The Athletic Hockey Show - The 12 most important players in the Stanley Cup Final

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

Hailey, Sean and Max present the top 10 important players on the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers with the Stanley Cup Final set to begin on Saturday night in Sunrise, Florida. From the goaltending of Stuart Skinner and Sergey Bobrovsky, to superstars Connor McDavid and Aleksander Barkov to the all important supporting casts, they discuss who needs, and who will step up their game to capture Lord Stanley's cup? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Haley, Max, and Sean here with you this week. We are still three weeks away from the Stanley Cup final. And so the preview content continues here, folks. Stick around on the athletic hockey show. No, it's only three nights away now.

Three sleeps, three slumbers until the Stanley Cup final. I appreciate you trying to sell that optimistically. Yay! I can't do... I can't do three more days of this. It's been a lot of preview content. Yeah, I've been involved with way too much of it. We talked to me and Macadu talked about it on the pod.

They asked us to do something that I think's going to run tomorrow with the two of us also. Like, I'm previewed out. Listeners, disregard that. You're going to hear never before heard Sean Gentilly thoughts today. do not under any circumstances turn off the pod. Yeah. We actually had, well, I did. I'm going to take credit for this idea.

I had the idea to just have Sean like audio book style read the season preview that he max, or he max, he Dom and Shana wrote. I could have dusted out. I could have broken out my, my, my Dom impression. You could do that anyway. You could do that anyway. Yeah. It's typically the only.

close friends. I don't know if we need to share that with how many people are listening to this, but just, just know, be aware. It's really good. It's really accurate. Yeah, for sure. So instead of looking at key matchups, the X factor, a lot of the similar or typical preview stuff that we've kind of all been taking in over the last several days as we wait for the cut final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, by the way, if you weren't aware, through all this preview content. We're going to look at the top 12 or the 12 most important players in the cup final. The three of us kind of put our heads together and decided on this list. It's not necessarily the 12 best players, although they're all kind of scattered.

I would say that it's definitely not the 12 best players list. Yeah, well, you cut me off so I couldn't finish saying that. There are some of the top players scattered through this, but also some players. who need to not be bad for their team to be successful in the Stanley Cup final to put it nicely. So we're going to go through these top 12. But first, I would like us all to sing happy birthday to my dog Bono. Last time I sang on this podcast, it didn't go that well. It was me and Custin singing the national anthem.

And there was a delay. and also Craig can't carry a tune to save his life. Thank you, producer Jeff. He's in the chat saying I was way better than Custin. That's correct. And that happened after what? That was after Canada won the Olympics, right? Isn't that right?

Yeah. Canadian women's hockey team won a gold medal. I think that was. No, I'm aware of what it was. No, no, I was just trying to get you to say it. Oh, you're being, yeah, you're being a smart ass. I got you. Yeah.

Yeah. Canadian supremacy. Jeff has started a Canada chant in the chat. Can we get a go, Canada go in the chat? You don't have to sing. I just want everyone to be nice to me today because Bono turns seven and I'm feeling a little fragile. Happy birthday to the big boy. Yeah, he's sleeping behind me.

Max is not moving or speaking. So let's get started. Let's go. Max is sitting there like a cat in a garage. Not moving. And we can learn a lot from cats and garages, personally. Yeah. I think people who listen to the show have probably heard us say something of just like, is Max frozen?

He's like, no. I'm just choosing not to take part in this stupid part of the conversation that you guys are having. He keeps us on track by just not moving. Anyways, let's get started. We've got 12 players. We're going to go in the reverse order. So we're going to start with 12. And at one, this is how we keep everyone listening.

This is how the hostage gets made. Ha ha! You have to listen for the next 45 minutes. If you want to know what we think about Connor McDavid. Spoiler alert. All right. So we're going to start. Or is it?

Oh. Okay, let's start, guys. We're going to have a Zach Hyman from the Edmonton Oilers. 12 might seem a little bit low for somebody who's leading the point. playoffs and scoring, but we've got Zach Hyman here, kind of at the start slash bottom of our list. It's not because he's not valuable or important. He is. He's just been kind of consistently doing his thing. He's important and he's not someone that we're like, oh, he's got to keep it up because he's just kind of been doing it all year, right? That's kind of how we're feeling. Yeah, I agree. I think

that there's an element of variance that goes into decision making of this list, like a guy who has wide swings of what, you know, they could do in this series. And obviously within the top 12, these are all really good players who are all really important to the series, talking about the top, you know, quartile or whatever. But we're pretty confident what you're getting out of Zach Hyman at this point. And it's, yeah, sorry, that's an obnoxious word. Yeah, you're pretty confident what you're getting out of Zach Hyman at this point. It is an important thing.

But I don't really see too much of a wide swing where he dries up and gives you a goose egg or something here. And if he does, that will be crucially important for sure. So I guess that speaks to that as well. Three goals in the opener against the Kings. Two goals in the opener against the Canucks. He also scored in the first game against Dallas.

It doesn't actually mean anything because I don't know that that's like, I don't think there's some kind of hidden, you know, secret behind this. Like, I don't know that Zach Hyman is doing anything differently on, in the first games of these series. but it is something it is something to watch because that's been crucial too it's been crucial for for edmonton really across the board is to be able to get out to fast starts in these series

and he's been a big part of that so yeah i on some level i feel silly having a guy who scored 14 goals like at the bottom of this particular list but i think it makes sense for all the reasons max outline like we kind of know kind of know what you're getting him you know where he's going to score his goals from like he's turned into a pretty a pretty reliable not not just reliable source of offense, but just how he comes about it, right? You know you're getting the goals, you know where they're coming from. And I think that kind of drives him down a little bit further on this list, even though he doesn't make him any worse. Yeah. And then people will start to hear there's some of the parts of this list that are going to turn out to be like, this person's very

important because if they go this way, then it's going to have a huge impact on a series. If they go that way, it's going to have a different impact on a series. Whereas as Max said, the variance with Hyman, like he's been consistently productive and important to the Oilers. And yeah, maybe that ends up having him too low on our list. He's only had six games in 18 where he hasn't registered a point in the postseason. And 14 goals in 18 is just crazy. So like Sean said too, I think we know what we're getting from from Zach Hyman heading into the finals. Anton Lindell sits number 11 for us. And this is one of those players where we do start to look at, you know, the way that he shows up or doesn't in the finals is going to make an impact on Florida.

Do you want to start on Lundell, Sean? Everybody's talked about Florida's depth, and it's true, right? Like, they're a deeper team than Edmonton. And a lot of that's defensively. I think people kind of, I had this conversation with Sean yesterday. Like, you hear depth and you think it's automatically forward depth, or know that that's necessarily true, right? Florida has three good defensive pairs.

Yeah. I'm sure we'll get into some of that later on. But so whatever, a lot of Florida's depth comes from the defensive side of things. Their fourth line is whatever, you know, it does the job. I think the reason a lot of people like Florida's depth offensively is that, is that third line because they do add something, especially relative to what Edmonton brings.

But it kind of goes as far as, Lundell will take them, right? Like, like, if you like Florida for their depth, you kind of by default have to get something, you have to be predicting that something is coming from Anton Lundell. And he's, you know, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, something to be set for that. But he, but he, but he, but he needs to produce, because he is going to get minutes against players who on paper are worse than him. And I think, he's, you know, I love Florida's depth this shorthand for, hey, let's hope Anton Lundell

score some goals in a lot of ways. Yeah, it's not a coincidence that in the two games and they close out the Rangers, he plays a massive role on basically, I don't think it ends up being the deciding goal in both games, and one of them, I think the Ranger kind of push, wiped it out, but basically the key goal in both of those games, whether it goes down as the game winner or not, he scores it in game five, he sets up Teresenko in game six. and to Sean's point, those are the contributions that, you know, Anton Lundell brings that,

that separate Florida, right? They've got some stars, but they don't have stars on the level of the oilers. The oilers don't have a third line center like Anton Lundell. Yeah, like if Lundell can win his matchups or his minutes against Adam Henry, then Florida's going to be looking great because, you know, I feel like we have this conversation in the playoffs a lot. like we saw it with the Tampa Bay Lightning when they were winning Stanley Cups, right?

It wasn't always Stephen Stamcoast getting the game winners, although he was very important and very good in those series. It was like Blake Coleman. It was that third line for the Tampa Bay Lightning. That was really important. And so we're kind of projecting a bit of that onto Anton Lindell here is obviously the stars are going to get theirs in this series. But if Florida is going to prevail, they probably need their depth guys to keep doing that

too. it's very possible or it feels very possible that the top two lines play each other to a drop in one way or another that like the kachuk line the dry side of line just beat the hell out of each other i do think it's hard to say that when you do have mac david on that like it's hard to get it i agree i agree i i a hundred a hundred percent like i like there there are other scenarios in in this in this in this final two that are that are very very feasible but one of them is that, you know, between those two lines, it's, you know, overall that you're that you're somewhere close to a draw. Yeah. And then the responsibility falls on the Anton Lundells of the world. And Vladimir Teresenko scored a huge goal in that, in that clincher and guys like that

to kind of make up the difference, right? This is like putting Anton Lundell on this list is an excuse to talk about what the Panthers, air quotes, depth advantage actually means. He's kind of who we're talking about here when it when it's when we're when we're mentioning the four words and I think I think that puts him in a pretty important spot. Yeah. To Sean's point earlier, Lindell's got the same production in this playoffs as Sam Reinhart. Reinhart, more on the goal side of this.

But Reinhardt's not going to be on this list, even though he's a hugely important player, 50 goals score had a massive season. He is hugely important in the series. We're ranking Lundel over him because when he performs at a similar level of production wise to Reinhart and then you add in the matchup side of things. That kind of elevates not him as a player over Reinhardt, but him is importance to this series over Reinhard. He's going to be out there against Adam, Adam Henrique and Connor Brown and Matias Yanmark

and guys like that. Like they need him to win his minutes to be in a, to be in the right spot here. Totally. For sure. And yeah, this list isn't going to, we could have just done the top 12 point getters, but we thought that would be boring. We're trying to, we're trying to be different and good for you. guys, okay? Be nice

to me. My dog is old. I'm going to use that all day. Okay, number 10. Darnel Nurse. He's very important. This one was a point of contention to the listeners. Yeah, Max didn't. Max would have preferred to talk

about Matias at Calm because he's better. But Sean and I are like, no, no. Yeah, call me crazy. I think Editonines two functioning defensive pairs. cares. You know, he's, he's been bad. He's got the lowest defensive rating, the lowest defensive rating in the playoff, according to Dom's model, which is something we delved into into in the larger preview, which is around if anybody cares to read it. I'm not going to sit here and dictate it right now. dictate it word by word because this is a podcast. But he needs to be better. And also a huge problem for Edmonton is his partners need to be better. Like nurses, taken a ton of slack, like rightfully so. A big part of the reason he deserves, you know, that kind of, uh, that kind of slag is because in addition to being bad on a bad by himself,

like there's been no elevation from him whatsoever. Like he's not helping Cody Cici out at all. And he's Brett Cooleck and whatever else. Like he needs to be the rising tide that lifts up his partner and he hasn't come close to any of that. Right. And it just comes, it all, it all boils down of the fact that someone other than Edmonton's top two needs to give them half decent minutes. And unfair as it might be, like, Nurse is still the dude that's best equipped to do that. Regardless of how bad he's been in this postseason, he's a better player than he's shown, and he needs to get it together. Cody Cici is bottom 10 in expected goal rating on evolving hockey here, 33%.

And I know that X, I mean, I think all of us here prefer like an XG over a Corsi. Of course, he's kind of a dead stat, you know, for anyone listening who maybe does know what that means. It just means that, like, when Cody Cici's on the ice, the other team has more of the offensive opportunities. And that is bad for your second pair. Defense group, especially when we consider, and I, you know, I don't want to call because Bouchard and at home, and maybe this was to Max's point about talking about at home, but like that D pair is like so unique and interesting because at home can provide that defensive value on one side of the point. Puck whereas Bouchard is the one who's leading all defenders in in scoring.

So you kind of have this really good mix of like two-way value in the top pair. And then your second pair is not really a shutdown pair and not really an offensive pair. They just kind of get caved in. And so it's going to be really important for those two to get on track. And it's going to be easier said than done because I think we can all agree that Florida is going to be the best offensive team that the Oilers have faced in the postseason. Maybe there's a debate between Florida and Dallas. but in terms of the way that Florida is clicking right now,

like this is the deepest and most offensively gifted team that they're going to face and they need their second pair to figure it out a little bit better. Cody C.C. is what he is. Like, it's not unrealistic, though, to expect more from Darnel Nurse, right? Like, it's just the way it goes. That's the way it goes when you're paid the way he is.

That's the way it goes when you flash what he's flashed at times throughout his career. This guy isn't a bad player. Like, he profiles as like a number two or number of, three defenseman. He hasn't played like it in the postseason and they need him to get it together. Yeah, he's got more to give. And I think even if you go from the regular season where I don't think people were always thrilled with him either, still some really strong. And this kind of comes with playing for the Oilers to some degree, some really strong like expected goals, numbers and all that. It's been a steep drop even from that when people weren't happy with him in the regular

season. My biggest like point of contention when it came to making the list was he's played like this and they're still here. Right. And so certainly he can be a swing fact. or, you know, this will probably be a theme on a couple of my, my votes where I differ from you guys in a couple places. Although I don't think we differed too much, actually, where we finally ranked him. Yeah. But they got here with him playing like this. And I don't think it's a huge stretch to think that he doesn't, he doesn't need to completely

alter who he's been for them to win. Obviously, him doing so, if he, if he reverts to two or three years ago, darned, they're going to win the series. I think there's a, I think there's a difference. No, no, no, Max, what, Max, finish what you're saying. I want to. That was, that was the end of my point. Yeah.

But I think that's why we. have Darnell Nurse as one of the most important players, though, is because they're here, even though he's playing this way. But if he can step up, they're going to be even better. That's what makes him such a critical figure in this playoff series is like if we can see better Darnell Nurse, like if the Oilers can have three very solid defenders at the top of their lineup, this series could look a lot different than what we could expect if he kind of doesn't get there. Someone's going to need to take those minutes against Kachuk and Sam Bennett. And that's just the way it goes.

Like this is it. And I know we've gassed up the stars forever, right? They were all of our cup picks and all that stuff. But with the way they were playing, the stuff that they were giving the second pair is going to be a lot different than what we can expect, I think, from Matthew Kachuk and Sam Bennett. Did you want to make your at home point, Max? I got a few minutes.

No, I mean, I think I'm okay with where we landed on. I think at home is really important because of the physicality element. And you know that that's what Florida is going to bring on the forecheck. And I like his odds to stand up to that as well as anybody and still make those plays. But I think in the end where I would have landed on this is probably the same place we landed on Hyman. You know pretty much exactly what you're getting. He's not the same variance. So in the end, I'm okay with how we have it.

Great. Okay. Let's go very quickly. And then we'll take a quick break. Number nine, Carter Verhegey, Florida Panthers forward. This feels like an easy one. He's going to be important, I think. Yeah, if you had to take a pick right now of somebody to score a big goal,

an overtime goal, a game winner out of a tie game, not just the one that eventually stands as the decider. I think you're putting your money on Carter Verheagy at this point. It's who he's been in the playoffs in his career. It's who he's been, including this playoffs. Just the guy has a knack for finding the moment and finding those big goals. and against an Oilers team that can score as easily as any team in the NHL, they need a guy who can just kind of find one in a big moment like that.

I think they have multiple who can, but he's the first guy that comes to mind when that moment comes. I have OT game winners in 52 games. It's wild. He's tied with a bunch of guys in that stat who played three times more games than him, you know, for Patrick King, Corey Perry, Glenn Anderson. And those guys have played full seasons worth of playoff games and there in there is productive in that regard is as is for Hagee is there's something there's something about that dude. One of my favorite things honestly about the playoffs is like when is if I'll get a text from like one of my friends who's a more casual fan or whatever. And this has happened multiple times like who is Carter Verhagie like where did he come from?

And I love it. I love I love being able to say that this guy was just, you know, kind of he was a throw in basically, right? and he's got something extra, man, and he brings it every game. It's hard to imagine, you know, him not making this presence felt in a very real way at some point over the next couple weeks. All right. That's the first four slash bottom four. Bottom four just seems harsh because, like, they're the top 12. It's like they're the bottom four in the series.

They're just the bottom four on this list. Yeah. We've gone through four names. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll get through the middle team. here here in terms of importance heading into the cup final that's coming up next on the athletic hockey show.

All right, we are back with the second tier of the most important players in the Stanley Cup final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers. We're going back to the Oilers' blue line. It's Evan Bouchard. Sean? He's the single biggest change

that's been made. Like, just his rise is a fundamental change to the makeup of this roster. this franchise, their outlook over the next couple years, because he's what they were missing. He's a legit number one dude. Like, no question at this point. He's top 10 in the league.

And I think a lot of smart people could make the argument that he should be higher moving forward. Like, he has been that good. And it's the exact sort of thing that they're missing. That kind of, you know, offensive catalyst, that all-around catalyst on the, the back end that every cup winning team has, whether it's Drew Dowdy, whether it's Duncan Keith, Victor Headman, Chris Latang, like going back, every set of great teams in the cap era has that

dude and the Oilers lacked him really until this year because like it's been a steady, solid progression for Bushard over the last two seasons, but he wasn't. It feels like he's approaching his final form now. That was not the case last year. Yeah, I think what's interesting about Bouchard is when I was covering the flames, he was like the one that everyone was like, look out for this guy. Like when the flames and Oilers played in that wild playoff series where the first game was like incredibly high scoring and then the Oilers just kind of took it to them and McDavid went next level. But there was a lot of talk that year, I think, in the playoffs and like in the regular seasons, this would have been two years ago, people just being like in the Edmonton press box if they're on the power play being like lookout for. Bouchard from the point. Like it was just one of those things that was known there by people who watch him all the time, but it was just like, look out for this kid. Like, he's got a bomb of a shot.

And so you were, you were seeing it then. But yeah, I think like it's, this is number one without a doubt, D. Pair, Evan Bouchard now. It's not just like, oh, look out. He could do this. Like, everybody knows it now, right? It doesn't matter if you're in Edmonton or Calgary or Toronto or Pittsburgh or whatever. And, you know, his numbers throughout the entire postseason have been unbelievable. I mean, just not even like underlying numbers, not even like expected goals. He's been on the ice for 25 goals at 5 on 5 on 5 and only on the ice for 11 against. Like that is a 60%, no, 69% almost 70% goal, actual goals for rating. And that's not even a ton of puck luck or good state percentage because his expected goal rate is 60. So like the variance, you know, this isn't

something where he's just getting lucky or it's not just him getting the McDavid minutes or whatever. It's not been the case. Really good. Max, what do you think about Evan Bouchard? I just wanted to point to the defensive side of things too. He's lopped a full, I know we just talked about actual goals not expected.

He's lopped a full expected goal against per 60 off the ledger from where he was at one year ago. Like that's a huge defensive improvement. And it's whenever we're talking. with these numbers. They're on ice numbers. They're not truly just one person, but over the long span, you can, you can read something into, uh, into this. And then I, I think that kind of speaks to the overall evolution of his game. And the minutes that they get from him kind of takes us back to what we said about Darnow Nurse, right? Is yeah, okay, Darnall Nurse has been bad, but they've gotten away with it. Well, a big reason they've gotten away with it is because they're getting

monster, monster minutes from Bouchard and, you know, maybe to a, to a lesser, but still important degree, Matias Ekom. You can get away with having two bad defensive pairings for huge chunks of time whenever your 1A is playing as well as Evan Bouchard is. And I think he's a big, big, big part of the reason that Edmonton's here. Like, I don't think he's going to win the cons might, but I think it's very possible that the discussion is interesting by the time this is all said and done because of him. The one thing, Sean, you talked about kind of the two defensive pairs.

I think obviously we all agree that in order to win it, you probably need at least one of those other two pairs to play well. It's also going to demand, he's playing 24 and a half minutes now. If you're really going to say this one pair is going to carry us, that number might need to be 27, 28 to get by. Yep. Nobody has played more minutes at 5 on 5 for the Oilers than Evan Bouchard in the postseason.

So, pretty important. And like his, his T.O.I is up there. I mean, when you look at overall, in the postseason. Oh, shoot, I filtered by defenders. Let me fix that.

Maybe it's still Evan Bouchard. It will be. The defenders, I don't know. Connor McDavid's second. I was close. I might have made a mistake here. McDavid scares maybe. Yeah, Evan Bouchard has played the most minutes for the Oilers at five on five.

But it's not Matthias Echolme who second. It's Connor McDavid. And we'll obviously talk about him a little bit later in the show. Um, okay, let's go next. We've got Matthew Kachukh. Obviously, we were going to talk about him at some point. I'm sure he could be higher on this list. Again, it's a top 12.

I feel like I need to stop saying that qualifier. Max, what do you think about Matthew Kachuk? Sixth. Yeah, exactly. He's fantastic. He's going to have a huge footprint on this series one way or another. I think the first thing I thought when the matchup was cemented was Ken Matthew Kachuk, bully Connor McDavid is the question of the series, right?

And we'll see how much those two are. matched up with each other directly. But it does feel like Florida's path here is to make sure that they have a physical presence that Edmonton is just wholly uncomfortable with. And I think Edmonton's done a lot throughout the last year or two to make sure that if this situation arose, they would not be intimidated by that. I think Zach Hyman is perfectly suited for a series like this. Evander Kane and Corey Perry, to the extent that Corey Perry plays, are going to be

perfectly comfortable in a game like this. Leon Drysell is going to be perfectly comfortable in a game like this. but if Matthew really no one else in the league other than his genetic clone can bring the level of physicality and skill to the game that Matthew Kachuk does he is a one of two I guess player in this league in an incredibly valuable one if he you know maxes out both sliders of those in this series it could be the difference in the series he's also not playing with a broken sternum this this year which I think is something that's relevant when we

look back at 2023 because that dude was the story of the playoffs and we watched it crossed over in a level that you don't typically see from American hockey players. It's getting dapped from Berkeley and all this stuff. And then it tails off a bit against Vegas. And it's because he had a almost comically, like, broken, like whatever. That happened in a car crash. right like that's it's a crazy thing to have happen in the first place it's an even crazy thing to play through and he wasn't his best just like most most people wouldn't be if they had you know their chest partially caved in right so i think this is i don't want to call it a redemption opportunity for him because that implies that he was you know somehow less than in a way that

wasn't a case but it's it's a you don't think matthew kuch is like all right i'm i'm i i i i I got a second butt at the apple here. I'm going to make the most of it. I mean, he said we'll be back last year when they lost and they're back immediately. And the conversation, you know, before he broke his sternum and,

you know, wasn't as sharp understandably. So in the final was about how Matthew Kukukh was the story of the postseason last year. I wrote the big oral history about like, this is what Matthew Kuchukukh has always done. Like, I feel like the start of my career was just following.

Kachucks around because I covered him in the Memorial Cup final in what was that 2015. Yeah, because it was the 05 and 2015 London Knights that won the MEM Cup. And like he was unbelievable in that. He was on one of the best lines in junior hockey ever with Dvorak and Mitch Marner. He did it in junior. Like he did it every step of the way just comes up clutch in big moments and he had so many like big moments, big goals last year in the postseason. And what's been interesting is he's been very good this year in the playoffs, but he hasn't been the guy who's scoring the game winner. That's been Verhegey for the most part.

But he's still been such a dynamic, um, offensive threat, dynamic playmaker. His line's been unbelievable. So like Kachuk just continues to be the story in a little bit of a different way this year, but this is just kind of what he does. He raises his game when it matters most and he's to Matt to Max's point.

I don't even think I think he's one of one. Like I don't think Brady does what Matthew does. I think they're different players. I think they bring edge in different ways. I think that Matthew Kachuk is a one of one and even unique

from his own brother. And I'm not willing to deduct points from him either just because Florida's been better. Like they have, they're a better team than they were last year and they haven't needed contributions from him and quite the same in quite the same way.

Like they don't, they don't need him to go out and score is, you know, he's over a point per game player in the post. They still their leading score. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like,

like people like, like, like, like, like, like, like, is, is he been as good as he was last year? It's like,

I don't think we're saying that at all. No, I'm saying. Who's saying that? I think he, I think he, he hasn't popped quite in the way that he did last year because some of the higher profile stuff just hasn't happened.

Yeah, he's not scoring an OT winner against the Bruin. But that's, That's fine. Like that doesn't that doesn't detract from his overall, his overall effectiveness. Like I, I feel like,

I don't, I am not saying you did. I'm just saying I, I don't, what are you talking about? I think it's fair. There is a little bit of a sentiment that he hasn't been the story in the same way. I think it's a fair.

Yeah. Yeah. Like we're talking about a lot of other, a lot of other players ahead of him now where last year he was the story. He was the single story. But now it's like, there's, you know, a bunch of other dudes in the mix in a way that in the way that they weren't last year.

And that's fine. That doesn't detract from his overall effectiveness. Like he's just as important now as he was. And to the best of my knowledge, he also has not rebroken his sternum, which is a crucial, a crucial factor here. I think that's kind of what happens when, like, a lot of the conversation is how the top two players in this series in terms of skaters or forwards. Like the number one forward matchup is McDavid versus Barkoff, right? And then the second layer is dry sidle versus Kachuk, right?

Like that's maybe why Matthew wasn't getting the same amount of. He's not the guy in this series, right? That's Connor McDavid and then it's Barkov. And then it's Matthew and it's dry sidel. And that doesn't make them any less good or valuable. It's just the way the storylines are shaking out this time. Do we want to get to the goalies? anyone else have anything else to say about Kichuk?

Okay, great. Okay, so spoiler alert, I guess I just said it. We've got Sergey Babrovsky next here. Pretty obvious. Like the goalies are important. I think Bobrovsky is less important to the cause than the goalie on the other side of this matchup, which is why we're starting with Bob. What do you guys think?

I think this is just one where like, if he's good, they're fine. if he, you know, it's kind of simple. We talked about changes from 2023 to 2024 for the Panthers with Kachuk. I think we've seen some of that from Bobrovsky, too. They haven't needed him to steal anything. Like there wasn't been a series that they won because of him. Certainly, a little bit of a different situation last year, right? They need him to make big saves in the rare instances that the system,

that the system fails them. I think a good example is what he did against Boston, where they did a good job of limiting the Posternak line, but there was still a decent amount of high danger chances for that group. And who's the eraser? It's Bobrovsky. Like they don't need him to come in and save, you know, we don't need to see 41 to 43 or, you know,

three and a half goals saved the ball of expected in a game necessarily because that's not how they're built anymore. what they need is for him to, you know, there's going to be a couple 10 bell chances in each game that they need him to step up and stop. And he's done a good job of that so far. He has. And I think the argument for him to be higher on this list would simply be that the task of stopping the Edmonton Oilers is totally as high a bar as it gets for a goalie in the NHL. But he's probably falling into a little bit of what we talked about. You kind of know at this point what you're getting from him. If you look at his last playoffs to this playoffs and even the playoffs before that, you're in a real tight band, safe percentage-wise, between 908 and 915. Game to game, obviously, there's goaltending as a position where you bounce around. But on the whole, he has really developed into a consistently reliable playoff performer here for them.

He's hugely important because he's a goal and because of how good Edmonton is. But I think we kind of all expect that he's going to be pretty good. I don't think really we have any thoughts that he's going to implode or anything. it in the series. I think me and Mackenzie were talking about that in some capacity over the last couple days. I think it took until this year, honestly, for me to internalize that Max's exactly what you said, that he's pretty consistent and pretty reliable.

That volatility that we saw from him not long ago is, it seems like he's, it seems like he stamped it out. So I'm with you. And also like he's fifth on our list or whatever. or wherever we are right. Like he's like this isn't, I don't think we're slagging him too bad here. No,

and we talked in the, in the Kahn-Smith episode about, you know, if they win, he's got a case because of what he will have accomplished and slowing down what we thought that that road was going to be. Yeah. To that point, like the top five goal scores in the NHL this season

were Austin Matthew, Sam Reinhart, Zach Hyman, Nathan McKinn, Artemey Panarin. If the Panthers win this series, he will have gone head to head with three of them and beaten them. one of those will be his own teammate

and the other will be Nathan McKinnon who he didn't get to see. That's a pretty compelling resume if they're able to pull this off. Interesting. You make a good point. Let's go to the final. That was a great value from me.

He's six. We said he was five. He's six. I did say he was fifth. He is in fact six. Good analysis, everybody. Let's go to Leandro Seidel. I don't know what's wrong with me.

I don't know why I said any of these. things. Jeff, cut this out. I sound stupid. Leon Drysidal. Take it away. Yeah. And, you know, we're in the territory now where these are all absolute must have guys for the Oilers to succeed or the Panthers to succeed. No surprise, Leon Drysidal is in that mix. You know, we assume that we're going to see him separated most of the time at five on five, but there probably does come a point in this series where you're going to get that temptation to let them ride shotgun with each other and see what happens. Obviously, there's the power play factor.

But I don't even really know what to say here because to me it's just so self-evident that Leon Dredsettles has to be one of the five best players in the world. Yeah. I think what should terrify Florida is like for as good as he's been, right? I'm not trying to detract from Leon Dries Howells' performance so far in the playoffs. He's got it. Sounds like you're about to.

10 goals and 18 assists. and 18 games. Like pretty good. We know that he has another level because we've seen it. We saw it last year. He was so scary in the playoffs last year. It was ridiculous. In that Vegas series in particular at the start of it,

even though it didn't work out for them, it was that the series that they played before that bridged into the second round against Vegas where watching him, you're like, this is, I know that this, I know that he's not the best player on the planet. I know that the best player on the planet is probably the guy, you know, sitting a couple, a couple seats down from him on the bench. I intellectually understand that. But there are plenty of moments when you watch that dude where you're like, I don't think, I, I don't think I've seen anybody like him. He, he's got a one of one quality to him.

in a lot of instances, and especially when he's producing like he was for that stretch last year. It should, it should, it should terrify Florida. I always have moments where I'm like, is Leon Drysidal underrated?

Like, do we not appreciate this guy enough? And it's ridiculous, but sometimes I'm like, I don't think he gets enough credit for being. It's the exact, the similarities between him and Prime, Evgeny Malkin,

like, like 0,8, 2009, 2010, Malkin are pretty significant. You get credit for being the second best player on that team, but not credit for being probably the second best player in the world at that moment. Right. And you also provide a significant amount of like, holy shit moments in the hockey that you do play. I will push back on you a bit though, Sean.

Maybe he hasn't like popped. No, not in the Malkin thing, but to your original point, he maybe hasn't, like, popped with the same kind of, like, I just took over the game moments, but he's actually produced, he's producing it a higher clip by, like, a sliver this year than he was last year in the postseason.

One point. A few years ago, though, was the two points per game, freaks, freak stuff with the injury and, yeah. Yeah, the 32 points in 16 games. Oh, that's what we were talking about. That's what I'm saying. That, yeah, yeah. I was, but, like, last, I'm,

but last year, Like he's he had 18 points in 12 games last season in the playoffs. Now he is 28 and 18. So he's producing at over 1.5 point per game clip. But yeah, the 32 and 16 year was just like what is going on with this guy right now. And also even even beyond that, the stuff that we've seen from him at times, this is more. This is, I'm saying this for about 2023, not 22.

Like a six game burst from him, like the one that we saw last. last, last spring. Because that was when you were on the road. You wrote the dry sidle story about how absurd he was in the playoffs. And that wasn't even the year. He scored more than two points per game. But he was just like, holy shit, this is the best player I've ever seen over this last five games. We've seen him do it on a broken ankle, which was, which was 2022.

And last year, you know, he was whatever. It was just, it was more of the same. He had a six game stretch or an eight game stretch where again, you're like, Like, I know this guy isn't the best player in the world, but he's pretty close and he feels and he, it just, it feels that way, right? And if they get another finishing kick from him, good as he's been, great as it is that he's got 28 points in 18 games or whatever. Like, he's got another level and that's frankly terrifying. Yeah. Not too sabotaged innocent Oilers fans listening to this, just trying to have a good time while their team's in the cup final.

but dry saddle is entering a contract year from now and I've just found myself so torn thinking about that and you know do I want to see him go somewhere else and have like an actual chance to show oh I actually might be the best player in the world I think it's McDavid too or but at least like cement like I've been the second or third best player in the world all along kind of thing do I want to see that or do I want to just have him continue to play with McDavid and let my mind dream on it you know Malkin never left so right I can be the model. I just, I don't know, I look at the, watch the gif of them tapping each other on the bench when they were one, nine, and two or whatever and tell me that dry sidle's going to leave.

You can't. You can't convince me. If the money, if the money is where it needs, it's always about the money, man. That's, that's the main reason Malkin stayed in, stayed in Pittsburgh. Yeah, but you find money to keep. A hundred percent. So find the money. Like, but, but if they're, if they're going to lowball them and expect them to take less than he thinks he's worth or whatever. then, you know, it'll get a lot more interesting. But something tells me this is all going to work out. If they win the Stanley Cup, does it make it more or less likely that he stays? It's a good point because it's like, well, I already did it.

So now I can go get mine somewhere else. Or we've done it here together. Let's keep doing it. What I want to, I don't know, dry siddle. I don't know him at all. Like, I've never spoken to this man. I don't know who that man is. Unlike me.

So I can't speak on like what. Yeah, he's my best friend. I know him well. Shut up. Shut up. You know what I mean. There's players that you cover and you kind of get to know

what matters to them. Yeah. From a surface level from the way that we can as a media member. I have not even stood in a press conference with Leon Driesidele

so I don't feel equipped to answer that question, but it's very interesting. I just want to get like, before he signs his extension, I just want to get like a good month of wishcasting from band bases.

And, you know, I want to see. like here's how Leon Drysiddle ends up in Boston or whatever, which is a which is like a story that Fluto's been edging around too. Like he's had some fun kind of you know. Why?

Just because it's just like it's the idea, the idea that We need a center. Let's go get Drysidal. I want to see it. I want to see the scenarios that people concoct or whatever that land Leon Drysidal on their team. It's going to be fun.

And then whatever, he's going to sign an extension on, you know, July 16th or something. And we can move on to the next thing. There is absolutely going to be some discourse on the Internet in the coming weeks. What does Edmonton need to add to dry sidle in a Mitch Marner trade? We do a Twitter search of dry sidle and marner. Drysidal and marner. I don't want to see it's already. It's already happening.

Yeah, just kidding. we're not going to do that. No, let's go to break. I'm going to stop this right here. We're going to go to break when we come back. We'll talk about the four most important players in the Stanley Cup final. We'll be right back. All right.

We are back. It's time to talk about the most important players in the Stanley Cup final, according to us, Haley, Sean, and Max on the Athletic Hockey Show. This is the most correct list you'll hear heading into the cup final. The best preview you'll hear in weeks of previews. number four could be higher but I think number four is right we gotta stop saying could be higher before every no I think he could be because I think he's very important stop being rude to me it's my dog's birthday you know Haley only one of us had the courage to rank him higher than four oh did you I had

him four and I'm saying this I'm a fraud right oh shit okay well it's it's it's it's it's it's foursling it's good stuff foursling right there in the name four four four Yeah, it's not, is it, is it Gustav Friesling? No. That was a horrific joke. Cut that out, Jeff. I didn't appreciate that on this podcast. I said this is Sean before we started recording. And it really sucks that I, you know, I didn't chicken out. I just decided against it. I don't know. I had Foresling on my Norris ballot and then I swapped him out. And I just think I would have looked so smart if I left it there. because I don't think anyone else was on my level. That's a good question.

Like how many people were legitimately talking, like he was more of the like he's underappreciated kind of guy. And now it's like, oh, he's like the best offender in this series. He's another one. I just love, like he's like in the Verhege class too where you look at him.

And it's just, I love the fact that they plucked him off waivers from Carolina. in 2021, right? Like, this is a guy who's worked his ass off, gotten consistently better. Florida has a way,

not just of developing him, which we should say. There's a lot of, there's a lot of guys who step into that system and immediately become better. It's Nico Mikala or Al-Eckman Larson. Like, there's guys who,

you know, they have a way of getting the best out of, out of defensemen, which is, I think, kind of an interesting subplot here. But, man, every game Gustav Forsling is doing

some kind of huge stick play, some kind of whatever. Like he is making his presence felt defensively in a very noticeable way, which is tough to do I think on some level when you play a game like hits. The fact that he is doing stuff in his own end that's making people go

like, whoa, on a nightly basis is really, really cool to see. And I think it speaks to how important he is for sure to them overall. And it only more so in this series, right? Because look who he's going to probably be matched up against. Right around the trade deadline, Florida signed him to an eight-year extension at 5.75 as the AIV.

Can you imagine if he were going to hit market in, you know, 25 days or whatever, what that number would be? He has, I mean, eight. It very well could. He's been outstanding these playoffs. I think, obviously, Florida knew what they had. And to Haley's point, he had a great regular season, too. This isn't like some like pop-up playoff performer. But this is what I love about the playoffs is when a guy like this gets a level of spotlight

that just isn't impossible for the whole world to tune in so consistently. Every time you watch this guy, he's making a massive, if not multiple, like stick play, back check play, and then transition up. He's got the best stick in the NHL. He's going to take that for Mark Stone. 100%. Yeah. Like goal-saving plays.

high danger chance saving plays on the reg with this with this guy and he's going to need to dip all the way into his bag because he's going to get McDavid like him and him and him and Echblatt are going to get those minutes if if the way they've played those guys is any indication uh the way they play those guys in the last few series is any indication it's going to be hard match you're out there every second with this dude so yeah yeah now I'm questioning the fact that I only have him that I don't have him I are on my own list because he seems like he's going to be vital. He's the straw that stirs the drink on the parrot, too.

Good as Eckblatt has been, much as Eckblatt has changed his game, especially since he's come, since he came back from that last surgery. Forsling's, Forzling is the dude. And he's really, really good. He's really, really important. Yeah. He's just so disruptive in the offensive zone, like four opponents. So in his own D zone, right?

Like, it's the stick plays. It's keeping guys on the wall. He blocks passes. at an unbelievable rate. There was the rush chance in the Rangers series a few days ago. I guess this was game, the final game, right? There was maybe it was Crider potentially, like almost had a partial break. And Foresling just kind of took a couple hard strides.

He did it to Panery. He laid out on the ice and got his stick in the way. And like he does it in a clean way too. Like it's on a stick penalty. It's just a really good stick play. So he's been unbelievable. and so, so valuable. I think the only reason he's four and not three, though,

is because Alexander Barkoff is three. And I think you could go either way there, right? Like, either way, these are, we are saying that these are the two most important players for the Florida Panthers in the final. And I don't think it's a huge debate. No, it would be there two kind of consmite favorites. I think, Brodowski's probably at the fringes of that conversation as well.

But, you know, these are the, and it's really similar logic, honestly. Barcov's going to score some more goals for you, but he's also going to take really hard matchups, and you expect to see a ton of him against two of the five best forwards in the league, and how he fares in those minutes has the single biggest probably swing factor. That's probably why he ends up where he is on our list. So it's, you know, he's too kind of had a little bit of that star moment, Sean,

you like to talk about with awards voting, where sometimes it takes you winning the con smith or something or having a playoff like this to get the regular season, respect you deserve. I think that's going to certainly happen for Alexander Barkoff in the coming years here because he's been outstanding all playoffs and now he gets to do it against, you know, the standard bearers of those rate of season awards. So much his game is about quiet dominance, whether that's defensively, whether it's the stuff that he does to sustain zone time for Florida. It doesn't always pop. And I think that's part of the reason why we have to have the completely overdone

should never come up again is Alexander Barkoff underrated discussion right right because there's there's that one then there's the backlash of the discussion whatever like we should just table all of that because it's because it's because it's tired don't table it put it away but yeah put it in a drawer any permutation of that discussion like I'm

throw it into the sun but he's he's had moments again There are a couple big ones against Florida, too, where it's like full shifts, like long, like, against the Rangers, excuse me, full, like, full shifts, long shifts, where you're like, this is, you know, it's like kind of what I said about dry side,

where you're like, is this guy the best player on the planet? Like, he has flashes where you're like, he can do what he wants. Like, he's so strong on the puck. And that's, that's something that just, I think is, a building block, a foundational kind of piece for his game and really for their, for the success that they've had. Like, you just throw them out there, right?

And you can rely on him in a very, in a very real way. He's great. I know. So we're breaking. This is like new ground. We're breaking here. Alexander Parkhouse is awesome. But yeah.

We have the courage to say it. You heard it here first, folks. I think what makes, and I've said this before we started recording, I think, I'm going to be so disappointed if this cut final. all stinks because it has like all of the ingredients for this to be an unbelievable go the final. I don't know who's going to win this kind of finish. Like when you look at what the Panthers have because we're talking about them right now, obviously a great top pair and unbelievable number one defender, a top six that includes Carter Verhegey, Matthew Kachuk, Alexander Barkoff, Sam Reinhart,

and Sam Bennett, who we didn't even really talk about. But then you look on the other side And it's just like, oh, yeah, the Oilers also have a great number one. And Evan Bouchard, a really good top pair. And the top six that includes Nugent Hopkins, McDavid, Zach Hyman, Leon Dreisidal. Like, if this Stanley Cup stinks, I'm going to be pissed. I want my money back. I agree. Like, everything about it suggests this should be a great one, right?

There's Star Power. There's just look at the odds. right? They're going to beat each other up. Dom has it is basically 50-50. That doesn't happen all that often. No. And like, are these the two best teams in the NHL? They might be.

And we don't, that doesn't happen. That doesn't happen every year. Right? Like, this is, this is premium. This is marquee. We're lucky to be able to watch it. Max, did you have a thought on Barkoff? Did you already talk?

I'm not doing a good job hosting. I did. I think I went first. But yeah, you know, yep. I just want to make sure Max is included because sometimes we talk too much, Sean. Okay. Who's number two? Oh, it's Connor McDavid.

Surprise because he's not number one. I voted him number one, but I do think it's a good debate. I did. And I voted him number one for this reason, because at the end of the day, we're going to talk a lot about kind of like shutting him down and, you know, shutting him down became a theme as we talked. talked higher and higher up the list on the Florida side of things and having to match up with McDavid. At a certain point, that makes him the most important player in the series.

If how we're looking at everyone else revolves around how they're going to fare against him, there obviously, I think people can figure out who the last name on our list is here, uh, based on who we haven't said yet, but it's Warren Fogle. That's right. And that, you know, certainly what, what happens behind Connor McDavid, yes, is vitally important. But if the Oilers don't win his minutes, it's almost impossible for me to see a way that they win this series. And that does include the power play. It's not just five on five.

But to me, that makes him the most important player. And I think he's the story of the playoffs. I think if they win it, Sean, you've said, and I agree with you, there's almost no way he's not the consmite for a number of reasons. And to me, it just he's the guy. But there is a case for an alternative. I would love to hear from you guys why he's not number one. Oh, you make a good point, Max. Sean, why don't you go up against it?

It's because of what you talked about, I think, or because of what we've talked about at various points here. Number one is Stuart Skinner, because Sean and I voted Stuart Skinner. What? We have to give the reveal. I don't think there's a ton of variance on McDavid. I think we know that he's going to be Connor McDavid. Like there's no way to stop Connor McDavid from being Connor McDavid.

He's got, oh, God, 31 points in the playoffs so far. And, you know, across the board, I just, I had a bunch of, I had a bunch of stats up here that I just lost. So whatever, it doesn't matter. We know, we know that this dude's good, right? I think, let's talk about him for a second, actually, but before we move on to Skinner. he's played against consistently either elite defensive players or elite defensive teams over the last three rounds. Like even against the Kings, it's it's Kopitzar, it's, it's, it's Drew Dowdy, who's still just an unbelievable player, right? And he's smoked all of them.

Like, these are, everybody hasn't just tried to shut down Connor McDavid or slow down Connor McDavid. They've had the people in place necessary to make it happen. We saw it against Dallas. Like he made, he made, look at, look at what he did to Miro Hayskin and in the, in that goal, right? Like, sounds like he should be number one then. No, because we know what we're getting from him. Like the variance, I think is what is what makes like, spoiler alert, Skinner number one for me. Yeah.

So let's get to that. Sean and I both voted Skinner number one. Max went, McDavid number one. as he kind of alluded to here. We had, I know I put Stuart Skinner number one because we have seen what has happened to the Oilers if he is not playing like above average

or even average hockey. I think the variance from Stuart Skinner is what makes him number one over McDavid. And, you know, I don't know if the Panthers play as good defensively as we think they can. or if Bobrovsky plays as good as we think that he does or as well as he has over the last year or two,

I don't think the Oilers are going to be able to win games six to five or whatever, right? So that means that Stewart Skinner is going to need to limit the goals that actually find the back of the net. And that is true. Regardless of who you're playing, you don't go into a playoff series wanting to win Barnburners, right? But I think you need to limit the amount of times that a game happens. that way because I don't know how many times you're going to have a six spot on Bobrovsky or the Panthers. If Skinner plays the way that he's played since he was unbenched against Vancouver,

there's been eight games there. Average basically a goal saved above expected in each of them, right? Like if you stretch it out. And certainly if he plays the way that he did, if he gives him 75% of what he gave him in the clincher against Dallas, like this series is. over. It's Edmonton's a lock to win if they get high or whatever above average goal tending from Stuart Skinner. I don't think that's an overstatement. The issue is like he can't necessarily be relied to give that to them, right? Like good as he was in the regular season,

he's still a dude who was bad enough a few weeks ago to get yanked for multiple games. So it's a coin flip, man. And I, I, it sounds, this is, I, I, I, I, I, I, It's a boring choice for me, right? I don't want to say that the series hinges on one of the goaltenders, but I also kind of feel that that's the case here. The only thing that gives me the pause on it is, you know, there have been games where, like, you know, they've won it when he's at an 842.

They've won when he's had an 857 in a given outing. And, you know, the number of shots matter here too. And, you know, some of those games, he's still only giving up, you know, two, three goals, three goals probably. Yeah. McDavid, when he doesn't score, the others are one and four when he's not on the score sheet. Yeah.

And four season. That's fair. But, you know, Skinner plays the whole game. And that's like where it kind of always comes back to with goalies is like they are the most important position on the end. We probably could have gone Skinner-Beravrovsky one, two here because these are the guys that are going to play every minute of the series. And so there's always that. So I do get it. And, you know, I ranked Skinner second on my list.

I think he's hugely important. Yeah. It's awesome. I think they're going to be really hard to beat. And he is the guy that, you know, if McDavid and Drysoddell both have two goal games, they can still lose. Stuart Skinner just, you know, isn't there for a period, right? Yeah. So goalies do have that inherent advantage.

But to me, it's McDavid, but I get it. I think what makes Skinner the number one for me is like when he's at his best, like, you know, he was at his best in the Western Conference final. He went four and two, 1.91 goals against average and a 922 say percentage. And they are in the Stanley Cup final. Like that's what kind of does it for me. I know it was, you know, McDavid, again, like, McDavid making me. Miro Hayskin in completely turn around in a way that I don't know if I've seen him get put in a

blender like that. I think I think, I think, I think, I think, you know, he's the, yeah, it's obviously McDavid. He's number one. I think skinner going number one is like, as, you know, maybe boring as it might normally be to pick the goalie. I think it's more boring to just go with the best player in the world. So maybe this is me galaxy braining and trying to.

No, I'm not trying to go for fascinating. I'm trying to, you know, but I get it. No, no, no. I think that Skinner, when he was at his best, got them to the cup final, you know, by way of the team that a lot of people thought was the, you know, one of the best teams. And I mean, I know at least on this podcast, we had the stars winning. And Stuart Skinner made it really hard to get by them. And I think to my point about, I don't know how often you're going to have a six spot on the Panthers. There's only three times in these 18 playoff games they've played,

has a team scored more than four goals against. You know, Bob isn't always locking it down for a shutout, but he's not always being leaky enough that a team is just ripping them apart. Maybe I just jinx the whole goalt hop. I did that in the PWHL final. I was like, oh, it's going to be low scoring. And then there's seven goals in the first game. So, you know, you heard it here first.

The Oilers are going to win game one, seven to two or whatever. I think it's Skinner's capable of gift wrapping a couple games for Florida in a way that, in a way, we can talk about goalie volatility generally, right? Like you don't really know what you're getting on a night's night basis for most guys outside of a very small group of players at the very top of it. But I think, you know, I think he's uniquely capable of swinging this one one way or the other. So that's why that's why he's my guy. All right. That's our 12 here, folks.

Stuart Skinner, Connor McDavid, David, Alexander Barkov, Gustav Forzling, Leon Drysidal, Sergey Bobrovsky, Matthew Kuch, Evan Bouchard, Carter Verhege, Darnell Nurse, Anton Lundell, and Zach Hyman. Are the 12 most important players

heading into the Stanley Cup final, as dubbed by us? Matthias Ekholm, Sam Reinhart, and Sam Bennett just missed the cut on the top 12, but surely they're going to be important in this series. We can't pick everybody. Otherwise, this show would be two and a half hours long.

And we'd just be reading everyone's stat sheet on the rosters. And nobody wants to that. You would listen to a two and a half hour long podcast is my question. You have a two and a half hour long podcast. I don't know what you're talking about. Regularly. Where you talk about snacks and movies. Sounds like a good show to me.

Wouldn't know. Max, has been lurking on the Puck Soup Discord for years. Anyways, thanks, everyone. for listening to The Athletic Hockey Show. The Prospect Series is back on Friday from the NHL Draft Combine in Buffalo, and then Mondays, the Athletic Hockey Show with Ian Mendez and Mark Lazarus, along with Pierre Lebrun, CJ, and Jesse Granger. Holy crap.

Why does everyone have so many people on their shows and we don't? Does nobody want to talk to us? This is enough. All right. We have enough. Thanks, yeah. Max can barely get a word in. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll be back next week.