The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 295: Feat. Lord Stanley

Episode Date: May 24, 2019

Andrew Berkshire joins the show to help continue the burgeoning annual tradition of teeing up the upcoming Stanley Cup Final by looking at the matchup from every single angle. This deep dive includes:2:00 A matchup befitting of the stage6:45 Adjustments, percentages, and shot quality22:00 Functional physicality, misconceptions about the two teams32:40 Recurring broadcast themes for the series38:30 Power play mission statements51:15 5-on-5 line matching1:01:40 X-Factor playersSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 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.

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and join me for this mega super special Stanley Cup final previews my good buddy Andrew Berkshire. Andrew, what's going on, man? Not much. I think it's always mega super special when we're together, Dimitri. It is, but this show is especially special.

I remember last year we did this, and it feels like everyone, every podcast and every writer is doing some sort or some form of a preview for this series because there are so many eyeballs on it and it is really the only thing left going on this postseason. So it's really tough to kind of differentiate yourself and actually provide some sort of analysis or maybe thoughts on the series that haven't already just been regurgitated on many different platforms. But I remember last year you and I did the Capp's Vegas Golden Knights preview and I was really proud of how it turned out

because as we pointed to how the Vegas Forchek had been just crippling all the Western Conference teams and how Washington was kind of uniquely suited to combat it with how their centers came back to break out of the zone themselves and not necessarily relying on a defenseman so much. And we saw that play out before our very eyes. And Washington used that to, amongst many other reasons, to beat them and win the stand in the cup finally. And so hopefully we'll be able to do something similar this year

to get fans ready for this series, whether it's something as big as that or maybe some sort of a wrinkle in the series here or they haven't thought about before. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think a lot of people seem to think this series is already decided. Like, have you seen anybody pick the Blues? I haven't really. I've seen, and I don't want to spoil my pick either, because we'll do that later in the show.

But I think a lot of people believe that it'll be a close series. But it does seem like it's a heavy majority leaning towards the Bruins and considering how this postseason has gone and how hockey playoffs have conditioned us in years past. I think that's probably a good sign for the blues. Yeah, no kidding, hey? I mean, based on how I've made my picks this year, whoever I pick is going to lose. So I think that's the main thing. I think, I don't know how you did.

I went, I think, two for eight in the first round, and then my bracket was just destroyed. Yeah, it was pretty bad. I mean, I had the lightning against the sharks in the finals, so, I mean, it looked horrible there for a while, and then the sharks had that game seven come back, and I was like, oh, who knows? Maybe I might be able to salvage this a little bit.

But, yeah, it's been pretty bleak. But I think everyone across the board has been in such a similar boat. And round on was so wacky and unpredictable that I didn't even feel bad about it. Like, yeah, people would take this stuff too serious. You think it's a mark of, or sort of an indictment against your abilities to analyze this game. It's just basically flipping coins at this point. Yeah, and I don't remember who tweeted it. I think it might have been Michael Lopez.

He was doing like the math on it. And it was like if you assume a 10% gap in talent between two teams, which is like a massive talent gap in a seven game series, the worst team will win four times, which is crazy to me. So like it's all fun to like predict. And I think what you're kind of looking for is who's more likely to win. And I know this is something that people get on Don Lucision about a lot because he does his, his picks by percentages and he'll pick somebody at like 52%.

Everyone will be like, you're wrong. And he's like, well, no, I was only 52% wrong. And it's unsatisfying and it seems like you're trying to squirrel your way out of what you picked, but it's the way that probabilities work. I mean, just because somebody is more likely to win doesn't mean that they will win. Teams going against the odds and being victorious, I think that's what makes sports great.

You know, I mean, the calves in the NBA finals a few years ago, that was like the best NBA finals of the last like 10 years. Yeah. That was phenomenal. not to trash Golden State, which are probably the most amazing amazing North American professional sports team right now, but it was cool to see them lose for once.

It was. And that's a whole other debate about sort of whether it's good, whether you prefer parity or whether you'd prefer some sort of a juggernaut like that, that everyone tries to beat an up NBA. And obviously the pro of the latter is that when you build up a team like that, then when they eventually get overtaken by someone, and it leads to a bunch of great stories and fan interest. But as you were talking, I was just thinking, I was like, man, I really hope to only be 52% wrong 100% of the time.

That's one of my new mottos. Well, and I will say this, as unpredictable as round one was, it felt like we did not necessarily return to normalcy, but for the most part, if you look at how the series played out after and this Stanley Cup final we have, I mean, you could make an argument that the Blues and the Bruins were two of the best, most dominant teams in like the final half of the season, especially in the final 25, 30 games. And, you know, in the conference final, if you include the sharks and the hurricanes, those were four of the top seven teams by expected goals, I think, for the year. So round one is still so fresh in our mind because it just was so crazy. And whenever a historically grade 62 win team gets swept, everyone's going to still be thinking about that. but we've kind of gotten back to the idea that regular season dominance are particularly

five-on-five dominance over the course of 82 games does mean something and does illustrate a team's competency and that's good to see. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, we don't want to get too deep into the parody versus dynasty debate, but I think overall, like you said, this playoffs started out weird, but as kind of normalized. And I think a lot of that weirdness does have to do with that four-game sweep in the first round of the Tampa Bay Lightning. And, you know, we can look at data all day long, but I think a lot of it had to do with

injuries and, as it always does in the playoff series, goaltending. Yes. Yeah, certainly. Well, okay, so there's any number of ways I've got to list like five or six, you know, keys to this series or matchups to watch for what? I'll let you kick us off since you're our guest. What interests you the most about the series from a stylistic or XZano's perspective? I think the biggest thing for me is watching the blues throughout these playoffs and throughout the last half of the season is how excellent they've excellent of a job they've done adjusting against teams.

They're a team that throughout the regular season was not very good off the rush, defending, attacking, whatever, it was kind of their main weakness. And when I was writing for the free press previewing the series for the Jets, I was like, okay, listen, the Jets acquired Kevin Hayes. They've got Mark Shifley, they've got Nick Eilers. These guys are the only guys in the team that really attack off the rush successfully. They're going to be the keys to the series against the Blues. If they can attack off the rush, they have a chance to win this, despite Winnipeg having a good record but not being a great team this year. And lo and behold, Paul Maurice really focused on attacking off the rush and push that series probably a little bit further than it should have. And I think Winnipeg played really well in the playoffs, far better than I expected them to.

But the Blues were just a better team this year. and they did attack off the rush and exploit them in that way. But as the playoffs have gone on, especially against San Jose, the blues have really tightened up there. And they're a team that really excels off the cycle and off the forecheck. And the sharks were outdoing them in both those areas. So they shifted their focus to controlling the rush game, limiting the sharks' creativity in entering the zone

and then creating chances on their own. And that's how they beat the sharks. So it's really interesting to see a team adjust. the way that they attack, the way that they defend, what they're focusing on, how they're attacking, and manage to do that in a short seven-game series to take advantage of another team. That's really interesting to me. So I wonder if they can find a way to take away Boston's advantage in these playoffs, which has been absolute complete domination in front of the net, in front of Rask and in front of whatever goal they're facing.

The differential they have in high-danger scoring chances is just completely absurd. everywhere else on the ice, they've only been okay. But for starters, Rask has almost a 90% high danger save percentage according to sport logic, which is over 10% higher than expected. Bennington is at average, which is like 78.5. So like there's a huge gap there. If Boston's able to continue exploiting that, they're going to win the series. Like if Rass continues performing the way he is, which is probably likely, I guess maybe not with a big step off.

or a break there, but, you know, if he can get his head in the game again, like he has been all playoffs, and Boston continues to dominate that inner slot area, they're going to win the series. It's crazy that over half of their goals have come from the inner slot, whereas the blues less than half. So the blues have more ability to score from the outside than the Bruins do, but the Bruins are just so dominant in that inner slot. So it's offensively and defensively, the blues have got to take it to another level there.

Yeah, it's weird because I haven't looked at their, playoff totals, I'm not going to put too much stock into whatever under 20 games they've played so far this postseason in terms of shot profiles and stuff like that. But even over the course of the regular season, like this is a team that very clearly prioritizes that idea of shot quality or particularly getting the puck into those dangerous areas, but they still also dominate the quantity as well. And that just speaks to, I guess, like how well-rounded and how lethal this team can be at 5-1-5 from the Blues perspective. I can completely agree that's probably one of the best things you can say about a playoff team it's the ability to go up against many different styles and and and kind of acclimate to it and then do it better than that team and as that shark series went on i think it's very easy to kind of point at martin jones and laugh and be like oh my god he just let in another soft goal and there were certainly many instances where that happened as that series went along but it's pretty clear especially in the final but two or i guess not that in game four in game

five and six though especially like the blues just were such a well-oiled machine and they were just completely dictating the flow of that game and there was obviously the injuries that the sharks played a role in that as well but there was not much they could get going offensively and especially those top two lines of theirs were really neutralized by what the blues were trying to do and and one thing that um i make fun of pierre maguire a lot for his commentary on this show but one thing that i thought he did a really good job of illustrating in that western conference final was how especially Ryan O'Reilly was doing a great job of basically playing the role of a defenseman to neutralize the sharks off the rush attack, especially when some of the blues

defensemen would try to pinch in to keep offensive zone opportunities going. You'd see Ryan O'Reilly coming back and just playing the role of a defenseman and doing it better than most forwards can. So both of these teams do a remarkable number of things well, and I guess that's why they are still alive and playing for the Stanley Cup final, and that's what's going to make that such a fascinating series where there's very few weaknesses on both of these teams to really exploit. Yeah, it's really interesting.

It might be one of those things that, like, it's real tight every single game. I mean, it would be great if we've got like seven overtime games, wouldn't it? I mean, not for our sleep. Right. Well, I mean, you're on the West Coast. But these games will be starting pretty early, I think, right? Like probably 8 Eastern. I think they usually start 8 Eastern, right?

Yeah, it won't be too bad, but yeah. I would love to see a really good. tight series. I'd love to see game seven overtime in the Stanley Cup finals. I feel like that's something that hasn't happened since the 70s or something like that. So I'd love to see that, especially since I have no skin in the game and I'm not going to be stressed about it. Can I be a Martin Jones defender for a second? Yeah, go for it. Sounds crazy. That's a crazy island to be on, but go for it. I know, I know. But you know what, he turned into a pumpkin at the end of the series for sure, the same as he was for most of the regular season. But the sharks were carried

by Jones through the first two series. It's crazy how... Well, in the second half of the Vegas series. Yes, the second half. The first half he was bad. But like, let's just compare for argument's sake, the San Jose Sharks and the Boston Bruins, right? So the Boston Bruins allow the fewest

high-danger scoring chances against per 60 minutes in the playoffs at 4.87. That's like nothing. Under 5 is crazy. The sharks were the most at 9.19. like the gap between them is just insane and the Bruins are also fantastic at limiting passes to the slot so like you're not getting a lot of pre-shot movement on those uh the sharks not so much so like jones was really covering for a lot of holes from like game four of the Vegas series onto the midway through the blues series and yeah he turned into himself at the end but and it was a hot streak but he's definitely a guy that i would not blame for them going out in the Certainly not. In the conference finals there.

It's so strange because you look at him during the season, you're like, he's not good. But as people always say, goalies are a little bit of voodoo and a hot streak can happen whenever. And I guess that kind of, in a way, brings me to Tuka Rask, who aside from the great defense, I think Tuka Rask has kind of been a bad goalie for like four years.

And all of a sudden, he's back to his peak performance level. And this hot streak couldn't have come in a better time. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's certainly. I mean, there was definitely for a couple of years there. People are kind of slow to adjust to a new level of player performance, especially when a guy has been considered to be a star for a long time, and his numbers were progressively dipping,

and that was something I was, like, pretty alarmed by, I think, you know, the Bruins did a great job this year. They brought in Yarrow Halak. They trusted him to play pretty much 50% in the games, and they didn't rely on Rask. I believe he played 45 or so regular season games, which was like the lowest he's played since he became a full-time starter. and he looks fresh.

He's turned back the clock. Obviously, this is a hot streak, and I don't think anyone thinks that he's all of a sudden a true talent, 942, say percentage goalie moving forward. But I also haven't necessarily seen anything to suggest that, you know, he's just kind of being super lucky and he won't continue to play well. Now, obviously, if the performance dips a little bit, that's a different story. But, you know, it is fascinating.

I tweeted this the other day, and a lot of people took it the wrong way. They thought I was implying that the Bruins are just kind of this, like, lucky unicorn that only benefits from this where it's like most teams that make it this far in the postseason generally have ridiculously good goaltending throughout and that's a big driver for why they're here. I think the fact that Jordan Binnington, who has been really good and we can talk more about him only has a 9-14 save percentage for this postseason and has been roughly league average in terms of what we'd expect from his performances postseason and the fact that the blues have still made it this far is more of an aberration than what Rask has done. But, you know,

you look at the three postseason runs the ruins have made over the past decade or so in 2011, 2013 and 2019. And it's just three like insanely dominant goalie performances. And it's funny how, you know, we always talk about how they're so big and physical and tough and defensively sound. And then we like conveniently overlooked the years where they either didn't make the playoffs or lost in round one or lost in round two pretty handily. And we just pretend that, you know, there's some. sort of a mismatch there between the goaltending and all the other factors. And it's pretty clear that those things are all linked together.

And the goaltending performance is a pretty big driver of postseason success for all teams. Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like the one thing that concerns me about the Bruins heading into the finals, and I don't mean like concerns me as hoping they don't win or anything, because I obviously hope they don't win. But if I was a Bruins fan, the one thing that would concern me a little bit, aside from Raths' performance being a little bit too crazy high-end, and you look at the history of teams that rode hot goaltending into the playoffs,

and a lot of times that kind of falls apart. You look at Pecoranay, which, well, that's our falling apart in the conference. Mark Andre Fleury last year. Mark Andre Fleury, you know, it usually starts to fall off a little bit in the Stanley Cup final. Part of that could be because they're facing the other best team. Part of that could be just the attrition of it all. But I also look at, you know, and it's a short sample size, and part of the reason why you make it to the end is luck. You have to be lucky and good, and the Bruins are both.

But they're a full 2% higher in PDO than anybody else in these playoffs. They're at 104 PDO according to Corsica, which is crazy. And that's all situations. At five on five, the two highest PTO teams are the Bruins and Blues. So it's like you. You have to get things going your way in order to make it this far. But I do wonder, specifically, the Bruins power play has been so red hot that if that cools off even a little bit, is there like a little bit of belief that, you know, trickles out? And I feel like the Bruins are an experienced team and maybe that doesn't happen to them because, you know, they've been there before and they know how to get through a gut check time, whatever.

And actually, they've been pretty unlucky in terms of shooting at five on five. So it could be that the power play falls off and they're five on a fine. But I would say like there is enough going right for the Bruins in terms of luck that I can see things not going their way in the final. And the Blues and Bruins playing an even series and the Bruins losing despite that. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. Like I think over the course of six or seven games or whatever, like anything can happen and you could have the best process possible. and you could just hit the post a bunch of times or just missed the net on opportunities you would have otherwise converted.

But like the thing that would. Exactly. But the thing that would give me faith or confidence if I was a Bruins fan or a Bruins supporter that they'll be fine. Even if the percentage is draw off a bit is sort of the process, especially on the power play where I would necessarily say like they've been scoring a lot of goals off of like wild point shots that have been getting tipped in and bouncing in off a bunch of legs. like it's a lot of Patrice Bergerot and David Pasternak shooting grade A scoring chances with the goalie moving all over the place and getting flustered and I think the puck movement and what they're trying to accomplish on the power play has been so good and so lethal that if they keep doing that they're going to keep generating a ton of grade A chances and considering the shooters involved

barring some sort of injury or horrible luck over a short period of time they'll probably still continue to score goals like they might not go 17 for 50 or whatever they've gone so far this postseason, but I feel pretty confident saying that their power play is going to be just fine even if they regress a little bit. Yeah, I mean, this is the very thinnest of criticisms, right? I mean, saying a team that makes a Stanley Cup finals has been a little bit too lucky is like, okay, that's every single Stanley Cup final appearance of all time. But, yeah, I think that's the one thing that like the blues can kind of key on maybe a little bit, that and trying to limit the inner slot dominance, just like hope the Bruins stop getting

all the bounces because they definitely had their fair share these playoffs. But man, I think I look at across the board and the Blues are a good team. The Bruins and the Blues kind of got to this same sort of way. They're both teams that attack in a varied way. They're both teams that, you know, limit chances very effectively. The two teams that have allowed the fewest high danger chances against per 60 in the entire playoffs. So what tips the scales one way or the other? And I look at control of the passing game.

And the Bruins are just so much better at it. And part of that is going to be, you know, the Patrice Bergeron factor because he's just a pass blocking machine and his positioning is so absolutely absurd. Part of it's just going to be like the size of Zadenaultchara. It's just tough to pass through him. But their system for years now has just been absurdly good at limiting passing to the slot and finding each other in the slot in the offensive zone. And part of that could be roster consistency. You know, that core has been together forever, especially that top line.

They always know where each other are. You know, they're one of the few teams that can consistently generate one-timers from below the faceoff dots, which is kind of crazy. I mean, you think, how high of a chance of scoring you get when you're taking a one-timer from below the faceoff dot, unless it's blocked. Like, you've got the goalie moving. You've got extreme speed. It's a tough one. So they're a team that's just so dangerous.

And it seems like they've just been getting more in sync as the playoffs have gone on. They have. Okay. Here's, it's not necessarily related to that topic, but in terms of previewing the series and so. of a matchup I'm looking for and kind of storylines. Something that I've already started to see manifest itself and I think as this series gets going is going to be one of my bigger annoyances with how these two teams are talked about. Is this idea that the Blues and the Bruins playing in a Stanley Cup final reinforces

the notion that you have to be big and physical to be successful in the postseason and at this time of year that's what matters and Pete DeBoer had this quote about that and I saw passed around a lot and people are using that as proof that that's the case and i guess sports are sort of this ultimate kind of like rorschach test or whatever where you just two people can look at it and you see different things and you kind of see what you want to see or you go into it believing something and you kind of reinforces that and i certainly think you and i and people who think similarly to us aren't infallible by any means and we can sometimes fall victim to this as well where you have this certain idea that's rooted in your head and you keep just trying to perpetuate it and trying to

make stuff work around it. But I think if you see someone talking about how the Bruins and the blues are these two extremely, uh, you know, heavy hockey physical teams that are successful only because of that, I think you should be skeptical about what their agenda is and why they're saying that because I don't know if people have checked, but these aren't the big bad Bruins that people think about. Like their three best defensemen are five nine, five nine and Charlie more maccaboy is very very very generously listed at six foot tall and yeah he's there's no way he's six feet tall but he's listed as that and i'm like uh that's not probably true i think he's probably like five or ten so that's like there's so many that's like david darenay being listed at

five seven or whatever and i'm five seven and i i've met him before and he's like well not met him but seen him before and he's like two two and a half inches shorter than me easily yeah yeah and so it's this idea that like i i think these two teams do play it physically especially the blues but it is kind of it goes back to that idea we talk about the difference between just like throwing hits for the sake of being physical and throwing hits and sort of this functional physicality of of using it to leverage the opponent and to cause turnovers and to affect what they're trying to do on the breakout and a great example is what the blues were doing to san jose defencment especially poor Justin Braun, I feel like he was really happy that series was over.

Like, it felt like any time he went back to get the puck, one of Sanquist, Steen, or Barbashev was pretty much just living inside of his jersey. And they weren't just kind of just throwing hits. They were in his head and they were causing turnovers. And even though Carlson scored a couple goals there and then obviously was injured towards the end of the series, they kind of made him here kind of the footsteps of them coming and using that as a for trick tool. And so both of these teams are just so relentless in their puck pursuit.

and they just hound puck carriers and they really give you very minimal time to operate and to breathe and very little space to maneuver with. And I think that is much more important than sort of the physical contact or the carnage factor, as Doc Emmerich likes to say, and which I'm sure we'll hear about a ton in this series. Yeah, like you said, functional physicality is absolutely important. And the Bruins, I know everybody likes to think, like they are the bad Bruins, but they're not the big bad Bruins. The small bad Bruins.

They're the small bad Bruins and with one giant guy. Yes. Well, and Carlos huge too, but he uses his reach much more than actual like bone crunching hits. Yeah, and I think you could say the same thing about Zayon Chara unless you get him angry, right? Like for the most part, he's not destroying guys. He might hold you against the boards or like throw you down, but he's not running around trying to take guys heads off. He'll get in scrums though.

That's definitely a big deal. But, you know, they've got a few guys like Noel Akiari. or Sean Corrali who are kind of tough and David Backus, who thinks he's a fighter now. But for the most part, you know, like Patrice Burj around 6-1, Kreichy, 6, you know, Brad Marjohn is probably around 5'9. Pasternak, I don't think, is too large either. And even if he was, he's not that physical.

He's six foot. So, like, this isn't a team that's huge. And like you pointed out with their defense, like they're all, most of the good ones are pretty tiny. This isn't a big, large team. but they are physical for sure. They are. And I think that's maybe where people get tripped up

is that the teams that push the needle physically people see as big, especially if they have a reputation as being big. And the blues are pretty big. They're a pretty big team. Yeah, but they all skate. They all skate. Yeah, that's the thing, right?

Like, even Patrick Maroon, you know, who is like a prototypical, like, lower tier power forward, I don't think he's overtly physical for the most part. Like, he'll get in front of the net, but, like, he's not a guy that, like, crunches guys in the forecheck very often. He does it once in a while,

but most of their guys are just good hockey players who happen to be large. Yeah. You know, and if you can get a great hockey player who also has good reach, that's awesome. But, like we've said for years and years, chasing the big bruiser is just not a smart idea. I think both these teams succeed

based on the quality of their depth, you know, not just, you know, the Bruins have that top line that's the best in the NHL, but their depth players have been fantastic in these playoffs. And, you know, a lot of people forget about David Craichy. I didn't even realize he had 73 points this year. Yeah. You know, he's been fantastic in the playoffs, as always. Both these teams just have a lot of players who contribute at, you know, better than expected for where they're slotted in the lineup.

St. Louis is one of the guys that caught my hands. consistently is Sunquist he's been phenomenal yeah no i mean that entire fourth line obviously has been has been a revelation and all three of those guys uh including barbachev and steen especially barbachev i mean like they're their fourth liners by by name and and in terms of my example like they all those guys have skill and all those guys can do stuff and when they cause those turnovers off the forecheck they can actually convert them into goals and and you're not going to necessarily bank on them driving the offense or contributing every single game in that regard but all of that is kind of found money and at least they have a fighting chance to do so and and i think

that's a great point about the depth in this series where there are so few weak links like there's obviously the top end of both of these rosters are very very good and drive a ton of the team's success but as you go down the lineup when you're looking and trying to kind of prognosticate ahead to how these teams are going to match up and and what if you're areas you can target. There are so few of those weaknesses where you could go like, oh, we're going to target this side of the third pairing or we're going to target this fourth line. Like all of these guys can play and all them can move and all them can at least chip in

a little bit offensively. And so I think that's what's going to make that such a fascinating series. And it's going to be so fun to watch just because there's going to be so few of those dead shifts where nothing's going on. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be interesting. I mean, I hope it's not too tactical.

Like if it's a hyper defensive series, I think that's the thing that I'm more worried about the takeaway being from this playoffs is like you see all the high power offensive teams for the most part went out early. Vegas, well, Vegas is a good defensive team as well, but Toronto, Tampa Bay, Calgary. They went down real early, real easily except for Toronto. So the Blues and Bruins are both unbelievably good defensively. I worry that the takeaway is to shift things back towards defensive hockey and things. thinking that's the future again.

And we see like the goal start to dip again because we've seen like the last three years or so, things are shifting in the right direction in terms of like excitement for the league. And I worry that if this series is very defensive, you know, a bunch of two one games and not much scoring, very tactical, that we're going to see a shift back to that. That's that's my big fear. Certainly. I mean, think about how differently the next couple of years following 2011 would have been if the Canucks had won the Stanley Cup with the Siddines as their best players as opposed to the Bruins,

sort of with Marchand, just punching them in the face and all of this stuff and all the story. It's kind of side plot storylines that came from that series with people going like, see, like the Bruins proved you need to be tough and physical. And then team signing a bunch of guys and trading for guys just for the sake of trying to match up with that as opposed to realizing that there's some other stuff going on. For sure, I think clearly how this. series is going to play out with everyone watching and obviously the team that wins everyone's going to try to sort of model themselves after that or or try to galaxy brain this and think about how they can kind of copy whatever they did that was so successful about them and I think there's going to be a lot of kind of red herrings or thing or people missing the point of what makes

these teams special yeah and speaking of marshawn who's who's he going to punch in the head this series should we take bets I've I've I'm going to hope he's not going to punch anyone on the head. I hope it's going to be a nice, well-played series. Okay, but realistically, Dimitri. Realistically. I don't know. I mean, is there anyone on the blues that's a candidate?

They do have a bunch of guys who are like involved. Schwartz? Yeah, I could see that. I could see him trying to get in Braden Shenz's kitchen. I feel like the other thing is like the blues kind of have not on the same level, but David Perron is kind of like Marjohn in a lot of ways. Yeah, I could see him getting up to stuff for sure. Yeah, he's going to get up to stuff for sure.

I think this is going to be a pretty chippy series. You know who I hope is the MVP of this series just for Leif's fans to have some happiness in this series is Tyler Bozak. Because it seems like there, as a whole, like there's some people who are miffed about it or whatever or bitter, but most people seem to be pretty happy for him that he, you know, had his job taken by Tavares,

and then now he's in the Stanley Cup finals with this new team, which is pretty crazy. The funny thing is he's against the Bruins again anyway. Yeah. Well, he's been good. I mean, that entire line with him, Thomas and Maroon, has been, I think they've played the most minutes of any forward line still in the playoffs this year.

And obviously, I mean, that just speaks to both their effectiveness and the fact that they've been kept together as a result, and Greg Brubay hasn't necessarily been putting all those guys in a blender. but yeah they've been good and kind of this like a bit of a throwback third line i i had this list of like most annoying recurring themes that we're going to hear from the commentators and from people talking about this series and i wonder if you have some yourself my first contribution to the list is uh rob thomas's age i feel like watching these NBC broadcast like oh my god like we get it he's young this is impressive he's playing great it's like every single shift it's like can you

imagine what this guy is going to look like two years from now. It's like, he'll be good. I believe it. He's a top prospect. He's doing, yeah,

he's awesome. People have been talking about him for a couple years now. I know. We always knew he was going to be good. Yeah. I mean, I guess,

I hope it's not as much as bad as, as 18 year old Sam Bennett. It's not, but it's like, there's, NBC's really been jamming it down our throats. So, uh,

yeah. The other one is, uh, Jordan Bennington's puck handling. Oh, yeah. Commentators just do this stuff. Like,

they get so, obsessed with these goalies that can get out of the net and handle the puck. And then like every time the Bruins dump it in and Jordan Bennington doesn't trip over himself and fall and lead to a goal against, you're going to hear the commentators just lose their minds about how effective he is in neutralizing the forecheck. It's like just stay in your net. Like the risk heavily outweighs the rewards. Please just stop. You know what, Martin, Martenbruder ruined it for everyone. He was he was so good at it that everyone felt like they had to do it. And, every commentator now has to point it out whenever a goalie doesn't Mike Smith it.

It's, yeah, that's annoying. I feel like there's definitely going to be a lot of focus on Brad Marchand, especially from Canadian broadcasters. I mean, including yourself. Yes, absolutely myself. I'm going to be focusing on him and looking for every little dirtbag movie pulls and how many skates he, or how many sticks he snaps with his skates.

I'm looking forward to hopefully Kyle Bukoskis getting on there and asking him a question again. Did you know that these two teams, played 49 years ago? No, I did not. Wow, I mean, I think you're going to get very well versed with this idea that the last time the blues were here, they played the Bruins in the Stanley Cup final. This is a rematch that's been in 49 years in the making. Wow, but nobody's coached by Scotty Bowman this time, I guess. Well, but a little, a little known fact.

That was Sidano Chara actually played in that series. Yeah, I'd believe it. I mean, he was a young whippersnapper back then, only 6-2. Yeah, he's grown a little bit since then. Let's take a quick break here, here from a sponsor, and then we're going to, I've got, man, I've got so much stuff here that I want to talk about. We're going to try to jamming in in the next 25 to 30 minutes. Sounds good.

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Okay, one area that I'm interested in, and we've talked about the power plays, but we also talked about how these two teams are so similar and how a lot of what they do, kind of replicates each other, and that'll lead to some fascinating X's and O stuff. The power plays, obviously the Bruins have been much more successful, and they've been incredibly lethal and scored a ridiculous amount of goals, and that might come down a little bit. But just in terms of when you watch them and what they try to accomplish on the power play, they are very different and I think that is an interesting wrinkle to watch in this series

where something that I guess I just wasn't watching a ton of blues hockey throughout the regular season or really focusing in on their power plays as much as I have been this postseason but they run this set where Teresenko lines up on his strong side and he basically what they're trying to accomplish is we're going to get the puck to Vladimir Teresenko and then he's going to take a wrist shot and we're just betting on the fact that his wrist shot is better than the goalie's ability to stop the puck and as that shark series went along we saw that he was much better at martin jones at he was much better at shooting the puck than martin jones was at stopping it and he just beat him clean a number of times especially on the power play with those wrist shots and

i just love that because we see that so rarely in today's game and we're going to see that so rarely with this Bruins powerplay where they much more traditionally try to set up a bunch of one-timers and get the puck moving east-west to not let the goalie get set and get comfortable. And with the blues, they just have this kind of throwback where it's like, we have just this one guy and we're betting that he's better than your guy. And we're going to go head to head here and see who wins. And Fad Tarasenko is so good that he generally comes out on top in that matchup. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's tough to bet against Teresanko.

what's strange to me, like looking at their powerplay numbers, is you're right, they do things differently, but in terms of, like, actual volume, it's pretty similar. The Bruins generate 54 scoring chances per 60 on the power play. The blues are 52. You know, they both primarily attack off the cycle. One thing that's really interesting to me is that the Bruins are actually pretty effective at attacking off the rush on the power play, which is very weird. It's not something that teams do very often. I mean, most of the focus on gaining the zone is just getting into the zone and setting up, right? But the Bruins like to just keep going in with speed and finding ways to attack off the rush

on the power play despite, you know, the aggressive defensive stance that teams take at their own blue line. So that's something I would watch in this series. And the other thing is the Bruins have actually given up more short-handed chances per 60 than any other team in the playoffs. And little no fact, they were all at the Boone Jenner. He had like six of them in that one game. It was obscene. Yeah, it's crazy.

But I wonder if that's something the Blues can take advantage of because they've got some pretty talented forwards, like offensively who can play defense. So that's somewhat interesting to me. Outside of that. Well, let's stick with that off the rush point that you made there. I want to get into that a little bit more because. I did notice that as well and I was watching the NBC broadcast for the Eastern Conference final and Brian Boucher made

a great point of pointing out how a couple times the Bruins power play didn't let the Hurricanes Penalico get set because they quickly came in and generated an off-the-rush chance where you know there was a couple tip shots there and and they were trying to get the goalie moving without the defense getting set first

and I've always that's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately because we've certainly made advancements in terms of optimizing power plays, obviously, with, you know, using four forwards and one defensemen instead of the traditional three and two setup. And I've long been beating the drum of you should just play your best five guys in your top powerplay unit for nearly the full two minutes because it's not actually that physically taxing if you're just set up in the offensive zone the entire time. And this idea that you need to have two separate powerplay sets to play evenly like the Leafs do is just so silly to me. And so there's certain stuff like that. but I've been thinking like especially for some teams like let's say the oilers whose best player is Connor McDavid or or the abs with Nathan McKinnon and Lowell McKinnon's set wrist shot is a little bit better and more lethal like wouldn't it make sense to cater your power play around that type of a quick attack approach as opposed to like at 515 all you do is attack off the rush and try to use your speed and then suddenly you get this power play opportunity and this high leverage scoring chance and instead of continuing to do.

do that, you go, okay, you know what we're going to do now? We're going to slow it down. We're going to let the other team load up defensively. We're going to let four guys get in front of the goalie. And then we've got to pass it around on the outside on a circle for two minutes and take some point shots. And that idea to me has always just been so counterintuitive. Now I know the pushback's going to be, well, the opposing penalty kill isn't necessarily, they're not going to be out for checking and they're not going to be out trying to create scoring chances themselves. They're going to naturally come back and load up defensively. But I see, There's obviously the opportunities that present themselves, especially when the puck leaves his own.

And so I'd love to see teams do what the Bruins have been doing this postseason, where if you, especially, you know, if you're starting the power play outside the offensive zone or whatever, you quickly get in there and try to create something within the first 10 to 15 seconds. And then obviously, if that doesn't work, you try to retain the puck and then get into that more traditional cycle and passing around the point. Yeah, I think this is, it's one of those things where in order to generate them consistently, you kind of have to dare. you're the other like the penalty kill to try to create something instead of be conservative so you have to have like extreme confidence in your own defensive structure of your power play players and also your goaltender which clearly right now the Boston Bruins do and they're one of the few teams that I could say like definitively their best offensive players are also their best defensive players right so I think it definitely caters to them to be able to take those risks on the

play and benefit from them. And maybe that isn't true for all teams, but I think you're right, the teams like Colorado, even like the Montreal Canadians this year, primarily scored off the rush, especially Max Domi's line. And then their power play was just brutal because they were built to be a rush team. And then when it came to settling down and trying to create cycle chances, they just couldn't do it. They couldn't find a way to get into the slot. But yeah, I would love to see teams.

try to take advantage of that numbers game a little bit more in creating off the rush, dare teams to be a bit more aggressive in penalty killing and then punish them for it. I wonder if it's possible to do that long term just because teams kind of adjust and they'll say

like, okay, well, we're going to we're going to stop. We're going to stay back a little bit. We're just going to sit back real far. But maybe it's one of those things where if you sit back too much, you're opening up other lanes to attack. Well, I would think if anything, thing like it would be easier to pull off in the regular season where you're constantly playing

different teams like in a in a postseason setting when you see a team seven times or whatever in a two week span it's much easier to like learn those tendencies and be like okay like by game three or four we're going to stop making these mistakes for like perhaps is a great example like their power play was just so dreadful this year and probably a big reason why they didn't make the postseason and and they probably could have generated a couple extra goals at least it might have ultimately made a difference for them if they had tried to do something different. I don't know. Just this idea of, it is kind of goes to that, you know, hockey nature of kind of being a

bit more conservative and how we view, like, if you give up a shorthanded goal, it's like, oh, man, we just lost all the momentum. That was such a back-wragging goal. And so teams desperately try to avoid that stuff. So I see why they don't try to get into that kind of cat and mouse back and forth game on the power play and instead just try to go like, okay, for the next two minutes, we at least know we're not going to give up. up any goals. Now, if we score, it'll be gravy. But I'd love to see teams push the envelope a little

bit more and maybe get into a bit of more of that trading, scoring chances, because you ultimately still have the five guys compared to other teams four, and you should theoretically be at an advantage regardless. Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely something I'd like to see at least a daring team try, right, on a consistent basis. It's pretty impressive that the Bruns have been able to pull it off in the playoffs. I think that's, you know, Bruce Cassidy, as much as, I'm I think the Bruins have always had good coaching during this era of Bruins hockey from beginning when Claude Julian was hired. I feel like Bruce Cassidy is just a very creative coach. Whether that's trusting his players to try new things or creating new schemes and could be partially his coaching staff to credit.

I think it's Joe Soco on there. And there's another former player on there as well. I can't remember who it is off top of my head. Is it Rich Peberley on their staff? He might be... I think I see him on Hedge. I'm going to have to look it up on HockeyDB because I know that there's somebody on that team,

on that coaching staff that I was like, ah, he's there. Well, okay, while you look it up, I remember when they fired Claude Juliet and brought in Bruce Cassidy, I was like critical and I was like, what are these guys doing? And I was giving Bruce Cassier a hard time, but he's been great.

Oh, Jay Pendolfo. Oh, Jay Pendolfo. That wouldn't be a power play guy, but yeah. No, Cassidy's been great. And his media sessions, when he talks to the media, it's like a small little petty thing. But he's been, he's been so good and actually gives you insightful answers and talks about stuff. And it clearly shows that he's thinking about certain things that sometimes you get the impression that other coaches might not be. So, no, he's been awesome.

He's been a delight. And it's no surprise that the Bruins are as kind of well-oiled as they are. You know, we were talking about how effective they've been off the rush, and that's certainly true. but in terms of their actual like traditional setup in the offensive zone when they are in the power play, something I also watch for that they've been so good. We talked about how much they generate these great A scoring chances

and ultimately what they're trying to do is they just move the puck around as much as possible east-west and just betting on the fact that the penalty kill will soften up at some point where they'll either stretch them out or get them out of position and then all of a sudden next thing you know, Patrice Bergeron is wide open from the slot with like a one-timer. you're just like, how the hell did that happen? And it seems to happen every single time.

But listen, like, on the one hand, it's easy to be like, oh, man, like this opposing penalty kill is stupid. They should have been focusing on that. But with the threats they have out there, and especially what I've noticed is that I think like Marshan and Tori Krugger, two of the best cross-seem passers in the league that I've seen in terms of getting it, like, from point A to point B with a lot of force and right on the tape of the receiving shooter. and so listen like those guys are threats themselves to shoot the puck so clearly opposing penalty killers are

conscious of that and come out to them occasionally and then they are glad willing passers and so that's how that happens and it's really fun to watch and you know the pastor knack has that one time around the left circle and i mean they're blessed it's an embarrassment of riches and that's why they're so effective yeah and i think you hit on something with marshawn crew but especially like the bruns have many multi-tools high-end offensive players, right? Like, Bergeron, I think primarily what he's best at is getting those high danger

scoring chances, right? But he's also a really good playmaker. Not elite, but really, really good. And Marcian, as a playmaker, is like, if he's not elite, he's, like, right at that echelon. And Pasternak, definitely primarily a scorer, but he can pass at a first line level.

All their guys who are primarily shooters can also pass, are pretty darn good shooters as well. So that gives them a lot of versatility. No defensemen can just stare down a player and choose to block the shot. You always have to make a choice to either commit fully or, you know, like,

do I block the pass? Do I block the shot? Do I kind of go in the middle? Do I not make a decision? And as soon as you've got that hesitation, you're boned. And they have so many players who force that hesitation

that it just makes their power play extremely hard to defend. And even strength, too. Yes, yes, no, for sure. I mean, they could score it all fast as the game. So let's talk more a bit about that, you know, the five-on-five kind of matchup angle here because I'm really curious to see as this series starts out in Boston and as they have last change, what the matchups are because, you know, as the year went along, Craig Broubae

broke up O'Reilly and Teresanko and split them into two separate lines. And I imagine that, because clearly Teresanko and Schwartz still represent the biggest scoring threats for the Blues, I imagine Bruce Cassidy is going to want to get the Berger Online and Charan McAvoy out against them as much as possible. And then I imagine that Brubay is going to want to stay away from that match. I imagine both to free up Teresanko, but also to get Ryan O'Reilly out against the Bruins'n's top line. So it's kind of seeing that interplay and how these teams go about it will be really interesting to me as well, because they are both so deep, and it's not necessarily the case

where you're going to be worried about getting certain matchups too much because you just kind of want to, you have the luxury of rolling four lines and entrusting all your guys, but it's clear that in a series that we anticipate to be incredibly tight defensively with minimal chances and one goal here, they're ultimately probably being the difference in each of these games,

you're going to want to maximize all those 5-1-5 shifts as much as possible, and so seeing which coach can dictate the terms of that will be interesting to watch. Yeah, it's one of those things where you wonder if a guy is going to aggressively line match or force the other coach to do it. You know, like, just, I feel like the Bruins are one of those teams that, like, they can aggressively line match, but they can also just roll out their guys and force

the other team to deal with it. And that's a huge advantage. I think the blues are pretty good in that area as well. They've got, like we talked about before, they've got a lot of depth. But against the Bruins, like you said, it's going to be very tough to find a match up against that top line. And the crazy thing is, like, that top line through the first round and a half in these playoffs was not very good.

They weren't scoring a lot at even strength. Marshawn, I thought was very good. Well, Paschranachan, I think. Yes, Pasternak was definitely hurt. Marshawn was really struggling on the defensive side. But as the playoffs have gone on, they've gotten healthier, which is like the opposite of what's supposed to happen. And everyone seems to have rounded into form.

like we said they were getting more in sync it could just be that they're getting healthier and uh man that's just a dangerous line to try to handle and i i i wonder if there's even a way to handle it you know what i mean like it's almost one of those situations where if you're the opposing coach do you kind of just sacrifice a line to them and hope that they don't do too much damage and then try to get all your best players on against their other lines like That's a dangerous game to play in the Stanley Cup final. But even if, you know, maybe O'Reilly against Bergeron might be like the ultimate defensive stalemate. But yeah, well, I think I think Baroubae will be comfortable using that fourth line against them.

And if you're looking at the idea of like sacrificing a line and then trying to free up the other guys. But I imagine, like I said, in these games, I don't know how aggressively. I don't think they're going to go completely out of their way and not use the Bergeron. line whenever Teresanko and Schwartz aren't out there and purely just glue them to them. But if you are the Bruins, I think you'd identify Schwartz and Teresanko as the two biggest threats and the fact they play on the same line. It makes neutralizing them a bit easier from the perspective of just loading up your defense against them and then worrying about all the other guys after that.

So I think that's what we'll see. And, you know, Chara has had an up and down this postseason. I'd say much more down than up, even though the team's been winning. he's looked every bit his age and he's really really really struggled with speed and Teresenko might not be the worst matchup for him because his game is much more predicated on power than speed and I think Charra's reach and his physicality might actually in this rare instance might actually be a decent matchup for them you know teresenko is obviously a great offensive threat but just in terms of the way he creates his offense off the rush

I feel like it'll be a bit easier for Charra to keep up with him than it has been against some of these other teams where the blazing speed coming down the right wing has just made him look silly. Right. And Teresanko loves to do that little like faint deak and shoot through the legs move, right? Or like try to get around the defender and get a better shooting position. He loves to do those little deeks in the offensive zone. Kind of tough to deke around Zeno Char.

You know, unless you're attacking with a lot of speed where you can get him moving laterally, it's hard to move around that guy. He's got, you know, despite his age, one of the best stick checks in the league, and he's just big. You know, there's a lot to shoot around. So that is a matchup that I'd like to see play out, see who has the advantage.

Because you're right, I think that more than other star players in the league today, he probably has an advantage against Teresanko. Well, and I don't think this is groundbreaking stuff to say that the blues are at their best when Teresanko is at his. best considered he's their most lethal offensive player but it's pretty clear it depends if you're talking to ken hitchcock but as he got it going on in that series against san Jose like it was it was very

clear obviously the offense where he scored three goals and had the five assists in that series or one thing but he did it felt like he was just like his fingerprints were all over that series as it got going on and and he was creating so much stuff offensively for them and when he gets cooking like that it takes their ceiling to a whole another level and so getting him away from bergeron and charro will be pretty imperative, but obviously if he gets a lot of those minutes and he can still create stuff with them, that'll go a long way towards setting the blues up to win the other minutes and give them enough offense to actually carry them in the series. Yeah, absolutely.

Do you think the blues can win if Vince Dunn isn't healthy? I mean, they did it against the sharks. True, but that was like one or two games, right? So, I mean, listen, you and I have talked about this. I'm the leader of the Vince Dunn fan club. I think he is an awesome player that should be playing higher up their lineup and be getting more minutes. And his puck moving ability, especially against this Bruins forecheck and how much they create in that regard will go a long way. And I'm not sure.

Are there any reports right now in terms of whether he'll be ready to go or not? He's listed as day to day. but I mean more like even if he plays if he's hindered by any in a significant way right I think he's just been so good in these playoffs you know and I looked at you know obviously San Jose had their own injuries which helped the blues prevail over them in the end but I don't think you can play Jay Bowmanister 24 minutes against the Boston Bruins I just don't think it's a thing that you can do and have success no well and then done like I like this blues uh defense core but done provides them with a much needed kind of like dynamic element where he's like a bit of a wild card and can create stuff randomly that they don't have from a lot of these other players as effective as they are and and so i agree with that and that's another note that i had here that's something that i've noticed in this postseason with a lot of these teams that have been successful and and if others are paying attention out there they'll notice that all these teams have like they generally devote their third pairing to guys who um are kind of go against that convention like it felt like for a long time third pairing defensemen would be these like lumbering uh throwback defensive defenseman that you just get out there every so often and then now whether it's Vince

done whether like the sharks had jock and ryan i mean look at the bruin's their third pairing for a while has been matt grislich and coner clifton and and like dean kukin on columbus like there's so many of these guys that are just these slick undersized offensive defensemen. And I've been thinking like, because typically assuming you're relying on your top pair or your top two pairs to play against the other team's best players and have them out for all those situations,

you're going to have a sheltered third pair that's going to be playing softer minutes, whether it's in terms of zone starts or whether it's in terms of tertiary competition. So wouldn't it make sense that you'd have guys who could actually create offensively in those softer minutes as opposed to just wasting them on your Roman Polax and your Robert Bertuzos of the world? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think we are in 100% agreement on that. Just like, unfortunately, very little for me to add. Well, and I guess the point is that the Matt Grislyx and the Vince Duns of the world, you probably shouldn't even be on your third pairing. They should probably be playing top four minutes because they're very, very good. This is true. I mean, we've been beating that drum forever. I mean, give those guys a chance.

It's usually, like, there's always cases where a guy that looks like, he might be an analytics darling or whatever can't hack the tougher minutes like what were the wars a couple summers ago but i forget the name of the defenseman finished defenseman in Dallas julius honka the honka don't yeah and clearly that hasn't worked out he hasn't really had much of a chance but i think it's fair to say he's not going to be a top four defenseman but then there are guys that you know have good numbers and seem to be able to hack it in tougher minutes and that seems to happen fairly consistently in the NHL these days. You look at a guy that was given a spot duty for forever in Mark Barbario,

and then Montreal tried him out on the third pair. He was excellent. They moved him up to the second pair. He was excellent. He went over to Colorado, and they had put him on the first pair because of the injuries. He was still excellent. I believe he had a bad year last year. I don't remember, but I think he's a player that maybe the prime of his year was wasted

in just not being given a chance. well i think yeah having like identifiable skills whether it's skating or puck movement or or or something um is like what you're looking for in terms of translating it into higher opportunities up the lineup and it's clear those guys have it you know you're mentioning you're mentioning bow meester there and how much he's playing and i think probably the blue's most important player or highest leverage player here is going to be colin preco i thought he was their best skater against the sharks he led them in ice time he did it primarily primarily playing with Jay Beaumister and playing against the Sharks' top line.

And when he was out there, San Jose wasn't really able to create anything because Golden Breco is that good. And especially in terms of using that reach and dictating the terms of the play through the neutral zone with the transitions and watching him play is such a delight because it just seems unfair that a guy with that 6-6 frame of his can move as well as he does and also possesses the offensive skill he does with the puck on his stick. Like, I think Brandon Carlo, who is roughly the same body type, I'd say, also moves very, very well for a player of his size. But then sometimes you watch him with a puck on his stick and he looks like he literally just learned how to play hockey.

And it's kind of funny to watch. And then you watch Preyko and you're like, oh, my God, this guy has the skills of Vince Dunn. He's just like seven or eight inches taller or whatever. Yeah, and it's going to be interesting to watch. So would you say Pereko is your like X factor for the Blues? Yeah, because I think that they're, Craig Brewba is going to want to have him out against that Bruin's top line as much as possible. And if he's assuming he's able to do so and assuming,

see, the problem is, is that they're so committed to having Bowmeister out there with him, that that's like kind of the scary part because that means Bowmeister probably will be playing those types of volume, volume of minutes that you were suggesting the Blues can't get away with. so that's not ideal but at least it means preiko's out there and he gives them the best chance i think with his like ability to disrupt plays and get into passing lanes and and i think make it uncomfortable for the bruin's top line to do what they like to do the offensive zone with it i think he gives them the best chance of actually neutralizing that a little bit and slowing them down at least enough

to give the blues a fighting chance so i do think i think if he plays up to his capability and he leads them a nice time i think that gives them the best of the best chance and i think that gives them the chance to win this yeah yeah i think that's a that's a good pick who would be your x factor for the brunes sorry i'm interviewing you on your own podcast now oh that's my rick uh that's tough i mean it seems like a cop out to say to karaas continuing to play as well as he has because i think that it goes without say that whichever goalie plays better that that team's probably going to win this series um i don't know i guess i guess it might be it might be chara's capability to hold up against teresaenko and have an advantage in that matchup from a power

respective like we hypothesized about. I don't know. What do you think from the Bruins angle? One guy that I want to watch is Tori Krug. I feel like he gets a lot of undue criticism. And, you know, that Charab Tarasango matchup is going to be interesting. But then there's all those other good blues players who've been so good offensively this playoffs.

I'm really interested to see how Tori Krug holds up. Because I think he's a lot better without the puck than people tend to believe. yeah i mean he's just a good player he's a very good player yeah very like he's he's sneaky he he he's chippy he he's a good puck mover amazing offensively he's creative uh there's a lot to respect about troy cruz game well see i think like when people talk about uh hockey sense i feel like it's a very nebulous term like people just throw that around it's like okay like what is that how do we actually identify that what does that mean i feel like when you watch a guy like Tori Krugge, you're like, okay, I guess that is what hockey sense is.

It just seems like he's in the right place at the right time. And it seems like he's like anticipating the play and sort of has a good feel for where the puck's going to go and what's going to happen. And I imagine that's what people are alluding to when they talk about hockey sense. Yeah, I mean, when I would talk about hockey sense, it would be like, Ovechkin always being open on the power play. You know, the kind of things that are mystifying, you're like, everybody knows the puck's going to go to Evchkin eventually. And yet he always finds a way to be open. It's just he knows how to get lost. You know, he knows how to get lost, how to get open, where the spots are going to be, that kind of stuff.

Yeah, it's nebulous for sure. But, yeah, that's, Tori Krug definitely applies. He's an applicable guy. I think Charlie Koehl is probably another guy that I'd be interested to see if he can carry his good playoff performance through to the Stanley Cup final. Well, yeah, I imagine, you know, him and Johans have been so good this postseason for the Bruins as deadline acquisitions. And, I mean, that's not necessarily the sexy answer, but it does feel like this series is going to be so. tight so whichever team continues to get the secondary scoring

they've gotten so far this postseason like that'll go a long way of the blues either from that third line or that fourth line are able to continue getting some unexpected offense or whether a coil and Johan's can keep it going like that's going to go a long way towards deciding this as well because we just I think we assume that the top guys

might not cancel each other out but like they're going to bring their A game and they're going to get the offense from all those household names so it's going to come down to some of that supporting cast yeah and you know this is a storyline that many people have mentioned probably because he's been a healthy scratch for most of the playoffs, but David Beckis is

in the Stanley Cup Final against the Blues. That's a weird one. I think we're going to, yeah, don't worry. The broadcast teams are going to make sure to point out of us. Yeah, don't worry. Stuff like that does not escape them. They're on it, man. It's true. It'll be in the game notes.

And then it'll be like, every time something happens, they'll pan to him in the press box. Oh, Mac. I kind of hope the Bruins come out strong to start the series. I really don't care either way who wins or how this goes, but just so that we don't have to hear about how them having 10 days off or whatever was a big deal, even though the Blues themselves have had a week off. Yeah, LeBruins had their scrimmage last night, so that'll be enough to get them in shape, I guess.

I don't know. I feel like the other thing that maybe goes in the Blues favor a little bit is I think the Blues have a much better fourth line. than the Bruins do. Like, Sean Corrali is okay, but Nordstrom doesn't do anything for me, and neither does Wagner. So that's an area where I look at the blues, and I'm like, okay, well, maybe they could lose a battle in, like, somewhere else in the middle of the lineup, but that fourth line matchup is going to go their way.

Yeah, no, for sure. And, you know, on the goaltending thing, we always talked about a lot about Rask and how good he's been, and Bennington has been up and down. his overall numbers aren't necessarily anything great, but I did notice that, you know, he obviously, he shut the door against the sharks. It was easy in that game six with the offensive talent they had out of the lineup,

but he gave up what, two goals combined in the final three games of that series, and he also, in the final couple games against the stars and the Jets really turned it on and shut the door on those teams. And I'm not saying he's like clutch or anything or has this DNA that'll help him get it done when it matters most, but he's just been, he's been good. And we've talked so much about Rask and how great he's been and how he'll probably win the cons might if the Bruins wind up winning

this series. But Binnington's ability to keep it going is going to be something to watch for as well, considering that he's coming up on 70 or so games now played this year if you combine the NHL and AHL stuff. So, and it's clearly territory that he's never physically had to venture into before. So I imagine that's an element of this as well. Yeah, for sure. And, I feel like Bennington, it's a blessing and a curse, but right now, because he's playing well and his team's winning, it's going to be like, oh, he has ice in his veins. He's so calm, cool, and collected. And next year when he struggles, I mean, like, he doesn't care.

No. And I've seen that broadcast opinion of goalies before. So that's my prediction. If he struggles next year at all, it'll be that Bennington doesn't care enough, not emotional enough. But hopefully he still get it puck handling, because, boy, does he like to play the puck? Got to play that puck. So what's your pick?

Oh man, my pick. I think I don't want to, but I just can't see the Bruins losing. I think they're just so much better at controlling the passing game that that's going to be the key to this one. They're so unbelievably good defensively at keeping those passes out of the slot and blocking them. And it's just really tough to generate really good chances against them. Yeah. Yeah, I have the Bruins in seven. Hopefully we'll get that game seven overtime you were asking for it'd be great

I'd love to see game seven overtime even if it's the Bruins winning it'd be extremely exciting yeah I mean I think this will be a tight series and I don't think anyone would be surprised if the Blues won it but I do think the Bruins possess a slightly higher gear and I think it'll it'll make the difference in a series but I'm excited like these are two really really good teams and this is a a matchup that's fitting of a Stanley Cup final because these two teams over the past 25 to 30 games as we said were probably the two best teams in the league so it's cool to see them duke it out here in the seven game final for uh for all the marbles

yeah for sure oh last last question dmitri yep if the blues win the first person they pass the cup to is probably j bow meester right uh because he's the old guy yeah but colen preco will carry it for him nice nice but do the brunes pass it to back his first oh uh only if it only if the clinching game is in Louis. Oh, would the blues fans cheer for that? A little bit, maybe. And you think like the golf clap? Yeah, like there will be like one slow tier rolling down their cheeks.

All right. All right. Plug some stuff, man. Can I let the people out? Yeah, so I'm going to have a big preview for this series coming out this weekend on Sportsnet and I haven't got too much else going on because it's, you know, the slowdown of the season. A couple articles a week on the Stanley Cup finals on Sportsnet.

But other than that, it's almost vacation time. Yeah. Well, we've got the draft and free agency as well, so that'll be fun to watch for. But you're right. We're winding down here, and it's been a marathon, but it's been fun. And thanks for coming on the show and doing this preview with me. I wouldn't have done it with anyone else. And we'll chat with you soon.

It's my pleasure, man. Thanks for having me, as always. Cheap. Geocast with Dimitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich. and on SoundCloud at SoundCloud.com slash HockeyPedioCast.