The Athletic Hockey Show - How the Hurricanes’ stars could cost them the Stanley Cup

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

The Golden Knights beat the Hurricanes in a back and forth game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, Sean, Frank and Sean dissect the game, praise the Golden Knights resilience, the accidental blocked shot by Mitch Marner, the struggles of the Hurricanes first line and the indifferent play of goalies Frederick Andersen and Carter Hart. plus, Sean and Sean share their thoughts on the NHL's new All-Star game format and Gary Bettman's status as NHL commissioner.Host: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frank CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, what up? It's the Athletic Hockey Show for June 3rd, 2026. I'm Sean Ginteli. I'm here with Sean McIndoo. We are rejoined by Frankie Carrado, who, what vehicle did they put you in to send you home? Was it like a Zamboni kayak combo? How did you get back from Colonna?

No, we got the, we got the Cabota, gave us a ride back home. of the tractors. It only took us five days, but we made it, man. What a time we were having out there. And I just got to say, as Gentilly, you do a lot of traveling. So maybe this will resonate with you, anyone who's listening who does a lot of traveling. No one prepares you for life after pantry, L-A-B, as I call it. Are you aware of the pantry at some of these hotels? It's a 24-hour room and it's stocked with coffee, water, chips, fruit, banana bread. At around dinner time, they throw some, like, chicken wings and stuff. And I'm like, you go downstairs, you get home, you're like, well, I got to do it myself now.

Where's the pantry? Where's my 3 a.m. banana bread? That's right, man. It's a combination of the pantry and then, and then, of course, the either, like, residents in Fairfield Breakfast or if you're lucky enough to have concierge lounge access, which, I do now because I'm a big wheel who's got a gazillion marion marion nights this year. You get little bites, you get whatever, mushroom caps. It sounds ridiculous to say it out loud. It's like little bites like bite-sized microwave quicheas.

It's great. I've saved the company money by hitting the pantry hard and hitting the breakfast. LAP, man. Life after pantry. It just hits different. How many ice cream sandwiches did you eat? Only one. I didn't get into the ice cream sandwiches.

It's not my jam. I'm more of a salty guy. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. We can discuss this later. Folks, we have a hockey game to discuss. The Stanley Cup final started last night.

It was a 5-4 win for the Vegas Golden Knights. They obviously rallied to beat the Carolina Hurricanes. Vegas was down to nothing. They ended up getting a game winner from Tamash Hurtle with 324 left. We're going to talk a lot about that. We're also going to talk about. the Gary Betman Bill Daley State of the League address,

which is always worth, you know, touching on in one way or another. We'll save that for segment two. But this was about the first game of that series. It's the seventh straight win for Vegas. It's the second loss, the playoffs for Carolina. Sean McIndoo,

what is your top level takeaway coming out of that one? Again, 5'4 win for the Vegas Golden Knights. Takeaway number one, great game from an entertainment perspective. That was all sorts of fun. And look, I have seen a lot of folks who were not excited for this series. And I get there are reasons to dislike maybe either team, certainly one of them in particular. And I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people who looked at this matchup and went,

I don't, this isn't a great. I thought it was a fantastic matchup. There's a ton of star power. There's a ton of, you know, all sorts of different angles to it. But we also know that both of these teams like to win to one and like to kind of grind you into paste. And that's no surprise.

That's 90% of teams these days, 90% of coaches. So I was a little bit concerned going in. that even though it felt like the ingredients were there to make something really good, that we were just going to get that kind of cautious, let's win a low-scoring game, low-event game. And we didn't get that. We got fireworks right off the bat. And I'm in.

I'm in on this series. I love the match-up. And I think now I'm fully on board. This has the potential where, one game in, but it has the potential to be a real classic. It should be. And I guess if I take the, like, the Carolina lens right now and we look at how that game went, all the conditions for Carolina to run away with that game were there.

They score early. Then they're up to nothing. The building's going crazy. It's hard to have to play from behind against that team with just how much pressure they put on you, how much they have the puck, how they're going to out shoot you. But time and time. time again, I was getting flashbacks to game one of the Montreal series where Jarvis scores, I believe, 33 seconds into game one. And then it's all Montreal from there. And after the two nothing

lead, in theory, you're like, this Carolina, man, they're just going to do what they do and they're going to trample over these guys in game one and Vegas is going to have to regroup into game two. And it, yeah, I just got, I got flashbacks of that game one against Montreal where Carolina got caught being way over aggressive. And I thought they did the same thing last night where up to nothing in that game, they're taking unnecessary risk and running out of position and leaving the front of the net open. And I thought to myself, Rod's going to say the same thing he said after game one.

It's just, I don't know what that was because that, the conditions were there for Carolina to run away with that game. And they absolutely left the door open for Vegas and give Vegas credit because they, you know, they marched their way through. one of the things Rod said after a game went against Montreal was like

we got to just trash it like that that game was bad enough where there's nothing there's not much to learn you know

it was 11 or 12 just incredibly bad minutes by that team we said we saw Jacob Slavin in that one you know just play as bad

of a game is probably literally that he can't play at this point at this point in his career right so I think that led against Montreal to Brindamor

being like, oh, let's just, whatever. We didn't play for 12 days. You know, uncharacteristic stuff happened. Let's flush it and move on for the most part. And they did. Like, they bounce back from that. They look like themselves in game two. So that needs to be, you know, the asterisk that comes with any, any major criticism,

I guess, of Carolina here is that they've had to adjust after game one and have. So we'll see what happens. my concern on as it relates to their end of things though is that yes we saw some of the overaggression and mental mistakes that we did in game one against Montreal the stuff that led to five breakaways in the first round in the in the first period blah blah that was there like that that part of the game with that part of the game was there another element though is there one that Montreal can't bring is that they got out physical at points. And that, I think, is a little bit more of a shock to the system for a team

like the Carolina Hurricanes than, you know, having aggression lead to 10 belt chances by the other team. Like, you expect that to a certain point if you're them. You don't expect it five times in a period. You know, you don't expect it after an initial goal necessarily. So that was a shock against Montreal. Their concern, I think, should be that the reason they lost this game was kind of two-pronged. It was the overaggression. It was the mental mistakes. But there were also stretches of that game where they couldn't generate zone time. And we saw a degree of, you know, physical engagement by the Vegas Golden Knights that they haven't, that Carolina hasn't gotten from any of these opponents. So the hits, like I don't, I don't look at the event summary at the end of

the game and think that the hit total tells the whole story on the physicality and the bow. a level because it doesn't. Like, it varies from arena to arena. But when you look at the hits last night, you're going to see Vegas 35 and Carolina 26. And sometimes it just means the other team had the puck more and the other team had to hit more. But in this case, like, I think Vegas had the puck just as much as Carolina. And they still out hit them. And you look at moments of that game and you're like, Vegas has an answer for the physical play. Like they're a heavy team. And, you're a heavy team. and they played heavy. And that's something that Carolina really hasn't had to deal with to this point

where, you know, they just kind of, they just trampled their way into the cup final. So it's a different test for the hurricanes this time around. And it almost feels like it's going to be a dose of what Florida was giving Carolina for years that they had a hard time overcoming. Big, strong, heavy can score a lot. You're getting the Panthers 2.0. That is not what you want to hear if you're a Carolina fan. is the ghosts of the Florida Panthers being brought up here.

Well, because it's, you know, what they've got as a team that can play them to a draw at five on five. We saw it happen in a lot of ways, right? You can play them to a puck possession, you know, shot volume drop. That's basically what happened last night. In Vegas, even though we didn't see the production from these guys last night necessarily, there's Mitch Marner, there's Jack Eichel, there's Mark Stone. Those are the Trump cards whenever, if you're saying, let's flip the coin.

Zone time's going to be equal. Expected goals at five on five are going to be equal. But one team has, you know, three players who are all world to varying degrees, right? And for as good as the Carolina hurricanes are, they don't have that. And I think that's part of, you know, that was a major, major contributing factor, especially last year against the Florida Panthers. because you look at five-on-five stats from that game, outside of goals, pretty close. And you look at the five-on-five stats from last game for Vegas, outside of goals, pretty close.

And I think that needs to be the concern, Sean. You said it, man. Like, if there's anything that Carolina fans shouldn't want to hear, it's the Florida Panthers getting brought up in this kind of context. And the other thing that you don't want to hear of your Carolina. is you don't want to hear what you just said about Vegas having the truly elite players having the better all-world guys up front. Obviously, that's true to an extent, but you don't want to hear it because what you want and what you need in this series is for your top players to be playing at a level where

at least it's not glaring how the discrepancy between the top players. And I mean, Vegas, Vegas didn't get much from those top guys last night. But Carolina, it's, it really, I mean, in a way, it's a little simplistic, but we've been talking about for three rounds now with the Carolina hurricanes about this second line and how they're really the first line because they're out producing. And we're kind of waiting for the first line to get going. And they've had their ups and downs. They certainly haven't been been absent through the first. three rounds, but we haven't seen them really grab a series for a couple of games in a row. We're running out of time now.

And it's almost as simple as saying, like, if Carolina's first line looks like a Stanley Cup champion worthy first line, they're in really good shape this series. And I don't feel like we got that last night yet. And the clock is ticking. It's got to happen pretty soon if this team's going to get there. I find like the first line versus like the rest of the team conversation always so fascinating, right? Because we can we can hedge this however way we want. If we go back to Edmonton the last two years, McDavid and Drysidal, they were unbelievable, right?

But they just didn't get enough from lower in the lineup at times. And then, you know, if you want to use the Toronto thing, it was like the big boys never showed up in big games. I think now we're looking at this series and we're saying, well, the depth guy, are doing great or have been to this point, now you need the top line going. It's almost like you can cherry pick every which way you want it to be. And if you look at last night, like, McNabb has three points. Theodore has three points. And like, that's not Ikel getting three points. It was the first three point game of Braden McNabb's career. And he's played over a thousand, a thousand combined games in the regular season and postage. It's crazy. And I don't know how you guys feel,

but I feel like Ikel is like this far away from just completely breaking through. Am I saying that? Am I saying that because I had him in the game winning goal pool in the press box last night? Yeah. Yeah. That's part of the reason I'm saying it. But he was a fraction of a fraction of an inch away. So everyone buys everyone will buy time like the other guys for Vegas are buying Eichel time,

just like Stankovin, Hall and Blake are buying time for Carolina. But at some point, time runs out. They bought that, and they have bought that line a lot of time. And that's, and that's what I wrote this morning now, or for this morning. That was what I wrote post game was about Carolina's first line. Like, I get it. They've liked their game at various points for various reasons in this playoff. Ryan went, right?

We've heard it from Rod in a couple different forms. He said, like, you know, they played, they basically played the stuts of the line to a draw. That was, you know, good enough. And then in the second round, it was like, ah, they're getting chances, you know, We feel like it's going to happen. Okay. In the third round against Montreal, there were some goals. We saw Ajo get one.

We saw a special kov get one. It felt like something was starting to pivot there. Last night was a step backwards for that. Because at some point, and frankly, this is just to echo what you said, and both of you guys, you run out of time. And Rod has said this in various ways over the last six weeks. Like, those guys are playing okay. I don't dislike their game. They are going to have to get on the score sheet at some point.

Some point is now. We're past the point of talking about process and chances and, you know, waiting on percentages and all that stuff. They got a score. They got a score. And they weren't particularly close in that game. The one time they did, their best shift of the game was in the, was in the third period, and it was a sequence that just ironically, I think it was ironic,

led to hurdles, ultimate game winning goal. That was the best that line looked. You had Svetchikov doing work along the boards. He crushes somebody. The puck pops out to Aho. Aho sets up Jarvis. Jarvis comes within a millimeter of putting everything into it. Hart makes a really nice glove save, you know, threat over.

and then after that face off, Hurdle ends up scoring, right? That was the best they looked all night and it, you know, just kind of coincidentally led to the decisive goal. They're going to need more of that, right? We can't be talking about tying Vegas in high danger chances when those guys are on the ice

and all that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They need to produce points or Carolina isn't going to win because they need to win four out of six games. now. That's like, that's like, we need to do a reset there. Like, this isn't the second round anymore. Like, like, we're not, we're not, we're not, and they're not up two-oh on the Philadelphia Flyers. Like, they're down a game in the Stanley Cup finals. They got to score. Well, and I think to, to your point about like process over results, if you look at what Montreal did in this playoffs, it's basically about results because there were a lot of times where the process wasn't exactly

squeaky clean. But at the end of the night, whether it was their goalie who stood on their head when they got nine shots or, you know, someone on a third or fourth line, like Doc or Bull Duke or Texier scored on a chance. And it was like, that was the difference for them. Didn't always look pretty, but they got it done. And they got to the Eastern Conference final. Now for Carolina, like, the process has been excellent because they've steamrolled everyone and they deserve to be where they are. But you just need that, you need that like shot with conviction. or you just need that bounce or whatever it is. But you have to just find a way to produce now.

It's not about expected goals or court. It's just not. You just got to find a way no matter what for that top line. Are we at all concerned the first line in Carolina had no points in a game that had featured nine goals? Neither did the second line. Are we at all concerned about that at all that, you know, because that's been the super. power for the hurricanes. And that's what has got them here is that, you know, you, ultimately, you look at a team

and you say, your best line has to produce. The first line, sorry to Rod Reddenmore, it doesn't like numbers, but the first line hasn't been producing, but that's okay, because the best line stepped up and was covering for them. And we just kind of flipped it and we went, okay, now Taylor Hall is the first line. They didn't get anything last night either. So, I mean, on the one hand, hey, we always say you need the death guys. And if you can score four goals with your top two lines getting blank, that's not bad.

But it's also not sustainable for winning, as you say, shot four out of the next six now. I think to me, that kind of leads into what I think the biggest missed opportunity from that game is for Carolina. Yeah. I'm not inclined, I'm not like inclined just yet to say like, or they get to the need to get, is something gone wrong with, with Stancovin and Hall and Blake. Like I, I, I'm not quite there. But to me, that game more than anything is about wasting what they got from Nikolai Eilers. We, we get that incredible, what was it? 25 seconds into the game by him. 25 seconds, five. Scores another one. Those are, those are chances that he's gotten consistently in the playoffs.

Like his ability to like skip his, his first step, like he goes from dead stop the third year as fast as anybody I've seen in this post season. I think we saw that on both those first period goals. Like to have that dude playing on your third line, the way he is is just, it's such an advantage.

And it's such an outlier, honestly, to have a guy with that skill set playing with dudes like Stalin-Martin-Lock, right? They signed him to give them the kind of game that he gave them last night. Like, that's why you bring a Nikolai Eilers, when your first line, second line, whatever, when your absolute top layer of forwards in Carolina, you know, isn't making it happen for whatever reason. You bring him in to be the shot in the arm, you know, B-12 injection. to drag you to a win, you know,

that maybe you don't deserve. And he did as much as he could last night to make that happen in it, and it didn't work. So I think that, to me, is the, not like the, not the number one concern. There's larger macro concerns than that. But that felt like the Nikolai Eilers game.

That felt like the one he was going to, he was going to win to some degree on his own. and they couldn't get it done. Yeah, I don't get overly concerned about one game for Carolina's second line because they've done so much good up until now that the law of averages are just going to tell you they can't score every night. The best lines in the league can't do it every single night in the playoffs. So if this was their one night that it didn't happen for them, so be it.

They lost the game. They have to move on. but if it happens two nights in a row or two games in a row, then you absolutely look at it and say, has the magic pixie dust wore off here? And is it now becoming an issue? But they've done, you know, in essence, bought time for everyone. They have been the ones that have done it.

So I will get concerned or slightly more concerned with one more game played if they're not on the score sheet. And I think lost in all this, we've talked about Carolina quite a bit. Yeah. Like, we got to give Vegas a lot of credit as much as Carolina was overaggressive and whatever. Like, Torts brings them over to the bench during the TV time out. He has the whole powwow. He wasn't losing his mind. He was just kind of talking to them. It seemed like anyways. And they responded. And it wasn't like they had to have this like monumental shift in the game. It was just like a willingness to go shift by shift and stick with your game plan and not make mistakes.

and continue to do the same things over, put the pucks into good spots, try and get it to the front of the net. Like all the simple cliche stuff you talk about, they did it. So, like, that is a, I mean, that's a sign of a team that gets, like they're just veteran guys that get it.

And they understand how to, how to weather those moments. And I thought he did a good job kind of handling that for the team. Let's take a break. We're going to jump, we're going to jump back, talk about Freddie Anderson, maybe hit on some of the topics that Gary and Bill,

We got the Gary and Bill show pregame last night. We'll hit on some of that too. Stick around. All right, we're back. Boys, somehow, maybe this was deliberate on it on our end. We didn't talk really, we didn't talk much about either goaltender in that first, in that first segments. Let's, I don't think either of them were particularly good, but Carter Hart had the big save at the big time. Obviously, we mentioned that, the save on Jarvis that, you know, precluded.

the game winner by hurdle. So he came up big at the right time. I didn't think either he or Freddie Anderson were particularly great in that game. Best save of the night was Mitch Marner. Accidentally. Okay, hold on. Poll question. Accidentally or on purpose or who cares?

Come on. What is it? I mean, it's probably who cares? Because you get it done, you get it done. but he's trying to jump over the puck. Are you, and it hits him? Are you in overdrive today?

Is that why we're bringing this up? No, I'm not. I'm not. Is this a dry run? Frankie, what's the defenseman's view on this? Block shot is just, they don't ask how, they ask how many, or if you try to flamingo it and it still hits you,

that counts, you get credit? It's the exact same thing as a golf scorecard. A four is a four. And there's no questions as to how, happened and there's no pictures and at the end of the night it's going to say block shot marner he just he knew where it was going like you don't like if you're if it's you know you're watching star wars right and it's in it's luke with the lightsaber dodging to dodging the blast from like the training module you you can't you can't get some some people just have that sense

about them right well let's know where the puck's gonna go even if it doesn't even nobody else gets that clutch that clutch gene the clutch dgb i was i was i was i was i was i was i I was getting flashbacks to Toronto versus Boston in the playoffs all those years ago. I think it was the first time they went up against Boston. He had that big block shot on purpose and then like followed up face first and we're like, that guy's a winner. He's going to win a championship here. That is our guy right there.

Yeah. Now he's going to do it with another team and he's still blocking shots. I love big block shots on purpose, you know. Yeah. I love, deliberately and definitely not by accident blocking crucial shots at crucial time. All you need to say about that Mitch Marner block shot, task failed successfully. That's all you need right there.

Got it done. Hey, but how about the reaction? Like all his teammates, they went right over to him right after. Like, that was good stuff. And maybe when you get that reaction. What do you do with him, though? You're like, yeah, I did a great job. 100%.

We know what happens if Mitch. doesn't feel appreciated. So everybody get over there. Let's go. I'll make a prediction. We got to do. I'm going to make a prediction. There's going to be a moment in this series where he's going to be in that similar situation. Who knows what the score is going to be, the clock, and he's going to lay out and he's going to block it. And we're all going to say that one he meant to do because he got the reaction from his teammates. They loved it so much. And they gave him so much props. He's like, I'll do it again. I think we have to ask the question. Is it time to go ahead and give Mitch Marner the 2007, Con Smythe, to go with this year's that I think he already has.

I honestly God, I think there's a world where, you know, Vegas wins the cup and we're trying to decide who to vote for. And that somehow turns into like a pivot. There are going to be voters out there that are swayed by that sequence in one way or the other. Someone can say, yeah, big, big block shot. He did it on purpose. And then someone's going to say, well, I don't know if I can give it to him because it looked like he did that by accident. Well, let's put it this way, man. Let's say, you know, however many games it goes, five, six, seven, whatever.

Someone out there will put like a Mitch Marner timeline chain together for the consummite and say, in game one, he had the block shot and the assist. In game two, he did this. In game three, he did that. And it's like, those were all monumental en route to the Stanley Cup. Maybe it'll be me. It could be you. I have a run.

Guess what? I don't even, I don't even care. I don't even, I don't even, I think, I'm on to say this. I have, I have a vote. So sweet. I can't wait to have that debate with myself with 10 minutes left in the deciding game. I think, Sean, if you have a vote, I feel like that means all three of us have a vote. We could sway you.

The show group chat, I think, has a vote now. Producer Jeff will weigh in. I won't even cite you guys. The three of you, McIndoo, Corrado, producer, Jeff. Yeah. I'm open, I'm open to ideas because I anticipate this being a little bit difficult. How big of a hit? How big of a hit did Freddie Anderson's chances for the cost of my check-dick?

I think he could, I think if they come back and win in six or whatever, I don't think he's going to get it. Yeah. It was my, my thing with Freddie. is he's played so well up until now. Granted, wasn't overly tested against Montreal, which I think the conditions are perfect for Freddie right now, right? Like they were given up 15, 18 shots a game. Freddie just had to make the right amount of saves

and let in one or two and his team had a really good chance of winning. And I was thinking about this, you know, with Freddie, there's always been injuries, right? Like he had time off. He had to go do some like, you know, stem cell stuff. Like, it's pretty interesting stuff. Like, when you're down that path of injury rehabilitation.

But I was thinking, what if everything's just a line for Freddie? The team's playing well. The team doesn't give up a ton. He might be, like, healthy, so he's not thinking about a knee or anything that may have ailed him in the past. And then last night's game, I was like, well, maybe it's just the same thing as game one against Montreal, and he'll bounce back. but he has to have the bounce back,

or else I think it leaves a lot of doubt from Carolina's point of view that he can be the goalie he was through the first essentially 13 games of playoffs. Yeah, he was great in the first two rounds. I thought he was good enough against Montreal. I thought there were moments in that series and I don't want to be like, you know,

the guy watching from the press box acting like he's seeing things that the average person can't because that's that's not my stance ever but i thought there were moments against the canadians where i i found myself saying like if they can just if they can just put a little bit more volume on him this could get really interesting it felt like he had a squeaker in him it felt like there were there were there were going to be opportunities if if montreal could find them and seize them for them to produce a bit more. And it didn't happen. And also like, you know, he did come up with big saves down the stretch. I'm not taken away from what Freddie did in that,

in that series. That's not my intent. But there were stretches of play. There were periods mixed in there where you're like, okay, if they can just generate some kind of sustained push on this guy, one or two are going to go in and then things are going to get super interesting. Right. And I, And I think that's the difference between Montreal and Vegas. We've talked about this a couple times in a couple different ways, but it bears repeating that Vegas on most nights, like, you're not looking at a team that's going to finish with 12 shots, 14 shots, go 14 minutes in the middle of the game

without officially logging one on net. Like, that's not going to happen. So I think for the amount of zone time and the amount of chances is that Vegas is eminently more capable of scratching out than Montreal, I think it could cause problems. I'm not saying we're going to see Brandon Bussie in game two or anything like that. But, you know, that, the way Freddie looked in that game, there'd been a little bit of a build to it,

and I wasn't overly surprised to see it. I also didn't think Carter Hart was very good last night. In fact, I think the goals, if you just look at the goals that were allowed, Carter Hart got beat clean multiple times last night. And in this modern era, if you get beat clean, it's a bad goal. And he did not look good. But the difference being, obviously, A, his team won. So, you know, we kind of move on from the things that didn't go as well as they could have. And as he said, he made the two big saves, I would argue.

He made the save on Jarvis. And the breakaway save when it was 2-1, was it, was it Stankovin? It was Stan Coven. You know, that was one where as he's coming in, you're going, this could be it right here. This might be it. You know, Carolina jumps up. They're 2-0. Place going crazy.

Vegas gets back into it. And if he come right back and score, hey, who knows how the game plays out? But that felt like a big one. So, you know, you're right. Like with Freddie, it's not, I didn't see any goals last night that I went. That's a bad goal. But it just felt like he was fighting it just a bit on almost everything to the point where you do kind of as, I'm sure on the Vegas bench, they're looking at each other going, we can get to this guy.

We get, because there are, there are going to be nights where you would never necessarily say it out loud, but you're looking around going, we're in real tough to beat this guy because he's locked in. this guy is and it wasn't that. Brindamore's talked about this too. He's, he's used it obviously in context of Freddie being good. But it applies to when Freddie's not at his best also. Brindamore says like from a coaching standpoint,

he can't really tell whether he's playing well or playing poorly. And he meant it as a compliment. And it meant it as like also partially a testament to his mindset, right? Like he keep like his body language and stuff. Like you don't necessarily. see it tell. But also, I think that's kind of what makes him tough to evaluate when he's playing badly because you're like, okay, that didn't look materially different than it did when he was, you know, shutting down the Philadelphia Flyers, I don't think, but also they just hung five on

them. So what do we, what do we make out of it? And I don't know enough about goaltending to to be to be able to parse it out. I'll be, I'll be straight up there. But what's clear is that, you know, they're not, I,

I don't see any five goal games by the Vegas Golden Knights in the future that the Carolina Hurricanes are going to win. So something, something's going to need to change, whether it's on the skater side, whether Freddie just takes it up a notch, whatever.

Something needs to be different than it was last night. It's completely stating the obvious that Freddie has to have a bounce back game, which clearly he does. But there's nothing in hockey that says you always have to revert back to what people know you as, right? Like if people are waiting for the bubble to pop on Freddie Anderson, I would say, well, why does it have to pop?

Why can't this year just be different for Freddie? Why can't it be the year where everything came together for him and he was healthy and he played well and they won a championship? Like you don't always just have to be what you're known as. And I think, you know, bigger picture, it kind of, this whole thing with, you know, Freddie Anderson being the goalie of the Carolina Hurricanes and this team trying to get over the hump and get to this point and now try and win a Stanley Cup, I think it just goes to show you how hard it is to actually like acquire a really good goalie in the NHL. Because if you just looked at it on paper and you said Carolina is an excellent team, they give up nothing. you know, they're hard to play against. Imagine they had like top two, three goalie in the NHL.

Like, how could you ever beat that team? But it's hard to get a top two, three goalie in the NHL. So they keep coming back to Brady Anderson. Because there's only two or three of them. Right, exactly. And they're not available for you. And, you know, Vegas on the other side had to do something very bold and something that was going to make a lot of people upset.

And they had to bring in Carter Hart because if they went with, you know, Aiden Hill or Akira Schmidt, made. They would not be playing here right now. They would have been, they would have lost already. So I think it's just, I don't know,

it's just something when you look at the temperature of the league, you're like, Carolina has to go with Freddie because it's hard to get an upgrade or you're going to go with a lateral move and sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. And I think too, Frankie, just to like circle back on something you said before,

it doesn't matter what any of these players have done before. And that sounds like a cliche, right the only thing that matters are the games that are in front of them the past is the past their resumes are their resumes it doesn't matter that freddie you know we kind of know what to expect from him for good or for ill um it comes down to the next six games or the next five games or the next three games like you can you can change your reputation you can have fun with small sample sizes like that's that's the heartbreaking part of these series for for franchises and fan bases and the exciting part of it for I think reporters and and for guys and like us is that not we're at the point now or nothing really nothing that happened matters all that much we can we can use it at to inform the way we talk about the next games and in in whatever but if Mark Jankowski goes on a goal binge and it has it has five in the next in the next two in in you know kickstarts carolina to be to to to to get this done like

no one's going to care that mark jankowski's on his fifth NHL team and it was almost out of the league a couple years ago and in that it would be a completely shocking result because it will have happened like the happen when it happens you don't ask why and i and i think we're about to be reminded of that like over and over and over again in this one all right guys let's uh frankie we're we're We're going to let you go. We'll kick the, we'll kick the Bill and Gary show to the third segment. What does TSN have you be doing this week? Are you back to driving cars or are you still piloting strange, strange vehicles?

You know what? I am home. I'm home and I'm loving it and I don't have to go back on the road until September. So it was a good time. Colonna Memorial Cup. Congrats to the Kitchen Arangers. I said it like, that's the best team I've seen in three years of doing that. tournament. I thought they were awesome. And I think their head coach, his phone is going to ring soon

and it's going to be an NHL team calling. Which one? And the first, the first question is going to be, what's your hair routine? What's your beard routine? And how do I get that? And then they can get into talking hockey. But whatever, whatever product he's using, I need some. That guy is studly, studly dude, man. Take it easy, man. We'll talk you next week. See you, boys. All right, there goes Frankie. Sean McIndo. I'd like to tell you what I've learned.

What have we learned, Sean? Yesterday at the 2026 edition of the Gary Bettman and Bill Daly show, the state of the league address, which always comes before game one of the Stanley Cup finals. I hadn't done one of these in a while. So it was really one of my favorite days on the calendar, something I really used to look forward to. Every single year, it was good to be back in the saddle again. we learned, and I'm going to quote slash paraphrase,

Commissioner Bettman here, that reports of his demise had been greatly exaggerated. That was a line he dropped. We started the afternoon, maybe not anticipating, but wondering slash thinking that potentially we could get the outline of Gary Bettman's retirement plan, like that we were going to hear some specific outline of the succession plan

as commissioner of the National Hockey League. And we didn't get it. He's sticking around. He said that, you know, of course, there's discussions about a succession plan and it's, you know, it seems like they're having discussions about having those discussions. but I did nothing is concrete and for a very very short window of time yesterday you know there was legitimate curiosity over whether you know he was going to he was going to give something a little bit more substantive than that and he didn't happy birthday by the way he was 74 years old yesterday

we're like we're we're we're going to keep getting them for at least a few more years it was the equivalent, the off-ice equivalent of watching your team score a huge goal and jumping out of your seat and cheering and then realizing that they're going to the little iPads and doing a review and Gary Mess comes out and says upon further review, Sebastian Aho is offside 37 seconds ago. Yep. No goal. We found there was a there was a missed face-off violation in a game in November so we have to start the season

and all over again from back then. Yeah, it's a bummer. The thing that's fascinating to me about this. It's a bummer. Everybody talks about succession plans. Like, we have a commissioner who has had his second in command for like 20 years.

If there's a succession plan and it's not Bill Daley, then is it really a succession plan? like succession implies that there's something internal like somebody's ready to come in as opposed to the other plan which is I'm Gary Bettman eventually I'm going to retire and then we're going to do a search and we're going to hire someone from some other league or wherever in the business world we get somebody is there even succession that's going to happen or is it going to just be a replacement which is not necessarily the same thing. Yeah, I Succession is the term that's used when you're talking about like monarchies, right? Like that's the line that that's the line of succession where you know concretely that if, you know, King Charles bites it like Williams next in line.

I wonder if it's that concrete for the NHL. Like is it, is it just that simple that, you know, daily takes? And that's, that's palace intrigue that has been part of, you know, the thought process in media circles or whatever, increasingly so for the for the last couple years. Like is it, is it daily? Is it someone else? Is Batman going to live? Does he want that? Does he want it? Is, is, is Gary going to live forever and be on the job for the same amount of time? Like, you got to, you got to consider that that's a possibility, I think. Um, but yeah, the, the upshot for me coming out of that session yesterday is that I, it sounds like we're still a couple years away from, from really truly.

navigating that that whole situation at least in any more concrete way than we have already what a tease what a bummer it's close I also learned something from Gary Bedman that is the All-Star weekend is back after you know a little bit of international play interrupting that and the format

is interesting They are trying something reasonably new. We're going to get a five-team round-robin. Five teams, each with 11 players, representing Canada, U.S., Sweden, Finland, and miscellaneous. Can't wait to see the jerseys? Which will include Russia, which is newsworthy on some level. And they're going to play a 10 game round robin tournament, which presumably the games are going to be very, very short.

But that's going to be kind of rapid fire, you know, go, go, go, go three on three. And I guess, you know, let's see. I'm not necessarily, I mean, we can, we all see what's what the idea is here, right? which is you, the All-Star games for the past couple of decades have been terrible because the players don't care. There's no effort. Hockey is one of those sports that when it is played at half speed, it is unwatchable. And it's just, it's been an absolutely terrible showcase.

And how do you make the players care? Well, they've tried throwing money at them. They've tried different things. They've tried doing drafts and all of that. what if what if we do it internationally let's get it it seems like they care about that yeah let's try that they they sure do when it when it matters whether they will care about an exhibition this way and look i don't think anyone's expecting that that the canada u.s game that's going to kick off this tournament's going to start with three fights in nine seconds uh we we probably won't get quite

that level of intensity but maybe it'll be better and and maybe it'll be the sort of thing where because there's so many games and I think they're very smart when I looked at the schedule my first thought was oh they're doing Canada to US first you would think they would save that to the end no they're doing it right by putting that first because that is your most

intense rivalry in theory so if it doesn't if that doesn't work then you can turn the TV off because the next few hours is going to be awful but if it does it kind of raises the bar for everyone else look I have been extremely critical of the entertainment value of the All-Star game over the year.

So I don't mind them trying something new. It can't get any worse than what it's been. So give it a shot. I don't know. Is it going to be too rapid fire? Is it going to, you know, is that going to work? I don't know. Five teams is interesting.

Congratulations to everybody in the NHL. You're all going to be an All-Star next year. It's so good for you. was, and especially, we're going to have 10 goalies at the All-Star game. That's basically, in a league where there's only like 20 guys who are their whole team starter, it's, you got a 50-50 shot at being at being an All-Star, so that'll, that'll screw with the record book. But I'm curious to see if it works. I don't, I'm not convinced that it will, but I, I'm not either.

They're trying something. I'm not convinced either, but I also was one of the guys that thought Four Nations wasn't going to work. Like I was like, this is off-brand Olympics. These guys are going to be going to be going at 82% and everyone's going to hate it. And I was wrong. Very clearly, very clearly and self-evidently and quickly I was proven wrong on that one. So I'm hesitant to go all in and say that, yeah, this international, you know, competition that involves NHL players is going to be a dud because I'm 0 for one on that. Also, how good is team miscellaneous going to be?

We're going to have dry-sidal Posternak, Shasturkin, I guess, or what a Sroka, and someone like that, and then Kutrov, it's going to be dry-siddle Posternak in the Russians, basically. Like, that's going to be interesting. So, yeah, I'm really, really good. I'm willing, I'm willing, they have, they have my attention.

Like, I'm not going to just, I'm not going to just go on vacation during all-star weekend. And then, like, I have them the best. And I also think that, The other piece was the skills competition, which is going to be 25 and under. Okay. I mean, gimmicky, but the skills competition is the ultimate gimmick. So, yeah, that's all right.

And that's a way to, what I hope they do, what I hope they do is take this whole idea of every team needs to be represented in the All-Star game and turn it into every team is represented at All-Star weekend. Yeah, that's a good idea. Some team out there, if the Vancouver Canucks have got nobody and they're in dead last, go ahead. Pick a younger player. Put, you know, whoever. Like, yeah, find, find someone to put in the prospect. Exactly.

Marco Rossi can go and be in the skills competition. And then we don't have to use up a spot because, you know, let's, if you really want to make it an international thing and people care, let's load up those teams as best we can. Let's make them look as much. Find something to do with Zeebblum and the in the hardest shot skills, whatever. Off you go, Zeev, and then, you know, or whatever. Check that, check that box.

Right. Pick, pick whatever team. You know, Calgary, great. Dustin Wolf, come on down. And that's, that'll, that'll do it. Thank you very much, Calgary Flames. And, and off you go. And that, that could work too.

Again, it's, you know, is it going to be great? I don't think it is. Is it going to be better than what we have? it almost would have to be. And I say that a little hesitantly because sometimes the NHL tries new things and they do not work emphatically. But I'm much happier with the announcement

we got yesterday than if Gary Bettman had sat up there and said, everything's working great. We're going to keep it exactly the same as it is like he did for the playoff format. Well, everything is going great across the board, by the way. I don't know if you watch the session. It's incredible. It's incredible how perfectly everything is.

going there. Everyone's happy. Everyone's, it's all, it's super cool. Nothing to see here. Everybody is happy I live in Bruce Cassidy. He's the only, he's the only, the only turns of

pretty nails, nails stuff from daily on that too. I think he's like, yeah, contract he signed. It's the contract he signed. There are guys out there who didn't sign contracts like that. So,

sorry, buddy. Talk to you, talk to you after the finals are over. That's still, I still think this, that once this is resolved in one way or another, the series, I mean, then Cassidy walks. I think, I think, I think, I think the signs are pointing that direction. And the good news is, as we, the other thing that we learned over the last couple days is,

you can go from having no permission to talk to another team's GM to hiring that GM. Really quickly. It's funny how that works. Yeah, apparently one good interview, you just, you're all done. So that was, that's, you know, this stuff can happen very quickly. And so when Bruce Cassidy winds up with Edmonton, I mean with his next team, that could all come together pretty quickly. Are you writing today? You've wrote yesterday, didn't you?

I've got a piece ready to go, but they're holding it off. Apparently there was some sort of game last night or whatever that they think is more important than my contest update on how the playoff contest. I'd rather read that. I'd rather read that than someone saying, like, duh, Caroline's best players need to be good, duh, which is what I wrote. Given that what would you estimate the failure rate was on the conduct?

How many wrong answers do you think we got? How many questions were on the... One. This is the playoff contest. This is that one. Oh, God. This is just name as many teams as you want. Percentage?

The order of how many games they'll... they'll win. 93. Oh, you are, you are way too optimistic. It was closer to 97% wrongs already. And this is with the playoffs not even being over yet. Yeah, we're down to two entries that are still alive. Holy cow.

If you're wondering if it's your entry, it's not. It isn't. But, yeah, so you'll find that out probably tomorrow. I think we're going to run that one. Love it. That's a pregame reading, I think, because there is a game. There's a game too on Thursday here in Raleigh, North Carolina. So enjoy that, folks. Thank you, Sean McIndoo. Thank you Frankie Carrado. And again, we appreciate you. We love you for listening to this. This is the athletic hockey show. Max Boltman, Chena Goldman, and Dran's got the next show on Friday morning. This is breaking news to me. I'm I'm going to be unable to record because I'm with Haley, because I'm traveling. So they brought in Dranx, Max, and Shana. That is musseless and stuff.

Durant is one of a kind if you haven't experienced the Durant's audio. How many people are they replacing you with, man? This is the least with Mitch Marner. They're just going to replace you in the aggregate. His, his, Michelle here. It's Boltman. Matthias Machelli Boltman. That's right.

show on Friday. Tune in. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the game and take care.