The Hockey PDOcast - Catching Up On This Weekend's Games

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to catch up on everything we saw while watching this weekend's games. We get into the Canadiens going up 2-1 on the Sabres, the Ducks bouncing back from an ugly Game 3 to even up their against the Golden Knights, the Wild winning at home against the Avalanche, and the Hurricanes sweeping the Flyers. 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.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey-Pedocast. My name is Dmitra Filippovich and joining me here in studio. My good buddy Thomas Trans, Tom, what's going on, man? Dmitri. It's good to be back with you, man. Yeah, we're so back.

I missed you, bud. Yeah. It's been a PEDEOCast listeners. I missed you guys too. Yeah. Well, I think the feeling is mutual. It's been a couple weeks. Since we last spoke, we did promise.

We were going to try to at least do one of these. where we catch up and have a chat about what's going on in the playoffs once per round. Last time we talked was, I think the opening weekend of the 2026 postseason, which feels like an eternity goat at this point. We're into the back half of round two. We're coming out of a final weekend of games, and we're going to try to run through all four series and talk about where we're at with them and what we saw while watching the games this weekend.

Do you want to start with Hab Sabers? I think so. Let's do it. So the Habs. I thought that was a beat down. Well, so they drop game one to start the series, and I thought the Sabres looked really good in that game. I did a show the day after, and I did kind of point out that I think it was a big ask for the Habs to go from not only playing at Game 7 in Tampa Bay, but white knuckling their way through the end of that, holding on to that lead all the way through the finish line, and then jumping into this series on the road again. And I think that explains some of that effort that we saw from them in game one. The series has looked different than then.

certainly with them bouncing back, winning these last two games. And I'm with you. I don't think the final number is due justice, partly because of the score and then how the third played out in the Sabres for their credit, which we can talk about, did give a bit of a pushback where they nearly made it four or three at some point of the third. But I felt like it was an absolute meltdown defensively from the Sabres. Especially, I mean, in so many ways, but I thought especially on the penalty kill, I thought the number of backdoor tap-ins that the house manufactured that they didn't quite capitalize on, but that they were like an inch away from capitalizing on. I mean, obviously there's

the obvious two from Coffield, the one where he's got Samuelson in his hip pocket. And I had like, I wrote down at the time. I was like, he has position. He's at the net. He's in the blue paint. And people are going to be like, well, he's too small to score in the playoffs. And it's like, no, that's just luck. And luckily, we don't have to have that conversation since they scored that beautiful two one goal. But he had the other one off the six, Slavkovsky. backhand feed? Yes. But,

yeah, that's that play right off the draw. I mean, they were inches away from scoring multiple, just backdoor tapins. I don't understand too why the Sabres

didn't at any point change their PK1 personnel. Like, it was just throwing the same forwards out over and over again against that first power play unit. And like, I mean,

this is going to be a theme where it's like, hey, have you guys tried Zach Benson there? But it's like, have you tried Don Benson in the part of the game where the habs are like,

absolutely killing you. Like the sabers feel like they've been too slow to adjust here. And I thought PK, their first penalty kill unit to me was like an encapsulation of it. A lot of it was done on the power play for the Habs. I think in general, though, that second period, I had them down for 17 scoring chances. There's been a lot of playoff games this postseason where teams didn't generate 17 scoring chances over the full 60 minutes.

I think they had 29 shots on goal through 40 minutes in building that lead. I thought the Habs top players were excellent. You described some of the plays. of Kovsky scores his first goal since that hat trick in the opener against him. But has that beautiful pass spinning down low pass that I think highlights the gains he's made as a playmaker to Koffield, which nearly connected. Cawfield finally scores atoning for that earlier miss that you described. Suzuki, I think, only winds up with the assist on the empty netter to seal it.

But in the first period, he probably had four or five grade A's alone. And then Hudson has the two assists. Could have easily had another handful. He looked like Wengretzky from the point. Like, honestly, I thought there was. there was like four additional near miss assists for Hudson where the pass that he made and the choices that he made on the ice were just shocking like complete can opener to the defense level playmaking from the point I thought it was probably his best professional game to be totally honest with you he was dynamite he I mean certainly the highlight is the like recognizing and isolating the Jordan Greenway doesn't have his stick yeah power play and then dancing around him to set up that cofield goal but even the smaller plays I had it in my notes

I think it was was it the new hook goal that they score off the rebound in transition where it starts with like a block shot that winds up going back the other way and Hudson just beats his man to that puck and quickly sends it back and they're just back in regrouping to attack off the rush

and so I thought he was excellent yet the story for me with his HAB's team as it has been all postseason is that for all this production from the top line that we just referenced all of it came at special teams particularly on the power play

they have not been able to get going five on five. Nope. And it hasn't mattered because with Cawfield, Suzuki and Slipkowski off the ice, they're up 16 to 4, 5 on 5 with all of their other lines. So they're getting contributions across the board in this game. We saw goals from Doc and New Hook and Bullduke, but guys have been stepping out. I think he's been phenomenal in this postseason.

Can we shout out the way that he just completely murked Malenstein after the rush on Dobech. Like that's exactly what you need a guy like, like just a dogged game from our guy, Zach Baldook. Yeah. Loved it. Oh man.

Imagine him on the line with Dona Benson. Oh, God. Yeah, he's been phenomenal. And U-Hook, what, has five goals in his past four games. Can we shout out Jake Evans? Well, Evans and U-Hook as a combo, even on the P-K. So good. Had been so good.

I thought Jake Evans was incredible. Like, I thought he was immense. He wasn't games two and three. In games two and three. I think he's been a key part of what's turned this series around in addition to the pronounced and pointed struggles of the Buffalo Sabres top line. Yes. And we're going to get to that in a second. I just want to stay on this point about the Habs offense and what they're doing to the Sabres. The net front coverage is where they're really punishing them. Yes. Make your point. But I think there's another part of this too.

Well, an obvious one, to your point about the PK, I mean, Slavkowski's tip and goal, he's literally standing there by himself. there isn't a single defender anywhere in his region. But even beyond that, early on they got away with it. I mentioned those Suzuki chances where he was wide open completely unmanned from high danger areas because Lyon came out and made the stops on them. But in games two and three, especially where it's kind of gone south for Buffalo, Montreal's essentially had a guy just hanging out right in front of the net, just waiting for the puck to get to them.

And the sabres have obliged because they're chasing behind the net. they're chasing to the wall where the puck currently is and the haves are just essentially playing that baiting game getting them there and then attacking the middle of the ice and that's been a massive issue what do you do you have a pushback on that the no i don't have a pushback on that so much as i also thought the montreal uh montreal canadians were exposing the sabres off the rush well before they really broke that game open like you could feel it coming in the first five minutes of the second period in a way that you couldn't in the first where it just felt like every felt like they constantly were catching the sabers leaning in the neutral zone like just constantly

every loose puck was being attacked with speed it just felt like the sabres didn't really have a plan to deal with it they weren't sort of disciplined enough to work down low and and prevent it and it just felt like they couldn't sort of grab that game back by the scruff of it snack. And that's partly because a big storyline hitting into the series was what we saw what Buffalo's Forchick did to the Boston Bruins where they just completely dismantled them. And I think the haves have held up pretty well on their breakouts. They haven't had those issues. And I think

the habs have doubled up the sabers so far on Forchick chances. And so without that pressure up the ice aside from Benson and Don't essentially, the habs have been getting out and then all of a sudden they've got space to attack downhill. And I think that totally changes the dynamic for the Sabres as well, getting out of their bread and butter. And so I think it's really flipped the in this series and I think that's been a big testament to the way the Habs were held up

because I know Dobson came back in the game 7 against the lightning and that would certainly help with their breakouts but still especially against the second and third pairs when Hudson wasn't out there I was very curious to see whether they would get into that same sort of endless loop of turning it over being stuck in their zone feeding the sabres not only four trick chances but then cycle that ensues and instead it's been out of the zone moving downhill

and then getting chances off of that what's compounded that is a lot lot of this damage in my opinion in the rush game has happened against buffalo stopline. And I can think of the three of one goal and the five two goals. Well, the five two goal was devastating. Well, the three one goal, you could certainly trace it back to Stanley first overshooting the pass and then having the puck over his stick and all of a sudden now they're scrambling trying to recover.

But even on that one, I looked at it. I think Tage Thompson was like 15 seconds into his shift at the time. And at a certain point, him, tuck. and Bullduke are essentially at the same place on the ice in the neutral zone. And Bulldoch just flat out beats them to the spot and gets there first and then gets the chance and scores. Same with the dock goal where they were a bit further caught back. But that play was delayed and had the rebound and comes back out front. And a better effort probably would have on the back check tied up dock or at least made it more difficult scoring opportunity.

And that's been a real letdown for me in these games. I know Thompson specifically caught a lot of flack. he got away with it in game one because they won. But I thought him and Tuck at the time looked like it was like their first game playing together. There were so many miscommunications in terms of who was going to skate onto the puck and then he had that turnover that led to the dog goal

in the neutral zone. Game two was an unmitigated disaster with the turnovers culminating in that last one where he like cartoonishly spins out and the puck goes back the other way. That was one of those unfortunate mistakes where it was so much louder because of his size. Yeah.

You know like it just looked comical but it was not. perhaps as bad as the slow motion highlight made it look. I thought they were really poor that line in the third game. And I thought quietly, like a moment late in the second period after the Rasmus Dahlin goal, right, to make it sort of four two, where, you know, Tuck takes that undisciplined high sticking penalty on Slavkovsky. And that's a battle he's won.

Like, he's won that battle. All he has to do, I mean, he's won that battle. all he has to do is control a stick and they're probably getting a scoring opportunity right there. And the Sabres had sort of just had a heavy shift and it felt like, okay, maybe they've got a shot to get back in this. They kill the penalty somehow, but they didn't end up sort of building off that push that that Dalline goal clearly gave them for about 10 minutes of sustained time in that game. And then, you know, I thought the 5-2 goal, like I thought the shot selection there was really poor coming off the heels of sort of that really dangerous. shift with Benson and Done down low where Benson sort of gets two really good scoring opportunities. And again, it felt like, okay, you get one.

It just felt too risky. The way that they attacked off the rush there created like basically a four on one. Like tuck made it made it a sort of four on two because he worked really hard to get back. But that scoring opportunity was created by a sort of puck management decision, like a sort of gopher broke offensive attack, which I don't actually think was called for with seven-ish minutes to go. And we've been talking about that on the show every Sunday we've talked about the same.

I guess five-ish minutes to go. Like these tuck shots coming down the right wing and this was actually one of the good ones where he actually got it on net and at least challenged the goalie. Usually it's like a wild miss that just spins around the boards and is an instant exit. But takes that shot, stopped pretty easily. And all of a sudden,

it's a two-on-one going back the other way and it burns them. And that's been an issue all year for that line. They've been on the ice tuck and Thompson have for a six of the eight, Habs five on five goals in this series, and though they're just going to flat out need to be better because it really has been just Donan Benson trying to drag the sabres into the fight, right? I think even in this game, it was a pretty massive effort from them to pull them back into the fight, kind of from the latter stages of the second into the early third culminates with all

of those chances in front of the net for Benson. Unfortunately, because he's Zach Benson, and the one thing he still needs to work on is a lot of kind of like shots along the ice and trying to stuff pucks in and kevin woodley's been talking about this the entire way like deal bish is playing so well with his pads right now like he's just eating up everything down low and so he stops those could have been four three if one of those is buried and it felt like every time that line was out there they were creating something and then you'd essentially be waiting until they could get back out there because no one else was doing anything and i think that's been another issue here for the sabers with sam karek makes his return

and he had him played since the end of march and clearly wasn't right i think I think he plays like six minutes. Isn't you really taking face-offs? I don't know what's happened to Jason Zucker, but he's fallen out of the rotation and been ineffective. You only played six minutes in this game. They're essentially down to 10 forwards. And we talked about Tage Thompson struggling.

I think Josh Norris has quietly struggled just as much. Yeah. And has kind of flown under the radar because he's playing with Donan Benson. And so good things are happening when he's on the ice. But I have a tough time arguing that he's optimizing those minutes or converting the opportunities they're creating. And so with other top two centers, you're getting to a spot where all of a sudden your death is getting whittled down to a significant degree. And I feel like they really miss Noah Osland in this series.

Badly. Badly, yes. Because he's got some dog in him and he can keep up with this pace. The Sabres need to find answers. They cannot go into that game for sort of not do or die, but pretty damn important. and play Krebs Thompson and Tuck as if they're just going to figure it out, I don't think. We're three games into the series.

That line's been outshot 10-17. Outscored 4-0, 5-on-5. The only silver lining for the Sabres is that if you told me that the haves were going to demolish their sort of top of the lineup, the Sabres top line to this extent in the first three games of the series, I would have told you that they're probably up three and nothing, right?

Like the one mercy for the Sabres is that there's still just one win away from being leveled, despite how poorly they've fared. Their most important players have fared at five on five in the series. I don't know if it's, you know, Don and Benson playing with Thompson. Like, I don't know if it's separating Benson and Donne so that there's a fatter lineup, like try and find six guys that can hang with the pace of of the Canadians as opposed to just relying on three. But something's got to give and something's got to give on the penalty kill. And, you know, one of the issues that I've sort of, one of the causes for skepticism that I had about this Buffalo team going into the playoffs was, you know, are they going to be able to adapt?

Right. And certain things we saw this season, like how they reacted when the Tampa Bay Lightning tried to push them around, gave me some hope that they. they knew who their dogs were, but like now's the time. Now's the time you've got to find some answers, especially at the top of the lineup. And we'll see if Lindy can do that. Lindy Ruff can do that for game four. I wonder if this would be a spot that you'd at least test run Consta Heleneus.

I know it's a pretty tricky spot considering he just turned 20 and hasn't played in a while and didn't get that many reps throughout the season in the NHL. But I just think they need more juice at this point, especially if, you know, Zucker's out of the equation and you're down to these 10 forwards you're using and you're trying to find the right con. combinations. I feel like that would be an interesting approach. A couple other notes on this and then we can move on from this series from the Habs perspective. I know he only has the two secondary assists so far, I believe, in this series. I've been really impressed with what I'm seeing from Ivan

Edmadov, though. Creating so many looks at backhand saucer. He sent four on four, I believe, to Nick Suzuki for one of those chances I mentioned was awesome. He's created a ton of opportunities so far as so many good looks on the power play is essentially their one-time trigger man and he rings one off the crossbar in this game as well during that second period flurry. I know Kevin BXA was talking about this during one of the intermissions throughout the broadcast, but I also love for these habs home games. It feels like it's a crazy crowd that's responding to everything essentially and looks like an electric atmosphere.

But every single Demit-Ell of puck touch in particular, the response from the crowd seems particularly heightened, kind of like everyone's in the edge of their seat. a couple dangles throughout that were really fun to watch. So I think if he keeps performing this way, he's going to break through. And then the other one is you and I are big Marty St. Louis fans. I think one of my favorite things is regardless of what piece of news he's just received from the officials regarding like De No's goal being disallowed or a penalty. Which was an unfortunate call. But you could hear the whistle go well before.

Or a penalty or anything that's happening. We're so used to especially like see Rod Brindamore. but even any of the other coaches just losing their minds and trying to like at least burn a call down the road you know I'm already St. Louis doing the thing where he has both of his hands

in his pockets and he's doing like the I'm just the chill guy meme yeah he's the dog yeah I like it I love it yeah I mean I also think it's probably a pretty effective way to make you know it's almost like he's doing a I'm not mad I'm just disappointed face he's been he's been great

he's been kind of a breakout star of the playoffs, not just because of the Wolf of Wall Street stuff, but also you know, like that team looks better prepared. They look like they have better answers right now. And also mixing and matching all the forward combos. Like they've thrown together a bunch of different combos and pretty much everyone they've done has worked.

He, yeah, and even, you know, little things on the back end that we're seeing from him, you know, that we didn't see all that much of during the season that looked great. I mean, I think that Carrier Matheson duo is inspired, right? I mean, I think Matheson's played really well. His speed and just like physical, you know, he's immense physicality. His immense athleticism, I think plays really well when he's got sort of a more defensively responsible partner on his right side.

Like, I think that's been great. I think, you know, minimizing to some extent the Caden Gully minutes, right? I think has been sharp for for St. Louis. So yeah, I mean, I look at this and think he's, you know, I think he outcoached John Cooper and I think he's out coaching Lindy Ruff. And I think he's been a major part of this Hab story now. Looking forward to game four on Tuesday of this series. A lot of twists and turns so far.

This is the series that I'm that I'm finding myself most drawn to. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Which is exciting because it's the two youngest groups. For sure. Essentially.

And there's real stakes and division rivals. And so, like, yeah, I've been really enjoying it. I want to do quickly Ducks Golden Knights. Sounds good. Before we go to break, because that was the other Sunday night game. I thought it was beyond the fact that obviously avoided going down 3-1 and made a 2-2 going back to Vegas for game 5. A very important bounce back from the Ducks because I was watching their game. three on Friday night

and I thought that game really started to get away from them stylistically in the second period and it started looking like the back half of the Vegas Utah series where Vegas really started leaning on them

and like creating off the forecheck but then just sort of pinning them low in the zone operating from behind the goal line getting it into the home plate area dominating the battles in front of the net I had scoring chances 23 to 9 for Vegas up until the back at Seneca goal. They made it 5-1 and then the Ducks made a bit of a pushback towards the end to make it more respectable.

But that was very one-sided after two strong performances from the Ducks to start this series. And then Game 4 felt entirely different and back to a lot of what it looked like through the first two where it was a lower event. There were longer stretches of play where nothing was really happening. And that was great for the Ducks because they had that lead. and there was a point in time in a third period. Like I noted seven or eight minutes where essentially just nothing happened and the clock was running. And I think the ducks were very happy with that. And it was nice to see them be able to hold on to the lead.

I know they give up the hurdle goal A to make it a one goal game and make a bit of fear in it. But ultimately I thought it was a very mature sort of business-like performance. Got back on track from what had been happening in game three. And now I'm very curious to see which style is going to be able to win. now, now that it's a best of three essentially. So, I mean, we've been talking about Vegas's speed, all playoffs, and ironically, they lose one of their slower skaters in Mark Stone, and it exposes some significant flaws. But, you know, the Haniffin-Anderson minutes, like there's just long stretches of these games

where it feels like the ducks are operating at a sort of a higher frequency, and it kind of comes down to whether or not Jack Eichel and Mitch Martner can make the difference or not. Last night, obviously it was Beckett Seneca who was able to play that role for the Ducks, but it just feels like... Alex Coloren had a big game. Big game. But the Ducks just feel like they're operating at a higher level, especially in their top of the lineup minutes, like especially whenever Carlson or Cutter Gochay is on the ice, it just... It feels to me like Vegas doesn't have answers.

And that's not to say that they're not going to find a way to win the series, because let's be real, they didn't have answers for the top end of Utah's lineup either. and managed to grind that away. And I think that's sort of what game four was interesting about game four was the maturity of the playoff performance from a young duck side. Just like closing out a game that they were better than Vegas in, relatively drama-free is sort of exactly what Utah just couldn't quite pull off in that critical game four in game five against Vegas

that sort of allowed them to get eliminated in a series that they were probably the better team in. Yeah, even game one. Yeah. I think there were three third period conbacks for Vegas. Vegas. Yeah, I was really curious heading into the series because I felt like one of the disappointing takeaways from the Oilers performance in that round one against the ducks was they never really tested some of the issues we saw from Anaheim in the regular season where their offense was so one and done in terms of just like entering the zone, getting a shot out, and then all of a

sudden no forecheck pressure. The ducks were getting back out, moving downhill and playing their preferred style. And then in game three, we saw Vegas kind of pressed down on that. And Anaheim buckled a little bit. So I'll be very curious to see if, especially going back to Vegas now, if the Golden Knights are able to have a bit more success, like with some of those extended shifts in the offensive zone and really test Anaheim's defensive zone coverage and discipline, I thought they held up much better in the few occasions they had to do so. In game four, Cotter Goce was an animal in game four, though, clearly the best player on

the ice. I was shocked afterwards to look up the play-by-play data, and I was like, he played 12 and a half minutes. I know. I could have sworn he played like 25 because it felt like he was out there every single shift. He had three assists, drew two penalties, nine shot attempts, seven scoring chance contributions. And he was great

and he really punished and in general I think one of the differences between round one and round two, it feels like where you're seeing the duck speed element is there having a lot of success against that McDowd, fourth bind for Vegas, which was so huge for them in round one against Utah and they had a lot of success with that.

They really struggled in this series. I feel like Anaheim's gotten some good shifts against them. And you're right. We'll see how much Eichel and Marner are able to create. I mean, Marner followed up his three goal, one assist performance in game three with three more assists in game four on all the goals of the night scored as 12 points in his past five games. I've liked the combination of him playing with William Carlson now.

Yes. And moving back to the wing. And I think that actually has been, like William Carlson shouldn't be surprised because he kind of did this even in defeat against. Oilers last year where he was like one of the few guys they had that could pose some level of resistance against McDavid. Yeah. And Dreisaitle, once again, even after not playing since November, it just jumps back into

this series and like, you look, 15 minutes head to head against the other Carlson, Leo, shots are 6'1 Vegas in that time. Right. It's like, especially after how good Leo Carlson looked against Edmonton and to start this series, I feel like that's an interesting wrinkle having those two guys to throw against them. But then all of a sudden now I think that's going to place an added emphasis on on Ikeld, Barboshev and Dorfee have to really create 5-1-5 if Vegas is going to create enough offense to win. I think more than anything, Anaheim has shown themselves to be game here.

And I think they did it against Edmonton, obviously won that series. But the defensive switch that they've been able to flip between the regular season and the playoffs, the maturity that's creeped in their game given how loose they were to watch them in the regular season, like they really buckled down. in a major way. Like I would say of the teams who've shown us a different identity in the playoffs than we'd seen in the regular season,

the ducks are number one on that list with a bullet. And I think that's a really exciting prospect when you think about this season in terms of the trajectory of sort of the evolution of this group. And then that said, your two wins away from the conference final. Like you could have everything go right

for the next three years and everyone sort of continued, to develop at their maximal level, right? And win three trades and get a steal in the late first round and sign three right-handed defensemen this summer, which they'll need to do. And, you know, these opportunities are that rare that it's still not guaranteed to get back here.

I mean, the McKinnanara avalanche have been past the stage of the playoffs once, once before now, right? Maybe they'll get by, maybe they'll have make it two over the course of the next week. that's how hard it is to get to this level or to sort of seize these opportunities when they arrive. So as much as it's impressive that the Ducks

have done this from the perspective of what it means for them long term in this build, they're the better team in this series and they have a huge opportunity if they can win two of the next three. They've been the better team for three out of the first four games. Yeah. For sure. And five on five for the series, 57% shots, 54% expected goals.

Now, I think part of the success for Vegas certainly in around one was they were able to be like incredibly aggressive on the four check and really just trying to like play bully ball and and lean on the mammoth because there was no recourse for like if they went over the line because they just shut down every power play and I think at one point even bleeding into the series they were up three one when short handed and so I think that was huge for the ducks to kind of squeak out a couple power play goals in this game four and at least plant the seeded out a little bit there and we'll see if if that can continue let's take our break here And then we come back. We're going to close out today's show by covering the other two round two matchups. You're listening to the HockeyPedio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right. We're back here on the Hockeypedio cast joined by Thomas Drance.

Tom, Tom, we've done Abbasabers. We've done Ducks Golden Knights. Let's get into Wild Avs, a series we've only seen three games of so far. Finally got to see Game 3 after an extended break in this series, a little too much. Yep. For my taste, because I'm really enjoying these games. games and we've got game four coming tonight, which I'm very excited about. I thought it was clearly a

very impressive effort from the Minnesota Wilde in game three. I think as you'd expect, right, coming back home, especially getting that break. I feel like they benefited from it because the Aves had had such a long time, like period of time off between rounds one and round two, whereas the Wild had to play functionally seven full games of hockey, including the overtimes against Dallas and then go to Colorado, start that series on Sunday night on the road, lose those two games, but they come back, they get Walsed back in net, and I thought did some really interesting stuff with the puck and offensively that I'm curious to track as this series progresses and to see if they can keep incorporating that in the game four, because this I've seen

beyond the weapons and goal scoring has been so good at suppressing stuff throughout the season. And I felt like at least to my eye, I don't have the offensive zone possession time data or anything like that for it. I can't recall a game where the have spent more time actually just defending and chasing the puck than they did there

and that's clearly a testament to the puck possession game the wild half atop the lineup when they're cooking and that motion offense they run but they had the abs scrambling a little bit and I thought that was probably

the most interesting thing beyond the win and kind of clawing back into this series and having a chance to tie it up on Monday night. It was a really sick game for the wilds best players

it was a really sick game for Quinn Hughes. felt a little bit too familiar to me, given my experience covering Quinn Hughes over the years where you know, I'm watching this series and it just does feel like there's two games happening at any given time.

There's the game played with Quinn Hughes on the ice and there's the game played in all other minutes. I thought you could feel that in game three and I thought you could feel it in game one and two as well. It reminds me a little bit of what we just said about Vegas versus Anaheim where it feels like, like the ducks are operating at a slightly higher gear, but there's always the chance that Marner and Jack Eichael

just sort of put the team on their back and win it. And I'm a little disappointed given the caliber of players and the depth that the Wilde have assembled, but this really does feel like a series that is going to come down to whether or not the Wild can make the Quinn Hughes minutes count as sharply as they did in Game 3 or not. It doesn't really feel like the Wild have recourse beyond that. I mean, certainly what hurts is no Eric's an Eck.

Even though I've like, you're of a lot, but particularly in the first two games, you could tell Sean Hines didn't trust him to like play the actual minutes that are required from that position. Yeah, he's played well. I mean, he's done his job. Not having Jonas Brodine. And now in this game, they make the switch of splitting up Spurgeon and Middleton, who had been on the ice for pretty much every goal against. They conceded in the first two games. And I knew I was in some bizarre old time warp because Zach Bogosian was making exciting plays in the year. at 2026.

Yeah. And I was like, wow, things are really cooking for the while tonight. So I'm not sure how much you want to rely on that moving forward, but clearly got better results out of those pairs as constructed.

And then Wollestead was phenomenal after such a big storyline being like eight goals against in game one, sitting for game two, with Gustafson playing instead of him. The only time he was beating game three was when his own defenseman pushed Landiscag into him

and knocked him out of position and then McKinand buried the rebound. Otherwise stopped all 35, punctuating it. with that like flurry at the end where he made like four or five insane stops and then just was so out of gas that he just like laid down on the ice as they scored the empty netter but I thought he was remarkable and even in this game like I love the wild's performance their top players delivered they had a great goal tending showing

and I know they won kind of comfortably on the score line but the goals they created were four on three goal four on four goal a delayed penalty goal another power play goal and then the empty netter and got all of that. And then the abs still, despite clearly not having their A game and being the second best team of that night, generated their own fair share of looks and really made Walshead work for it. And so that would be kind of

alarming to me and looking at it where it's like everything went right. And yet still, it felt like the abs were constantly on the precipice of breaking through offensively at least. This Aves team is just such a beast. And so there's this, I'm going to do

a digression. And it's going to be a self-indul eligible one, so please excuse me. But there's this reaction right now as the NHL awards finalists are revealed, where people are losing their minds about the unfairness of certain things. McKinnon wasn't nominated for the Lindsay, for example, so there's Sharks fans, furious at

local beatwriters who had Celebrini second on their heart ballot or what have you. I had McKinnon won. I had McKinnon won, and the reason for it was he's the best five-on-five player in the league. Like, he's the best five-on-five player in the league and the driver for a team that nobody can hang with. Five-on-five, not a single team in the league, can just, like, keep up at all in the most important game state.

He led all NHL players in five-on-five points. He led all NHL players in five-on-five goals. And, like, with margin, or no, sorry, Cawfield led him, but he was one of three guys over 30 goals. he was like far and away ahead of everybody in primaries 60 primary points 5-on-5 this is insane I think he also north of 70% 5-15 goal share with him on the ice which has been done like less than 10 times

since we have data for him this was a historic season and look McDavid's the most outstanding player in the league and what Kutrov did was Hall of Fame level stuff and what Celebrini did felt like Beret's season in Florida where he outscored everybody. buddy by 50 plus, right? I mean, just insane. We had so many great seasons and all four of those guys are going to be on my heart ballot, but in sort of deciding between them, guy who scores the most

goals, guy who is the best five-on-five driver in the league, guy who is the engine for the best team in hockey, I just felt like that was the that was the profile. And by the way, if you disagree and want to make the Celebrini case or the McDavid case or the Kucherov case, I'm going to say, yeah, I disagree with you, but that's relatively close to fair. because all four are completely deserving in any order, so long as you have those guys one through four, I just don't think there's anything

that's indefensible or outrageous about it. Fair. We're seeing it. We're seeing it in this series. No, that's fair. I mean, he's obviously unbelievable. I was a little worried that you were going to do like a 25-minute Evan Bouchard take

at an nowhere, which we can say, we're going to have plenty more opportunities. You don't want to get into it? No, I really don't. We have, as compelling as it may be, we have more pressing things to discuss right now. I like Kevin Bouchard. He's an awesome player.

He's sick. Okay. Here's an interesting note on this then. Have you been surprised by the way the Wilde have gone about this now? The first two games, they were on the road. They didn't necessarily dictate matchups, but they've embraced and really gone out of their way to essentially mirror the abs in terms of strength for strength, where they have the Caprizo line with Hartman and Zuccarello and then the top pair of Boldie and Hughes out there for all of McKinnon shifts. I think they've played head to head for 30 out of the 47.

Yeah. And it's so far five on five. It might just be as simple as without specifically Eric Seneck, but even Brodine in there. I imagine John Hines might lean like using those guys with Boldie against McKinnon and then trying to free up his best offensive players in Caprizov and he used to create a bit more. But instead, they've essentially had to tackle this matchup. Do you have any thoughts on sort of the decision to do so and the results we're seeing from it? I think if anything, it kind of speaks to that point you made about the abs where in previous years,

if you said that, you'd be like, oh, man, I'm worried about how Colorado is going to be able to get by elsewhere if they're not just relying on their top guys to create everything. But they've gotten away with it because you're getting goals and offense from other sources. And you're winning the matchup at the top of lineup too. And that's with them exhausting Quinn Hughes just to hold the fort. I mean, that that's sort of the decision here that Heinz and the wild coaching staff have to figure out. Like Hughes and the Wild, with Hughes on the ice, the Wild have outshot the Avs narrowly five on five, but they've been outscored two nothing, right? McKinnon's outscored

the other wild players two one away from Hughes, but the territorial margin has been massive, like lopsided. Like if that continues, you're going to demolish the Wilde in those minutes. Overall, though, like if you look at the overall shot count, it's like 51 to 26. for the Colorado avalanche and the non-Hughes minutes. And that's a really significant problem. But if you isolate the 16 minutes that Hughes has been away from McKinnon, you get like a 21-10 margin in Minnesota's favor. So it's like that speaks to the extent to which the non-Hugh's minutes are problematic for Minnesota.

Yep. So I guess the question is, do you need, can you punt, can you find and manufacture a punt matchup where you can survive McKinnon minutes if Hughes isn't chasing them around the ice. And if you can, then I think that is their best bet, especially in game four at home, and probably in game six, if they're able to bring the series to that length.

Because it doesn't really feel like the abs, like it feels like the abs are pretty reliant on McKinnon 2 to have an answer for Hughes. Yeah. Right? It's just that the abs have a huge edge when the matchup is non-McKinnon, non-Hughes. That's really where this series, you know, to this point, has gone in Colorado's favor in two of the three.

Hughes and Faber. Yeah. I think Faber has been. Awesome. Awesome. Yes. And has been driving a lot of the offense. I know he had the three points in this one.

But I was looking at this before we started recording. He does some sick stuff, too. Through these three games, five-on-five contribution chance leaders for the wild, Hartman with 13. He's just getting so many in that front chances. Playing with Caprizov. Caprizo second and tied with him is Brock Weber. and he's really been pushing the pace, I think, and getting incredibly involved.

And I think it helps having a partner who's his mobile is used. So, like, you're never that worried about leaving your forwards isolated on an island. And so they've been getting away with a couple quick notes, and then we can end with Hurricanes Flyers. One, I think Marty Natchez, especially watching game three, needs to make quicker decisions with the puck.

I thought he held on with too long a time. Two, I feel like in these games, especially off of some of these face-offs, the ads are just losing track of Caprizov. Yeah. he's getting loose in transition with way too much space for a player that talented, including on the opening shift of game three, just had like a great rush opportunity coming down the hill on the right wing.

And then three, I've noticed on both power plays, the guy on the goal line is essentially just being completely unmanned. And the Aves got their only goal in this game off of Landiscag just being like, all right, I guess I'll just take it to the net because no one's covering me. And then he gets pushed in and they score off of that. But even for the while, there were a couple times where they run that little give and go download.

with Boldy and Caprizov and then all of a sudden whoever gets it down low is just like all right I'm just going to try to see what happens here and getting good looks off of it and so I'll be curious to see if they're able to capitalize on that from game four and on

want to end with Hurricanes fires let's do it so the Carolina hurricanes are 8-0 in the playoffs and I think it is an impressive 8-0 I they beat okay I understand the quality of competition angle in terms of the

Metro and the teams they face. And in particular, the senators. Well, we also equate strength to like flashy players and offensive production. And I think that's why the teams they beat are getting discredited. Undoubtedly, they beat two of the best defensive teams in the league. Yeah. And a big question for us has been hurricanes in the playoffs in the past when all of a sudden they have to keep playing good defensive teams time and time again, get or getting good

goaltending. Are they going to be able to manufacture? true enough offense. And they didn't necessarily have offensive explosions in these series, won a lot of close games, a couple overtimes, generally just didn't give up anything 5-1-5 to the senators and the flyers, and that's why they won. But especially atop the lineup with that Stancove and Blake Hall line, I think pretty clearly, especially on the Rust Juice angle, answered or provided evidence for like, this hurricane team might be a little bit different than past ones and it's probably going to have more postseason success. And so we've seen

seen them go 8-0, make it to the Eastern Conference final. I think they went through a pretty thoughtful evolution like 18 to 24 months ago and it's paying off. I do think that's part of what's happening. I also think the Ottawa senators were no worse than the fourth or fifth best true talent team in the East. It's just that, you know, to some extent, they bumped into a couple teams that I want to say mirror images because Brendan Morris Keynes play a like pure man system in the defensive zone, which neither green senators nor Tockets Flyers do.

But at least some of the concepts are pretty similar in terms of. of how these teams want to go about winning and, you know, they sort of had a 10% edge everywhere on talent and you felt it in all of the decisive moments of these games. Like that's what this felt like

when you watch sort of them just absolutely run roughshod. Especially that overtime in game four. Yeah. I really felt like they were like, all right, let's end this and put the boots at a flyers and it was just the flyers holding on for as long as they could and eventually

they broke through with that Jackson Played crush goal. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm really impressed. I think they're the best team in the East. I don't think this is at all, you know, something that needs to be contextualized. Like, they're the best team in the East. They're going to be favored against either of the Sabres or Habs, whoever advances. I think they've got like 75% implied probability to make the Stanley Cup final at this point. Right. And as they should. I mean, they're going to be so well arrested. They're so deep. They're so good defensively. And they're getting some electric performances from some of

their top offensive players and kudos to them. I mean, this is a machine of a team. They didn't buy to bolster this lineup. And they've taken the opportunity that we thought was ahead of them in terms of this being a unique one. I also think, you know, the fact that they crushed both the senators and the flyers to me doesn't like reflect badly on what the senators and the flyers accomplished this season. if you told fans of the senators and the flyers, I think, at September that, like,

they were going to get crunched by the Ottawa hurricanes in the playoffs. I think a lot of people would have been like, yeah, that makes sense. The senators would have been like, in the conference finals and the flyers would have been like, we're in the playoffs? What round?

We're not just in the playoffs. We went around? Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I thought, really, really fun. season for the flyers overall, especially with Martone looking so great once he transitioned here. And then the senator's miserable season for the senators, but also one that I think demonstrated

that that team's got a really high floor if they can just sort out like there, we only have 12 really good skaters issue and make it sort of more like 16. Yeah. We can say this for the off season. I don't know if the question of the senator's floor was ever in question. Yeah. I do have some ceiling concerns. For sure.

Those questions were not answered. They were not, definitely. Those are lingering. Those are ever present. You know, for the hurricanes, six days off between round one and round two. Amazing. If Habsabbers goes seven and Habs are up to one right now, but I feel like a very realistic possibility, they're going to have at least 11 days off between round two and the

Eastern Conference final, of course, starting then at home as well. so I feel like lined up pretty nicely for the hurricanes here, and they've earned it based on the way they've played in these eight games. I thought what was notable was not only that, as you'd expect, they pummel the flyers in terms of pretty much every shot-based and chance-based stat, but in particular by my account off the rush, where chances were 35 to 22 in their favor after what the flyers did down the stretch and then specifically to Pittsburgh in that area in round one

was, I think, a feather in the cap of the hurricanes. And the biggest drivers of that, Nikla Eelers had some flurries, certainly. But that Stankovine line was just feasting. And the shame of it for the Flyers is the one guy on their team that really had any chance of holding up defensively against him was Sean Couturey, which is remarkable, considering where he had been at previously and then the postseason he had now.

And they only got him out there for about 10 minutes head to head, and they were scoreless in that time. and got away with it. But I thought Robert Numer did a really good job of getting better matchups more often than not for that line and then they just destroyed. The flyers in that time,

I mean, I think the three of them combined for seven of the nine five-on-five goals, the hurricane scored. And that's the big story here because in a postseason where the top line of Aho, Svetnikov, and Jarvis, hasn't really gotten going at 5-on-5.

The three of them have provided special teams utility in their ways, right? Like, Svetrakov scores the power play goal, I think, has had a lot of chances. The Jarvis number is short-handed. This postseason are hilarious. They're doubling teams up

and shots and chances when they're playing with one less guy if one of those four skaters is Seth Jarvis. So him and Ahlo have been a nightmare on the PK, but that line objectively has not looked apart at 5-15, and yet it hasn't mattered because Stankov and Hall and Blake have essentially outscored their two opponents. in back-to-back series 515. The Stanko, I mean, Stankovin feels like a,

the way that they, it's such an interesting trade to look back on given how Natchez has played as a hundred point guy for the Colorado Avalanche. But when you watch what Stankovin does for this Hurricanes team, when you think about the cost control that they've bought with him already, like, and when you think about, and when you think about, about the fact that Kandre Miller becomes, you know,

one of the chief assets they used to add Kandre Miller also comes from that trade. I really hesitate to look at that as anything short of like, a franchise defining sequence of moves that have strengthened the hurricanes for like a five or six year time horizon. And the fact that Stancoven keeps doing this in the playoffs, keeps being this level of difference maker at the hardest time of year. You know, I look.

While playing center. Well, playing center. And I mean, we should restrain some level of credit for Eric Tulski and the Hurricanes here just because like if they'd really known what Stancovin was, they wouldn't have drafted Alexi Hemosalmi three picks before he went in 2021. But the way and the way that that trade has worked out in the and the evident process behind we'll take the shot at the star. We're not going to prioritize a one year run, but we're instead going to collect more assets than we would have got for. the original piece we traded, at least in his current state, um, while sort of opening up and securing a window that should last through the balance of this

decade. Um, I mean, that's nail stuff and it's been paying off in a major way. Also got Taylor Hall in that sequence. And he's been a key member of that line. Yeah. I also thought it was a notable like,

I know the, the flyers wind up getting the fortune goal to send it to overtime in game four. But at the time I noted how fitting it was. have been the like the goal that sends them back to the conference final being the type of rush goal that line created where it was like this three man weave and then haul taking it out wide and then instead of spamming a low percentage shot from outside the dots the way the hurricanes might have done previously just to get a shot on ed and sustain his own time he like sends this beautiful pass across the crease that stank oven taps it and i'm like thank you right it's all i've

ever one it's so nice to see they also when they when they traded ranton into dallas i think they also may have infected the Dallas stars with the ugly hockey hurricanes jeans. So there you go. It was a Trojan horse trade. Yeah. All right. Well, it'll be a while until we watch the hurricanes play hockey again.

Yeah. But when we get to the conference final, I'm sure we'll have plenty more to discuss. I'll look forward to it. I mean, what we want to see now, I think, like just as, you know, neutral hockey fans who enjoy watching the games is like whatever can happen so that this doesn't become like a coronation of a Carolina. Colorado Stanley Cup final I'm here for any any bit of drama beyond that I'll be very excited about I am a bit sad we didn't get the CO and tippet in the series just because I mean the flyers were

clearly overmatched and just weren't able to really sustain anything but they did get some looks off of some of those broken plays in transition and I feel like he would have played perfectly in that type of environment and we just never got to see it and then obviously lost no cates at some point in that series as well and at that point a lot of their forward debt just got completely crushed do you have Mitch cobb takes I've got plenty, but we got to get out of here. And you've got to do your show after this. So we're going to save that and all the other hot button topics that you want to get into.

All the questions we want to set on fire. For a later date. Yeah. What do you want to promote here on the way out? Canucks talk will be doing tracking the GM hiring. The Canucks is going to hire GM soon. We'll see what. What's what?

All right. Well, it was great to catch up with you. We're going to do one of these again, hopefully, once we get into the conference finals. and a lot more to discuss then. I will be back soon. I believe Wednesday will have our next show. So check back in on the feed for that. Give us a five-star review.

Wherever you listen, if you enjoy today's show. And that is all for today. Thank you for listening to the HockeyPedio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.