The Athletic Hockey Show - Should the Capitals be panicked after Canes Game 1 OT win?

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Sean and Sean pick apart the Canes overtime win over the Capitals in game one, and if Washington can bounce back after head coach Spencer Carbery said he thought the Caps would be better. The guys wonder if Calvin Pickard can keep up his steady play, as the Oilers set an NHL record with their fifth straight come from behind victory, in game one vs Vegas, what the Maple Leafs should do with Sam Bennett and if Connor Hellebuyck will have a better round two vs the Stars, or if his playoff demons still remain? Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, what up? The athletic hockey show, Wednesday edition. Red Alert, everybody. We are frankless. I repeat, we are frankless. Frankie Carado is not here. This is Sean McIndoo.

He was on his way to the studio and Sam Bennett got him. I should have seen it coming. I feel like we've done this long enough now where I can, I should sense when I set you up for something. And I didn't even, didn't even realize that. So you're saying you were kind of blindsided by it? I would say I was blindsided and yeah, I'm going to go throw up in the bathroom of this courtyard by Marriott in a little bit. That's how it works allegedly.

We might see Anthony Stollard is in game two. I'm sure we'll talk about that in segment two. Got another game as well. But let's start with the series the series is that opened last night. The one in Washington to cover is Caps, hurricanes, obviously. I'm interested in your perspective on that one, and I'm interested in how much you think the Capitol should panic about the way that game played out,

because I think I know where I stand on the morning after. And I want to know where you stand having watched it in person, because having watched most of it from home, and get every minute. So maybe there are some subtleties or some, little details that I missed. This game to me for about 50 minutes was, okay, the hurricanes are absolutely speedbagging these guys.

The hurricanes are a vastly better team. This is all playing out exactly as most of us who picked the hurricanes thought it would and maybe even worse for Washington. But the caps still might be able to steal this. This might be just one of those weird nights where, hey, it's the NHL. The best team doesn't always win on a given night. The best team is clearly Carolina, but they're down one-nothing, and maybe Washington is actually going to pull this off and then be able to regroup.

And whoops, nope, there's the goal. Now it's 1-1. And overtime, obviously, Carolina takes it. So I'm looking at this if I'm a Washington fan saying, Huge missed opportunity. We now have lost our home ice, and I'm terrified because that was, if a 2-1 overtime game can ever be a blowout, that's what that looked like to me sitting on my couch. What did it look like in the arena?

I think you and I are pretty much on the same page. That felt like worst-case scenario for Washington in that game. I think one of the big reasons for that, look, we know the caps aren't a perfect team. The analytics are the five-on-five play is rough for them in a lot of respects. Not telling tells out of school there. But the problem for them, I think, with the way that game went is that it was the stuff that they got away with against Montreal that just cropped back up. they got away with it because the Canadians aren't the hurricanes. But when you see them,

when you see the defenseman mismanaging pucks in front of the net and struggling with the breakout and all that stuff consistently, you can get away with that when you play the Montreal Canadians who are effectively a one-line team in that series, you are not going to get away with that for any protracted amount of time against the Carolina hurricanes. And I think the goal that Logan Stankovin scored, to tie it is just like a perfect example of that because you see Alex Alex

Alex he has capital's defense man literally gets pressured loses a puck in his feet cooking yummy is there sets up in and Stankeman's there too but both those guys are on the puck Stankevin has has a wide open shot and he buries it that's the kind of stuff that was happening to Washington in the first round that wasn't coming back and ruining them and that's the stuff that they were doing last night that directly caused a loss. So, yeah, I would be concerned. If I'm a Capitals fan, can I get away with saying,

all right, we weren't good in game one. Carolina was very good in game one. They tilted the ice. We were 10 minutes away from winning the game anyways. So, all right, that's game one. We'll adjust. They'll adjust to the adjustments. And the series will find the equilibrium

him that it doesn't have quite yet and we can still be okay here or am I cooked that's I again that's like if I'm Washington I if I'm a Washington fan who knows the Carolina Hurricanes and they know each other because they play each or they play a lot division rivals all that stuff I look at that game and I say that is typically the game in the playoffs at the Carolina Hurricanes lose they had five posts yes they have 94 shot attempts all situations or whatever or whatever it was. That is, that,

and that, that to me is, is the scariest part, is that outcome typically goes against the Carolina Hurricanes. And they're the ones who, who are sitting around after the game saying, you know, okay,

we, you know, we, we like the process. We just need to get a little closer and da, da, da, da, da, da,

and that's not where we, where we found ourselves last, like, they got, they, they had, the hurricanes had truly terrible luck and still managed to win. And I think that's, I think that should be nerve-wracking.

There are just games in every playoff series or in many playoff series where it just, you talk about missed opportunities, but it's, it's like, you know, it's like when you're watching a football game and the defense blows a coverage and they got a guy wide open down the field and the quarterback overthrows them. And you're just going, oh, man, we're not going to have that. It's not that we can't win the game now, but we're not going to get that opportunity again. And that's kind of what it felt like. And look, I mean, we're 10 minutes away from us all sitting here going, Washington wins game one, one nothing.

They stole one. But okay, you know what? So you probably still feel okay if you're Carolina losing that game. But hey, you know, this is, they don't ask how, they ask how many it says. Well, I mean, how many now doesn't look good for Washington either. I'm assuming you pick Carolina in this series before game one. I picked the caps in seven. actually.

Okay. So just to just to differentiate. All right. So there you go. I found the one guy on the planet who picked the Eastern Conference number one seed to win their second round series. Did game one cause you to reevaluate that? Or is this kind of what you were thinking? I think just like for the sheer tonnage of opportunities that the hurricanes had last night,

And I think that, look, you know that the capitalers are going to lose this series at five on five. That's just the way it goes. It's what the hurricanes do. They're going to out shoot you. They're going to outchance you, whatever. But we've also seen, you know, the way they, I think the first period yesterday was also kind of instructive. Because, because, yes, Carolina jumped out to this huge attempt advantage. Yes, they had the chance advantage.

Like, they outplayed them, like, pretty dramatically. But also it wasn't quite as dramatic as the natural stat trick. you know, window would have, what it would have, would have, would have suggested, because there are a lot, and this is just the nature of, of the, this is, this is, this is a feature not a bug for the Carolina hurricanes. Like, the, the whole thing for them is, hey, let's, let's, let's spam shots on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the contenters, and create chaos in the front of them and see what happens. That's, that is a completely fine way to, to, to approach hockey games, but sometimes it leads to, and this is a cliche, but it leads to quantity over quality. And I think we saw

that in the in the first in the first period even even though watching got smoke territorially and in some ways there i thought the first period was was maybe it was maybe their strongest so so that was that was that was the kind of game that i was expecting to see um but man it to the the snowball effect from there on out where you're talking about the nine what a 94 to 34 shot shot attempted vanish for like that's that's that's inarguable yeah that's that's 33 14 shots on goal and shot attempts, even a wider gap. I will say this.

As of this morning, the NHL still has not accepted my proposal to stop determining the results of playoff games by the score and to start determining it by the deserve to win a meter. One of my favorite things is that deserve to win a meter. 79% Carolina last night, according to you there, are friends at Moneypuck, which feels, sorry, 77%. That feels a little bit flattering. But when you're looking at that expected goals chart,

you're right, right up to about almost exactly the 30 minute mark. It's Carolina by a bit, but not, it does not look like anything where you would say, okay, this is concerning. And then for the second half of the game, it just goes, hey, wire. in favor of Carolina. Now they were trailing for most of that. Score effects do come into play. The team that is trailing do tend to take more shots because they're selling out a little

more for offense and the other team is collapsing back a little bit. And so we're used to seeing that. But that's not what was going on last night. That wasn't, you know. And I guess maybe that leads to the question. What did Washington do that thing where you get one goal and, you go, okay, we're going to make this hold up where they should have been pushing to get the second goal?

Or were they just, were they right to just try to survive the onsla? I think it was, they were just taking, taking what they could get, honestly. I don't, I don't, I don't think they were like, let's dip into a defensive shell here and try to make this, try to make this hold up. I think, I think the, I think the hurricanes were just doing what they, doing what they wanted to against them, honestly. that I if there's a bright side for for this for Washington though it's that Logan Thompson looked incredible for most of the game

and he had and this has really been true since he came back from his from whatever the hell happened to him in that in that second game or in in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the in the center didn't miss any time but other than obviously left the game but he comes back healthy for game four you know, who knows, he's looked gradually better with each, with each game. And I think now he looks like a guy who can, who can steal a game or two. And again, we know that the hurricanes are prone to that too.

So I think if there's a bright side for watching him coming out of that, it's that the goaltenders playing really well, and they're playing against a team who for all their talents and for all these things we've spent gaspum up about and all that, they are prone to getting goalied. It's been, it's happened to them many times over the last few years. and they're facing someone who looks like he's got the capability to do it. So if Washington gets one from him, then whatever, the whole face of the matchup changes.

But, man, that was a ass kicking. It's funny, right? Like, I mean, we, I think all of us who try to think about this sport and think about what we're seeing, always in the back of our minds have that thing that says, like, don't get too hung up on the results. You know, how you get there matters a lot, at least as, far as being predictive for the future. And you're right. This is,

you've, you've nailed the two things about the Carolina Hurricanes experience, especially in the playoffs. They throw a million shots, but sometimes not the highest quality. So sometimes the, you know, the shot stats are a little bit misleading with them more than most teams.

And they get goalie. And those two things are related, right? Because getting goalied is, oh, the guy had 40 saves, but maybe they weren't the, the same level of quality as, as you'd see in another game.

We got a seeing-eye point shot in overtime that won this game. If that goes the other way, we're sitting here this morning going same old hurricanes. 100%. This was the classic Carolina hurricanes. This is exactly what always happens to them. And here we go again. And now the entire narrative is it feels like it's completely flipped based on the result. At some point late in that game, it became clear that it was going to be the most.

most cansyest outcome possible. It was either going to be the most canziest win imaginable or the most canziest loss imaginable. And what we got was, you know, the former. Because again, it is. There is some degree of justice. I hate thinking that way about, about hockey. Like, I think you run into problems if you start focusing on what you think team

deserve versus what they actually get. But I think there was also some degree of like, carmic justice. it play there where after 64 minutes of total domination, it truly like a nothing shot from Slaven, from closer to the blue line than the top of the circle, honestly, he's just a flick and, you know, let's see what happens, right? And that's it.

That's, for better or worse, that's how they do things. There was chaos in front of Logan Thompson. We thought maybe someone tipped it. We thought maybe there's going to be some kind of weird phantom assist on it or whatever. And it didn't, it didn't happen. It was just funny. The most cany outcome came on the most cany goal.

It was fun to watch. And I think, you know what? That nails it as far as what it last night was. You said it was going to be the Keynesiest win or the Keynesiest loss. That was the cansyest game. And that's the scary thing for Washington because you're supposed to be the one seed. You're on home ice. You've got last change, all that stuff.

And the Carolina Hurricanes just came into your building and played. the prototypical Carolina Hurricanes game would have been nice to steal it didn't happen I'm worried if I'm a Washington fan

wasn't meant to be no do you know what the Pierre Luke Dubois Connerick Michael Tom Wilson line do you know do you know what their numbers were what do you think

what do you think their attempt numbers were I'm going to say not fantastic not great yeah did they had out a 30 percent. 23 to two attempts last night. 11 to 1.

11 to 1 in scoring chances. Not going to work. I'm Spencer Carberry. I'm telling them not to do that again. I think he's probably doing that right now, actually. That was definitely the mode of Carberry was in last night. He seemed like he was not psyched about whatever he was going to have to tell us.

And again, that's with whole mice where you, theoretically get to pick the matchups. That's not good. Time to move Alexi Proto's back up in the lineup, folks. All right, what the hell happened in that other game? I watched none of it because I was working. Vegas went up to nothing. I went to bed.

Is that what happened? Okay, cool. Sure, they held that. No, it's, uh, held on. I mean, that, that again was kind of a, I mean, it was a good game. Vegas gets to two nothing, partly on an early high stick. They get the four minute power play early and convert on that.

And then the Oilers, you know, I mean, this has been the playoffs where two goal leads aren't safe. Feels like we've been saying that for a few years now, but certainly after the weekend we just saw, nobody is thinking two nothing against Edmonton is a safe lead. But yeah, here they come. four straight goals. Again, another one where you look at it and you go, okay, you're Vegas, you just lost on home ice. There goes your home ice advantage. You weren't able to, you know, McDavid and Drysidal and, you know, didn't, they didn't have monster games, but it didn't look like you were slowing them down.

That game was tied with three minutes left. Yeah. That game swung on a, I will never call a Leon Drysidal goal fluky because he is one of those. guys where he can do he could do anything he could he could bounce one from behind his own net and i would say he may have done that on purpose so when he swats a random puck in the air from you know essentially the goal line and it it finds its way in i don't call that a flu but it was a weird goal that's not one that if you're vagus you're too worried about repeating itself so some positives to pull for vegas certainly but

Second half of that game, Edmonton looked good. And I'm concerned if I'm a Vegas fan. I'm not terrified the way I am if I'm a Washington fan, but I'm concerned. I see the Oilers depth machine showed up. I get calls from the, I saw Heimann scored. I said they got a goal from the Frederick Henrik on a brand line. It's just how they drew it up, right? I love how Edmonton is so good at the top of the lineup that 50 goals score

Zach Heimann is like part of the depth score. A guy who would be the best forward on like eight teams in this league is, uh, is the death guy. You know, Connor Brown. Jeez, remember, and he couldn't score? He's, he's out here, snobing. Yeah, he went, how many, how many years was it was like three years without scoring the goal? I think he was.

So he went a real long time and, and, uh, good things come to those who wait apparently because he, you know, he got in there. And, uh, and the goaltending held. Yeah. Enough. As we, like, again, as we all drew. it up. This is what we knew we were going to get from the Oilers heading into the series is depth scoring and solid goal petting. That's what we all said.

The foundational pillars of the Edmonton Oilers. Okay. So, I mean, I saw the first two goals were Mark Stone on the power play, correct? I don't remember if the second one was power play or not, but it was the first one was. Is there, was there anything else you liked? But I, in Patrangelo, I didn't play. play. Did anybody all of a sudden individual level pop a little bit in that one for you? Because again, I'm not, this is full to

no. Full disclosure. I watched zero seconds of this game because it was over by the time I was done working. I wouldn't say anyone pop for me. But like it wasn't a bad game by Vegas. This wasn't something where you're sitting there going, oh man, we got a

bunch of things to fix, which is a mix. It's a mixed blessing, right? You never want to see your team play bad, but if your team lost, you kind of would like to look at it and go, oh, they were awful, you know, earn the tapes or,

you know, fix this and this, which we know they can and they'll be okay again. This one still feels like a long series. Yeah. Doesn't it? I mean,

obviously if Edmonton goes on wins game two now, or now it's, it's panic time. But this one feels like, still feels like it's going six or seven. There's going to be twists and turns. The Oilers are involved, man.

Like, I just can't. They're chaos agents. They can be playing against anybody, and I would just write in for six games at minimum. And they could be losing in the series or not, too. You never know. Yep.

All right. We're going to jump to segment two. We've got two games tonight. Stick around. We'll be right back. All right. We're back. And so, too, perhaps, is Anthony Stollars?

He seems like he's at least an option to start for the Maple Leafs. As of Wednesday morning, he has not been ruled out, I think is the way to put it. That's interesting. That's interesting phraseology there, I would say. Because he hasn't, I mean, they didn't do the full practice yesterday. They'll do a skate today, presumably, and maybe even be done by the time people hear this. I can't imagine that he's going to play. I thought that about Logan Thompson in game four of Montreal.

Yeah. Of Montreal Washington. And that, that dude came back. He missed the, he looked like he was, like he blew out his knee and got a, got a concussion on the same play.

And then he, he basically, I mean, he missed the rest of that game, but was, was ready for game four. So like that, to me,

that has changed, at least as far as this playoff, is concerned. That's changed my, my own calculus there. Because I, because I would have bet real live money that there was no way that that dude was going to play. And now it's like, so I, so forget what you know on the front, I guess. I, yes, but it's one thing to see a guy get run over and think, well, that could be a concussion situation. It's another thing entirely to see somebody get hit directly in the head. I know.

Vomit at the bench. We are told to even go to the hospital on a stretcher. Like everything about this, and it's the NHL playoffs, so God forbid they tell us anything about what's happening in jury. But it's the NHL, you know, it's everything about this screams, concussion and, you know, if you say serious concussion, people jump in and say,

Every concussion is serious. It's a brain injury. It's a thing. Yes. Sure. Seriously. I seriously almost said that about Logan Thompson and, you know, like pulled back the reins because, yeah, people kind of understandably get a little fuzzy about that, a little dodgy.

So every indication here is that that's exactly what happened. And to put a guy back in. In game two of a series, and again, I hate to do this because you're talking about somebody's brain. I mean, it feels weird to even like start dropping in game theory about a playoff series. But you're already up one nothing. It's early in a series. Why risk it? And even if that risk to you is just why risk him getting re-injured and then we can't have him later in the game and you're not worried about all the things you're supposed to be worried about when you're talking about a hind.

I, I mean, I'm not going to say I hope he doesn't. doesn't play, I hope he doesn't play unless they are absolutely certain that it's the right thing. If they're 95% sure that he's okay, I hope he doesn't play. If you, I just, I feel like throwing up on the bench is, is one of those, should be one of those disqualifying things. I just kind of, I mean, similar to, similar to Thompson, honestly. Like, he, he didn't, didn't react in that, in that kind of way, but I figured there would just be a mechanism in place

that would just be like, okay, you know, you're in the protocol. See you in four days, buddy. And that's, that's,

well, that's it, right. I mean, not what's going on. Like you and I, like, we're both,

we're both football fans. Not to bring it up again, but like, how many times do you see a guy get cast? And then it's like, well, now he's in the protocol

and it's a one week process. We'll see in a week. Maybe he'll be back for next Sunday. But, yep, um, so,

you know, in this case, a week would be three games of this series, which is massive. And, you know, we don't know, you know, Joseph Walt didn't look good in game one, but he came in cold. He's been good in the playoffs in the past. He also has a history of being injury prone. Who knows where we wind up if Dennis Hildaby suddenly is a name to know in this series.

But I had a bunch of people, well, I had a few people say directly to me, and I saw other places like, you know, what's, what's happening with the spotters? Why didn't he get pulled when he threw up and this? Like, I would just let people know the rules around concussion spotters and when they have to pull are so incredibly strange and so incredibly specific that it is, if you're ever watching a game going, that has to be a concussion spot. No, it doesn't. Mm-hmm. Because they, they clearly sat down with the right idea, which is let's get this, this, let's get a system in place where a neutral person can say, no, get them out of there.

And then everybody got to put their hand up and say, well, what about this? What about that? This exception, that exception. And it's, it's carved to such a degree, including, just to give one example, if I punch you in the face. Mm-hmm. You never know And which it's happened It's a long night

Long night in Vegas at the 2020 Yeah exactly If you go down holding your head and look like And you say okay do the concussion spotters Jump in for a guy getting punched in the head Guess what? It depends on whether it was a gloved punch or not Did I have my glove on when I punched you?

If it's a fight and my glove off, then the concussion spotters have, but if it's just like run-of-the-mill play and I just punch you in the mouth with my glove, no, now the spotters do not, it's not mandatory. It is so bizarre. So yeah, I mean, to say like, oh, he's thrown up at the bench, that should be automatic. Yeah, probably should.

It's not in there. And it probably would have to do like, did he get it in the bucket or did it go all over the floor? Like, which spotter stuff is truly like a camel is a horse built by a committee kind of thing where you just like, We tack one thing on to another and then it just lose it. You completely lose the plot based on added specificity, right? Including the fact that, you know, as has come up in some of the conversation around Stollers,

a goal of getting, taking a slap shot in the face does not trigger anything. And it's interesting because I have seen with this, there are a lot of people who are looking at it going. That must be where the concussion happened. You know, the first period you get, you know, he takes slap shot and gets hit in the face. and seems to just shake it off fine. And then I've seen goalies saying, actually, probably not, because you take a slap shot in the face, it stings. You know, it rings your bell, so to speak,

but you shake it off. That's what the mask is there for, the entire thing, all the physics of it are designed to take all of that force and put it everywhere but in your brain. and so versus an intentional forearm shiver from behind, which is not. Let's go back to the Sam Bennett at all. Like, what do you, I mean, not to push on the spot. I know you have a lot of saying this too, but what do you expect?

What do you expect to see tonight from the Toronto? When I played, that would have been, you know, somebody would have did something right away. Probably me. If I was out there. Right. That's the interesting thing. As far as the same, look, he did it on purpose.

He did it not necessarily thinking I'm going to put this guy in a stretcher. But, I mean, it was a little scumbag move from a scumbag player. And I say that not as a compliment, but hey, it's the NHL playoffs, man. It's not a bad place to be a scumbag. Sam Ben is going to make a lot of money this summer based on getting away with stuff like this. So you take it. Somebody's going to pay him handsomely to come to their team and injure someone in the fourth, in the second round next year for a fourth consecutive year, for sure.

Pretty much. And, you know, we're already seeing kind of the image rehab stuff happen. And, you know, where it's always, he's the ultimate playoff player. And yeah, I mean, yes. But at the same time, we can still speak in plain language about what we all see, right? that's a table, that's chair. We have eyes. That was an intentional forearm to the back of the head. And I mean, the fact that even like, you know, Paul Maurice, and boy, isn't it, it's funny how Paul

Maurice went from the world's favorite stand-up comedian to like just the mood shifted just a bit. And suddenly it's like, oh, this guy's actually kind of a prick when he gets up there. Interesting. But his thing was Sam Bennett has the puck. It's not the blue paint. So, you know, blah, blah hair on fire. Well, I mean, you look at the replay.

Sam Bennett doesn't have the puck and it is the blue paint. So even Paul Maris's. defense is just he's just making stuff. Yeah, he's making stuff up. That's the, that's the, that's the, that's the,

that's the, about this time of year, too. It's like, it's like, you actually, you actually didn't see, you didn't see what you just saw. Yeah,

something else happened, in fact. So, look, was he going to get suspended? I'm not, I'm not doing the whole Maple Leaf Department of

Player Safety bit. Oh my God. I'll stay away from that. I'm not surprised he wasn't suspended. I will simply say that. Now, that does lead to the question you asked, which I think is interesting. What do the Leafs do tonight in response? And the reason I find it so interesting is I think this is a case where if the Maple Leafs lose the game tonight and if they lose the series, which is still, if not likely, certainly very possible.

Florida Panthers, putting aside the fact that they're all villains and scumbags are a fantastic hockey team. especially in the playoffs. They are the favorite in this series, maybe even still the favorites, despite having lost game one. They're a great team. Nobody will be shocked if they come back and win this series. You hear that,

you hear that Florida. You get the Sean McIndo stamp of approval. There you go. Yeah, and not remotely a reverse jinx or anything like that. No ulterior motives here. Full sincerity. If that happens,

whatever the Leafs do tonight will be wrong. It is so easy to see the two narratives that can come out of tonight's game and out of this series. If the Leafs lose, you will have you door number one. The Toronto Maple Leafs, for all their talk about being different, for all their talk about being a playoff team, despite having Craig Freak and Burubei come in as the coach, they were served an opportunity on a silver platter to show that they understand what playoff hockey is and to come together as a team and to protect one of their own and they didn't do it. They let Sam Bennett just skate away. They gave them a couple of dirty looks, but they didn't actually do anything. And as soon as that happened, the Florida Panthers looked across the ice and said, we got these guys.

Because they're not willing to go to the areas we're willing to go to. They're not willing to do what we're willing to do. we've got these guys and the series was over. The moment that Sam Bennett skated off the ice after that first shift in game two, with nobody haven't even tried to do anything to them, that was it, series over, lease, lose. Okay, that's door number one. Door number two, Toronto Maple Leafs played a great game one.

Everything was going right. They looked like the better team and then they got distracted by the Sam Bennett side show. They fell for it, hook, line, and sinker, and now they were running around. and trying to play not their style of game. They're not that team. They tried to do it. It was like watching a toddler try to put his dad's suit on. It didn't look right.

And they lost the series by trying to get Sam Bennett. And Sam Bennett single-handedly won the series for the Panthers because he just let the Maple Leafs chase him around and be distracted and be a side show. And that was the end of the series. As soon as the Leafs even tried to go after Sam Bennett, that's where they lost the series. That'll be the other option. or option three is the Leaves win the series and we move on from there. But the narratives are going to be this time a week from now and certainly two weeks from now.

One of those two things I just said will have become the dominant narrative of this series. Yep. The final series opens up tonight too, or the final lid lifter. No time, eh? Holy smokes. Can we get this series going? I mean, Winnipeg down. Dallas might be, I think it is the main event of round two.

It is, right? I was about to say that. I was about to ask you if you think that this is the marquee matchup, I think it is. When I picked my, when I did my, you know, list of 16 Stanley Cup picks, I had Winnipeg one, Dallas two, which doesn't maybe make a ton of sense to have your top two picks from the same division, but here we are. And yeah, this is the best. series left. I don't know if it's going to be the best series of the playoffs because Colorado, Dallas really set the bar pretty high. And obviously Winnipeg, Save Lewis, the ending at least got pretty close. So it's going to be tough to get to that level. But this is the one where I really look at it and you go, this might be, might be the two best teams left in the playoffs and they're facing each other. I still, I'm still just.

The Hela-Buck situation is still just so compelling to me, man. It's terrifying. Like he got bailout by it, you know, for the most part there in game seven. The pressure is kind of falling off. The way the world's off my shoulder is, and that has nothing to do with anyone else. It's just the mental grind of that series. That being said, in that moment, it was like a second chance for me.

You know, I just got to go and play my game and do what I do best. I don't need to do everything. I just need to play my game and do it the best. I can and bring it every single night. We need to like reinforce just how awful he was in that series. And how bad he's been really the last three post seasons. Especially on the road, which is, you know, if you're Winnipeg, hey, you're, you're, you finished first overall.

You got home ice through the playoffs. What you do that for? He's the good news. But yeah, Connor, hell, the only thing that I didn't love about game seven, that Blues Jets game seven, which is one of the most fascinating games. games I've ever watched as a hockey fan. Yeah. I can't imagine what that would have been like to watch as a diehard of either of the

teams, but as a so-called, like as somebody who's openly rooting for the Jets, but, you know, I'm not, I'm not a diehard. That was agonizing and amazing and everything. I can only imagine what it would have been like. But that was a, that was a fascinating game. The one thing I didn't like about it is Connor Hellebuck didn't give us an answer. Even a short-term fake answer. You totally nailed it.

Like, like, I don't feel any. I feel no better about him moving forward now than I did four days ago. And yet, you know, especially if, and, you know, you wouldn't have seen this because on Hockey Night Canada,

2-0 St. Louis early, first intermission, they're having the debate should they have pulled Connor Hallibuck after goal two. And which is, I mean, it's madness. You're talking about a guy's going to be the back-to-back viz in a winner.

Hall of Fame, best goaltender in the league. But, yes, after that second goal, I think absolutely, as a fan, you're sitting there going, are they going to do this? Because the first goal wasn't a bad goal in the sense that, you know, I mean, it ended up basically being a two-on-old. Kyle Connor didn't back check and, you know, we've all seen the whole breakdown. But Connor Hellberg was swimming. he was star fishing, you know, all over the place. And the second goal wasn't a great goal either.

So and yet then, and even the third goal, which felt like the killer, right? Because they score, they make it to one, buildings rocking again, here we go. And then late in the second period, he gives up, again, not a bad goal, not a stinker, but one of those goals where it's a relatively clean shot and you go, yeah, goal these days got to save that. And you're sitting there going, that's it. But then third period, first period of overtime, he shuts the door. I don't know where to feel about this. I would almost feel better in a weird way if he had been bad in game seven and they had won.

And then you could just say like, all right, he's slumping. We got to the leash has got to be sure. I have no idea what to do. If someone, if someone wrote the, okay, Connor Hall-Buck exercised the demons column. I did not see it. And the fact that we didn't get that from anybody. You couldn't have seemingly like, yeah, because it would have been wrong. If he had a 50 save shut out in game seven,

it still would have been ridiculous to act like there's no questions left based on one game. But sometimes we get to do the ridiculous thing. Yeah, right. You can create the narrative, even if it's not necessarily backed up by fact. And we didn't even get that. Dude, he allowed almost 10 goals above expected in that series against the Blues. he's never done that in any seven-game sequence at any point in his career ever like that that is by a pretty reliable margin that was the worst seven-game stretch of connor hellabuck's career and it happened happened in the first round of

the playoffs and he got bailed out of it in a year where everybody everybody was putting an asterisk on everything he was doing during an amazing regular season not just an amazing regular season and for nations. Don't forget. He went into an incredibly high pressure four nation situation and was very, very good. But everybody was saying, wait till the playoffs, wait till the playoffs. I've always been a guy who says the whole, you know, guys, playoff performer thing is, is overdone. Take the big sample over the small sample. Are the playoffs different than the regular season? Yes, of course, they are. They're not a different sport. They don't complete, you know, you're not suddenly out there, you know, playing with a tennis

ball and four quarters and, you know, all sorts of weird stuff. It's the same sport, you know, the intensity shifts and, you know, that sort of thing. But take the big sample over the little sample. Between Connor Hallibuck and the Toronto Maple Leafs, that is really, that part of my brain is taking a beating, man, because just a lot of, a lot of guys. is just perform. And I think that if I'm going to, if I'm going to open the door to saying, you know what,

I was wrong. It is different. The first ones through that door are going to be the goaltenders. Yep. Because the psychology of it is just so, like, even if Connor Hellebuck isn't worse in the playoffs, like in the sense that it's just a bunch of bad bounces

and it's just a bunch of, you know, goalies get hot and cold and maybe he just had, even if there's nothing to it, if there's nothing here, if Connor Halibuuk thinks there's something here, then there's something here. Totally.

That's it. You know, if he's out there, in game seven, he's probably sitting there like, just get through the first few minutes. Don't give up a goal on the first shot. And then here come the blues. And next thing you know,

he's just like, you know, he's just break dancing on the ice. And they're tapping one into an empty net. And he's going, here we go. You know, it's going to be must-see TV tonight, the pre-game camera shot of him of him at his locker. Because the one we got before game seven,

that was, that was, it should have terrified Winnipeg fans. And they got out of it. So that's, that's fun. One word, one word answer,

how short is the leash in game one if you're Scott or Neil, if at all? I, it's five, four, I don't know. Like, you can't,

you can't, you can't win without them. That's, that's the, That's it. That's it. I'm different in game seven than I am in game one. Because if he gives up, you know, let's say he gives up two goals on the first four shots and they're both bad goals. So, okay, so I put Eric Comrie in and we come back and win the game.

Now what? What do you do? How am I winning this series? You're not going to. Like, it's not going to happen. There's no scenario where Eric Comrie wins you, wins you four games in this series. And hell of buck, bad as he's been. you can still see that.

I don't know. Task one, maybe don't have the worst seven game stretch of your career in the show of the playoffs like you did last. All right, we're going to hit a break, come back to finish things up. All right,

we're back and Sean, guess what I learned over the last couple days? What did you learn? What have we learned, Sean? I might have to watch men's worlds for the first time in my life. There's, like,

we're, maybe not first. We got Sidney Crosby. We got Nathan McKinnon, and we got, for his swear to God, it's the last time you're ever going to see me in a hockey uniform for the 19th crack, Mark Andre Fleury joining Team Canada yesterday. I think I think I've been compelled to watch this tournament. Finally, the hockey world gets a chance to say a goodbye to Mark Andre Fleury.

I love this. He's given off like pro wrestler retirement match vibes. Oh my God. It's like, come see the final mat and you're like, that's what this is. Like he's become like the Terry Funk of the NHL where you're just like, dude, did we do this like nine times already?

He's back. Is he going to play? Like, is he going to start? Like what happens here? He's going to go over there and just, he's going to commit a bunch of hilarious pranks. Did you ever hear that about Mark? He's a bit of a prankster.

That's, that's something, I mean, that's inside baseball. That's top secret stuff that we can only, can only be revealed now that his career is almost over. Wouldn't you love to see the text chain between Nathan McKinnon and Sidney Crosby on Sunday morning after that, after McKinnon's out? Like,

who do you think reached out first? That's a good question. I think it was probably, I feel like it was probably Nate. He's enough of a sicko to send that text when he's like, when he's going home. Yeah. I said Sunday morning.

You think maybe it was a Saturday and I text like just like I'm not done. We're going. Like which one of them was the guy, which one of them was the guy in the friend group who's like, guys were going to Vegas and which one was the one who was like, oh, God. Are we really doing this?

Okay. It's the town. It's Jeremy Renner saying who's, who's far we drive? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, whatever. Let's give me,

give me a tafties an excuse to watch. to pay attention to this tournament. I'll take it. I think the last couple of days have gotten me there. What do you got? Here's what I learned. I learned that the NHL can occasionally do something right because I really like the draft lottery on one.

Yeah, me too. And you know what the secret was to the NHL getting this right? And they should do this more often? They just took my idea. I've been saying for years, this is how they should do it. They should drop the balls one at a time. time, you know, make it all part of the thing. And they did it.

And even when they announced they were going to do it live, I didn't really jump in and go, okay, good for them because I was convinced going into that broadcast Monday night that they were just going to draw the four numbers live and then they were going to cut to Bill daily looking up the table and then they're going to go Islanders win. And it was going to be like not great TV. But they did it the right way. They dropped the three balls and then here's the balls you're rooting for. here's the teams that are out.

You know, they eliminated, they struck out the teams as they were eliminated based on what had come down. I thought it was fantastic. I said way back when it was the Connor McDavid draft, I said, well, back then what they should have done, they should have drawn two balls before a game, then the third ball in the first intermission, and then the fourth ball in the second, like really let it marinate, really let everybody be. It's close enough. they came about as close as you could to do it. They kind of did that.

I liked it, man. I'm not used to getting, you know, credit where it's due to the NHL because it's usually not due, but I thought they kind of cooked. Well, here's like, here's an indicator of how, and whatever,

the broadcast was maybe, maybe not the best. I could have done with a little bit, a little bit, yes, a little bit less yelling over, over, over,

over some of the ping pong balls. But, overall it was great. And here's here's the indicator. This is what told me that that the lottery format has juice now or the lottery TV show has his juice. I texted,

I hit the group chat of all my friends in Pittsburgh whenever Pittsburgh jumped up to 18% or whatever it was. They were down to the last five, five teams or however it shook out. I sent out the emergency text like, yo put on ESPN. The penguins might,

they might, they might do this. They might win the draft lottery again. It's, I've got a bunch of ideas for like ways they could tweak it, little things they could do. But in the big picture, yes, they nailed it.

Yep. And kudos to the league. And kudos to whoever in that decision making group stood up and said, no, we're doing it this way. Because I guarantee there were people going, I don't know about this or that or what if, you know, shouldn't we do this or that? Somebody stood up and went, guys, we're an entertainment product.

Within reason, let's do this in an entertaining way. And they won the argument. And that person clearly doesn't win many arguments in this league. But they won for Monday night. It was great. Really liked it. If you liked it, you can thank Steve Mayer for that. I think he was the one who is in Betten's ear and convinced him to do it.

Hopefully they'd bring it back. It was good TV. First star of the week. All right, bud. Anything else from you? Speaking of draft lottery, I got my, I'm bringing back an old favorite this morning, five games from the season that,

in hindsight, changed the draft lottery results. You never know. You're really making people sick with that one in particular. Yeah, that's, thank you. That's the point. I am trying to make people sad. And it used to be working so far.

So, yeah. All right. Thank you, bud. And thank you folks for listening to Athletic Hockey Show. We're back next Wednesday. Dom and Shana are also with me on the Thursday show, which is tomorrow, apparently. Allegedly Thursday comes after Wednesday. Who to fuck it?

Thank you folks for listening and talk to you soon.