The Athletic Hockey Show - Oilers lack of composure leads to Game 3 beat down

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

The Panthers destroyed the Oilers in game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. Gentille, McIndoe and Corrado discuss the Oilers flat performance, the parade to the penalty box, goalie interference and if Edmonton can regroup to even the Final at 2, on Thursday night. The guys discuss Conn Smythe Trophy leaders, what Sam Bennett could get in free agency and the boys stick tap Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson and TJ Oshie who officially retired from the NHL on Monday.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frank CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. There's Bennett and Frederick, Nurse and Gavich continue to go at it. And the officials who are just going to let these guys tire themselves out regardless of the outcome. What up, what up? It's the athletic hockey show. It is Tuesday. We are the Wednesday boys. Sean McIndoo, Frank Carrado.

I'm Sean Chintilly. Boys, we had a very eventful of crummy hockey game in the Stanley Cup final. last night. It's a 6-1 win by the Florida Panthers over the Edmonton Oilers. Florida goes up 2-1 in that. We're obviously going to talk quite a bit about that. I'm going to talk about some cons my favorites as well that felt like, it's felt like a particularly irrelevant day for that one last night. But this is how I want to start this, because as I said, I feel like a lot of stuff happened in that game aside from the final score. I feel like a decent amount of it is over the course of the two-day break that they have in Florida between games three and

game four, I feel like we're going to forget some of it. I don't know how much this is going to matter. So I'm asking you guys, what were the relevant bits to come out of that? Like, what is the stuff that happened that's going to have lasting effects for game four? So you want the relevant stuff or do you want the, you know, the memorable stuff like Jake Walman squirting the Florida Panthers bench and. Bouch in between the bench knocking on the glass saying, hey, this is a $2,000 suit.

Not visibly, visibly pissed, push it was. Or how about this one? Like, that was an unbelievable fight with Gajovic and Nurse. Why did they have to show that they're such kiss fans? Because the whole fight, all they did was take turns going like this with their tongues. Like, sticking out their tongues. Why were they doing that in such a heavyweight fight? were they mocking each other?

I can't understand that. It was, I get it, man. I want to rock and roll all night and party every day too. That was definitely one guy making fun of the other guy, but we need to review the tape on who. I think it was Gajavitch. They never get the initial tongue. It's always the retaliation.

It's the retaliation. You're Brad Marchand. Then you have the initial tongue. Oh, man. God, what, so it ended up being the final, the final count ended up being, what the hell do we, I know I have it here somewhere. No, don't. Did I not copy it up first?

You not hit us with a penalty minute total. I want to. I want to. Like that tells us anything in the modern era where officials give out misconducts to everybody. Here's, here's the end, we go, wow, 140 minutes of penalties. That's crazy. That's not all insane. Misconducts don't count in penalty totals.

Vote for me in 2025 when I'm commissioner. I'm going back. I'm retroactively taking all the misconducts out of the penalty minute records. The Flyers and Senators brawl in 2004 is now down to like 27 minutes. How's that the first one? That's the first one you thought of? Flyers sends it's a record. It's a record holder.

Is it actually? Okay, there you go. No, it's four penalties in the first period for Edmonton. that's all that matters. That's when they lost that game, right? Like that feels like the first, you know, whatever period plus, I guess, because you had, you had Florida start that second period on the power play. That, to me, is, was the precursor for all the BS that we saw down the, down the road

and in the third period. That was Edmonton coming out with a lack of, I don't, who cares what happens in the third period? Like, that stuff's funny. Like, whatever. But that lack of composure to start the game itself, or they're taking ozone penalties and they're taking too many men. That, to me, is where the game was, is where the game was lost. You know which penalty I found to be the most fascinating of them all?

It's the Victor Arvidsson one where he gets goaltender interference on Sergei Bavrovsky. Because so much has been made about Sam Bennett and hitting the goaltenders all playoffs long, whether it's been Stolars or now it's Stuart Skinner. And, you know, people, we're all talking about it. We're all saying, you know, is the league going to take a look at it? Is the league going to maybe, you know, will they suspend him if he crosses the line? Are they on notice? Well, Sam Bennett doesn't seem to get called for this type of stuff. And so if you're the Edmonton Oilers, what you do is, you say, well, why don't we just hit your goalie a little bit? Because if it's fair game, we should be able to get away with it just the same way you do. Meanwhile, Victor Arvidsen does that.

Sergei Brabrovsky obviously sells it a little bit. And then there you go. Like you're in the box and now Carter Verhaghi's put one in the back of the net on you. And the Panthers power play, like the first unit couldn't get much going. Like it didn't look smooth or crisp. They send the second unit over the boards and you have the playoffs leading goal score. You have another goal score in Verhagie. You have another guy in Marchand who's on it's like, how do you stop that. If it's not one group, it's another group. And the Edmonton Oilers, you know, they tried to play the game, the goalie interference game, but there's obviously, you know, too many men and all kinds of other stuff before that. That's also the issue at play. Yeah, this was, let's be

clear, not a, the referee is out to get us game for the Oilers. They earned those penalty minutes, but that goalie interference penalty is infuriating. If you're an Oilers fan, if you're anyone who's not a Panthers fan, after watching these guys hit goaltenders and fall on goaltenders and get rewarded for it, have goals count, have coaches challenges overturned because these guys apparently get free reign to have that be where the official finally says, you know what? Yeah, that minor contact that sent Sergei Bavrovsky cartwheeling into the shadow realm is that's where we're going to find the penalty. And then, of course, it leads right to a power play goal.

You can't, like, if you're the Oilers, you can't feel sorry for yourself. You're like, hey, this is, this is fair game. Let's go. Let's do it. Right. And then that would be frustrating, but that's just a small, that's a small nugget in a game where so many other things happened. and like, you know, the third line deserve so much attention for the Florida Panthers. Barkoff and Kachuk have one assist right now combined in the series and they're up to one.

It's like the old saying, you know, the big boys got to be the big boys in order for your team to win. It's like the Florida Panthers are the outlier in that regard where it's like your top centerman and arguably your top winger. They're not really factoring in offensively, but you still like you pounded the Oilers because you just, You're the deepest team. That's what you are. And it's not like, it's not like we're just trying to, like, put guys into spots and make them more than they should be.

They actually are really good in, in all the different positions that they're in. And now it's like, you're just, you're in such a great position. It's hard, it's almost hard to describe that how, how are they doing this without their,

their two top forwards, not really factoring in? Are you guys, are you seen enough from those guys elsewhere? Like I'm because I know like Barkroff, the production, the production hasn't been there. But I think of the play.

And again, whatever, we have to preface all this by saying, in some, in some worlds, that's an interference call probably on, on John Klingberg, ahead of Florida's third goal.

He just, just manhandles Klingberg along the boards and sets up. I don't think he got an assist on it, but he de facto sets up, Sam Reinhart's goal, which is what, made a 3-1, like momentarily after Corey Perry makes a two-one, right? So that's, that was the goal afterwards that like Paul Maurice and Chris Knoblock,

that was the one that they pointed to and were like, that was, that was the backbreaker. So yeah, and I know that, you know, the production hasn't been there for Barkov and Kachuk, but it's popping in some other ways, I guess. And then, and then you have, then you have Sam Reinhart there to be some secondary scoring in this, in this series. It's a decent luxury to have. That goal that you're talking about, the Reinhard goal, first of all, just on Paul Maurice, he called it the inflection point in the game. That's a good one.

It's actually the TSN turning point. Yeah. So I'm a little bit of a lot. What are we doing here? And turning point. Anyways, I digress. I'm watching Klingbird come around the net and I'm thinking, that's a reverse all day long. You got to reverse that puck.

There's three Panthers players going. one of that side of the ice and the official is there. And I saw him, obviously, yelling at the official after he runs into him. And I'm like, that ain't the official's fault, bro. You put yourself there where the play was to go back against the grain. You didn't do it. And it's like the Panthers were like just, you know, sharks in in bloody water all over you. But like that's, that really was where it felt like the game did turn. I agree with that, that sentiment by Palm Reese. with the TSN turning point.

As it's as, that's, what is a good Canadian boy? He knows. He knows. I'd love to see him drop that phrase and just see like what the, like does a little cane come in from the side to just yank him off for some reprogramming about. It's also like.

National, uh, partners are. Just like the phrase, the phrase inflection point, A and B, the fact that like, that's like,

please write this. That's what Paul Marais is saying. Like, hey, everybody. Write this, say this. This is where the game changed. Please do it.

Please do it. And everybody would just eating out of his hand. There were people watching that media conference who like as soon as as soon as Marie said that like, hey, underline this. This is really important. Just like, yes. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you so much for telling us for telling us what that's your headline. That's your headline. Every editor is like salivating over that headline. I was I was thinking of DGB at one point in the game. And it was. When it's late in the game, the Florida Panthers go out there on the power play, and it's Evan Rodriguez, Nico Mikula, and Gus Foresling. And I'm watching Rodriguez.

He's on the half wall, and he's passing it to Mikala. And Mikala is kind of unsure about what he wants to do with it. Do I go the other way? Do I go this way? And Rodriguez has his stick out. And he's like, no, dude, you got to walk the puck to the middle of the ice and then send it back to me because I'll shoot it. And then he scores. And I'm like, look at DGB's guy.

Look at his guy. Just directing traffic out there, running the power play like that, eh? Just commanding order. The difference maker for the second Stanley got final in a row. Kevin Rodriguez. I think we have another pretty good Matthew Kachukh, quote, to come out of the post game, by the way. This is like more subtle. This is more subtle than what we typically see from him.

You know, we talked about it in the third. You know, if you have to take a punch, take a punch. If you have to take a cross check, take a cross check, spear, slash in the face, whatever the case is. You know, you've got to take it. And I mean, it was, we spent the whole period on the, on the power and, and, uh, we're able to put in a couple insurance ones. But, you know, when the time needed where we needed to stick up for each other, it was there. But, you know, we just play a really smart game. And, and, uh, that's really it.

That's him just saying, like, you guys, you're suckers. Again, man. You felt, you fell on the trap. What an infuriating team to play against. They are such a bunch of dirt bags. I love it. And they just, and they sit there. And if you don't.

dirtbag back, we all go, oh, they got you. You're not playing play playoff hockey. The Panthers know how to play play playoff hockey. You're going to skate around and try to ignore this. It's not how it works in the playoffs. As soon as you respond even a little bit. Total lack of composure. Lack of composure.

You either lack pushback or you lack composure. And then we have to have DNA talks. We got to talk about DNA after. that. I saw a tweet today and I was someone tweeted something along the lines of like, oh, I'm sure the Panthers are so scared because the Oilers punched them and had their, you know, took their pound of flesh late in the game. Well, I guess you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Like if you go quietly, everyone will say like, are you even, you invested in this series? Do you care? And it's like, you have to do that stuff because the

Panthers, if they were down six one, they're doing the exact same thing. It turns into an absolute circus. So you got to do it. The thing about these next two days, I think it's a long two days for the Oilers sitting down there just stewing in this loss. Like I know it's Fort Lauderdale. It's cool. You can call up DJ Khalid, rent some jet skis. You know, like there's a lot of stuff. Good to see him yesterday, by the way. DJ Callig, he was electric. It was absolutely electric. Grammy winner. Anyways, it's the best. It's like another one. you're just sitting there and you're like, man, you're in your hotel bed and then you're,

it's like the same stuff all the time. Like, you're just kind of stewing in the loss. It'd be nice for the Oilers if they could get back at it. Obviously not today, but tomorrow and just feel like, okay, we're, we're not sitting around, you know, kind of letting you guys, I don't know, regroup. And we can just have at you quicker. Yeah, I thought today. two hours of hearing the word unravel.

And then they got to go out. And on the first shift, Sam Bennett will go and sit on Stuart Skinner, put a little picnic blanket down and, you know, everything get nice and comfortable. No, it'll just be the identical. It'll be the identical Arvinson play except he won't get called. He won't get called. And then it's going to be, all right. Well, what are the oilers doing?

No pushback. So Edmondson wasn't going to practice today initially, but, but Noblock. now block called one for today. Does that, what is that? What does that do? Is that the right move? Like, what do we think that accomplishes after after a loss like that? You know what I think it does? I think it just gets the guys to the rink, get their gear on, and just get them feeling good about themselves on the ice. Because all those guys would have left the rink last night feeling pretty bad about how that game went. And it's like you have just a bad association with your gear and your stick and the ice. So you go out there, you probably do a little bit of like just some flow drills,

maybe a teaching drill and get the energy up for your group, but nothing, nothing more than that. Like, it's not like, oh, you guys got to get to the rink because we're going to bag you and stuff like that. It's just to get something to do, get the guys feeling good about their game. You also limit the amount of time they can spend moping around at the four seasons in Fort Lauderdale. Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, that's my read on that. But if you think anything's changing from the Panthers point of view, it's not. And that was a quiet game for the stars of the Oilers.

Like, that's something we haven't really talked about yet. McDavid and Drysidal, that was, there was not a lot of room out there for them. But they also kind of, they played into the Panthers game plan a little bit. Like the McDavid got stood up a couple times. The Eckblad one for sure sticks out. the other one was like Gus Foresling did a really good job one on one and then McDavid's looking back he's like where where is everyone no well dude you're the fastest guy in the world and you're trying to go one on four right now and then dry sidle basically got Pod Colson blown up by Bennett in the middle of the ice like I know you guys they're the they're the most skilled players but like there's there's some situations where you just got to live to fight another day and make guys like Foresling and Jones and Ekblad make guys like foursling and Jones and Ekblad make. them just turn and go get pucks because I always remembered like if my toe caps face the opposition's net for the most of the night I was so happy as soon as I had to go back and get them towards my net

I'm like oh man I'm looking over my shoulder now I got to make a play under pressure like put the pressure on them a little bit more in in some regards what do you think the McDavid post game speech was like in this one because it was game three last year and they were down three nothing, obviously, where we got the big explosion. And I don't know. This felt like the game where that that message had worn off because all the things that he was screaming about last year kind of happened again. I feel like we keep hearing about how much more relaxed he is in this series versus

last versus last year. That's become a weird talking point for people who are for people who are covering the series, which is interesting. Then yesterday, you know, he's fairly buttoned up postgame. You know, the CJ wrote about that after the game. Obviously, it wasn't our best, not our best at all. I don't think our best has shown up all series long, but it's coming. And that's like the thing that people are trying to hang their hats on, I suppose.

It's like, all right, he's. We heard that last year. And then we saw it in games four and five, and then it disappeared in games six and seven. And the stuff definitely feels a lot of series where six and seven is going to be. To his defense, to McDavid's defense, this Oilers team has been counted out so many times already. They were counted out against L.A., and then they went up against Vegas, and you're like, wow, come on, it's Vegas, right? No, no problem. St. Lain, you know, and there would have been a lot of skepticism against Dallas.

Meanwhile, they've been really resilient. So I think the Oilers, it goes without saying, they will for sure have a better effort. I would not be surprised if the Oilers won game four. And it's just they've been really, really scrappy and really resilient this year. And they can win games different ways. We had our Stuart Skinner Meltdown game. Or, you know what, I shouldn't even say that. I don't want to drag him that hard.

We had our Stewart Skinner gets pulled game. We had a Stewart Skinner Melchon game. You're implying it's the only one. I don't know. As a wise man once said, I saw a clip on social media. in Stuart Skinner, all things are possible. That's right. Frankie,

Frankie, you said that, you said there was no way the Oilers would go down three nothing in the series. It's true. He was right. Gone down, gone down 2.1, though.

Yeah. 18, 18 saves on 23 attempts for, for Skinner, allows five, gets pulled after that, after that act blood goal. We see Calvin Pickard,

who, you know, whatever. I wasn't, wasn't tested all that much. I'm not sure, I'm not sure how much it would have mattered if he was. Do we go back to him?

No questions asked. Skinner for game for game four. I'll put my hand in the air. I'll volunteer. I think you go right back to Stuart Skinner. Okay. Because it's one game. Yeah.

And okay, in the bigger picture, a loss is a loss, whether it was 2-1 and you were in it right till the end, 6-1 the way it was, it's over. It's one loss. Stuart Skinner, he didn't play well. The whole team didn't play well. So it's not all on him.

So you go back to him for sure. But if Skinner has a bad game, the next one, going to Pickard. That's the reality. But he deserves another crack at it. And that's the part that gives me maybe just a little bit of pause on this one, because my instinct is to agree with Frankie and say, of course, you go back to him.

If you go back to him, though, and he has another bad game and you have to go to Picker, then now you're Calvin Pickard the rest of the way, right? Because you're down 3-1. You're basically saying, this is our guy the rest of the way. he's going to win three for us. And that's a big ask. Versus if you get him in in game four and, you know, it goes, okay, then you can go back to Stuart Skinner and say this is our guy.

But let me ask you. I don't know. I think you have to go go with your guy. How big of an ask is it or how much more of an ask is it for Picker to win the games over Skinner to win those games that you're talking about? Like, is it that much of a jump, do you think from either goalie? I think in a world where the Oilers are Stanley Cup champions, there has to be a gap. Stuart Skinner has to be a legitimate one.

If he's not, then I'm not sure it matters because I'm not sure that you're going to beat Sergey Bobrovsky and the Panthers. And we're going to potentially, even though you've come this far for the second year in a row, we're going to be having the conversation in the offseason about why didn't they go and get a goalie during the year. Didn't they need him to have this game? This is what we said. Get it out of the way.

What I said. Get it out of the way. It's better that this happens in game three than game six or whatever. Because you know, he does have like, it's some kind of ability to just flush these games and move on from them and come back and he hits the reset button and it lasts for a little bit. And then he's got to,

you know, pull out the cartridge and blow into it and put it. and put it back. That's just the way it goes. That's the way this dude operates. So you might as well have this happen in game three and then be able to do whatever kind of mental reset that he does between games that clearly works for him.

So credit where it's due. But I'm almost, I almost see this. I'm like, okay, this is good for Edmonton. You can just move on. But yeah,

if you go back to Pickard, man, especially next game, I feel like, I kind of feel like that has to be it. But what do I know? If you go to Pickard next game, it feels like you're you're you're almost diminishing what stewart skinner has accomplished from when he took the net back over so give like we got to give the guy some credit man he has played really well like really solid he's had shutouts he's had games where he outplayed goaltenders that on paper are much better than him so i think he deserves the next crack at it because it does also feel like he's in a good like a good headspace he's had some interviews post game you're like that guy he sounded he's in that postate man he's not he sounded good postate man

He sounded good post game for sure. Like he's a, you know, tough dude. I'm not, I don't mean, I'm not trying to take anything away from him there. But I think that's just, that's the pattern, right? Like we've seen it happen plenty of times over the last couple of years. He goes out, has a stinker, comes back, is better for it. And then they're in good shape. So maybe that's what we saw last night.

Who knows? Yeah. All right, time to take a break. We're going to hit segment two where we're going to talk about Con Smyth favorites, Kahn Smyth leaders, our Kahn Smyth. ballots, however you want to put it. I feel like last night was a big night for that. I feel like some names entered the chat. We had our, with our moving day in the, in the Kansmythe race. That's next.

Well, as I feel like, this might be me being stupid. Certainly could be. Wouldn't be the first time. It didn't occur to me that Brad Marshawn very, very, very possibly could win the Kahn until he scored that first goal last night. That was like the light bulb going off. I was like, there is absolutely a world based on these next three games where stuff coagulates to the point where Brad Marchand gets it. And I hadn't had that thought until last night.

14 goals in the playoffs so far. That's incredible. But also the thing with the thing with Marchand is there's that narrative around him. You know, they trade for him and he makes the third line better. And he's buddy, buddy with Sam Bennett now. and he has the silly moment with the Dairy Queen stuff in the last round and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That stuff is as important for a cons might candidate to see as a lot of on-ice stuff is. And it just like for whatever reason didn't occur to me until last night that Marchand was making a charge.

So where do we think of his prospects? So there's probably a lot of people around the league who watch Brad Marchand on the Boston Bruins and now watch him on the Florida Panthers and say, anyone but him. I don't want to see that guy win the con smith. And that's understandable. For me, selfishly, I also would prefer if he didn't win the con smith. And it has nothing to do with watching him play and having an allegiance to another team is that I have always said that if the top two lines cancel each other out or the top guys all just cancel each other out, why don't third liners win the cons smite every single year because by that logic, that's your best player who's going to

have the most points. Well, if Brad Marchand wins the cons might this year, he's a third liner and it would completely diminish my theory. It blows up your theory. It blows it up. And I can't have that happen. So I need Bennett because he's on the second line to win the cons smite. That's where I'm at with that. It's completely self-serving. It's not fair. It's selfish. But it's my reality based on what I have said for years now. We can appreciate that. I still feel like Bennett is ahead in that voting block. Let's give it to a dirtbag who is playing great and represents.

Start drinking every time you say dirt bag. I'm going to crack beers for these now. Yeah. And but I feel like Bennett is still ahead because he's got the other narrative, right? He's got the about to be a free agent narrative, which is also fun. But yeah, this gets voted on by. by the media. And not just the media,

the elites, the best of the best. Correct. That's something that everybody, everybody needs to remember. These are special, hand chosen in the press box. You get a little slip of paper.

The inner council, yes. You are taught the secret handshake. You're given the role. Like a secret society? Kind of. It's close enough. It's like there's,

there's stuff. There's a lot of the chosen ones. Put into it. have I ever had a cup final or a constant might vote? No. Of course not. Really? Never. Not even when Pittsburgh was winning cups? No, because they split it up. They'll go like

they I don't know exactly how the votes split but it'll be like X amount of people who cover the Eastern Conference team X amount of people on the beat for the Western Conference team. And then it's based on how many times you've been in a Pierce Cottage. And then it's the cottage crew mainly. Yeah. So I never, I never fell neatly into any of those categories, especially, especially during the,

during the penguins years. But that's, but that's, I, and I'd say this in jest, like, in, to some degree, but like, not really. We're human beings. We attach, we attach narrative to events that we observe to help us make sense of them. And I think when you have something like Bennett or someone like Bennett or someone like, that's just like, it's, it's like, this is eat. This is catnip.

This is perfect. This is, this is why we care about the sport and why. be right about it and they provide ample opportunity to do that, you know, more compellingly and more interestingly. And I think that plays a big part of it. And it doesn't help that they're, that one of those guys is going to deserve it if the Panthers win too. That's the important part. That's a, that's a very clear distinction. Like one of those guys will deserve it. If the Florida Panthers win, this is a not, not a year where you can name Connor McDavid, the Con Smythe winner. Like you can't do it two years in a row. It would seem a little, you know, it seemed a little silly.

but Bennett is very deserving, man. And I think, like, this guy is obviously, he's going to get paid. He's going to get paid. It's interesting if you go down the rabbit hole as far as, like, what the numbers are going to look like. But quickly on, like, his game, like, he had 51 points this year, okay? Like, it's not overwhelmingly great in the regular season, for sure. But I think when the calendar flips to, like, the middle of April, in his head, he probably looks at it and says,

this is like a 20 to 25 game stretch where it turns into a full sprint where I'm going to act and play like a madman, like a lunatic. And it's just, you know, you can't do it in November, you can't do it January 26th. Like you just,

you can't do it all the time. But once that calendar flips, you're like, I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's go time. And I've got a pack of rabid animals next to me that allows me to do this at the highest level. And it's just such a perfect fit.

And so, yeah, he's very deserving. Like, he's got the most road goals, most road goals in a playoffs ever, I believe. I think so, yeah. Yeah, like, it's remarkable what he's done, man. And he just, like, he's kind of turned, the calendar turned, and he's like, it's go time. And it's a sprint to the finish and good luck stopping me. Yeah, I, I just, I keep the, the thought I keep. having with Bennett says relates to the

UFA discussion and as relates to how much money he's going to make in the summer is like I'm not sure how many teams he's worth eight million or eight and a quarter million dollars or wherever we're at here. I know that he's worth that much of the Florida Panthers.

We know it because we're seeing it. This is proof of concept that that dude for the way that team is structured, the guys that he's playing with, the guys that he will play with for the next house from the next however many years. You say whatever.

We're the Florida Panthers. Who gives a you know what if we're paying him too much money when he's 34? Like it doesn't care. Let's win cups now. This dude is the best. This dude is the best possible fit for us. And also, we'd have to replace him. And I don't know where that's going to come from.

Yeah. Yeah. Pew Souter is not replacing Sam Bennett. Like, no, that's the reality of the UFA market for Centerman, right? Like it's very limited and there's no one really like Bennett. And if you do like the last year history lesson with the Florida Panthers, what did they do? They prioritized Sam Reinhart over Brandon Montour and said, we'll figure out the deep position afterwards and they got Seth Jones. So, you know, if you look at it this year, Eckblad, Bennett, I mean, they're both very good players.

No arguing. And I'm sure they would love to keep both. And maybe they do. But it feels like there's a Florida number for Bennett. it. And if you want him to leave, that number better be very, very aggressive. And I think that's why we keep seeing that $10 million floated out there. Because if you really want him to think about it, it's like you're going to have, it's going to have to be egregious. Or else, or else, why is, why is he going to do it? How much, we talk about how star players don't tend to actually hit free agency.

I don't know if you guys have heard this. There are different tax rates in Florida that may give them somewhat of an advantage. I guess here's my question. How bad does he want to just see what that market is on July 1st? Because in theory, in theory, nobody's allowed to reach out and indicate what number they'll go to until July 1. So that means that if he wants to find out if that 10 million number is out there, he's at least losing the eighth year. Because remember July 1, even if he goes back to Florida, he can't get the eight year anymore.

Is it worth it just to find out? Or should you just save us all the trouble and sign your $8.5 million deal with Florida Panthers now and on wheel like Sam Reinhardt did? And that's where the Ekblad of it all kind of comes into play too, right? Because that's where Florida is for planning purposes, probably needs to, that's where it gets interesting, right? If it's,

if it's going to turn into a thing where it's either Aaron Eckblatt or or Sam Bennett, the closer you get to July 1, the more complicated it gets, it gets for them. So yeah, that's interesting. Because if Sam Bennett wants to go to July 1 and see if the Shmallumb

shmush mackets they're going to offer him $11 million a year like he's going to he's going to have that opportunity but when you when you throw in the fact that there's another very high profile also Aaron Eklad playing great right now I think he's playing I think so too he looks as good as looks as good as he is as good as he has honestly yeah so when you throw that in the mix man I I think stuff gets a whole lot more interesting do they have more for both those guys because I mean And Ekblad's kind of being very clear. He doesn't want to go anywhere. He's not even playing the game.

Yeah. But a lot of us, when they went and got Seth Jones, we looked at that and said, that's the Aaron Ekblad money coming up the books. When maybe it was like Frankie said, that's kind of like, that's more like the brain and mentor replacement in a lot of ways. It just didn't happen right away. The other thing, well, okay, if we're looking at Florida. like Bennett,

Ackblad, you probably can't bring bad Brad Marchand back. Like if you're, if realistically, if you want a chance of signing those two guys, you can't bring Marchan. But like,

think about this. If Florida's going to give you, let's say Florida even wants to give you 7.95 if you're Sam Bennett. And another team, pick a team. You mentioned, you know,

fake Columbus, whoever wants to give you nine and a half million. Is your life changing that much with the nine and a half? Or do you enjoy being a panther with all your guys that you play with that really kind of bring out the best in you? And you know you have a good thing going and you like it down there and you drive a golf cart to the rink.

And you got really smart management because and you know they're going to keep your team relevant and in the mix. Like, I don't know. You're still taking a private jet if you want to. Right? You still have a lot of money. And I don't want to bring up the state income tax thing. But that's like, when you're in that area and you're talking about 7.95 versus 9.2, no state income tax on that amount of money, you throw that in there.

You throw in the weather factor because guys, that's clearly important for them. And also you throw in the eighth year. Like, it gets close to being in a wash pretty, pretty quickly. All your stuff is there. And it's a great team. And, yeah, it's. you potentially just went in back-to-back cups with a bunch of dudes who you like

and on a line with Matthew Kachuk and whatever else. Like, okay. I know. I'm just looking at, so there's a good tax calculator online. I can send you the guys, you guys, the link to it. This is the Corado actuarial tables. I'm looking at right now.

If he signed nine and a half with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he would pay, and keep in mind, this is roughly, right? Because you are going to have some discrepancies as far as like write-offs and stuff, but it's I like how you say that this is a table you found on the internet and not just like your own special. No, no, no. So if he's not set up.

If he signs nine and a half with Toronto, he pays $5,000 and $42,000 in tax roughly. That's nine, that's nine and a half in Toronto. If he signs eight and a half in Florida, he pays $3,100,000 in tax. Like, it's such a big difference, man. Like, what are we talking about? This is why hockey fans up in Ontario. Oh, we hate our functional schools and libraries and all of that. Dude.

No one mentioned this stuff when the teams that played in no state tax states were practicing at the Y and doing dress and drive in their SUVs to get to practice. Put some pieces of plywood when the glass ball. Yeah, exactly. But now that they got smart people in management and they built great facilities, everything's come together. But we didn't talk about it when they practiced them. Why? That's Jeff Vinnick and Vinny Viola and Julian Brisebois and Bill Zito came to town.

And now it's the deal breaker, baby. Yeah. And as we all know from other sports, like nobody ever, nobody signs in New York or L.A. in any of those other sports, they just, they can't. Hockey players are greedy. That's what it comes down to. Hockey players are greedy wimps, is what we're saying. Hockey players are...

I don't want attention, but I want money, and I want to wear flip-flops to practice. I will be blunt and honest with you. Hockey players are cheap, and myself, to a certain degree, included in that, because I remember walking to the practice facility one day in Toronto, and one of the guys looking at what I was wearing,

and it was like team-issued sandals, some kind of like NHL-P-A-issued shorts, and like a, like, you know, like a call it a bio steel t-shirt. And he looked at me and he goes, let's try and wear some clothes that we purchased from now on. Dagger. It's true.

And then you got in the podcast game. And now you don't have to ever worry about that. Now I don't even have to wear pants. It's great. Don't, don't camera, do not pan down at the moment. Yeah.

We'll get you. We'll hook you up with some violent gentleman gear that you can just go head to toe for your next formal event. Yeah, now we're talking quickly on that. I was at lunch with a guy one time, and he was wearing like a violent gentleman hoodie, and some lady walked up to us at the table and was not happy to see. She was like, what is that? Why are you wearing something that says violent gentleman?

Don't you know with that, like, like, lady, we're just having lunch. We're just sitting here having lunch. And then she was like, no, you don't get it. George Peros is biased against the Toronto Maple Leafs. And then she pulled out like a bunch of charts and started pinning things to the wall. And then pulled off her wig and revealed herself to be Sean McIndoe. That's what she wanted to have. She was Sean McIndoo. She was ready to go toe to toe to on a social referendum. I'm like, dude, just talk to DGB about this. This is someone, someone sent me this sweatshirt in the mail

and I'm wearing it. It showed up. It's fine. Yeah. Just to put a pin in the con discussion, because we talked a lot about the Panthers. Do we have someone for the Oilers? Say that I mean, it's too early to say, I guess, because they have to come back. There's so many, there's so many variables there. But like, at the start of this series, who is your guy for them? Oh, it's, it's no-brainer. It's McDavid if they win. I mean, you can make an argument.

Try that'll could. Yeah. Could make the push. For sure, 100%. But I just think if they lose, you can't go Connor two years in a row. If they win. No brain. Yeah.

Evander Kane did his candidacy some, candidacy some damage. last night, I think, unfortunately. Yeah. Rough, rough night. Frankie, where are they having this week, man? What's TSN doing? Quiet week, but Thursday I'll be on the post game on TSN. So that's where I'm at.

Love it. Everybody tune in. See our boy then. And we're up on YouTube. We're trying to do numbers on YouTube. So check it out. Aren't we all, brother? Take it easy, man.

We'll talk you next week. See you guys. All right, there goes Frankie, just me and Macandoo. Sean, this week, I learned. What have we learned, Sean? Not 24 hours ago, my friend. The T.J. O'Shee was responsible for the 2018 caps dip into the fountains at the waterfront in D.C. I had no idea that was part of the, that was part of the, you know, T.J. O'Shee retires packages that were starting to circulate yesterday because we knew that an announcement was coming.

I had just completely missed that that was his call. I guess I just thought it was Ovechkin all these years, but it was actually Oshie. I'm with you. Ovechkin's been running around with stolen valor now for six years as crazy, wacky fountain guy. We just all saw the back tattoo and we're like, yeah, that's a fountain right there. Now, here's my question. Did T.J. Osi lead the charge or did he do like the class clown sit in the back and tell the other kids? You know, it would be funny.

Go jump in that fountain. Well, he said it's in the back and doesn't get in trouble for it. He said, like, this is, he, I was, I had to write up the news of him retiring. So I dug up some old, some quote, because they had some Caps 50th anniversary thing, like, at that fountain in February. Also, by the way, where he announced his retirement, like, they're really leaning into the T.J. Oshy is a fountain guy kind of kind of thing. He's trying to get in that, whatever. The fountain industry after.

Yeah. We'll give him a pass because he just retired after a very long, very successful career. So whatever. Yeah, he was like, he was like, he first off, he thought it was going to be deeper. He copped to that. He didn't realize that it was going to be three inches of water that they were just, that they just ended up rolling around in. And it was, yeah, it was hot.

And they'd been slamming beers for 72 hours consecutively before that or whatever it was. So it seemed like a good idea at the time. And yeah, he was, he was. he was leading the charge on it. That is pretty impressive. That instantly becomes my second favorite T.J. Oshy fact after the... A certain goal he scored, perhaps. A certain irrelevant goal he scored.

The well-known fact that T.J. doesn't stand for anything is not actually his initials. That's always a fun moment whenever a hockey fan. What does T.J. stand for? It's nothing, man. Timothy, Jimothy. It's fake. long live Timothy Jimithy

Oshy I suppose he's done he made a gazillion dollars won of Stanley Cup and yeah pretty good career as a burgeon career in the in the

fountain jumping industry and also probably going to be on ESPN because he was he showed up during the Western Conference final

and was pretty good all your fountain needs give T.J. a call Jimothy Fountain industry yeah that's right

I learned that there are let me see 26 members of the PWAHA voting on the Calder Trophy who have never watched a hockey game because that's how many people did not vote for Lane Bobby Or Hutzon to win the Calder. But 165 did. This is not, I mean, it's not unanimous, but this is pretty close. And this was this was actually a much wider swing than I think.

thought there was going to be. It felt like we spent a lot of the year with Mackin-Cellibrini is the annoying. The middle part of the year for sure. That's when that felt like he was making the charge. And he ends up dropping the third finishes behind Dustin Wolf. So I mean, I think that's, I think they got it right. That's where, that's where my vote would go.

If I had one. But, uh, same goes for me. Neither of us have awards votes. Now, now do you, have you had them recently? Are you like, I had, I had one for a while. And there was a regime change and I no longer had one. They shifted it around. Okay, so when they decided to start randomly selecting people,

you're, you're one of the guys who's just randomly not been selecting. Oh, I don't know. I don't know if it's that random. But yeah. Interesting. All right. Yeah, okay. So no votes for.

us. I was surprised that like, I mean, that's what, like 85% of the first place votes. Yeah, that's that he collected. So in the end, the voter said this as much as we all got, you know, some fun columns out of the, the whole call to it. It turns out there wasn't much of one to begin with. So, no, they made, they made the playoffs and everybody said, what are, what are we doing here? Like, this guy is, this guy is, is the X factor on a team that made a jump, you know, year to year that, that we weren't expecting. Let's, let's not, let's not overthink this. And even and Matt Fe, Michkov, the only other guy to get even second place vote. And he only got a handful.

So that's those big four and then a cut and dry. Yeah. It sounds about right. Sean, what's up with you this week? This is this, I feel like everything's off. This is like where we talk, when we talk about our schedule, it's screwy because it's this is a mess. You would think it's the Stanley Cup final.

So like we'd, we'd all be coming out with all guns blazing. but if you're not covering the actual series, these are tough times because there's just, there's not doing anything. So much between games and all of that. So I can be filling some time. I've got a piece coming tomorrow

where I put the call out to everyone. I said, look, I want to get in on the Who Says No game that so many of our writers love this. Yeah, that was the very emotional tweet. I thought it was going to be like,

I thought you were asking for money or something. something. Nope, nope. I was, I was looking for trade proposals, specifically involving things that cannot be traded. So give me your GMs, your coaches, your mascots, your whatever else. People got pretty, I guess I would say creative with it. I would say what really happened is I got a ton of responses and about 80% of them I think people meant to send like their, as their comedy writing package to Saturday Night Live. but they send it to me instead. I was going to say, dude, you opened up, you opened up Pandora's box.

You're just asking for people to write jokes that are worse than the ones that you would write about this, about the whole thing. The worst were the people who gave me half the joke and then didn't even do the punchline. They're like, I don't know, Florida trades palm trees to Buffalo for something. It's like, no, you got to, you can't just, that's only half a joke. Give me the payoff. Florida trades real palm trees of Buffalo for the, you know, the, flitable ones that they brought to games after their general manager humiliated

them over the course of the regular season. John G is now leading off. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. But yeah, that's going to go up. I think tomorrow, I think tomorrow. Let's say tomorrow. Close enough. I don't really have anything in the hopper here.

I mean, me and Dom are working on a couple of things. I mean, not really, honestly. You want to do a newsletter? It's a pass for me, dog. I just, I'm still, I'm still, I'm still riding the high of being like, hey, I was just on the road for six weeks. Like, I don't actually need to do anything for the next for the next five, five or six days, right? That's fair.

I'm going to stay in that mode until someone yells at me, I think. That's my approach at least. All right, bud. Have a good week. We'll talk, I assume, next Wednesday, but you never know, because we're all over the place. We're five days a week, not really. Everybody have a nice week. We'll talk to you soon.