The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 352: Quarantine Rewatch, Capitals vs. Canadiens 2010

Episode Date: April 16, 2020

Andrew Berkshire helps deep dive the 2010 first round series between the Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens, which wound up being one of the most stunning upsets ever and helped launch an endless supply of bad takes about Alex Ovechkin. The categories we cover include:4:00 An upset of epic proportions16:00 Setting the stage for how we got here31:30 Jaro Halak's legendary performance 37:00 Bruce Boudreau camera shots41:00 Criticism Ovechkin took for this series52:00 How remarkably well Ovechkin has aged1:02:00 The hockey world wasn't ready for Mike Green1:11:30 TSN Turning Point and Most Rewatchable Sequence1:18:00 Biggest Heat Check Performance1:24:00 Doc and Eddie's Commentary Corner1:30:00 Most Unanswerable Questions1:39:00 Apex Mountain Stay safe, get comfortable at home, kick back with a beverage of your choice, and watch along with us here. You can also go back into the archives of the show and catch up on the previous Quarantine Rewatchables we’ve already done: Penguins vs. Red Wings 2009 Bruins vs. Maple Leafs 2013 Canucks vs. Blackhawks 2011 Flyers vs. Penguins 2012 See 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 joining me for the fifth installment of the PDOcast quarantine rewatchable. It's my good buddy, Andrew Berkshire. Andrew, what's going on, man? Not much, just to, you know, survive in this quarantine, stuck inside the apartment with a toddler, which at times can be great and at times is a little bit frustrating, but we get through it. It's fun. Keeps you busy. Very much so.

I have less time now than before, which I thought was probably likely, but still pretty crazy. Well, that's good, because if I certainly have a lot of time, on my hands. So that's why I've been going back and rewatching these old games and deep died crap out of them. And it's been a fun little escape. So hopefully people listening along, I know a few of you have reached out and have even asked what the next one we're going to be doing is. You can go ahead and prepare. And I love that. So yeah, hopefully everyone's watching these games. They're all available on YouTube and their full entirety. And before we started recording, you and I were just talking about how this Havs, Caps, 2010, Game, 7 game that we watched actually holds up pretty

well not to cheat ahead and tease the what age the best segment but the entire series in the game itself actually aged pretty well just rewatching like the quality of hockey wasn't nearly as outdated as you'd think it would be considering it happened a decade ago yeah and no offense to montreal canadians but i think a lot of that had to do with the the utter dominance of the washington capitals in just how offensively talented they were the pace of those games was incredible. It didn't feel 10 years old. And I know part of that is just, you know, memories from me as well. It's a very nostalgic series to look back on. But yeah, I was very surprised at how much more entertaining it was than I thought it was going to be. Because I was, I think I looked back thinking,

you know, that was just all halak and the Canadians were terrible defensively. But I was surprised that there was some interesting strategies going on that maybe, uh, maybe, made things a little bit easier on Halak than I thought in my memory. Not that he wasn't fantastic. He was. He was the linchpin for what allowed them to win that series. But there was some good hockey going on there. Yeah, it was a bit trotting in the sense that the cap's volume of looks was certainly

through the roof. And there was no doubt that they had outplayed the Canadians. But I don't think the raw shot or shot at them totals necessarily paint the full picture. Because I think throughout the series, you kind of notice and the commentators kept hammering at home. that the haves were sort of trying to give the caps, especially on the power play shots that they could live with, kind of from the outside or from certain regions

where they felt like Calac could easily stop it himself as opposed to just kind of freewheeling it and letting everything go. Because I think if they had just opened it up and played a back-and-forth running gun series, the Capitals would have run them out of the building in four games. So it was really interesting to see that. But we're going to get into all that before we do a few housekeeping things. I want, first off, I hope everyone's staying safe, staying indoors watching these games go watch them on youtube we've already done four this is the fifth

one we're doing of the series please go leave a rating and review on iTunes we really appreciate that and I think the common theme of these games obviously they're all kind of classics but there's also a little something in there for everyone I think rather than just watching random games and I've just kind of strategically been picking ones that are big kind of crossroads moments for the NHL or key historical players so this one certainly fits that bill as well and that kind of leads us to the legacy of this game. And I think, you know, looking back at it now, it's funny because our good buddy Dom Blue's Chicken recently posted his sort of retroactive model for this 29-10 season, giving the odds for all the series, giving sort of his model of how all the players

the season did as well in terms of the value. They added to their teams. And the numbers were kind of startling to look back and see that the caps, he had this as the caps going into it as an 82% favorite to beat the Canadians, but he also had them as a 24% favorite to win the cup this season right there with the Blockhawks who actually did wind up going on and winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 postseason. So it was just kind of to point the picture of how big of an upset this was. And it got me thinking of whether this was the biggest or most jarring upset that we've really seen in our lifetime or I guess this most recent um incarnation of kind of modern hockey yeah I mean I think the only one that really compares to it was the Columbus sweep of the

lightning last playoffs right and that was such a crazy thing not just to beat them but sweep them but I think there was much less differentiation between the blue jackets and the lightning last year than the Canadians and the capitals this year whereas like yes the lightning were phenomenal last year, but the caps were just as good, if not maybe better, and the Canadians were not nearly as good as last year's Blue Jackets. You know, they didn't load up on any star players like Matt Duchesne at the deadline, and they just barely even scraped into the playoffs that year. It was a season of so many question marks basically rebuilt on the fly after the Canadians

blew it up right before their centennial year. So it's such a weird situation. to jump into. And yeah, I don't know if there's any series that's ever been like it. I think the closest maybe would be like the San Jose Sharks upset back when they were an expansion team, right? Like, that's probably how far back we have to go to get a similar shock. Yeah, the two that I have are, I think the 06 Red Wings losing to the Oilers in round

one. I remember being really shocked by that. I think, unfortunately, we don't really have like the underlying numbers for that. But I get the feeling that the Red Wings back in that era were like the best. five-on-five possession team in the league so I think we would have looked at that at that as a pretty big upset and then yeah the lightning in the jackets I think the fact that the lightning got swept makes it like so jarring because at least this was a close game seven series ultimately decided by one goal in the canadian's favor for lightning to get swept but at the same time

uh I might do that for this rewatchables as well go back and watch them because I remember you and I podcasting at the time and being like certainly sergey bobrowski just outplayed vaselievsky and sometimes series boil down to that but it's not like it was a complete PTO bender where the blue jackets were just getting out shot 50 to 25 every game and just hanging their hat on their goalie like they just brought the fight to the lightning in a very sort of technical way where they were just forechecking the crap out and they were limiting their time and space they were just played really really good hockey for four games and kind of blitzed them and the lightning were a bit taken aback so it was much more explainable than than this where it's just like Holy crap, how are the HABs doing this beyond just pure luck? Yeah, and also I think Victor Hedman was injured in that series. I think he missed a couple games and also wasn't playing at his peak. Kuturov got suspended for a game.

Yeah, Kuturov got suspended. So there's little things like that that kind of underlie everything. Like you said, Vaselowski didn't have a great series. But yeah, this Blackhawks team, or not sorry, not Blackhawks got confused with the 2010 thing. This Capitals team just like it seemed like they, every time they got a chance it felt like this was going to be the time that the dominoes fell right

like every time they scored it was like all right here we go they're going to go on the roll but they just never found a way after like game four to really break through and like build that momentum they always had like extended offensive zone

you know chances and like presences but they never found a way to like score in bunches right And when they were doing that in the two games in Montreal especially, you know, you could see this was like an insurmountable hill for the Canadians to climb, but it just somehow they shook them. And, you know, I think part of it definitely comes down to special teams, which is, you know, you ask one of the questions is what age the worst. I think this Canadian style of play where like the hyper defensive counterattack style, it still exists now. You know, like the Arizona Coyotes play that way, but special teams are so much less of a factor now

because there just aren't nearly as many power plays as there were back then. So you can't really bank on that to win a playoff series as much, whereas like the Capitals had the best power play in the league that year, and I think they went one for 33 in the series, which makes no sense. But the Canadians did a fantastic job of shutting them down. Yeah, the Capitals had more shorthanded goals on the Habs powerplay than they had their own power play goals in the series. So, yeah, it's pretty bonkers. I think I should correct myself, I said earlier, about how big of the cap, favorite the caps

were. The odds makers in Vegas had the caps is 82% favorites. Dom's model only had them as 77%. But 24% to win the cup, like 40% to make the cup final, 60% to come out of the east. And I think we are all heading into this, thinking that we were headed for a collision course for Capitals, Penguins, rematch, obviously the year before in 2009, they'd met and had that classic game seven, which the penguins wound up winning on route to winning the Cups. So the penguins were heading into this postseason as the defending champs.

The Capitals were coming in as the one seed. And it felt like we were really going to get that rematch of Crosby versus Lvechkin. And what I didn't really remember until really deep diving this series is how many twists and turns there were. Like I remembered the ultimate result and how stunned I was at the time. But I kind of forgot that the caps had gone up three wide in the series. that Halak had actually been not only pulled, but actually replaced for a full game by Carey Price when Carrie Price started Game 4. You know, Varlamov takes over the crease from Jose Theater in Game 2 and never gives it back.

There were a couple of blown leads here or there. So it was really this winding series that had so many different peaks and valleys for both teams and just diving back into our world and just remembering sort of, I can't even imagine how bad the takes would have been after every single game. as it happened during the peak of the Twitter era. Yeah, I mean, this was already like the beginning of the Twitter era and it was pretty feisty. And this was actually the series when, or not the series, but I started writing about hockey this year. So I guess it's been 10 years that I've been writing about hockey now, which is kind of weird to think about.

But yeah, it's really going back, I know both of us watched the YouTube like 10 to 20 minute highlight packs at the end. NHL had back then for this whole series. And it was interesting to see, you know, how early the Capitals kind of got frustrated. And you watched that first game. And I remember that the Cat, like, the first game isn't remembered as much as a great Halak performance. But I think outside of maybe Game 6, game number one might have been his best performance. He was phenomenal in that game.

And I think the Caps had something like 42 or 43 shots. and the Canadians capitalized on a couple quick goals and you know I think Jose Theater kind of gets unfairly maligned he only let in the one kind of soft goal on I think it was Gianta but both Gianta goals in the first two games were just like ones he probably should have stopped but overall he made some great saves in that game and then the Placanic overtime winner which was at the time I don't know if you remember but Placanic had chirped the capitals before the series saying

that like it's not like they had Marta and Broder in that so they were not worried about getting goalied and josie theater said uh who said that uh thomas yager and then there was a bunch of like thomas yager memes right after he scored never went into photoshop like the yager mullet onto uh on to thomas mechanic and that was that was a meme for like three seasons for the canadians afterwards but yeah it was really early in that series that they kind of got shook and you can tell the change in their style from game one to game two is they really tried to get in Halak's kitchen. And you look at the goals that they scored in a game that they won game two.

I think at least two of them were like very clearly gold-hander interference and it just didn't get called. And there were a few other situations where they like didn't score or something got called off on a hand pass. And they were just like running Halak out of the net. And that happened throughout the series. It was just like they, this guy got in their head real fast and they decided they just had. to muscle him. And I remember going into it, that was kind of the book on Halakas that he couldn't really stand his ground down low. And if he got like pushed around, he would shrink. And he really didn't. You know, he stood up. He did get muscled around a lot, but he found a way to stand

his ground. I think a lot of the saves that he made that were the big game, game changing ones, were just like in tight jam plays. Right. He just managed to find a way to keep the bottom of the clean and it's incredible to watch retrospectively because as great as Halak was you look at the quality of the chances that the capitals got and I was looking at things that I look for now like pre-shot movement and how much the puck's going east-west and you hear the commentators constantly going on like oh the caps need to play more north-south north-south but they were they're playing north-south like crazy they actually abandoned that east-west style very early in the season and I think it was

Billy Jaffe later in the series was saying like, oh, well, you know, you've got lots of skill, but you got to play with more grit. And, like, they were super gritty. People forget how big that Capitals team were. I think their average height was like six two or something. Like, they were monsters. Well, you talk about kind of getting frustrated and crossing out of line

a bit of it in terms of how they were handling Kalagic. It actually culminates in this game seven where Obetchikan scores the goal to Tired 1-1, and it gets called back because Mike Knoebel, I believe, had had his kind of foot in the crease. And it was a very borderline call, but I think it was the right call where he didn't let Calac come out fully and sort of square up for the shot. But yeah, I think in general, when you watch these games, and I don't think we've

necessarily ironed it out even in 2020, the commentators really don't know how to speak about goaltending. Yes. And I think you and I even probably don't know how to speak about gold. And I mean, there's a select few that can kind of talk about it from a technical perspective, but then we even struggle to grasp, like, what makes a good goalie, why the performance is so volatile. But in a lot of these games, and this one in particular, Billy Jaffe is going on and on about how the only ways to beat Halak are up high where it's that's his weakness. And then, like, she's struggling through traffic.

And it's like, yeah, that's literally every goalie. If you take away their eyes and have a perfect shot that goes off the bar and in, it'll probably go in. Whereas if you shoot it on the ground, goalies are so athletic and big these days, even back in 2010. and that they'll probably get a pat on it. Like that's that's not analysis. That's not unique to halak. That is true of literally every NHL goalie, I think. Yeah, I mean, I think the takeaway is that if you shoot it to the empty spots

where the goalies aren't, you have a better chance of scoring, right? Yeah. I hear there's more room in the top of the net than the bottom. It helps. It helps. Yeah. Although sometimes you should shoot it, not where the goalie isn't, but where you think he's not going to be, you know?

It's like soccer penalty shots. logic right there right um okay so let's set the scene a little bit more just so we can uh kind of lay the groundwork and then we're going to get into all the categories so the capitals enter this postseason i'm going to rattle off some stats here they were 54 15 and 13 121 points they easily won the president's trophy they had a plus 86 gold differential the sharks and the black hawks out west were fairly close to that the best eastern conference teams beyond the caps and this dates this series are the Buffalo Sabres at plus 30. Wow.

And the New Jersey Devils at plus 30. So it's a pretty big gap there. The Capitol is just smoking everyone out east. They had the first ranked offense at 5 on 5 on the power play. And overall, all situations, 3.77 goals, 4 per 60 is behind only the 2018-19, Tampa Bay Lightning, unsurprisingly, as the best offense in the analytics era going back to 2007. It's worth noting the Capitals didn't have. the luxury of three on three over time. So I think they were actually a more prolific offense.

If you take that out of the equation, they had eight, 20 goal scorers. Well, actually had seven, but I'm counting Mike Green's 19 here because he missed a bunch of times. So let's just say for the part of this exercise, they had eight, 20 goals scores, seven guys with 50 points. It's funny to compare that to the HABS, where their leading goal scorer,

Brian Gianta had a nice, modest 28 goals. Mike Knoebel playing with Ovechkin and Baxson in the season at 29. Thomas Picanich led the halves with 70 points. So Ovecgen only plays 72 games in this season, which is by far the lowest of his career for a full season. He still winds up with 50 goals, 109 points, wins to Ted Lindsay, just misses out on the heart to Henrik Sidene.

Mark, sorry, Backstrom has 101 points. It's his only year with over 90 points, which was kind of surprising to me. But I guess it was a different time. had 40 goals. So this was a, you know, just a well-rolled machine offensively. And when you compare them to this HAB's team that was clearly had a very different identity and they made so many changes themselves heading into this season. And you and I were talking about it, but before we got on air, but it was kind of, they were in this desperation mode where they have this ownership

change where I believe the Molesons buy like 80% of the share of the team for 500 plus million, which I don't know how that works with inflation. but that seems like a pretty good price based on how we know how sports franchises have aged. But they bring in Jacques Martin to coach the team. They completely renovated the roster, right? Like they let Saku-Koivu go, Alex Kovalev leaves, Alex Tangay leaves. They trade Chris Higgins, Mike Commiseric leaves. They trade Gilmata-Andres, Robert Lang leaves.

They bring in, they spend a bunch of money on both Camelari and Giantez free agents. They trade for Scott Gomez. They trade for best. in Wapuliot. They spent a bunch of money to kind of revamp their blue line and they bring in Hal Gil, Yaros Pachek. They bring in Travis Mowen on a relatively long-term deal for a player of his type and I was surprised to see how big a role he played in the series where I think in game five or game six, the commentators were sort of raving about how Jacques Martin had moved Travis Mowen up to play with Gomez and Gianta and how that had really sparked that line. So yeah, there was a lot

going on here with this Habs team where it was pretty much a new look team. I kind of forget how that was received. Like, how were people talking at the time about all of those changes? Because clearly, you know, when you let Saku Koevu go and some of these sort of nostalgic but also veteran guys who had been relatively productive for them the year prior, it is a pretty big change. At the same time, the guys they were bringing in were also big names themselves. It was kind of just like moving all of these chess pieces around. Yeah, I mean, there was, I don't know if you know this, but Scott Gomez was not well loved. in Montreal.

He was good in this series though. He was great in this series. And this first season for Montreal, like people really maligned him because of what happened after. But his first year in Montreal was solid. He was very good second line center and kind of facilitated a great year for Thomas Placanich, right? Because he wasn't the only guy carrying the bag all the time, which ended up being the

case for several seasons after that because Gomez kind of fell off the cliff. but yeah some of the moves they worked out Gianta and Camilleri worked out splendidly Hal Gil did what he was supposed to do Gomez worked out short term

but not really long term obviously and the price they paid was completely absurd even at the time and yeah it was a very tumultuous time I think there was a lot of consternation because people really believed in Guy Carbono and his vision

from the previous year before he got fired and a lot of people kind of blamed Kerry Price for that and it was partially on price because the season before he had started out like one of the best goaltenders in the NHL and then he suffered a high ankle sprain right around the all-star game and chose to play in the all-star game anyway and like didn't miss any time and just played the rest of the season he was terrible he never really recovered and then this season you know struggled out of the gate a little bit and halak took the job so he was facing a lot of

pressure as well and a lot of fan ire so there was that and uh yeah i don't think people really knew what to expect from this team just because they were really up and down all season long they had some great moments like the centennial game where my camelary was phenomenal uh you know even guys like glen metropolitan were kind of fan favorites uh it was it was a weird year and you look at the roster now and you look at that defense and outside of andre markov and then when they called up P.K. Subban, it's, it's not a lot of talent there. You know, like, you have to give Jacques Martin some credit for coaching to the roster that he had. And you look at their style of play, like Hammerlick, neither guy in their primes anymore. Hal Gill, Josh

George's, none of these guys are going to move the puck very well. And then you've got Ryan O'Burn as well. Yeah. Like, these are not guys who are, you know, complete players in the NHL anymore and they just stuck with this hyper defensive style of I guess kind of man-to-man hockey but just aggressive aggressive on the puck carrier and closing down passing lanes and I was shocked at how disruptive the Canadians were defensively at just keeping the capitals from getting the puck through the middle and you can see like when you watch the other games especially the ones where the capitals won is when those when those systems broke down it was like bang bang bang, everything's in the back of the net right away. As soon as the capitals did get those high

quality chances, they were the capitals. But the Canadians did a fantastic job preventing them from doing so. And I was really surprised how well they played defensively compared to like the narrative in my mind that I'd built up that it was all halak and like just shot blocking. Yeah, the issues with that system, like I think it still does work as you see with certain teams. the issue is, especially in a seven-game series, where one little mistake can compound into just a series of errors, and then it could just like, it could really snowball from there. You really, your margin for error shrinks so much. But obviously, you know, if you don't have the resources, if you're going to have the talent

or the firepower, you kind of have to make it work with the roster. I wonder how much of that was sort of a concerted effort, because clearly, especially with their blue line, like they paid heading into this season, they had paid Hal Gill. and Yarrow Spotcheck pretty handsomely as UFAs to come. And so especially they ain't giving like a three-year contract to Travis Mow. And I think they certainly wanted to play that way. But it's funny to look at their underlying resume this season where at 5-on-5, their 28th in shot share, their 26th and expected goals.

But their second and 5-on-5, say percentage, their fifth overall. They're kind of progressively using this price-halak tandem where each guy's playing around 40 games and keeping them fresh. and it was weird to see that they also had the second rank powerplay for some reason this year, just behind the caps, and they outscored them on the power play 6 to 1 in this series. So I'm not sure how much of that was just fluky randomness or not, but it was weird to kind of look back at that and go like, huh. And they were using Mark Andre Bergeron as a seventh defenseman, but basically like a fourth line designated hitter in this series as the series went along, where he was just out there for the power play.

and it pays off in game seven because he scores this beautiful one-timer, and it's like, oh, it's really weird to see a player use this way. But, I mean, he made a career of basically being a very one-dimensional player in that regard. Yeah, and I don't think their power play success was really that fluky, because you look back at that era of hockey, and the Canadians had a phenomenal power play essentially every single year. I think it was still Kirk Muller in charge of it then. I think this isn't coaches where Kirk Muller and Perry Pern at this point.

and yeah andre markov was like the powerplay wizard back then he made sheldon so well he didn't make sheldon sorry he was a great player in his own right but him and sheldon sorry were killer him and mark and d'rjad burseran were killer him and suban were killer like it was just no matter who you put with andre markov they were going to tee up those point shots and they were going to score and that style of power play doesn't really exist anymore it's it's not as successful uh goalies are better at stopping those shots systems were better at defending against them. So it doesn't look that great today, but back then it was really, really good. And you look at Mark Andre Bergeron, yeah, like you said,

his designated hitter status. I think as much as you look at earlier in the series in Bergeron, like every single mistake that he made when ended up in the back of the net, I think he was like minus eight coming into this series, despite playing like five to ten minutes a game. which, you know, when he was playing at even strength, he was an adventure, but the poise that he had to be able to be an effective power play player

without really ever getting to warm up, I find that super impressive. Like that shot he got in Game 7 that opened the scoring, that was like the turning point to that game. In the first period, I was surprised, like very kind of, not necessarily slow, but both teams looked a little nervous, which happens a lot in game sevens. And there was like a feeling out period and nobody really got that many great chances.

And then at the end of the period, the Canadians get that four on three powerplay. And those power plays with that much space, you know, they're always super dangerous. And then that little, the way that Gomez was able to draw over the Capitol's defender and just completely open up Bergeron for that goal,

you knew it was going in before the pass was even made, right? Yeah. Like it was super obvious to everyone from the stands not necessarily on the ice, I guess. But yeah, I have huge respect for Bergeron being able to do that and make such a big impact, despite barely playing. But yeah, it was crazy. Let me, so let's get to the game seven.

So in game one, the haves win a three to an overtime. Placanich wins it with a beautiful shot. The shots were to 47 to 38 for the caps. Game two, Theodore gets yanked eight minutes in with the caps down two-nothing. The haves go up four-one. Ovechkin just takes the game over and just basically physically wails a couple of pucks into the back of the net,

which is sheer force. It was more Baxter in that game, wasn't it? Backstrom had the Hattrick, but Ovechkin was just like, bullying the puck into scoring areas, basically. Like, he wasn't even like transitioning it with skating. He was just like carrying defenders on his back and then just getting into Baxter.

It was weird to see them kind of switch, switch identities or switch roles here, but Batshrom wins it with a Hattrick goal 30 seconds into overtime. What was interesting to me in that, And that highlight pack was John Carlson wasn't really used that much in this series. Like he was playing around like 19, 20 minutes. I believe he plays only 19 minutes in game seven. But he creates two goals here with like beautiful vision.

And it's weird to see that I know he was still young at the time. And he had just come off that World Junior Championship performance. But, you know, similar to haves in terms of like defensemen they trust. Like there was so much more like Tom Pody and Joe Corvo and guys who probably gave the capital were a shot at winning, but I guess they just didn't trust John Carlson to fully open it up. But in this game, the shot attempts were 85 to 42 for the Caps, and the shots on goal were 37-24. Then we go to Montreal. Halak gets pulled halfway through the second for Cary Price. Caps win, 5-1.

It's probably like the least closely contested game of the series where it was never really in doubt. The shots on goal are 36 to 27 for the Caps. So they basically are holding a 10 shot per game advantage so far. In game four, carry price starts for the habs. The habs are actually up to one late in the second. And then they give up this brutal shorthanded goal where Roman Hammerlick messes up. And the wheels kind of come off after their Ovechkin takes over. And the caps wind up winning 6-3 after a couple empty netters.

And the shot attempts in this game are 73 to 58. And the shots on goal are actually 39, 38 for the habs. So they actually outshot them by one, but I think it's because they were really pushing at the end of the game. Game five, Camilleri scores 90 seconds in. Travis Mowens playing up with Giantae and Gomez and the commentators are raving about what a tactical adjustment that was by Jacques Martin. So the haves are up to nothing, pretty much for the entirety of the game. They wind up winning 2-1. Shots on goal are 38-28 caps.

I should say, Harl Halak got inserted back into game five here after getting basically a game and a half off. in game six back in montreal the crowd is absolutely crazy like halak made probably i'd say conservatively 12 to 15 just highway robbery like point blank saves and after each one every time he stops the puck it's like a standing ovation and it's just deafening and this is just from watching it goes crazy youtube feed and it's just like i can't even imagine what it was like to be in that building but the shot attempts were 94 to 47 the cats the shots on goal are 15 to 22. Oh.

And the Habs win for one. So we get this game seven, and we're going to deep dive the game seven, but just to give you the shot profile, it's 94 to 38 for the caps in game seven. The shots on goal are 42 to 16. So for those counting at home, the shots on goal for the series are 292 for the caps, 194 for the Canadians. Shot attempt, 576 to 381. and we're at this point now where

no matter what the capital seem to do, it's just like Yarrowhalak is just in God mode basically and it's just not going to happen. So anyways, that's at the scene for how we got to this game seven. Let's get into the categories now. What age is the best?

I'm going to open the floor to you. What age the best for you? Morris and press and foot? Like in the game or like long term for the players? Just game series, like, like, conceptually like anything. Like just. Oh man.

I think what age the best is probably Yarrowlach, just like the way that he's been able to, you know, continue being a great NHL player. Obviously, he's a second guy in a tandem now, and I think that's where he's best. And I think that you look back at the series and you look at the game where Yarra Halak was pulled, and I don't think any of it really justified it as like you're playing poorly. We need to get you out of there. But you look at Carey Price getting that game in Montreal, I think that Halak getting that time off is what facilitated his ability

to step it up in games five, six, and seven. And he's a guy that needs rest. But man, what a spectacular goaltender. And I just, I am so impressed, especially in, not necessarily in game seven, actually. In game six, like you were saying, some of the saves that he made, there was one sequence where it was just like four or five shots, right in front of his net rebounds that he was just stopping like crazy and then it ends with like spectacular glove saves and his performance in this series I think stands the test of time

better than anything else outside of maybe Ovechkins. Yeah, it's a superhuman performance. He went on to have one of the more underrated careers. He's up to 500 career starts in the league, 9-16% percentage for his career, but you look at it and basically he had like two dips. One was a weird 16 games in St. Louis in the 2013 lockout short in season where I think he was banged up. And then that 2018 Isles team where they were just a complete mess in front of him and Grice under Doug Waite. Those are the only two times he's ever been below or has a negative goal saved above expected. Five times he's had in the double digits of positive goals saved above expected. Like he's just been rock solid throughout his career.

I think the knock on him has always been kind of durability. especially in St. Louis, where it felt like whenever they wanted to just fully give him the crease and be like, okay, you're our number one. You're going to play every time. He'd have some sort of like a soft tissue injury and it would be out. And then they'd have to play Brian Elliott. And it was a bit frustrating. But you look at how he was used this season where he starts 43 games, price starts 39 for the habs. It was like kind of the perfect sort of allotment for him and perfect position. And now you look at where he's at in Boston, where he's basically similar timeshare on the lower end with Rask. but he's a UFA this summer. It'll be fascinating to see where he goes

and there's a ton of goalies in the market. But like if he, he could probably make more money elsewhere, but just playing on a good defensive team where he starts half the games seems to be like the best possible situation for him. So I want to be surprised to see if he stays. But, you know, it was funny to look at it where,

so he's sixth in goals saved above expected this year behind the usual as Ryan Miller, Henrik Lundquist, so on and so forth. He's got a 924 save percentage. So he leaves this summer. They trade it. for Lars Eller and then the Blues give him a four-year deal for 15 million total. This season, the Habs were spending less than $2 million combined on 24-year-old Yara Halak

and 22-year-old carry a price. So it's a pretty nice little value proposition for them to basically have two number one goalies making less than $2 million combined for this season. Yeah, that's a pretty good situation to go into. and I know the Canadians face so much criticism at the time for the Halak trade. And, you know, obviously you look back on it now and the career that Halak's had, you probably think you could have got a little bit more, but you look at goalie trades across the market.

And getting a solid third-line center, even though Eller, you know, kind of blossomed the most once the Canadians traded him to Washington of all teams, I think you haven't seen very many goleys traded for more than that over the last decade. So it's, there's lots of criticism that goes to Pierre Goce for not necessarily looking around the league because apparently he only talked to like St. Louis and two other teams. But in terms of value for what you can get for a goaltender, it's not that bad. And capitalizing on a player right after their peak performances, not usually a bad idea either.

So it's tough to, to really say if that trade was bad, person, say. But I think that based on what other goalies have fetched, not, not above or not below average anyway. Right. Yeah, I mean, he needed a new deal. And I think the haves had pretty little leverage considering I think everyone knew that, you know, Carrie Price was their guy. Yeah. I guess the, the area where you kind of quibble her and I pick is like, it's an all time high value for a lot coming off at this point. So it's like, you think that, but yeah, you're right. just how the goalie market works, I think, especially if you're dealing with a limited number of teams.

I imagine they did not want to trade him to a team and their division or in their conference and have him come back to bite them. So that makes sense. Here's what age the best for me. Camera pans to Bruce Boudreau after something bad happens to his team. They still do that to this day.

As well as Bruce Boutre can't stand to look. He just can't stand to look at what happened on Dominic Morgle. Dude, the best one, I think, has been, it was that wild jet series in 2018 when the jets just completely demolished the Minnesota Wild.

And then it's got that one where Bruce Boudreau's mad and he clearly swears, but someone captioned it, it says, darn, where he's like, where he's swearing.

Yeah, that one's really good. His head's just like exploding. There's so many photoshop where you can't even tell if someone intentionally red in his face and Burr,

or if it's actually just is his natural color. He's in this series, but in this game in particular, he is just absolutely apoplectic on the bench. Like, I think after the, after Dominic Moore scores to make it two nothing late in the game, the camera pans over and he's just like, his head is buried in his hands and he's just like, I just feel bad for him, but it's also such great comedy, especially since you know how the

next decade is going to pan out of him being just so memeable and giffable. So this was my kind of first memory of that being a thing. And it's funny because like some coaches pride themselves. I think, you know, Mike Babcock started a. or whoever, where it's like you take a drink of your water when your team gets scored on so the camera doesn't catch you swearing of your team or whatever, and you just kind of like take that moment for yourself and know that the camera is going to move away and then you can handle your business.

But for Blue Drow, like he was just so in and so emotional, he just couldn't help himself. But maybe back in 2010, he didn't even know that the camera was going to be focusing on him like that. You can almost like hear his internal monologue after that goal. And he's just like, he's rubbing his eyes with his fingers, head buried in his hands. And he's just like, how is this happening? like this is not possible but yeah it's hockey man anything is possible it's it's quite the random

sport and sometimes the randomness is extremely fun um what else is the best for me now that we've kind of had this full decade uh to kind of take a step back and get a full picture of view of it uh the teams they got in the way of the caps and particularly a levitgen i think because because you know in the moment, you kind of look at it on a year-to-year basis, right? And then after each playoff defeat or disappointment, you have this kind of emotional reaction, like, oh, the Caps disappointed again. They didn't get to their final destination. And this was clearly the most sort of inexplicable, unforgivable defeat because they were

clearly the superior team. And they should have won this matchup, obviously, as the President's trophy winner. But through the 2010s, like, they basically lose three. three times to Henrik Lundquist, and we wind up knowing that he's like the greatest goalie of his generation, and this was like during his absolute peak. And they lose three times to Crosby and Malkin in all three years the Penguins win the cup. Yeah. And, you know, they got swept by the bolts in 2011. They missed the playoffs in 2014. They had this one, this loss in 2010. But otherwise, like it was all very sort of believable defeats. Or it's like, oh, they just lost to either

a great player or a great team of their generation. So, you know, I'm sure it doesn't make Capps fans feel better by any means, but I think just looking back at it now, it's much easier to understand where things went wrong. Right. And I think this is the series that kind of sparked the meme of the Capitals being chokers, right? Because losing to the Penguins, losing to Henrik Lungfist is, you know, not necessarily a surprise. even if you're the best team in the league losing to the Penguins as like the second or third best team, it's not even doing it a couple times,

not that unlikely. But this is the one that really got a lot of the talking heads saying that like, oh, Vetchgen needs to change his game in order for the Capitals to win. And looking back on it, especially watching the whole series and highlights, it is unfathomable that Alex Ovechkin took criticism for this series. Stunning.

Oh my God, man. He was unstoppable. As unstoppable as a player can be offensively. Like, he just was such a powerhouse. And Ovechkin is still great. Don't get me wrong. But this Ovechkin is something else. Like, he was.

He's on a different level physically. It's, yeah. The thing that's really annoying, it's such a classic, like moving the goalposts to, make your argument work tactic where you know most of the time if you'd hold a team's playoff failures against their star player you'd be like oh this player disappeared in this big moment he just couldn't handle the pressure blah blah blah this and that right it's like how could you come away watching this series and make that argument you can't because he's just everywhere he's throwing his body around he's shooting a million bucks like he's clearly trying his best so instead you have

Billy Jaffe in this game commenting on how he's trying to do too much and how he's forcing it. And it's like, you gotta pick an angle here, my guy. Like, either he is choking or like, he's not.

And he's clearly not because he's trying his absolute best. Like, the moment is not too big for him, certainly. The habs are doing good job defending him. Some of his plays didn't work out. But that's just how it works. Like, he tries this move. If it works, the puck goes in the back of the net. It's a highlight reel.

We're marveling at how. remarkable it is but it's a high leverage high risk move it doesn't work out it gets pokechicked away and then all of a sudden it's like oh my god he is trying way too hard it's like he's forcing it's like exactly charge right away letting ovechkin know he doesn't want any after the whistle stuff but he doesn't need to do that stuff early on and that the fear the concern i have from bruce gudrow and as he told on bob harwood is that he's going to try and do too much early on to lead this team Don't get messed up in that junk after the whistle right there. Make your statement with your play from whistle to whistle.

And also, like, what other choice do you have but to force it when you have two guys hanging off you at all times? And like, let's also be real here. Like I talked about a goaltender interference by the Capitals. The Canadians, the interference that they were running on Ovechkin and, you know, the hooking and the hooking and the holding, there was a lot. And basically the referees looked at Ovechkin that, you know, like six, three or whatever he is and like 247 pounds. And you look at the Canadians being like an average height of 5.10. And they're like, well, you know, you're the big guy.

So deal with it, muscle through. And the fact is he just did. You know, there were a lot of plays where you had two guys hanging off of him and he would still get a shot off. And, you know, maybe that shot would end up being blocked or maybe Halak would make a great save. But it was incredible watching how he was able to just push through. such tight checking and you know maybe he wasn't as effective after game uh like maybe game four or five at getting open space because the canadians were so aggressive at checking ovechkin but like he

still got his shots he still got his opportunities it it's just incredible man like i was blown away by how great ovechkin was like i you know going in he's ovechkin he's going to be great but just he stepped it up so severely, like a bull in a china shop, the entire series, it's crazy to me that, like, still to this day you have people thinking that this is the guy who was a problem. And, you know, to a similar but not as great extent, Alex Semen, this is the series that kind of broke his fragile reputation, right? He had like, I think, 44 shots you were telling me in this series, which is crazy. And at one point, I don't know if it was Jaffe or if it was in the, I think it might have been McGuire earlier in the series because the series was split in coverage that was saying

that, oh, you know, Alex Semen doesn't usually shoot this much and he's shooting too much. And it was like, oh, my God, man. What can these guys do for people to understand that it's not necessarily poor performance? It's that things can vary over a short amount of time. And the Canadians were playing a suffocating style. And man, Simmons, some of the chances that he was getting, like, it's absurd. served that he didn't score. Yeah. No, I've got a big seven thing coming later on the show. For Oveckin, game

five plays 2447. And keep in mind, these are all like regulation games. Six shots on goal, nine attempts. Game six, 25, 34, eight shots on goal, 14 shot attempts. Game seven, 2335, 10 shots on goal, 18 shot attempts. And in this game seven, he's on the ice for 17 and a half minutes of five on five. the shots on goal are 17 to 1 at that time. Oh my God. So like, I mean, I get it.

And, you know, he was getting hard matches this series went along by Gill and Georges, and we'll talk more about them later as well. And they were clearly kind of sagging off and trying not to get beaten out wide and highlight real fashion or basically kind of like daring him to shoot from distance. But like, Ovetkin's made a career of scoring from those places. You know what I mean? Like, it's not, he's not like this guy where it's like for him to be. successful. He needs to be around the net kind of banging the puck home off rebounds. He's a one-shot

scorer from distance. He scored hundreds of goals beating NHL goalies cleanly from far away. That's just, he's a volume shooter. And when he nails the puck, he has a good chance of getting it past the goalie. And it just wasn't happening in the series. But I don't think that was some sort of tactical genius where the Habs figured out how to defend him because they did a good job, certainly but at the end of the day like i mean he still he had five goals in these seven games had 10 points like he certainly did his uh his job it just a matter yeah he was shut down to be only 10 points in seven games i know what a choke job complete complete choke job by him um what else age the best here um thomas placanich's turtleneck oh yeah inspired a generation of young men including

myself. I was actually surprised at how, like, looking back on like the series as a whole, like, the narrative is so much about like Halak being great. And I was surprised at how many players were not necessarily at the same level as Halak, but had great performances in this series for the Canadians. Like, I remember how good Mike Camillery was in these playoffs, but man, what a crafty, crafty player. And Brian Gianta was fantastic.

McCannich was unbelievably good in this series. And like, you have to have Halak there in order to win this series, but there were a lot of really great performances in this series. And I know, I remember back in the day that Hammerlick and Spotcheck got a lot of credit early in the series. And, you know, Gill and George's got a lot of credit. And they were shot blocking like crazy. But those aren't necessarily the guys that stick out to me the most.

It was more the guys who were getting the offense done on very limited opportunities. And the plays that they were able to create, like, Camilleri especially, I thought was just excellent at creating high quality plays and just finding, you know, dead spots on the ice to get his shots off. Just phenomenal. And one thing that actually, I'll leave it for later because you have a commentary corner section coming up. Yeah. Do you have anything else under what age of the best? Um, no, I think I'm good. I just have just how prolific this cap's offense was.

I mentioned all their stats earlier, but just going back and, and I mentioned how Dom released his, uh, game score value added for this season as well. So he had Ovechkin in number one amongst all skaters. He had seven and number eight, backsroom number nine, and Mike Green was the number one defenseman ahead of Keith Littsroom Boyle. So it was just, uh, and then they had, you know, the guys like Knoebel and like scoring a bunch of goals just because they were playing with great players. And it was a, uh, it was a pretty, pretty, pretty.

stacked deep. So it was just, it was kind of fun to, uh, to look back at it. And I think the reason why, um, you know, when we mentioned that we were doing this on Twitter, Caps fans, obviously their natural reaction was to just hate everything about life because this probably obviously brings back brutal memories. But I really think it's not, I mean, I can't speak for them. I just think for myself personally, I view it much differently as, for example, when I did the 2013 series between the Leafs and the Bruins with Chris Johnston in this, in this, uh, series, like, for For Leafs fans, it's still such a raw thing because they haven't gotten that closure or that vindication because they just lost to them again and again in similar fashion, right?

For this capitals broke through. They broke through. They won the cup in 2018. And I also think history looks back at this fondly, right? Because especially with guys like Kovetschkin, we're going to get into a big deep dive with him here in a big conversation. But like he was getting so much flack and so much slander against him at this time. And now it's kind of come around where everyone just loves him.

it's fully appreciated. And I just think, yeah, it's like, it's a big vindication. So that's why I wanted to have this conversation much more than like, ha, ha, it was so funny when the Capitals choke the series away. Yeah, I think you look back at this series now and what the Capitals have done since then. And obviously, you know, years of frustration before finally breaking through. But I think the fact that they have won the Cup now and you see, like, Ovechkin was such a huge part of it. Backstrom's such a huge part of it.

As a Capitals fan, you can live. look back and see like we were right at the time that we deserved this you know like this was i don't want to say an injustice but it was something that shouldn't have happened right and it's not that they choked it's that things just went wrong for them and i i think that you definitely have or you should have the ability to look back on it and say and and feel like uh you were right to be so upset at all the commentators uh you know you know trying to take a hatchet to your team because, man, they were just incredible. It was really a joy to watch the Capitol's work here.

And even if it didn't work out for them, like, I was blown away by their performance. Okay, what age is the worst? So Alex Overt Shane Kant went in the postseason. It's funny that at this point after this series, he had played 28 playoff games for his career. He had 20 goals and 40 points in that time. 161 shots on goal in those 28 games. His team had 83 goals total, so he's basically counting for like,

it's just single-handedly a quarter of their offense. I mean, there's any way you look at it, obviously, and it winds up looking even worse because he just keeps on producing in the postseason, culminating in the 2018 run where he just scores a million goals and they win the cup. But, like, if you're doing what age is the worst, it has to be just pretty much every single Alexovic can take.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, all the takes about Ovechkin have aged so poorly. But there's one specific one that age the worst, and I'm going to give it to you. So at this time, after the series, it was actually happening during the series, but it really, the next season came to a boiling point. It was this idea that the NHL had figured out Alex Ovechkin and how to slow it down, how Dan Girardi, how Gil and Josh Georges had laid out the blueprint for NHL defenders to know that he was going to come down the left wing

and that he was going to kind of curl in a couple steps and try to fire a forehand through your legs to beat the goalie. And it was funny because this perfectly coincided with this two-year stretch that was basically the only low point in production for Alex Ovechkin, where in 2010 and 11, he still has a bunch of points, but his goal scoring goes down

where he only has 32. goals because he shoots a career low 8.7%, which is the only time in his career he shot in single digits. Then the following year in 2011-12, they hired Dale Hunter. He dipped. His ice time dips to like 18 minutes or something, and he scores 38 goals. And I mean, air quotes, the only 38 goals. But I remember his lowest point total of his career as well outside of the lockout shortens season. Yeah, so 65 points. And at this time, because of this series and then because of those two regular seasons, there was this genuine belief, I think, among people that we had seen the best of of Alex Ovechkin, he was already 27 or 28 years old, that he was going to settle into this,

like, mid-30s goal score. Like, this isn't, I don't think this is a straw man take, right? Like, that people were genuinely writing articles about this and wondering whether we had reached the new stage of Alex O'Evichin's career. Yeah, there was a lot of people who were saying, like, oh, well, he's got to start focusing on defense now because he's no longer, like, the premier offensive guy in the NHL and yeah he kind of proved that wrong didn't he well i'm going to give you some stats after this season so from age 25 to 34 which leads him to where we are right now when the league stopped he played 756 of 773 games so he's he missed nine games with injury three games because he skipped the all-star one for oversleeping practice one because the team

sat their regulars and three for hitting zabennik mahjahs illegally in 2011-12 and getting suspended. So pretty much the only things that I've been able to keep him out of the lineup have been him willfully missing games, the NHL locking out, or a global pandemic. Those are the only things that I've kept Alex Gagnati. So I think, like, his durability has aged the best, certainly. Since then, in those 773 games, he has 437 goals. Next best, Stephen Stampco's 348.

John Tavares 321, Patrick Kane, 313. Those are the only guys over 300, and he has 437. He has 169 power play goals. Next best, Stephen Stamco is 122. Then Joe Pavelski at 103. Those are the only guys with 100. 3,386 shots on goal. Next best is Tyler Sagan at 2,6001.

The difference between Ovechkin and Sagan as number 1 and 2 is the same as the difference between Sagan and number 2 and Alex Petrangelo at number 39. And keep in mind, this is like, like you and I would generally agree that we've completely come around to thinking that players peak much earlier than we thought they would and that their most productive seasons or when they're, I guess they can add the most value or maybe even like that 22 to 24, 25 year window as opposed to late 20s. And we're removing those seasons from Lvechkin and just purely talking about age 25 to 34 here. and he's still so far in a way the most productive and prolific shooter and goal score during that time, the volume certainly helps, but that's a credit to him for staying on the ice, so I'm not going to talk him for that. So it's just stunning to see that after all those takes, how impressive his volume has been to just shut everyone up. Yeah.

And, you know, you look at like the last few seasons even, and, you know, he had that second career dip in 1617 where I think you saw a lot of those takes resurface and all like is this the end of ovechkin he's never going to catch gretsky and then he rattles off essentially you know three straight 50 goal seasons where he scored 49 1718 and 48 this year in only 68 games it's it's unbelievable and you look at the what ovechkin's done and how often he wins the rocket richard and like every year it seems like there's this thirst for from media and certain sections of the fan base, be like, who's going to be the guy that claws away the best score title from Alex Ovechkin?

And he's like, from my cold dead hands. Like, it just ain't going to happen while he's still pushing. You know, like, it's really ridiculous. Like,

how does he have 48 goals and 68 games? And he's almost 35. What is, how is this guy? Like, what year did Russian Machine never breaks to shout them out, uh, coin that name?

because what foresight they had to pick that name is so appropriate for him. Well, and the thing is, I think we've become so desensitized to it because the goals keep coming, but they also keep coming in such a familiar fashion where it's like, oh, he's out that left circle, bam, the puck's in the net, and you just become used to it. But that's why this was such an interesting exercise because he looks so different in this series. Like he's slimmer. He's faster. he's like an absolute just like he's getting shot out of a cannon uh he still has moments like that

now but he's much more i think um opportunistic or kind of picks his spots especially during the regular season uh and it's credit to him that he's found a way to still remain so productive and successful doing so but back in 2010 like it was just jarring to see how physically dominant he was in every single facet just moving up and down the ice and um yeah so it's good it's a kudos to him both physically staying on the ice, but also finding a different way to be successful as he got later and later on into his career.

Yeah, absolutely. It's like, I just don't understand how anybody who's a professional could watch that series and come away with like, this is Ovi's fault. It's the dumbest thing ever. It really is. And I hope that we've kind of,

at least sort of moved past that style of storytelling in media. I think we've gotten better. It's not gone. But it seems like it's a lot more challenged now in the current media landscape when somebody tries to build those narratives. It is. It just needs to be killed.

It is. But there's people that still think that it's Connor McDavid's fault to the Oilers. I haven't had a playoff success while he's been in the league. Yes, there are. Unfortunately. So, yeah, you'll never get rid of it, I think. Okay, what else age the worst for you?

Age the worst, I would say just the style of play that the Canadians had, right? Like, as much as I was more impressed by their defensive acumen than I thought I was going to be, I think that like shell game of getting one goal and trying to sit on it all game and hopefully take advantage of some power plays as like your opponents push and maybe get caught trying to cheat, it's not as possible today because I think there's just too much talent in the league now and the league is trending towards more offense all the time there are fewer penalties being called at even strength I think it's just much tougher to shut teams down in the same way as it was back then

I don't think there's more obstruction calls being called obviously I think it's just that players are more crafty systems are better offensively I think over a seven game series, it'd be very unlikely for a team to be able to do this kind of a defensive shutdown situation thing and just like take advantage on the powerplay again. And maybe on the penalty kill as well, like, I don't know if you could ever, you know, flip a coin 500,000 times. How many times are the capital is going to score once on 33 power plays? You know, like it makes no sense. I think I certainly and and it's just it's changed right like teams like if you look at the Barry Trots Islanders for example and how they just completely neutralize and stifled the penguins in their sweep last year like that Islanders team could still like pretty much everyone on that team can skate really fast and their bread and butter was their forecheck and they were much more like an attacking defending team whereas you're you're right you're not going to have like a blue line with four uh sort of stay at home a big defenseman who can't really skate and just sit back and just block a million shots.

And it's just not going to happen in today's game because the game is so much faster and it's just completely transitioned from that. So I agree with that. And I think on a similar note, when we're talking about the blue line, what age the worst for me? How did Mike Green not win a Norris in this era? It's pretty crazy. I think this was like the era before, you know, offense was, uh,

seen as a big deal for defensemen, right? Like, I remember there being a huge pushback against Mike Green the year he scored 30. Yeah. And just like, oh, well, he's just a forward. And then all of a sudden, when, you know, Carlson came into the league and won his first Norris, it was like that started to dissipate a little bit. And people started to recognize that just because you're offensively great doesn't mean your defensive liability.

You know, Mike Green catches a lot of flack. I think he got. He was bad in this game. He was bad in this game. I think he was trying to push it too hard. And especially the Dominic Moore goal, he caught a lot of flack for going after Lapeier there instead of like trying to make the safe play and maintain position. Right.

I guess he like just, he must have not seen Dominic more behind him. Right. It's got to be that because it was a bad decision if he knew Dominic Moore is there. Yeah, it was a very bad decision. But also like, why is he the only guy back checking? Right. No, that's a fair point. And I think you look at Mike Green's career since then and like the offense.

for him is completely dried up to an absurd degree. Like at even strength, he just, like, doesn't accomplish much. But he's still a very good player. I think he's still a second pairing guy. He could be, like, a guy you could stick on a top pair with a very good, like a franchise level defenseman and be fine with. Still a great transition player. So I think you look at how he's carved out a niche for himself,

even on, like, poor Detroit teams over the last several years. I think we just criminally underrated him. And maybe this series is a big reason why, but I think there was just a huge push against offensive defensemen back then that has, it still remains. Like there's still people who think that Eric Carlson never should have won in Norris,

even though he was one of the best defensive defensemen too. But, like, the majority have kind of pushed past that and started to recognize that defensemen do more than just defend. Yeah, two things worked against them, my thing. Oh, okay, three. I think he was a bit ahead of his time. Like, I think if he had come around a handful of years later and had these types of seasons, you're right, he probably would have been, uh, it would have been more acclaimed and he probably would have gotten more recognition in the voting. Um, health-wise, like even in those two seasons, he plays 68 and 75 games. The three years after,

he plays 49, 32, and then 35 in the lockout short and season. So he just couldn't stay on ice, unfortunately, for whatever reason. And then when he was on the ice and we saw that in this game where he I mean you have to take the good with the bat it's kind of like with malkin as well for example where it's like he's undisciplined he takes stupid penalties for no reason but he's going to add so much on the ice so you just have to live with it otherwise he'd be a perfect player and we know that pretty much no one is a perfect player but with green like he was very sloppy at times with discipline and like the penalty he takes that um leads to the mark andre burserun opening goal in this game is like it's just so unnecessary and dumb like he kind of just loses the puck and the offense

zone and then he just cross-checked someone on the face for like no apparent reason after like three seconds after the puck's even gone and it's just like i get it like the canadians were frustrating them in this series and i'm sure uh that played a part in it as well but um you you just kind of saw the good with the bad with mike green there where i think he was just trying to force the issue a little bit too much and unfortunately this game seven it didn't work out for him yeah and in a short series he had 12 penalty minutes right like i'm pretty sure he led Washington that's it's kind of unacceptable right like when you got a guy who uh is your essentially your franchise level defenseman and you know john carlson's coming up but i think he was

only 19 at this point yep you've got to be a little bit more heady than that and you know if you're not even known for that physical of a game either taking 12 12 minutes in penalties is a little bit rough like that's almost a minor a game so it's kind of the same thing similar to, you know, P.K. Subman as well. He was a guy who takes lots of penalties where sometimes it's just, you know, getting a little bit too physical. And sometimes it's just like, what are you thinking here? Yeah.

Just like you lose composure and that can hurt your team. And like you said, Malcolm sometimes sees the red mist, but in a short playoff series, man, one of those, you can kill you. And yeah, he got a lot of criticism for this series. And I think also he was one of the guys that kind of got shut down, right? he didn't score in the series three assists. I think all of his assists were in the first four games. Could be wrong.

Well, 2008 9, 31 goals. In 68 games. 73 points in 68 games playing nearly 26 minutes a night. Just dumb. 2009, 10, his usage becomes even more, like he's still sheltered, but it's not like comical, right? Like, he's just being favorably used. 19 goals, 76 points.

and 75 games at 5 on 5 while he's on the ice the caps of an 88 to 50 goal differential. And you know, it's funny to look back at this because what age is the worst for me? I remember at the time, there were some Jeff Schultz takes. Oh, yes, because he led the league in plus minus, right? He was a plus 50 this year playing exclusively with Mike Green on the top pair. And after this season, minus two in 16262 NHL games for the rest of his career. he's out of the league in 2013 at 27 years old. I think he's still playing in some league.

But yeah, it's a good reminder of, you know, the predictive value of plus minus. And it didn't work out for Jeff Schultz. But yeah, Mike Green, I don't know which year it would have been. I think the 2008-9 because 31 goals and 68 games is just so obscene for anyone. And he lost it to Zdeno Chara, who didn't really have an amazing see. Yeah, Zedano Chara. season. So I think that was just purely people just not being able to appreciate what Mike Green was

doing. Whereas the following season, it was much more justifiable because Duncan Keith had a lot of points that year and he was playing for this Hawks team that was kind of taken the league by storm. So from a narrative perspective, I got it a lot more and we'd seen Mike Green do it a couple times. But that first year where he lost at the Char on, he finished second and then or his voting, I would like to go back and reward him for one of those. Yeah, and I think maybe it was one of those situations similar to when Drew Dowdy won, right? Or actually more similar to Victor Headman where it's like this guy has been amazing for so long, well, you know what? We're just going to give him the Norris this year.

And I think like Victor Headman won Norris the year that I think he probably had his worst performance in the last five. And Drew Dowdy won his, I think a lot of people kind of shortchanged him a little bit on how close he was to Carlson. that year but Carlson was still better than him. And yeah, Charra was just like, it's his turn. And I really thought Petrangelo was going to get his turn last year, but not so.

Well, it's funny because Petrangelo, you could make an argument should have been in the discussion this season. Yes. He was really good. My last, what age the worst, the Caps pursuit of a second line center for this era. So in this series, in this year,

it's a lot of Brooks' And then for game seven, they inexplicably, like, Bernard Morrison wasn't playing game six. He was a healthy scratch, I think. And then they just put him in a second line center in game seven. And he actually almost creates a couple goals. But then after that, you know, they draft Marcus Johansson, but I think he definitely turns into more of a winger where he's better. They trade Philip Forsberg. They trade, this is a tough one.

It doesn't get mentioned nearly as much. And I don't think it was as big of an impact. but trading Cody Eakin for 48 games of Mike Ribeiro in that lockout short in season and then he walks in free agency. That one hurt as well because Cody Eacon would have been a very nice cost controlled center for them. And so they just never, up until Kuznetsov really came into his own in 2015-16, they never really were able to find that complimentary 1A, 1B punch to Bxtrum. And I think that really hurt them. And it's, I'm not sure how big of a take that was or like what the,

angle was back then, but for them to take basically five or six extra here is just to find that guy really stings. Yeah. Yeah. It's like you see that happen to the teams a lot where they need one position player and they just can't find it and they try a bunch of different things and it never really works out. And for some teams, it's something as low impact as a backup and some teams it's a number two defenseman on the left side or the right side and they just can't find somebody to fit in that hole. that definitely plagued Washington for a long time and led to some pretty poor decisions by George McPhee in particular. Do you have any other, what age the worst, or should we go into the TSN turning point?

Let's go to the TSN turning point. So do you have a particular place where this game really turns for you? Yeah, I think the turning point is that Mike Green penalty, not to shit on Mike Green more than we need to, but, you know, creating a four-on-three power play is an engagement. game seven man oh man you've got you've just got to be smarter than that and that mark andre bursar on goal i think you can see on the caps like there's that seed of doubt that kind of enters in and looking at this game it really wasn't until the last 10 minutes of the third period where the cap started getting those like grade a chances right like they had lots of shots

but the canadians were pretty effective at either getting sticks in the way or or just keeping the angles poor or stopping pre-shot movement. So it was just a static guy shooting from the slot, which is still dangerous, but obviously not as good as a backstrom pass across the Royal Road to Ovechkin at one time. So they kept those down to a minimum. And then it was like the last 10 minutes where the cabs really rallied and started to push. And I think that that Mark Andre Berger on goal,

the end of the first period, kind of took the wind out of their sails a little. bit and they had like they didn't sulk per se but there was a little bit of belief that was sapped out like this is happening again you know the same story as the last two games we just can't break through and there was a lot of like lazy shots where like you know Alex semen would streak in where he has a little bit of space he could cut to the middle but he just takes a wide angle slap shot instead and it's it's a wicked slap shot but halak's going to stop that 98 times out of 100 Yeah, especially for this Havs team, I think there's such a big difference when it's a tie game and they have to push for the score a goal, whereas where they can kind of sit back and just kill clock knowing that they're up one and the caps kind of need to come to them and it leads into that counterattack.

So, yeah, that was a big one. The only reason I didn't put that is because it was like early enough in the game where I don't think it necessarily did the caps in. You know, it was in the rewatch. There's this stretch from eight minutes left in the second period for the next. four or five minutes where the caps have back-to-back power plays like within like they have a two-minute power play and then like 30 seconds later like the canadians take another penalty and they have another two full minutes and they don't really get anything going in those four minutes they're trying all these different combinations where ovechkin's out there the full time but like he's net front then he's on

the point then he's like in that middle bumper spot where oh she's in these days and they're trying to move him around and you can tell they're like getting desperate and every time they mess up or the puck clears the zone. The crowd just audibly grumbles. But it's not even like a, they're not booing. They're not mad. It's even worse. They're like kind of disappointed in what's happening.

They're just like frustrated. They're just like breathing out really loudly. And the broadcast tells us it's been 13 plus minutes since the ha-habs had a shot on goal. It's 14, two shots in the second period for that hat caps at this point. But they just have nothing to show for it. And it doesn't even feel like they're like one shot. They're one shot away from tying the game, but it doesn't really feel like they've made any ground in terms of getting that much closer. And I think that's a really big missed opportunity for Washington just because when you can ever, you can get four minutes like that with that lethal of power play.

I think the game really could have swung there. Is there a most rewatchable sequence for you, especially towards the end, I guess? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a few great rewatchable sequences. I think that the Dominic Moore goal is like such a unique thing. Like you just don't see many goals scored that way where it's just like you can feel it happening even though they had like one shot in like a 15 minute stretch and it happens to go in. But I think the most rewatchable part for me is at the very end of the game when the Canadians are celebrating

and the camera pans over to Bruce Boudreau again. And he's just like death staring into the camera. just like cannot believe it you can almost like play the curb your enthusiasm theme song over it and it would be perfect yeah it's not even test there like his soul has been sucked out of his body yeah he's just he's crushed um so the most reliable sequence for me i'd stretch it even back to

there's like four minutes and four four minutes and ten seconds left in the game ovechkin has this end-to-end rush where he just like deeks a couple guys and basically takes on the full canadian team by himself and it works and he gets in alone against Halak and he shoots it through Halak's legs but unfortunately the puck goes outside, out the other side

and just misses the head just barely and I totally forgot that it happened but it was like it would have been an all-time highlight real goal and it just missed so close and then 30 seconds later Lafier against Green, Green missed it

more shoots he's shot gives Montreal a 2 to nothing lead with 3 36 to go Hal Gil dumps the puck out And it looks like a nothing dump out Where they're just gonna change But for some reason the caps aren't back

As we talked about green goes and takes lapier Which leaves Dominic Moore wide open He pounces and scores makes it two nothing Then the camera pans to Bruce Boudreau He's basically bearing his head in his hands He can't believe it A minute later Brooks likes scores to make a 2-1

With 2-17 left And at this time they didn't pull the goalie yet But they had four forwards out there with Mike Green for a five-on-five shift, which I thought was really interesting. It was basically, like, having five forwards out there. And then the Canadians take a penalty, and there's basically just two minutes of absolute mayhem

in the final 144, where the caps have a six-on-four, basically. There's actually a sequence there where Chimera is almost scores to make a two-two, but Josh George's kind of gets his stick on it, and the puck goes out of play. And so, yeah, I'd say those final four minutes are just, there's so many sort of jam. there that you can extrapolate so I just say the final four minutes um biggest heat check performance

okay what are we talking about heat check just like I wouldn't put halak in this because he was such a key player in this series and like he had a 50 plus save performance the game before I would say like for example we've done max talbot uh when he scores the two goals in game seven against the redwoods and the Stanley cup final uh so kind of like an unsung hero where you're just like oh this guy came that came out of nowhere for a big contribution that helped his team. Like, I'll give you an example. For me, it's Hal Gill. Yeah, Halgill, man, shot blocking King.

Well, so in this game, he assists on that winner, although it's like a lazy dump out, I'm not going to give him too much credit for that. But although the commentator, Billy Jaffe, he's like, he actually goes on a tirade about how people call Halgill a one-dimensional player, but that one-dimension is winning. And then he's like, sometimes you have to make a play like this. It's like, he literally just threw the puck aimlessly nowhere. and it just wound up working out for him, but I wouldn't say this was like a strategic dumpout.

But anyways, no, I would say that's more up to like Lappier, recognizing that there was a gap, right, and chasing it down quickly. And I'm not sure if maybe the Canadians got like a line change in really quick there of their forwards.

And maybe Lapier was fresh. Maybe that's why he was able to chase it down so fast. But I think that's more like recognition from the forwards than anything. So he has an assist on that. He plays 23, 34. He blocks six shots. He plays like 15 minutes against Ovechkin overall.

and at the end of the game when they have that six on four like him and georgies are out there for basically the entirety of it and they're just so gassed like they can barely get to the bench at the end of it so um i just had hal gil for that because keep in mind like they signed him as i mentioned as a ufa this summer he had played a big role on the penguins winning the cup the year before and it was like what a what a 12 month stretch for hal gill here where he's just like writing his name in n-h-l history yeah he had like as much as how Gil had like some severe limitations in his game, especially later in his career, he was an incredible penalty killer, an incredible, like, defensive presence. He knew how to use his size and knew how to compensate for his, his slow stride, right? And that stick, such a good stick.

The fact that he was able to play in that style, and obviously, like you said earlier, where the Canadians were far more exploitable when they had to push, right? Because you get more guys out. a position and you can't recover as well, whereas they're slow skating defensemen, if they could just maintain their position and force the capitals to go wide or try to come through them, it was far more advantageous. Like, Gil was just a smart cerebral player.

And, you know, I wonder if it would hold up as well today, but his, what we deemed the sexy man pose of like just laying down in front of the net on the penalty kill half the time. I do wonder if that would work today because players are a lot quicker. but it was incredibly effective in this series where he would just lay down and cover the entire bottom of the net half the time. It was pretty fun to watch. I think my heat check performance has to go to Dom Moore, who was a deadline pickup for the Canadians,

who I think this was before he went to the Leafs and had his career year. But at this point in his career, I think he was a supremely underrated player. just he played on the penalty kill he was a really good defensive player and able to chip in a lot more offense than people expected just a really smart cerebral bottom six guy who could kind of gust up to be your third line center which i think was the role the canadians had him in just very impressive guy i think he was a big key to this series scored the the series winning goal and kind of lives in in infamy here because of it that's a good one yeah that's a big goal I mean it's a game winner um biggest that guy okay what are we talking about with that guy I was confused about this one I love how I'm like just blowing her I'm blowing your mind with all these categories I know because that guy is just

like a player where are we watching this you're you're just taken back to a different era of hockey where you're like oh yeah that guy where just like you haven't thought about him for a long time for whatever reason for me that was Joe Corvo yeah and he had bisoned rounds so much, right? He played for like the senators, the hurricanes and like big roles too, like like playoff teams. Well, I remember like having heard his name, like as soon as I heard his name on the highlight packs, I was like, oh, right. I used to always pick him in like late rounds in my hockey pool because he was a guy that like not a lot of people knew of, but pretty consistently put up decent points for a defenseman. And he was just, he was there. So yeah, that guy. Yeah, yeah,

He was my that guy. That's fair. Mine is Andre Kostitzen. Has a hat trick in game, too. It's, I just, I love being back in the, in the memories of, of the Kostitans. The Kostitans, Radjlov, Rabas, and brothers. Just, man, what a time. Those guys, so they were playing with the haves from 07 and 2010 together.

Then they're reunited on the Predators in 2011, 12. And then they're still. playing in the KHL. For some reason, Sergey Kostitzen didn't play this year, even though he's younger, but last year they both played on Minsk Dynamo. I'm going to rattle off some names

that played on that team over the past two years with him. Jonas Enroth, Joe Morrow, Stefan Elliott, Ryan Spooner, Timu Polkinen, Mark Andrea Granyani, David Booth, Jonathan Blum, and Patrick Weircock.

What a what a who's who of that guys yeah no kidding hey what a and uh i don't think it's going to be surprising that uh that team went 14 37 and 11 this year yeah i guess they're in a lot too many that guys you got to have a couple actual guys too many of that guys but uh it was great being back with the castitans um doc and eddie's commentary corner man this was a bad broadcast See, I'm like in and out with that Because I really like Sam Rosen Oh, he's great

But who thought putting Billy Jaffe As the only color commentator for a game seven of this magnitude Was the right call Yeah, it was not But I love Sam Rosen the way he says Halak Just like the emphasis he puts in it Is just great High watermark of that series

But yeah, I think my favorite Call from the entire, not necessarily call, but my favorite little note from the entire series was, I think it was in, like, early in Game 7, and they're talking about, like, different players and how they're performing,

and they were talking about, like, how Roman Hammer, like, really struggled early in this series, but he's, he's looked a lot better, even though he's been paired with the rookie Suban. And it was like, yeah, I wonder why. I think P.K. Suban at 20 years old, this is a little bit better than, like, I think it was 34, 35-year-old Yaros Spachek,

who got injured. it's it's one of those things where you're like with the benefit of hindsight and i know probably at the time as well i would have thought this but uh you look at who's maybe carrying the bag there a little bit more and it wasn't the elderly hammerlich well it was funny they're like oh this suvan he's impressed he was dominant in hamilton in the hl and uh one thing you'll see about this guy he likes to shoot the puck he's got a big shot and i was like it's funny because i mean you're right like he'd played two n hl games prior to this point he enters the lineup in game six plays game six and seven only 10 minutes a pop so I don't think like your casual viewer at home was familiar

with him so but it's just like funny now a decade later having played out the entirety of his prime and just knowing what he turned out to be like it's it's funny seeing how they were they were talking about him I think the issue for me was just games three to five I believe it's like TSN has Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire on it and I just like loved hearing Gordon Miller and I was like, oh, man, I would have loved if we'd had that here. And no offense to Philly Jaffe either. Like, a really nice guy. I think he does, like, Bruins, like, Bruins games during intermissions and stuff.

It just color commentary is really tough. Like, I don't even think I could do it. It's a really tough position. And I think for such a game of big magnitude, I don't think there was too many other games going on that night. And I'm just curious to see why they, like, went with this team out of all the possible options. But it was a weird time because, yeah, I was on versus. Yeah, yeah, versus. is like really hearkening back to

times gone by, right? Like, it's very strange to look back on. I barely even remembered versus existed, but yeah, it's, it was there. I think there was also, like, there was some zingers in the earlier games, too. Like, obviously we weren't able to watch all seven games in their entirety, but the big highlight packs that the NHL did at the time were fantastic. I wish they had more like 15 minute highlight packs of these great playoff games. but Pierre McGuire had some pretty awful takes as he usually does.

You know, like just absolutely dogging Semin for, you know, finally showing effort in a back check, you know, and Semin, like, the one thing you can't fault him for in this series, and, you know, we can talk about his lack of execution, but his effort level was there the whole time. Yeah, it's really not a lack of effort.

Yeah, it was, I mean, it was a different time, too, just the way people, like, talked about the players, right? I think this game was the perfect storm of all my least favorite commentary tropes where they spend so much time talking about how Ovechkin is doing too much enforcing it. And then they position it. And I get why from a storytelling perspective, but it's just not true. But it's like on one side you have this supremely talented caps team that has had everything given to them and they're one dimensional and, you know, they're just expecting to cakewalk

to the final and they haven't played competitive hockey for months because they already had their playoff tickets stamped in January so they're getting caught off guard here even though they were up 3-1 in the series whereas on the other side you've got this Canadians team that is scrappy and all these players are buying into Jacques Martans's vision and everyone is playing the right way it's a five-man unit out there just like they they just hammered that home throughout the entirety of the game and I just it was like it can I couldn't roll my eyes anymore possibly like it was just it was tough to listen to yeah and like some of those things like it's obvious that in order to play that way you need buy-in right like everybody needs to play with an incredible amount of commitment

to execute that style of defensive hockey but like do we really not think that the capitals were bought in when you like triple up a team in shots or more you're not trying or you're not to you're not working hard enough you're not like bought in like it's just it's such crazy uh narrative building to like excuse the upset when like the truth even though it's not as satisfying is like you replay that series a hundred times and you get the opposite result 99 times before the game keith jones in the in the uh in the studio show and ironically says that scott walker is the capital's x factor in this game I don't think I even noticed Scott Walker the entire game.

Yeah, I think this was the only playoff game he played in, and I don't think you did anything. Good times. Yeah, it was a, no, but it was fine. It was a good throwback, I think, considering this game was in 2010, like obviously you're going to have a lot of dumb stuff set in hindsight, but it was a very 2010 broadcast. It was, it was that.

And I hope that we're better now, or we're at least on the road to being better. I feel like broadcasts are a little bit better now. There are still some bad ones out there, obviously. and there's some, a lot of the names that we're working in this broadcast are still working broadcasts in America today, but I think that there's at least some more diversity of voice happening now. Yeah, yeah, we're getting there.

Not enough, but no better. Most unanswerable questions. Do you have any lingering questions after the series? Or like, why did this happen? Not necessarily why did this happen, but there was a two-on-one in the first. period where Alex Semin deflected the puck

it was kind of like a touch one timer and it just hit the post and almost went in if that happens like how different is this game? I do wonder if the floodgates are opened early

if Washington is just like okay boys we got this and it just ends up being like a 7-0 blowout or something I like 7 in this series had 95 shot at man that's that's a fair amount yeah zero goals good good times and uh yeah some of them were low percentage shots a lot of them were high percentage and keep in mind he shot like during this time he was a 14 to 15 percent shooter for his career like he was he was a volume guy but he was also a high efficiency shooter as well and uh it just wasn't going his way um here's mine

if this is 2020 so we play this game 10 years later how much bigger of a role are guys like P.K. Suban, John Carlson, even, let's say, Carl Olsner, who makes his debut in this game playing. Because at this time, like, teams were so reluctant, especially with young defensemen to throw them into deep waters in the playoffs. He was just like, yo, you got to set this guy's season in the HL for years and then play on the third pairing for another couple years. Like teams just weren't nearly as liberal with their usage of young players as they are now. And it's funny because you talk about that, it kind of impact that Suban already made playing with Hammerlake in that limited time. I thought Carlson was one of the best two or three defensemen the cap certainly had at this time,

but he was kind of playing like a third pairing role for our large stretches of it. And I just wonder how different it would be if we play this game 10 years later. Yeah, I wonder if it actually would, you know, shift more in the favor towards Washington, not that Carlson at his peak was better than Subin at his peak. I would take Suban like 10 out of 10 times. but you look at the way the Canadians played and how they had to play in order to combat this Washington team. If you would allow a guy like Suban to play higher minutes, yeah, he can be a great defensive player.

But I don't know if his style of like pushing the play would work as well as, you know, the defensive shell game. I think the Canadians only had one chance, you know, like one style that they could play to do this. and they bought into it completely. So, but then again, you know, like, I don't know, if you play P.K. Suban in Reinal Burns minutes, how are you going to be worse off? But I think that the added value of allowing Carlson

to just be crazy offensively just feeds into what the caps were already doing well. So it just like stylistically would give them an even better chance to win. Yeah. That's true. But like you could even see, I think Subban played 10 minutes in this game. And there's like,

a couple, there's one time where the puck just randomly, it's a loose puck in the offensive zone and he just jumps in and hammers in and creates a good scoring chance. It's just like none of the other Canadians defensemen were capable or even willing to do that other than I guess Markov on occasion, but he was more of a playmaker. And it was just having that, uh, that extra weapon and sort of diversify your attack. Like, I would have loved to see more of that. And it leads to my next question of how did the HABs mess this core up? Like, yeah. And, you know, so in 13, 14, They make the conference final run, which is cut short when Crider runs price. But beyond that, they didn't have nearly enough success considering that the following

season, they get Suban, they get Patcher Ready in their full time. They trade for Lars Eller and play him, and he's on an ELC, and they call up and play David Dayharnay, who was like their leading age all goal score at this time. And they instantly become like a top 10, 5-on-5 shot share team after being 28th this previous season and at this time they're paying them like in 2011-12 they're paying patoretti 1.625 they're paying suban 0.875 they're playing price 2.75 and then even the following season like it's like 3.5 4.5 like they have such a hometown sweetheart deals for these players who are in their theoretical primes and i feel like coming away from that if you talk about on paper what they had versus

what they actually had to show for it by the time that core was up and done with. Like, it wasn't nearly successful enough, in my opinion. Yeah, and I think a lot of

the problems from that time period for the Canadians are that they really struggled to stick to an idea. I think that 2010-11 Canadians team was fantastic.

If they don't lose Patscheretti to a broken neck, they probably end up winning that series against the Bruins, and then, you know, history gets so altered. You know,

Patcher-Ready was a Bruins killer in that season as a rookie. And, you know, it just changed the complexion so much. And, you know, you had the Markov uncertainty after he blew out his ACL twice. Uh, that kind of shifted gears. And then, you know, Jacques Martin gets fired the next season and when Markov's out and they struggle a little bit out of the gate and then they go from struggling a little bit, but having solid underlying numbers to completely and utterly tanking under Randy Cunningworth. And then Mike Camilleri calls out essentially the coaching staff and says that they're preparing like losers

and like we should be trying to win games. And they immediately trade Camilleri in the middle of a game for having a quote unquote bad attitude. And like, yeah, okay, maybe he shouldn't have said to the media that they were preparing like losers. But like this is a guy who, you know, really knew what it was all about in playing in Montreal, love playing in Montreal, a really good player, struggled with some injuries, but he got it, right?

He was a guy who fit in who could handle the pressure, and they just, like, ditched him right away. And then you had, coming into the lockout shortened season, I was really iffy about Michel Tarian, but they added Brennan Gallagher, they added Alex Galcchenyuk, you know, more young guys to, like, build out that roster and replace some of the older guys.

And they were phenomenal in that 2013 season. And then they entered the play. playoffs, Michael Ryder's injured, who they acquired for Eric Cole, Max Patcheretti blows at his shoulder, Brian Gianta tears his bicep in the middle of a game. Lars Eller is concussed. I'm pretty sure David D'RNA was also injured and was relegated to like fourth-line spot duty at one point. So they struggle there and then, you know, on top of that, they dominate the senators in shot share and scoring chances, but Craig Anderson is.

just unbelievable. P.K. Subbin, or not P.K. Subbin, sorry. Carrie Price had hurt his groin right before the playoffs as well. So he's struggling. And then everything kind of collapses. And instead of continuing with that, uh, that style of play the following season, you know, they panic because they should have won that series, but they lost in five games. So they're no longer going to play the high tempo hockey. They switch to a defensive style and they acquired Douglas Murray. And Douglas Murray all of a sudden goes from like a healthy scratch to being in their top four and like at one point he was playing with suban for a couple of games and it's just like they can't stick with anything and then you know they go out and they acquire jeff petri okay this is a great trade right feels like something to

build on they start building a defensive core of like petri suban nathan bull you who had promised at that time mark barbaro was uh on the third pair so like everything's about puck movement and then the next season they abandon that and they go into like hyper defensive style again it's like you can't stick with a plan and then the more lack of success that they have the more frustrated they have

the more they're blaming their stars and it just never gets over the hump so I think most of the problem has to do with their philosophically not being able to stick with a plan and now they've almost they've changed that completely and now Bergevan is now like two patient

Yeah. You know, like, they're sticking with a plan, but the plan is like, I don't know, prospects. You know, it's, it's such a weird situation in Montreal that it feels like this era that started way back in 2010 is like, it's all the same. But it's like somehow in 10 seasons, like eight different eras of thinking. Yeah. I mean, it's just tough when you have three like cornerstone pillars. Yes. making like the minimum coming up at the same time and you're just like oh man the next 10 years

are going to be so great and then 10 years later it's like wow that was that was it i got oh let's do it again um but the nchel can be cruel like that sometimes um apex mountain this game has a lot of people that i think are at their relative peaks like mike amelary scores 39 the year before for the flames he signs a five year 30 million dollar deal with the habs scores 26 and 60 regular season games and then he goes off for 13 goals and 19 points in the playoffs for them and he's great in this series like he's so opportunistic they're really running the offense through him in the offensive zone um i think at this time i think it was after this run probably where like cbc just starts like running all of these commercials of mike camillary working out

and flipping tires and yes that had a lot of unintentional comedy but like they're really centering him as the guy and then like he just gets traded 1.5 years later for for n a bork but this was also a time when the Canadians were like making big moves in the unrestricted free agent market. Like just bringing in Camelary and Gionta for big money. And since then, it's like Eric Cole, Brandon Bras, Carl Olsner, Ben Chirot. That's pretty much it of like UFAs who took big money to sign in Montreal. So it's, it was a different time. But yeah, I think my Camillaria was certainly out of Apex. Yeah, I would say like the only big marquee signing outside of Eric Cole who I think for one season worked out really well in Montreal and then apparently he was a big attitude problem but

yeah outside of that it's just like Radjolov was their their big one again like a one year flyer right like nobody that they've been able to commit to long term but yeah definitely Camillory was at his peak I think you know obviously jaonta had his peak season a couple years before that but I think he was fantastic in this this is probably peak performance for Thomas Plicanick as well I think this was actually Placanet's best playoff performance ever this series. I think he was like the key outside of

Camilleri. It was like him and Camelary were the key to this forward group. It was like the end of the peak for Scott Gomez. I think you could probably argue this is Josh Georgia's peak as well in terms of effectiveness. I mean, he had great years with Suban, but I think you can

pretty safely say who was carrying there. Yeah. Alex Semin had 40 goals this year. We talked about his struggles in this series, but I was looking back at it. I think Alex Semin was the, I don't know who his agent was, but he was the one of the best negotiators, I think, I've seen. Like, he handled his career from a financial contractual perspective as well as anyone I've ever seen where he basically exclusively signed one and two-year deals for like the

entirety of his caps run where he he basically signs a two-year bridge out of his ELC and he only plays two years of his ELC because of the because they missed the 0405 season in between right then he so he signs a $2.6 million bridge then he signs for two years for uh whatever 9.2 total then he signs one one year for 6 million one year for 6.7 million then he goes to the hurricanes for the lockout short in season one year for 7 million and then he finally like signed this long-term deal for $35 million. He plays 122 games, gets bought out, and he just goes to the college show. And he was like, he maximized his earnings.

I know why players don't go that route because you could just blow out your knee and never be the same and miss out on millions of dollars and you want that financial security. But he was just playing. And I guess it worked for him because maybe the capitals were also skeptical with the law coming long term. Maybe they had so much money committed to other players that had worked out that way. But him just signing, like, signing a $6 million. $6.7 million deal in the late 2000s,

like if you adjust that for where the cap's at now in inflation, that's like huge money for a guy. And he was just every year just basically getting those nice paydays. So good for Alex Semen. He really played his career the right way. And talk about signing long term

at the right time, right? Like you almost wonder if he could like feel it going in his body. And he was like, all right, now's the time to get security. But yeah, I have fond memories of Alex Semen as a player. I think he was criminally.

underrated and you know he fell off at the end but i think even his short stint in montreal uh his shot kind of like faded away for whatever reason i think he had some wrist injuries that took some power off of it but uh he was still in a limited stretch a very good possession player and a high high end playmaker he just uh couldn't score so you know people thought that he was going to be a sniper when he was brought in and that that was an another problem with the Canadians is they often brought guys in who had good track records in the past that they assumed they would be able to rebound and be their past selves and then they got really disappointed and angry internally when they couldn't replicate that performance.

So they brought Semin in as a sniper and he ended up being a playmaker and even though he was having like he was playing well, they ended up like mutually terminating his contract after a very short period. Yeah. Mike Green, we already talked about definitely as Apex here. I think Alexo Ovecken physically.

Oh, yeah. He was the Russian machine. Yeah, he's so good. And then Yarrow Halak, and that transitions us to who won the game, and I think it's pretty unequivocally, Yaro Halak, right? Yeah, just standing on his head,

especially in the last 10 minutes, the last four minutes, killing that penalty. And, like, there are lots of big contributors, but none of that works. if Halak isn't standing on his head. And, you know, his performance in game six especially, like the way the Bell Center responded,

which you talked about earlier, even in the highlight pack, 10 years ago, it's still like it feels like it's current, right? Like you can feel the energy in that building. It was a truly special, special performance. And the fact is he did it again against the penguins. You know, not to the same level,

but he's still in his head once again. And again, another great game seven performance that he stole the show. It was one heck of a run from a team that was expected to do absolutely nothing. Well, and he gives up six goals in game two, gets pulled in game three, doesn't start game, doesn't play at all in game four. Games five to seven stops 131 of 134 shots. The haves get out shot 134 to 66 in those. three games and he's just, I mean, the 53 save performance in game six is the absolute apex, but 41 out of 42 in game seven. He's 25 at this point, earns himself a nice $15 million payday

with the blues the following summer. Like he, I think this is, this is his apex, he wins this game and a performance that stands to test the time. Like, I think this is one of those where I'm never, like, we're never going to forget it. Like, it's going to be talking about it's like the, the O'Hawak postseason. And so that's why he's won the game. Andrew, I think that's about it for this game. I want to plug some stuff. Where can people check you out? And what are you up to these days? These days, I'm doing most of my regular work, but not all. So I'm up on SportsNet three times a week. I've got every Saturday I'm running an analytics mailbag. So you can hit me up on Twitter and ask any question that you can think of that has to do that I could possibly answer with Sport Logic data.

and if it's a very complicated question, it may not end up in the mailbag. It might end up as its own article in its entirety. Nice. My plan is next up on the rewatchables. I think I'm going to do Kings Blackhawks 2014, which for my money, murderous series.

Probably the best series of hockey that I can remember, just in terms of the talent and how closely contested it was. So people can go and watch that if they want to prepare. Hopefully they enjoyed this. Go rate and review. you and Andrew this is a blast. I'm glad you uh we did this together. It was a fun exercise and let's um we'll chat soon. Okay. Absolutely. We'll have to do this again if this quarantine lasts too long. Okay. Have a go on man. You too.

The hockey P.D.Ocast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Filippovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockey pdiocast.