The Athletic Hockey Show - Nazem Kadri answers threats with epic Game 4 hat trick, Tampa Bay Lightning sweep Florida Panthers, looking ahead to Hurricanes-Rangers and Flames-Oilers, favorite backup goalies in NHL history, and more

Episode Date: May 24, 2022

No Ian? No Hailey? No worries! First up, guest cohosts Julian McKenzie and Sean Gentille break down Nazem Kadri’s legendary performance for the Colorado Avalanche in Game 4 against the St. Louis Blues, scoring his first career playoff hat trick en route to a 6-3 Avs win, and 3-1 series lead, and discuss the racist threats and backlash he faced after his controversial collision with Blues goalie Jordan Binnington in Game 3, as well as reports that the Florida Panthers partied into the wee hours of the morning at a strip club following their Game 3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and more.Then, The Athletic’s Joe Smith joins the show to talk about the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning eliminating the Florida Panthers in their first sweep of the Jon Cooper era, Andrei Vasilevskiy playing at the height of his powers right now, a potentially long layoff for the Lightning before the start of the Eastern Conference Final, the latest on Brayden Point’s injury, and more.Plus, the guys wrap things up looking ahead to tonight’s pair of pivotal Game 4s between the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers and the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers, and reveal the answers to the Twitter question of the day: who are your favorite backup goalies in NHL history?And, right now, you can get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show on this Tuesday. My name is Julian McKenzie. I'm filling in for Ian Mendez. Normally I'd be filling in for Haley. Haley's not here. So Sean Gentile is here. So Sean and I are hosting Ryan and Haley on the athletic hockey show.

I'm as confused as you are. Wait a second. Wait a second. You forgot a very important part of the equation. Wait, wait, wait, what's the important part of the equation? I'm forgetting it. It's that you and Ian were all. originally subbing for me and Craig because it's Tuesday. Yes. Yes. So I'm literally filling it for the film.

Because we gave, because we spelled you guys on Monday because of Victoria Day, which is a holiday that I've known has existed for 48 hours now. So this is like, it's, we need to like do a trade tree maybe or like break this down. you know, really, really overdo it. But I think like the main, the main takeaway here is that I am substituting for myself, I think, is where we're at. Because I'm back in this, because I'm back in the chair for Tuesday. I don't know.

I, like, Chris needs to, producer Chris needs to maybe play the national anthem. Play the, play the Tuesday boys intro. over this or half of it. I don't know. I'm very, I'm very confused. You're confusing me right now. This is, this is wild. You know that you guys can't see this, but I have like a whiteboard behind me and I'm drawn a very elaborate diagram over who ended up where and why we, why we ended up there. And, and now, and now we're both very confused. You kind of look like Charlie Day from its always sunny Philadelphia, so you could recreate that. It's like, see where he's like, yeah, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I got, I'm drawing lines, lines,

lines with yarn. Yep, that's me. Oh, yeah. How many times have you been told you look like Charlie Day from it's always sunny? I got a brother in like in like 2008 or so, it was happening a lot. Like at the peak of it's always sunny, like right around the time I grew a beard. It was like it was happening. It was happening a lot. Okay, we're going to try it not to make this podcast too much of a comedy session. There are some NHL topic. Yeah, whatever. We're good. There are some actual topics we have to get to. That's what Joe's for.

Joe Smith was our guest. He brought the actual analysis on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second segment. That is very true. We will have him, but I do want to talk about Nazim Kadri and what the last few days have been like for him in the Colorado Avalanche in the St. Louis Blues series. Even though we do touch off on a lot with the Tampa Bay Lightning with Joe Smith, there seems to be a very interesting alleged story surrounding the Florida Panthers. who are now out of the Stanley Cup playoffs. We'll also take the time to look ahead for game fours between the Battle of Alberta teams in Calgary and Edmonton, the Rangers as well and the Carolina Hurricanes.

And I put out a Twitter question of the day. We'll get to the answers for that because of the fact that Sean and I are backups today. Coming in, we want to know who you think the best or your favorite backup goalie in NHL history is. So we have a lot. I just checked some of the results. They're starting to roll in, baby. We're going to get some on the way here. But I want to start with Nassim Kodry first because he gets himself his first Stanley Cup playoff hat trick against the St. Louis Blues in game four puts the series up 3-1 in favor of the Colorado avalanche.

But that is only striking the surface of what it has been like for Nassam-Kadri these last few days. We think of game three where he's involved in the collision with Calle-Rosin into Georgia. Gordon Bennington. Bennington looks as if he's out for the rest of the series. A water bottle is thrown during an interview involving Cadre on TNT. Threats are then sent his way online. And then the game happened, well, before the game happens, Craig Broube asked to comment on them, at least announce them. And he says no comment. David Perron kind of says something, but not really. Then we get to the ice and mayhem breaks loose at one point between. Perron, Pavel Bouchnevich, and Nazan Khadry.

I know I'm kind of bringing up the details. It's a little scattered, but a lot has taken place, and it all leads to Nazan Khadry, scoring a hat trick, which puts the Colorado Avalanche up ahead 3-1 in their series. Sean, let's try to break this down as best as we can. What's your takeaway from how that game went down and how Nazan Khadry has handled all of everything he's faced in the last few days? I think maybe like the stick that Kadri used or something should be sensitive. to the Hall of Fame after that.

I mean, that was just, that was, I mean, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I think I'm half joking about that, but that was, that was legendary, legendary stuff from cadre to, to, to do that in the face of, you know, the two days of bullshit that he, that he kind of had to endure. A quick thing about, about Barubei, too, because what, while we're talking about this, like, whatever he did yesterday with getting asked to do the bare minimum, right, at his, at his press conference, meaning, like, to say, like, yeah, yeah. this was a bad look by whoever did it, you know, whatever. Brubay opted out of that.

That happened after we recorded the Monday show, right? So we sort of talked about, we obviously talked about the cadre situation, but that was, you know, a little bit of, you know, context that we missed because, because Brubay was speaking a little bit after, which, you know, I'm glad. I think that makes the schedule that we've been on the last couple days great, because I'm glad I'm glad to come on and come on and. come on and talk about that. You know, I just go back to what,

to what Cadre said after the game in the TNT interview, kind of, kind of coincidentally where Bennington seems to have chucked, chucked the bottle out of him a couple days before that. You know, he's, he, uh, I, this is something that, the Nazam Cadries had to deal with his, his entire career.

And he's, and he said it himself, you know, you got to act like it's not that big of a deal, but, but it is. and it's got to be something that that wears on him. But it was just nice,

it was nice to see him, uh, kind of put, put, put everything together in terms of product. That was a prime Nazim Khadry game. That was him at his best. And for it,

and for it to come after, you know, the couple days of bullshit, you know, racist ugliness from, from whether it's folks in Toronto or for, or just racists abroad. Um,

it was, it was, it was, It was fun. It was fun to watch. I'll say this. This is a very multi-layered situation to deal with when it comes to Nazim Khadry. Because there is the angle you can take where you say Nazim has done everything he can to rise above the bullshit that he has seen.

I know we're saying bullshit along this podcast, but it is bullshit what he's been receiving across social media. And it has just been amplified with what has gone on in this series. And it happens a lot to racialize BIPAC players where they're in situations where they have to play through that sort of stuff. Like if something, you've probably seen it on social media before where people are just kind of groaning and just holding their heads at the idea that if a racialized athlete in some sport does something off, the next thought is, oh, no, their mentions are going to be littered with racist crap and derogatory remarks. I don't know if you've seen. I've seen a couple colleagues share this on Twitter, but I believe Nossam's partner was sharing like Instagram DMs that they've received after the hat trick. Like it was it was absolutely insane.

To this point, I'm just trying to make it. It was their cat account too, right? Yeah. That was that was where Nazim's partner. I'm very sorry. I'm blank. That's fine. I'm blank on her name right now.

But that was that was where she shared it. Like that's that's the level of, you know, the level of weirdness and ugliness that people are tapping it to here. Exactly. And the point I'm trying to make here is this. We're at a point now we're, we're commending Nazim to for for rising above that sort of stuff. When do we get to a point where players like Nazim don't have to deal with that?

And that's not something that they have to, you know, worry about. Like, Nazan, I was talking about it with Chris Johnston on our show, the Chris Johnson show. And he talked about it when he covered him in Trump. he was a guy that like you could not say too much to him because he's just able to kind of push through how much of that is because of the racism that he's endured that has kind of hardened him to stuff like that and the fact that in different interviews on t and t's also said like hey i've i've gone through that stuff before like he's experienced it like how long until we get to a point where players like nazim don't have to worry about that a threat of a threat i

came across on Twitter from Sunny Sackdiva who works for Sportsnet and kind of made that point. And that really resonated my mind here because we're going to hear a lot of it in the next few days about how Nazim is so brave for fighting above what has gone on and

how he's a hero and all of that. And yes, he deserves that. But the next step is for hockey fans who think this stuff is okay to realize it's not okay to be going in some dudes DMs and making the point that, you know, just however they want to make their point, which is normally just unhinged as it can be.

That's the next step in this evolution that has to happen. Yeah. And I'm, I mean, expect, expect nothing and, you know, maybe, maybe someone will outkick your expectations there. Like, I don't, I think this is something that that's never going to get completely eradicated, you know. Like, this is, and that's unfortunate on a whole, on a whole other level. I think you kind of touched on this with with with with with with with with with with specifically the thing that's

the really frustrating thing is that this is the first this is the first wave of is the inevitability of it all right where there are reasons for blues fans to be pissed at nazam cadre and there's reasons and there's reasons for them to you know whatever

chirp him in his replies or or talk or or talk shit about him or whatever he's he's given them a reason he he he we saw what happened last year with justin falk we saw what happened against bennington like i i said it after the game like you know this is that is an instance where and we where did did he maybe not go out of his way to to to stop the collision they're like i don't know these are valid hockey talking points and these are things that we see over and over again from other players

from white players and they have the privilege of not being able they have the whether it's pick whoever it is Brad Marchand, Jacob Truba like anybody Tom Wilson Tom Wilson anybody who's pulled

dirty bullshit over the last however many years white players who have they have the privilege of being able to do that and not have it turn into some ugly, racialized, you know, violent kind of threat situation.

And that is not the case for Osam Khadry. Like, he, he can't, he can't be dirty and just, or whatever, borderline or whatever you want to say. He,

he can't do that and just move on with his life, right? Like, and deal with garden variety, baseline level, ugliness from, from the fan base. It's elevated,

however many levels from, from that. And it is 100% because he's a Muslim player. And that's what's frustrating is that, you know, we see this from, we see this in every series where there's some level of nonsense. And it's only when it's involved in guys like Nazam Khadri

when it turns into, you know, true, true ugliness. And that's, and that's the frustrating part. What I will say to that is, in light of his past on ice transgressions that have led to suspensions at crucial moments for the teams that he's played for. I see game four and the way that he responded as a sign of growth for it. Because I think a previous edition of Nazim Kadri might have retaliated and might have either one put himself in a situation where he's fighting, cost his team ultimately, and who knows

what would have happened with him in the playoffs. But the fact that he stayed out of trouble, I know there's some fans out there. there who felt that the bump that he did on David Perron after, I think it might have been Perron, who might have hit him first, or it might have been Buchenevich might have hit him first along the boards before they started skating towards each other in a neutral zone. And there was like a bump. Someone was trying to make the point it was a cheap shot. That's a BS. That's not a cheap shot at all. Peron and Buchanevich were the two main aggressors in that, charged into a five on three. And just at the end of that, Cadre is able to score. The fact that Cadry was able to take

that situation and score not once, but thrice in that game. positively helping his team win, as opposed to just kind of stooping down to the level of Perraun-and-Buchnevich and gooting it up with the St. Louis Blues, that I think you can take as a tangible sign of growth from where he's been as a player, where he might have fallen into that trap to now where he realizes, well, not just realizes. He's known this. He is a great player in the National Hockey League. He's going through probably the best season he's ever played as a professional. and I think that game is a culmination of what his career has led to to this point. This is what everything he's gone through has led to that point, to be able to put his team in a position where they can take a massive advantage

against the opponent in a series. Yeah. And you makes you wonder whether that's a next, whether that was a result of kind of the next level focus that he kind of had to hit last game. That was not a garden variety hockey game. game for Nazim Kodry. That's a game that he played coming off threats and ugliness and any sort of, you know,

any sorts of craziness that a hockey player can realistically deal with, right? So maybe, and that's what makes it funny is that this is like an all, this is an all-time backfire by those losers who were in his Instagram DMs and in his Twitter mentions and talking, talking whatever, whatever. mess they were talking. Like, that's the vibe that yesterday had for me. It's like, it's like, all right, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys wanted this. Like, here you go. Uh, just as you're making your point, uh, the Department of Player Safety announced that David Perron has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable in the CBA for cross-checking Nazim Katrick. Oh, we love,

we love, we love the maximum allowable, baby. That's one of the, that's one of the all-time great phrases. I'm surprised that they find him. Not because he doesn't deserve it. But I also thought that they were just going to let the penalty hang. It was aggressive what he did. I was just, and I also wonder if this is the NHL's way of providing some kind of punishment to Perron because they technically can't do it after his missed elbow on top of the second goal. That's exactly what I was going to say. Is there like a double asterisk next to that where they say like, this is actually kind of because of the missed elbow? They can't really do it. You, you,

You didn't hit him. We can't do anything about it. We could do something about you hitting him into the ground. That sure looks like it to me. Yeah. Like here. It's five, five grand.

Thanks. Yeah. The maximum allowable, according to the CBA. Oh, we love that maximum allowable. Oh, I'll tell you that.

We got to change. Someone's going to change our Twitter display name to Max allowable. That's it. Maximum allowable. Might be me. Maximum M allowable. You are the, the guy to do it. Like, I can't do that because I don't have, like, people don't know

the as like the silly guy on Twitter like that. Like, you could do that. We'll see. The day, the day is young. It's 1245 Eastern. We'll see what, we'll see what happens by the time the episode drops. That's true. In all seriousness, though. I'm glad we were able to talk about Nazim Gadri and what he's gone through over the last little while and, you know, the points that were made about that. But the a ads do have a three-one series lead. We'll see in the coming days how that changes. We did say we were going to talk to Joe Smith, who covers the Tampa Bay Lightning,

and we'll get into more thoughts on that. But there's one story surrounding this series, which we don't really know if it's true or not. It's really more unconfirmed reports at this point. One reporter around the story says he has strip club sources, apparently. For context here. For context here, a radio station in Florida.

put out a report saying that they caught a handful of Panthers players at a strip club overnight. I forget exactly which day, but I imagine it's between games three and four when this happened. It would have been Sunday night going into Monday's game four. Exactly. So that, again, that says one radio station saying that another reporter in the area, Andy Slater, saying that he has quote unquote strip club sources. I didn't make that up. That's something he tweeted out there.

We don't really know if it's true. The Panthers denied it, but we're going to get these jokes off. Am I right? I've seen people get jokes off. Oh, we go get these jokes off. Dude, Andy Slater, I will say this. If anybody has strip club sources, it's Andy Slater. That dude has been, I'm not even kidding.

That guy has worked for whatever the name of the radio station in South Florida is escaping me. But he has been on multiple. kind of crime, athlete, athlete legal issue related stuff for years and years and years. This is not the first time I've seen Andy Slater reporting on like the seedy underbelly of athlete, of athlete behavior in South Florida. But the idea of having strip club sources is wild, A, and B, in B, being able to tout them on Twitter, being like minor, minor best in class. This is, oh, but thank you, producer Chris.

Fox Sports 840.4. That's where that's where that's where Andy Slater's coming from. Shout out producer, Chris. Also, he said that the cat you're trying to think of from the Instagram page, the cat's name is Ashley, I think. That I believe that is Nazim's wife's name is Ashley. Sorry, okay. The cat, I know the cat's name.

The cat's name is Jazzy. Okay, the cat's name is Jazzy and Nazim's wife's name is Ashley. Apologies for that. I just want to make sure we get that cleared up in terms of continuity. Yeah, absolutely. I forgot that I forgot Ashley's name. I think they're quite, and look,

it's one of those things as far as the Panthers, you know, strip club exploits are concerned. At this point, it doesn't even matter if it's true. Like, it's entered, it's entered the pantheon of like,

of, of playoffs stories. And it is, this, this to me, I think, is what we've been missing all these years,

because this is the second year of Tampa versus Florida. It had never happened. And how happened since 1996, or however however long it's been. It was only a matter of time for when we had the battle of Florida for it to turn into strip club wars because you're talking about South Florida and you're talking about Tampa, Florida, two notorious, notorious spots for that stuff, right? Like, it's just a miracle it took.

It took two years for this to happen. I would have been content if we had like a Kodak black siding. We had one in round one, but I thought in round two, he'd be like up on the jumbo tron, or at least we would have made a bigger deal about it. I can't believe, like they didn't, they should have done what it took to get Kodak Black in his, in his customary spot, right? Like, maybe that's why they lost. We needed, we needed more, we needed more Kodak Black involvement here.

Like, recapture some of that January energy that the, that the Panthers had when they were rolling. That's why, that's why they're out. Essentially, so both Kodak and the Panthers both needed some hip action in this series is what you're saying. Yeah, you can say that. If there were ever, here's the other thing that I wanted to say about that. And look, you don't want teams hitting up strip clubs in series under any circumstance. This is not a Lou Williams situation, right? A couple years ago, whenever Lou was playing for the Sixers and he went down to Atlanta

to get some wings from the Gold Club or whatever. whatever it was. Not quite. What was the name of that? Magic City. Magic City. It was gold club. That is another Atlanta strip club.

It does not have the wings that. Do you have strip club sources, Sergeant Tilly? No. That's not like to be. You know way more about these clubs that I do. I might, who knows?

Maybe it's, it's at some point in my life I might have had Pittsburgh strip club sources. I'm an old, I'm an old man now. Julianian, you know this. But if there were ever, if there were ever,

a time for a team to say, screw it, we're going to Mon's Venus or whatever it was. It'd be when you were down 3-0 to the defending champs. Like, that shit was a wrap. That series was over. So, like, it didn't matter whether they, whether they, you know, you could have given them 12 more games and they weren't, and they weren't going to get to four against the lightning. So I kind of respect the impulse and just be like, all right, we're out. It's 3-0, like, salute.

It's been a great season. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna take a couple, a couple hours off the clock here. Okay, I'll say this, though, like, there's a part of me that doesn't really care all that much. No, I don't care at all. Yeah, it's like, athletes, like, off the clock, essentially. Like, there are, they're, okay, I can understand if you're a team and you don't want your players doing that and being out late at 3 a.m. I can understand that. And if it directly affects the team's performance,

if that actually ended up being a true story. And like, like Jonathan Hubertow, okay, let me not even type of, let me not even put players' names in this. Chris is going to have to go and beep out that like, like the split of names. Players' names, I don't want Alan Walsh getting bad at me. That's what I'm really worried about.

All that to say, if it got to a point where you could directly say, this affected someone's performance, It's kind of like, what was the name of the DB of the Falcons? We got in trouble that one night before the Super Bowl. Oh, Eugene Robinson. Yeah. Eugene Robinson.

Oh, he got in big trouble too. Oh, he got in big trouble. But that's like, come on. Like, you can't ignore that. But like a strip club? Like, okay. Like, I mean, all right. So you're hanging out.

You're doing your thing overnight, whatever. That's your responsibility. You're a grown man. People frequent those types of clubs all the time. I don't necessarily care. But in the interest of this segment, we don't get these jokes out. Like I said, man, it was over. It was over.

Let him do what they want. You guys are down three out of the champs. Salute. I'll say that. Enjoy your off season. It was a wrap on the series at that point. Jonathan Huberto said, I think after game three, like, we're down three. Oh, who cares, we can come back.

I did not believe him. I was like, no, you're done. I'm sorry, bro. You're done. You're done. The Tampa Bay Lightning are inevitable at this point. Like they are the team. They woke up.

Yeah. And we're going to talk to Joe in detail about this for all the reasons that, you know, first sweep of the John Cooper era, by the way. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I still can't believe. It's wild. But yeah, I think Joe, Joe's the man when it comes to breaking down what is going on with that team and why it happened and how they got there. And, you know, we did not, we did not bring up the strip club incident with him because we knew it for the best that we did. Because we knew that we were going to talk about it ourselves.

Leave him out of this, man. I genuinely think it was for the best that we did divulge it to Joe's strip club sources if he has any. I've been out with Joe a few times. Joe is, Joe is karaoke sources. I don't know, I don't know about strip club sources. Joe's got karaoke more sources. Karaoke and strip club, two different types of fun times. Those are on the other ends of the fun spectrum.

All right, before we get into more trouble, here is Joe Smith. Joe, good to see you, man. How are you doing? Doing well. How are you boys doing? What? It's been an interesting time, basically working as the fill-in for the fill-in. He's the e-bug.

Joanne is the e-bug. I think that's what I've decided on. Yeah, that's basically it, just e-bugs stuff. But no e-bugs when it comes to the Tampa Bay Lightning as they get the job done over the Florida Panthers. I still can't believe, you know, we know the Lightning are really good. And we know how the Battle of Florida went last year, but they done and dusted the Florida Panthers in four games and kept them off the score sheet mainly and did all these things to ensure themselves a sweep. What was it like covering that, obviously from the Vantage Boy of the Tampa Bay

Lightning, a series that was essentially done so decisively as it was. It's crazy to think that like a week and a half ago, they were facing elimination against the Leafs and games. six, you know, people were worried about right, Bessilewski, given up three goals per game, the least had them on the ropes, like, was this the end of the era here? Was this the end of their run? And, you know, what? Six, six games later, you know, I've lost since.

They've given up, you know, five goals in that last stretch. You know, Basilevsky's put himself on Mount Rushmore here. Like, it's funny how things happen in the playoffs where things change so quickly. I don't think I anticipated a sweep going into the series. I know the numbers look, you know, 13. the three goals, fours versus against for the Panthers. You know, Vasselowski did save 10 goals above expectation in this series, so that's pretty much ties it up right there.

And these were games were close for the most part in the first few, and the member of the buzzer beater by Ross Colton in game two, or that one could have gone over time. But they were, they were hanging on by a thread there in that leaf series. Then all of a sudden they, you know, look like they're ready to go for three. So it's a, that much needed rest, though, for them to this group.

They literally broke bones to get through the series. and they looked a little exhausted after a four games sweep. So getting it done last night was so important. On the panthers end of things, what did you see from them? Were they gassed? Because you look at them and you see a team, they played whatever, 82 games, almost 92 games now.

I had to come back a million times in the regular season, had to expend a lot of energy against the caps. On the floor end of things, like they just seemed like they hit the wall. Like what did what did you see from them? Well, I mean, I think the lightning kind of just broke their will a little bit. You know, like Brunette said a couple of times, like they wanted more. They showed that they know how to win, and we were trying to figure it out.

And the lighting went through that before. They had to go through some hard times and some heartbreak to win. And I think that the lightning showed their experience in this series. They showed their moxie, their toughness. The 77 block shots to 44 in the run here. You know, the Panthers are a talented team. I think they're probably maybe even in some areas more talented than the lightning as far as some of the depth they had there. But the lightning just knew how to win and they leaned on them and leaned on him and leaned on them.

And I think by the time got to game three, they looked like they were kind of defeated. So interesting off season for them, you know, the coaching situation who they bring back, they bring Brunette back and their best players. I think Hubertel and Barkoff had combined three points in that four games. And you're not going to win, you know, many serious that that's the case. And even if I Brodsky played, I thought, decently well in this series, it wasn't his fault. But you need more from your top guys like the Lightning had from Kutrov and the like. The Lightning have killer instinct. Like when I remember that Ross Colton goal from Game 2, I think of the Blake Coleman goal from the Stanley Cup final the year earlier,

where he scores that diving goal in a game the Canadians absolutely need to win and eliminates any chance of that. And that series was pretty much over after that. I'm glad we brought up that Colton goal in game two. Even if it wasn't game two, just for my money, just the series was over after that. The Panthers were trying their hardest to get a power play goal. They couldn't get it. And then the lightning find a way to score. Like, they've been inevitable all round.

We should have seen this coming from a two-time defending Stanley Cup champion team that maybe might have been another dog in the first round. But this is a Tampa Bay Lightning team that has shown the. killer instinct at different times in this postseason when they needed to, and it's paid off for them, especially against the Florida Panthers. Are you seeing that similarly as well? Yeah, I mean, look at that last 10 seconds of game too, right? I think Florida looked like a team that will want to play for overtime. They're like, oh, let's just hold on here, hit your fourth line out there, second deep here, let's just let the time run out. The lighting's like there's eight seconds left. There's no way they can go end to end. Let's just see what

happens here. You got Yonruda and you got Polak, get the puck deep and then Kuturov, making three, four, five plays ahead knows what's coming. And you have two defensemen converge behind the net to stop Kuthorov and no one's in front. And, you know, letting you have the guys from the Ross Coltons to the Kutrov so you can deliver that moment. And that was kind of a moment we're like, okay, game two's over. I find a hard time to be any team can be the lighting four out of five, especially they haven't lost two in a row in the last three postseason. So I think that would be right. I think that was a time when it was kind of pretty much, pretty much done.

How good is Vasilewski, man? I mean, I, once, once you saw him dialed in in game seven against Toronto, that's, that's when I felt like, uh-oh, like the Leafs had a chance to, at least had a chance to take care of business here. And now, now he's locked in. That's bad news for everybody else. But his play in the series, like, how does that stack up with some of the stuff that we've seen from him over the last couple years?

I think Victor had been said last night. I think the last night's game was the most impressed he's ever been with Vaselovsky, you know? I think in this past series or so, like, Fast-Oxie hasn't had to steal a game. I mean, the guys have been playing so well in front of them. Like, again, compared to the first game one to game five against the Leaves versus the last six games, there's so much difference in terms of how they're playing in front of them, not getting up the rush chances or those great days.

But I think last night, I mean, 49 saves in a regulation, shutout victory and a clinching game. That was as locked in as seen him a long time. But the thing is you kind of, I think people or fans probably need to appreciate what they're watching here. They're watching one of the all-time greats in his prime at age 27. you know, giving them a chance of making history here, right? Like you rarely look back on a career while it's happening and saying, this is pretty, you know, I wonder if we will watch Wayne Gretzky and said, all this is, you know, we're not going to see this ever again.

But this is something special that they're watching. And, you know, going into camp, the reason they said they had could win a three beat was if you have 88, you have a chance. And I think postseason's kind of showing that under their last, you know, period in game six at home against the Leafs. And they tied up in overtime. That was it.

I know sometimes with teams that win in sweeps in the playoffs, one comment that'll come around with those teams is, oh, you have to be careful about the rest that they'll have because maybe when they come back, they might be a little bit rusty. How do you feel about the lightning getting the opportunity to rest after the grueling first round series they had, the series against the Panthers, and thinking about all these other cup runs they've had over these last two years? I think that's a good point. I mean, no one wants to be rusty, but I think they'll take the amount of hockey that they've played the last two and a half years is incredible. And I thought one reason why I didn't know if they could win three going into the playoffs here was I didn't know if they had enough in the tank to beat the Leafs, then the Panthers, then go through, you know, that's a lot. And then to meet the abs in the final. So I think getting just that extra few days here a week, you know the injuries that they have are like Braden Point. We don't know if he'll be back, but we don't know the injuries specifically the guys that are playing through.

Nick Paul and Hagle's playing through something. Stephen Samkos thinks playing through stuff. There's a few guys that you don't know are playing through the need just a few days to not have to go through these battles. And the way they're putting these games is not a finesse game. It's a hard-nosed game. It's a man's game that they've been winning. And so they're not on the perimeter, you know, floating around.

There's a lot of guys putting themselves in front of puck. So you get a few more days here regardless of who they're playing. I think it'll be a big boost for them, considering how much mileage they put on. Isn't that that's one of those things. maybe you worry about with less experienced teams, right? Like the gap in between series. That's a, that's a concern.

And it's a valid concern. But it's one of those things where, you know, it's like it's the same as the people who are worried about the lightning in the way they were playing in like February or whatever. That's, that's stuff for other teams. Those are not, those are not concerns you harbor about,

about the two-time defending champs, right? Yeah. And you talk to guys that have one, multiple Cubs, the potpins, and those guys, and they say, like, you know, when you have a champion, you never bet against them because they know what it takes. They know how much you need to go to. You know what extra is left in your tank that you didn't think you had before. And, you know, the little details that are so important. And so I think you're right, the lighting didn't play great down the stretch and they had their struggles. And but then once

they got the playoff time, they didn't flip a switch, but they kind of got smacked out into focus, their habits that they've been used to win these championships. And I think it just really, I think, really turned for them, you know, obviously when Braden Point got injured and they can, you know, when they lose a top player, it really made everybody kind of have, kind of band together and say, we can't win three games four to three or five to four.

You know, we can't afford to do that. And that really kind of locked everybody in together and they even see in the results of that. This is the first sweep they've ever had under Cooper. Yeah, this is not. That's insane. It's been swept twice,

but they never stopped anybody. I mean, it's clearly John Cooper internalizing the snub from the Jack Adams finalist. I'm sure that made him really mad and he just wanted to go out and show everybody that he really deserved to be in that conversation. I think the image I think of when I think of like Gun Cooper and worried about the Jack Adams is the video they show all the time of him in the backyard of the Santa Maria Island house with the pool and the cigar and like the cup on his lap and being like I see it. Like I think the guy gives you know Jack whatever about the Jack Adams,

right? Like I mean certainly he's deserving and I think guys like him and Sullivan get the shaft a bit in terms of, you know, when you coach, you know, elite teams, maintain that elite level and the motivation and the drive and all the different things he did in this series to out-coach Brunette, right? The different adjustments being on the rush chances and on the penalty kill, the power play, like, you know, so I think, I don't think he cares about that. I think there are some guys like him and Sullivan who deserve that honor if it ever comes to the beat, but if you have a team like this, he may never win one, you know,

unless you hard to go from great. It's hard to go from bad to good, but it's also hard to keep greatness alive, and that's what they've been doing. Considering the fact that it ended in the sweep, and you mentioned the fact that John Cooper got the best of Andrew Brunette in that series, excluding all the Stanley Cup final clinching series, I'm wondering where this ranks for John Cooper in terms of his coaching jobs against playoff teams. It has to be right up there in terms of work that he's done in order to get his guys ready for a series. I think so, especially. I mean, you go into a series with that brain point, like an engine for your team and keep part of your power play,

a team that was rightly favored, you know, against the Lightning, their season, the highest scoring team than NHL has seen in 25 years, right? Like, it wasn't a fluke. And they had, they scored one goal in three games during the regular season, once since January, they only scored one goal all four games of this series.

They're losing their first shutouts since last year, game six. But all the mini-a-game six. But all the many adjustments that they made, they took advantage of the zone defense, the Florida used, basically, and they just got everybody in front of the net, and they kind of used their quick puck movement to get all those chances early on. They didn't give them really any rush chances. That was their bread and butter. And they made Florida play a patient kind of prodding game where it made him dump it in and try to fight for every inch. And once you get through those six-foot-two, 240-pound defenseman, you have Vasilevsky there. And so the margin bear is pretty thin.

And you saw them get frustrated, I think. the Panthers did as far as offensively. They wouldn't come as easy as they thought it would be. And it reminded me of the lightning in 19. They scored like five goals a game. I think it was Columbus and they couldn't scored. They got frustrated. They got ticked off and took some dumb penalties and just like, look for the

their arms up. Like, what's going on? One last one for you, Joe. You mentioned Braden Point. The fact that the lightning were able to get through that second series without arguably their best center. Impressive. What's the latest with him and his injury?

Look pretty bad from that Toronto Maple Leaf. series. Are we going to see him at all in these playoffs again? That's hard to say at this point. Like they, Cooper said he'd be day to day after game one, but there hasn't really been any much updates since then. I don't believe he's skated since then, or at least Cooper said it had been no, no update on that. We know how tough he is and one of the toughest players, you know, on this team. But I think, you know, all of us have been going on their assumption that, you know, until we hear otherwise, when, not assuming he's be back anytime soon.

So you've been in the gym working out, teammates say and been around the team and been a good presence. But when you look the way he got injured and the way he tried to skate after that and his reaction on the bench when he couldn't go and just how devastated he was, and I don't want to read body language, but that seemed like a guy who knew who'd be out for a bit

at the worst time of year to do that. So I don't want to make any, I'm a doctor, I don't play one on TV or on the athletic, but I just, you know, we'll probably find out more in a couple days, but, you know, I don't, I think the mantra that they used to win this series,

they all have to use next series if they don't have them, which is pretty successful this time around. You can just hang out with the rest of those guys and watch the Rangers and the Hurricanes beat the hell out of each other for the next few days. That's fine. He can just chill. Yeah, you can just chill and watch it.

I think they're hoping to go seven, right? And they wouldn't be playing until after World Day. But yeah, it's been an incredible run to watch. I mean, 10 straight series, only couple teams in history of one more than 10 straight series, Islanders, and then went on top Canadian. So crazy. And pretty much rare air right now.

And, you know, like Os Corn said, you know, well, 12 sounds better, doesn't it? You know, so we'll see if they can get the final eight here. The only thing that's almost as impressive is the lightning winning all those consecutive series in a row and gave those cup championships or the people will get to cover them like over and over. And like, you've been there for like every series and like, you have an opportunity to cover a three p here. does it feel for you just personally getting that opportunity to cover a team like that so closely? It's pretty wild. I mean, consider like, you know, getting a chance to see guys since they've

been drafted to the Kuturavs and those guys from the day one and Braden points and then all of a sudden seeing them getting named next to guys in NHL history that are one of the best. So it's much better now, I think, than the first year because it was the bubble and I watched every game on TV. So that was a little different way to cover a championship team. And I watched them win a cup on my dad's couch in Michigan, you know, just hanging out, you know. So being there in person last year and, you know, and they won in Tampa and then being here for the playoffs and being there on interviewing people in person,

you get a different feel and vibe about what that's like to go through. And so, yeah, it's definitely a historic moment. And you want your coverage to match that historic moment. Joe, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for hanging out with Sean and myself. Looking forward to the rest of the coverage from yourself during the rest of this postseason. Enjoy it, my man. Thank you so much.

Thanks so much for having me, guys. and we'll do it again hopefully soon. Yes. Yes, we will. In a couple weeks, or a few weeks at the cup final. Just pencil them in. It's over.

Yeah, just put them in there. We'll talk to you later. Tampa versus Colorado. Tampa versus Edmonton, Calgary. That's Bolton board material, man. Better watch that. That's fine. Yeah, we'll get a, like,

like, we'll have curs or civian can hang that on their wall, whatever. It can be bullet and board material for the writer. That's obviously what it is. Nathan McKinnon listened to this podcast, be like, what? I would love to see a Colorado Tampa series, though. That'd be unreal.

That's the dream. I'm rooting for that now. I'm rooting for that. I wanted that two years ago. In last year. And last year. In this year, because it's a second round on the abs. They're going to find someone to blow this.

Okay, see you later, Joe. Yeah. Oh, my God. Joe, thank you again in all serious this. Dude, good luck for the rest of the playoffs. Thanks so much. Happy to be the backup here today. I think, hold on.

We're all backups here. Except Chris is the only person who's supposed to be here. Tell me Brian Elliott, man. Moose is loose. Take care, guys. Yeah. Please. Sean, we've finished our look back at games that took place on the holiday Monday.

Let's look ahead to games that are going to take place on the Tuesday. Between Carolina. in New York and Calgary and Edmonton, which of these two matchups are you looking forward to the most? Hmm. Try not to give a cop-out answer here. I think for this game,

as in the ones that are going to happen on Tuesday night, I think it has to be Carolina, New York, because of what Gergaunt said, because of the, because of the, the Tide domi, you know, tie domy,

That's a Freudian slip. The Max Domey. The Max Domey. I've seen both players, so it wasn't too dated for me. It could be either, honestly. Because the Max Domi extracurriculars, right, at the end of that game. I think that's sort of what, at least for tonight, that's what's got my attention. And over the course of the series, you know, we're going Battle of Edmonton.

But tonight specifically, I'm very interested in. seeing what goes down between the hurricanes and the rangers. Yeah, that's interesting because I was taking Battle of Alberta because you say Battle of Edmonton, I know you slipped up there. I said Battle of Edmonton. Oh my God. You did, but here's the thing, though. I'm surprised at how Edmonton has played throughout these last three games.

And I'm including game one where they allowed nine goals. You know what the most points after that game one? Conna McDavid. One goal, three assists. He had a four point night after game one. He has 23 points in 10 games throughout this postseason. Like Connor McDavid, we are seeing the best version of Connor McDavid possible this year with the way that he had the career best numbers.

I get it. The Hart Trophy is going to go to Austin Matthews. You can make your points about how he deserves it. I get it. But it is going to look very funny if the Evanton Oilers make it to the conference final or the Stanley Cup final and the award the Hart Trophy to Austin Matthews. And Connor McDavid is just going to be sitting here and be like, so I didn't know. I know, seriously.

I'm not saying I disagree. I'm just saying it's going to look funny. This is the problem with, and I'm all for requiring votes to be at the end of the regular season. But the problem is when this is when this gets announced. Because like you said, whenever the heart, whenever the heart, you know, actually is awarded, people have all this baggage built up after whatever happens in the postseason without kind of the, without the realization that, you know, this shit's due in April or whatever. I kind of go back to something Daryl Sutter said after that first game.

I thought Haley Salveen wrote a solid piece about, you know, kind of the leveling up that we've seen from Connor McDavid. Sutter said it after the first game. He was like, if he gets four points every night, it's going to be, you know, good luck in the next round, Connor. and I think we're seeing the truth the truth that was that was in that statement that last game

in whatever whatever the final was it was five to five to two whatever can't we don't remember scores around here I forget I can't even remember I'm so bad with scores man I'm terrible with scores but it was it was three points three points or three points

from Connor McDavid and he didn't score and you know the the natural hat trick for Van der Kaine and all that. I mean, and Mike Smith was good, yada, yada. There's all these different reasons

to feel, you know, good about good coming out of that game if you're not meant to knowlers fans, if you're an Emmett to an O'Lers fan. That game happened and that result was the result because of, because of Connor McDavid. And Haley kind of broke down,

you know, just showing the damage that he did and the different ways that he did it and the fact that the flames didn't really have much of an answer for him. Despite throwing the kitchen sink at that dude. I think that is what that's what's taken me

in this series is looking at all the different things the flames have tried where like do you give them space? Do you play them tight? Like on and on and on. You go down the list of all the different stuff, all the different you know tactics that they've used on this dude and none of them have worked and you know over the course of a seven game series I'm I'm still you know content to pick the flames because I do think they're the better

or five-on-five team, and their roster is far, far superior. But the fact that this series is where it is, and the fact that the Edmonton Oilers are where they are, after the start to that series, forget the Flame series against the Kings. This dude has dragged them there. And he's got the potential to drag them a little further. It is, it is wild. Yeah. I still think of that Connor McDavid goalie scored against the Kings, I want to say in game six,

where he willed himself to the net. Like, what every, a lot of highlight real goals we see from Connor McDavid. He is just, it's just effortless. He's using the skill to make something happen. That goal he scored where you see him celebrating Al-Ail Yakupov going to Santa Rice. That was pure sheer will. And that was a sign of a different Connor McDavid we were going to see. As for this series against the Flames, there are flames fans who are missing Chris Tann.

To the point I'm coming across one tweet here, the Twitter ad is not that Chris. if Chris Tannave needs a limb, I will give it to him. That's how much Flames fans miss Chris Tamp because he is the guy who would be normally used to stop Connor McDavid. And unfortunately, they do not have him at their disposal just as of yet. There was a tweet that our good buddy, Harmon Dyal,

put up a couple of days ago. How massive is Chris Tannave's absence so far of this series? Tanev historically slowed McDavid's line. McDavid career head-to-head, versus Tanef at five on five. 252.41 time on ice. Eight goals four, 11 goals against. Just 1.9 goals four per 60.

51% shot attempt share, 45.8 expected goal share. That's all natural stat trick stuff. Because that's all they need. They just need someone who can slow down McDavid. And I think Tanev is that guy. He's consistently their most reliable defensive, defensive guy. And again, to go back to, I mean, Haley brought this up again in which, in what she wrote about, you know, that series so far, the way that Daryl Sutter uses him, he's like the, you know, the, you know, the security blanket for Oliver Shillington, who's at a rough go of it, this series. The fact that Tanna is out is also a necessitated plan, like, you know, Nikki DeZorov and Erica Branson a little bit more.

Like, there's a lot of stuff that, you know, falls into place whenever you. have Christianev in your lineup and you can count on, you know, 21 solid minutes a night from him. And that is the difference, I think, between Calgary winning this series and losing it. So yeah, the game fours on the Tuesday, not a holiday Monday, pretty exciting stuff, of course. Just one thing we want to do before we get to the end of today's athletic hockey show featuring the backups, myself and Sean Gentilly. I put out a Twitter question Who is your favorite slash best backup goalie

In NHO history So I kind of put best in favorite Because you know Maybe some people might feel like man This guy is the absolute best But some people might put up a goalie who They have sentimental value to I know for me growing up

In Montreal I always liked seeing Jeff Hackett play games I don't think he was necessarily the best at playing But like his mask was always cool So man I like a Jeff Jacket has like a place in my heart. Those are the kind of guys who you gravitate towards, right? Like, you don't need much for a reason to like a backup goal. It can be because they have a,

they have a cool mask. Those are, they're the, they're the cult heroes for, for a reason. The guy I always go to and this, this came up in the answers is, is Johan Hadberg. He wasn't quite a backup. He wasn't quite a backup when, when Pittsburgh acquired him, you know, back a million, a million years ago. But he had one of those runs in the playoffs that like, that hero stuff is made of, right? Where you see these guys go on these tears. And that's how you end up. I love some of these names. Andrew Hammond, I feel like he comes up on our, on the Tuesday show every, every couple weeks. They're the best, man. Everyone loves, everyone loves a good backup bulltender, baby. Oh, yeah. So yeah, the hand burglar comes up. Chris Terreri named mentioned. Peter

Budai is also a really good one because of the Ned Flanders logo on his, on his, he comes up. And also a lot of Canadians fans obviously remember him a little bit more fondly, probably a little bit more fondly than André Racico, a red light racico as he would get like the people with big jokes about how we get like a little like suntan on the back of his neck from the red light coming on behind him so much. That's pretty good. We got, we got a Louis Doming reference, but it was it was in reference to. It was in reference to a. couple years ago whenever he was with whenever he was with Calgary Matt Piscoe says Louis Doming made a good impression for the Canucks Starring the bubble. Of course, that was playing with the Calgary

Flames. That's something to everyone to see. I think Louis Doming also made a good impression on the New York Rangers a couple weeks ago for the Pittsburgh Pank. That's it, man. Like, he was one, I mean, I know they went to Trish and Jerry in Game 7, but we were he could imagine that. Like, a third string dude

being pressed into service and helping his team get to a game 7. I know they had a lead, they blew it, but like, you can't ask for anything better from Louis DeMic. The funny part of the Louis Deming experience is like right from the jump, you're like, all right, this probably isn't getting in well for the penguins. Like there's a ding, and God bless him. He's a chef. Everyone, spicy pork and broccoli.

Everybody love that. But you could just, you could sense from the, from the jump that that probably wasn't going to work out for him. But again, man, this is, this is what the playoffs are about. It's quasi-random guys getting pressed into duty. And for good or bad, like, we're going to remember them. We're going to talk about them. Wait, hold off for a second.

Let me just pause on spicy pork and broth for a second. Yeah. Because I forgot who shared that photo of the actual dish that he ate and he said it was not good. It looked nasty. He had every right to not say that was good. It was a nasty looking dish. You know who that was? It was Mike DeFable.

My buddy who covered the Penguins for the Post Gazette. And I was livid, livid that I wasn't in New York. York for that for that part of the series because that's my that's my that's my beat baby I would have been I would have been the guy who is sitting in that restaurant choking down as much because it was it was brutal right like that that is far even as far as spicy pork and broccoli goes really really rough but yeah I mean that's that's that's that's that's a boots on the ground journalism gets you so shout out shout out the Mike Dian Pittsburgh I mean that the way that pork looked like was on that it was it was a

that was a that was a that was a chunked up belt I think that was some that was some low grade some low grade stuff yeah pretty pretty pretty brutal I mean that's like those are those are those are the spoils of being being a backup holdtender like how many how many times have guys eaten stuff like that and just not had the not had to worry about it you're like yeah whatever bad I was he'd eat this I'm good The crappy locker room food. It's here. It's here. Might as well. How else am I going to feed myself? Someone's got to eat it. It's a sin to throw away food.

We got to take care of business. How many overtimes am I going to sit through while this crappy, spicy pork is going to stay in my stuff? I have to play? What is it? Oh. Is Casey hurt? Is Casey hurt out there? He looks hurt.

You're like, oh, my God. Then you feel your stomach rumbling. Like, oh, my. God. Me and you. A couple of Louis Demings, baby. That's us. That's basically been us on the Tuesday edition of the athletic hockey show. Sean, thank you so much for hanging out, man.

I mean, we've only hung out once in our lives together. This is the first time I've done it over podcast. Yeah, that's fun. This is as fun as it could get. You know what's coming up soon? The draft. The draft. See you then, baby.

See you then, baby. Oh, man. Oh, we are going to get in trouble, are we? No comment. Don't get in too much trouble. No comment. Oh, my God. Don't get in too much trouble, okay?

Please, I'm begging you. Hopefully, Andy Slater isn't circulating in Montreal. I said, don't get in trouble. Try to get me in trouble in my own city. Anyway, thank you for listening to the Athletic Hockey Show with myself and Sean Gentile today. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a rating and a review. We'd really appreciate it if you thought all of our jokes about strip club sources were funny. Strip subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Get all the bonus content from our entire network. Start with a 30-day free trial than just 99 cents a month after that. And right now you can subscribe to the Athletic for a dollar a month for six months when you visit theathletic.com slash coffee show. We'll be back tomorrow for the brand new show. Hopefully it won't be nearly a problem. That's it.