The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: The Hockey Show Takes Edmonton

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Your favorite hockey boys are back in Edmonton for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers. Roy and David Dwork are joined by Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period and SiriusXM Radio to preview this crucial game, and discuss whether or not the Panthers will fly home with the cup or to play a Game 7. Then, Roy and David try and get the team fired up for this massive game, and egg on the Cats to get the job done and avoid being on the wrong side of history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe Kings Network. Welcome to The Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Drucker. The hockey news is joining me from Edmonton and with us is Dennis Princeton from the fourth period. We are going to discuss game six, which would hopefully be a win for the Panthers. So, I mean, we're not going to come back here after this, obviously. This is the last home game for the Edmonton Aulers in the season. So we'll get on that part. But in games four and five, what went right for the Aulers in this situation? We've been talking about what went wrong for the

Panthers all series right now, but what's gone right for the all this. Well, the special teams starting both games with a short handed goal, uh, having the crowd behind you and playing confident hockey. I think that's it. Uh, and I don't want to talk about what's gone wrong for the Panthers cause it's a pretty long list, but this is the Edmonton Oilers team, Roy and Dworkie. When they're playing well, that's how they long list, but this is the Edmonton Oilers team, Roy and Dworkie. When they're playing well, that's how they play. Aggressive, confident, bottom six production, and not a lot of mistakes from their defense. And they cleaned up a lot of stuff. And I think that the game four went...

Oilers had won game four, three, two. I think the series is over. But the disparity in that score of eight to one, I think they gave him way more confidence going back down the sunrise. And that's why they found a way to win for three. So I think that's it. I think you see oil is ones look like not game focus. That was an anomaly. But but you saw what you got. And you get Bouchard gets a power play goal. They get saved some skinner. They don't, Nurse and CC don't make big mistakes. So that's why we're back in Edmonton, a city I'm sure you guys love. It's not bad. There's some nice spots to visit here in Edmonton, Dennis. You talk about what the Oilers are doing right. I feel like they've really been able to flex their muscle over the

last couple of games with their speed. Their zone exits have been a lot cleaner. And honestly, I feel like they're throwing the Panthers game right back at them with a bit of a heavy four check and taking away Florida's time and space. Have you kind of noticed that Edmonton has kind of turned the series on ahead by doing what Florida has done well throughout the playoffs? Yeah, but Dave, where's the physicality

from the Panthers last three? If you're up three, nothing, and it's done, and you've quieted the building game, why did you go out in game four and pound the crap out of the team? And why did you do it at home? The aggressiveness isn't there. And now I'm sorry, we all love Paul. He's a great coach.

He's eloquent. Coach up, let's go. I know you're making changes tonight, but if it goes south again tonight, like his legacy is at stake here. Right? It's on the verge of very negative history. So I agree with Dave.

I think that they, and I think in the first three games, I don't want to throw Paul on the bus totally. He way out coached Nobla. But the last two games, not so much. But yes, their strategy changed for game five. Not for four, because that was just, they weren't ready to play. So I think that's it.

I think the aggressive four check. But the Panthers got to find their game. Like the last two are not what got them here. And they need to do that tonight without question. Dennis, I also wanted to kind of ask you a little bit about the Kahn Smythe race right now. I feel like earlier in the series, we were talking about Sasha Barcov or sorry,

Sergey Barbrovsky was the guy early in the series. And I feel like there's been a bit of a trend more toward the Barkov love in terms of the consmythe. But also, could we possibly see a losing team consmythe for the first time in 21 years? Is Connor McDavid, cause he's got more points than everybody times two right now. So I feel like there at least needs to be a discussion

for that. Yeah. Well, with respect to Barkov, and we had Dan Rosen on our pre-game show for SiriusXM. You were on there as well. Thanks for coming on. And I talked to Dan about it because my perception was Bobrovsky. And Dan made a great point. It's the entire playoff run. And for the Panthers, Bobrovsky wasn't the better goalie in the Boston series, Swinman was. Certainly wasn't the better goalie in the Rangers series because she struck and kept that team in there. So if you're talking about the entirety of the playoffs, it would be Barkov. But I agree to 42 points and Barkov has 21.

You're going to give it. No, it's the best player in the playoffs. It's kind of McDavid. Like, I don't care if they win, lose, draw, whatever. He's the most valuable player in that. And what's Leon doing in this round? Nothing. Bouchard's making mistakes left and right.

Folly played a good game in game five. It really has to be Conor McDavid. Like we know some of the voters and I will tell you this, the order, I think they have to vote by the second period of the clinching game. So in game four, let's say the Panthers came back, it would have been Barkov. I really think it would have been Barkov. But now you're talking about one, guys who've scored back-to-back four-point games in the Stanley Cup final Wayne Gretzky and Conor McDavid How do you not give it to Conor? I get it. It won't be great especially guys, especially tonight

Imagine if the Oilers lose and you got a hand to Conn Smite the Conor on the home ice when he lost the Stanley Cup final That's not gonna to be good. And somebody joke, I think was boom on serious XM saying that would it be like Lee's Anderson throwing a silver medal into the crowd? I hope not. But I don't know how you can't vote for for Connor McDavid at this point, because it's the numbers are staggering. Should we be surprised about Stuart Skinner's place so far? If you look at them from games four to seven in the playoffs, we shouldn't be, but I don't know what's through.

I mean, he could come up with a bad game tonight. I don't know. Not totally. He's got a really good team. It's funny. If he plays better in front of him, it doesn't make mistakes. He's a better goaltender. Wow.

What a shock. And be honest with you, same thing with Bob, right? And I get the third goal by Connor wasn't great, but when in game five, your best defenseman's OEL, don't hang it all on the goaltender, please. But so not shocked by Skinner, like not shocked by Skinner, but again, is he gonna win it for them? Like, is he gonna put up, like I'll put it to you this way, Bailey, if I told you one guy was gonna put up

a heroic performance and make 43 or 44 saves tonight and have his team win You'd probably say it's Bob and that's do skinner Yep Yeah, what about a band of Kane? How hurt is he? Sports hernia, he's not gonna play and you know old man River Corey Perry scores a power play goal in game But the game winning goal and it's toward that goal. Let's be clear. That was mcdav old man River Corey Perry scores a power play goal in game, the game winning goal. And it's toward that goal. Let's be clear.

That was McDavid's goal, not Corey Perry's. Yeah, well, maybe I could score that goal too and I can't say. I don't think Roy, I think he's going to play. You can't like you can't put a guy out there with a sports hernia who's laboring, who if the Panthers are going to play a speed game, how are you going to catch it? You're going to get back down the ice. They're going to take advantage of that. So and of course, as we know, the vendor is not the most well-loved teammate either.

So I can't fathom that. And plus, why would it change? You won two in a row, the guy hasn't played. This is, you know, again, this is a desperation game. So I don't think Evander will play. And to be frank, I'm not sure he's going to be part of the team next year. You talked about some of the moves that you'd like to see Paul Maurice make. We saw one, you mentioned Oliver Ekman-arson actually, he's now taking reps on Florida's

number one power play, which we saw early in the season when Montor and Eklad were injured, but not really since then. I think that they're keeping Gus Forsling off the power play just because they know he's playing so many minutes and he's so important to their penalty kill that they're trying to maybe manage his minutes a little bit more. But in terms of Florida's defense, and you kind of just mentioned it when your best defender is Oliver recommend Larson and you just come back on the road at home for is able to maybe play the matchup game a little bit more. You get for swing and it went out there against McDavid. Now it's going to be even more difficult.

How big of a game is this for Ford is the fenceman to step up regardless of the matchups. Your top pair is going to be your best players though. You can't accept OEL again to be your best defenseman. No. Eggplant and Forza have to do the job. They have to. It's as simple as that. And Aaron, to be honest with you, hasn't really been a factor in the series. And maybe he's injured. He hasn't been that physical. He hasn't been that effective. It's just a weird thing to work. I don't know why. So yeah, you could say, oh, O all can have a great game and stuff like that. How great a game, what's he gonna do? Play 27 minutes and defend Connor every shift? No, he's not that guy anymore, right?

And that's the one great thing about that pair. It's been a great third pair, but it's still a third pair. Like you need your big guys to show up in a big spot. You need it tonight because guys, you don't wanna go back down to Florida. None of us wanna go back to Florida, except for you guys who live there. Like you don't wanna go back for game seven, except want to go back to Florida except for you guys who live there

Guys this gotta be The Panthers game seven not game six. It's got to be game seven That's got to be a mentality tonight for this team because if you go back and you face it again And you got the last three in a row and kind of going nuts again You don't want that to happen Nick Cousins in the fourth line, how is that going to affect things? Because we've been talking about the Panthers-Dev All series and how the Def is pretty much better than the Allers. But Nick Cousins, as far as discipline is concerned, how is that going to affect the Panthers? That's the word, Belly. Belly, that's the word. You hear the discipline.

But speedier than Oposo. Oposo didn't take the penalty in game five. More energy. So to have Lomborg and Cousins out there, I have no problem with it. Because guess what, guys? Your fourth line shouldn't win the game. It shouldn't lose you the game, but it shouldn't win you the game.

So love Kyle. Love his leadership. He's been eloquent on the podium. But give Cousins a shot here, because Kyle wasn't effective enough, and it's a fourth line. But it shouldn't be you know You need you need for Hagee and Reinhardt to step up here Let's be honest right that they really need to step up here, especially Sam

So we'll see but I know probably to change the cousins. I think it's a smart move by Paul Let's say the Panthers actually lose this game Game seven back at home What's gonna happen? They've just left the building. We're keeping us positive. Look, as a reporter, I want that drama. Game seven, winner-take-all, one game, great. If you're a Panthers fan, it's the last friggin' thing you want. You want to have a parade next week. You don't want to worry about Monday night. You want to have a parade next week? You don't want to worry about Monday night. You want to play, you want to have a parade, right? So again, the more desperate team is the team that's ahead in the series. The Panthers need to be more desperate than the Oilers because the

Horrors are playing with house money. Everybody wrote them off. They're done. They're over. They're going to get swept, right? This has to be a desperation game for the Panthers. It's got to be the best game in the series, guys. It really does. They all got to show up and they got to show up to they gotta show up to start the game. And please no shorthanded goals to start the game. Can you stop with that? Two games in a row?

I mean, come on, be the confident team that got here, that beat the Rangers, that beat the Bruins, you know, that beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. I didn't see that in four or five. I wanted to see it in game six of I'm the Panthers. Dennis Bernstein from the fourth period. Thank you for joining us. Thanks, Stevie. It's great being on the hockey show boys. All right, we'll see you tonight We are back In Edmonton. We didn't think we would be back in Edmonton, but David Dwork of the Hockey News and Rev Bellamy is here

We're here. We're here in Edmonton. Dave, why? Because the Panthers jumped out to a three-nothing lead in the series and Edmonton. Dave, why? Because the Panthers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in this series and Edmonton woke up. They won game 4 at home, was it 8-1 or whatever it was, and then the Edmonton Oilers played a great game in Sunrise the other night, which made us book a flight back here. We are now in beautiful Edmonton. No complaints, no complaints about Edmonton. We like Edmonton. We do not like having to travel at the last minutes to Edmonton for the Stanley Cup Final. Good job on the Oilers for forcing a Game 6. But dude, yeah, we're tired. We're tired.

Yeah, we have to blame somebody for this. Who are we going to blame? Oh man, I don't know. Connor McDavid, it's your fault. Mick overrated. It's your fault for not being overrated It's your fault for being raided for scoring four points a game for getting us back here It's your fault Connor McDavid. Why do you have to be so damn good? You blame it John Reed. Rose is blaming John Reed. That's that's where we are right now It's not even Greg Hody's fault. It's not Greg John Reed. That's where we are right now. It's not even Greg Hody's fault. It's not Greg's fault.

It's Conor McDavid's fault. Why do you have to be so damn good, Conor McDavid? Okay, all right. So we're back in Everton. Our flights, Rose and I, we flew out at 6.45 from Miami. Okay, and this was a normal flight. Nothing went wrong. Thank God.

We went to Chicago. We were in O'Hare. That was a normal flight nothing went wrong thank God we went we went to Chicago we were in no hair that was a very quick layover and then we flew over to Calgary and then we got a rental car we drove three hours and here we are normal didn't take too long made it for happy hour you made it for happy hour we made it for happy out no we did not make it for happy hour. We made it for happy hour. No, we did not make it for happy hour Happy hour ended just after we got there. You made it. All right. You made it for after happy I don't know. Whatever. We we were there. I don't know what to say. We're there. We paid regular prices for our drinks. Dave, how'd your flight go? My flight was pretty chill. I just like the last time I did not sleep between the previous home game in South Florida and the game in Sunrise or in Edmonton.

But I mean look at the end of the day, I don't I feel like we shouldn not because of anybody that we work for or work with It's all about the floor the pants is not winning game four or game five The fact that we are back that we are back here in Edmonton beautiful city beautiful town quiet town It'd be nice if we could live here during the summer. That'd be cool. Yeah, sure Just during the summer. Yeah. Yeah, but the fact that we go back here for game six I'm exhausted man. Yeah, I'm really exhausted and We are trying to fill time here so we can get to a video

But yes, we are going to continue to fill time. So what written wrong in game four? I mean credit to the Edmonton Oilers for I feel like they kind of looked at the Panthers game said this is how they're beating everybody and they said we're going to throw that back in their face and see what they can do with it. And you know good for them it's it's working to this point the aggression on the Edmonton Oilers point has been pretty solid. They're taking away the Panthers time and space. Florida has been struggling with their zone exits with with their zone entries, with trying to get something going. I'm curious to see what the Panthers do to adjust to

that in game six here in Edmonton. We're back in Edmonton, we mentioned that. Yeah. But credit to the Oilers. They've done a great job. They fell behind 3-0. It looked like the series was over. They turned it on its head and now we're here back for game six. I don game six. I'm excited to see a great hockey game tomorrow. It seemed like the Oilers took advantage of the Panthers aggression on their blue liners as they try to get into the offense. It's been all about really the Oilers speed. Like we knew coming into the series that they were a fast team. They've taken that speed, they've turned it around basically when they're

on defense, when they're playing their transition game. And Florida hasn't had a team that's taken that game and smacked them back in the face the way that Edmonton has. There have been a lot of giveaways on the Oilers part as they've tried to play that part. They've tried to play that game. However, it's worked well for them. Obviously, they've won back to back games. If Florida's going to adjust in game six will be the key. But right now, Edmonton's adjustments are the key in the series right now, and that's what's gotten them back into it. In game five, the Panthers special teams did not fare well. They gave up three power play goals and on their own power play they gave up a short-handed goal based on a

bad turnover by Brandon Montour which led to a Connor Brown breakaway and he scored on that and that has led to Brandon Montour not being on the first power play for the first power play line for the Panthers in game six. Yeah that's right the big changes that we're seeing ahead of game six Oliver Edmund Larson is now quarterbacking the first power play in in change of Brandon Montour and then also we're seeing a couple line up changes. Ryan Lombard came in in game 5, we hadn't seen him since the Ranger series since the beginning of the Ranger series. Now we're also going to see Nick Cousins and

Ryan Lombard on that fourth line for game 6 replacing Steven Lorenz and Kyle Leckpoe so we haven't seen the two of them since I think game 3 of the Ranger series. But obviously Paul Maurice is trying to get a spark. He's trying to fuel his players. The Panthers, look, they were up three nothing in the series. They needed one win out of four games to claim the Stanley Cup. Now it's one win out of two games. We're back in beautiful Edmonton. Paul Maurice is making his changes.

Is it going to be enough to get the Panthers over the hump? We'll find out in 24 hours. Ryan Lomborg and the Cousins has more chemistry than Ryan Lomborg would have had with Kyle Ockposo obviously because they've been playing on the fourth line the entire season with each other. Yeah, that's Paul Maurice has kind of moved his fourth line in terms of groups. It was Steven Lorenz and Kyle Ockposo. It was Ryan Lomborg and Nick Cousins. For whatever reason, he just put Cousins in game five. Didn't quite work out for the Panthers. They started off very slow.

They eventually got their stuff going in game five, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Edmonton. Wailers jumping out to that three-nothing lead. Now poor Maurice is going back to a line grouping that he saw during the regular season and during the playoffs with Ryan Lombard and Nick Cousins on that fourth line with Stephen Lorenz, or excuse me, with Kevin Stenland, who's obviously in mainstay because of his impact on the penalty kill. Will it be enough to get the Panthers over the hump? That's the question. On the other side, Evander Kane is not playing.

He was on the scratch line during practice today. He will not be playing most likely in game six. Well, Chris Knoblach kind of left it open. He left the window open. He said there's some options for the Oilers ahead of game six. Evander Kane has not played in either of the past two games. He's been hurt. There's several Oilers players who have been battling injuries. There has been talk about Connor McDavid being among that group. However, the last two games of Connor McDavid Roy have been otherworldly. He's been amazing. He's been the guy that Edmonton needed him to be and the guy that Panthers hoped he wouldn't be it's been a little scary what

Connor McDavid has done over the last two games. At the five games in the Stanley Cup final are we going to see what the third player on a losing team to win a ConceiMaj trophy? That's a little crazy to think about, but the way that McDavid has been playing. I mean, I thinking back to assuming that the Panthers won by the way, right? Assuming the Panthers win. I think back to 03 and John Sebastian Jaguer and the way that he basically carried Anaheim to that Stanley Cup final and into that Stanley Cup final. Carmen David has been spectacular, a little slow start to the final, but obviously he's picked it up.

If Florida wins and McDavid puts up another few points in this game, it would not surprise me. But I mean, look, at this point, Roy, we're here to cover the Panthers. We've followed them throughout the season. We've followed them to the final. I don't give a shit who wins the Consul-Mite at this point.

We're in Edmonton. Win the fucking series Florida Let's go! I had to ask the questions Alright that's fine Let's go I'm excited to be here for the Stanley Cup final in a Canadian city It was awesome

It was awesome after game 4 Kudos to you Edmonton I have the utmost respect for you as a hockey city. But can we get the Panthers like up three nothing? Like they need to win this thing. Let's go!