need somebody to handle that for us to deal with it. I thought, okay, that I can do it. And that's probably one of the components of burnout is a perceived lack of efficacy. And I had gone through that. I just couldn't move the needle anymore. It was dragging me nuts.

And then here, I thought, okay, I can move that needle. I've gone into places where they had to clean a bunch of things. up people but they still and and I thought that I could be I could help here. Yeah. The, um, and when you think about it now, like you, you talked the other day about not having the energy for rebuild yet there was worry that this could go sideways to be in this position right now. Does it even shock you and how gratifying is that?

It's one of the things that were on the spectrum of things that could happen. So this wasn't, you still have like down the middle, there's Barkoff, Bennett and one bell. on that alone it's not a rebuild right so took the job before the dechuk deal

but even with that you've got tuberal for hague we know that declares out at reinhart there's enough there there's enough

core pieces that you're going this just has to be filled out and it'll be pretty good and they're still young and then Matthew comes and accelerates

it yeah so but the spectrum was we could miss the playoffs this year and part way through the year, it looked like that was probably what was going to happen, but it wouldn't change what we were going to do. We got to go through this really hard thing, and then whether

it's this year or next year, this has to happen. You have to learn to play a different game. You have to learn close to the playoff game. And I really felt in December it was starting to happen, but you just couldn't see it. Because we're scheduled, Barkoff had pneumonia, Lundell was sick, Goetish was out of our lineup that we were playing hard. We couldn't, you know, we, you know, they got a lot of questions about consistency. And they got sick and tired and understandably so if you said there's big chunks of our game I like, we can't.

We take our talk to center, but I think it's going to be tough in this league. Yeah. The schedule is fucking brutal. And then it got actually worse in January, but we got a little healthier. And you're going, okay, now all we got to do is get to the playoffs. Right. We're playing a hard enough game that we can, we can, if you can win. But you can compete in the playoffs on the game that we were playing.

in January. That opened up the spectrum of possibility. But I also thought, when he had the Boston Bruins, you may play the best hockey you're capable of playing and still be able to form. But not that good. But going through that

was actually better. You either win the Stanley Cup or you don't. And if you don't, you need to learn a bunch of shit so that the next year you're mentally a better team. This is our game. This is how hard we're going to play. This is our compete level. and I thought the Boston series would teach us that and it did

I just sit down 3-1 wasn't sure that it was going to be a win and we get to keep it for this year and we're keeping the value of that series we were getting some of that series this year for this year or next year so we just got kind of the perfect incubator

to have something special happens if you can beat them with a game you had to get breaks in that series as well but then you have to do a whole lot of really hard things to give yourself a chance to get those breaks. But I thought that series would teach us what we would need to know for the next five years.

Yeah. Can I ask you, you won six in a row after that Toronto game, which actually coincided with the Keith Kitchuk comments come on it. But the one thing that happened in that game that I'll never forget is you going crazy on the bench. Oh, my fucking mind. Yeah.

What did you say? And do you think, I mean, could that be it, the terrain point? Like, they didn't, I don't, I don't think you necessarily saw it in the game, but the idea would be, we had lost four in a row going into that game.

And I understood it because San Benetland. And then we lost to Toronto at home badly. We lost the Philly and back-to-back nights. And I played the pretty good old way. It was fantastic. And we lost to Toronto, and we lost to New York badly. but I also understood that too.

Bennett comes out of our lineup. We just run six. We're pushing really hard. We're going to Ottawa, and we play an incredible game. But we give it three short-handed goals. But I loved our fucking game. As much as I loved it, it was hard. Thank God of us.

We got a good team. And then we go to Toronto and we fell back into this bullshit game. This turn our puck's over. Almost like all the work that we had done to get here in a critical game. And I was just decide myself and let it fly. As Eric Stahl said, I've heard guys lose their mind, but never for that long. Because what they showed was just the tail end of one or the start of it. They never let it rip straight through and lasted a while.

But in between the second and third period, I said this is, you guys win this game as a player, when at some point the players have to decide that's the game they're going to play. And none of the bullshit that we're playing. You guys can't, it has to be you. You have to take this over. We win the game in overtime, and for me that's when the players took it over. Yeah. The circumstances was, did you call a timeout or was after a goal?

No, I challenged. Okay. It was during a challenge. It was a challenge that I knew we were going to win, and we had a block of time. Okay. And I worked the entire challenge. That's hilarious. Was it off sides, or was it a goalie interference?

I don't remember that. Okay. I'm going to stay offside. Okay. I'll look at it. I just don't remember. The other thing watching that video is Matthew Kachuff doesn't take his eyes off you. And I thought that said everything.

Other guys are scared to death. And Matthew is staring you. And it just felt like that was also his moment. Yeah. I think he would have agreed. I think that that would be the part of the game. He plays a pretty honest, pretty clean game. For a high point producer, you have to have room for those guys turn up over.

because they're going to do it 7 out of 10 to have something good is going to happen, right? So he's pretty good about that. He doesn't go we're going to fucking turn a box over and we're trying to make plays and there was no physicality.

It was just bullshit. And it was going to, we had worked really, really hard not to play that way. Yeah. And then to see it in that game. Yeah. And I think

probably if I don't do it in five minutes, one of those guys is going to be a check. It's Chuck or Radco or somebody's getting up and down the bench. Right. Yeah. Kachuk, have you ever seen anything like this? Yeah.

No, there's an elite. I shouldn't say that. On other teams, I've seen elite guys before. They just don't look like him as much. His style is unique. He's not the fastest guy in the ice. He has incredible hands. His visual acuity must be phenomenal.

The number of Poxy knocks out of the air. But the big game at the day. I've seen that before. It's crazy. And same thing, like I talked to you the other night about Barkov and Eklad. I mean, this has got to be so gratifying for them. Because both of these guys are actually getting better in the series. We put them, pedestals off the way.

They're elevated to a certain level because of their talent, they're that good. And they put up numbers and they're not good. But Sasha Barkoff, I think he came in this year with 16. games. And 10 of them in the last year. Yeah.

The real learning takes that in the playoffs of what you need to do how the game needs to be played. You learn in the playoffs. These guys both have been stronger and stronger they're learning.

Yeah. You know, I've, like, Montour and Forsling, especially this year. Like everybody always talked about Eckblad and people like that.

The two of them have that unbelievable years. And I don't like a lot. Yeah. Yeah, like, what came into them? And Foursling's the one guy that just shocks me because I remember hearing that he, you know, sometimes if you hit him, he'd, like, you know, the M.O. and him on Chicago has hit him early and it'll disappear, you know.

I think a late bloomer, for one, put him in the exact same bull as Carter for Heggy. He had to fight so hard to get in the league, they had to work really hard at the details to be good. He is, you know, in some ways our best, he's our best defensive skating defenseman. what Montour does offensively, he takes the same skill set, applies it defensively, so phenomenal swing-ins. He kills so many, many plays. I think the partners, too,

have to get a little bit of credit for this. So Forzling had played with Goodyish last year, and Weir and played with Ekla. So now, Forzling and Ekla, they really complement each other very well. And then Mark Stahl. I know he scored 18 goals. But in some ways, he's having a career here

in terms of consistency. He's been like so. consistent, which is really allowed Brandon to kind of do his thing, too. So the partners, they got the right partners. Two more for you. One, Bob.

You started with Alice Lyon in the playoffs and had to go to Bob in a desperate situation. Man, he has not taken his foot off the gas. You think that we'll ever hear people ripping on his contract again? I mean, he's, you know what? So a couple

of quiet stories about that. He comes back And he's healthy going into the Washington game, which was our third or fourth last game this season. Our third last game of the season was Washington. So we went, no, Toronto and Carolina were the last two. Okay, then third. Yeah, I'm on the road trip. So he's healthy and he's ready to go. And I started Alex in.

And he handled it amazing. He was positive with him. I get it. That tells you something there. And then when we go into game five. I'd taken Alex out, Bob had gone in, who are you going to start? At that point, in part it was about the contract.

It was about the pressure that that situation, we were in, you know, do or die game for us. We'd also won a game, so we felt like we could, but we needed him to come in and be as good as he was, and he was fucking lights up. For me, it's not the play, because this play, certainly I understand what people thought. For me, is what he did at the crux of our playoff lives.

He went in and earned every fucking penny, and then some of who he was. So he's carrying the way to that. Like those guys, there's pressure on those players to produce Barkoff as well. And they feel that pressure. They also have to be given the opportunity. Lastly, you know, you, I was struck by your, the Panthers put out on social media

the other day. That's what you said to the team after the game about how these next two weeks, the key to this is that you guys are all going to be together and experience this together. But for you personally, you know, to be out of the game, to have to go to Russia, yet your

top five in wins and games coached and all this stuff in league history, how amazing would it be for you to lift that cup? I don't think I'm going to answer that ending part. Okay. But I will, because,

but I can actually answer that ending part by not answering it and say this. The perspective I now have is now becoming the most valuable thing to me because I've learned to enjoy the hell out of today.

I loved our meeting, our video meeting, showed some good stuff. We laughed. We went out of the ice day, worked hard, we laughed. To be part of that environment, and not the creator of that environment, but just to be a part of it, I'm allowing myself to enjoy it.

So when I say that, I truly believe the best part of this is that feeling, the best part of this is all of the moments. It's actually not the winning. It's all of the moments around it, getting to have a completely different kind of interaction with your players,

because they're all on a great mood. And you're not squeezing anybody, right? Watching them move around each other, walking through the locker room and hearing 10 guys just roaring about something funny that was said, that's wonderful for me. I don't feel, we've got a great coaching staff here. We'll work hard, but this is about the players.

And I get to kind of have this perspective of it now that I never have. Big thanks to Paul Maurice, the head coach of the Florida Panthers. Coming up after the break, Devin Dubnick, so don't go anywhere. Well, boys, our next guest played over 542 games for six different teams in the NHL. He's now an analyst for the NHL Network. Devin Dubnick, joining us on The Athletic Hockey Show. Thanks for doing this, Evan. Yeah, thanks for having me, boys.

I was looking at it up because I couldn't remember the exact date, but it's been less than a year since you officially decided to hang them up and you're doing the broadcasting thing now. So I guess before we get into the playoffs and everything, how's life is a retired goalie-slash-hockey analyst? How's it been so far? It's good, yeah, it's been longer than that. It was the official retirement game after my random brief stint there in Charlotte during COVID there, when I thought I was going to do some hockey can of this stuff and it never panned out. So I got another loop in the minors there, which was awesome. But, no, I mean, Charlotte's such a beautiful city and the team was incredible.

I met some awesome guys and obviously felt extremely old. being there, but it was cool. And then, you know, I kind of knew it was the end when sitting in the corner in Hartford, realized I hadn't been there for 12 years. And there was about 50 people in the building. And the kids beside me were telling me I should get in there and play. And I was like, but if I get in there, my back's going to snap and half right now. So I'm not going to do it.

And then he, like, I watched him in the corner Googling me. And then he turned around and I was like, how old are you? And he's like, I'm 13. And I was like, yeah, I was sitting in this corner when you were being born last time. So I realized it was about time to call it a day at that point. Doobie, first of all, I got to apologize about a thousand times in print. I've spelled your name, D-U-B-Y. Apparently it's D-U-B-E-Y according to your Zoom here.

Either you misspell, you were misspelling it or I misspelled it a thousand times. I don't think there's an official spelling. So you don't have to apologize. Um, you know, but before we get to, uh, Stanley Cup final, I just wanted to ask you about your career here in Minnesota. I mean, obviously you were a revelation here. Um, you know, you come here your first year and you saved the season. Uh, your numbers were absolutely off the chart, especially on the road, especially in the second of back to backs. Um, Vesna, uh, runner up, uh, win the Mastersington, all that stuff. How, how much was that an unexpected thing from your standpoint to go from, uh, staying at was it the staybridge suites in Hamilton to, uh, uh, eventually? It was the Stabridge. You got that dialed, yes. Yep, yep. Didn't he almost get sued because of a story I wrote?

Yeah, they weren't impressed. I got a, we got a letter from the city of Hamilton after we did a story where I talked about not feeling comfortable going to Tim Hortons because of the bike gangs all parked out front in downtown Hamilton at the Staybridge suite. So I remember they, I remember Aaron Sickman coming up to me. who's the PR guy for the wild and telling me he received this letter from the city of Hamilton and asked if I wanted to do anything about it and I just laughed I don't know what you want me to do I was just telling I was just telling my story about what happened but yeah I mean I always said that I believed that I was a starting goalie and I never I never kind of thought otherwise you know when that year happened

I kind of let it go and took the pressure off myself a little bit and just said, you know, let's be grateful for being in the best league in the world. And your time might have passed, but work your butt off to make sure that you stay in the league in whatever capacity that is. If you're a backup bully, you're back a bully and enjoy every 60 minutes you get to get on the ice or 30 minutes or whatever if you're coming off the bench. And I kind of just took that approach. So when I got traded in Minnesota, I was kind of playing.

with with it was like bonus time for me and so I never really thought about how crazy it was everything that was going on and and you know the playing the 38 games in a row and playing all these back to backs and and you know the improbability of us making the playoffs I never it never crossed my mind but once it was there once I got kind of got a taste for it and and realize that that I could do this and I could be a starting goalie in the NHL and it kind of came back pretty quick that that's exactly what I wanted to do. And, you know, could have never imagined the run that it was. But, you know, we've really enjoyed Minnesota.

We're still here. Obviously, we had two of our kids here. We've met so many incredible people away from hockey, which is a big part of what kept us here. You know, our neighborhood, our neighbors, people are so nice. Just the people in Minnesota in general, when you go to the rink, when you take the kids to their sports, everybody is so responsible. respectful and just nice people and it's just a great place to call home.

All right, David, I'll jump into the Stanley Cup final. And we got to start with Sergey Bobrovsky. He's obviously one of the biggest stories. And I want to get your perspective because he's clearly back at the top of his game. And I'm wondering, what do you notice? Like, what do you think he's found that has allowed him to get to the top of his game? Because he obviously wasn't there for a little while before that. Like, when you watch him play, what stands out to you?

So it's hard to pinpoint. Because I would say it's more strange that he wasn't here earlier. You know, he's always been one of my favorite guys to watch play. His explosiveness, his power, his flexibility, everything. He's always, I've watched him in when I was playing, when he was playing in Columbus, down the stretch where he just doesn't look like he's ever going to get scored on, regardless of the play, which is exactly what it looks like right now. I've seen this before.

So it's more, it was more. strange to me that not that it took a little bit because sometimes changes happen and you're not going to you know i think the contract was deserved for he was the best goalie in the league at the time of the signing and you're not you don't always go somewhere and have a magical change and it continues to go sometimes there's a little bit of a growing pains and and getting used to a new system and new life and and living there's so many other things that come with playing hockey that's not just being on the ice. So the biggest surprise to me was that it hadn't got to this point yet. And, you know, now they're playing a much more structured game, much more defensive game. And that

doesn't mean they're not giving things up, but you can just tell he's, he's confident, he knows what's happening in front of them. And he knows, you know, there's not six different options. There's, there's a shot or there's a pass. And that allows you to be comfortable and sit on that shot and be and be dialed on that shot. And when you have his capabilities, then you're not letting that in. And then if that play comes, you don't have to worry about four or five other plays.

You just know that's the one. It's either this or it's this. And that's why you see him making these incredible saves because it's certainly not, Florida's playing great defensively. They're blocking a lot of shots, but it's not like they're not giving up chances. It's the game today, chances happen.

and some of the saves he's made are incredible. And that's where you, the confidence on what's going on in front of you allows you to kind of be free and release that skill and ability that he has. And that's kind of what we've seen. It's been fun to watch because it's always, like I said, it's been more strange to me that it hasn't happened before this than this happening now. This happening now, I'm like, well, yeah, okay, that's what I figured would happen at some point. I just didn't realize it would take this long.

but I'm not surprised. Devin, I don't know if you ever listen to our show, but Jesse's our resident goalie guy. His biggest skill is you could be talking about like the succession finale and he'll somehow morph it into a goaltending question. So I know when we got you on today, he was pretty excited. But I also have a goaltending question. It is something I did throw out to Jesse a couple weeks ago,

but I wanted your opinion on it too. And it just deals with goaltending tandums because you've got Aiden Hill right now. And because Rassau is injured, you got Jonathan Quick backing them up. And I'm just wondering how valuable that is for, you know, we're not going to see barring an injury, probably Jonathan Quick in this series. But we're talking about a guy who's been there, done that. We're talking about a guy who's one of Stanley Cup. We're talking about a guy who is just a wealth of knowledge in this subject. How big is that first starting goaltender to be able to have almost like a second goaltending coach who just happens to have a Stanley Cup ring?

Yeah, it's huge. And it's not, I mean, there's so many, there's so many parts of it that go into that where when you're, you know, you think of Aden Hill and he's been phenomenal. And it, you know, I don't think it's he's been talked about enough, which to be honest, I'm sure he's fine with. He's doing his thing. He's playing incredibly well. And I'm sure he's fine with not being the front and center talk of the town, you know, like Jake Ottinger was every time he led in a goal there. It was like, where's the Jake Ottinger we always knew. And Aiden Hill was kind of. just over there doing his thing. But, I mean, there's so many parts of it. It's the having a guy to talk to in the dressing room, having gone through, having won two Stanley Cups, having been through the grind of the playoffs, the ups and the downs. And I think a huge step for Aiden Hill was last game because that was kind of the, what I was watching was, you know,

that the game winning goal in game five wasn't a good one. And everybody's kind of wondering, like, is this, is it going to teeter, is the pressure going to come? Is he going to fall off? And that was what I was really watching for. And all he does is go and pitch shut out in game six. And so that was really good. But if you have, if you're in this situation where there's so much pressure going

into the conference finals, have a chance to give them the Stanley Cup finals, and you have your American League call up goalie on the bench, that pressure, you don't, you don't have like a safety net. like if you screw up you know there's nothing there like you're the guy and if you don't do it then nobody is there to do it and even if he's you know uh quickie never plays it's still it's still something for aden hill to know that you have this veteran seven may cup winner on the bench who's capable of coming in and winning games if something were to happen and it's almost like it said it's like a security blanket knowing that you have this guy there and it doesn't sound like much but

but mentally, especially when the pressure ramps up like it is, it's a huge thing to have. Devin, I just posted an Eric Stahl feature on The Athletic. And, you know, I was talking him the other day and he talked last year about just, he talked about what last year was like about, you know, for him. I mean, and I know that you could relate just, you know, playing a game that you love and then sort of feeling you're retired, but still wanting to have that, having that hunger to win. You know, one, you know, I know, Eric lives near you. you were both out of the game watching probably the wild play last year. What was last year like for

both of you? Any stories about that? And how amazing is it for somebody his age to spend an entire year out of hockey because nobody will sign you? Then you somehow make it on a PTO, which you know is not easy for a veteran. Usually you're just a placeholder and sent on your way, but he makes a team and now he's in for him his second straight final. Well, it says a ton about Stalsy in general and how much he loves hockey and how much he cares about winning. And he's, you know, that's never been a question with, with Eric Stahl. But for somebody who's, you look at his career before this year, he's done everything. He's won everything. He's, he's captain teams. He's done everything you possibly imagine. He's got a thousand points, over a thousand points. He's, there was no reason for him

to do what he did and to continue to stay in shape and to continue to skate, uh, unless, you you just have that drive to win and love of the game. Because if it would have been easy for anybody to hang him up, it's Stalzi. Like I said, he's done everything. He's made more than enough money. He's won Stanley Cup. He's won Olympics. He's won world championships.

Like, what else is there to do other than he just loves hockey and he loves to be on the team and he loves to win? And so I think the opportunity to play with Mark was a big motivation. going into this year, going to Florida as well. But it just to me, his ability to continue to skate, like he's out there skating on his own last year and staying in shape and getting out to the Olympics and leading that team and to be able to go through an entire year and just stay dialed like that and stay on and then come back and have this year is just,

it just shows you how much it means to him. And just that his character and personality of, of just wanting to win and wanting to play hockey. It's amazing. Devin, just lastly, I just wanted to ask you about your transition to being on media. I remember talking to Big Dave at one of the All-Star games you were in, and he saw this in your future. I remember one of your best moments on Ballet Sports North was when you had a coughing fit.

I felt so bad for you. You could not breathe, but yet you're live on the air, too. And I thought it was like, oh, my God, I'll be fine a second. and I just kept trying to grind through it too. Yeah, but you are. I mean, you look like a natural on there. I mean, you've always been, as I've always told Wildfans, you're always somebody that we flock to your stall just to shoot the breeze about the sport.

And now you get to do that on a nightly basis. How's that transition been? And is it allowed you to sort of feel like you're staying inside the game? Yeah, it's honestly, it's been, it was, it kind of came out of nowhere. I was watching the playoffs last year and nothing was really going on. And I was just watching the NHL network. And I was like, you know, I feel like I could give some good insight on there. And so we called them up and went and gave it a try.

And it was funny. With as long as I played, it was such an easy transition. I felt like I knew everybody there already. I'd been into the network multiple times and done interviews with them. So it wasn't a whole bunch of people I didn't know or hadn't talked to. And, you know, I went in and it was fun. and decided to give it a go this year. And I feel like it's just, it's, it's getting easier kind of every show to,

to just be comfortable with yourself and, and, you know, tell stories and, and kind of be yourself and give insights. And, and it's getting, it's getting a little easier each time as we go here. It's just been, it's been a lot of fun. And I really never thought, I didn't, like I said, it kind of came out of nowhere last year. It never was something that I'm like, oh, when I'm done playing, I'm going to go, uh, on a panel and be on the NHL network or do whatever. I just,

it just kind of came naturally. And, you know, it's, it's been very nice to hear the nice things that people say about me being on there. And, you know, again,

comes back to how people in Minnesota, how nice everybody is. I mean, it's like everywhere I go, it's like I'm more famous now that I was on the NHL network that I was when I was playing. But, you know, people send me pictures of they're working out in the gym and I'm on the TV.

And, um, it's, It's been a lot of fun and it's nice to stay in the game and be able to talk to, you know, continue to talk to players and talk to people involved in the game and just kind of stay involved in it. It's been, it's been a lot of fun. And guys like us, too. We appreciate you come on here and talk to a little hockey with us.

Otherwise, you get forgot about real quick. I highly doubt that one. Thanks so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of playoffs. Maybe we'll get you on after the Stanley Cup final. Yeah, sounds good. David Dubnick, former NHL goaltender and now analyst on the NHL network.

Rapid fires next, so don't go anyway. All right, my favorite time of the show in yours, it's Rapid Fire. And it's just Rousseau and I, because for two reasons. One, Jesse had to run out. He got told he was able to speak to Bruce Cassidy. It was kind of short notice, so he had to run out. And two, Rousseau doesn't know what Rapid Fire means, and he always goes too long. And so what he wanted was some extra time, so he's going to steal Jesse.

East time. Does that work for you, Mike? Yeah, I think that we should do this each week. You Mike Hogg. All right, let's start with Kyle Okposo, signed a one-year extension for the playoff hopeful Sabres, 17th season in the NHL, his eighth in Buffalo. He's coming off that seven-year, $42 million contract. You see him just going, all right? They're trending in the right direction.

Let's try these one-year contracts if I can. Yeah, absolutely, especially when you see what's going on with guys like Eric Stall and all that. I mean, Kyle Ocoso is such a good human being. And by the way, a fan of the show. So when I had Tage Thompson on the athletic hockey show back in December, I was interviewing, I went over to Kyle to just say hello and interview him for a story I was working on it. And he goes, what are you talking for Tage for? Straight from the source, worst seats in the house or the athletic hockey show. So he clearly listened. So a great guy. That team is absolutely on the rise. That's, you know, I mean, I know it's a little different when you're watching him play Arizona,

but watching Rasmus Dahlian and Tage Thompson dominate the Arizona coyotes that night in that little Mollett Arena. It was such a cool thing to watch from that perspective. And that team is going to be good. And I can see why Kyle wants to stick around and why they want their captain to be there. Now, I'm going to do this anyway, even though Rousseau jumped the gun

because he didn't want to read our lineup. But rapid fire topic number two, the Penguins leadership group by all accounts. It looks like it's Kyle Dube Dubas's job if he wants it. And he's heavily considering it. But it looks as though they want to fill the GM role first and then select the president of hockey operations. But it's funny because remember Kyle Dubas said, you're not going to see me pop up somewhere else.

It's either Toronto or take a year off. Now it looks as though we might see him in Pittsburgh. Yeah, here's the thing. So, you know, look, I think the story that I want to see written is Sidney Crosby's involvement in this process. He's meeting with Dubus. Sources tell me that he showed up at TNT Hotel in Raleigh and met with Ed, Ed Olchuk. It's like he's the interviewer right now. Is he, you know, what's his role after his career going to be over with the, with the Pittsburgh Penguins? That's what I want to know.

But he has clearly got an incredible influence in this decision for both GM, probably who eventually who's going to be the coach, probably who his linemates are going to be. I mean, this is, this is, you know, Sydney Crosby, the equity that he has in this organization being so important that he is part of this process. And so I just am going to be really interested to see what happens, but it does feel like Dubus is going there. But I will say this, Elliot Friedman, who as we know, does not throw stuff out there unless he knows it, has been very, very vocal in the last 24 hours. That is not a short thing. That there are other teams involved talking to Dubus as well. And, you know, you know, what is the situation there? And remember, let's just say Edzo does go to Pittsburgh.

Do we really think that he's going to be the president of hockey ops or how is that structure going to be if Dubus was there after working with Shanahan and probably not wanting somebody over him? The other thing with Fenway Sports Group is if you look at all their teams that they own, they have, they structure things in weird with weird titles. And so would it be shocking if somebody here is like called the chief hockey officer or something like that? It's just going to be interesting to see at the end of the day here what the hierarchy is going to be in Pittsburgh and then what the trickle down effect is with Mike Sullivan and everything. Given what has trickled out since Kyle Dubas part of Ways with the Leafs,

he doesn't strike me as somebody who wants to share this role in his next job. He is to quote Brian Burke, a Brian Burke line, both hands on the wheel are going to be mine. You know what I mean? Like it does it like. So I don't know if in that old check sort of situation just looks eerily like, oh, I don't know, a Brendan Chanahan situation. You know what I mean?

I think he wants complete control. We'll have to wait and see. And finally, rapid fire topic. Number four, coaching vacancies. There are four of them, Anaheim, Calgary, Columbus and the New York Rangers, Gerard Galant's name just keeps getting thrown around out there. What are you seeing in your crystal balls for these four teams and maybe with Galant? I think Galant makes all the sense in the world for Calgary, but I

do hear that they have a very long list and are sort of still at the very beginning of that list. But Gallant makes all the sense in the world for Calgary for one big reason, and that's Jonathan Huberto. They got to get somebody that's going to mesh with that guy. They made an incredible long-term commitment to that guy before he even stepped foot on the ice. He really could have been a heart trophy contender last year. And he goes there and really, I don't want to say flop this year, but clearly didn't match with Daryl Sutter or what's going on. So he makes all the sense in the world there. And we had Doug McLean on our show last week, Rob, and he made it very clear that, you know, Gerard Glant sometimes might not be the most politically, political person when it comes to dealing with GM and owners. And maybe that's why he sort of wears out his welcome in places where he has done an incredible job like he did with the Rangers in Florida and other places like that.

But who cannot get along with Craig Conroy, right? You know, I just think that Galant makes all the sense in the world there. And in terms of the other ones, I mean, Anaheim and Columbus, it's very strange. I mean, they are taking their time. They're talking to a ton of people. Patrick Waugh is clearly in the mix in Columbus in some capacity. And now it'll be interesting what happens with John Hines. Now he's on the market. You know, to the Rangers, suddenly veer off from Peter Lavellet and talk to Hines. There's a history there with Chris Drury and John Hines. So it'll be really fascinating what happens, Rob. It's almost like trade deadline day

too, where one domino falls and then you'll see two or three teams just quickly trying to, because you start losing your first and second choice, then you find yourself in a buy. And to your point, that's why Spencer and Andrew Burnett, that's why they got jobs right away, because both Brian McClellan and Barry Trots knew that both those guys were coveted by other teams, or at least talking to other teams, like Calgary and Columbus and, and Anaheim. Russo, I know what you're working on. You mentioned it earlier. You're busy. Thanks for another great show. Look forward to reading everything you are going to be doing for the Stanley Cup. Do you have a prediction for the final, by the way? I picked Vegas and Six.

Vegas and 6 is my prediction, but I will say this team, this Florida team, like I'm doing this huge feature on Brandon Montour for Friday. It is such a fascinating story and just I got all this like puck tracking analytics from the league on how his, his shooting speeds and his bursts of speed in terms of skating and the distance he's skated. And he is a fast, what a great interview. Like one of these days when this Stanley Cup run is over, Jeff Domet, you got to get Brandon Montour on the show. He was one of my favorite interviews of somebody that I haven't ever talked to when I sat down on them the other day in Florida. Awesome. Looking forward to hearing that. And looking forward to you guys jumping on our YouTube channel if you want to see our ugly mugs.

YouTube.com slash The Athletic Hockey Show. And you can leave comments and tell us how fantastic we all are. The athletic hockey show continues Thursday with Ian Mendez and down goes brown. I want to see a big thanks to Paul Maurice and Devin Dubda for coming on the show. For Russo and Jesse, I'm Pizzo. We'll see you next week. Thank you.