The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: After the Week with Roy

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

Roy Bellamy hosts a new version of "After the Game with Roy" called "After The Week with Roy," featuring David Dwork and his recently torn ACL. The Florida Panthers have been playing some great hockey while dealing with injuries, and the duo explains how they've been able to get it done. Then, Roy and David discuss Jaromír Jágr's upcoming jersey retirement, goaltenders heading to the Hall of Fame, some NHL rule changes, and a couple of Connors cuttin' it up. Plus, a "10-minute misconduct" with Panthers radio analyst Bill Lindsay joining the show to discuss Sam Reinhart's hot start, the Front Office moves in the off-season, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. From Disney. So I look up at the stars to guide me. Be careful. I wish. And from what you wish for. Last night, I made a wish on a star. And the star answers.

What did you wish for? From the studio that brought you frozen. A squirrel just said good morning to me. I have a few thousand questions starting with how is this possible? Disney's wish. Only in theaters November 22nd to get available now. Welcome to the two guys with three working legs talking hockey show. My name is Roy Bellamy.

I'm here with David Drucker, the hockey news. David is playing hurt. What the hell happened to you? I tore my ACL playing kickball. So I am on LTI R for the time being, but can't keep a good man from the studio. So we the show goes on kickball. And don't ask. Okay. All right. Now, the Florida Panthers are the show goes on kickball. Yeah. Don't ask. Okay. Yeah. All right. Now,

the Florida Panthers are on a high streak right now. We are recording this thing on Wednesday. So they are coming off of their fair straight win. The San Jose sharks win that they almost technically gave away in the third period, but they ended up getting two points out one. So five straight wins for the Panthers. Second, in the division currently, they are having a nice start to the season. Yeah. I don't think you could have asked for a much better start to the season considering we knew that they were going to be doing it shorthanded. Two of the best defense men in the conference, Aaron Eckblad and Brendan Montor have not played yet. They are possibly both going to be playing this week. So that's something to keep an eye out for. But yeah, without Montor without Eckblad, they just

got Sam Bennett back. And as we saw last year, we know how important Sam Bennett is to that forward rank, just because it makes them so much deeper when that trickled down impact. When you can have Antel and Deltown in the third line with E2, it was dry. And so yeah, it's pretty remarkable to start the Panthers have had. And as we're just saying, as they get healthier, it's kind of scary. The possibilities with this team. We saw a stark difference of Samet being the lineup during the Bruins

game. When he wasn't a lineup, they were doing well. You know, they scored twice in the first period. When he wasn't lineup, when he got injured, that's when things started really to go downhill. And as you are at the foretept, I think they are the deepest four lines. We'll talk about four lines, and the deepest in the league. And the top two lines maybe top five, maybe even top three in the league. Well, I mean, when you look at that second line, two way, whatever you want to call it,

of Card of Rehaige, who just came off a 40 goal season. Sam Bennett, we're just talking about one of the best two way, gritty, grimy, skilled centers that you're gonna see. And oh yeah, some guy named Matthew Kachuk. Yeah, that guy. Yeah, that guy.

So that's your second line. And then you've got a top line of barcov Ryan Hart and Rodriguez. Ryan Hart having a ridiculous start to the year. 21 points, 14 games. I think nine of his 14 games, he's got multi-point efforts. It's really unreal what this team is doing.

When you add to that, that they're just now getting healthy. Yeah, I think we're gonna be busy come playoff time, anyway. Yeah, Matt, you could chuck is having a pretty quiet season, but through 15 games right now, it seems that he is matched at least his point total so far. He's just not finishing around the net just yet, but the rest of his points is they are coming off of assists. Yeah, look, as long as he's producing, I mean, he's impacting the game in positive ways.

Yes, he's just got the three goals in the season, which is a little surprising, but again, 17 points, he's over a point per game, he's metrics, his advanced metrics, he's looking at the way he's impacting the game, possession-wise, or on point with the rest of the way he plays. So yeah, there's no real concern,

and it's just a matter of when are the goals going to start coming, and that's only gonna be a helpful thing. The other good thing about this start is the golden, which is very surprising. The golden is usually not that good this early in the season, right? Yeah, Sir Gilbert Broffstein, typically in his career, has been a slow starter that's been true

during his time with the Panthers. And we've talked, you know, ad nauseam over the years about Sir Gilbert Broffstein, his up and down ways with the Panthers. The way he started the year, you couldn, ad nauseam over the years about Sergey Rosti and his up and down ways with the Panthers. The way he started the year, you couldn't really ask for much better. He's already got a shut out. He's playing quite well. His rebound control for a little while is really on point.

It kind of took the right hand turn a little bit before they hit the road. So we'll see how they do when they finish out the road trip. There's a chance he starts both games and that back-to-back depending on how the first one goes in LA. But yeah, just overall, as a goal tender, as a tandem really, because Anthony Stolars has been fine too, but as a tandem, that's generally expected to improve as the year goes on. When you start this well, there's nowhere to go. What up?

And the team defense in front of him coming from both all four four lines and their defense man. We were worried about them coming into the season, but they have done an admiral job with Eckblad and Montau being out. Yeah, Florida's had one of the best defensive, in terms of statistics, some of the best defensive numbers in the league.

And I think it's just understanding the systems, knowing where you're supposed to be, not getting out of position. The Panthers is not a whole lot complicated to it. It's just a lot of effort It takes a lot to perform because it's when you think about defense It's not in team defense. We're not talking about the defenseman and it's a five-man job And you saw last season as the year went on slowly but surely the Panthers figured things out with palmoree system

Now they're going into this year They've added players that they knew specifically they picked them out these guys will fit in what we're trying to do And we're seeing the results on the ice everybody Everybody's bought in. You've got one of the best locker rooms in the league. Everybody raves about the camaraderie. Everybody's got each other's back. It's just a great situation that the Panthers are in right now. And recently, most recently, the special teams have done well, especially the penalty killing. I mean, in that, at one point in one of the games, a couple of games ago, they gave up zero shots on the penalty kill.

That's a feat within itself. Yeah, it's a process. And I think, you know, we talk about defensive systems. What they, Paul Maries has told us that they're trying something different, a little different, not completely. They haven't changed it up, but they're trying something a little different

this year with the way that they do their PK. They're trying different combinations. Barcav and Reinhardt have been spectacular. You've got guys like E2 Oosterine and Kevin Stenlin that do a great job as a forward blocking shots and then Gus Forzling. There's just a lot of good penalty killers that are happy to go out there and do the work.

When you talk about special teams to me, what really kind of surprises me is that the power play hasn't gotten off to it. A ridiculous start just because the forward depth that we're talking about, when you've got that kind of talent on the ice when your top power play it's bark of the chuck right heart all of our equipment larceness and one of the best power play defense been in the leads since he got here

uh... you just think okay this is this group is going to take off and you see it like we see during the power plays they're not getting the goals but they're getting crazy opportunities the passes it's gorgeous to watch so that's something that you would think eventually is going to round into form but that yeah so talented and uh you would think eventually is going to round into form, but yeah, just so talented. And then Powerplay combination is gonna change dramatically once Montor comes back in quarterbacks the first night, right?

Yeah, you would think Montor and Act Glad both have to be put into a Powerplay mix in some way. Sam Bennett coming back also, he's gonna absolutely be a net front powerplay kind of guy. So yeah, it is the power, both special teams, but the Powerplay to particularly, you're gonna see a little bit of changes. yeah, it is the power, both special teams, but the powerplay to particularly, you're going to see a little bit of changes. You would think for the best, because you're only adding all-star caliber players. So yeah.

All right. Let's switch nationally here. Let's talk about some retire players right now. Nice. Well, I wouldn't necessarily call Yamaha Yaga a retire player because he's never going to retire because he's never going to die. Every auger's a cyborg. Yes he is. He's a robot. But finally, he's getting his number retired in Pittsburgh. Yeah. It took a while. I'm surprised it took this long because he's been he's been out of the NHL for like what four or five years now. He's been out of Pittsburgh for quite a bit longer. But yeah, it's just funny. Like now we just got to the hockey hall of fame induction this week, which you know, you and I were there last year.

It's a really cool experience. It was definitely really cool. Literally, really cool. We'll save your freezing on camera for another time. God damn it. But it's like, when is Yard are going to get into the hall? Because Yard is obviously he is a hall of fame player. It's just a matter of when, but they've got this rule.

You've got to be out of professional hockey, not just the NHL. You've got to be out of professional hockey for three years. And this is a guy he owns his hometown team, Klando, over in the Czech Republic. And yeah, I mean, he suits up every so often when they need him and he'll go out there and he'll put up like two assists or something. It's ridiculous. But yeah, I mean, they've talked about making some kind of an exception to get him into the Hall of Fame.

We need to do that. Like, he's a Hall of Fame player. He's not coming back to the NHL. He's in his 50s. Like, get him in there. Like, you break the rules, do what you need to do. I think we can all sign that petition that Yarmayard could be in the NHL

or the Prohockey Hall of Fame yesterday. Yeah, speaking of Hall of Fame, we just had the inductions recently and like a lot of golden is what in this year. Why don't you talk about that? Since that is your position technically, which you can't play right now, but because you heard.

But for a while. Thank you for the reminder. Yeah, well, you know, you could just look down at that knee brace over here. Like, like, don't coasty Boston with that thing. But a lot of gold tenders went in this year. So Tom Barrasso, Henrich Lankwest, you know, Henrich Lankwest is amazing.

And then Mike Vernon, who, you know, had a special place in my heart for the goalies who were 5'8". Yeah, the small gold team. That's a little men out there that still make it happen. But just a really cool, Hall of Fame class. I mean, handwritten one quest is a guy like, you know, you would think he ought to, as soon as they're ready, as soon as that three-year period is up, they're in there, like Lurberto Luongo last year. As soon as they're eligible, first ballot, whatever they're in. So Tom Barasso, two Stanley cups, American gold tender, we both grew up watching him. We saw the fight, John Bambi's brook during

that 96 run to the final. Yeah. Um, and yeah, I love watching Mike Vernon play. I loved watching those little guys play at Mike Vernon. Panthers playoff Goldtender, remember in the year 2000. Yes. So it was a really cool Hall of Fame class this year. Pierre Terje on got in and a couple of guys that we saw a lot growing up. Kent Hitchcock, who was an amazing coach for Dallas. No goal. No goal. No, it was no goal. Foot was in the crease.

His foot was in the crease. Sorry, Brett. All right. So, some of our potential overtime rule changes, you know, the, you know, the, do the three on three and overtime, but they're talking about not exiting the zone. Like they usually do to reset the play. Once they don't find the right, the play that they actually want, the plays on the ice tend to leave the zone and then try to reentry. Why don't we talk about the road changes?

It's a little, I mean, like, I guess you got to do something because they're really not happy with the way a team can try to possess the putt for basically the whole five minutes and continue to drop back and go, you know, but that's the game evolving, right? That's what happens. And three on three first started. It was exciting. I feel like I remember once, three on three first started, I felt like I couldn't catch my breath until the first whistle. And then all of a sudden, you know, I don't mind. I don't even minute pass. We still got four more minutes of this. Like, hold on, hold on. So now they're talking about almost doing like a basketball thing where it's like a half court,

three on three type deal where you could take, you know, take it out of the zone. They're talking about possibly putting a shot clockers. Shot clock? I, it's very strange when you think about it. I think there's one easy solution to this. No more three on three? No, just make it 10 minutes. But yeah.

If you extend over time 10 minutes, I guarantee you that you're gonna cut out like 90% of shootouts. Most of them are not gonna go that long anyway. Right. And it's just more fun. I, the, the shootouts. I, most of them are not going to go that long anyway. Right. And it's just more fun. I, the, the shootouts were cool when they first came out and it was a fun novelty. I think we're all over it at this point.

Yeah. It's a skills competition. It's not, it's should not, there's no place for it in results of the game. Right. Yeah. So whatever the NHL decides to do here, I just think there's an easy solution that we're all over looking and that's just extended. Kind of a dord.

I mean, this guy looks like the actual real deal. We saw him twice, played a Panthers and I mean, how many goals in a point say he ended up accruing there? I think he had four points in the one game against the Panthers. I think he has five and the two games he scored against the Panthers in Chicago also. He had two goals when they played the lightning. So this is a guy for 18 years old. He loves spring break. He loves playing the Florida teams. He sees the sunbelt teams and his eyes get well lit up because yeah, I look, we haven't seen a guy come into the league like this since one

Conor McJesus and he's having his own issues and Edmonton right now. You know, we'll hope that things work out for him, but yeah, it's exciting. When somebody this good, this young comes into the league, it says you know, you're gonna get highlights. I think about some of the cool things we've seen Connor McDavid do over the years. Yeah, and speaking of which, I mean, they seem to be wasting his career away in Edmonton and we're gonna end the show.

We're gonna end the segment with that. Yeah, it's tough, right? Cause I mean, he's, I don't know if I've ever seen somebody that good in my lifetime. I think when I was younger, it would have been like, Gretsy, maybe Lemieux, but seeing Connor, but David just grows in NHL player

and some of the things that he does that I just don't know how he does it, it's so amazing. And now he's about to be 28 years old in another month or so. What is he accomplished in his career? I like plenty of personal accomplishments, plenty of big numbers, but these guys want to win.

They want team things. They want to stay on the cup. And Edmonton, for some, for a team that has the best players that they have with McDavid and Drysaddle, it seems like they're really blowing it. All right. Coming up next, we have a 10 minute misconduct with Billy Lindsay. All right. We are extending this out. We are no longer doing five minute majors now. We are doing 10 minute misconducts. That's what we are right now. And appropriate. Yeah. And Tim and Misconduct is going to Bill Lindsay. Bill Lindsay is the Panthers radio analyst and he also makes appearances on the NHL network. Billy, the Panthers right

now are second in the division. They are doing very well so far despite all the injuries that they have gone through. So I just want to get with Sam Reinhardt. It seems like he's having a hot trophy type season. He's definitely having a career season and he's doing this on a contract year. Why don't you explain what's going on with Sam Reinhardt's season? Exploded out of the gates. Wasn't much different than the start of last year,

but the goals are going in. He had a lot of chances last year. Just couldn't score. The Panthers in general, that was kind of what plagued them and put them behind and why they were playing that chase up game towards the end of the year to try and get in the playoffs. Now they're starting to score on their chances.

They're led by Ryan Hart, good all-around player in front of the net in the blue paint, right spot, right times. You talked to Paul Marise about him. His hockey IQ is through the roof. He has spectacular attention to detail about the game and was actually reading an athletic article over the summer. about the game and was actually reading an athletic article over the summer and He can't he rated out as a panthers best defensive forward Throughout the course of last year which you look at bark off and The I'm not sure the analytics that they used but it still was quite stunning to me to see Sam Reinhart Out there is the best rated forward defensively. And now what he's starting to do offensively, he does kill penalties.

He seems to be in the right place at the right time. He scored a plethora of power play goals over the last couple of years. That trend continues into this season. The guy with a good shot goes to the right areas has good chemistry with his line mates and Roy you're right if he can Continue to track like this and play like this. He's a player that Might be one of those under the radar Art Trophy guys at the end of the year, but he's he's consistent in what he's what he does

It's and that's what I like about Sam Ryan art is consistent in what he what he does is it's and that's what I like about Sam Ryan art is it's just it's there every night for the most part and it's been there when it's been needed most the panthers needed some scoring early on and it's been Ryan art that's been able to provide that you bring it in you brought up his defensive metrics um could he be in line with Alexander Barkoff and possibly being in contention for the selfie trophy? There's part of that. There may be that could go into it. It's it gets a little weighted down as a winger Even though your defensive metrics are good The I don't know you have to go back it sometimes it goes out

But it's usually a centerman that that wins that award because they're playing down low in the defensive end a lot with the opposing defenseman. You're matched up. You're taking face offs. Reinhardt does take some face offs. It's a little harder to put into that category for Reinhardt to get up there, to get into a silky conversation. I don't believe that's going to happen and be part of it for Reinhardt, but you're pleased with where he's at defensively is a whole game and this Panther team is

Coming on the gates without ecla in Montour What Paul Marys and this coaching staff is done defensively? We if you want to talk metrics and analytics They're top five in almost every defensive category across the board That's what's allowed them to get off to this really good start. And they've been led by the players leading by example, bark off, Reinhardt. These guys are committed at both ends of the rank

and all these new defensemen that they brought in. Paul Marisa's put them in the lineup and they fit really well and seem like they have a lot of chemistry early on. And that goes straight to the players and the coaching staff. Yeah, you can't give enough credit, Billy, to, to talk about the players, the coaches and they're putting it all together on the ice, but the front office, the way that they were able to not just find the right players based off this off season, because we knew that glad was going to be out,

Montau was going to be out. They brought in what four new defense men out of six or five out of seven. And it's clicking. And I think that kind of, it's a testament to not just bringing in good players, but the right players that fit into a certain system. And I think when you're talking about that, that synergy that goes from Paul Maurice and his staff all the way up to Bill Zito and his crew. A lot of credit to it's a Bill Zito is identifying players that can come in here and not only play, but you also have to have the element of how are they going to fit into our group?

Do they have the characters that we're looking for off the ice? And that's really important because you got this really strong dressing room, the bond. Are they going to be able to come in here? And they knew a lot about their personalities and Kulakoff really wanted to come back here. I saw him a couple of summers ago before he went to Minnesota. He was trying to get back here then. Always had a house down here. So he's kind of rejuvenated Kool-A-Koffie. He loves being down here.

So that's one guy that's kind of jumped off and played really good hockey. Oliver Ekman-Larson is a guy, you needed someone to quarterback the power play without Monter, without Ekblad. He's done it for a long time, did it in Arizona. is a guy you needed someone to quarterback the power play without monitor without X-flat. He's done it for a long time. Did it in Arizona? Those to Vancouver and just wasn't his role. He was down to that 17, 18 minutes a night. Wasn't getting quite the opportunities on the power play and there was a hole and he

was injured and banged up a little bit. Did their homework? He was healthy. Came into training camp in great shape. And Oliver, Ekman Larson is this is a player that did this in Arizona for a long time quarterback to power play put up numbers. He's been instrumental in what they're trying to do. And the numbers have been there for Ekman Larson as a long along with the ice time getting 23 24 minutes a night and Mika Las Steady.

So it's been a group back there that they filled those holes and filled them nicely. And speaks to the strength of the character in the dress room and the players that you brought in Bill Zito doing his homework. Doesn't miss on a lot. Does Zito, if you look at picking up Mahurov, waivers, forselling off waivers, the Kachak trade America doesn't miss on a lot. Does does Zito, if you look at picking up my hurrah waivers, forcelling off waivers, the Kachak trade and the Kachak contract, how good is

that contract going to look down the road? So Bill Zito so far is at the magic touch and pretty much everything that he touches in Palm, Marise is able to say, okay, this is what you're giving me. I know exactly how to use them. Well, you bring up Ekman Lawson. When he's on the ice on five on five, the Panthers are out shooting the opponents by 31. Now, Scorn to the opponents 12 to nine, and they have an edge on Scorn chances by 26.

So when Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Monterey comes back, do you believe that his performance will continue in that trend? It might not be quite that dominant. There will be probably goes back into the second power play unit, Monteur, with the way that he played last year, is going to probably get to the keys to the car on that first power play unit. But he's played well enough that he's a good enough puck-moving defenseman.

And the one area that the Panthers have struggled in is getting out of their zone cleanly to create odd man rushes that speed game that that we haven't we just haven't got to and they want to change their identity to a more dump and chase style they got to that last year but you still would like to see more three on two's two on one's an Eclad and Montor getting out of their zone cleanly are going to be able to bring that. Oliver Ekman-Larson will stay in the lineup if he continues to play like this and because he can move the puck and he is efficient at getting the puck out of the zone. So he's an important piece of what they're trying to do. It's just the minutes will have to come down somewhat, but he's still going to be a nice addition and a nice fit. And with all these guys with me, Kila Plain, with Kula Koth Plain, Balinsky, all these

guys getting a ton of experience. Once these got the two players onto an Eklad, do come back and they're healthy. What a, you got a wealth of riches on the blue line and all kinds of options. You even have the options if you want to go to 11 forwards and the seven defenseman rotation. Someone's not playing well, someone gets injured, all these guys have experienced playing quality minutes. So that is, you need depth and if those guys do get healthy

and are able to provide what they provide and you also have that added depth, that's gonna be a luxury for the palm trees and the whole organization. So Billy, you're talking about, we mentioned a lot of Montor at Black and all these guys that have been missing. Somehow the Panthers to this point, they're 10, 4 and 1.

They're 10, 2 and 1. If you, you know, they started the season with two straight losses. What's the ceiling for this team? We saw how good they could be last year when they were at full strength. They got to the playoffs and then they started getting hurt, but we saw what this team is capable of. Now they're rounding into form,

they're getting palm-or-reacist systems down to muscle memory and they're already playing so well. Once they get these guys back in the lineup, the Montor Eq-Wad, they just got Sam Bennett back. Like it seems like the ceiling is really tall for this Panther's team this season. Should be, you went to the Stanley Cup finals last year and if you get Echelad Montor back in the lineup, you have almost the same team with some extra

pieces added. What's the ceiling? What's the expectation? You had a lot of the pundits right off the panthers at the start of the year. But if you go back to January 1st last year and especially after the All-Star Break, their record was there with the Toronto's of the elite teams in the league. So my expectation for this group is exactly where they finished off. To be a Stanley Cup contender and be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. They have that kind of ability. It took Pomerice to establish what they wanted to be last year. He talked about playing playoff hockey in the regular season. It took to game 81 or 82 to head into the playoffs, but you could see that identity take form in the

last half of the season. They were able to hang on to the puck in the offensive zone, get it back, they scream, they get to rebounds, they play that grind it out, lunchpale, hard hat, hockey that you're kind of looking for and that's what you have success in the playoffs. Now they know who they are. They didn't have to have and change and try and figure out, oh, what kind of team are this are we this year? Who do we want to be we know who we are? We know what to expect and we know what we're capable of and they what they want to prove that a lot of people said Oh

Just getting by boss and it's kind of a team just getting hot at the right time of the year and riding the wave all the way Who was down the cuff final to the stand on the couch. Final, to me, that's totally incorrect. This is a quality team that found themselves in the second half of last year. And yes, they got rolling in the playoffs, but they come out of the gate storm in this year. And Boston is Boston again. It's incredible with version run and crazy retiring.

But Boston is Boston and the pants those are going to be hot on their heels. They're not they're not going to give them a lot of leeway. To me, they're in that second place in the Atlantic and they're going to be chasing down and trying to get to that top and chase in Boston all year. You can find them on the Florida Pantes radio network and you can also find them with the likes of Ant-Man

Burke on any show in networks, Hawking and Hockey. You don't win. Go Ant-Man. Yeah. Bill Lindsey, everybody, thank you for joining us, Bill. Thank you very much. BAM!