The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Hockey Show: The Gentlemen's Sweep (feat. Eetu Luostarinen)

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

The Florida Panthers have advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Roy, David, and Ethan are here to celebrate. The crew examines how the Cats effortlessly discarded their cross-state rivals and what so many experts got wrong about this series. Plus, wins and fails of the week include Gabriel Landeskog's first goal back and an all-time party foul by one of Meadowlark's own. Plus, Tara Slone of NBC Sports California joins the show to discuss how Canada feels about the country's chances of bringing home The Stanley Cup for the first time since 1993, Macklin Celebrini's rookie year, and where the Los Angeles Kings go from here. Finally, Florida Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen joins the show and tells us about his chemistry with linemates Anton Lundell and Brad Marchand, representing Finland at the Four Nations, and life as a new dad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spring is here and you can now get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. See after details. Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. Behind me sweeping right now is David Dwork of the hockey news in the Shipping container is Ethan Badowski and we me and David are wearing ties when I'm wearing a suit Because and I'm wearing a 3xl

The hell for man. This is not 1995. I don't know why we've been doing that old shirts thread Oh throughout show this week So I thought we were gonna continue that and then you guys are in here in a frickin suit and tie Well, you're like 235 pounds when you're like 16 years old Triple X I thrifted so I'm in a suit and Dave is in a tie and he's holding the broom because the Florida Panthers Gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a gentleman sweep So I can tell you that,

I still don't understand why the members of the media decided to pick against them, but hey, what are you gonna do? But the Panthers completely shut them down. They shut down the Lightning pretty, pretty well, because when you're that good, when you're scoring that well, especially on special teams,

and the Panthers penalty kill stifles a player like Nikita Kuturov. I mean, that should be terrifying for the rest of the league. I would think so. Tampa, I mean, you've talked about how good of a scoring team they were, how amazing their power play was in Florida. I mean, you know where they took them. Yeah. Shutdown City. Shutdown City, baby. Everything between the circles was incredibly difficult for Tampa. You could tell as the series was going on, they were getting more and more frustrated. They were blocking shots.

Lots of shot blocks. The shot attempts were there, but the shots on goal, not so much. The play for me that defined really what this series was all about was the play that Luster Reinen made on Kucherov, where he just put Kucherov in his pocket. It led to the fifth and final goal in this game. And Brad Marchand, this line was absolutely unbelievable in game five.

Nine combined points, more points than Nikita Kucherov and Braden Point in the entire series in one game. Edtul Luz Sereinon had more goals and the same number of points in game five that Nikita Kucherov had in the entire series. The Panthers dominated the Lightning. They pieced them apart just the way that they did last year. And looking back on it, this should have been the expected result.

The second that buzzer sounded, as a fan, I was already like, okay, we're on a Toronto or Ottawa, because this is what the Panthers do now. They take teams apart. It doesn't matter how good you are in the regular season. It doesn't matter if they're on the road, if they finished strong to end the season or not. They are going to take you apart if they're at their best

and they're healthy, and they did that to the Tampa Bay Lightning. That tells you not just how deep the Panthers are. That tells you about their secondary scoring. They have an excellent top nine. Yeah, their top nine is any other team's top six. It's not just the Panthers that got better too. Not to take away from your point Ethan, but Tampa got better too.

They're a much better team this year than they were last year. So I understand some of the logic behind some of the talking heads that wanted to take Tampa, like they're looking much better, Florida was injured, but anybody that's really paying attention here that was watching what Paul Maurice was doing over the past few weeks, they knew that all they were doing was making sure they could hit the round running in game one with the playoffs and holy shit did they. I'll say this though, Tampa did get better and the Stamcoast trip, you know, moving on from Stamcoast and getting Gensel instead, you know, was a great move by Tampa. I'll admit that. But coming into the series, people were talking as if Tampa was the deeper team, the better team. I don't

know how you can look at the forward depth on Florida and you look at the floor depth on Tampa. That's a mismatch. A deeper team like Zemges, Gurgensens and Luke Glendenning and Mitchell Chafee and Darren Radish like those are the guys that you know Tampa is running out there up against Macky Samuskevich, Erod. They're on the bottom six on a lot of teams in the league. Yeah like it's they have Erod started the series on the fourth line moved up to the

second line once Macky Samuskevich started getting dropped like I don't know how people looked at this series before and said Tampa's the deeper team. The Panthers were always the deeper team up front and on defense and then they got better goaltending as well. It was a perfect recipe for a quick series. And that's also proof how deep this team is. Mackie Samuskevich is not seeing that much time. AJ Greer only played in two of these games. Three of the, two of these games. We haven't seen Jonah Gadjiewicz, who I thought was really solid all year for the Panthers. This team is so good and so deep.

It's just like last year, they can roll out five lines at you. Hold on, he has something to add. What was that? What, you Perry Saturn? No respect. Oh yeah, the map. No respect.

No respect. No, you're right, the Panthers, we're not getting any respect. Panthers defense, the defensive core I should say, the defenseman, Aaron Echblad played only two games in the series. He served his role pretty well by knocking out Brandon Hagel. And Seth Jones has been out, he's been lights out,

he's been excellent. Phenomenal. And the guys that, for me, deserve shouting out are Nate Schmidt and Uvis Belinskis because they struggled a lot during the season. And I was really worried about if those guys have to play in the playoffs big minutes because injuries, depth, whatever. And obviously Belinskis was dropped from the lineup then had to move back into the lineup. He'll be in the lineup for game one because Ekblad will be out of it for the next series.

I don't feel worried about that anymore. Nate Schmidt, again, more goals than Nikita Kuturov in this series and Braden Point combined. He was awesome. He was the best 88 on the ice in this series, as crazy as that is to say. Nate Schmidt has had more goals in this series than Nikita Kuturov has had in 15 straight playoff games. I've had the same amount of goals as Nikita Kuturov in his last 16 playoff games.

But the last 10 of those 16 came against us, as if I'm on part of the team. I did it again, biased. Yes, 10 of those have come against the Florida Panthers. That's not good. Yeah. Yeah, what you gonna do? Well, I mean he's gonna win Ross but I mean the Panthers I'm gonna see the Kutra right now is that there's a regular season player Gustav Forsling deserves a lot of the credit for this. This guy is Unbelievable. He is amazing to watch and he just keeps him in his pocket. He can't do anything

when Gustav Forsling is out there. In another part of the league, this happening today, the Pittsburgh Penguins lost Mike Sullivan a week ago and they decided to part ways. You called it. It took a while but I was right. Yeah, you called it a while ago. Yeah, that happened a little bit months ago. I took a while, but I was right. You called that a while ago. Yeah, that happened months ago. I was right about Mike Sullivan. I was right about John Todarela. And the New York Rangers today have decided to make Mike Sullivan very quickly their new head

coach. It's a good hire. It is a good hire. All they need, yeah, it's a real good hire. They already got the goaltender and let's see it. There's going to be a philosophy change for the New York Rangers as well. You know, it's going to happen, though, with Sullivan out. You're going to hate it. But you know, it's going to happen. Right.

What we're going to get our first player coach in like a hundred years. It's going to be your favorite guy in the world. OK, before we move on, I want to you talked about how you were right, Roy, which take all the victory laps you want. I wanna talk about some people that were wrong. A lot of people that were wrong. And I wanna specifically talk about these predictions from the athletic ESPN and Sportsnet up in Canada.

Look how many people took the lightning. 18 of 24 from ESPN took the lightning. This looks like a 68 to 32 split on the athletic and I'm not sure about the numbers over here for sports now. I don't see one. That's plenty of lightning. I'm pretty sure that's 100%. Nick Kiprios had the Panthers. Other than that, everybody else had the lightning. Oh yeah, you're right. Kiprios, Panthers and Seven. So as much as I'm on to the next series already, it is fun to sit around and be like, we were right. We see you Arda, our boy Arda Oertal, we see you. Picking the Panthers.

Boba Shoes and thank you for your service for picking the lightning by the way. We friends of the show. I hope you picked the maple leafs. And John Budgegross, you should know better. You should be doing better. Let's go to our wins and fails of the week brought to you by Jägermeister. Serve it cold or don't serve it at all. You should know better. All right. Let's go to our wins and fails of the week brought to you by Jägermeister.

Serve it cold or don't serve it at all. Jägermeister, damn, that's cold. For more, visit thejägermeister.com. Please, drink responsibly. Dave? I've got two wins of the week. My first win of the week comes from Dallas. There was a guy behind the bench, the Stars are playing the avalanche, and Jared Bednar's doppelganger was sitting behind him, right

behind the stars bench, or right behind the avalanche bench, excuse me, in Dallas. I just thought it was awesome. He's got the video up here for those of you watching on YouTube. He looks like Rick Romberg. Yeah, well that's the thing. He's got the suit, he's got the hair, it's not like an exact look-alike, but it's a lot of fun. It's more like an SNL look-alike than it is an actual look-alike, but it did remind me of like 10 years ago when Paul McClain was the coach of the Ottawa Senators, there was an actual doppelganger of his behind the bench, and I think we have a picture of it if we

can pop it up there, but this one was like extremely accurate. This guy looks more like Andy Reid than Paul McLean. That's Andy Reid shaking his finger at a plate of donuts saying don't mind if I do. I think the guy in the stands looks more like Paul McLean than Paul McLean looks like Paul McLean in this. Wilford Bremley, actually, is what he looks like. Diabetes.

Diabetes. OK. My second win of the week. Last week, the Carolina Hurricanes, well this week, the Carolina Hurricanes, well this week, the Carolina Hurricanes dispatched the New Jersey Devils. Andrei Svechnikov had a hat trick in game number four after the Hurricanes had lost game three.

And what did the Hurricanes fans do? Because the Carolina was in Jersey. Svechnikov gets home, his front lawn is littered with hats. Fans went to his house and threw a bunch of hats on his lawn to signify his hat trick. He was out of town, they couldn't do it at home. I thought that was so cool. I love that, there's a picture of it.

It looks like an Easter egg hunt for hats. I just thought it was so cool that the fans did that. I love things like that. I love that the player can get ingrained to the community. Maybe Mikko Rantzenen could have seen this a few months ago, but he seems happy in Dallas. We'll in Game 7. But I just saw that the other day and I absolutely loved it. I win. I have two wins this week. The first one comes from the Capitals Canadian Series

and that was a wild one. One of the reasons why the Capitals will be moving on to face the Carolina Hurricanes is because of Tom Wilson. In four. Tom Wilson provided this very clean check. Boom! Knocked him down. Knocked the Alexander Carrier down and that allowed the Capitals to get the puck back. And on the ensuing entry into the zone, they might have to score.

Brandon Duhame ended up coming off the bench and on the line changer and was able to score a not one. The Capitals win games four and five to finish off the series and again will take on the Carolina Hurricanes. And speaking of Hurricanes, my win number two is coming prior to the puck drop, game five. This is Steve Smith Sr. and he had the honor of firing it off firing off the air raid siren

As you can see on the video here. He did it so well that he just did not stop Steve Smith jr. Is ripped Holy cow. I mean you have to be the hockey jerseys Don't they look baggy on most people Steve Smith did so well on that by the way that again He refused to stop and the Carolina Hurricanes Handler there had the tap on the shoulder to say hey Steve, but we got Steve Steve Steve Easy, Ethan. Yo win my little week comes from the Stars Ab series. Guys, we forgot to touch on Gabriel Landis-Cogg's return

to the ice last week. That was a big omission by us. So I want to give him his flowers here. He scored his first goal. And the amazing thing about this return, first of all, I want to talk about what happens after this goal. Amazing celebrations. Watch this couple in the crowd here.

So excited that Gabe Landis-C cog has scored his first goal in three years Or whatever it is they just decide to have a nice little moment right in the middle of the crowd Actually into that what you can see what he was saying yeah, what he said to her was I told you I should have taken him for an anytime goal Yeah, money on the line, buddy. It was a really awesome moment and taking him for an anytime goal. Yeah, money on the line, buddy. It was a really awesome moment. And the amazing thing about his comeback has been,

he didn't just jump back in the lineup as a third line guy just eating pucks or whatever. He's out there on their first power play. He's scoring goals. Like, unbelievable story. So shout out to Gabe Landiscock, one of the great stories in sports in the past few years, really. Landiscock is a finalist for the masters in trophy

Yes, he is dedication to hockey. So congratulations to him coming back and now he is Going to look at game seven against the Dallas Stars. Can't wait. Yeah, I can't wait. That's gonna be great Our fellow of the week comes from this weekend and it comes from within the metal arc media organization our engineer Daniel Gonzalez Creveto, better known as Danny GQ, got married this weekend. Congratulations, that is not the fail. I was wondering if you were going to go with that. No, that's a win. That's a win for Danny GQ for sure. Where is it going with this? Win for Danny GQ for sure.

My fail of the week, our friend Danny got married. Our fail of the week is marriage. No, no, no, that is definitely a win. Congratulations, Danny. Oh, Phil happened at the reception. It happened on the dance floor, and it happened to Mike Malley. Ethan, you were there. You were actually on the floor. One of the all-time party fouls, Roy.

I don't know how this happened, but all of a sudden, I hear a spill, a crash. No glass was broken, luckily. That came later when Sebastian the Ibis came in. I broke his glass, and you hear the video, Sebastian the Ibis, he does the C-A-N-E-S, and then you hear a glass crash right on the floor. Miles will tell, by the way, but Malley,

one of the all-time party fouls, spillin' a drink right in the middle of the floor. He had a good time, Malley. We all had a good time. It was a great night, wonderful night. Yeah, you had a good time, Mallie. We all had a good time. It was a great night, wonderful night. Yeah, you had a problem with this. I was just wondering, like, you know, Danny and I are still getting to know each other,

so I understand why I didn't get a wedding invite, but I have Ethan, I have Roy, I have Rose, y'all went to this wedding, y'all had a plus one. Like, where am I? I did not have a plus one. My plus one was at the house because I came straight from the panel. From where I was, with me.

Yeah. Okay, that's it. I missed out on game three because of it and I was happy because I ended up going to game four, which was way better. Yes. We have another fail of the week, Roy. We gotta get to it real quick. We gotta get to it real quick.

Rose, this was really bad. That was bad, man. Rose jinxed him. She jinxed. We have the sound. We have the sound We got to run it real quick. Play it. LA is winning against Edmonton so we don't have to fly to Edmonton and don't say anything Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh But right now I'm liking what I'm seeing so I'm gonna go and those are my wins because Rose is high in the Kings. Beautiful puck. That is too bad.

Oh that did not age well. One of the poorest age takes in the history of the show. Rose's first true hockey take. They lost four straight games after that. Alright for those on DKN we have Terence Sloan from NBC Sports Network and we have Itsu Lusarainen from the Florida Panthers. We're gonna be talking to them coming up next. Folks listen up, boxing's biggest weekend is here and

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Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voight in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co.au. Ters Lone works for NBC Sports California. She is the San Jose Sharks reporter and she's joining us right now here on the hockey show. We're going to talk about the Stanley Cup playoffs with her. Let's start with what's going on in Canada. The Maple Leafs managed not to choke despite the fact that the fans almost jinxed them by chanting we want Florida and then them losing two straight afterwards.

Now they put themselves in that situation and I would not have had sympathy for them because they're not learning. They're not learning at all. But now that round one is over, give us a sense of what the mood is in Toronto. Well, you know, I live a little bit outside downtown, but I understand that the streets were pretty packed in spite of a lot of rain last night. So this is a city that has not won a Stanley Cup since 1967. This is a country that has not won a Stanley Cup since 1993.

So fans here are really hungry. And you know, like you said, the Leafs have this kind of playoff curse that, um, you know, they tend to get in their own way about it. And then fans are really quick to also jump on that. So, uh, it, it almost happened, but I think last night they looked, it was very decisive. Um, and it bodes well for the next round, which is going to be a challenge for sure. What is the excitement like north of the border right now? Uh'm just you're just generally a Canadian right now, Tara. But just five of the five Canadian teams made the playoffs, which is I'm sure awesome.

They'll hate each other. But, you know, it's cool for the country. Now it looks like three of them are going to be in the second round. So, I mean, is there some legitimate excitement building that for the second straight year, the Canadian team could actually play for the Stanley Cup? Absolutely. I mean, it was it was a great season for Canada. The four nations victory also void the country. Do you guys know that? That was that I was in Montreal for that first game.

That was incredible. But I'm the name of the boat. The Sainte-Thorpelle. Thank you, Roy. And we I was saying to myself, I'm like, every time we win the first game, just like 2010, we can't let this be like 2010 all over again and sure as hell it was just like 2010 all over again. Yeah, I mean, so you get the sense. Hockey's a great big deal everywhere here.

It doesn't matter, you know, you walk down the street, if there's a Stanley Cup playoff game on, there's gonna be noise. So it's everywhere. It's definitely, you know, hockey is it for us, unlike south of the border, at least not everywhere. So, yeah, I think there is some optimism, but also, you know, the same fears, right? That won't make it to the finish line, but won't quite get over it. So I think there's reason to be optimistic, but you know, uh, that will make it to the finish line, but won't quite get over it. So

I think there's reason to be optimistic, but you know, a couple of teams are making me nervous. So I think Winnipeg isn't, uh, you know, Winnipeg is also falling for that curse, the hell about curse too. So we're, we're a little worried about them, but it can happen. Before we dive more into how each team is doing, I want to ask a question since we're on the subject about Canada. How mad was the entire country when the Stanley Cup went in the Atlantic Ocean last year? Um, I don't think, I don't think we're that protective of the Stanley Cup. Listen, I think it's been in much more disgusting places. So at least it had a little saline wash. Fair.

I mean, you gotta worry about corrosion there. I mean, salt water is pretty damaging. That's Phil's job to keep the cup. Exactly. I mean, the other side of the country right now, we got the Edmonton Earlers who for the fourth straight season has eliminated the Los Angeles Kings from the playoffs.

And they did it this time, went down 0-2 and coming back to win four straight. How is this gonna propel them through the rest of the playoffs? Well, I think that they were really calling upon the team to go beyond their superstars. And I think we started to see that this is a team with a lot of depth. So, we know that scoring is not going to be the issue for them. Ekholm will still be out for the second round. So that is definitely the nerves lie in defense and in goal tending.

But as long as the superstars can keep scoring and there's some depth scoring, I think they can really. I think they're favored third in terms of taking the Stanley Cup at this point. So I think there is a lot of faith in this team. The Montreal Canadiens, they weren't able to get past the Washington Capitals, but it was a surprise for them to make the playoffs in the first place. Do you believe that this is just a stepping stone right now for the Canadiens? Are they going to get better next

year? Oh, I think they're going to get better next year, but I think it was really fun to watch, obviously when a team loses a playoff series, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't feel good and it's no consolation to say, but you know, this was so promising, but it is, I mean, they're such a young team. This is where I would love to see the San Jose Sharks next year or the year after. But yeah, this is a team that absolutely, I think they surprised everybody in such a pleasant way

and I think next year could be really exciting for them. You perfectly led me into my next question, Tara, talking about going to the next step, talking about the San Jose Sharks. I think you know where I'm going with this. Somebody that you saw a lot this year, young man that I think is on a lot of our Calder ballots and that's Macklin Celebrini.

I've been high on him all year. I thought he was one of the most well-rounded rookies I've seen in a long time. His two-way play kind of blows me away a little bit. But as somebody who got a front row seat and saw him all season, what's your take on Macklin? Do you think he's as advertised with such a high ceiling? He is as reported. Absolutely.

I mean, he was from the first time he stepped on the ice with the San Jose Sharks. You know, what's funny for me kind of seeing him up close, you know, he and Will Smith are attached at the hip. They're kids, you know, like you just, you see them playing soccer together outside the locker room and they're giggling, right? They're children. But when it comes to hockey, the guy hates to lose. He has so much hockey, his IQ is so intensely high. He's got such an aptitude for learning and he's a natural leader.

I mean, he's not going to be the captain next year. I think he's not quite ready for that just in terms of his age and experience, but he could be. And he is a leader on and off the ice. He learns from his mistakes and man he is he's really good. But being that he's so good, how do you think the sharks are going to build around him? Because they were pretty bad this year despite Macklin kind of standing out the way he did. I wouldn't imagine they want to have that long of a plan to kind of get them back into the perennial playoff team that they were for so much of this decade or the last decade. But is there a plan to kind of build the team around him in the short term and make them competitive? Yeah, I mean, I have to think so, you know, that your faith has to be in your GM. And Mike Greer seems to be

really building this team from the ground up. I think that this is a long-term goal. I mean, I think we of course want to see them make the playoffs next year. But when you look at, first of all, the Barracuda have moved on to the second round of the playoffs. So there's a lot of great players in that pipeline, but coming up from the OHL and from overseas. So I just, of course, like we all want immediate results. And I think what my career did at the trade deadline showed that they are committed to the long game. For sure, they could have kind of stacked the team and made them more viable sooner. But I don't think that's the idea. The idea is to get a Stanley Cup championship team.

I want to stay in California. We talked earlier about the Oilers kind of flip to the Kings side of things. Where the hell do they go from here? You are asking the wrong person. I don't know. I mean, they looked so strong this year. I think if there was a year, it could have been this one. So honestly, I don't know. I didn't even realize how close they were. They were up a goal with 45 seconds left in game four, trying to take a 3-1 lead, and

they lost that series in six games. It's insane. I have no idea where they go from here. But this is another one of those, like, I don't want to be all woo-woo, but they're cursed, you know? So they're cursed against this team. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what their plans are. They also have some young talent, but yeah, things are going to have to look a little different next year I think. Let's just pay back for the miracle on Madison or Manchester. The miracle on Manchester. They're still paying back. They've won twice. But they didn't have to be the Oilers.

Okay I bet you they're wishing for one to eight. I know they're wishing that yeah I was just gonna say they should be the first team in line to campaign for the one through eight playoffs again because it's probably just gonna be the first team in line to campaign for the 1-8 playoffs again because it's probably just gonna be the same thing next year if we're being honest. I counted 64 members of the media who had picked the Tampa Bay Lightning over the Florida Panthers. Now granted, one guy by the way that I saw Ian McIntyre, I have no idea who he is and I'm sure he doesn't have any idea who I am or you or him. But he picked the lightning in five games. What are we doing here? Well, like somebody has to explain to me the amount of disrespect that the members of the hockey media gave the Florida

Panthers knowing that they were going to end up in full strength without Aaron Echlad who was suspended and eventually got suspended again. It to me is just disrespectful of the defending Stanley Cup champions. What do you think Tara? Yeah, I agree. I mean, there's so much momentum behind the Florida Panthers and if you've watched any of their games this year, I mean, that's a really intense, gritty team. So I wouldn't put anything past them. And they are favored at this point

to take the Stanley Cup home again. I mean, I guess it was a numbers game. Tampa finished higher in the standings. They got Vasilevski. They got Kucherov. So maybe they just sort of look a little bit better on paper. And obviously, they've had more race, two back-to-back Stanley Cups.

But no, I wouldn't bet against the Florida Panthers, not for a second. And finally, the New York Rangers have hired Mike Sullivan to be the 30th head coach today. Portnoy was unemployed for so long. Did not even take a week. What do you think about the Rangers decision? I mean, yes, we knew Mike Sullivan was not going to be unemployed for very long. Listen, his time had run out in Pittsburgh, but it didn't say anything about him as a coach. It's just, you know, that room was tired, I guess.

I think it's a great move. I think he's certainly among the best coaches in the game. So, good on them. They got the money, honey. They the best coaches in the game. So, um, good on them. They got the money, honey. They're going to get the guy. Tara Sloan from NBC Sports, California. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Tara. Hey, thanks guys.

So we have Etu Hustarainen here for the Florida Panthers. He's currently on the third line with Anton Lindell and Brad Marshawn. They just eliminated the Tampa Bay Lightning. Five games. Five games. Five games. Five games. Dispatched them pretty quickly. So the Lightning led the league in scoring. They were top five in power play, they were top five in pill-and-de-kill, and they had the league leader in points this season. E2, how were you guys able to shut them down?

Yeah, before the series, we obviously know their stats and like what they're good at, obviously offensive game, which they're, were their, uh, top priority, I think, uh, but I think just the way we play, we're trying to hold the line, like just play as if I like didn't give them too much room to play on. So I think we did a good job on that. Do you guys see that everyone in the media is picking the lightning in that situation or that never gets on your guys radar? I mean, I think just the way we able to shut them down there, I think just the way we able to shut them down there. I think Just playing hard against their top lines. That was our priority The penalty kill had been excellent in this series

you guys only gave up two power play goals in what 18 opportunities against the Tampa Bay Lightning, so How go over how the addition of Brad Moshan on that penalty kill helped you guys. Yeah, obviously the kill was really good on that series and that we knew like their power plays at least so I think we were able to do a good job there. Obviously, adding Marci, I think just getting more depth to the lineup as penalty kill-wise too. We could roll three pairs, be fresh out there and then pressure when we had a chance. Itu, when I think of young hockey players, we all want to score goals, right? My little eight-year-old, he wants to go out there, he wants to score goals. He's not worried about anything else. But your game, you have like perfected defensive hockey over the last few seasons.

And it's getting talked about now on a very grand scale after what you guys just did against Tampa Bay. Just for you personally, how much do you enjoy playing the defensive side of the game? Because you're so good at it. Yeah, I mean, I think that's just like all the way from juniors. I think the way Finnish guys play in Finland, that league, it's more defensive, not as much offensive game, I think. It's less goals. I think it comes from all the way from there. But yeah, obviously everybody wants to score. But I think I'm just trying to play both ways and be responsible.

I can trust from the coaches and get an ice time like that. Game five we saw the potential of the third line. You, Lundy and Marshy had nine combined points. But the weirdest thing for everybody has been seeing Brad Marsh in a Panther uniform. So what has that adjustment been like going from he is, you know, enemy number one to now he's one of your teammates and you're chasing a cup with him? Yeah, that was a big one on the deadline. I didn't see that comment, but obviously he's such a great guy. He talks up talks a lot in the locker room. He's such a good guy.

So I think that's a great ad. And obviously on the ice, he's experienced, won a cup and he knows what it takes. And just to be able to play with him, it's been really good. We mentioned Anton Lundell is also on that line with you and you guys seem to have gotten chemistry pretty quickly. Why don't you go over your ice time with that third line?

Yeah, obviously I've been playing with Lundy like few years now and able to speak finish and once in a while it helps go through the place. But I think adding Marchie, like last year we had a lot of experience there too. And he liked to talk as well, go through the place and stuff like that. And that way I think Marci is a similar guy there,

like a lot of experience, talks a lot, wants to teach us new things all the time, and obviously we're listening in. We mentioned you and Lundell playing together for a few years, you guys are close off the ice. Tell me about, I wanna get inside your guys relationship a little bit. How much, are you guys that close off the ice?

Tell me, what is Lundell's favorite food? No. Oh, that's a tough one. I guess we're not back bolts. Oh, no. You guys don't finish each other's sentences. I guess we're not back both of them. You guys don't like finish each other's sentences. You know his favorite movie. No, I don't know.

I think you know it and you're just keeping it close to the vest. I like it. You don't want to give up the goods. Yeah, it's pasta, isn't it? Some sort of spaghetti. I mean, chicken and pasta salad. I mean, you guys basically eat the same five things during the season, right? Yeah, it's same thing all over again.

So maybe the next two months we'll eat pasta. So that's where we go. Well, there's no pasta available in this playoffs, but maybe next year we can eat some pasta. We had pasta last year. Give me something that you and him do that is like fun off of the ice together. Usually we just keep it pretty simple.

Just hang out by the pool, go to the beach once in a while, have a lunch or dinner, skip a lot between games, and just, I don't know, relax mostly. Loosty, what's your go-to, what would surprise us? Do you have any game day traditions, you know, where you're like, I have to eat this every day, I need to put my pads on a certain way. What are your game day superstitions?

I don't think I have too much, but like, I think just, maybe like the way I think just maybe like, the way I put my gear on, it's pretty specific. Like, you should put my right sock forward and then left skate, like stuff like that. It's pretty stupid, but like, it's just a habit. And I mean, I just gotta go with it. Wait, how do you put your right sock on and then your left skate?

There must be a sock on that left foot, no? Yeah, there's a sock on, just to order. I got you. Itu, obviously you guys had this ridiculous, amazing run last year at this time to the Stanley Cup. The year before you had gone to the final. Last year you won it. Now this is like the third year where you guys

are kind of viewed as a cup contender. You're trying to do it again. Have you noticed any differences just in how you feel when you're going to the ring now that you've kind of been down that path before you've won the cup? So now you guys have that kind of veteran experience going into the playoffs? Yeah, I mean, obviously it helps to be like

gone through it already and you know what to expect how it's gonna be. It's hard work for two and a half months and yeah I think just the experience and the feeling of winning like you you want to just feel that that again. Yeah the Toronto Maple Leafs coming up next and that's the return of Antilles Stollars you got Oliver Ekman Lawson. Yes, even learns coming back to And the least fans wanted this they were chanting we went, Florida. They weren't chanting that again were they yes They were before the series even ended they ended up losing two straight before they ended up dispatching the Ottawa Senators It's like they haven't learned a lesson, but why don't you tell us about this matchup? How you guys match up against the Toronto Maple Leafs this time?

Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a tough matchup again. There's no easy opponents at this point. I think similar things as well, like the way they play, I think they have speed up front, a little bit side to back end. And just do the same thing, shut their top guys down and just play as hard as we can. Itzu, something that we've talked about over the last couple of years, among some of your teammates, is the dad bump.

We know Lombi, he became a dad, he got the dad bump. Bob became a dad, he got the dad bump. You recently became a father. You have a young daughter, Sophia, she's beautiful, congratulations. Girl dad. Girl dad in the club with Roy. Yeah.

How has your, Chris was asking about your routines. Are you getting as much sleep as you got last year? Are you feeling the extra energy from being a dad? What's the experience like now going on a playoff run knowing, oh, I got a little one at home. Yeah, it's been great. The time to splice, she's already 10 weeks old and yeah, just to hang out with her, obviously it cuts down the slate a little bit, like you said, but you're just kinda,

you enjoy it so much, so you don't really care about that. But yeah, I think it doesn't really affect in the hockey part, so I think it just brings more energy to go home and see her smile and stuff like that. She shit on you yet? Oh man. I'm telling you, I have like a, my daughter and that, those first six months that that thing's flying everywhere. Oh my God. He's not wrong.

Yeah. Once, once I was chasing him that, yeah, I really explored it all over that. I don't know what you mean. Sudden death overtime doesn't seem so serious when you've dealt with that, right? It's like target practice, you know? Mom, that's easy to keep. Coming off the series with the Lightning, that was a physical series.

How about team health right now, coming into this series with the Maple Leafs? You guys healthy right now? Obviously, Aaron Ackbar had to suspend it, but is this series gonna be as physical as it was against Tampa? Yeah, I think that's the plan. I think just like how we play, I think there's going to be a lot of hits and we dump a lot of pox.

We're going to recover pox and then we want to get on the body. It's just toward and down. It's a long series, a lot of hockey in that stretch of hockey. And yeah, I think it's going to be as good as the last series. Lusty, I was in Montreal for the Four Nations. It was an incredible event from a fan standpoint. You obviously got to play with a few of your teammates and some of the greats from Finland.

Tell us a little bit about that experience and what it was like to be able to represent your country on such a grand stage. Yeah, it was a great experience. Uh, obviously the teams were stacked, so it was great to see like what is it playing and like, usually you play against one or two like top lines, but there were like four lines, like really, really stacked and like everybody was so hard to play against and yeah it was a great experience and I think fans really enjoyed it like everybody played hard it

was not like just like show off or anything like it it was really good hockey. Itu Roy mentioned your coming up series against the Toronto Maple Leafs and some old friends that are on that team that were with you guys last year. So I just have a real quick question for you. If you can answer it. How do you beat Anthony Stollars? How are you guys gonna you know, five hole under the arm over the glove? Like, you know, what's the secret? How are you gonna beat him? Tell us. Yeah, I think Stoli has been really good this year. But yeah, I think we're going to hear that tomorrow from Robbie Talis. So I got to pay attention in that meeting. Can you confirm the Internet? Rumblings have been saying and I think you guys are aware of this more than anyone. Paul Maurice is a silver fox, right? Like this guy's sneaky, good looking.

Oh, I don't know. I'm saying it. And you, all right, maybe you don't, you can tell him, the Dan LeBittard show, can you tell him later today, thinks he's a silver fox. It's the glasses. Can you just pass along the note? Thank you, you will, great, thanks, Lucy.

He too, Lusrana, thank you for joining us. Good luck against the E2. We love you, go get Toronto, baby. We love you, Lucy, really. You're my boy. Appreciate it, guys. Get it, boys.