The Hockey PDOcast - Game 1 Takeaways From This Weekend's Playoff Games

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to talk about the start of the postseason, and the big takeaways from this weekend's set of opening games.  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.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Dimitra Filippovich and joining me in studio late on this Sunday evening for our Sunday specials my good buddy Thomas Trans, Tom. What's going on, man. Hey, buddy. Happy Easter to all the PEDAOCast listeners that celebrate. The playoffs, more importantly, happy, happy playoffs to all the Pidiocast listeners. Yes. What a treat. Like, what a treat, especially that Win a Pied St. Louis game that kicked this off. There's something about that first game

of playoff hockey, that first pure hit, the adrenaline that comes with it, and that game in particular was such a exceptional encapsulation of like the stakes, the energy, the vibe in the crowd, the visuals were fantastic.

The game was fast-paced, extremely physical, had a good storyline throughout, got to a game state that was fascinating watching the Jets, just sort of pour it on for 30 minutes to try and dig themselves out of an early deficit. Now, I'm curious to get your thoughts on this, but I did feel like after that, I was so amped.

Yep. And then it took a long time for the games to ramp back up to where they did. Like, I felt like that Avalanche Stars game was, like, there was good moments to it. There was some fun stuff to see. Dallas definitely feels like a team that's got their sort of back up against the wall maybe more than a typical 1-0 sort of trailing team would. But it felt like a mid-January game vibe-wise. And then the two blowouts to start on Sunday.

And then the two blowouts to start on Sunday, one where it was clear. Yeah, from pop-drop. How overmatched the New Jersey Devils are going to be in this series. And then the other where, you know, the senators came unglued. I was one who didn't particularly like how the game was called. I don't think that had an impact in why the senators got their butts kicked, but I did think that the second period penalties both ways. Like even the Nielander hooking penalty, I didn't like, slowed the tempo of that one down,

diminished my enjoyment of it. And then I did think it ended on a high note with this Vegas Minnesota game that was pretty thrilling. It ended on a Dan high note. Yeah. I just asked you how's it going. And then you gave me a two-minute monologue there recapping all the events of this weekend. No, it's great. I mean, listen, even the Easter holiday can't keep us apart.

We were texting as we were watching Jets Blues. I think you and I were both incredibly excited about that game because everything that we've been talking about the past couple weeks of the end of the regular season lacking in terms of competition, how meaningful it was, the pace, the physicality. you just immediately got shot up with a full dose of it. And then it lulled a little bit through these couple games. We're recording right after the conclusion of Golden Knights Wild, and that one brought us back up. And I feel like that was the best hockey we've seen this weekend since the conclusion of that first game.

And so I think we have a lot to get through today here and kind of working through our main takeaways from the first two nights of the postseason. It's great to be back with postseason hockey. It was a great reminder, I think, regardless of those couple blowouts of just what a superior product this is to anything else, especially everything we just watched throughout the regular season. Let's start with Jets Blues, which kicked off the postseason in style with a banger. You mentioned the tremendous whiteout crowd, a flurry of early goals.

I think most importantly for me, it was the exact type of response and pushback when things weren't going their way on the scoreboard that you'd like to see it from a team that fancies itself, a legit cup contender, the way the jet Jets have all year. I think that's kind of what you're hinting at with storylines, right, especially trailing three, two, heading into the third period, all of the lazy, lowest hanging fruit discussions about Connor Hallibuck in the playoffs. And I think it's probably a feeling of here we go again, considering what they've been through. Now, if you watch that game, as you and I were discussing, it really felt like despite the blues being up, the vibe of the game,

significantly shifted as that second period progressed. It felt like the jets were just starting to exert their will a little bit. Possession-wise, territorially, the top line, which was exquisite all game, had the puck on a string. And they were just spending so much time in the offensive zone that you felt like, all right, if common sense is going to prevail here eventually, they're going to break through. Like, they're just, they're leaning on them too much for it not to eventually happen. And then it finally did in that third period with the dramatic winner with only two and a half or

whatever minutes left by Kyle Conner. We're going to break that all down. I feel like it was 90 seconds. In my head it was 90 seconds left. It was a wild ride. I don't know how much time was left, but it was great theater. I really enjoyed it. Let's start with the goaltending, though.

Yeah. Because I know you're very passionate about this as well. It was predictably the type of analysis you expect when Connor Hellbuck gives up three goals on the first, whatever, 10, 12 shots he faces, totally overlooking the context of those, right? The Rob Thomas stepping in from the dot, picking a corner, Oscar Sunquist out front, right in front of the net, picking a corner, and then Jordan Cairo not only stepping in with like a bullet from the flank, but one where the Jets P.K.

chose not to box out Sunquist at all, and he just had free reign to just stand in front of Hellabuck, screen him. And a lot of the conversation, including on the panel during the game, was about how Halbuck looked rattled in terms of his positioning, how he was too deep. It was like, yeah, he's shaken, like, all the previous baggage has gone into him, totally ignoring the fact that he just stared down Jordan Kairu, one of the most dangerous rush players in the game one-on-a-one minutes prior with like two minutes left in the second period to keep it a one-goal game. And yeah, I think common sense definitely prevailed in that game.

I hope to see more of it. Just like selfishly, we don't root for anyone necessarily, but I find every storyline revolving Connor Halibuck right now to be just so inexplicably boring and lacking new. wants and context and a bigger picture view of it. And especially in light of as part of that conversation, they're contrasting and talking up Jordan Binnington and how what a run he's been on and how well he's playing. And I guess, you know, goaltending at the end of the day, like Antony Mewan

want a Stanley Cup. It doesn't realize you don't get style points necessarily. Like your job is to just keep the buck out of the net regardless of how you do it. At the same time, though, in those first two periods, even though he was up on the scoreboard, to my, I'm no Kevin Woodley, but to my on trade eye, I was telling him. I was like, man, he's off his angle on all of these. There's a lot of net to shoot at. He's swimming in net, giving up rebounds.

The Colden Breckel was just boxing out and clearing in front of them. And eventually the Jets were able to break through and score a couple goals. And I'm almost nauseated just thinking about like what the conversation would be like nationally right now. If that hadn't happened and the blues, it scored an empty netter in 1-4-2 or something. Sure. If Shifley and Connor hadn't broken through for all of the shifts, and it was shift, after shift, they had one shift late in the third period where they kind of didn't get set up at some point. And it was the exception to everything we saw across about 45-ish minutes of hockey, where every time they were on the ice, it was tilting in Winnipeg's direction.

And the chances that they were generating were magnificent. You know, the glove saved that, or was the blocker saved that Binnington had off that one Kyle Collins shot. That was an explosion laterally. It was. It was. But like he got there with plenty of times. Incredible. And look, we saw some phenomenal goaltending performances across this weekend, I think.

You brought up Blackwood, stole ours was unreal. And I think some of what I'm about to say about Helibuck also applies to Linus Allmark. And we can get into that too. but I fundamentally think if you want to understand the game right now, look at shooters. Just look at the shooters to understand what's really happening here. And I think if you do that and get over the idea like we're hockey fans, we're so trained, especially hockey fans, our age, your listeners, people have been obsessively watching this game across the last two decades to think about like being goalied and variance and the idea of

bad luck and what a goal tending performance or what a dominant goaltending performance looks like, especially in the playoffs, because we got, you know, Tim Thomas at 940, and we got Jonathan Quick at 950, and we had these, you know, historic runs in a totally different game, in a totally different game. The goals that beat Hellebuck, the first one's a great shooter with time, dangerous puck movement preceding it, expertly delivered. The second one is kind of a P.D. O Bender shot, I think. But still, a ton of dangerous puck movement preceding it. Open guy in the slot, well-located shot, absolute snipe show. And then the third one isn't just through a screen. It's through multiple screens. It's through layered traffic and it hits clean at

the top of the net. That's the equivalent of a tap-in. That's the equivalent of a tap-in. It just happens from further out and fans talk about it and think about it and react emotionally to it differently. the truth is that that is as high dangerous shot as an ace, like as Caprizov finding Zuccarello backdoor for it to happen. It's going in more than 50% of the time, more than 50% of the time. The shooters in this league right now, man, that Kyru shot, that Robert Thomas shot, like great shooters and sometimes also Oscar Sunfist, are going to make their shots sometimes.

Yep. And when that happens, you're kind of cooked. you're kind of cooked and that's okay like that's i think that's a great thing that's what we've wanted from the league right it's a great thing where the idea of a playoff performer right the guys who bring it in the playoffs where for the most part i think it's fair we we did that episode on the guys who have stakes in this postseason and i leaned into it a little bit i'm not begrudging anyone from doing it where does i worry like where i worry that it crosses the line sometimes especially when it applies to goaltenders who don't directly influence play at one end of the, one end of the

rink in any way is when it prevents you from like enjoying and appreciating, truly a guy who's hit like a Hall of Fame level of performance across the last three years who's playing at truly an otherworldly level, like one of the best three year goalie runs we've seen in a generation. And Hella Buck, the way he does it, the way he does it differently, the way that he plays far back in net, which was being openly criticized on broadcast, that's a strength. If you can get away with it, if you're good enough and big enough and your instincts are good enough to do it, it's a massive strength. I mean, you know, you can list the goaltenders who were able to play that deep and have success. And they're all some of the best most highly

regarded puck stoppers of the last 30 years. That's for a reason. You look at the 3-1, the Devon Tave's goal that sunk the abs. Yep. You look at the. You look at the, the Dorofiav goal that gave the Vegas, yeah, that gave Vegas the lead on Sunday, those are the sorts of goals that Helibuck has a shot at, that your average goaltender doesn't. Yep. And the tradeoff for that, if the, and the tradeoff for that is, wow, if elite shooter makes perfect shot with dangerous puck moving preceding it, dangerous puck movement proceeding it, or layered traffic, he might get beat.

If that's the trade-off, that's a trade-off you take every single time and twice on Easter Sunday. And I'd argue that, and this is definitely more of a feature than a bug for hella-buck, like you listen to someone like Kevin Lully talk about him and break him down. He's not Andre Vasselowski in terms of like freakish athleticism and that lateral explosion and like how much net he takes up. And so how he gets around that is he's the best technician at the position in the league right now, right? just playing a numbers game. And I think he understands that the most likely way you're going to get beat in today's game

is off of an East-West pass that gets you moving. And so this gives him a chance to compensate for that and then when a goal like that goes in, it's going to look bad on him. But that's ignoring all the other times where he might have prevented a far more dangerous actual shot. Like at the end of the day, I completely agree with you that we need to recalibrate that it's becoming a shooter's league in the sense that if you hit your mark and you execute as a shooter, It doesn't really matter what the goalie does. And I think that's okay.

We're so programmed, and we've had this rant before, but I think it ties in here of whenever there's a goal, it seems like general consensus is wondering what went wrong on the defensive or goaltending side that allowed it instead of just appreciating the beauty of the execution offensively. Or the way that the goaltender and or the screener and or the checker was manipulated by an exceptional offensive player, you know, the best in the world, the reason we tune it.

I'd agree. I'd also lump in the hurdle goal we saw on Saturday. Again, right? Because it was kind of near the goal line. Phil Gustafson does the RVH, and he leaves a little bit above his shoulder, but he's sealing the post. And that's probably executed pretty well.

You'd like him to maybe cover a bit more, but ultimately he's leaving, like, this one little window, puck-sized window, top corner from a bad angle in hurdle because he's a freak, just snipes it, and it looks bad. It's like, oh, he should have had that. It's like, well, he, he, you have to give up something.

It's a trade-off, right? A balance between what you're giving the shooter versus what you're taken away. And if the guy executes the way Hurtle did and the way we've seen some of these guys do, and I'm sure we'll see plenty more this postseason, I think all the credit should go to the offensive player as opposed to being like the goal he should have had that way.

Yeah. The St. Louis Winnipeg game to zoom out from Halebuck, who I honestly thought was solid, right? This is also going to be a tough series for the narrative because the Blues are such a quality, For his quantity team, they pass through these convoluted passing plays that are trying to set up these shots. They're not going to have a 35 shot performance where he gets to stop 20 easy ones. He's probably going to face a lot of slot shots from good shooters that came.

Lots of layer traffic. Lots of big bodies. I mean, they do a really great job of it. They are very, very good. They can overpass a bit. I mean, that's one thing that I actually thought they didn't have the puck enough for us to see against. the Winnipeg Jets, especially, you know, after the first 15 minutes or so. One other part of that game that I really enjoyed from a matchup dynamics perspective was,

you know, everyone's going to talk about the number of hits the blues through in the first period, and they should because it was badass. But it was the speed and stress that they were able to apply on the forecheck that for, that for, you know, certainly the first half hour of the game, but I would argue it took you a little bit longer even than that. The Jets started playing well before I think they really started making those team level moves. We saw it on the second, sorry, the triangle, yeah. But, you know, when Winnipeg's at their best,

that sort of like intricate team level move that they're able to pull off across 200 feet of ice, makes them pretty special as an attacking engine, like as an attacking team overall. And I did think that the Blues, with their forechecking, with their speed, my guy Matthew Joseph, a variety of those guys were able to get in and it felt like force some sloppy errors,

force some turnovers in the defensive zone, and more than that, just prevent the jets from sort of moving cleanly up ice the way they like to as a team. I thought that was a massive part of why St. Lewis was able to build their lead. And sort of watching the Jets in real time kind of adjust to it and solve it effectively in the third period, I thought was another sort of fun part of watching that game.

The Jets' top line was unbelievable. All game. Shifley played 2140. Connor played 2221 in regulation. They combined for 20 shots with the two of them and I have followed, created the three goals, including the three three and four three goals in the third. They victimized both Perico and Fowler. as a pair on both of those.

They had, as I said, the puck on their stick and the offensive zone, it felt like all game and it felt like an inevitability. The third goal, I'm glad you brought it up. That is the encapsulation when we talk about the Jets, what's made them so fun to watch all year. That's them functioning at their best, right? Yeah.

Like, it starts from behind their own net, essentially. It's this breakout that incorporates everyone. Like, Sandberg passes it to Pionk, then he works his way up into between the dots, goes to Shifley, he passes it back, hits another quick pass and they're just flying downhill. My one concern is what you saw in the first 10, 15 minutes of the game and what I think a better opponent,

if there's jets are to advance later into their postseason, is going to be able to pose for them, is they thrive in controlled environments. And the NHL postseason, what makes it so intoxicating for us is that there's so much chaos and breakdowns, and it's tougher to replicate those types of situations for a team that has such clinical precision. I think they need that.

That goal also featured, I wanted to shout out our pal Corey Schneider's tracking because he pointed out that the Jets led the league this year in passes from behind the net coming out to the slot. And I think Mike Shafley's accounts for a disproportionate amount of that. And I think that's partly also why sometimes. And I've given both him and Kyle Connor a lot of love for like in the second half. I feel like they apply themselves much more defensively in terms of the effort, getting back, back checking, doing their due diligence there. I think part of why they sometimes don't have the best. defense of metrics is because Shafley's so far out of the play because he's behind the net trying to set up that exact pass. And then if it doesn't work out, if it goes in a slot and the teams

go another way, he's got so much ground to cover, maybe even at the end of a shift. But it worked out there. They create that. And then the fourth one, you shot it out the short list of guys who could execute the shot Kyle Connor did where Shipe, and it was a beautiful set play. Did you want to go over the list? I've come up with three names. I think it's a list of four names. Well, let me just describe it quickly for someone who hasn't missed it, who has missed it for whatever reason. Offensive's own draw, set play, Shifley works his way around the net, comes up, cuts across the middle of the ice, cross-scene pass on the money. Connor, as he's fading backwards, almost like a three-point shooter, like, try not to step

out of bounds. The fade is such an important part. Contorting his body, and like, you stop it in slow motion, get a freeze frame. He's like, both of his, like, he's like, levitating off the ice as his knees are contorting so that he can get the torque he wants on that, and then obviously He picks his spot and gets Bittington moving laterally, and that's all she wrote for that game. What's your list? Pasternak? Yep. Drysidal.

Stamcos. Kyle Connor. I think those are the four human beings on planet Earth that could execute that shot. And that's it. Like, I leave the list there. Obviously, people will be like, Ovecgen, Matthews. And it's like, fair enough. But it's the precision of that play that I think is,

exceptionally rare, like even rare among the elite best goal scores and it's the working in space. I'm so glad you brought up the fade because that puck goes D to D and then high to low with Shifley finding that sort of real estate in the high slot. And the moment Shifley takes a step toward the slot, Connor starts vacating that space and he's skating backwards and he finds like a little bit of acceleration. there's a little hop of recognition. The way he works to find quiet ice, I still think is the best in the league,

maybe the best I've ever seen. And it's such a funny thing because, you know, play away from the puck, Kyle Connor, not usually associated with one another, but in the offensive zone, his work, his work rate away from the puck

remains one of the most special traits in his game. One of the rarest things he's got in his toolbox, in addition to like the blinding speed and the unbelievable shooting skill. I think that's such a key part of what makes them special, and that play just captured it all so perfectly. And then was also just an incredibly cool way for the Winnipeg Jets to avoid,

you know, having to go into game to... As a must win already. Yeah, and living above the demons of playoff failures in the first round past, right? Yeah. That's kind of off the table now. in fact, I think they should be feeling pretty confident. I think the stakes of this, or at least the dynamic of this matchup is now set where if the Jets can handle the Blues speed on the forecheck,

we start to get into the question of, do the Blues actually have an answer for this Jets' top line? Well, and what they did in that game, one, with the benefit of last change, is Scott Arnale essentially hard match, shifely, against Rob Thomas's line. Yeah. well. I think they were out there for like 11 of Thomas's 13, 5-1-5 minutes. I thought Freddie's line was excellent, especially early on, like his battle level in the offensive zone. He came out of that game with a 95% expected goal share in 13-5-1-5 minutes.

And then the Lowry line, I know you love, use some Adam Lowry. I think he set the tone. You're talking about the blues hits early on. He had that big one against Ryan Suter. He had a nice play on the penalty kill early on as well. He's such a dog. He took Braden Shenz lunch in this game, attempts for 11-0 in their nine head-to-head minutes. And so there's some interesting questions, I think, coming out of this for the blues, you talk about the adjustments now after having lost this game. I think one of them for me would be they need to find a way to manufacture more minutes

for Jordan Kairu. He left this game playing only 15 minutes, which was 49 seconds more than Radic Faxa over the course of the game. I thought early on they had success, especially for these minutes. For some reason, the Jets are just insisting on playing Stanley and Shen as a defense pairing. And it's a bit easier to do at home in terms of managing the minutes, although they were out there against Thomas's line for some reason early on.

The retrievals, they botched so many of them, and they're just looking to glass and out it, which goes against everything the Jets are trying to do as functioning as a team passing the puck up the ice. And so I think there's some opportunities there for them to kind of press down on that a little bit more and maybe force Scott Arneal to actually change his defense pairs and get some other guys into the lineup as this series progresses.

But what will be more worrying for me, regardless of the loss, is that stretch from, halfway through the second or so all the way through the third until it was garbage time. They generated two shots as a team and Jordan Kairu was responsible for both of them in like 25 minutes worth of game time

spanning the second and third period. And I don't... At least one was a breakaway. I'm not sure how much of it was I think the Jets were excellent full marks. It seemed like the Blues were very content trying to grind out, like salt that game away.

Yeah. Like they... Part of it was the Jets just being on them and being so structured in good position, but it seemed like every time they were approaching the red line, they were very comfortable like, all right, we did our job territorially, and we're good here. They made no efforts to actually do anything with the puck moving into the offense's owner, and that came back to bite them with so much time left. But I feel like that would be a natural adjustment of like

you just have to play differently regardless of if you're up or not. Yeah, it felt like they were trying to steal a road game in the playoffs, which they were. But that that crowd was so nervous, at least it sounded very nervous on television that you kind of wonder, if you'd been able to sustain a couple offensive zone shifts, what would the vibe have been like as that game went along? And obviously, that's what they needed to do and were unable to do. And I'm sure they didn't leave it all on the table just because they were trying to, like, I do think the Jets had had a major say in that. But yeah, I sort of come out of that game feeling pretty good. Like the Jets, this matters so much for the Jets and for sort of where they're at in this team build. And for

the Blues, it feels like they're kind of playing with House Money, and they come into this postseason with a pretty auspicious profile. They look like a tough out for anybody in the first round, and they played like it in game one, and yet I come out of this game thinking if that's what it's going to look like in a game in which the Blues absolutely hit the mark on three shots actually get to Winnipeg's defense off the forecheck, you know, that gives me some, that gives me a little bit more confidence than like my Jets pick, for example. Like, I'm feeling pretty good. I think the Jets should be feeling pretty good, too, about sort of how this matchup looks

through 60 minutes. I think an important reminder, and you saw I play an outside impact, especially in the first half or so of this game, was a rich, just a reminder that early in the postseason we typically see a flurry of powerplay calls and powerplay opportunities. Yeah. Especially early in series. And as it progresses later into May, we're going to see that whittled down. The whistles put away a little bit.

I want to get into that in Ottawa, Toronto. We can. Because the trick, and I think this trick applies to Minnesota, and I think this trick applies to Ottawa, right? The trick is, is if you're facing a team with an absolute lethal weapon power play, if you can survive long enough, right, that gets taken care of for you to some extent. At least some of the edge of it does. Well, even in this game, I mean, I know they don't have Lardy, so it's a little bit different,

but I thought the Jets' power play looked great. They scored that one goal, kind of fortunate bounce off with Ryan's Steger's stick on the goal line. But Kyle Connor had one where if he just elevates it, it goes in, then he had a cross-scene pass that was there for Perfetti to tap in with Bennington out a position, and it just got knocked away on the way there, but they certainly had their opportunities as well. All right, let's take our break here, and then we come back, we will jump right back, and we're going to close out and go through the rest of the games we saw this weekend. you're listening to the Hockey Pedyocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.

All right, we're back here in the HockeyPedioCast, Tom. We spent the full first half talking Jets Blues, and I think it warranted. It was the first game of the postseason. It was the best game. It had so many moving parts. It's perfect. It's tailor-made for what you and I do here. We've got 25 or so minutes left here.

Let's try to rattle through the rest of the stuff we saw this weekend in all these game ones. What do you want to start with? Let's just quickly touch on Colorado, Dallas. Yep. The non-Harley minutes are grisly for the stars. We knew that they had a significant defensive flaw. They obviously, you know, I guess let me put this as a question to you. Have the stars crossed over that tipping point where there is a part of their roster that is so deficient that it's actually become non-functional?

Yes. Yeah, I think so too. I mean, obviously not only not having Mirace can, but then adding Jason Robinson on top of that. and the problems that pose for them, which I'll get into a second here. After the game, Pete DeBurr said that that was the best game. He felt the stars have played in three or four weeks,

and he's right. They lost 5-1. It was obviously much closer than that. It was 2-1, late into the third. And they had that incredible shot. Yeah, Marchman just caught the hip of Blackwood, and that would have tied it. The last time they didn't get out shot by an opponent

was March 18th versus the ducks. And they held, even in this game, I think it was 24-24 or something like that. Got more chances. Ultimately, it didn't matter, though. I thought it was a great effort from them in terms of like acknowledging what an uphill battle it would be with the personnel they have and the circumstances against this abs team and totally changing the way they played in terms of like being much more conservative trying to grind it out keeping a lower event not like flying the zone every time trying to give their defensemen a bit of a life raft and it almost worked at the same time though and maybe this just speaks to like how far in this direction it's gone but you watch that T&T broadcast And I was joking that it felt like they were just described in talking about the stars performance. It felt like they were talking about the way you hear broadcast talk about Matt Rempey.

Right. Which was like, oh, look at these guys out there. They're trying so hard. They're doing so much better than they used to do. And then it's like, all right, like, I get it. It's almost insurmountable task for them here. But also there's a lot of talent on this team. And I think it just speaks to maybe how far they've fallen over the past month or so in terms of people's,

especially their expectations for this series and what it would look like. And, you know, to be fair, this game did not look the way I thought this series would look. There's still, it's only game one. There's still a decent chance that this just isn't a sustainable way for Dallas to play for three to six more games. And then eventually, that's especially when they get home, it's just going to be a landslide in terms of them, just like creating more of those downhill first, second, third wave rush opportunities. but I don't know I thought the abs were pretty sloppy

early on like they got that minute and a half five on three they were overpassing they're missing the net on a lot they seemed very like isn't it funny that the way they play and attack five on five compressing the offensive zone the way we've talked about matches what teams that are really dialed in five on three do so well and then they get it five on three it's almost like too much space for a team that thrives

on sort of... You guys are already compressed. Now we're not special anymore. It's so funny. It was actually quite an interesting dynamic. McKinnon, though, alpha performance. And I thought he was incredible. But those non-Harley Minutes for me,

it's just, that's the story right now for this Dallas team. And I think it would be different if Miro Heskinin was in the lineup. I don't think this is like on Cody C. Or Ilya Lubushkin. I do think slotted, differently those guys can help in sort of more limited roles but but what they're being asked to

do against the opponent they're being asked to do it um yeah the the Dallas stars manufacturer manufactured six shots on goal in the non-harley minutes um surrendered three all three goals against right? And 14 shots. So outshot 14 to 6 and three goals against. I mean, I just think that captures a dynamic that I'm not sure even someone like Pete DeBore is going to be able to find an answer for. It was also so hockey in the sense that they just played a month of games where they were getting significantly outshot, outchanced, outclassed, and were still finding ways to win and their goalies were bailing them out. And they were getting all these bounces and we're a classic PDO team. Obviously, you know, they lost their last five games or everything the wheels kind of came up. But before that, they had this stretch where the underlying numbers were just as bad, but they kept rattling off wins and had a chance to catch Winnipeg before the final week atop the Central. And then in this game, they're actually playing pretty well.

They're executing their game plan. They're keeping it tight. And then the first two goals are this outrageous inadvertent bicycle kick by Arturi Alcadent who rocks so hard. Obviously, he didn't mean to do it, but he's so cool and he just pulled it off anyways. I loved his reaction after it. He was just like incomplete disbelief laying on the ice. And then the second one after the four-minute power play where McKinnon kind of flutters one off of Lubbushkin and it beats Ottinger as a result of it.

And then even the 3-1 goal, which is kind of going against the run of play, where the stars are pushing, they get that chance. And then Manson and Duanez execute a beautiful D-to-D backdoor pass off the rush that seemingly only the abs are capable of pulling off. I thought Blackwood was phenomenal. It was his first career postseason appearance. Stopped 12 out of 12 high-dangered shots he faced according to Natural Statrick.

And as I mentioned earlier, the lateral explosion, especially when they were short-handed on a couple of those where like makes the first save, but then it goes quick crossing pass and he gets back there again and makes a second and third effort. I thought he was ridiculously good. I wanted to throw you a bone. Jack Drury. You're a guy, arguably the biggest piece

in the Martin H's Miko Randinen trade. 940 at 5-1. Not just to throw in. 940 at 5-1 in this game. Avs were up 15 to 1 in shot attempts. 4-0-0-0 had any chances. The rarely seen 100% expected goal share.

And the sick deflection assist. And sick through the legs to coil. very like Kucharab-esque or Kaprizov-esque pass and he ate a handful of defensive zone draws as well and yet the stars weren't able to generate anything off of it. Jack Durie has game. He's been a phenomenal fit for them. Here's one thing I'll say for the stars.

And I don't want to spend too much time in this series because I think we're going to cover it in its entirety after game two later this week. I thought it was a bizarre choice with having home ice and especially without Robertson available and playing hints with Granland and Dodd of. I know they combined for a nice little, kind of one of those runaway plays they execute with hints to get him a short breakaway in the first period. But for some reason, he chose to play

Wya Johnston, who I think is the key for them in this series, beyond Harley. If they are going to generate enough offense, he needs to do what he did last postseason of just being a scoring chance and goal scoring machine. He played him and Ranton with Jamie Ben and did not get that line away from Taves and McCar at all and did not and play them with guys like Lindell and C.C. and Alex Petrovich more than Thomas Harley. He instead gave all of the high leverage offensive minutes with Harley to the Marchman Sagan, Duchenne line, gave them the offense, all the ozone starts. And I feel like that's just a miscalculation from him, especially without Robertson available and not giving hints a viable running mate. I feel like he needs to find a way,

because a lot of the conversation is going to be like, Nico Ranton and minus two. didn't score, wasn't effective. And for me, it's like, you look at Wyatt Johnson's minutes and what role he played in this game and him playing 12 minutes at 5-1-5, and them generating 0.12 expected goals with only one shot in that time is just clearly not good enough,

regardless of anything else going on. So I think they need to find a way to manufacture more offensive minutes for both Johnson and Ranton probably ideally getting him away from Ben. You watch Ben's effort on that DeVont Tave's goal and, like, he's backchecking down the center leg, as a center on that line, and he's late to recover, and he doesn't pick up to his essentially

backdoor. I feel like that's something they need to look at heading into game two on Monday, and Peter Burr's a pretty smart coach, so I imagine he will. Yeah, load up. I think you ought to load up and try to find some sort of answer at the top end of the lineup. You know, that I think is almost always something teams should be faster to try if a playoff series seems to be tilting against them. And it's just one game. I don't want to overreact too much to it. But that game matched my expectations so significantly that I am worried.

Like, I'm worried for Dallas at this point. See, it didn't at all for me, though. Really? I thought, like, it was in the first five minutes, and part of this was the abs having a couple of power plays. But five minutes in, shots on goal were like 9-1 Colorado or something. And I was like, this is the type of game script I'm expecting, not that the stars are completely out of it because they could have a quick flurry of goals themselves

kind of against the run of play, but them hanging around and actually it being as low event and competitive as it was did go a little bit against my expectations. It's just, it's one thing to be outclassed. It's another thing to lose 5-1 on home ice. Yeah, but a lot. Now you have to win four of six with three of those games being in Colorado. Oh, it's a tall task. It's a lot.

Let's quickly go through the two Eastern Conference games we saw because I do want to end with Golden Knights Wild because that's fresh on our memory here. Cain's Devils, I don't think we have to spend too much time on it. It was about as one-sided demolition from start to finish. As you're going to see, shots were 38 to 13. Logan Stankovin playoff PDO regression watch is on. He obliterated the post on that bar in second goal.

It was unbelievable. Unbelievable. That was the first 40 minutes was just so long. upside. I'll get to a macro take on this, but we can literally leave it there. I just thought that was you know, little brother, older brother kind of thing. I just feel like the devils, and I think they realize this in the third, if I'm not mistaken, they can't justify playing Hissier and Brad together in this series, especially on the road because essentially what you saw is what you would have expected. Rod Brindamor just got Stahl, Martin Huck, and Stankov, and with Slavin

out there for like eight of 11, or eight of 12 his year's minutes. they're not going to generate in that time. No. And so if you're removing that from the equation, they just don't have enough 5-1-5 juice. Unfortunately, as you saw in this game as well, the devil's power play, even without Jack Hughes, had been really good over the past 20 games,

but they're running into the best penalty kill in the league. And in fact, in this game, they nearly had four minutes of power play time, got out shot 3 to 1 in that time still, and then took a penalty to close out one of them early. And so, yeah, there's so many matchup problems. I mean, this devil's bottom six right now with guys like Dowling and Cotter

and a guy Daniel Spong, Bastion, Glass. I mean, there's so many empty calorie minutes of guys just doing cardio out there and not really contributing anything offensively. All of them had 5-1-5 goal shares in the low 20s. The worst part about that game was I actually thought like Esper Bratt and Nico he sure were good. Yeah.

You know, like that's tough. If those guys have a good game and you don't look like you're in your opponent's weight class, that feels to me like it's hard for, me to come up with the logic of how the devil's wind, you know, too, much less four. What's your macro take while we're on it? Well, just that, and this is at the risk of, luckily we're going to do a higher frequency of shows, so I get to update this as we go.

But one thing, one thing that's interesting to me about where the game is at, and I talked about it with the sort of idea of watching the shooters to better understand it, just the general decline in league-wide, save percentage, the central importance of shooters. The fact that effectively where we're at in hockey right now is, and, you know, it's not like a total sea change so much as it's a dial getting turned a bit, but, you know, I do think variance has slightly lesser impact than it did a decade ago, and I think elite talent has a greater opportunity as a result to play a decisive role in the outcomes of games. And what I'm curious to see here as this first round unfolds, and I guess I'll frame it that way to be safer than saying

that we are seeing this for sure. But what I'm curious to see as this unfolds is, if that's the case, does that begin to mute? Because I don't know that it has yet, but does it begin to mute some of the parody that we've become accustomed to in the first round. Are we going to see a shockier outcome than what we previously have? I mean, two series that haven't started yet are Panthers, Lightning, and Oilers Kings, and I think we expect both of those to be incredibly competitive, full of amazing storylines and back before paymakers. We're going to get some tight series. It's just, as I was watching some of those games after the,

the Jets blues game. You know, it was just Shifley, then McKinnon, and then, you know, the hurricane system, but Aho and Stankovin. And then, you know, we saw with the Leafs sort of core four. Well, and I think if you're correct there, I think that bodes well for the Leafs, right? Because you can look at that game in terms of the 5-15 numbers

and the shot total for stretches of it, and I don't think that paints an accurate representation. I thought the senators had some stuff the build off of certainly. I don't think it was like, oh, they just lost 6-2. That's a wrap. Like the five-minute stretch in the third period leading to the 4-2 goal, I thought there were large sections of the second period where they deserved much better.

The penalty kill is a huge problem for them. But yeah, I didn't think, certainly I didn't think that game was 6-2 on form. But once again, like, whatever blueprint you wanted to put together. for the Leafs heading into the postseason, it would have been like, all right, for all of our qualms with their 5-1-5 numbers and the way they've chosen to play compared to previous seasons, the strengths they had were very clear. It was the power play running this five-forward group, which was a big problem for them in previous post-season. Last year, against the Bruins, they scored only one power play goal in 30 minutes throughout that entire series.

Since they put these guys together, they've been one of the most efficient power plays in the league for like 30 games now. And in this game, they immediately punish the senators. Regardless of whether you thought there were penalties or not, they score within nine seconds, three seconds, and eight seconds. All off drops. Power plays, all end their best players just executing and picking them apart. And nothing from the point.

These were guys completely wide open in the slot, like with time. I mean, I guess Tavares got to his own rebound off a deflection, but I mean. But that's what John Tavares does. 100%. Yeah. Master of the area game. Point being. these goals happened immediately, and they happened with guys who are wide open,

like uncovered in high danger scoring areas, and also they're all incredible shooters. And then the other one was Stollars has been incredible. Yep. And he stopped 31 or 33 in this game, stopped every single, like a big time leaves goalie bugaboo in previous both seasons has been just like the backbreaking stinker. Totally. And he stopped all 24 low media danger shots. I know he had the rebound that he kind of fumbled in the first period. but you talk about a crossroads moment

to one in the second period he stops Kachuk on the breakaway that cross scene pass from Amadio to Pinto that he just stares down and stops he had another one from the middle of the ice his positioning was so good there that it ended up not being a difficult save even though it was obviously a difficult save

not taking anything because he's a brick wall he's a brick wall and that's another one though too where you want to understand that save excellent play by Stolaris but Amadio has to do better with that I think it was Pinto that shot it Amadio had the pass across.

I think. Tosler is up to seven goals against in six games he's played in April. He's got the save off his knob too. Yeah. He had the knob save off the really nice power play sequence that the senator's second unit put together. No, Stollars was immense. I mean, I think he was a huge part of the story without question.

And then, you know, the penalties, I didn't like three calls in the second period, although I loved the way that they called the major to review it on the that was the high stick to Tavares. I loved the way they managed that so that that earns me some grace, but I hated the Nielander hook, I hated the Stutzla check on

Tannave. I hated the Gaudet check on Matthews in terms of calling those at all. Oh, I actually, sorry, the worst one was the Batherson. Was Batherson call? The one where he got into the engagement with Yarncrock. Was that Batherson? I find

quibbling about a playoff officiating to be Nauseating? Nearly on the level of Carter Hallibuck sucks in the playoffs. Fair enough. I'm just saying I didn't like the way

that was officiated, but to be expected early on in a playoff series and by no means did it determine the outcome of the game. It just, for me, took a little bit of my enjoyment, took me out of the game a little bit.

It did. I think for the Sends, Jake Anderson played 2634 in this game, I think that total needs to be even higher. 31. Like, he was out there pretty aggressively against Martin and Matthews.

and then there was that first period shift where it was instead Shabbat and Jensen, and immediately, Martner gets the breakaway and buries it and makes it two nothing. He also needs to be, I think, driving a little bit more. It felt like he was playing simple hockey. This is his first playoff game to be expected. There was a sequence, though, in the third, or they started playing Shabbat and him together five on five

and sort of loading up this, I guess, break glass in case of emergency, we're trailing, let's try and get a goal. It was a five-man unit that included Godette with Kachuk and Stutzla. And there was a play in the third where it's a dump-in from Shabbat, and it's Sanderson just skating bad out of hell across the blue line into the offensive zone to get the retrieval himself. I want to see more of that. I want to see him deeper.

I think he's got to be the path for Ottawa to pull off this upset. And, you know, one of the main reasons I picked them is I think he's capable of sort of altering this series pretty fundamentally. And I don't, I didn't think he was at that level today. But to be expected, I don't think the senators to a man were at that level today. Let's end with Golden Knights Wild. We were obviously, as I said, waited to record tonight till the conclusion of it, I thought, and I'm excited because I thought that was a really fun. I thought that was a really fun game. I mean, him being a fourth line center, you see that like middle lane drive and then passing it over.

And obviously, you know, they're targeting Zach Begoshan on that play, but it was just beautiful execution from a fourth line, which is an incredible luxury for the Golden Knights. I thought the first period was remarkably entertaining. Like, it was so fun. The pace was incredible. I really hope people watched it. I hope, I think only the Truciccocles are going to stay up for game two

because the puck drop is so ridiculously late. Obviously, we on the West Coast here are going to be, and we would anyways. But I don't care what time is on. On 8 p.m. start. Sign me up. That's perfect for us. The lesson. Now, you mentioned power plays being up.

The Golden Knights don't take or draw penalties. And that was a big X factor for me heading into the series because they had the second best power play this year. They're going to make you pay as soon as you give them an opportunity, but they don't really draw penalties either. And so I don't know if there's a lot of game management going on there or what, but they got the one in the second period and just immediately Tom O'Sredo wins the draw cleanly,

puts his butt in Philip Guseson's face. Shea Theodore walks the line, sells shot, passes it across. Gustafin's just completely out of the frame by the time it gets the Dorofiev. And I loved also that Dorofiev, even though he had an empty net to shoot at, something Woodley talks about all the time is that as a goalie, if you're out of position in those scramble situations, just try to like get back to the middle of the net and cover what would be like the softest muffin shot because often shooters will actually in those situations just make sure,

like kind of like a soccer p.k. just like, I don't want to miss the net here and look like an idiot. So I'm going to take something off of it and just try to get it into the center of the net. And Dorothea just wired it. Like, he was like, I have one gear and it's rockets all the time. And I'm going to make no mistake. And I love that so much from him. The fake in that play at the point from Shea Theodore, though, was just completely absurd.

I mean, you know, you very rarely see, he very rarely see a sort of, shot fake and pass from the point to the flank create a goal and that is that play was worth like 0.95 goals it was just incredible he's so smooth he also had a play in the first where he like he sold going outside and then cut back in and broke poor madzu carillo's ankles on the play and got a chance off of that as well i just think the knights are they're so efficient yeah and part of why we love watching them i think why you and i are both so high on them as like a legitimate at Cup pick this postseason is how methodical they are in terms of waiting for a slight opening or a momentary lapse or especially a turnover and just how quickly they turned that and

leverage it into a scoring chance and how they transition from defense to offense, nearly regardless of who's on the ice for them. I think Bruce Cassidy has an incredible luxury here in terms of the personnel of flattening the usage and similar to what they did two years ago when they won the cup and why they were able to stay so healthy and everyone seemed so fresh even when they ran the gauntlet of the postseason, it's because they don't have to overextend anyone. I'm sure if, you know, situationally, they'll get Jack Eichol's minutes up into the mid-20s if the situation calls for it. But you look at this one, like all their defensemen play pretty much the same amount of time. They're using the fourth line against Caprizov as the

matchup and getting minutes for Eichl and Stone against like Freddie Godro and Marcus Johansson. And then, you know, once the Wilde made it serious down the stretch, you made it three, two, all of a sudden, the next shift you see it. And it's like, all right, we're going to send the big boys out against their top line, enough playing around. And so I do wonder as well, not, it's the postseason, and I think the Wilder is certainly very dangerous as they've shown. But I imagine the Golden Knights approach will probably change a little bit if they play, say, Edmonton in round two, as opposed to the way they're maybe approaching this series, especially

in the early stages. Yeah, I mean, I think it makes sense to at least start every series with that plan and sort of tweak and figure things out as it goes. This is like two plus months of hockey. It's wildly difficult to make it through intact. And, you know, like that fourth lines shift that Nikwa had that he was driving throughout after the second Matt Boldie goal. So it's three, two. And the wild, the golden nights just turn the heat up.

Yeah, they're like no mess around. Shift after heavy shift. And there's like a 45 second sequence with Niqua just generating havoc down low as a puck carrier, circling the net. And it's like, that's their fourth. line. That's their fourth line against a desperate team, and they're just racking up ozone shifts against a trailing team in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I mean, if your fourth line is capable of doing that, why wouldn't you flatten the minutes? That was awesome. We ran out of time to get into some cons might long shots talk. Maybe we can put a note to revisit that when we talk next, but I

think there's some fun picks. I think Tom O'Sherto would have been a pick for me, and then now after this game, he's skyrocketed, although, you know, we'll see a lot of ebbs and flows as the postseason progresses. We also didn't have time to talk about our long national nightmare of Greg Cronin coaching the ducks being finally and mercifully over. Sources say that Patford-Beak tuned into last Sunday special. Oh, no. And he was like, this is the final straw. Oh, no. Hearing how these guys are talking about my ducks.

Hey, I just loved hearing his commentary, by the way, talking about his expectations for this team. and, you know, look, it's obviously not been the season that he would have wanted, but a lot of good signs from that team. I just loved the quote that he gave through the Ducks website. My expectation of this team is to make the playoffs next season. I think he knows what he has. Yeah, I think you can't have a rotation. I was working on this.

I was working on picking the second rookie for my NHL, like all-NHL rookie team this week. So I was spending a wild amount of time deep diving on, you know, the relative merits of Denton Matechuk versus Olin Zellweger. And it's just like, there's no question that Zellweger should have. Should have been there. And his usage just wasn't sufficient. I know. And it's just like, what are we doing? Anyway, I'm done.

My favorite part of that quote was him saying Greg Cronin was shocked by the phone call. Damn. Turns out Cronin was even more checked out this season than I thought. because I don't think he should have been surprised by that at all. All right, Tom, we're going to get out of here. I'll be back Tuesday morning with more playoff coverage. The two of us will be back Friday, I believe. We're going to be kicking off our Palm Springs series,

and you're going to be hearing a lot more from the two of us. Thank you for listening to the Hockey-Pedio cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.