The Athletic Hockey Show - Kris Knoblauch fired by Edmonton Oilers

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Edmonton fires Kris Knoblauch after three seasons on the job, Sean and Shayna discuss what went wrong and how roster construction plays a big role in the Oilers disappointing season. Eric Tulsky, the General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes stops by to discuss his team, as they await an opponent in the Eastern Conference Final, Hailey Salvian previews the PWHL final between Ottawa and Montreal, and discusses the league expanding to Vegas and Hamilton and Sean and Shayna praise the work of Nathan MacKinnon and the Avs as they eliminate the Minnesota Wild from the playoffs.Host: Sean Gentille and Shayna GoldmanWith: Hailey Salvian and Eric TulskyExecutive 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 May 14th, 2026. That is the correct date. It's the correct year. I'm smart. I can do things. I'm Sean Jatili.

I'm joined here with Shana Goldman. We are going to talk about Colorado in Minnesota. That's going to happen shortly. We also have a nice chat with the Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Eric Tulski and a talk with Haley Salvean. It's a jam-packed show. Shado, let's just start, though. This is breaking news to some degree before we started recording, though we knew that it was coming, I think, in some regard for a couple weeks now. The Edmondson Oilers have moved on.

They have fired Chris Knoblock. Connor McDavid will have a sixth NHL coach whenever the next regular season starts. Three thoughts from me here, and you can tell me how this lines up with your thinking limit. The playoffs were off for Edmonton and for Knoblock. All four other centers are banged up.

That's a tough break. Doesn't matter who you play. It doesn't matter if it's Edmonton or Colorado or the Atlanta Thrashers or, you know, the Maple Leafs in 1956. it's a it's a bad deal. At the end of that, though, he looked and he sounded like a guy who didn't have any answers and the players didn't have any either.

So that's the kind of stuff where you're like, okay, is there, are there exacerbating factors here aside from just health? And that roster's a mess. And that ain't his fault. So where are you at on those three factors kind of interplay here? If you wanted to say everyone deals with injuries and he should have been a little more adaptable. I would have that conversation

if you wanted to say maybe he took the team to its limits the last two years. Again, sure, especially like when you start as strong as he did and you take a team to back to back Stanley Cup finals, the expectations are going to be high. That being said,

I would have done two things first. I probably wouldn't have put the blame squarely on his shoulders if I'm management. I would look in the mirror and see the roster that I decimated. I would give him more capable defenders who play with the same.

a little more pace, I would give him a more capable goaltending situation. Maybe not tie up a ton of cab space in Tristan Jari and Trent Frederick and things like that. I don't know. We're seeing Brett Kulak last night and you're thinking sometimes you have to make a move for Tristan Jari. So the roster issues don't fall on Knoblobock.

The other thing is I would have hired him a full-time defensive coach a lot sooner. The whole we're going to break and let Paul Coffee fix it every time is an issue and you could say, well, you know, it's his staff. Sure, but if you're management you're running the show, there should be a little overreach there to be like, this is what we need. So I would have given Knobok another go next year with a better assistant coach, you know, with someone who can implement a little more defensive structure and then see how things go

before making the decision now, especially after, say, they can't get Bruce Cassidy. Like, let's say that's not a possibility for them. And you look at, you know, what else might be available, I would be thinking, you know what, the guy we have is probably better than some random guy we're going to pick out there. Yeah. And I think, you know, you mentioned the Paul Coffee factor, too. I think that more than anything set in a lot of ways, that set the, that set the trap for this spring. Because God, he didn't want to hire Paul Coffee.

That's not Chris Knoblox hire, right? So you set the tone with, you kind of push Mark Stewart to the side who was the defensive, the defensive guy on that staff. Paul Coffey wasn't someone that Chuck Knoblock, my God. It's a miracle I haven't done that a hundred times over the course of the last few years. He's not a guy that Chris Knoblock wanted around, and it made for weird vibes at times from what I heard and from what I could tell around the Edminton Oilers down the stretch.

So like if you're making those decisions for a coach, you're telling him you've got to bring this guy in, you know, whether you'll want him or not, then you got to have to have. the question how how badly you want to retain that that that that guy for the next season um the roster issues are just so you're so clear and so obvious it's it started a couple years ago before stan bowman took the job and in that in on the july one where they're signing victor arvidson and jeff skinner and whatever that that was a disaster those aren't stan boleman's fault everything that's happened since then is in the way they approached not just the deadline but

trade season this year, starting with Jari, that's on Bowman 2. Because he, you know, like labels Jari, identifies Jari as a solution to the goaltending problems, realizes very quickly that that wasn't the case, and then immediately starts the backtrack and improve defensively in the ways that they got worse whenever they traded for Jari in the first place because they send out Brett Kulak in that deal, then you have to replace Brett Kulak. You have to replace Brett Kulak. And you also have to say like, okay, rather than trading for like a scoring winger, how do we improve here?

We got to go out and get someone like Jason Dickinson. And that's how they use their draft capital. That's how they use their cap space was to improve defensively in a way that it didn't seem like they were going to have to if they would have addressed the goaltending in a meaningful way. So that's just a classic case of roster mismanagement. Maybe if Knoblock were a different coach, he could have worked his way out of it a little bit more effectively, but, you know, that's the hand that he was dealt, and that's the way that he

played it. So, like, I don't necessarily view this as, you know, some great miscarriage of justice. I don't think there's any one magic bullet here. It's not because they were, it's not just because they were injured. It's not just because Knoblock didn't do a good enough job against the Anaheim Ducks. And it's not just because the roster was deficient. It's all three of those things. And when that comes into play, when you don't have any one, you know, magic bullet answer, that's when you're in real trouble. And I think that's the big takeaway with moving on from Chris Knoblock is that, yeah, you know, a different coach might fix part of the problem.

It's not going to fix all of it. And I think that's the single thing that should scare Oilers fans the most about the entire situation. Yeah. That's definitely it because you look at it and go, okay, it's not like you can just wipe away everything they did this year. They spent draft capital. They spent trade assets they should have to buy their way out of it. contract, right? Like they felt they had to pay the penguins to take Skinner and Kulak,

which would have never been the case. They had to pay the Blackhawks to take the Andrew Mangiarpani contract that was a mistake in the first place. And also, and also throwing a first round pick because you're like, oh God, Kulak's not here anymore. We got to go out and get someone like Connor Murphy to fill the Brett Kulak slot. So it's just like, it's the red paper clip game in reverse where the guy goes on Craigslist and starts the red paper clip and ends up with a house. it's like that level of degradation in reverse on that on that roster and it's just been it's been continual and i can't blame chris noblock for that i can blame them for the lack of adjustments during you know the during the at the anaheim series like that's on him i'm not saying he

deserved to keep his job necessarily they needed to do something else but for people who think that you know bringing in whatever let's let's let's pretend that edmonton lets them hire that uh Vegas lets them hire Bruce Cassidy, that's not necessarily a fix. There's a whole lot of stuff going wrong there, and Chris Knoblock is certainly not responsible for all of it. No, now and there's multi-year commitments on the cap. And also now you go, okay, so the general manager that contributes to the situation, should he be picking the next guy? Would he be making these decisions on top of it?

It's a valid case, you know, that you shouldn't. So we'll see how that goes. The Oilers offseason is, you know, it's been going on for a couple weeks, but it ain't over. There's going to be a lot more stuff that happens there. Okay. Yabs eliminated the Minnesota Wilden five games last night. It was a four-three win in overtime. It featured two goals by Colorado in the final 333 of regulation. One was by Jack Jury. One was by McKinnon. And then the overtime winner was, of course, Brett Kulak. Shane, I wanted to point something out on McKinnon's game tying goal because, and I am certainly not the first to do this.

It was a crunch time shot from the bottom of the circle that he did not miss. There were some wild similarities between that one and the shot he yacked on in the gold medal game. I think the issue clearly is that shot was too easy. He needed to go far post on Connor Alibuck. like he did on Scott Wedgwood. The dam broke, I think, for the Minnesota Wild. That's my takeaway there. I broke a little late, but it still broke.

After the second period, Colorado had a 26-3 scoring chance edge, a 22-7 shot edge, HD chances were 12 to 2, 2.8 expected goals to 0.68 for Minnesota. This was over the course, you know, post-first period, this was a pretty wild degree of domination by the abs. Was it not? Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, first at the McKinnon shot, he's picturing in his head being handed that stuffed animal and is like, that is not happening. That had to be the motivating factor here.

Immediately got afraid that the NHL was going to implement the losers get a stuffed animal policy. I was like, ain't happening. Nope, not happening today. But yeah, I think it's a mix of two things, right? because give the wild credit for their start, they looked fast, they were jumping on rebounds. I don't think Blackwood was great in period one, but I don't think that it was all on him either. The defense looked uncharacteristically bad in period one. And the wild looked like a team that had that desperation factor, but the abs answered it, right?

So it's Colorado pushing the pace of play and coming out with a ton of jump through the next 40 minutes that gets them here. but it's also that safe is death. You can't just defend. And it's like, well, the abs forced them to play that game. Sure. But they also weren't breaking through enough. So I think two things are true here. And it's so funny to see, you know,

you mentioned the expectant goals. You see it on a chart and how the wild essentially just, you see their season flatline. Yeah. Absolute killer. But I think, too, we're getting a lot of depth contributions from the abs. And that is great, right? Because you look at seasons past, their playoff runs.

And it's the depth scoring isn't there. Well, it was there. but when they needed the big guns to thrive, here's Nathan McKinnon doing it, and then you look to the other side of the ice and Capri Soff not doing enough in that last sequence, you see the decision to pass on the two-on-one

and not shoot the puck, which is his best weapon, and there are a few shifts like that. That's where it really comes. Yeah, it's Parker Kelly starting the comeback. It's Jack Jury, you know, getting them a little bit closer, you know, in the closing minutes there,

and then it's, and then it's McKinnon, you know, finishing the job. I mean, that was the most, that felt like that overtime goals often feel inevitable, like just based on the pace of play, even though they're not. That one felt inevitable. Like, once that game got to overtime, you're like, this is, this is a matter of time. It's, it's, it's, we'll, we'll see who's the hero for the abs, but it's going to be somebody. Yeah, 100%.

I wanted to finish up on, on a line from something Russo and Joe wrote, and it's a rhetorical question, but whatever. How on earth could this wild team, after Dom, in the first period and taking a 3-0 lead with a chance to keep it season alive and force a game 6 collapse in such an absolutely disgusting fashion. I get it. We talked about the flat line.

We said it was a rhetorical question. It has an actual answer. It's that Colorado's better than the Minnesota Wild. Like, did we think this series was going to go longer? Sure. Were there moments, especially, you know,

in games two and three, where you're like, maybe Minnesota can do this. Yeah, I can allow for that. One team was better than the other one, on paper, period, all day long over the course the regular season. You factor in the Joel Erickson-Ack injury. You factor in the Jonas Brodine injury.

That is killer, killer stuff for Minnesota because they don't have championship center depth on their best day. That is a fact. And then when you move out Brodine and you're talking about second pair guy, Jake Middleton against the Colorado Avalanche, it ain't going to work, right? So every team has injuries, every team has to play through them. These were crucial ones from Minnesota, but I think it also hinted at deficiencies in their roster, at least as it relates to teams like Colorado, particularly down the middle

where you're like, Joel, look, Joel Ericksonack, he's a great player. We've said it for years, you and I in particular, like I feel like every year we talk about all the things he brings that line up, the stuff he does that in a perfect world would make him a Selky contender. Those are all true. You need one or two more of him. You can't have Ryan Hartman playing one C or two C

or three C minutes at this point in his career if you're serious about winning a Stanley Cup. In the fact that they were, you know, an injury to an injury prone player away from a full system collapse as it relates to their center depth, it speaks poorly to the construction. of that roster. And for all these pieces, for the contracts for Caprizov and for the Quinny's trade and for Matt Boldie gets better every year and da-da-da-da-da-da, that's all great.

But the original sin for this roster is that they do not have enough centers and they have not addressed it in a real way. And now we're looking at a world where Charlie Coil is making $6 million a year. And the next best center behind him on the UFA market is 40 years old and doesn't play center anymore and is it going to play anywhere other than Pittsburgh and that's Evgeny Malkin, right? So you're like, how do you get better? It's really tough to see and it's equally tough to imagine a world where they have depth that can go up against the top shelf contenders like like the Colorado Avalanche. It's tough, but it's true. So ask a rhetorical question maybe and you can get a real answer. It's because they don't have the dudes down the middle. Yep. And if any year was

the year to get them. It would have been this year because they invested a ton in Quinn Hughes. And at the end of the day, you don't know what's going to happen after his next contract, right? The other part of it is while they have this goalie tandem, I keep thinking about the Boston Bruins. Like, did they do enough when they had Twayman and Olmark together? Because that was like they had these aces in net. You had that situation. Look how it worked out for Minnesota this year. You have Walshid. You didn't use them as a trade chip. And now you have the goalie tandem that you need. And he ends up being the starter in this situation. But at the end of the day, you have two years of Quinn Hughes, guaranteed. You need to go all in. And I know I was harsh on the McCarran trade. He ended up being

better than I expected. I still think he was a little bit overpriced. But that's the name of the game for centers. But this is not some issue that developed overnight. You need help down the middle. Even if, say, the stars can kind of cancel each other out. And you go, it's Quinn Hughes and Carr. The rest of the lineup, there was too big of a gap. Sure, they got through a deep team like Dallas and did it in a more dominant way than we all saw coming. You still have to be. You still have to make it through four rounds at the end of the day. The lineup was never built to do that. So they really should have invested more in these two years. Otherwise, it feels like, you know, a half-ass effort to do it this year and potentially next. And then, and then what happens.

So, yeah, these were avoidable issues that they definitely should have worked on. Yeah. And it's Brock Nelson on the other team, by the way, who is like plan A, B, and C for for their center depth. They thought they were going to sign them and they didn't, right? They thought they were going to trade for them and they didn't. So there is a bit of irony there as it relates to this center depth chart for Colorado. And they think, you know, if they think they're going to flip Philip Gustafson for, you know, a championship caliber two C in the off season or whatever their plan is for addressing it, we'll see how it plays out, but it's going to be easier said than done. All right, we're going to hit a break. Carolina Hurricanes GM, Eric Tulski, joins us next. Stick

around. All right, we're back. Very excited to be joined by Carolina GM. Eric Tulski. It seems 8-0 to start the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. Being told that's pretty good. Eric, I'd like to know, how are you spending your mid-spring vacation? Are you traveling at all? There is no vacation. We're working. You've seen we've gotten a couple of signings done. Also, there's always a staff to manage. And we've got staff contracts up we've got everybody has their own issues at work and so there's there's always work to do you guys had that break after the first round um and rod said that that experience was a positive because it provided some kind of template for how to handle the layoff um what is the process like on your end to come up with a plan of attack there is it as simple as leaving that stuff to the

coaches in the training staff or is it is a collaborative like how do you how do you in your seat make sure that, you know, stuff's going the way that it should over, over 10 days or however long it's going to end up being. Yeah, I mean, it is almost entirely in their hands. If I had a staff that I was worried about, I might need to be involved, but those guys are pretty sharp. Bill Berniston leads our strength and conditioning group, and he is really dialed in on sort of managing workload and making sure we have players fit to perform their best. And Rod works very closely with him and makes sure he's designing practices in a way that puts players in a position to succeed. And I'm happy to stay out of the way and let them do their thing.

So speaking of players in a position to succeed, obviously, a year and a half ago, you knew Logan Stancoven was coming into this postseason and going to score a ton of goals. Like we all project this one. But how does the decision to shift him to center come together? Like, what's that process look like for you? Yeah. So he had played center in his past. He had hadn't done it at the NHL level, but it was not completely foreign to him. He has a lot of the skill sets that we look for in a center, and we've been looking to sort of find ways to get more skill into the top half of our lineup for a while. And one of the ways of doing that is our wing group got deeper and deeper was to move a center to the middle. Talked to him about it.

He was all on board, spent the summer with him working on face-offs. video and making sure he understood his responsibilities. Still don't know for sure how it's going to look until he gets in there. And he hit the ground running and never looked back. Yeah, I know that, you know, from a production standpoint, it was a little bit of a slow start for him. But the underlines were there. It seemed like the process was there for him from the jump. So was that your vibe as well that, you know, immediately from October on?

you're like, okay, this seems like something that can work, even though, you know, the, the point production wasn't, wasn't necessarily there initially. Yeah, for sure. That line's been really good all year long. And, you know, at the outset of the year, stuff wasn't going in. And, you know, that that's something that can get people concerned. But we could see they were all over the puck. They were creating chances.

is, you know, it's a skilled group. It's not like you've got three guys with stone hounds and you're worried they're never going to go in. You knew they'd go in eventually. And it's fortunate that they've happened to get hot at the right time for us, but at no point in the year was I worried that that group might not work. We haven't seen a ton of production from the AHA line so far.

I also don't sense much concern on Rod's part about them. what's it what is it about their game and about maybe the team's game overall that's made that sustainable because in the past it's felt like a lack of goals from those guys in particular ahos feshenkov would have been much worse news for you guys i don't i don't know if i don't know if you're winning eight games in years past necessarily with them with them uh you know getting held off the score sheet as is regularly as they have been yeah i mean they have a long history this year and previous years of being really strong creatively offensive players who can also go against the other teams best when they need to. You know, I again, like, you're right that it has not really

been going in for them in the playoffs, but Svatch in particular has been all around it. And it just feels like a matter of time, you know, again, he's a skilled player. they will go in. They just haven't lately. There were long stretches of this year where everything was going in for him. So it's tough that he went cold or that line went cold when we hit the playoffs, but other lines picked it up. And that's part of the value of having depth is, you know, I say a lot, you know, we've had a team for a long time that was good enough to win the cup if everything went our way. And we've never really had a year where we got all the breaks. we're trying to build a team that's good enough that we can win even when we don't get the breaks

and building the depth to manage it even when your top line goes a little cold is part of how you do that. So if you look at players like Jarvis, Ah, Host, Ankoe, and like, you know, we all make jokes like, if you're going to build a perfect Carolina hurricane in a lab, you're getting those guys, right? But this year we're seeing a lot of rush-based scoring chances and goals from the hurricanes. and an addition like Eelers obviously helps further that. How much did you actively look to try to go against the grain of the Cryorilina hurricane system and style that we know this summer with that addition? Yeah.

So I would say our core philosophy isn't really about dump and chase or forecheck. It's really about putting the other team under pressure. And one of the ways you can do that when they bottle you up in the neutral zone is put it behind them and get in on them. And we want to keep the pressure on them. The more talent we have and the more ability we have to beat them through the neutral zone and put the pressure on them in the D zone off the rush, the more we're going to do that. And so it's, you know, just adding that kind of skill and creativity to keep layering that

under our game has always been part of the plan. You know, of course you'd rather hang on to the puck if you can. We just want to keep the other team under pressure. And, you know, Eilers playing with Stalin-Martinuk has pretty much. provided a sort of different way of applying pressure for that line. In the past, that line was almost purely a forechecking line and ferocious to deal with on the forecheck. Eilers adds a little bit of dynamic element through the neutral zone so that they don't always have to put their energy into getting the puck back. From your end, Freddie Anderson, he's cons my shortlist.

I wrote something about him for this morning. from from your chair um what is what have these eight games looked like for you and is it you know i don't i don't know if i want to say gratifying but it there is how to see him perform at that level especially you know given some of the results that he was experiencing in in december not necessarily the process um what is that what are you seeing and how you know what's the overall sense that you're getting from the way that he's playing relative to where he was earlier in the season. Yeah, I mean, more than anything, I'm just happy for him. You know, like, there is always a lot of discourse around goalies, and, you know, the truth is,

he's played, he's had an outstanding career. He's played very well in the regular season. He's played well in the playoffs, too. There are a lot of years where, you know, he won games three and five of a series, two nothing and two one, and then his team lost games. Game 7 and he got blamed for it. And like, you go back at it and they only got to a Game 7 because of him. You know, so like he has had a career where he deserved a run like this and I'm happy to

see it happen for him. And then like you say, in this season, like there were long stretches where things didn't go his way. Like I, you know, in the month of December, our skaters put more pucks into our own net than into the other team's net. And it's hard for him to win games when that's happening, right? You know, so we finally had a stretch where things have been a little tighter defensively. You know, some of the times the guys had a chance, they didn't put it far down.

And he's also playing better than average for him. And, you know, his average is high, and he's playing better than that. And you play it all together. And, you know, it's been a special run for him. And I'm happy for him. Do you think the way he played coming out of the break in particular, like, it wasn't, you know, you look at the stat lines, was it spark? not necessarily, but it was also a step up from, you know, results-wise from where he was in December and January. Was that important for him setting the tone and kind of priming the

pump for the way things have gone, you know, over the last, over the last few weeks? Yeah, I mean, he's one of the most steady people you'll ever meet, whether it's, you know, shot to shot within a game or game to game within a season or month to month. Like, he is very level-headed. And so I don't. I'm hesitant to say that he needed to have a run to change his mindset. He seems like his mindset is always the same. I think a lot of people watching us feel better as they see it go his way a little bit. But for him, he's got a great mindset for a goalie.

It's just on to the next play and playing his game. And it's very calm and steady and consistent. So how do you estimate? someone will fit well in this like high pressure system that the hurricanes play and like what were the signs someone like kandre miller was going to fit well within that yeah so in general i mean it depends a little on the position but in general we're looking for people who are very competitive and um have sort of speed of feet and speed of thought because you know we to apply pressure like you need to get on the opponent and cut down their time and then you need to be

competitive enough to make it hard for them when you're there. Kandre in particular, you know, we ask our defensemen to really step up and close out and play tight gaps and try to end plays. And he has a really explosive stride and a long reach that makes it so he can get into guys faster and harder than they expect. And he can use his stick to recover if it doesn't quite go his way. And that combination, like he puts himself in position to end a lot of plays for us. which is what we ask our defenseman to do.

So you have potentially six more days until the Eastern Conference final starts. I'm wondering if you could talk to the food and beverage team at Lenovo Center and maybe have them whip up some kind of weird cup for me to drink out of during the Eastern Conference final. Is that possible? Do you have the, do you have the Ching or the runway to deal with that? Yeah, I'll get right on that. I will have to spend a few days thinking about what that could be, but we'll come up with something. It's okay.

Great. I'm available for consultations if you need any. If you need any, let me know. Thank you. Thank you, Eric, man. And, you know, I know you're busy, but, you know, enjoy the next five games until everything starts back up or whatever. It'll be interesting. And I will see you and Raleigh.

Sounds good. Thanks for having me. Haley Salvin coming up. Stick around. We're joined now by Haley Salveen from Montreal, the PWHL final between Ottawa and, of course, Montreal begins later tonight. Haley, hello. You were in the same room, I believe, at the residence in as you were last week. Is that correct? Yeah. My dog, Bono and I have been here for maybe four days now. It's been a while, but like, yeah, I was, I was here in the semis,

like before I went to Ottawa and then I came back to the residence in and they gave me the exact same room. Enjoyed it so much, you know. Is making me feel like I've been here for weeks. You're on the hamster wheel, man. That's the way it goes. It's an honor and a privilege, but I am kind of sick of staring at, you know, the same highway for what feels like in eternity.

That is true. All right. So the final does get started up tonight. We'll talk about that in a second. But I wanted to start with the second. round finale between Montreal and Minnesota, which was on Tuesday night. That was an incredible game. The atmosphere seemed equally incredible. What was it like in the press box? Because it seemed, it seemed to be pretty loud. So if I had an Apple Watch or an aura ring on, like it would be

sending requests for medical assistance. Like, I have never felt, my body has never felt like it did watching that game. And it wasn't just because of the stress of it. It's, there's, so I've spoken to players in Montreal about this arena and just saying, like, we have a DJ. The atmosphere is amazing. Like, I've had Mary Philip Poulin before be like, why have you never been to a game here? And I'm just like, I'm going to tell my boss, he said that.

Don't worry, I'll be there. And then I did an anonymous player poll at the beginning of the year. And Montreal was either loved by players for the atmosphere or actually hated by some players. Like some players straight up were like, I hate playing there. It's way too loud. It stresses me out. And I'm sitting there on whatever day that was, I guess, Wednesday, Tuesday. And I'm sitting in my head and thinking like, oh, my God.

I totally understand how that player feels. Because it's unbelievable, but it's so loud that it truly, when you're filing on deadline and you're like working, it is very stressful. Like the bass from the DJ reverberates in your bones. The fans are so loud. Just the lower bowl was open for the last game. So there was like, I don't know the exact number was probably like six,

seven thousand in the building. and it was a very deafening six, seven thousand. There was over 11,000 fans at the game at Canadian Tire Center, and it did not feel nearly as loud, and that's not anything against Ottawa fans. I just think the Montreal fans and the atmospheric class bell is so crazy. And then you add in the stress of filing at the buzzer in a 1-1 or a 2-1 hockey game against the defending champs,

and you know that everything that you've written could get thrown out by, you know, from one shot by Kendall Coins-Scofield. And you're like, I've never felt so unwell in my life. And like, I covered Olympic medal games. And I was like, no, I actually can't do this. So how much do you think that's going to be an advantage here in the final? Like, it feels like of all the teams, the charge are the ones that no matter what happens, they can just disrupt things, right? Like, oh, you don't want to play up against them. Like, they'll be fine. They'll manage. But do you think this is going to help Montreal in the final? Yeah, I do think there is, you know, an advantage to that building, at least when we look at some of the stats, like that,

the Montreal Victoire, unbelievable at home, at least in the regular season. And then I don't remember the exact stat, but in the playoffs, when they score first, or I think just in general, when they score first at Plas Bell, I don't think they've ever lost in regulation. And so having good starts and having that atmosphere and that fan base behind you is definitely something that Montreal can use. But in terms of Ottawa as the disruptors, I mean, I did a preview today. And our pal Dom sent me his model stuff. And like Montreal is a 71% chance at winning this series. And Ottawa only has a 29% chance.

And to me, like we love and respect you, Dom, but just, throw that out the window. Because the charge do not see themselves as underdogs. They have defied these exact odds multiple times. Nobody even expected Ottawa to be in the playoffs externally. From like the fan base to the media, I thought that Ottawa lost more than anybody else did this offseason. And they have managed to get to a second straight Walter Cup final.

according to Dom's model, they only had a 17% chance of winning against Boston in four games, and they did it. And it's not just because of Gwen Phillips, even though she is a superstar. But Ottawa has definitely been the disruptor. They are very hard to play against.

Like when I'm sitting and listening to Eric Tolski talk about how, you know, and I kind of love that it was just like, you know, we're not just a dump and chase team. Like we want to put the pressure on in whatever way that looks like. And I have always felt that the Ottawa charge gave me Keynes vibes, except they don't have like the same amount of shot, like shots, like shots, shot attempts or shots on goal.

Like Ottawa really doesn't. Who does? Who does? Who does? That's okay. They're not the coursey charge, but they are the relentless charge. And they, they jent. So they're either tough on the walls, tough in the neutral zone or incredibly fast and dynamic in transition. And so I do see some similarities in the sense that like Ottawa really does like they're relentless. They're very physical. They're quick. They're very aggressive. And I do think sometimes that can just come off as like, oh my God, they're the dump and chase slog it up team. But like they are even Montreal coach

Corey Chevry said we are going to have to dig down deep to play against this opponent. And this is coming from the coach who just did something that nobody has ever done in the PWHL, and that's eliminate the Minnesota Frost. So this series is going to be way tighter, I think, than Don's model projects. You know, you mentioned Gwen Phillips in there, and I'm with you. There's a degree of laziness, I think, when a team with a good goal, you're like, okay, that's it. That's why they're good. This is the Gwen Phillips show or whatever. But it does bear repeating that she's been incredible. She's unbelievable. She had 43 saves in the clincher against Boston.

She had 30 saves or more in all three of the wins in that series. Four goals allowed on 193 shots in a five-game series, which is kind of wild. Yeah. And this is obviously not new for her. She was the playoff MVP last year. But is this a player? Like, she's going against in the net for Montreal. all at this point, like her competition, if you were to try to stratify the goalies league

wide, it feels like right now it's Gwen Phillips and Ann Renee Debian based on based on the play over the last, you know, 12, 12, 14 months. Is that fair to say? Like, is it like, because it seems like we're going to get some really, really, really high-end goalie play in this one because both of those, both those players are just out of their minds right now. Yeah, it's interesting. If we would have had this conversation with like a month to go in the regular season. It'd be me waffling on like, is it Frankl? Is it Anne? I don't know. And then Gwen Phillips goes and emerges the victor in the first goalie battle of the playoffs. And honestly, like I asked Anne Renee Debian about this because like she is like when Anne Renee is on like she's got this

unbelievable swagger and confidence and she's a gamer in a way that you sometimes don't see with goalies. Like if somebody's in her blue like she, she would. will go out and make the contact and like have like almost like a sassy like get the hell out of my crease. And Gwen Phillips does that too. So I do think we have like two goleys going up against each other who just exude swagger and confidence and personality in a unique way for a goaltender. Um, at least in women's hockey. And, um, but I asked Anne Renee, like, what excites you about a goalie battle against somebody who won playoff MVP last year? And she was like, I think every single night is a goalie battle in the PWHL. she's right. But this one in particular is going to be pretty wild. So Gwen Phillips in the first round. So last year when she wins playoff MVP, she has a 952 save percentage. And that's despite losing in four games in the final, right? A 951 save percentage in the first round. So she is really

picking up right where she left off. You know, and she only allowed seven goals on 143 shots. Frankl, nine goals on 93 by the Ottawa charge. So Gwen has just been phenomenal. And Debian is actually really interesting, because I don't think she got nearly enough credit this year for putting up all-time league records and wins, save percentage, and goals against average. She had 19 wins.

Frankel also had 19, a 955 safe percentage and a 1.1 goals against average. And so I was actually debating between Debian and Frankel for MVP. Like that's how good both these goalies have been this season. And I think a lot of the conversation after the first round when it came to Anne Renee was she led in five goals against Minnesota for the first time. And like I saw some stuff being like she can't even stop a balloon right now. And it's like she only allowed after game one, she allowed four goals. on 122 shots.

That is a 967 safe percentage in the final four games of that series, and she won three of them, by the way. So Anne-Rene DeBien is clicking. Gwen Phillips is clicking, and I just think this is going to be, like either every game's going to be two-one. I do wonder if we're going to have like a wild 5-4 game or something where everyone's just like whatever wash it, who cares.

the next save is the most important save kind of thing. But I'm really excited to see these two goalies go at it. You wrote you wrote postgame about the inevitability of Marie-Fili Palin, who of course scores the game winner to put Montreal into the Walter Cup final. That's like a phrase that comes up around certain players. I saw Laz use it in a headline about Nathan McKinnon. It's all true. But with her, it's particularly true.

Yeah. She's as clutch as it gets. We're run out of stuff to say about her, I think, in a lot of ways. but she's doing this. I think the variable here is that she's doing it on a knee that clearly isn't 100%. We saw her get hurt pretty seriously in the Olympics. And she still managed to be a very productive, very, very, very clutch player down the stretch from Montreal. What's the overall stay to her game?

What are you seeing from her relative to maybe years past, you know, when you'd factor in whatever she's dealing with on the knee end of things. Yeah, I mean, we're seeing Mary Philippe Poulin play 14 minutes a night. That is incredibly rare, especially in decisive games like she did in game five. But in typical MPP fashion, she's still rising to the occasion, despite the fact that she's not 100%, and she's not double shifting. And she can't, you know, play as much as she probably wants to right now. And whatever is going on with her injury, it hasn't mattered when it matters most.

14 minutes, she has the primary assist on the opening goal in the first period after Montreal was just totally caved in against the Minnesota Frost. She has a, they have a set play on the face off. She goes to Catherine Dubois. He's like, wait here, I'm going to snap it back for you, put it on that. Dubois post game was like, when she tells you what to do, you listen. I did and I scored. So she gets the primary assist on a huge opening goal and then she gets the game winner.

It's her second game winner of the first round to make it to the finals for the first time. These are best of five series, by the way. So two or three wins were won on Mary Philippe Poulin stick. That's no surprise. So we're seeing a lot of the same from her. And I think we're seeing her teammates really rally around her. Like there really is just this unspoken thing that Poulin is dealing with. We see Laura Stacey give her their little.

player of the game, Cap, and, you know, saying this is a player who's had to battle really hard to just even be on the ice with us. And Corey Chevry is talking about how Hulene wants to be at her best all the time. And sometimes that's not possible, but she's still coming through for us. And so we are watching the greatest player to ever play women's hockey battle through something here coming up huge. And it's all to get, you know, the one kind of major elusive trophy. She didn't an NCAA championship, but in terms of like the big majors, I'm a Walter Cupsi only thing that's not on Hulence Trophy case. And I think we're seeing her throw everything on the line. Because I think this is Montreal's best shot. Daniel Sojo did a great job going out and signing

players in the off season. You had Abby Rock. And I think this is their best chance to win with MPP still at her peak. And I think we're going to see everybody go all in to, try to get her that trophy. So part of the reason probably feels like this is their best chance to is there's going to be more teams. Vegas and Hamilton are the latest cities to join the PWHO. We have a growing market, growing hockey market in Vegas, a non-NHL market in Hamilton. Like, can we get a vibe check on these new teams coming in?

I think the response has been a little, like it's been interesting. I think there's obviously been a ton of leaks and we reported. Vegas, like the athletic we reported Vegas, I think, what on Tuesday? I don't know what day it is anymore, guys, but we, we confirmed and reported Vegas. Some of us don't know what month or what year it is, so don't sweat out. What year? What? What? What? 16. Interesting. Interesting. Can't wait to hear what that's about. The reviews have been quite mixed if you take one look on Twitter. And my Twitter algorithm is just all PWHL fans and PWHL stuff at this point.

I think Vegas was a little surprising just because they didn't have a takeover to her game, right? And that goes against the mold of the league saying, wow, look, we sold out this bar and let's put a team there. But the league still feels really confident that Vegas is ready for a team of its own. and that's a growing hockey market that is obviously a rapidly expanding professional sports hub. Like every team or every league is going to have a piece of Vegas by what, 2029 is the NBA could be there. Like all the big four is going to be there. So, you know, Vegas is honestly might get oversaturated by 2020.

But it's interesting. And I think there is a lot of excitement about that market. I think it expands the league's footprint to. you know, they're a little, what did they call it? Like the American Southwest is what they said in the press release. I don't know if that's necessarily self-wise. Yeah. The American Southwest is what they said in the press release. To me, that's another team.

You're not putting a team in Albuquerque or Santa Fe. Yeah, right? We're just going westward expansion. Like, let's be simple. Pacific time zone is how I put it. Correct. Like, you're putting another team out there. you know, obviously travel to some degree was an issue for Vancouver in Seattle last season.

It sounds like San Jose could be the fourth team, you know, which would add a fourth. And then maybe the PWHL can do like a Western conference or a Pacific Division or whatever this ends up looking like. Midwest and beyond. Correct. So that'll be their Western conference and then everyone else. So I think in that case, Vegas makes a lot of sense. I think it's very interesting that they're getting in there. It's, you know, the Vegas Golden Knights are going to play a supporting role.

Hamilton, I think the hate for Hamilton, like, I want to post that meme of like the dude with the brave take because everyone has been slogging Hamilton. And as a southwestern Ontario girl, Fergus Ontario, like, native, we did not go to Toronto unless there was like a major, major events or like my grandpa's birthday. My parents both grew up in the city. My mom's like a Queen West girlie. My dad grew up in a Tobico. We did not go to Toronto growing up ever because it was just too far and the traffic's too much. We would go to Hamilton. We would go to Burlington. Toronto. Oh no, I'm not getting on the gardener or the lakeshore. No, thank you. So I do think people poo-pooing on the proximity between Hamilton and Toronto just like didn't grow up in southwestern Ontario and don't understand the horrors of waiting in traffic on the gardener because you decided to go to the Eaton Center on a Saturday.

It's like highly specific, I know. So I do think a Hamilton team like that's a brand that is a $300 million renovated building in a city that will attract fans from London from Kitchener. from Fergus, from Guelph, maybe it could siphon support from the Scepters, but the Scepters will be fine. That building is always sold out, and there's tons of fans who can't get in the building, you know, and they're going to pack that place.

So they're not, I don't want to say they're on traditional hockey markets. I just don't think it's what people were expecting, and the response has been a little bit of shock, just because there's, like, D.C. and Denver and Chicago, Pittsburgh, you know, but venue availability has always, an infrastructure has always been the biggest piece of the pie. And if you can't get the dates, if you can't get a practice facility, if you don't have someone who's going to play ball to get you in the building,

it's just not going to happen. What seems certain next week we're going to have hockey talk about, I'm sure there will be more expansion movement. That's just kind of way things are going. You got a lot on the plate. So we'll catch up next week and see where it all stands. Me and my one brain cell have a lot going on right now. Good luck to you both.

Thanks. Thank you for your time. And thank you to Eric Tulski. And thank you to Shana Goldman. Thanks to you, fine folks, for listening and for watching. Prospect Series is back tomorrow. Montreal Buffalo Game 5, Vegas, Anheim, Game 6 are tonight. Thanks for watching.

Talk to you real soon.