The Athletic Hockey Show - Will we see 3 sweeps in the first round?

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

The Senators, Penguins and Kings are trending towards being swept in the first round. Hailey and Max discuss disappointing series for Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. Shayna Goldman stops by to discuss the Sabres dominating game three win over Boston, and she shares her eight too early takes from the first round. Sean Gentille joins us from Disneyland to talk about Connor McDavid still looking for his first point in the Ducks / Oilers series.Host: Hailey Salvian and Max BultmanWith: Shayna Goldman and Sean GentilleExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Athletic Hockey Show. I'm Haley Salveen, alongside Max Boltman this week. Sean is at Disneyland, but he's going to join us later in the show to chat about the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Duck.

Shana Goldman's going to stop by to vibe check the first week of the NHL playoffs as well. But first, Max, I'm very glad that Sean's out this week. He is traveling for the first round. Like I said, he's at Disneyland. We'll see if he even ends up at the game. He's going to have so much fun at the park all day. He's going to be too tired. He's going to need a nap.

But I'm glad you're here because I owe you an apology. Last week we did our Eastern Conference preview. And I scolded you pretty harshly for not respecting the fun that Penn's Flyers would be. I was wrong. It's terrible. And not just because the penguins are down three nothing in the series and they could get the boot on. Saturday. Don't really care that much about that. Penguins have been outscored 11 to 4. I tuned in in the second period. I was like at the gym or something, missed the first, made some

dinner, turn on the game. I see two shots on goal. I was like, did I accidentally start this from the beginning of the game instead of going live? Nope, nope, just two shots on goal in the second period. It has not been great. Like the best moment of that series has been that funny little video of Sidney Crosby in the penalty box with the Flyers fan. That was excellent, a little knowing like, yeah. Yeah, you're right. So here's the thing, really. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I was so wrong. I was so wrong, dude. That was brutal. I would love to bask in that apology, but I can't for two reasons. Number one, I said it was going to be a boring series because the pens were just going to take care of business and the exact opposite has happened. And number two, the series that I was arguing with you over is also a three-0 series. Carolina and Ottawa. And the most interesting thing in that series has been the senators banishing one of

their own fans to Taiwan over a music video. So I can't really take a whole lot of credit either. So I guess the lesson here is that we don't know everything that we're talking about here. No, no, definitely not. Like I actually had this moment too, and maybe you're a great person to ask about this because you spend so much time with Corey Promen and Scott Wheeler. This can be like a mini prospect series segment here. Did I not pay attention or was Porter Martone

like not hyped up enough? He was pretty hyped. I'm watching this guy and I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Who is going to tell me that this kid was going to come in and lead the flyers and scoring in the first round of the playoffs? How can I blame Cory Pronman on my ignorance?

Is what I'm saying. Both Scott and Corey love Porter Martone going into the draft. But I do think. think as the year went on, like part of playing in college hockey is that you're not going to have that like 145 point season that everyone can get really excited about in the CHL, right? Like those are obvious things. Oh, he scored 65 goals this year. No, in college hockey, it's like pretty good if you're a point per game player or a little over that. And Porter

Martone was a very good player on a very good team, Michigan State team. I think everyone is surprised at how fast and how impactful the impact and how fast that impact has come. So, you know, When Porter Martone got eliminated, it was like, yeah, he's going to join the Flyers. But I think, I don't know if it was on this show with you guys or if we did it on a different episode. But we talked about like, you know, we saw with Ryan Leonard last year and Zeev Bouillon last year. You can be a top prospect. You come in. It's really hard to be a difference maker in the playoffs.

Porter Martone heard that and said, watch this. And he has been absolutely excellent. He's been one of the Flyers best offensive players. He's shown some all around game too. It's not just been, you know, puck touches and shots on goal. So very impressed by Porter Martone. and, you know, we talked about him last year as high as, I think, like, three or four in that class on the prospect series. That certainly looks like where he belonged.

Yeah. I just had this moment of like, I feel like I knew everything about Maddie Baneers when he was coming out of college. And I haven't heard. I just felt like I hadn't heard quite as much. And maybe that's just because Gavin McKenna is getting so much of the oxygen right now in the prospect's fear. Or I just wasn't paying attention. Like I can own that. I think your podcast,

your podcast co-host, Sean, has always been a big Maddie Baneers, I think, believer since very early into into Maddie Baneers' career. So maybe that's why. Let's blame my ignorance on like everyone else. Yeah.

And I think that has worked for me for over 30 years now. I don't take accountability for anything. All right. So that's a joke. It didn't land. You didn't even last. So now I just kind of sound crazy.

I just thought you were transitioning. Yeah, no, I was. All right. On this episode of Summerhouse. Yes, seriously. If you want to go on for 15 minutes, we can talk about the bravoverse and Scamanda. I don't think they want that. I will be Andy Cohen for the day.

Sean will join later and he will be all over it. All right. So the Sends do lose 2-0 last night. That's one. Thursday night, excuse me. They go down 3-0 in that series. Let's get into that a little bit. it. The big thing from that game, Jake Sanderson, he leaves in the second period after a hit in the head by Taylor Hall.

Hall was assessed just a minor penalty. Huge loss for the Ottawa senators if they lose Jake Sanderson. When we did our preview a week ago, one of the big things we discussed was Jake Sanderson and how he's going to be critically important to the mix. Like if they're going to, if the Sends were going to suppress shots or suppress chances against the Carolina Hurricane. Cains who often tilt the ice against their opponents. Jake Sanderson is going to be a huge reason if the Sends have success in those areas, right? He played 43 minutes in that double O T game on Monday. This is a team that's already without Artem Zube. He got hurt in game one. They finally get Tyler Clevenback, but just a huge loss in Jake Sanderson. That to me kind of clouds, even the fact that they're down 3-0 is you're not now you're down 3-0, potentially without your best

player, most important player, I would say. Yeah, and this has been such a frustrating series for Ottawa in general. I mean, this was the series that, that I thought, like I said, off the top was going to be the most entertaining. The games have been close, but that doesn't amount to much when one team just kind of can't get it over the line. And I mean that literally and figuratively, you know, Ottawa's had some posts. They've had some pucks that they've gotten behind Freddie Anderson that have just stayed out. It's been a remarkably frustrating series for the senators. And I don't think they're that far off, but you do see a little gap and you see how

tight the space is out there. Carolina does not give up anything easy. It makes it essential that you take advantage of the opportunities that you do get against them. And Ottawa has come up in some cases, in short, in some cases like less than an inch short, but it amounts to a 3-0 lead for the hurricanes. And when you don't have Jake Sanderson now, to your point, that's a, an extremely difficult hole to dig out of.

Yeah, there was like a pretty big missed shot from Tim Stutzel on an open net in game two. Like the game was closer and kind of airmailed one. And then he hit the post in the third. I think in game two, Shana and Harmon, we'll talk to Shana later in the show like we said, but they had a great like two early takes from the first round so far. And one of them is just sends forwards, aren't getting it done. Stutzla attempted seven shots on Monday night in game two against the Cains. Only two actually reached Frederick Anderson.

So this is kind of where like the Corzy Bowl jokes come into play. It's just the Cains do a better job getting those shot attempts in the back of the net, or at least on the goaltender, it seems. Well, and part of that is like Logan Stankovan has just been aces. Logan Sankovan, the Carolina has. scoring in all three games. Absolutely. But like Carolina has not put their usual 38 shots a night on goal here.

Ottawa has played its game, I think, pretty well. But like you said, the key is you got to take advantage. And Logan Stankovan, night after night, is giving them a 1-0 lead. And it allows them to fade into what makes them so difficult, right? Like Logan Stankovan scores first in all three games. And then Carolina can play from a position of strength. They can clog the middle because they know that they might only need one more goal or no more goals, the rest of the way.

The line of Stankovan Hall and Blake has been the best line in this series by a mile. And it's just, it's made things. The game script, I guess is not a word we typically use in hockey as much as we do in like football, but the game script has been very favorable for the Keynes. Yeah, for sure. And I think like Linus Allmark, like you said, the Cains are the Sends aren't playing terribly defensively. Like they are making it tough for Carolina.

And Linus Allmark has been solid. but the Sends aren't able to score. Like if Allmark's only letting in one goal, two goals, it's basic math, but you still got a score two or three. And that is proving to be very, very difficult. If I told you at the start of this series that through three games, Linus Allmark would have a 933 save percentage. What would you have guessed that the series score would be right now?

At least two to one sense, right? Right. But Freddie Anderson has been even better. And that has been a gutsy move. We talked about it with Jesse on Monday. Gutsy move by Rod Brindamore. Obviously, he's more experienced than Brandon Bussie, but Bussie had kind of taken the net as the year went along for Carolina.

He makes the switch and Freddie Anderson's making it pay off in just a huge way. Yeah, and it's good to have a goalie like that, have confidence heading into the stretch run, especially if Bussie hits a snag somewhere you want to know and trust that you can go to Freddie Anderson. So classic Rod Brindamore masterclass in the first round of the postseason. It's looking pretty good. And you're saying.

Yeah. The aves also up 3-0 in their series. They win last night against the L.A. Kings. McKinnon and McCar have just one point in that series each. That's despite the abs outscoring the Kings, 8 to 4. And this is where I'm going with this because I don't necessarily think we need to break down that game. Because it's another series where you're just like, okay, we'll see you in the next round abs.

I'm not trying to write off the Kings, but they finally just scored at 5 on 5 the other day. do we think any of these series could go past four games? Or are we looking at three teams that are about to get sweeped when we're looking at the Sends, the Kings, and the Penguins? I still think Ottawa can find a way to one. I mean, these have all been, honestly, they've been tight games in both of those two series, L.A., LA, Colorado and Ottawa, Carolina. I think Ottawa has a win in them, but it's just, you know, it's very hard for me to see any of them

actually getting to like a game six at this point, like the class. has looked, whether it's by a mile or by a little, it's been consistent enough that Carolina, Colorado, and oddly enough, Philly have just been that much better than their opponents. We should talk about the Philly Pittsburgh series a little bit as we talk about these sweeps because this was the one that I thought Pittsburgh would get done in like five games. The Philly defensive structure has made it impossible on the Penguins. And I don't think the penguins have looked good enough either, like it, but I think a big part of that is how bad Philly has made them look.

They are not allowing anything. This is a completely bought in and committed Flyers team. It is so impressive to watch. Yeah. And I think Sean tried to make this point in our Eastern Conference playoff, and I just ignored him. But he'd said, like, we got to consider, like, Tyson Forster, Porter Martone, like, Forster's coming back.

Martone's going to be in the lineup. Like, this kid shoots the puck more than most guys in the NHL. Worcester's great. Da da, da, da, da, da, like, I don't think we quite got the full, like, we didn't project the full Flyers team that we're seeing in the playoffs. It was just like, oh, well, he's coming back. We'll see how he looks, and we'll see how this kid looks in the postseason. They've been great.

The defensive system's been great. That's credit to Rick Tockin and the buy-in from the players. And we also said, I have to say, like, we acknowledged that the Flyers had the more young, skilled, fun roster and that they had better goaltending. The difference for us was Sydney Crosby. We failed to consider Sidney Crosby not looking very good in this first round. It has not been a great playoffs for 87. And I think I have to acknowledge that as well because that for me,

I was just like, don't care that the Flyers are younger and better. they've got Crosby and that has not meant a whole lot as they're down 3-0. I don't know how to account for it because that was the one thing I was sure about in this series was that, yeah, Philly might, you know, they've got good depth, they've got great team defense. But they have limited scoring and the penguins have kind of the ace in the hole that they can put the Crosby matchup out there against any of the Philly lines and they will just own possession the whole way. And, you know, just hasn't played out that way. And I don't know how to put my finger on why Philly has been able to neutralize one of the five to 10 best players of all time, who's still clearly a very good player, had a very good season. I think is one of the big reasons that the penguins are in the playoffs right now, although he did miss some time late in the year. Maybe there's some lingering effects from that.

It's a hard one to quantify. But, yeah, that series has been the most surprising to me in the way that it's taken on. And it's funny to go from saying, I think the penguins win it easily in five games to now saying, like, I don't know, would you be more surprised if the penguins force a game five or if the kings do based on how those series have played out so far? Ooh, I would be more surprised with the kings. Those are all one goal games. Like, like, LA's been in these. Like, they've found a way to keep Colorado fairly quiet. Yeah, but there's just something.

And like, it honestly, like, my gut wants to tell me that all three of these teams are getting swept. But there's part of me that thinks, like, the penguins have to muster something in game four, right? Like, right? But we haven't seen that yet. So part of me thinks that all three are going to get swept. Like, even for this, if the Sends play game four without Jake Sanderson, it's going to take Brady and Chuck actually scoring and not just fighting and Tim Stittslett hit in the net. I'm not trying to sound like a hater, but things aren't going great for some of their top forwards. Like, you're going to need more than a Drake Batherson goal here and there.

Like, Brady Kachuk doesn't have a point yet in that series. So if the Sends are going to win, they're going to have to do it without Sanderson, and they're going to need Brady to step up in a big way, not just when it comes to, like, pulling the dudes into the fight kind of stuff, like score goal, make a play. get on the scoreboard. And then for the Kings, I just, I don't know, I kind of feel bad because it's like, you know, you finally don't have to play against Edmonton the first round and now you're going to play against the abs who don't need McKinnon and McCar to be productive to beat you.

So I'm going to go like bold, hot takey and say they all get swept. I don't hate the take. I mean, the thing that the penguins have is that when you talk about needing your captain to step up and produce out of after not having done so in a series, you sort of. certainly like the penguins odds to do that, the best of those teams. But again, we said the same thing coming into the series. Philly's shutdown down. I know.

So that's where I'm mad is like part of me wants to say that the penguins will show something. They'll do something. But we haven't seen it yet. We got to talk about the Buffalo Sabres. But let's save that for Shana Goldman because she's going to join us next. Her and Harmon, as we said, they have this great eight two early takes from the NHL playoffs so far. Buffalo Sabers have a big one.

over 35 on the power play. I thought that was a typo when you texted me that, Max. Nope, it's true. We'll talk about that with Shana next. It's not great. All right, welcome back to the athletic hockey show. Shana Goldman dropped her eight two early takeaways from the NHL playoffs yesterday with our colleague Harmon Dyle.

She's here now to break it all down with us. And Shana, we're going to put you on the spot here because Max and I just maybe made some terrible takes in the first segment. do you think any of the teams down 3-0 right now, that's the senators, the penguins, the L.A. Kings, can they make not just a comeback, but like win a hockey game in the first round of the NHL playoffs? Shana, what do you think?

No comeback's coming here. These teams are all losing in round one. But I think the senators could potentially steal one game if they can figure out Frederick Anderson and finish a chance or two because it feels like they're the only ones that's like sticking in games a little bit more like the kings the games are tight but i don't think you watch any of these games going the kings could really win here you're like okay maybe

they have an opening and then they still just don't yeah the kings to me have felt like the team that's like hey you're you're you're giving them your best shot and it's just not enough and that's just happening over and over again where i do think the sense have had some some bad luck moments but you also have to you got to make your own luck to some extent i have to say though shana we're going to need to do an episode or maybe at least just a segment sometime this summer where we just go shelf by shelf on your backdrop, there is something on every single one of those shelves that I want the story behind. So put a pin in that. We'll get to that. That's an August episode. Is that a hot dog? Is it a candle or just a sculpture of a hot dog? So it's a hot dog

candle. I got it as a gift lesson. It's funny when it's hoping it would be a candle. Yeah, it was a birthday present for my friend Joe because it was Glizzy Girl Summer. And Michael's had this line of candles. So we had bought this tart one already. And Richard didn't want the hot dog. And I was really upset by it. I'm like, we need this.

But it's so cute. It comes out every spring. Hot dog scented, I assume. Yeah, I wish. That would make my day. None of them are scented.

Yeah. Yeah. They have like cereal bowl ones. I was thinking like, oh, that's cute. So I don't think they're really burnable candles.

And I think they're just there for the vibes. And I have a candle shaped like a rigatoni noodle. And it's like a prize possession of mine. Yeah. All right. Let's do the Buffalo series here, because.

Oh, we don't want to talk about glissies for the next time. Let's go. Look, bonus content for sure. But the Buffalo Sabres go into Boston last night. And I thought this was their best performance of the series so far last night. I mean, they trail once again. That seems to be kind of going to be their MO here. But Alex Lyon gave him a big time performance.

Noah Oselin came into the lineup and gave him a big time performance. If I had told you that the Buffalo Sabers would start these playoffs, 0 for 14 on the power play. Would you have thought that they had any prayer at a 2-1 series lead? Not really, because I think the only time

we've seen a team have that bad of a power play, right, and make it all the way is like you go back to the 2011 Bruins and they were perfect in pretty much every other regard. I felt like you'd have to create some of your own luck on the power play.

Like you said, like you can't win games without that. And in this series, especially like early in series, right? Because when the playoffs start, we see a lot of penalties, get called in games one and two and three and four. And then as series,

roll on and get tighter. It's fewer and fewer penalties called. And then as rounds go on, it's fewer and fewer penalties called. So you can get through the later stages of the playoffs without a great power play, a little easier than you can in the beginning. So the fact that they're doing it while going over 14 and struggling to even establish his own time on the power play and it's killing their momentum, definitely impressive. I feel like we're talking about a lot of games in series where the power play isn't clicking

though. like every game I'm watching, there's at least one team where the announcers are talking about how the power play hasn't been very good. Um, like the Edmonton Oilers and we'll talk about that with Sean coming up. That's a struggling power play that is historically very good. We've got the Buffalo Sabres, um, like just special teams. And I think part of it is just that we're only two or three games into most of these series. But when you zoom out a little bit, the Sabres are now over 35. Like this goes back to the regular season. That has been a power play that has not. been clicking for several weeks now.

And just specific to Buffalo, right? Like the reason that I bring that up with them is like, we knew that Jeremy Swayman had the potential to steal this series for the Boston Bruins. He still does. Like the Bruins are very much still alive in this series. I don't think they're, uh, they're too far behind the eight ball here, especially with game four at home. But my point is like, that's part of Jeremy Swayman stealing the series is like shutting down

a Buffalo power play that can get has the players to get humming. They haven't done it since March 31st. So, yeah, maybe I shouldn't say that there's surprise that they continue to struggle on the power play. It just felt like an area of the game they had to win in order to solve Jeremy Swamen, who was one of the two best goalies in these playoffs, Shana? Yeah, I mean, he was arguably the best goalie of the regular season. And when you look at the Bruins down the stretch, like, sure, they had these really impressive win against contenders, but then you look at it and go, was it Jeremy Swimming against the world. And it kind of was. And then you look at their play down the stretch again, and there were some defensive issues coming up for the Bruins.

and Jeremy Swimming just consistently has been incredible. So, yeah, he could steal the series and the power play is a big reason why, because when the Sabres finally do enter the zone, and that right there is a problem in itself, I have taken so many notes on their regroups and the drop pass is in the neutral zone and the way the Bruins are just breaking things up. But then they finally do break through a couple times

and get some pressure on the power play, which you would think, okay, at the very least, they could build momentum off that, and here's their chance. They're here in the zone. They can do it. And Jeremy Swimming just comes up with big save after big save. So it's a potential momentum killer for sure.

And it's a way he can just, you know, keep playing to his strengths too. It's that confidence booster that he's going to close the door every time they're on the advantage here. He definitely has the potential to steal the series. And it feels like that could be something as the games tighten up. And as the players get more aggravated with each other and take more penalties, which I'm sure is going to happen here, right? Like you're going to have it. There's a lot of physicality in this series and it feels like it's only going to amp up from here.

So when you get those power plays, you have to make the most of them and he could just keep stopping them. As much as like Jeremy Swayman has been great, when we were talking about this series and when we've talked about the Bruins over the last little bit, it's like the conversation's very much been about like Swayman's great. They are, you know, playing better than we would have thought. The retool has been great. Don Sweeney did a good job. Pavel Zaka, like we're talking about all the little bits and pieces that have worked out very well for the Bruins in the ways in which they've been unexpected. But within all of that, have we just completely forgotten and underrated Dave and Pasternak? I feel like that's an easy thing to do, honestly, because we like take for granted what a great score he is and he's like this incredible goal score. He has a lethal shot. But also he's an amazing playmaker. He's so good in transition. I feel like those elements of his game kind of go under the radar a little bit too much. And he is. a game breaker in this series too. Like if you look at both teams on both ends of the ice and go,

who's the best skater, right? Take out the goalies from the equation. So Swamen's not here. You're going to have a good conversation of, is it David Poshnock or Rasmus Dahlene? And I think you could really go either way depending on what you're prioritizing. But this is probably the best skater in this series right now is David Pachanak. So once he gets going to and scores a little bit more here, who knows what it could open up. I don't think he's getting enough attention because I think we're focusing, like you said, the small things and also the mistakes. You look at last night's game, your takeaway is either Jeremy Swamen looked really good and it wasn't enough or it's, you know, that lower eye and Linholm pair was a real problem for the Bruins.

They're going to have to figure that out instead of being like, when are we going to have that David Poshanoke game? Let's move on to some. No, I shouldn't say. I think the Bruins Sabres series is like the best of the bunch from last night. However, some of the series and the games from yesterday, they're not my favorite. We've already talked about it. Penn's Flyers, not great.

Kane sends underwhelming for us. Avs Kings, kind of meh. So I want to move on to the ones that are a little bit more fun with you, Shana. And top of the list, for you, it's Vegas, Utah, right? That's one that you've got circled. Like, that's been appointment viewing. Why is that? It's all three of the games that are we on tonight.

there. It's like, these are the ones to lock in for. And I'm glad I'm glad there's like going to be a little bit of space and it doesn't feel like, hey, there's the potential of two seven o'clock rolling over into Vegas like the other night. I think it's a fun matchup because you have, you know, a newcomer to it. We've been waiting for that franchise back when they were Arizona and almost made the playoffs. And now that it's Utah to get into the playoffs and see this young core do some damage here. And I like the way both games have gone a lot because you watch game one and you see in the beginning, Utah speed was on display. And it's like, okay, they're going to play to their strengths because I think a lot of teams get to the playoffs

after having great rush-based seasons and all of a sudden start panicking like this is not how you win in the playoffs. We hear it all the time. We have to be a great forechecking team and you have to be able to grind it out. You do. That helps. Yeah. But if you if you throw away what got you here after 82 games, you're in even more trouble and it feels like Utah came in hot and then Vegas adjusted. Vegas looked like they settled in for that third period. They were the battle test team. They started for checking more. They upped the physicality and it worked for them and utah didn't panic and i'd love that for game too that you saw utah go right back to you know moving the pocket ton and i think they were better not being too cute with that and just thriving in transition and you saw that on the game winning

goal from dylan gunther and logan coolly where they're surprisingly beating jack ickel who's one of the faster forwards in Vegas and also shay theodore so we always knew the speed could be what separates these two teams. But it felt like on that play, even this, you know, the faster guys on Vegas are getting beat by these exciting young guns in Utah. And part of it goes back to like Logan Cooley, despite being fast, exciting, skilled player, like this is not a soft player at all. Like, don't let the size fool you. Logan Cooley will go to the hard areas of the ice. Like he is kind of a can do it all, can play in any situation type of player. And he's showing that. Like I think his, his brand of offense does carry into the playoffs. And that's been proven through the first couple of games here.

Yeah, the Utah young guns are are forced to be reckoned with here. And I still think Vegas finds a way in the end. I think the ability to put together a line, Shana of Mitch Marner, Jack Eichael, and Mark Stone is unbelievable. And that should be a chess piece that is too good to overcome in the end of this. But I'm gaining huge respect for Utah. And I think they can make this a long series. Yeah.

I mean, I did pick Utah in this year. I'm going to be honest. So I'm still going to lean with them. but like you said, Vegas has all of the pieces to be a contender. It's just figuring out, except for the goal tending. They have all the pieces in front of the blue paint to be a contender, and it feels like it's just a matter of mixing and matching the right way. They started with that top heavy line.

And then midway through game one, we saw them shift away from it, and that actually helped them more. But they know that they have that breaking case of emergency option, which not every team does, right? Like for Utah, you look at it and go, I see how the top six fits. I'm not sure they have all of these combinations. They know, okay, flip a switch and you can go to this and everything will be fine again.

Like maybe there are combinations like I'm overlooking here, but it just feels like Vegas has that little extra X factor. We're going to talk with Sean about the Anaheim Oilers game slash series that continues tonight in California. So, Shane and maybe we can talk about, in my opinion, like the best series of the East. And it's not even close. I don't know if it's a big debate, but that's Tampa, Montreal, that series. continues today with 730 puck drop because like you said they're actually pacing the games out

what do you make that series so far and does that top your list of appointment viewing i think so right now i think so it's been so exciting through two games and i think we all knew it had the potential to be based on their regular season matchups and there was one down the stretch where they were just going after each other the whole time that you're like yep i'll take seven games to this but also it's like it's so fascinating because we have a couple series here where it's like here's a young version of their opponent, like looking at their future selves across the way. And it feels like Montreal Tampa is that more than anyone else. There's so many similarities in the way that they play. There's similarities between particular players like Kuturoff and Demadoff, where you're

like, that that's what you want to like aspire to be. And in game one, you say, okay, well, Tampa made a lot of mistakes. Also, Montreal forced them into those mistakes, which you wouldn't expect from this young team. And you could have seen where, you know, the Josh Anderson goal gets overturned. There's a penalty immediately on Montreal. Tampa Bay converts. on the power play, that could have been like the game right there. It could have been the series right there, honestly, not to be dramatic, but it's that Tampa knows how to win, knows how to flip the switch. They've been here before.

So those kind of sequences could just work in their favor. And Montreal battled back in a huge way to take that game. But I think in game two, we saw the Tampa way we all know them to be. And that's this experienced team that can thrive in that kind of environment and they up the physicality. But most importantly, it was just the way they played in overtime was in complete control. They're forcing turnovers. they're getting their chances, and the Canadians were just playing from behind the whole time.

So it'll be interesting to see how Montreal adjusts that for game three, especially with the vibes of being in Montreal for this game and how Tampa's experience plays to their favor here. Did Montreal even get a shot on goal in that overtime the other night in game two? I don't think so. I mean, it went long stretches before. I know they got zero chances. Yeah. It was a Tampa masterclass.

Now, the one thing I'll say, like, and I fully agree with you, like this was Tampa clicking in. We've been here before. We know what to do here. little signs of some poise from Montreal that have been very impressive to me. Lane Hudson loses his stick on a play in that game. And they're defending a dangerous Tampa. The Braden point lines out there. Guys are offering Lane Hudson his stick.

He waves it off. And what he does is without a stick, he just goes and glues himself to Braden point. Now it helps that it's a guy like in his weight class. I don't know that he could have done that to, I don't know, Anthony Sorrelli necessarily. Surley is not huge either. But he goes stride for stride with him. he does not seed any ground to Braden Point. What could have become like a pseudo power play for the Tampa Bay Lightning resolves itself like pretty unconsequentially for the Montreal Canadians.

And I was very impressed by that with Lane Hudson for a guy who, yeah, he's played a playoff series before, but he has pretty limited playoff experience. And the smarts, the competitiveness to kind of handle that situation the way he did, I was very impressed by that. That's the kind of stuff that stuff happens in the playoffs. And plays like that can end your season. I thought it was a great job by him to not let that one kill them. Obviously, they still lose the game. But just those little signs that this Montreal team is ready for the moment a little bit. They can kind of solve these problems on the fly.

Yeah. And Lane Hudson's a perfect example for this because in every which way you would assume, like if you go by traditional a standard, it's like he's not a playoff player, right? If anyone's going to nitpick him, it's about his defense as much as it's improved this year. It's his size. It's that he's not gritty. And this play just like shows he's smart. He anticipates well.

he has great foot speed he's really evasive he can stick on players like point who's a fantastic skater too one of the best in the league so it just shows you know we need to like throw those ideas out the window because here he is in year two made massive improvements from year one in his own zone he was honestly in the norris race even without playing the toughest workload in the world because no dobson could take those minutes and now he's doing the playoffs without no adopsin in the lineup which is even more impressive that he's done at three two games so far. But the no panic in that situation, the calmness, the poise. And just overall, he makes such smart decisions in how to defend these top players

that that alone could be a momentum builder for the Canadians. And it's also just a huge step in his development for all of that regular season play to now transfer to this moment. Because sometimes with young guys, that doesn't happen. Like you think about Wyatt Johnson two years ago. He has this playoff breakout. The year before, he was great in the regular season. season, it didn't carry to the playoffs. He looked kind of overwhelmed by teams like Vegas and

Edmonton. And then here he comes the next year and he is the breakout star. So I feel like we could be having that conversation about Hudson. Like, I don't think he looked bad last postseason. He was a great offensive spark. But he also didn't have to be as great defensively because it was against a team like the Capitals, against Lightning. Like, you cannot make those mistakes because they have, you know, two top lines that could beat most in this postseason especially. It's been a great playoffs for the breakout candidate. To your point, Shana, whether it's Elaine Hudson, Uriislav Koski, Porter Martone, who we talked about already on the show.

Matt Savoy, we can talk to Sean Gentili about that next. So, Shana, thank you so much for the time. There's a great story from Shane on her eight, two early takeaways from the NHL postseason, also six players opening eyes with their postseason performance. If you want to dig into that a little bit more with Shana, you can read those stories on the athletic. Shana, thanks so much.

Thanks for having me. All right, let's take a break. Sean Gentilly joins us next from Disneyland. Must be nice. All right, welcome back to the athletic hockey show. Sean Gentilly joins us now from Anaheim, California. Disneyland, I've been saying. An unspecified Marriott property, very close to the entrance to Disneyland.

Yes, yes, that is where I am. Is it close to the downtown Disney or the actual park? The park. Oh, my gosh. Are you going to go? I almost went last night. I was ready to watch the NFL draft. Okay, to like downtown Disney.

Yes, I got in, I had to do a little bit of work, which, you know, very inconvenient doing work on a work trip. I had to do a little bit of work that stopped me from actually buying a ticket going to the park yesterday, which I briefly like kicked around. But now I ended up just going elsewhere. I went to the cheesecake factory to eat my dinner. and watch, you know, 15 picks of the NFL draft. I like to imagine that if you, like, pop into a dive bar in Anaheim,

like Donald Duck is just in there, like, blowing off steam after a long day. Without going, without going too far into the initial choice that I made last night, I popped into a dive bar in Anaheim and did a 180 and walked right back. Donald Duck was nowhere to be found. Smoking a cigarette for back. Yeah, right. Yeah, he's like, he'd be. He parked his bike in the back and, you know, he's wearing a leather jacket and banging Sigs.

I've always liked that road trip, though, because then you can go to the little downtown Disney and just go for a little walk, have a very expensive lunch, get an ice cream shaped like Mickey Mouse and then leave. It's like the weather's gorgeous. There's a lot of sunshine and, you know, yeah, there's a cheesecake factory at a McCormack. Kournick-Smix in a in a Bubba Gump Shrim Company just lined up like one after the other. So, perfect. All right. So tell us the most important stuff about this series, Sean. And let's start with the rotisserie chicken that was thrown on the ice.

Oh, my gosh. I've been efforting in a very big way to get more information about this. There's a chance, depending on who calls me back today, that I will have some kind of definitive take on what happened in game two. Yeah, there was a, there was an Oilers fan who brought. what appeared to be either a rotissory chicken, possibly, well,

people guessed that it was duck, that it was like a cook duck, like, or whatever, like, like duck, like duck, like, duck, like, like, actual, like, duck breasts that he bought at the store.

And then, but, um, I have it on some pretty good information. And again, I'm trying to get this confirmed at some point today, that it was, in fact, a rotissory chicken,

that this guy came in and said, like, I have a rotissory chicken that I'm going to throw on the ice. in the third period if the ducks are up. Just to scare him, just to freak him out. Yeah. And I said, Joel Quinville freaked out initially. Like, he was, he was on the bench, like, kind of understandable.

You don't like seeing stuff thrown on the ice in any, in any situation. But he, like, I guess he caught it out of the corner of his eye or something because he was, like, he was losing it. We thought in the press box that it was, like, a soda. or a beer or something just because of the way it's scattered and no one really thought twice about it. But it turns out, yeah, that it was food. And again, it looks like a rotisserie chicken based on the carcass laying on the ice that I can see.

Yeah. You can't throw things that are going to scatter like that. Like, that is a safety risk. It looked like, it almost looked like, the press box, you guys know, there's the press box. There's skin, there's grease, there's pieces of chicken everywhere. Also, like, the press box in Edmonton is like in Calgary, right? Like, you're really, really far away.

That building is incredible and it's a great place to watch a game, but you are way, way up. So you couldn't really get like a great look at what it was exactly. So I just thought it was a beer or something, but it wasn't. And I'm trying to try to get some more info before we get too far out from it. We shall see. What about the actual games? The big narrative.

coming out of game two, and this is true for a reason, right, is that it was a power play game. And it was. You know, Anaheim scored a couple power play goals. Edmonton's power play looked relatively clueless and then gave up a disastrous short-handed goal in the third period. And it was all McDavid just having a brain fart in his own zone. Like he wheels around and kind of throws this backhand pass to nobody that bounces off the boards and Alex Collorn scoops it up. Ryan Paling is

already in pretty deep for what turned out to be a crucial goal. I think that made it four, too, right? So you have just general ineptitude from the Oilers power play on one hand. And then two, you have this catastrophic mistake that, you know, kind of swings the game. It turned out, it gave Anheim

a two-goal lead, which they needed all of, right? So that's what all the questions post game were about. Chris Knoblock copped to it. He was like, you know, we lost this game on special teams, basically. And I think that's what people are watching most closely, right? Like McDavid got, McDavid did get injured, left the game for a couple minutes. People are watching that. But he generally looked okay when he was on the ice.

I think what people are watching most acutely here is, is what Edmonton's power play look like because, you know, two games, small sample size. I think the top unit's only been out there for like nine. minutes or so. So you got to like have these asterisks next to all that, but also they look pretty bad. The McDavid of it all, I think is the, that's like the key thing here. Obviously, he's a key narrative figure in this series, and I thought you laid that out really well coming in. Also, just doesn't look like himself. And I mean, that's the one thing that Edmonton can't afford in this series. I think they can survive almost anything as long as that guy's right,

and that guy does not look right. Yeah. We know what he looks like when he's cooking, right? Like he's taking that dropped pass from Evan Bouchard further back in the zone when he's already picked up speed and then that's how they make their zone entries on the power play in a perfect world, right? Where he's, you know, in fifth gear by the time he makes it to the blue line. It's effective. They've been doing it for years. It's not a surprise to see it. Well, that hasn't been working for one reason or another.

Like I think the oilers or the ducks rather are successfully playing them pretty closely. another interesting wrinkle to all this is that Jay Woodcroft is on staff for Anaheim, which is huge. And they've been asked about that. And they, you know, I think they realized that Woodcroft is bringing maybe some old state secrets into the, into the Ducks coaching room, which helps. But, yeah, ultimately, it's just a matter of execution. I don't know that you can go too far into guessing that Woodcroft has, you know,

the secret sauce here. I think they're just defending them really well. To the point where in the last game, we saw Edmonton actually try to do some stuff differently with entries. Like they've actually had, you know, dry-sidal kind of along the wall, and he's the guy who tries to get the puck to McDavid when he's in full flight. So, yeah, they have made some changes. I'm still just not ready to bury that unit just yet.

just too much talent, too much production over the years. And it's also really similar to something we saw in the first round last year against the Kings, where there were major power play struggles by the Oilers in the first two games. And then they score two in like 13 cumulative seconds in game three, end up going on to win that series in four, despite being down 2-0. So I'm not ready to freak out about it, but at the same time, like it is something to track. because it's been noticeably rough on their end. On the other side of this,

like with Shana, we talked about some of the young guns breaking out in these playoffs and Cutter-Gote feels like he absolutely belongs in that mix with what he's shown so far. 100%. It was funny because he was a total non-factor in game one too. Like he was not noticeable on the ice. Game one.

Yeah. No shots in game one, which is crazy for him. He's one of the top volume guys in the league. I think he's only second to Brady in shots per 60, which is crazy. He said pregame ahead of game two that, you know, he was every question that he answered, he somehow rerouted back to just, you know, I got to shoot the puck more. I got to shoot the puck more.

Well, we saw it in game two. And I think we saw what makes him such an interesting young player is, yeah, he's got volume and he's got a knack and really a focus on. on shooting the puck as much as possible, but also when the puck, you know, when he does take those shots, I think he's also got an idea of where to place him. So we saw, you know, a power play goal from him early, another one late. You know, that's, that's serious stuff. And I think it's indicative of the kind of player he is and should be moving forward for sure. Is there any level of concern beyond the power play, Sean, in this series being tied one, one after two? Or is it just like,

they're not going to go, what, 16 and 0 on the way to winning a Stanley Cup. You're going to lose a couple. But the fact that it happened so early against a team that hasn't been great defensively in the NHL this season, right? A team that struggled heading into the postseason, is it a little concerning that the Oilers are tied and not up in a meaningful way? I think so. I think they're generally pleased with their five-on-five play.

like they've said that to a man really over the last couple days. I'm not 100% sure I agree with that. I think the most effective line that we've seen from them is obviously the dry-sidle podcols and caputin line. Those guys have been great. Dry-siddle does not look like a dude who just missed a month's worth of hockey. Certainly didn't in game two. But I think it's been a mixed bag elsewhere at five-on-five.

and that's not the way it should be. Like they should be generating more, you would imagine, against a Ducks team, Haley, like you said, it was just genuinely bad defensively. Like, yet again, it's a similar, similar narrative to what it kind of popped up with them under Greg Cronin. This is a team that just bleeds chances and bleeds shots in their own end. And the fact that, you know, Edmonton hasn't looked great at five-on-five

is a concern. Absolutely. And so were injuries. Adam Henrique's hurt. He didn't make the trip. Crucial part of the penalty kill, which has also been very bad. Jason Dickinson is still dealing with an ankle injury that forced him out of game two after scoring twice in game one. You know, there's there are some issues there. Like I think Edmonton's absolutely the better team. But, you know, there's been enough problems and enough areas where I think we need to, we need to approach this with, you know, a little bit of concern. on the Edmonton side of things. For all the reasons for concern,

like power play five on five, you're tied one, one. The Oilers do dodge like a huge bullet. Connor McDavid leaves the game, what, in the second period? He's on the bench. He's talking to the training staff. They survived that injury scare.

Now it comes a bigger question. Like, are we going to see the world beating Connor McDavid in this series? But at the very least, Oilers fans can exhale, breathe easy, as Chris Johnson said, because McDavid did not leave that game. He did continue, or he didn't, he continued to play. He came back in that game. He came back, he came back relatively quickly. Like, he was, he was, he was in the, fun to see. No, especially not with the way he went off. Like, he gets tangled with Ackholm and

look like it, maybe an ankle thing. Like, there's, there's, um, anytime you see that, you got to be, you got to be concerned, right? But I, I think he generally looked, fine. I know we're talking about him, you know, struggling on entries on the power playing, blah, blah, but I didn't really attribute that to the injury in game in game two. I think it was, it was just him, it was just him not playing well. So he's does his post game interview. He's not wearing a, he's not wearing a rap or a boot or anything crazy on, on his foot. It seems like, it seems like they dodged a bullet. Now, who knows what we hear down the road, but I, I don't think that is an area of immediate concern.

like say the penalty kill is for Edmonton. All right. That series continues tonight, 10 o'clock Eastern. Well, allegedly, what time the puck actually drops. Just glad I'm getting a 7 o'clock local start, man. Like after a couple 830s basically in Edmonton. I will say I will accept a later puck drop if it means we get to see the duck playing the drums. Ben Quackfleck or whatever his name is?

Yeah. Oh my God. Can you take a picture of him if you see him? Take a little video. Oh, please. I got to see what our guy Eric. This is the most excited I've been all day. I got to see what our guy Eric Stevens is doing on that.

I know that's his territory, but I might. I don't want a story on it. I want you to personally send me a picture and or video of the duck playing the drums. I don't care about your work. You're going to be pretty busy over there. We'll see what I have time for. I think that this should be a priority because I've seen them on Twitter. I've seen the clips.

I need more of the duck playing the drums. We'll see. That was the most passionate I felt all episode. It's not a good sign for Max. All right, that game's at 10 o'clock. Eastern Vegas, Utah, 9.30, and of course, Tampa Bay, Montreal at 7. nice little schedule of NHL hockey on this Friday night. Sean, thank you so much for doing this. Max, thank you. Shana, thank you. Everyone, thanks for listening to this episode of The Athletic

Hockey Show. Enjoy the three games tonight. Max has our next episode on Monday. Bye, everyone.