The Athletic Hockey Show - Oilers handling the pressure in a crazy hockey market

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

The Oilers take a three-games-to-one lead over the Stars in the Western Final, as Corey Perry turns back the clock. Frank, Sean and Sean discuss the Oilers targeting Roope Hintz's ankle, the injury to Zach Hyman and what the Stars have to do to get back in this series. The guys turn the page to the East, where Florida can punch a ticket to their third straight Stanley Cup Final with a win against the Hurricanes tonight.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, it's the Athletic Hockey Show Wednesday edition. We are back. It is Frankie Kriotto. It is Sean McIndoo. It is Sean Jensilly broadcast. And once again, from an airport hotel outside of Ralt, North Carolina, where I've taken up residency. It's the same place I stayed four days ago.

The staff recognizes me that's a little bit less enjoyable than I thought it would be. Did they give you the same room at least? No, I'm on the 10th floor now, brother. I've accrued enough nights here in 2025 already to... Literally started at the bottom. I am on the verge of titanium stat... Frankie's video dropped out and distracted me. I'm in the verge of titanium status for the first time of my life, so it's cool.

I'm... I'm here. I'm here. I get to eat sweaty, scrambled eggs and stuff for free. in the Sheraton Lounge now. Yeah. Yeah. I'm living a different hotel experience.

I'm here at the Memorial Cup and no Bonvoy points for us. There's no Marriott property here in Ramoski. So the 11 or 12 days, I don't, there's no points. There's no nights. There's no push for titanium happening right now. So I feel like I'm losing out on something that you're gaining, even though you're eating the powdered eggs. One of my

scarring moments as a younger sports writer was checking into a Marriott with a bunch of veterans and they asked me, they're like, do you have a membership? And I was like,

no. And like heads snapped around. Like I might as well have just taken a dump in the lobby. They're like, what do you mean you don't collect points? Lebrun's little moron. Lebrun's eyes fell out of his head.

If Russo would be in there, he would have. The first road trip I ever had in the American Hockey League, one of the older guys came up to me and he said, you got to get a, I don't even think it was called Bonvoy at the time, but you got to open a Marriott account. You got to open all the accounts. And what you do is after every road trip, when you check out,

just go walk by the front desk, even though the team's paying for it, sometimes they'll just give you the points and give you the nights. So always ask on your way out. I didn't do that every time. obviously, like sometimes you're in a hurry, but I tried sometimes, you know, see if, see if you can catch someone sleeping at the front desk. At the start of my hockey riding career, I was working in a place that was functionally broke.

Like, I had to save dollars wherever I could, which meant that I didn't stay at Marriott properties at all. I stayed at the, in the cleanest, safest, cheapest, cheapest, like, whatever. whatever the cheapest place was that I also wouldn't get, you know, shived out front is basically where I stayed. So that's where I was at on the road. And it was like, like, because especially that, I'm like in my early 20s. Like, what do I? What do I care?

It was, it was, it was no personal issue for me. It, the people it was an issue for were the longtime pro hockey riders who would be like, you're, you're staying, you're staying where? you're staying at some off-brand hotel, like, you know, a couple, a couple blocks away. Like, they, they looked at me like I was with pity, really. It was like, like, I was dressed in rags and, like, holding a tin cup and trying to sell, and trying to sell them pencils or something.

I'm like, yeah, sorry. I'm at a, I'm at a, I'm at a, I'm at a Ramada. And like, like, I, what, what do you want me to do? Can't do that. Russo at the end of every Stanley Cup playoffs gets to go on a SpaceX fly. to Mars with his which he pilots which he pilots himself he's got degrees

he's got degrees of status on airlines that I didn't know existed like it's like the George Clooney up in the air thing where you know the pilot comes out personally off the flight pretty much yeah very much

all right well you can tell both series are 3-1 when we started with 15 minutes of hotel tips we're bored yeah a function of all this too is I was just I was wiped out last night. I flew up from Fort Lauderdale and got delayed and all that stuff. So I didn't get to my hotel until around, you know, a little bit after a puck drop in Dallas Edmonton. I ate a burger downstairs, went up, went upstairs and I was asleep at the second

period. So I enlist you boys. I think I've done this at some point over the last few weeks. Can you please tell me what I missed. If anything in that game, it seems like it was anti-climbing. mactic, shall we say. Rupa hints is big return of the lineup and all that, all that. Well, his big return and then, you know, game, I find this stuff fascinating, gamesmanship at its finest. So many times it's upper body injury, it's lower body injury. You have a general sense and idea as far as what could be ailing someone, but when it's something so glaringly obvious as the Rupa hints, you know, foot, the slash that he took from Darnel Nurse, you know exactly where to kind of where to apply the pressure.

And Evan Bouchard skating off the ice and he slashes Rupa hints right across the foot, exact same spot that he would have been bugged from before. Like that's just, it's such old school playoff stuff. And I remember, you know, at every level, you know, HL, junior hockey, NHL coaches, they'll tell you, okay, don't be seen anywhere. If you're taped your wrists, you know, you can't show anyone that you got tape on your wrists. or hey, if you're, if you got your ankle taped or your foot taped, don't be warming up where

anyone can see you in shorts. You know, it's just like that stuff lives in the back of everyone's head, but there's no hiding if your Rupa hints because everyone saw what happened. And that's, you know, Evan Bouchard's a young guy, obviously, but clearly he got brought up with the same rules and stipulations as far as, you know, injured guys and how you target certain things, whether we like it or not, like it's greasy, but it's the reality. of what happens out there. They use that on hot on,

I was going to say hockey night on sports net as the reason why we will never find out injuries beyond upper body, lower body. Do you buy that that this is, this is why we will never find out what's wrong with Austin Matthews

or we'll never find out what's wrong with who knows how many guys. Sometimes we find out at the end of the season, but even then, dude, it's dicey. One million. Is that what the game was,

look like if we knew where people were hurt. If you knew, let's just make something up, hypothetical. Let's say Austin Matthews had a bad lower back and you knew that. Every single game, he goes to the front of the net, there is some goon. And it doesn't even have to set the record for getting cross checks. It's the most cross checks you've ever seen right into the lower back. And actually what you're going to do is, you know, there's a soft spot between where the pant finishes and the shoulder pad finishes.

and you're going to dig your stick in there and you're going to, it's going to be like a cheese grater. You're going to go up and, like that's, that's what's going to happen if you know exactly what's up with Austin Matthew. So I get it.

Spoken like a true defense. I love it. Yes. Guys, it's like listening to a chef tell you where to carve. Also, I like, that's very hockey that you refer to it as the pant singular.

That's something that shows up in the rulebook in the NHL a lot. And I think it's the only place where you get the singular pant. yeah that I I totally agree I totally agree that's why that that you know we're not going to find out but outside of the the gamesmanship um like Ryan Nugent Hopkins really has a strong game hold on hold on I have one I have I have I've I've I've I've I've I've I've I've I thought we were done on that cares man this series are over it doesn't matter okay was there a point coming up when you were like did you did you ever feel bad were you 11 years old like like like being like i probably i'm you're trying to slash a kid on the wrist because he's because you can because because you can tell it's bug and i'm like when did all this when did all this start i don't know man it's just like it's just something that that was there i don't even know how it started just eventually you get a little bit older and everyone has some ailments and it just

becomes the thing. I'll tell you what I did feel bad for. I can't remember who told me this, but it was like, okay, you hold your ground in front of the net. And so, you know, you can hold your stick out in front of you with your blade sticking out. You're not trying to jam the blade of your stick into someone's midsection, but if they happen to skate into where your stick already is, then that's on them. And that's because your stick was there already. I'm just going to spend my fist here and if you happen to walk into it. And there was one time where I'm like,

I don't know why it all clicked in, but I'm like, okay, I'm in front of the net. I see there's a guy coming. I got the box out and I got my stick in front of me. Blade is out and poor guy skates right into it. And he just eats it right into like his gut. And I'm like,

I kind of felt bad about that one. Like, yeah, maybe I didn't have to have the pitch fork out. I mean, that's like, because the guy just recently had a surgery on his appendix and it busted it right open.

He bled out on the ice in front of Frankie. He was like, well, maybe not. IBS flare up. You guys, you guys knew that it was happening. Yeah, he just, he went to the dressing room and he was spitting blood after. But he was, it was all right. This guy, Taco Bell last night, the scouting report says. So we're going to be a big of a bit.

You're responsible for where your stick is. Then the flip side is you're responsible for where your midsection is. The other person, the other person also bears someone on a blame there too. Yeah. All right. can talk about actual games now if you want Ryan Newgin Hopkins, he did something good last night I guess. Yeah, but let me ask you guys

this. Like Ryan Newgeon Hopkins has been great. Can you call a guy that was the first overall pick underrated? I don't... I don't... He's been in the league for like 17 years or whatever it is. I don't know. He's... I feel like yes. 2011. He was the same draft as me. And I, you know,

I'm kind of listening to some of the discourse last night and today and it's like, yeah, I think he's really underrated. sure, but he was also the first overall pick at one point. I don't know. And he had a hard time with that, like two years ago. Like, how can we still be underrating a guy like that? I thought we already did this.

I thought we already had the Ryan Nugent Hopkins underrated, overrated. I think we did it last year. What's the arc of his career, Ben? I feel like it happened like, yeah, a year. You know why we did it last year, Sean? Because it's the same two teams go to the finals. So we're having the same conversation. We're just rerunning.

I wrote, I wrote the same thing about the hurricanes three times. Like I was like, I don't, I got, I got nothing. We're having the same, we're having the same conversations here, man. Are we not running it back? We're running it back. Just like the Toronto Maple. Oh, no. Okay, we can't get into that yet.

11 minutes. We're running back conversations from a year ago. And I know people are going to roll their eyes, but guys, there's a degree of difficulty. When you're talking about the Stanley Cup final and you can make it about the Leafs, that's some real skill. You can't help but tip your hat. I love Myrtle's tweet or whatever was last night about how, oh yeah, the Oilers seem to be handling a big, tough, scary Canadian market pretty well. People responded. People enjoyed that a lot.

Sure. It's dragged. It's like carried over to the comments. Like people are mad at me about it. even when I don't do it. In the case in in in hurricanes panthers I it like in the in the in the comment section people people once people get it in their head they will be if you don't do it it you're just proving the rule. Yeah they're like they're like well how does like like well shot like like Gentile like tell me tell me

how this how this how does this series of beliefs I'm like I haven't I haven't said anything about that like you're mad at you're mad at someone else i have i haven't i have very very uh pointedly and deliberately not brought up the trana may police in anything i've i've written about we should point out yet a significant percentage of our readers think there's one guy at this company named sean who writes a ton of articles and then talks to himself on wednesday mornings so i guess i understand You're selling yourself short, man. You're the, everyone knows who you are.

I'm the, I'm the face, I'm the faceless number two at this point. So Ryan Nugent Hopkins, two more primary assists. He's, he's been kind of, I was about to say lighting it up, but he's not scoring. So I don't know what the official ruling on that is, but he's, he's generating a lot of points. But Zach Hyman out. So now what are we doing as far as the classic boiler storyline of they've got two of the best players in the world, but what about the depth? Well, for me, it's Nugent Hopkins and Hyman. They kind of bridge the gap between the two big boys and the rest of the depth, right?

And if you don't have Hyman, of course, that's going to put a little more strain on that portion of the lineup. But then all of a sudden, Corey Perry says, I'm going to go on. out on the first power play and I'll just tuck myself right in front of the net and score a goal. So next man up mentality and hopefully Zach Hyman's not out long, but it's a significant loss to a team that already is playing and winning with such a significant loss and not having Matias Ekholm, which like, you know, if someone asks you, are the Edmonton Oilers going to get to the precipice of the Stanley Cup final without Matthias at home? I think a lot of us, we've talked about this, would have said, yeah, there's, there's just no way they're getting there.

But they're handling it quite well. And now they've got another another hurdle to get over without Zach Hyman. As far as Perry's concerned, I had to thought about him yesterday. Like, the blessed act of his career obviously has been incredible. But when he goes out there on the power play and he turns back the clock a little bit, the first thought I had was like, look, we know that the decline happened, right? He crested in Anaheim and then started easing on down the hill. But like, I can't think offhand of a player who after that initial drop from like star to role player has kind of been steady as she goes for a longer tail than him.

Like I feel like he became a role player. It kind of happened overnight. And now it's just been like steady going. the last for the last eight years. It is such a weird career arc, not even in hockey, like just in sports. Like, who are the other guys where you'd say came in, was a star, won an MVP, and then suddenly drops. We've seen that. But then sticks around until he's 47 or whatever he is now, still contributing, still tripping in. It's very, it's very, very strange, but he's been very effective.

This is exactly what you want it when you're the Oilers and you go out and grab this guy. This is that little. I mean, they didn't pick him up for the regular season. No. So, you know, it's still that punchable, but effective guy.

And you know what's interesting about Perry? Like, even if you go back to his heyday, right, it was never about speed or, you know, you know, winning foot races.

and overpowering you one-on-one in that regard. It was always hands around the net, scoring touch, you know, rap mentality. And the things that made him good when he was in his heyday are still things that he could do well at an older rage. Because everyone knows, like, yeah, you're going to lose a half a step. You're not going to be as explosive as the 25-year-old who's in the prime of his career. But there's many players that are going to be or have been built the same. same way to have success from their primes to, you know, the final couple of holes of their career based on their skill set and the package they bring to the table.

And that's such like a testament, I think, to his, like Frankie, like you said, his hands and other elements to his game, is that his skating, he gave himself the ability to have his skating be able to play this late. The line on that is always fascinating to me because you kind of never know. Like you look at, you look at players who aren't plus skaters, but are skillsy. And sometimes you'll think like, okay, he's going to be able to withstand the moment when he loses that half step. Like, he's going to be the guy that ages into the old man playing hoops at the YMCA that can be able to pick his, can be able to pick his shot and, and pick his spots. And it Doesn't always happen that way, though.

Like sometimes guys, even though they may profile that way earlier in their career as like a headsy, handsy, you know, skillsy player who maybe can't skate that grade, but still seems like he'll be able to make up for it down the line. Sometimes they don't age into the Cory Perry, you know, archetype or like the Joe Thornton archetype where it's like those guys, like Joe Thornton never a great skater, but his brain was so incredible that, you know, it didn't matter. and it didn't matter when he was younger and it didn't matter when he was 40. So it's always interesting to me to see like which guys, which particular skill sets get this long tail at the end. You know who we're kind of seeing that with in this playoffs is Jamie Ben. Yeah. He really hasn't done much of anything.

And it's to the point where, you know, to peek behind the curtain, I've got my all playoff disappointment roster up today. And we did that classic thing. I'd started writing it a few days ago, and I had Jason Robertson on there. I'm like, you know what? Guy hasn't, guy doesn't have a goal.

You know, he's hurt, but he hasn't, he hasn't scored. And then, of course, he scores, uh,

you know, a couple nights ago and then he scores again last night. So I message the editor and I go, I'm going to swap in somebody else. And I go to look at the Dallas page. And I'm like, scrolling down. And I was like,

oh, right, Jamie Ben is still on this team. He's still the captain of this team. He's got one goal in the postseason so far. And he's a guy who kind of profiles a little bit as that Cory Perry. He didn't had the MVP, but had that one weird fake Art Ross trophy in an otherwise very solid, dependable career. And he might be, he would be another guy that fits all that profile you just said.

And yet just hasn't been able to get it going in the playoffs this year, has not been. able to contribute and they're going to need them because they need they need all hands on deck now including miko rantin and the story has come back around remember those first three games of the playoffs words out of my mouth buddy yeah remember the first three games of the playoffs when he wasn't scoring and we're all going this guy's bust this guy is the the villain then he won the cons smite he actually got awarded the cons smite halfway through yeah um and now it was it was it was it was It was halfway through the hat trick period against Winnipeg. They actually stopped the game.

They brought it out in the game. Richard came out with the white gloves and handed it to him on the bench. And now he can't. What is it seven games without a goal? Philly Pritchard's on route. He's going to take it back. He can't have it anymore. We're going to give it to someone else.

But quickly on the Jamie Ben thing, the ice time last night. He played just under 10 minutes. He's been playing like in that 11 to 13 minute. range like 16, 17 shifts a night. So clearly it's not just, you know, it's not just he's going out there every other shift and he's not producing. Like Peter DeBoer must be seeing something where he is identified, like, I can't have

this guy out there as much as I normally would have in the past or whatever because it's just, it's not there for him. And the difference between, for me anyways, Jamie Ben and Corey Perry is, Jamie Ben is a physical guy for sure. Like he's a confrontational guy. But Corey Perry, not to say that Jamie Ben is not competitive, Corey Perry lives in the mud.

He loves it. Like he wants to be there. Like there's a reason why he's, there's a reason why he's the worm. Is that, is that like it's, he relishes those gnarly situations. And that's where he has a lot of success.

It's not that both guys are not competitive. It's that, there's that just greasy mud factor. That's what I'm going to call it. Mud per 60. Mud factor. Mud for 40. Yeah, he's got mud per 60.

That's off the charts. We got our episode title, boys. Mud for 60s, starring Corey Berry. But the Miko Ranton and thing is real. Like that is a real thing. He was brought in here to be the guy, not just to be one of the guys. And that's the thing about the Dallas Stars.

They have had a team of, a lot of the guys, right? Like, it's a deep team. We got scoring spread out throughout the roster. We're going to get this thing done. No, it was supposed to be different this year because they needed that one player who's, you know, head and shoulders above the rest offensively. And they haven't gotten that when they needed it the most, which is against the Edmonton Oilers.

We're going to hit a break. And then we're, they're going to come into the Eastern Conference series, which I, of course, am on. Game four of that is tonight. tee that up, hit a couple other things, and we'll get Frankie out of here. It'll be me and Max do to take home. Stick around. I'll be right back.

All right, boys, like I said, back in Raleigh for, oh, my God, forgot what game this is. Game five, it's hurricanes, it's Oilers. Carolina kept their season live a couple days ago. Series is 3-1. I'll start with how I feel about it. I thought that I thought that Carolina played well. I think that was the game that Rod Brindamore, you know, had been searching for and had been implying, you know, was around or the team had it.

And it happened. It just seems like it happened too late. I'm skeptical that they can keep this going. I'm interested in seeing where you guys are on that. My, my biggest takeaway is that Jacob Slavin needs to play almost half the game. Oh, my God. Again. What, buddy, what did you think of watching him on in, in, in.

game in game four. I, because me, who barely knows what I'm paying attention to, I was just like this guy, you know, I've,

I thought, I thought plenty of times of Slaven, but even in the press box times 100 in that game. I'm like, this guy is a wizard. He's,

he's a monster. He's an absolute defensive monster and machine. And even, there's, there's certain times where maybe he doesn't

have a, like, a direct effect on the play, like he's not knocking it with his stick. But sometimes just his positioning and his presence can almost force you to an area where you don't necessarily want to be

or want to put the puck. He's that good defensively. But this is the thing, this is the adjustment that Rod had to make. Jacob Slavin during the regular season averages like less than 22 minutes a night. Well, you have to kind of empty the tank here a little bit. He has to play 28 minutes.

It's a non-negotiable going up against Florida. And especially with who you got on the back end, And there's some inexperience back there. So now there's no way Jacob Slavin goes back to 22 minutes. I'm sorry. Like it's 28 is the baseline for success. I mean, we had that we had that realization in the press box in game four. It was me and Rousseau and Wischinsky and Eric Engels, like kind of all in a row in the press box where we're like,

it was like midway through the third. It was like Slavens Slavins at like, you know, 23 or whatever it was. 23 minutes already. Like, it wasn't, I don't know that it was run's plan from the start. I think it seemed like he really dialed it up as, as the third rolled around. Like maybe, maybe that's what the plan was. Limit the minutes a little bit. And then, Frankie, like you said, you know, you're in a, you're in a, you got a one goal lead.

You're trying to bring it home. You know, that's when you, that's when you empty the tank. I mean, he was, and he was doing it until the end, too. Like, there was, there was a sequence at the end of the game when he ham. hammered Barkov in the corner and then you know obviously didn't take himself out of the play

made it back to the crease in time to do just like a sweep a sweep in front probably probably saved a goal and that was with that was with two minutes two minutes left I mean he's he was incredible I don't know though how

sustainable the winning the winning model is for Carolina at this point in the series it almost just feels like they've they've delayed the inevitable here. Yeah. By one game. So one-nothing win minus the empty-netters.

Like, it's settled down a little bit. Here's the other thing about that. Great Paul-Marie's moment after the game, unfortunately, which I try to, I try not to lean on all that much, but he was very funny. He called the Goals-Babrowski let up horseshit. He wasn't in the net for any of them. Ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha.

Here's, okay, so let's talk goalies then. Because we just, in a very good sign for the Oilers, we just did a whole segment on them, and we never mentioned Stuart Skinner, who is, at this point, either gives up five goals or zero to one every single game. We have had the full playoff ready experience in this series. He gets lit up for two games, doesn't play game three. And so, of course, he would show up and pitch a shut out in game four. because goal tending in the NHL playoffs makes a ton of sense and it really feels predictable and sensical. Where are you now, if you're Rod Brindamore watching, Freddie?

What's the leash, given that you didn't exactly get a great game from the bullpen in game three? I think for me, I think in games one and two, he was, he wasn't good, right? Like he there were big saves out there that he that he didn't make. I also think there wasn't and this is why I wasn't 100% sold on him making. I didn't think he was going to do it. I honestly didn't think he was going to bench Freddie for game three.

Just because enough other stuff went wrong where even though Freddie not making the big save was a problem and it was a certainly contributing factor to those two losses, it was like a little bit further down the. list. So I wasn't, I was a little surprised. Again, we're watching, uh, pre, we're watching morning skates for ahead of game three. And, and we're all sitting there like, is this is, is, is that the starters net? Like, is that where Kachikov is. And then they both kind of came off like early at the same time, or around the same time, but Kachatkov was first. And we're all like, well, it was like, you know, it was basically at the same time. Like, everybody was like, he's not, he's not actually going to do this. Is he? And then, then he, then he did. and it didn't work.

So, yeah, I think the leash is probably, is probably a little longer. But, you know, what, like, the Panthers, the, the Panthers, you either have no leash or a long leash, I think, if you're Freddie, because they're, because, because their margin for airs non-existent. If he gives up to, if he goes,

if he allows two, if he allows one or two, the game might be over anyways. Well, exactly. And Cochettecoff, it's not like, I mean, it goes without saying, It's not like you have an ace in the hole sitting there who's going to come in and steal you the game. Like we saw how that game went when they lose six two.

And, you know, it's not all on the goaltender, of course. The Panthers are a good team. But I think you're at the point now where don't you feel like you're living and dying with Freddie Anderson in this series? You have to be. And you also like, you just have to realize that Panthers are not changing anything, especially with the way they lost that game. Like it's just okay, we lost a game. We're not going to win every game. And off we go.

We'll go to the next one and we'll try and run you out of the building and we'll throw stuff on that. And, you know, we'll do our thing. Nothing changes for the Panthers. But I think, you know, Freddie at least has shown the capability that he can steal a game in the playoffs. So at least you're hanging on to that. And, you know, if the history lesson, I guess, of, you know, pulling goaltenders too quickly serves us, well, I can think of at least one game this playoffs where a goalie doesn't get pulled after letting in two goals and his team wins the game and was a double overtime, the Winnipeg game, game seven

against St. Louis, where there would have been, if you pulled Hellebuck early and you, after the, I think it was two nothing, and you went to Comrie. And it's like, well, now you're in overtime. And you got Comrie in there and or you're in the third period. It's like, what did you do? Like that was a little premature. So I think Freddie, you know, not that it's the same situation, but you might look at it the same way and say, maybe my team can find a way if we're down to nothing to tie this up. And hopefully Freddie can make a couple saves.

Just battle stay in there for us. Yeah, and their blood pressure is low too. Like the Panthers are not obviously not concerned. I was this feels a lot to me like game six of the second round where they were home ice chance to close it out. lost two to nothing. People start going, oh, maybe. No, no maybe.

Come out game seven. Yeah, like I asked, I asked, it was for Hagee yesterday, just like, you know, what was the difference between the third periods in games three and four,

right? That's like, that's basically what I asked them. There's game three, we see this avalanche from them where they just totally beat their breaks off in the third period, and that's that.

And we didn't see that kind of, that kind of push from them in game four, right? I knew what the answer was. It was the Carolina had the lead. I just wanted to see what for Hagey would say about it. And he was like, he was like, oh, yeah,

it was like, well, they had the lead. We had a push. They were getting pucks behind us and, you know, you're not going to, you're not going to win,

basically is basically what he said. If, if that's happening all that frequently, which with, for me, the implication there was like, They had the lead. And, you know, if we, if we get the lead, we're going to keep, we're going to do the same

thing. Oh, this is, in the series, in the series is going to be done. This is like groundbreaking stuff in both conference finals, eh, that we're talking about. Right. Isn't it? How boring is this? It's, well, okay, it's, it's just, this is the, this is what we get in, I'm going to bring up the playoff format, where we talk about it every year.

The first round is the best. It's unbelievable. well, we got that out of the way. And now we're getting the matchups that no one really asked for when it should be the biggest stage. You know, the stage should get bigger. We just, we kind of blow it on the first round. And now we have two runaway series going into the finals. I'm also trying not to relitigate the first round necessarily.

And I might be biased because I was, I was on Montreal, Washington, which was, you know, five games, whatever. I don't think the first round was all that great either. As far as first rounds of the playoffs go, I think it was, I think it was pretty mid. So the end result here is like, are we, are we hanging the 2025

Stealing Cup playoffs in an art museum anytime soon? I don't, I don't think so. Like, there's still time left in the time's finals, I suppose, and the final is always its own beast,

but I haven't been overly impressed. Outside of, outside of the Miko, and stuff, I don't know that, I don't know that a time. of stuff, which seems like it's like we said, how

consequential was that? The two series out West in the first round in the central were they are the ones lifting this playoffs up because it has not been fantastic otherwise. Now maybe this is just the

sort of dip. You bring it down a little bit so you can bring it back up for the final and give us all a chance to catch our breath, which at the NHL always kindly does by giving us like 17 days off. before the Stanley Cup final starts, but I don't know. Is this Florida Carolina series over? Because we do our staff picks, and for game four, everybody who does the picks,

except for one person picked Florida to wait and close that. I don't remember who the one person who got it right. Oh, no, it was me. That's right. It could have been anybody. I just checked today. It was a rat. Florida again, except for,

one guy. But everyone's picking Florida. So, I mean, there's clearly, like, not only is, I mean, I imagine just about everyone's picking Florida to win this series, but people are just going, it's over. Yeah. Other than the people who run the hotel,

the Sean Gentile Memorial Hotel in Yeah, they're going to hang up, they're going to hang a plaque here in room 1017 at the airport hotel. Yeah. I think it's, I think it's functionally over. And I think in a way, game four, sort of, I'm obviously no Carolina one,

but there was something about that game where I was, it just only further convinced me of the Panthers supremacy here because like that was Carolina's perfect game. That was it. Everything goes right. You win one nothing. Correct. And that, and that is,

that was the game that Rod has been just like, you know, just with his head, his hands at a microphone for the last week being like I like I know we have it in us basically like this is this is we have to do it's it's it's it's not complicated uh we need to do X, Y and Z and then then then they did X Y and Z and we saw it happen and they and they still and they still almost lost so I also the idea of them being able to do that once twice three more times it's just it's impossible to wrap my head around at this point. I'll tell you what like it's hard to know, like we don't know what everyone says behind closed doors.

We get little snippets of coaches and players miced up. They show us what they want to see here. But I would put a significant chunk of cash on the Florida Panthers going back into the dressing room after that game and more than one player saying, yeah, we're good here, boys. That's the best they got. And we're kind of fed here. Oh, that's the way I felt here. Right back at it.

That's, that's, we're in a real good spot. That's the, that's the, the, the, the, the, the scary. thing for Carolina is that they just like you said they gave them all they got and the panthers that would have been like you know Andre the giant just taking a little little baby slap across the face being like oh that was inconvenient you know Andre the giant drink holding a 12 ounce can of beer like it's you know like it's a Q-tip or something yeah exactly yeah man i you know it's just goes back to some of the stuff we've heard from Carolina over the last few days where they're like, oh, like, their perfect way to win is one nothing. They're saying that sort of stuff, right?

Like, we love, we love a one nothing game. And I get it. That's what they have to think. That's what they have to say. In a lot of regards, that's what every hockey team, you know, needs to convince themselves of. But hearing it now, man, you're just like, you should probably want to win like five to two. I don't know. I think I think that would maybe be better. I just don't. Here's my final ask here. How disappointed, Sean, were you? Not that you had to travel again, not that you couldn't go home,

that you didn't get to be the guy to put your hand up at the press conference and say, Rod, was this a real sweep after game four? Like, you had that ready to go, right? Like, you were going to. I've been biding my time with Rod. Like, I haven't. Here's the good part about. A chill guy.

He would have got a chuckle out of it. Really, really, really relaxed. I've been developing, I've been developing my ride, my, my rod impression over the last week. It's mainly gestures. It's mainly, it's, it's, it's mainly gestures. You can ask for Shinsky. It's pretty, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty good. Okay.

Um, that's the good part about being in this job of being, being in my, being in my particular position is I'm working, I'm working, I'm working press conferences with a bunch of people who have built up credit with these. guys over the last over the last uh over the last couple months and or folks like dan rosen and guys like who are just much better at asking questions than me so i'm just kind of like i'm just kind of like hanging out i haven't i haven't had to ask rod anything difficult yet and something tells me that that streak is going to continue i'm not overly interested to making that guy mad just just just one day i want to tune into sports center and i want to hear a downed up with a reporter asking the question, and I want the most sarcastic answer,

and I want to do a double take in here. Oh, wait, that's Gentilly's voice. Yes. That's all I want before the playoffs end. You're going to see rides, eyes widen, and his eyebrows raise. I'm just kind of, I'm just kind of doing one of these. I'm like, looking at his neck starts to twitch.

Yeah. Like, you like Cox's head a little bit now. I'll be on the couch doing the, Leonardo DiCaprio. Hey, I know that voice. I know that guy. I know that guy. Yeah.

Then I'm going to get dragged out of the room by Carolina's PR staff. And that'll be that. No one will ever hear from me again. Dundon will make me disappear. No. No, Dundon's not going to make you disappear. Rod's going to bring you in the top golf before you guys know it.

Oh, Rod's going to bring you into the weight room and make you do 40 chinups before you're allowed to leave the rank. Not consecutive, but you just got to get to 40 before you can leave the ring. A year's worth of chitups, as I would call it. get out get out the squat bar baby we're we're we're going town little man it's burpees for Sean all right I think that's it Frankie we can let you leave them we're gonna we're gonna come back and finish stuff off then I get to go watch the Carolina Hurricanes morning skate what are you doing blood how's the what's up with the Memorial cup coverage are you uh when are the next when are you on the night when are the next yeah yeah so uh we got a game

tonight. So Medicine Hat is off to the finals. London's in the semi-final and Ramoski and Moncton play today to see who's going to join London in the semis. And you know what? It's been really cool. I've got to do some on-ice features with all the top prospects here. So I've been on the ice with Easton Cowan, Gavin McKenna, Caleb de Noye, Sam Dickinson, and Eric's Mateco, the Washington draft pick. So it's been cool to kind of ask those guys some questions be on the ice with them. So, yeah, It's been a good time here in Ramoski, and we got some good games to go.

You've been getting rave reviews of your coverage. I've seen, I've seen multiple people gassing, gassing you guys up for the work that you've done. Of course, I've been staying in hotels with the don't have the NHL network or anything, so I haven't seen a second of it. I was worried that Frankie was going to make us throw our gear and our skates on and get out there on the ice with them. That's where he does his work now. It's called Players Only Meeting. except if it was with you guys, it's playa's only meeting. With the Z.

All right, bud. We'll talk to you. See you. All right, there goes Frankie. Before we jump into segment three, we want to say we're excited to welcome the tennis podcast, the Athletic Podcast Network. The French opens underway in Paris,

and Catherine Whitaker, David Law, and Matt Roberts are here to take you inside the tournament with daily reports on location at Roland Garros. They have you covered. on all the great performances, all the big offsets. They have a unique sense of humor, too. So check out the tennis podcast wherever you get your podcasts. All right, me and McIntyre back. We are here as always talk about what we've learned this week.

What have we learned, Sean? And Sean, I think, yeah, I know it's been a couple days, but I think where I've leaned it on the Islanders' GM search is that everyone trying to place Brendan Shanahan there for obvious reasons. He worked with John Collins at the league. John Collins is now, you know, way up on the food chain with the New York Islanders. That seemed like it was a move that would have made some logical sense. It's not the move we ultimately see.

We see Matthew Darsh coming over from Tampa Bay to run the show there. I think there was some degree of surprise from some people there. But that move makes sense to me. Like I think what Darsh has done in Tampa over the last couple years has him prepped pretty adequately for that one, man. Like he learned for a while under Julian Breezebaw. He added a lot of stuff to his plate over the last couple years. Matthew Darsh was, if Kyle Dubis doesn't, if stuff doesn't blow up with Dubus and Shanahan in Toronto,

Matthew Darsh would have been the GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins years ago. Like he was close to getting that job. He's certainly interviewed for a couple other ones. He's more than ready now. I also can see some of the stuff he has on his CV, on his resume. that would have been appealing to someone like Collins and maybe the other's owners, Ledeckian Malkin, business guys, obviously. Matthew Darsh worked in the private sector in business for years after his career

before taking that job with Tampa Bay. And I think he got a lot of, he got, he got, he got, he has a lot of accomplishments and a lot of experience outside of the world of hockey. And I think that is important stuff when you're talking about, running an organization, any organization. And when you're talking about running the New York Islander specifically,

because I think there's some interesting challenges that are, you know, that that org has to deal with. So Darsh, good hockey mind, pretty great hockey resume with Tampa, you know, who does it better than them?

And then also you throw on the business stuff and you're like, okay, this makes sense. That's why they didn't hire Brandon Shanahan. You can imagine him walking in, blown guys doors off. in an interview and just being, being the choice pretty quickly.

Yeah. And I mean, we've seen guys in the past be successful as assistants and have their names show up for every opening and come in and not really have the success, you know, like, Jason Botter will be an example that kind of comes to mind,

getting another chance now. So it's no guarantee. But Darsh was a guy that he was a good enough candidate that he, unlike some other guy, could probably set some ground rules around what kind of job he was going to take. And I think the fact that there's no Shanahan, that there's no Mark Bergervan, nothing like that in here shows that he went in and said, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it.

I'm not reporting up to Brennan and having him veto my trades or whatever else. And, you know, I'm going to be in charge. I think that's a good sign for Islander fans that the organization ultimately agreed to it. Here's what I learned this week. I learned that the world championships is finally over after like seven weeks of this. I do not understand. How come we can do the Olympics and the four nations in like five days, but this tournament just keeps going and going and like guys are getting,

the teams are getting eliminated and guys are flying in. There's 43 guys on every roster by the end of it. And Team USA gets the win. I heard of the time in 92 years. that's crazy to me how how do you not win in 92 years in a world where there's like six hockey countries like i get that it was the soviets for the longest time but who is like the most random world championship uh gold medalist of all time like who do i'm not sure like in the modern era i'm not sure there's ever been like a i don't think like a switzerland or anyone has ever ever

Did Switzerland ever get there? They may have. They came close. They came within one goal doing it a couple days ago, right? Yeah. So, and the, you know, the other fun thing about this is it, the team EOS wins it in overtime. And on a goal by Tage Thompson. As our buddy, as our buddy Ryan Lambert asked me the other.

day. Have there been any other times that Team EOSA's been in overtime of an international tournament where like a Tage Thompson-esque player could have come in handy? Is that, does that do anything? Like even when they win, TIEO's kind of like twist the knife on itself. I'm just glad. I'm glad it happened because now it seems like we can, you know, Tage Thompson has this international performance now that seems like it's necessary for guys. on the border to have before they make it. We can, we can, you know, just move on and pencil him in for, for the Olympics, maybe. I don't know.

Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? That, I, that's like, that speaks so poorly of the world championships. It's like, I'm like, yeah, gold over Switzerland, who even cares? The important thing is that this is going to help the down roster decisions for the Olympics. Like, how does this affect the, how does this affect the Leafs? Like, how does this affect the U.S. Olympic team is my

and we should point out at this, but we do not know what dreams, uh, any of the, uh, team USA front office might have over the next little while that would influence these roster decisions. So to be determined.

But congratulations. Uh, yeah, producer Jeff said, points out the, the UK one in 1936. And other than that, it's been all the usual team.

So shout out to team USA got, uh, got it in there ahead of, uh, Eat that United Kingdom. UK and 36. That kind of counts for Canada. You guys are the same.

More or less. All right, bud. Time to go. You got the all, what is it? The all, all disappointment team coming up.

And are you and I, are we doing the bad TV commercials? Oh, yeah, yeah, we got to, we'll figure that out. We'll do that at some point in the 20-day break.

Let me know. I'm putting the call for entries. Somebody, you know, shoot me what you, Canadian, you Canadian fans, what ads do you want me to make Gentilly watch? I do it with, send me, send me, send me the US ones too, because I'd like to see what the people think. I've obviously watched a lot of candidates. And I'm going to say it. Don't, don't send me lay it on the line. I know laid on the line, but I'm looking for something.

I feel like laid on the line's a good commercial that has been shown 80,000 times and we're all sick. of it. So I need, let's mix it up a little bit. Throw me some other ones as well. Yeah. But you will be laying it on the line. Do the same for me. It's time. It's time to lay it on the line. It's time for the Carolina Panthers to lay it on the line in game five tonight here in Rowley. It's my Frankie Segway of the week. Game kind of late in the show. Look a while. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Thank you folks for listening. The show's back tomorrow. Enjoy the games tonight. And we'll talk to you again real soon. So,