The Hockey PDOcast - Breaking Down Leafs Panthers Game 6, and Looking Ahead to Game 7

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Harman Dayal to go through everything they saw in Game 6 of Leafs Panthers, how the Leafs were able to bounce back and stay alive, and what to watch for ahead of Game 7 on Sunday night. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Progressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Demetri Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Harmon Dyle, Harman. Nothing much. Just excited for Game 7 between Leaves and Panthers after watching that game last night. Yeah, it was a fun game 6. We're going to break it all down today and look ahead.

Sunday's Game 7. We're recording this early Saturday morning. I had a chance to watch the last. And I rewatched it again, got a ton of notes. We're going to get through to kind of tee it all up. I want to start with this. I think people listening are probably going to be like, all right, well, they're going to start with Matthews finally breaking through and scoring the biggest goal of his career.

And we're certainly going to get to that. That was a big story here. But I want to start off with what I thought was the prevailing theme from this one. And it was the Leafs bounce back effort, especially defensively. Let me read you a couple of stats here. And then we can jump into it that I think paint a pretty clear picture of how this game was played. So shot attempts, all told by the end were 81 to 42 for Florida. Shots on goal were 22 to 17. Blocked shots were 31 to 10 for Toronto. And I think most importantly tying that all together.

The Panthers wound up, according to Mike Kelly from Sport Logic, with just three shots on goal from the slot area in this game, which marked the lowest total by any team in a playoff game this year. And I think, you know, this Leafs defense certainly has some legitimate. limitations that explain at least part, I think, of why the forwards for them are struggling to create offense at the other end. But man, this was one hell of a locked in effort by them to erase pretty much anything the Panthers tried to do in the offensive zone, especially after this Panthers team put up six goals in the previous game.

And I wanted to start off with that because I just thought it was almost an immaculate defensive effort that I imagine, you know, was in Craig Brubay's wildest dreams in Bradtree livings and then it actually played out with their season on the line in the most important game that they've played. This was a defensive masterclass and it's funny you mentioned how people might be surprised that instead of the Matthews and Marner storyline, we pivot to the defensive side. That was actually the first note that I had to was just how suffocating the Leafs were defensively. They did an unbelievable job of restricting Florida to the outside.

The Panthers didn't generate anything meaningful from the inner slot. And a few things stood out. First, Leaves barely turned pox over, both on exits and entries. They handled Florida's four check pressure pretty well. And limiting turnovers is massive because it doesn't matter how well your structured defensively in traditional situations. If you turn pox over in the neutral zone or in your defensive end when you're trying to break it out, your players are out of position because they're anticipating that you're going to be able to make a play up the ice is. a team. And it's that quick strike in the moments when the other team immediately recovers

the puck where as a defensive team, you're vulnerable. So the Leafs had some of those turnovers in game five. They were the more composed team in that department in game six. And I think that allowed them to be in that structure that Barube has, has wanted them to have all season for the entire 60 minutes, essentially. The other area that kind of stood out was defending the rush. Now, Florida actually had quite a few controlled entries and there were several sort of three on two type looks that they had. But this is where the Leafs defensemen always set sticks in the lane, the shot blocks as you alluded to. I also thought the Panthers didn't execute particularly well as far as actually hitting the net in those situations. But it was just fascinating to see

so many three on two like rushes that ended in at best looks around. the high slot area that didn't consistently enough actually get through to Joseph Wall. And finally, I don't know if the Panthers really generated any East-West movement, right? We're, we're of course going to give Joseph Wall his flowers for bouncing back. But the Panthers didn't ever force him to have to move post-to-post, whereas in a low-event game like that, where the Leafs didn't generate a ton of looks. they still had a few opportunities where they got Bobrovsky moving side to side. Matthew Nyes had an early chance.

Nealander at 4 on 4. The patch ready goal, of course, was a terrific feed by Bobby McMahon. And as a goaltender, it's so much easier to get set and be square to the puck when your opponent is only really attacking in straight lines. And you could see by the third period, the Panthers were just forcing a bunch of hope plays because they couldn't problem solve around how to, how to, how to, how to work around this Toronto defensive structure. Yeah, especially you think about game five and where it went wrong for the

Leafs and it's such a long list of things we could go through. But though that offense from turnovers, which is a staple and a calling card for this Panthers team, that's kind of how they blew it open, right, especially in the second period with a couple turnovers that they quickly wound up, capitalizing on. Tanna finishes with,

I mentioned the shot blocks were 31 to 10. Tanef had six of them, OEL, Benoit, McCabe, and Riley combined for another four, And that doesn't even include plays they broke up. Like I think in the second period when Florida was really mounting their push early on, they had this long stretch in the offensive zone. Then they force another turnover on a Leafs breakout. And Marchands kind of down low on a potential little abbreviated three on two.

And he tries to dangle through Benoit. And Benoit just sits them down and kind of nullifies that play there. It really was just the genuine masterclass of keeping everything to the perimeter. And I think repeatedly driving the Panthers crazy by like getting a stick on everything. in sight, just knocking away dangerous opportunities, whether it was, you know, I think the Panthers certainly tried to incorporate some of that east-west passing in the offensive zone, but whenever they would attempt one of those cross-seam looks, there'd be a leaf stick in the way that would kind of knock it away or disrupt the opportunity before the Panthers could

get a shot off. It seemed like they were juggling the pox, but I think part of that was leaves just having sticks and lanes that were, you know, forcing the issue there. I think in particular, I'm glad you mentioned the rush looks because I thought early on, you know, the first shot of the game for the Panthers was that pretty good Bennett look off the rush. The wall was able to stop. There was a Verhegey one where he kind of missed the net on it. We could talk more about Brahegey's shooting later on. But the one that really sticks out to me that I think encapsulates a lot of these concepts. There's this play with, I went back and watched there 414 left in the first and the Leafs essentially get four skaters caught up the ice.

The Panthers turn the puck over in or get a turn over in the defensive zone. Forsling sort of chips it out and all of a sudden you look up and it's Luscerin and Marshan on a two on one. And Lusirin is carrying the puck. Carlo engages with Marchand and kind of they're kind of battling for position in front of the net. And Holberg comes back on the back check and Lusirian just stops up and Homer goes flying by out of the frame and takes himself out of the play. And Lusirin just walks in. He's sort of around the inside hash marks at the right circle and you're like, oh man, this is a great opportunity. And then all of a sudden, Riley, who was one of those four guys caught up ice, back tracks comes back, gets a stick on it. And you really appreciate it on the replay because

it totally distorted the shot. It sends it high over then. It doesn't even wind up registering as one of those slots shot on goals. And I think that play really encapsulated not only the effort defensively here, but also meaningfully using the sticks to alter some of these shots in their trajectory. Absolutely. And the back pressure consistently was, um, Something that stood out. I think Mikula had a chance later, maybe in the second period, where sort of took a little bit too long to settle and in search for that perfect shot. And by the time, he actually tried to pull the trigger.

Leaves had a stick in the way, and he wasn't able to get it on net. And I mean, even for the blue line, it stood up to me as well, how balanced the time when ice was in an elimination playoff game. There was less than 90 seconds of ice time separating. Benoit, who was at 2004 as their number one minute eater on the back end and their low man, Ice Time Wise, Morgan Riley, who was at 1835. Now, obviously, Benoit was up there because of all the penalty killing time. But to have that little time separating your number one and your number six, it really illustrates

how for this leaves blue line, it is always going to have to be a by committee job. It's not like they lean on a true number one defenseman who can play 30. minutes a night and be out there in all situations. And this is where, like, you know you're going to get the steady performances from the likes of Tanev and McCabe and Carlo, especially from a defensive standpoint. But this is, this is a game where I thought Benoit may have been their unsung hero. He punched way above his weight class and not just defensively, but in the third period, there was a situation. I think this was when the Panthers were down one-nothing, sort of breaks up a play and leads a strong

breakout all by himself that leads to a Tavares chance off the rush. And that was massive from the perspective of even when the Leafs got that breakthrough goal from Matthews, they didn't sit back in their defensive shell

and parked the bus that way. They kept applying pressure and in the third period there was a play I jot it down where with about six minutes left. Leaves are still sending two forwards deep and aggressively on the forecheck. So I like fact that they kept their foot on the gas, even in that situation. And I think that's part of the reason why they looked comfortable closing it out in the third

period. But really, this was a complete sort of surrefer, top to bottom, all their forwards, all their defensemen. They were all bought in. They were all composed. And it was as impressive as a bounceback as, as you could have drawn up. Yeah, reminiscent of game four when the Panthers had all those early power play opportunities and they finally scored the one, nothing goal, which was ultimately a difference

in the game on the fourth one. They got two early on here. They wound up with four in this game, and they muster just one shot on goal in that entire time. And so I thought the Leafs penalty kill did really well as well. I got a bit hairy for them in the second period, right? They finished the first period off really strong after killing those penalties, held the Panthers.

There's two shots on goal through the first 20 minutes. And then the Panthers really, as you'd expect, came out of the intermission with a big push. I have it down as Panthers, attempted 20 shots in the first seven minutes of the period before the Leafs got their first shot attempt. And then by the time the Panthers took that too many men penalty about halfway through the period, shot attempts in the second were 27 to 1 for Florida. Yet a lot of it was kind of held to the perimeter. And it felt like for the most part, the game plan from them

after they weren't getting some of those clean looks early on was kind of spray and prey from the outside. They were just shooting it off the end boards and kind of into traffic, hoping to capitalize on one of those bounces and rebounds and the leaves were just cleaning it all up. I think in that second period, that's certainly an area you'd want to clean up in particular. It felt like the Willie Nealander line got stuck out there for a couple really extended shifts

where they were essentially just white knuckling and holding on for dear life and being out there for like 90 seconds at a time. But you wind up looking at it and as impressive as that pressure was, like we said, the, you know, the Panthers just registered just three slot shots for the entire game

and very few of the looks. I think the best look in that entire. sequence was probably that weird bounce that came to Thomas Thomas Nosek out front and he just sort of missed the net on it. But beyond that, none of them were necessarily clean or high danger looks. And so I think you'll take that. I think the, you know, the defensive execution here extends well beyond the defenseman. I'm glad you noted the forwards as well because I think a guy like Max Domi, who has been a major liability in this series, he's taken six penalties in the first five games and really been undisciplined and uncomposed and kind of falling for a lot of

Matthew Kachuk and Bradmer Shion's mind games. He early on had a couple big defensive plays that broke up promising panther sequences and then he obviously helped set up the two-nothing goal. And so I think it really extends to pretty much everyone across the border here for the Leafs. For sure. And another forward example,

during that stretch in the second period where I think the Panthers at one point had a 9-0 edge, even just on the shots on goal, one of the most promising sequences they had, was one where Chuck sort of moved off the puck to the right side and as it was happening in real time I was I was expecting this

to be a really quality sort of look and the puck got dished to him he went for the one timer and then guess who's in lane it's Scott Lawton it doesn't even get through to to Wall so even when the Panthers were doing somewhat creative things in the offensive zone during that stretch where they

had some pressure, there was still always someone in the way. And I can't, I can't even imagine how frustrating it must have been from a Panthers perspective offensively. Another note during that stretch of about 10 minutes where the Panthers were really applying some pressure and controlling play was it felt like on a couple shifts, they would hem the leaves in and Toronto skaters were tired. But then the Panthers would sort of let them off the hook with, um, which just, giveaways where the puck would leave the zone. There was one for Hagey had, for example,

where that second line had been pressing for a while, Leafs skaters retired. And his sort of pass in the high, in the sort of high part of the offensive zone just left the zone and relieved that pressure. So it was a mix of Toronto restricting the Panthers to the perimeter and blocking those shots and the forwards and defense been all being on the same page, but also execution wise, there were a couple of shifts there where I felt like the Panthers could have done more to really tire the leaves out even further. Yeah, and thinking about it, you mentioned earlier, the East West stuff and kind of what Wall had to face, especially off the rush. I think the, you know, Leaves were already up one, I think at this point, it was kind of in the later stages of the third. I think that one rush where I believe it was Reinhart kind of sends it to Bennett and he gets a little tip and Wall has to actually make a stop on it.

registered as one of the only times they were actually able to break through that. Let's get into Matthews and Marner here. Obviously, both of them were much maligned after that game five stinker by the Leafs where they kind of just, I want to say watched and let it happen, but I think they also played roles in that as well, right? The first goal by Eckblad, Barkov kind of beats Matthews down low for a puck battle and eventually it winds up on Eckblad's sticking the slot for a goal.

The three-nothing goal obviously was a disaster for Marner where he has this spinning neutral zone turnover and then he gets beaten to the backpost and the way back by Boquist and that was just a pure catnip play I think for for the narratives and the criticism of his game coming into this one Matthews had 20 shots on goal and 38 attempts without scoring in this series in round two for his career all versus panthers team 10 games 46 shots on goal 83 attempts and hadn't scored and I don't in watching these games. In watching these games I don't think he'd played poorly by any means, right? He was doing a lot of the stuff that you'd expect from a premier center

in terms of winning battles, generating looks, just being positionally sound and good defensively. But ultimately, when you make 13.25 million and you're considered the greatest goal scorer of your generation and you're not scoring goals, I think the criticism is going to be warranted, especially when you look at the way this Leafs team has been constructed under the assumption that he's going to carry them

and his line is going to carry them offensively because you're just getting nothing offensively from the bottom six. I believe that 11 of the 14 goals the Leaves have scored 515 in the series have been with either Matthews or Nealander on the ice, which leaves just three for all the other forwards on this team

and then probably five of the six defensemen beyond Riley, you're not really getting that much aside from an occasional moment from OEL. You ultimately need them to pick up the slack and score offensively, and they hadn't. And so certainly Matthew's breaking through here. I think pretty clearly this was the biggest goal of his career to date in the NHL, right? It was his first goal in the second round of

the NHL postseason. It was the difference in this game scoring in the third period in the manner he did in particular with kind of one of those patented, paddened moves where he's coming down the rush. He has a bit of space one-on-one against Foresling. He pulls the puck in and shoots it and it beats Bobrovsky somewhat surprisingly down low. I thought that was clearly a huge moment. So let's kind of break that down a little bit and what you saw. I think from that line as a whole in this game in terms of the bounce back effort after the game five disappointment.

They were noticeable right away. In the first period, I thought that Matthews line was the best line on either team. I mean, I remember a shift with about eight and a half minutes left in the first period where Matthews fought through San Bennett hit. He had a wrist shot from the sort of a high slot area off the rush. And then he just came in like a wrecking ball in the forecheck, forced to turn over and set up Nyes for what was up until that point, the best chance of the game.

A shift or two later, they had another sequence where they were hemming the Panthers in, and it looked like they were threatening sort of down low in the offensive zone. And then it obviously became complicated, right? Because Nyes got banged up. He was clearly laboring throughout the game. Brubay used him situationally, but you could see just watching Nyes throughout the game that he didn't have that same pop,

that same aggressiveness, where Nyes is such a physical beast, such a behemoth when he's at his best. And you could see that he was sort of understandably a little bit timid and wasn't able to do those same things to win battles. So for Matthews and Marner to adjust to that and keep pressing, they're a little bit quieter, obviously, throughout the second period where it felt like the Panthers were taking the game over. a little bit. But then in the third for them to respond, to bounce back, obviously off that sort of turnover where Eckblad wasn't really able to handle the puck well, Marner makes a nice play to set up Matthews.

And like you said, it was, I think, a surprising shot for Bobrovsky along the ice through the five hole, caught him off guard. You expect a goal score like that to once in a while fool a goaltender. So it was massive, right? Because for as well as the Leafs played defensively, if they didn't get that moment from Matthews and Marner, we're still talking about a zero zero game. And then it's conceivable that we in another scenario end up on the show today. And we're talking about, sure, they played well defensively, but where was the offensively? who else was going to step up if it wasn't Matthews and Marner.

So a huge part of the Leafs game plan, even if they execute really well defensively, hinges on the stars coming through offensively. And so without that moment in the third period, this could have been a completely different game. Yeah, especially you think early on kind of the ebbs and flows, right? There's that sequence where Matthews takes the butt end of a stick to the face and has to leave for a little bit off the draw.

It's uncalled. Then they get a power play. He winds up taking a high. high-sticking penalty of a zone, the nullifies it, and the frustration there for the game, 1124-5-1-5-4-Matthew, shots 4-2, chances for nothing, expected goal share, 81% and ultimately the deciding goal. You mentioned that shift earlier described it kind of him just bouncing off people and causing havoc and then leading to the Nye's glorious chance that he wasn't able to put past

Bobrovsky's pad. I thought that was a very important one within the context of this game. not only for creating a bit of high-danger looks and sort of tilting the ice in their favor, but it felt like that disrupted the Panthers' plans a little bit, because in these home games, especially games three and four, and even at the start of this one, Paul Marisse's game plan was very clear of using Lundell and Lusterinen against that Matthews line, then using Barkov and Reinhardt against Tavares and Elander,

and they'd had really good success doing so. And Lundell and Lusteren came out, I thought they were a wrecking crew early on as well. They were throwing the body around, forcing turnovers, kind of keeping the puck in the offensive zone for the Panthers. And then they get caught on that shift. And there was a couple others where they struggled a little bit in their own zone. And then from the second period on,

it felt like Paul Murray's kind of deviated from that plan, almost kind of spooked by what he saw there, because you look up at the end, and Lundell and Lusterina wind up playing just 1340 and 1334, respectively. And they've been so good for this Panthers. team all postseason, but especially in this series. And he kind of went away from them.

He wasn't using those assignments anymore. And I wonder, you know, what happened there from the Panthers perspective, how much some of that stuff we saw early on played into it. But I feel like that was almost a bit of a miscalculation from Palmaries and the Panthers. Because I feel like with how good those guys have been and, you know, they're up six three, five on five in this series plus 60% expected goal share, you'd think with a chance to to close out this series, you'd want them out there as much as possible. And it ultimately, their usage really dwindled and they just weren't using them as much

as they have in the past. Yeah, it's a really fascinating note, especially because when those guys can go up against Matthews and Marner, it obviously frees up Florida's top six to be able to have some more advantageous matchups. It sort of felt like Florida's top six and maybe part of it is because they were going up against the Matthews line a little bit more from the second period onward. Florida's top six was really disappointing in that game. Didn't manufacture a lot offensively.

Matthew Kuchuk was awfully quiet. But also, Barkov and Reinhart haven't necessarily credited a lot. I know their underlying numbers in this series have been pretty decent, but I haven't noticed them enough to be totally honest with you. And I think within that top six group, for Hagee was maybe the most noticeable as far as being in dangerous offensive spots but I'd argue his execution in terms of his puck touches was pretty consistently off

throughout that game and from Verhagie's perspective you have to look at that as a pretty disappointing performance because I think he was the lone Panthers top six forward that actually got the puck in dangerous spots but just wasn't able to capitalize at any point for hegey was demolishing the end boards behind the Leafs net in this game he had 14 shot attempts just four on net he had a couple of those sequences you mentioned where he kind of cuts into the middle it's shaping up to be promising he pulls it in and then he snaps it and it just misses the net he went for a couple hero shots I thought on the power play where he's like trying to pick a particular spot and it winds up missing the net and then it winds up either clearing the zone or the

leaves were able to retrieve possession and defuse the situation and clear it he's certainly been much more engaged in this series than I thought he was previously, but that shooting efficiency remains a concern, and I think he's just maddening to watch in a game like this. Marner, beyond the play we described earlier, where he retrieves that turnover from the foursling-ac-blad combo, corrals it, sends Matthews into space for the ultimate goal. I thought just defensive play one-on-one against Barkov in the second period, I believe,

right where they're on the power play, Barcoff kind of gets it in space. All of a sudden you look up and it's a one-on-one and there's a ton of ice to work with and we know how dangerous Barkov is with a stick handling and tricks and size, of course. And he sort of angles him out of danger, allows the leaves to come back and have bodies on him

and nothing comes of it. So I thought that was a huge play. And I want to talk a little bit more about Matthew Nyes as well because I thought, you know, he's been awesome, certainly this postseason. He scored that big goal in game one. He's had so many chances. He had that short-ended breakaway.

in game three that could have tied it when it was one nothing panthers he had that look early on in this one i just think you know his combo of size and speed has been so disruptive and has created so much for that leaves top line throughout he takes that awkward uh reverse check from micha in the first it's clear like whether it's a shoulder or a back they just didn't want him taking more hits to it because he wasn't playing his usual net front role in the power play i believe they were using patch ready there in his place he winds up playing playing just 1301 in this game. He had played 2148 per game in the first five,

which is behind only Marner in terms of Leaf's forward usage. And so I think that's a big subplot here to watch heading into game seven, right? Because of how good he is and how much they relied on him. And I imagine this, it's game seven of round two. You have a chance to make it to the Eastern Conference final. He's going to be out there, I presume, but how much he's able to play and how effective he's going to be

with his playing style, I think it's going to be definitely something to watch because they certainly need him at his, best if they're going to win that game. Yeah, he's been such an X factor for the Leafs compared to previous playoff runs where he gives them a little bit of a different dimension with that size, how he can just bully his way to the net, how menacing he is on the forecheck. And you could tell once he got that knock, he wasn't able to charge in on the forecheck

the same way. He, you know, before he was replaced on the first unit by Patcheretti, I think the least Leaves had a second period opportunity where they did throw out Nyes in the beginning of that of that man advantage. And there was a play where the puck sort of went behind the net. And immediately I noted that Nyes sort of went in to try to tie up the stick. And his approach was kind of like, I'll try and tie this defenseman up behind the net, wait for teammate support. And hopefully that's how we retrieved the puck in Florida ultimately got the clear. That immediately was my first sign of if Nize is fully healthy, he's charging in and just blowing that guy up and winning that puck battle all by himself.

So for sure, he's going to be a huge sort of deciding factor in game seven in terms of if he's closer to 80 to 90% of what he normally is, then we know how much havoc he can, he can cause how many puck battles he wins, how dangerous he is, even against a grain because of his speed when the Panthers or even the Senators series, there is a turnover and opportunity to go back the other way. He's just been such a menace in their top six. And it is at least a promising sign that the Leafs top line didn't capitulate and didn't slow down once NICE was sort of unavailable throughout the game.

But there's no doubt that he's one of their most important forwards. All right. Let's take our break here. And then when we come back, we'll jump right back in and close all the show with some other notes that we saw from Game 6 of Panthers Leaves. You're listening to the Hockey Pedyocast streaming. on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here, Hockey Pedyocast with Harm and dial harm.

Let's keep going through our notes from Game 6 of Panthers Leaves. I thought John Tiberis had just a grown man type of game. He wound up with 10 shot attempts and just 16, 23 played. That accounted for nearly a quarter of the team's total output that I mentioned earlier. I just thought he was a beast on the puck kind of protecting it, hounding guys for when he didn't have it. You know, there was this play with seven. You mentioned the Simaenwa player earlier

and his breakout from the zone and then he kind of cuts in and has a nice little chance to try to extend the lead. 720 left in the third. He's the F3 kind of up high in the middle against the Panthers breakout. Forsling tries to pass it to Barker's moving in the right direction and he sort of cuts that off.

And then he just buries his shoulder and takes it to the net and just fights off for his lane and gets another good look off of that. He didn't wind up scoring in this game. But I just thought when we were kind of talking about the lead. effort and everyone just being locked in and contributing in various ways. I thought his contributions were very noticeable in this one because that line,

as we mentioned earlier, got hemmed in their own zone a little bit in the second period. But man, as this game progressed, it felt like he was just on a mission to create something and take the puck to the net and that really stood out to me in watching this game. Definitely, especially because Nylander,

relative to his standards, had a really quiet game. So in that context, it's been a concern in the past as far as, Ken, Tavares sort of drive a line on his own. How does he look when one of his wingers isn't sort of carrying the mail and doing a lot of sort of things in transition and dominating from that perspective? So in a game like that where Nielander was relatively quiet outside of the four on four

chance he had in the second period for Tavares to sort of have that strength on the puck to sort of be using his size and shoulder to lean on guys, take Pucks to the net. You're right. It was an impressive performance. And it's honestly one that I in real time hadn't maybe clocked or given him enough recognition for because now, as you mentioned, sort of specific plays, it stands out even more. I thought we mentioned the Leaf's defenseman earlier. We got to give more love to Chris Tanev. He took, according to Natural Statrick, 14 hits in 1931 played in this game. He's up to 100.

There's one of my favorite stats that have been tracking this entire run. 103 hits taken in 12 games. No one else in the league this postseason has even taken 56. You know, his retrieval game, you saw this a lot during his years, playing with the Canucks and then going to the flames and then what he did for the stars last year. Probably one of the more appreciated things. Like he's going to block shots. He's going to be around the net to knock pucks away and clear the crease and prevent goals against. He does all that in a matchup role.

I think his most underrated skill, and this is largely why I think he takes so many hits, is his retrieval game because he has just an immense pain tolerance obviously and I think his willingness to take that punishment to follows as the primary puck retriever is such a valuable skill set and why I think he's worked with you know kind of more traditional puck moving types in the past as their partner because he's willing to stand in there and take the hit that's going to follow if it's going to mean buying more space for either his partner or a forward that's out there with them to then have room to either get the puck out of the zone or make the next play. And so he's almost baiting you into hitting him to do so. That's obviously a massive part of

this series with how aggressive the Panthers Forchick is and how much they've been throwing the body around. And you saw that in this one. You've seen it all series. You've seen it throughout his career. And I just think it's a tougher skill to quantify, especially when we're looking at, even through some of the tracking data, like who's responsible for zone exits and who's moving the puck up the ice effectively. He's never necessarily the primary guy to go tape to tape with a breakout pass or skate it out himself. But he enables a lot of those situations for some of these clean exits by just standing in there and taking all the full brunt of the forecheck from a team like the Panthers. Unquestionably. And this is where in the Panthers Lightning series, the Lightning Defenseman couldn't really handle the heat of Florida.

this forecheck and that aggressiveness and that physicality and just relentlessly sort of pounding their defensemen and it led to sort of turnover at least the situations where sometimes defense been they you could you can tell even another other series when a guy like tom wilson is is bearing down your neck you don't go in for that pock the same way you do you become a little bit more timid you don't take the most direct route to pox but for tann if it never deters them and that was really a huge reason why the Leaves had that success in game six is I don't think Florida's forecheck was able to create nearly the same amount of havoc and in mayhem outside of maybe the 10 minutes or so in the second period that they have in really playoffs

past and through the through the first round against that Tampa Bay lightning so yeah Tanna if that's been his bread and butter for for so long it's a impressive to watch and you even do see some element of it come up in the tracking data. I remember in years past sort of being a little bit surprised that, you know, Tanev can sort of make that first retrieval and make that little, you know, 10 to 15 foot pass. But I was actually surprised to see how many direct zone exits he was creating according to our pal, Corey Schneider's data.

So it is something that is. something, it's something you notice watching in play, but it also does seem to sort of show up in the data too. It's especially important in this series with the goalie change for the Leafs. We can talk more about just Wool here in a second, but one difference between him and Stolars is the puck handling ability and kind of going behind the net and either stopping it up or or buying some time for teammates. And that's made it easier, I think, for the Panthers to get in full blast and tee off on some of the Leafs defensemen. And so, yeah, I think Tana was just one of those guys where obviously he's always, has been an analytical darling and you look under the hood and his numbers have always helped his teams win. But I feel like he's almost one of those guys. You have to watch closely just to

appreciate the nuance and the subtleties to what he's doing to tilt the ice in his team's favor. I think of, you know, I'm not sure if I've even talked about this on the show before, but I heard this anecdote about how like when the Canucks had that regime change and Benning came in and Tanev was an RFA that season, they were like, what does this guy ultimately do in terms of of why he's so well regarded internally because they're looking and it's like all right he had whatever 17 points that season eight penalty minutes he's not doing a lot of the stuff that you typically expect from a from a quote unquote defensive defenseman and then you just watch him play and it's like oh yeah it checks out and ever since then i believe that year he like winds up signing for a two million

dollar one year sort of prove a deal as an rFA and ever since then and that was in 2014 so it's over a decade now he's essentially been playing for precisely 4.5 to 5 million or yeah 4.5 to 5 million dollar salary every step of the way and he's been worth every single penny mentioned wool there the 22 save shutout made that big save and it was one out thing as I mentioned off the one rush look the panthers had made a couple big saves early on especially the one on Bennett comes to mind while the leaves made it easier from I do think he's been he's been awesome in this series after being thrown into a tricky spot, right? I don't think the total package in terms of the raw save percentage is going to do it justice

because especially when you look at that game four where he was really the only guy on the Leafs to show up and held the minute for as long as he could. Then in game five, I thought he was once again really good for the first period and a half or so. And then they had that two nothing goal where bounces off a lot and stick and that was a backbreaker. Then they have the back post goal by Boeco. Quist and then kind of the wheels fell off after that and he winds up being pulled for Murray. But I thought, you know, this shutout was one thing.

But I just think his play in this series has really been a huge boost to the leaves and has given them a chance in nearly every game he's played so far. Yeah. And last night you could really see how, how well he was smothering pox. There were no rebounds. That's something that the Panthers, given how sort of tenacious they are up front, especially when they were sort of teeing up and going with that. spray and pray strategy in the second period when they had some momentum and pressure.

That's what they bank on is bounces, is deflections, rebounds and winning those battles on the inside to test goaltenders. But while especially off some of those rush chances too, just was easily able to smother them, freeze pox, he didn't leave anything in and around the blue paint that the Panthers could have really pounced on and capitalized. So yeah, he was positionally sound. He was square, didn't let up any rebounds. And you could just sense a level of calmness with this game that I'm sure also made the Leafs skaters in front of him confident that they could still sort of make plays and didn't have to completely sort of sit back in their defensive shell.

Sort of like, you know, when they went up one nothing, sometimes teams in that spot would completely forego pressuring. the other team on the forecheck, Leaves didn't do that. And I think part of the confidence in that is understanding that you have a goal tender back there, that you don't have to completely shelter him 100%, that he can make stops provided that it's not any sort of five alarm grade A type of look, especially of the East-West variety. Yeah, speaking of the goalie kind of quirks and their puck handling in this series, something I've noticed is, and someone to watch for in game seven, Every time the puck's dumped in on Bobrovsky or comes in on net,

he's done everything humanly possible to avoid freezing pucks for defensive zone draws. And sometimes going to great lengths with like risky plays where he just drops it and then tries to shift it off to a defenseman. And you're like, oh, man, that could have been a disaster. So if I were the leaves, I'd be sending in as many pucks as I could and kind of trying to get in there and see if you can pounce on one of those. The two nothing goal, I want to talk a little bit more about it because I thought it was very indicative of playing style and kind of something to watch for in terms of prep.

So Schmidt comes in down the left wall, right? And he sort of brings it in. He throws the puck, cross-ice for one of these cross-corner dumps that the Panthers have really loved. They've either that or kind of a hard rim around the net, get someone, especially if Kachuk's out there to post up on the opposing wall, try to knock it down, and then make a play off that and get set up into the offensive zone and execute from there. there, that's a bread and butter of theirs, right?

And then on that play, Domi's able to essentially cut it off. He chips it out and all of a sudden you're left with McMahon and Patcheretti on a two-on-one, Schmitt's not able to recover defensively. And that's the game right there. So that'd be something that I'd watch for in terms of trying to kind of anticipate that a little bit more and jump on it and cut it off. Because if you can, with how deep a lot of these Panthers forwards are off those ensuing plays, we saw a lot of it in the first couple of games, less so in games three to five.

But I feel like that's an opportunity for the leaves to not only avoid some of these extended offensive zone shifts of the Panthers, but create offense out of it themselves. Yeah, I think generally speaking that third period too, the Panthers were sort of frustrated to the point where they were settling for a lot of hope plays. Low percentage kind of looks that probably weren't going to pay. pan out, but it sort of felt like, well, the leaves are packing the slot. What else can we try and do except jam it, throw it towards the middle and just hope that you get a friendly bounce or that there's a sort of unforced error on the Leafs end that allows that sort of puck to go through uncontested. Even a little bit prior to that sort of Schmidt play that ultimately led to Patcher Ready's goal, Matthew Kuch had that type of entry where he's coming in

off the left side and just sort of threw it into the middle and it's just kind of an uncharacteristic play. And of course, part of that is the Leafs had the one nothing leads. So the Panthers felt a little bit of extra urgency and pressure to make things happen. But that's sort of what happens is when a team is so defensively stifling. And especially when your opponent is trailing, eventually they have to try forcing plays into the middle because every other strategy hasn't worked. And I think part of what sort of allowed them to really implement that playing style and have that success holding lead too was of course how strong they were on the penalty kill. Just one shot on goal on the four opportunities that the Panthers had. If the Panthers score on one of them,

it's a completely different sort of dynamic. And now the Panthers don't have to force as as many plays. They can play more of a patient game. They can sit back and now the pressure would have been on Leafs to open things up a little bit and how are you going to manufacture offense. And on the on the Florida power plays, you know, sort of two things stood out. I think one from Leif's perspective, they did an excellent job of, of course, you know, taking away the shooting lanes on the flanks from the middle, denying passing lanes through the scene. But also I thought the Panthers were uncharacteristically turned pox over along the boards.

First power play opportunity the Panthers had. Bennett sort of had the puck behind the net and instead of rimming it around to the left side he sort of rimmed it to the right side straight onto I think it was Marner's stick and it ended up being an easy clearance and then in the third period when the Panthers were trailing one nothing

and they had an opportunity to get back into it with an equalizing an advantage goal just multiple unforced kind of turnovers where Kach on an entry had the puck on the side and it's sort of a situation where he was pressured by McKay but normally a player of his skills and caliber is able to is able to sort of just make that

play under pressure but instead his play didn't work and in the league's got to clear there shortly after Reinhart on another entry attempt sort of again in that situation along the boards it was another turnover there and then as a second unit came out this one wasn't along the boards. It was high in the zone, but Eckblad sort of had a backhand kind of pass opportunity that left the zone. It really felt like the Panthers, especially along the walls on the power play, weren't as composed and as skillfully able to connect plays as they usually are. And I think that's a big storyline to watch in Game 7, too, is both power plays have sort of been scoffling in this series, have slowed down. And I know in Game 7s, you're probably not going to

see many penalties called, see many power play opportunities for both sides. But all that does is increase the stakes of, especially if it's going to be as low event as game six was, if one of these teams can come through on the power play, that goal becomes so much more valuable. Yeah, sometimes you're just fighting the pocket and it's not your night and things aren't going your way, despite your best laid plans. I thought, you know, early on comparing it to how the game wound up progressing, especially after the Leaf's goal, I'm glad you made the note of sort of trying to force the issue a little bit. And I wonder how much it was a byproduct or an accumulation of just how frustrating Leif's defensive effort was early on.

And then that resulting in some of the decision making or some of the execution, I thought that Forsling, who I love, of course, and have spent so much time talking about the past couple years, had a pretty uncharacteristically tough game here. He has that sort of unforced turnover where he botches the breakout pass to Ekblad. he was on the ice as the last guy back on that Schmidt play. So he was on the ice for both goals against. He one of the few, you mentioned, Willie Nielander being generally uninvolved compared to his lofty standards offensively.

One of the few good offensive zone shifts from that, from him in that line was this one, I forget which period it was in, but he was just sort of one on one behind the net against Forsling. And he just had him in the torture chamber. Like he was shaking him loose and playing around with his food. And it was just a tough one for Forsling. I'd expect him to bounce back.

I guess my last note heading into game seven, you mentioned, and part of this is because of team construction, right? Like, I think for the Panthers, especially if you're going to get Barkov versus Matthew shifts, if they play that to a draw and keep the Leafs off the board, no one's going to really look at Barkov and Reinhardt's production. They're going to view that as job well done because it's going to create opportunities for the second and third line in particular

to have more advantageous shifts. And if they can score enough, then that's kind of gone according to plan for the Panthers, whereas for the Leafs of the top line doesn't score, that's going to be everything. Everyone focuses on. Reinhart, in this series, has scored just the one goal.

It was that game three goal off the mad scramble where Carlo keeps it out with a broken stick. Then it ultimately winds up being pushed in. He's had 53 shot attempts, 14 high danger chances. It's hit the post a couple times. I think he's been dangerous on the puck in terms of like that stuff he does where he lulls,

the defense to sleep by kind of weaving in and out of traffic, biding his time, and then all of a sudden gets into a high danger area, and it's a promising look for them. He just hasn't been able to capitalize yet. And if he can bury one or two of those, it could be a bit of a different story. But he's just had so many opportunities that I'd expect that to be the same in game seven.

So, yeah, I mean the margins here, especially in the game seven, you mentioned the officiating and everything. It's going to be so razor thin. And just one or two of these things going in either direction is probably going to be the difference in the series. Yeah, really looking at that matchup at the top of lineup.

And you always know that's going to be of the utmost important when the leaves are involved. And they are so heavily relying on the top guys. But as you sort of touched on there, the Panthers top offensive guys haven't really been going either. Even that blowout sort of game five when that they had, it was depth contributions. It was defensemen scoring that left them up. And especially throughout these playoffs, not just in this series, the Panthers have had a lot of contributions offensively from that blue line. whereas you look at this series, you mentioned Ryan Hart only one goal, Barkov three points in six games.

Matthew Kachakha hasn't scored a goal. He's somebody that we know coming off that injury and missing all that time down the stretch in the regular season that he's probably not fully 100% healthy, but you would hope that he can be a bit more of a difference maker in the game seven, especially if Barcov and Matthews are dueling and potentially canceling each other out. But really, it is that matchup at the top of the lineup that I'm looking to see who can emerge and come out on top because I think that's going to have an overwhelmingly high influence on which on which team really has the advantage in game seven. Well, I'm looking forward to it. Man, it's going to be a fun one.

There's nothing better in sports, especially the NHL postseason than these game sevens. And so I can't wait for this one. You got anything to plug here on the way out? No, I've mostly been focusing just on Knoch stuff, all that and foot hiring, nothing related to the playoffs right now. All right. Well, we'll have you back on. We got to use you for these playoffs because I feel like your potential is being wasted on uncovering some of this offseason stuff. We've still got playoff games to talk about. So I love having you on. We're going to do so. Again, a couple programming notes following that game seven, I believe we're going to do a show Monday morning, breaking it all down. It should. result in a lot of rational and normal takes, I'm sure, so we're going to try to try to work our way through all that. No Sunday special this week, unfortunately, and it's not even because of the long weekend. You know, I'm always ready to go regardless, Drans. On the other hand, is away

gallivanting in Jamaica on a wedding, I believe. So we'll be back at it with him next Sunday. We'll be back early this coming week, as I said, with some game seven coverage, and then we're going to look ahead once we know the matchups to conference finals previews and breaking all those games down. as well. So it'll be a fun week ahead. I hope everyone enjoys this game seven and Jet Stars, of course, game six this weekend. And thank you for listening to the HockeyPedio guest streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.