The Hockey PDOcast - Game 2 Takeaways

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Sean Shapiro joins Dimitri to talk about Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, how and why the Golden Knights have dominated, and all sorts of other observations from the start of the series in Vegas.This podcast is produced by Dominic Sramaty.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. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey Pediocast with your host, Dmitry Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey Pediocast. My name is DeBetri Filipovich and joining me as my good buddy, Sean Schiapiro. Sean, what's going on, man? Not too much, man. I've got a, I'm living on a couple cups of coffee. I had a red eye home last night after a game, game two.

The, there was several, there's a great scene with, so last night's game. Obviously, we all love overtime hockey, but last night, I and based off the other amount of hockey writers that were also catching Ubers for the Red Eye from Vegas out of Vegas after the game. If that game had gone to overtime, if it had been closed, there had been a lot of nervous, not copy deadlines, there were a lot of nervous flight deadlines. So that was a fun scene. And I was, I didn't really care who won. I was just pleasantly surprised. I was happy that it was decided. before the third period.

Well, as a proponent of maximum chaos, I'm sad that that happened. And also, it would have been more fun, obviously, if the game was close, but I'm glad that you were ready to make your flight.

You're back from your trip. You had a nap. You had a few coffees. You're ready to go. We're going to talk about game two, your observations from being there live on scene, while you were hearing, what you were seeing,

what the scuttle boat was, all that good stuff. Let's get into it. So, you know, game two takeaways, it's tough to take two, like it was a highly eventful game, certainly, right? There's a lot of actual things for us to discuss in terms of what happened on the ice. The issue was from an analysis perspective, it was a 4-0 game, what, 27 minutes in or less than halfway through the second period. And at that point, it felt like it was a wrap. Now, a lot of stuff happened after that.

But in terms of, like, actually unpacking what went into it. It feels like these two games have had such a distinct lack of kind of like flow and continuity throughout them. And that's been reflected in when you look at the matchup data. I was so excited heading into the series. I can't wait to see how the chess pieces match up against each other. How these coaches decide to use their top defensive players against the other team's top offensive players.

And then there's been so little five on five time. There's been so little clarity in that regard that it really has been chaotic. So maybe it's deliberate from that end. But I feel like that's kind of my first. impression coming out of game two. Yeah, for whatever reason. I think it happens in the regular season, too, but more so in the playoffs, because obviously the teams are good and you don't expect good teams to give up big leads, but it almost

feels like the minute one coach decides to pull the goalie in a playoff game, it feels like that's the white flag. Like, it feels like that's the sign to the building that so like, four nothing is for nothing either way, right, whether it's Bobrovsky or lying in that. When Florida makes the pull, that almost feels like the white flag. For everyone watching it, like, all right, well, they want to the backup. They're pulling their whole, like, it's just a, it's such a weird, like, like, now, obviously in a game where a guy makes the goal, if a goalie lets up the goal on the first shot of the game and they make the aggressive change or whatever, that's different. But in general, like, it just always feels like there's a, like when the goalie gets pulled, especially in the playoffs, it just feels like the game is over.

and one team's waving the white flag because good teams aren't supposed to surrender leads. We don't expect Vegas to surrender before nothing to lead. And it's one of those, the two games of the series have been, like, it's been really interesting to see how the narrative and the storylines have developed versus,

and this has been good ones, right? Like the, like the, like the, like the, Eichl coming back is a great, Eichael not being hurt to the point where he would come in coming back and setting up the play. It's a great storyline and everything like that. But it's stuff that it's well after the game had been established. It's stuff that like analytically speaking, looking at like if you're trying to look at why this team won or lost, it had nothing to do whether that Kachuk delivers that hit to Eichl or not. Like it's it's kind of that weird spot where some of the biggest parts of this series or from Game 2 at least didn't really matter and who won the game.

It's kind of, it's, it was very odd. Well, here's a thing, Sean. Yeah, I'm with you on the weird feeling of kind of finality, I guess, when a team makes that goalie change, especially when it's like a 4-0 read like that. In Vegas's last 13 games this postseason, they have chased the opposing team starting goalie five times. Pretty good. So it has been a very common occurrence in that regard. And it sort of is also a testament to not only how. how efficiently their offense is clicking right now,

but also how business-like, I guess, most of this run has been from them, right? It's just, it's a very matter of fact. It's a very definitive performance. And maybe that should be the focus of this because you look at that offensive outburst. So they score the seven goals in game two, right? Four of them on Bobrovsky, pull him, then three more online. They had 21 scoring chances in that game by my account, which is a lot for a game where they didn't really have much motivation in like the second

and half of it. They got a few there just because the games were devolved into a bit of a beer league atmosphere in terms of defensive intensity certainly, but they did a lot of that early. And three minutes into the second period of last night's game, they already passed Carolina's goal output from 16 periods that they played against this Florida Panthers team in the Eastern Conference final. And so it really just has been an absolute offensive tour to force performance by Vegas, this entire postseason really, where the power play is kind of stunk. they finally scored a couple in these first two games, but for the most part,

their 5-1-5 offense has been the story here, and that has continued in these two games, and I think that should, I guess, be our focus right out of the gate. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, it's the way just this Vegas team has kind of felt, it's felt like it's kind of the inevitability, right? This Vegas team has kind of felt like the inevitable force throughout all of this. It's the team where it's never about,

the individual stories. Like we look at Florida was about Bobrovsky and Kachuk in many ways. There's a team game, but so much is about Barowski and Kachuk. When they played Dallas in the last round, Dallas was a well-built team,

but a lot of it was, well, Jason Robertson produced, Joe Povilski does this. Vegas doesn't matter who the goal he is. It doesn't matter if the guy who's the leading score goes eight or not. It's just, it's always been about how the team plays

overall. And I think we're looking at the, it just kind of gives that individual feeling that this team was built that way to, that this is what they were built for. It's, it's funny. I was, I've got something I was writing for us over at EP Rinkside for next for tomorrow, just on Ivan Barbashev. But going down the logic where Barbashev was traded, was another, another player acquired by Vegas trading away a first round draft pick. And like Vegas has, other than the only, Vegas has only kept one first round pick.

One prospect that has actually been drafted for the first round Vegas has kept. And that that's it. And it's, I was kind of joking in the story, but if Vegas has that iconic parade that the NHL would absolutely love right down the Vegas strip, like Pellie McCrimman should take a page right out of the LA Rams book

and just do an F them picks. like go like an F them picture because this this is what this team was built for. This team was built this way and it's like it's a like if you try to prep for this team and you look how they're built and it's a scary, it's a scary team to try to plan for. And you watch them in person and the thing like the thing that's most impressive to me about Vegas is

you look at the goaltending stuff. and I know Aidan Hill is getting a lot of love right now. And he's playing well, don't take nothing from him. But the way Florida last night, the amount of shots that, like, because I've been tracking him as to you watch the game, the amount of shots that don't even, like, that don't even register to the audience as shots because how quickly Vegas boxes things out and closes things out. It's like stifling things out before anyone even realizes there's something to stifle out.

It's, it's, it's damn impressive. Yeah, it's almost unfair that a team that, that good defensively and we've made a lot this postseason all year like under bruce cassidy they change your defensive system the way they like to um what they like to close off but this post season they've carried it over but the fact that they're also scoring this much at five on five on top of that now is just makes it a nightmare right and you know paul maries had some quote after the game last night where i'm not sure if you caught this but it was something along the lines of like you know it was a very classic coach quote of like this series for us isn't like about

like how many goals we're scoring or wherever it's like about like the other stuff or the other end of the ice and it's like well yes but also um with how much bagis is able to create themselves this is the type of series where you're probably not going to beat them to one or one nothing or three two like they're just consistently churning out three four five one five goals alone per game and so if that's going to carry over you're going to have to find a way to break through all of the defensive problems Vegas is able to pose to you. And so it's a very tricky situation to try to navigate

because they're so good at countering as well that you can't really go too aggressive and really just throw all caution to the win because they'll just take advantage of that and flip the script on you there. So I don't know, like so far this postseason, they're up 56 to 26 at 515. The biggest goal of the Knights

are. The next best team in scoring is Dallas with 37. The next best team in goal differential is Carolina plus four, just to kind of like give context of how much they widen the gap between themselves and everyone else this postseason, you look in this series in just two games now, they have eight different five-on-five goal scores, right? Three defensemen, and every single one of their forward lines has created a five-on-five goal

in these two games. And so in terms of like how they were assembled, how they were built, how they were put together, generally in this playoff series, you can identify some sort of a strength that, okay, we have to try to minimize this, and then there's a weakness that we try to target. And in this case, it's really tough to actually plausibly identify those because they provide you with so few and they give you so many things to worry about. Yeah, you just start to grasp that straws when you're when you're trying to find, when you're trying to find weaknesses from Vegas.

Like I think we're watching when I think the most recent, I think the one that people were grasping at is from game one is like, Aiden Hill makes the save, but there was times he looked little bit sloppy. And that's the one where people start to grasp that from game one. And really it was, I mean, aside from a stall wraparound, it was a effective,

effective, really dominant Vegas performance in game one, too. It's, it's kind of one of those things where you're, you don't want to, like, we get into this position where we want to break it down and we want, to find the flaw.

And sometimes a team doesn't really have one. And that's just, that's the, that's how well built this Vegas team is. And I think part of it too was, and it's stuff you couldn't control, obviously because of, of injury,

but it's, we talked about what happened with Boston, right? We talked about, you know, I've talked about Boston, where Boston kind of had the place where they never really got the practice test,

right? Like they just, everything was, such smooth sailing where this Vegas team, they dealt with the injuries. They dealt with the things throughout the regular season, and they didn't have the, they're a well-built team, extremely talented, plus had the adversity in the 82 game season. It's like a perfect storm that it's hard to, it's hard to find a flaw in that team at all, even if you like it's you have to go very fine tooth comb and then at that point you're like well

there's never any good teams if you're going to that well they used to have flaws they used to have a flaw which was they were a much of a shot quantity over shot quality team yes that's fair that's fair that's fair a certain type of goalie and defensive system that would give them a lot of trouble even when they were making conference finals and winning a ton of games every step of the way and now you look at this and i think that's why i'm i'm keying in on this so much in this discussion and Connor Hellebuck 886, 8, 8,000 in round one. Stuart Skinner, 875 in round two. Jake O'Donger, 877 in round three.

Sergey Bobrovsky, 826 in these two games, including getting pulled in game four. Like, they are, obviously part of it is driven by, you know, good fortune. I don't expect, like, they're not a true talent shooting team the way they have converted so far, but they've clearly changed their approach, and there's so much more dangerous in that regard. and you even look in these games, it's tough because on the one hand, I've spent this entire postseason it feels like pushing back against this idea that Sergey Bobrovsky was playing at this Herkulean Dominic Hashek level, just because you were citing all of these stats that

weren't actually based in reality. But at the same time, you watch these two games and it's tough to really be like, oh, well, he's turned into a pumpkin now because he's giving up these goals because a lot of them, he did not have that much of a chance on, right? a lot of them are from either good areas or ones where the spacing is entirely off defensively by the Panthers. They are screening him on a lot of these. They're not clearing out their front of their own net, right?

Like the Marsha's 0-1 to start last night, Mark Stone's butt is like firmly in his face and that's all he can see. Now, I would blame him a little bit in terms of I don't think he's doing himself any favors because stylistically, his first response to that is at first sign of trouble, just get his as you can, right? And so a lot of these shots, like you look at the Martinez one, it's kind of like a weird shot, but it beats him cleanly up high because he panics and just instantly get super low out of that, like that's just kind of second nature.

And in the previous series, Carolina was bailing him out on a lot of those because they, either because they don't have the shooting talent or because they just weren't able to execute, they weren't targeting that and trying to punish him, right? It was a lot of shots down low that he was able to just effortlessly kick out. And then now this, it's clearly showed that they went into this with a game plan and they're executing that game plan. And so you can't really blame Bobrovsky for these, but also it's not like it's totally out of left field because this was a key point of conversation heading into the series. Well, it's a conversation Vegas has had about Brovsky where like I talked to, I talked to someone from Vegas where they talked a lot about going into this series. about how they use the word locked,

about how the Brofsey gets locked into that low stance. Like it's, it's one of those things where, like a lot of goalies will get small at times, but they'll get back up into it. But Brofsky almost gets like, like he almost like,

it's like kind of like he hits, goes past a lever and like can't go up for some reason until the next whistle. And it's something that Vegas keyed on that and noticed that. And you see they've been, they've been taking advantage of it. And if,

it's one of those things where you and I've talked about on this show before. There's sometimes things where it's like if the outside public can see it and the other team can see it, we know the team itself can see it. And so you're kind of you're playing and you're playing and praying you're playing to you're playing and praying that you're going to not be exposed in that way. And it's like, and I wonder just in the internal psyche of like, like we see. see the, we see Florida has gone out of its way to scream Bobrovsky by themselves sometimes, just the self-harm of, like, there's times where they've gotten lost, they've lost guys through the zone, they're not dealing well with Vegas's transition. And so it becomes the panic moment of, okay, now I must block the shot. That's what I must do. And they're kind of standing

up straight almost, like they're kind of staying up straight. It almost feels like it's, you almost look at like some of like it was the, which goal was it's like, it's like, it's almost like one of those where they're standing up straight thinking like, I'll take away the top half of the net and Barowski will take the lower half of the net. And it's, it's just a mess overall. And it's like, you look at this Florida team and I wonder, not as much in the style. I wonder if how much they overthought things with the 10-day layoff. Like, because it's a Florida team where they are not playing the same way they were against Carolina. They're not playing the same the way they were in the prior series.

And I don't think it's an effort or energy thing. I think that's not, but I do wonder if 10 days became something where you started to overthink things where before it was pure survival against Boston. It was it was pure survival. It was just focus on this and it was bang, bang, bang, bang. and then all of a sudden you now get to a spot where you have 10 days, you're watching it, and I wonder if they just like internally overthought how things played out.

And that's just a theory. I don't know. That seems a bit overly convenient for me. I think it's going from that Carolina team to this Vegas team in terms of talent level and in terms of different ways they can beat you. I think that's a much bigger issue here. I really think that's fair. No, that's fair.

I'm not taking anything away from Vegas. No, no, no. I know you're not. I'm actually speaking that to myself and to the audience because I feel like throughout this run, I've been guilty of this. A lot of this run by Vegas, part of it is because a lot of these defeats have been so like thorough and so businesslike, as I described earlier, that along the way, I feel like I viewed a lot of these series through the lens of their opponent.

Right. So in round one, it was like, well, yeah, this is even like, you know, they beat the Jets in five and just like dispose of them pretty much effortlessly. And after that, it was like, remember there was like the Rick bonus drama and him calling out his players. And then what's Winnipeg going to do? Then in round two, it's like, oh, like Edmonton,

it was open for Edmonton this year and they couldn't get it done. Then as we're preparing for the Western Conference final, the lasting image we have heading into that start of that series is that dominant performance by Dallas at home in game seven against the Seattle Cracken. And so it's like, all right, well, if they play that way, they're going to be really difficult, right? And then they go down 3-0 and then we're like,

all right, talking ourselves, how can we get more hockey? How can Dallas make this run and force a game seven and potentially drum up more interest in that way? And so now we're getting into the series. And once again, they're up to nothing after two very thorough wins. And instead of being like, man, there's just so many things that Vegas does, right?

And let's go through all of them. It's like we're focusing on what Florida isn't doing compared to what they were doing previously. I don't think we're focusing. I don't think we're focusing. I think it was something to defend myself here. My point is bringing up a little bit of seeing what's happening to Florida, I think has made it worse. Who if Florida has done worse, but I also, to be clear, like, this, earlier in this podcast, I said, Vegas feels inevitable. Like, that's, I don't think, I don't think, I don't think, I don't think, I don't want that to get lost here in translation where I think Florida has given themselves more problems than they need. And at the same time, it's, they're just punching up against, they're punching up against a much, much better hockey team. Well, and part of it has been exacerbated certainly, right? In Florida's defense, they don't have E2 to surrender for these first two games.

Radical Goody's plays, what, two minutes in game two before getting hurt, re-injured and not playing the rest of the game. And so part of the concern heading into the series was Vegas is the deepest team of anyone this postseason. They're going to have that advantage. Well, it's a four-line team versus a three-line team. And that's been highlighted now because you look at game two. And it's like, all right, Eric Stahl plays, what, 11 minutes at 5-15 in those minutes.

Vegas out shoots them 8 to 2, outscores them 2-0. Josh Mahura has to play more and without his regular partner now. He plays 13 minutes at 5-15. Goals are 3-1 Vegas in that time. And that's not to be like, oh, Josh Mahura is the reason why Florida lost. But heading into the series, we're concerned about how the players, on the margins lower on the depth chart would hold up against this particular Vegas team

and they've really just taken full advantage of that, right? And so it's kind of like all of those concerns you would have potentially had have been playing out in real time before our very eyes. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Yeah, okay, the other thing from game two then, I guess we should say was, you know, a big story. And for the life of me,

I don't think it impacted the result in any way because, you know, Vegas went up to that 4-0 lead. full marks. They were going to win regardless. But after the Kachuk hit on Ikel, which for my money was completely clean and didn't really deserve of a big, you know, litigation after the fact of like, oh, was it clean or dirty? Like it was a regular hit. It was an unfortunate circumstance because Ico tripped before receiving the hit. Thankfully, he was okay, had that redemption story of coming back, setting up the Marshalls So goal, all of that as well and good. I just don't understand. Do we get any clarity of why Matthew Kachuk received a misconduct and had to sit for 12 minutes after that

play or is it just purely the officials are like, we're trying to keep this in check. It's a 4-0 game. We don't want it to escalate too much because it was still a bit too early in the contest for my liking to be taking that tactic as an officiating group, right? Like there's just, you know, it's unacceptable to have the other team's best player missing that much time in a game that's still theoretically up for grabs or at least a you know, if Florida scores the next goal scores two, they have a chance. Instead, he's sitting for 12 minutes and the rest is history.

I just, I mean, giving out 12 misconducts in game two and up to 16 in these two games. It speaks to how the games are devolved at the end of them, but also I do feel like that is a bit of a story here in terms of it turning into somewhat of a ref show. Yeah, I mean, two things for me. One, I, no one, like, no one thought it was a dirty hit. like that's that's the part where it's like I see some of the you saw some of the like I think there's a story or two here there about like reacting to clean or dirty like no one ever thought it was a dirty hit like Vegas Florida every everyone agreed it was a clean hit like that's no one no one disagreed on that and so that for one is something where I think like it kind of takes away from the spot like now

Ikel's return and like to me the bigger the bigger scare was a guy who had neck surgery and takes a hit high and even being a clean head like oh no like are we going to have this this kind of dark cloud over Vegas going into game three because Ikel may be hurt but then he comes back and he has the pretty big moment I thought that was I think focusing more on whether the hit was clean or dirty takes away from that because I want to focus more on Ikel's return I think that's a really cool like Stanley Cup finalesque moment that that we want to celebrate the misconduct part though like I don't I'm totally on board with you I don't get how Matthew a Chuck throws a clean hit and then has to sit 12 minutes for it I don't get it like I really don't get it now they gave the rough for the they gave the rough for kind of the little alter the altercation afterwards and they gave the the misconduct was related to that and so I I don't but to me it's such a like pulling a card out and just trying to pull pulling a control card out that the referees didn't need to because too often we talk about, right?

Like people say like, oh, well, referees are controlling the game or we don't want them to decide the game and everything like that. And did what Matthew Kachuk did? Was it really worthy of taking one of the best players in the world off the ice for 12 minutes in the biggest series in the world? And I don't think it was. I also look at the fact where I saw something where Florida came like within four minutes of like setting like the all-time record.

for penalty minutes in a Stanley Cup final game. And like, you're going to tell me, like, that is, like, that's the, that is the performance that is the, that comes that close to the all time. Like, I've, we've seen the tape. We've seen how hockey was played. And we've seen how, and how the, like, like, I remember going through. And, like, when I wrote my first book about the stars,

obviously watched a lot of late 90s hockey. And I remember having a conversation with Brent Severn about how, if a game was three not in the third period, that's when Brett knew it was his job. Like it was, and that's not what this is. This is officials just throwing out 10-minute misconducts to control things. And it's, on one hand, I think it can be a tool in the bag that works. And I'm not pretending to be an official or to know what's the right and wrong time to do it. But I just feel like it's getting, got overused in that game.

And it took away, it really took, it really took. took away chance to come back. I mean, it really, really took away. Like, give them the two minutes, that's fine, but the full 12 minutes away. Like, it's, I didn't, I'm on board with you on this one. I don't like the, I don't like the way the misconducts were using this one, especially, especially in that, at that time of the game. Well, and I, one of the things I hate most is wasting time and energy complaining about officiating. I just find it to generally be such loser energy. And in this case, in a particular, I think it's a just outcome in terms of, Vegas was the better team.

They should be up to nothing in this series through these two games. I don't think any complaints about officiating have anything to do with that, right? It does feel like some, there's been certain plays where it's like, all right, it feels like Vegas probably got off a bit easy here. I think a lot of Florida's penalties have been fully deserved. I just feel like it's probably a bit more even on both ends. Now at the same time, it really does feel like the Panthers are kind of getting a dose of their own medicine in this series, right, where they've bumped into a team that is essentially

doing everything they've been doing up until this point, except just doing it bigger and better. And so that must be very frustrating as well to kind of bump into like a bigger bully in the playground, essentially, and be given some perspective. It feels like that's sort of what's happened in these two games as well, right? Yeah, I mean, for me, the only officiating, like, made, not made, call him, but the only officiating quote that I would have had where I'm watching as a neutral where I felt like Florida got a job to be on talking about the misconduct is you go back to game one and the Aiden Hill throwing the fact that Florida is the, that Florida is the only one that

comes out penalized in that, that sequence where Aiden Hill, um, defends himself and throws the punch and everything like that. That's the only thing. I mean, Florida is getting is, is, You can see, like, it's one of those things where, like, I think Kachuk's a perfect example of it, where now, albeit, I think the misconducts have been a bit harsh and unfair. I think Chuck is, you're seeing, he's a perfect encapsulation of this Florida team where the frustration of the frustration is starting to creep in and the space where that really works really well when it's like the thing, if you're going to, if you're going to, if you're going to, if you're going to, if you're going to. to be successful and run someone over at the same time. It works really well. But otherwise, it just starts to look. It's a reek of desperation. I think that's where in Florida is starting to fall into that trap where they're starting to feel desperate themselves, but not channeling it in the right direction. It's a Florida team that's like, I mean, it's, you got to figure it out.

Yeah. Well, they're heading home now. They have a few games to do so, but obviously have dug them I was a little bit of a hole here. All right, Sean, let's take our break here. And then we'll talk about a few other things from this series and some other stuff around the league to close out the show. Today, you were listening to the Hockey Pedyocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. Breaking down the top stories in hockey and Elliot Friedman every day.

The Jeff Merrick Show. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we're back here on the Hockeyedoccast with Sean Shapiro. Sean, you know, we talked about the team effort from Vegas's perspective, and that's obviously the big story. But let's identify some of the individual performances as well that have kind of stood out so far in these two games, just because I feel like they have been there, right? It hasn't just necessarily been like a uniform from first player to 12th, from first four to 12th, all the way through. Like, there's been guys who clearly shine. And one of those is Jonathan

Marcia So who, you know, there's a sweet storyline of Florida giving him away a handful of years ago and then now him coming back to bite them. I think that story sort of writes itself and already has written itself. He is now the cons my favorite, according to the better markets, by a very significant margin. And it's easy to see the logic why, right? He scores two goals in game two. He scored in game one. He has now scored in six of Vegas's past seven games is up to 12 in 19 for the postseason with nine. other assists. And with him on the ice, this is a crazy stat for you. With him on the ice at 5 and 5. Vegas is up 21 to 5 so far this postseason. And he, out of the 19 games they've played, he's only been on the ice for a goal against in three of those 19 games. Otherwise, it's been a clean sheet. And so he's been awesome. It's kind of cool to watch him play and how well he meshes with Eichol in terms of skill sets, right? Because Eichol has been doing so much. of the heavy lifting as the puck carrier and the puck transporter. And he's been quite the playmaker in this postseason, especially from kind of the start

of that Dallas series where the puck wasn't going in for him. So it felt like he started really looking for others. And it's gone into this series as well. And that second goal, Marshall So scored, was the perfect encapsulation of that where he just out of nowhere jumps in and is about as wide open as you're going to be. And you're wondering how a guy who is going to lead this. the league in postseason scoring from a goal's perspective by the by the end of the series is that open and yet time and time again he finds a way to kind of sniff out these open spots in defense's

own coverage and then make you pay for it and it's kind of it's really fun to watch the way he does that time and time again he's been fun I mean it's you talked about it right in itself and it's I know the it's easy to do the Vegas Twitter feed jumped on the the thing last night but he was given away by Florida. And to me, that story is, that story is good and kind of writes itself. But to me, it's,

that was seven years ago, right? Like, it's that, that, like the fact that Florida gave up, it's not like this current GM is the one that gave up. It's not like this current GM is the one that gave him away and everything like that.

So I think that's a good storyline, but it's not, it doesn't have as much juices if they played in the first couple years. But to me, it's, it's him and like he represents this Vegas team. Think of the that I like about the Marshall Show story is what have we learned about Vegas his tenure?

They came into the league and they decided they were going to be different. They were going to aggressively manipulate the salary cap. They don't put, there's not a, there's not a priority. There hasn't been a priority on loyalty. I mean, they would disagree with you on that, but just in general, it's the fact of the matter is if no one's your cap your if you're no one is there's no holy cows in Vegas right like mark andre flurry was mark andre flurry was was shipped out after winning the besna trophy and he was one of the most beloved figures in franchise history right off the bat and

the fact that marcia so was one of those six players that has been around from the beginning and has not been replaced has not been recycled out so they could get that other winger they needed and not done that. And it easily could have happened. And to me, that's the more telling part of this story. Like, that's the kind of the bigger one of like, for all of the things that Vegas has done to attack the cap and to do this and make the moves and always be in the market for the big name player,

they never chose to part ways with Marshall. So and then Riley Smith, too. But to me, that's the bigger Marshallsville story that I enjoy about this, where someone who, this. I probably would not have expected Jonathan Marcioso to still, if you had told me six years ago, he would be one of the six guys still remaining. I don't know if I would have believed that. So that's, that's to me one of the stories of Marceau I like. And then I also, I like the fact, too, where I love the way that line, from a hot, pure hockey standpoint.

I love the way that line plays. I love the way the, I love the way Barbashev and Eichel and Marshall still play, where it's, Eichel is obviously the driver and the creator. and you and I've talked before about how he just drives down that left wing and everything like that. And Barbashev has, in Barbashev is the winger who doesn't really, he's obviously the third offensive option on there, but he provides that, that forecheck, that playoffs. Like, I love the way that lines built, just from a like a hockey nerdy schematically way that line is built. It is a, it's a perfectly built line. I love watching that line play.

And obviously part of that comes with just you have to have that guy like Marceau. who can come in and has that shot and has that that finish like he does where as you mentioned in that play last night where comes out of nowhere and there's the goal yeah sniffing out just constantly getting he has had so many high danger chances just off of like those types of exact plays that one was an extreme example of it but um it's been a heck of a ride from and yeah that's that the idea of this team that has got gotten a reputation for giving players away and the one player they haven't is the guy who previously struggled to find a long-term home in this league is a delicious story certainly the other guy that I wanted to talk about was mark stone because

I'm contractually obligated every single podcast to rave about him and you know what if you have an issue with that this probably just is not the show for you and that's fine I'm okay with that because I love Markstone if you're not a Markstone if you're not a Markstone person then you need to reevaluate the way you enjoy and consume hockey what uh you know what the goal he scored in game one where he knocks it out of midair and then immediately roost it in basically like one motion i thought that was the most markstone goal i think i even said on yesterday's show i'm like that was that was the most markstone goal and then now he didn't score the one in game two but that entire sequence i tweeted the the video of the replay where his stick breaks he

contests brandon onto her shot right gets in the way of it then just bowls him over goes and picks up a new stick from the bench on the fly and then has this like really savvy delayed zone entry where he makes sure he tags up and he's on side receives the puck and then flings a cross-ice pass to the trailer brett howden who's able to finish it and that essentially put the game away last night right that entire sequence was such a mark stone play and the best part of it is if you go back and rewatch it it happens all at about 50% speed right It feels like everyone else is moving in normal time and he's moving at half speed and yet still he gets to where he needs to be and none of it matters. And it was just it was such a beautiful play.

And that's exactly what this is all about. And that's what he's all about as a player. And so I just wanted to recognize that because it was really fun to watch. Oh, he's so fun. He's such a fun player. Like it's I love watching his gameplay. I love the way he impacts the game. I, but the stick.

grab was great like you're right like the first the first goal the goal in game won the knockdown that's the quintessential mark stone goal but it's and and even like there's there's there's that goal and then there's even uh i think just the way he kind of can go half speed at times and no just like we the the the marshal so goal that ikel sets up on right he starts because stone is just he starts it where Stone just stalls the game and allows Eichel to just basically slingshot through like

it gets I love seeing a healthy Mark Stone play I love that I love that it's uh I've been I've been on Mark Stone uh I mean if you don't love Mark Stone this is Taki's not the sport for you Well I mean you know that play it shows the effort and the desire

I think of him to not only win but to get the puck at all regardless of who or what is in his way, right? It didn't wind up leading to a goal, but I actually thought one of the plays in game one was also in this conversation of the most Mark Stone play, where it was like during the second period,

and I forget the exact sort of timing of it, but essentially there was a loose puck in the neutral zone. He goes and he picks it up. He beats Brandon Montour on a zone entry. Sam Bennett comes and tries to take his head off. He sort of sidesteps him, right? Mark Stahl in the process knocks him down to the ice because he's a bit off balance. And while his butt is on the ice, he still gets a scoring chance off that Sergey

Bobrovsky winds up stopping. And it didn't lead to a goal. But it was like he just, he just individually beat literally every single person that the Florida Panthers had on the ice all by himself. And I generally kind of, you know, I bristle at the talk of, you know, wanting it, right? or like this being all about effort because everyone in the league wants it, but especially when you get to this point of the season, like the Stanley Cup is within arm's reach.

Everyone out there would do anything in their power to try to help their team get to that point. Right. But it does feel like a combination of like him just absolutely being like, I have to have this puck and then going out and doing it and then having also obviously the skill to make something of it once he does get the puck is just such a perfect combination and that's sort of what you're seeing in these games and I do think that is an okay thing to kind of lionize right? That's like what you strive for in these moments.

It's a guy who who's just putting it all out there and wants to help his team win and making all of these individual efforts to do so regardless of whatever the other team throws in his way. Yeah, I don't like, I agree with you. I don't like the, I don't like the wantingness, like to say to assume a guy playing in the Stanley Cup final doesn't want it is always kind of but I do think there's something to be said about properly dealing with the pressure I think

maybe sometimes we sometimes get guys wanting it confused with playing with the pressure and I think that's something that Mark Stone has done a tremendous job of where it's you you play with the pressure of the moment and it doesn't change your game and your game just elevates because some people deal with the pressure better than others. I don't think it's a want thing. I think it's just a, it's just like why some people are better at public speaking than others. Just like it's,

if you want to narrow it down to something much simpler. Like it's, some people can step up and seize it in that spot. And I think Mark Stone clearly can. Well, I think there's also an element of like the urgency or sort of what you're willing to do to get there, right? Like,

it's like, we just throw the puck into the middle of the ice and everyone can go get it, who's going to get it. Even though Markstone would be very low on your list of people to go get it, there's done his ability to actually get there in a timely manner. I would like trust him to find a way to outmaneuver and outsmart and outwork everyone else to find his way to eventually getting there, right? Maybe not first, but eventually getting it. And so that's what we're seeing here. And, you know, you mentioned, you mentioned like, oh, it's cool to see like a healthy Markstone.

I actually don't even know if if that's true. Like he's clearly at times, been fighting through pain throughout this postseason. There's been countless occasions. I can remember where his opponents have, you know, targeted his lower back and with cross-checks and, like, gone after him. And he's still just fighting through all this. And now there's two wins from a Stanley Cup. And I'm very curious to see what he does if they do wind up winning it with the Stanley Cup because it feels like that celebration is going to be absolutely outrageous. So I can't wait to see that if it does happen. But yeah, I don't know.

Is there anything else on this series or on Stone or any either individual efforts or team things or from just being at the rink what people were talking about, what you might have noticed that might not have been picked up on TV? Like, I'm curious for empty the notebook here in terms of like what you've offered in this game. Yeah. And it was a thing about the cup final that's really weird with the timing in Vegas. And it's both teams are dealing with it.

But in Vegas dealt with it. in the last round, actually, against Dallas for the first time for Florida, there's a lot of waiting with the 5 p.m. local start, right? Like, because the TV schedule set the 8 p.m. Eastern starts. So, like, when game in the flow, when the series goes back to Florida, they'll be a morning skate. They'll be a more normal day where it just, in Vegas, it was for both teams. And it's just a very, very weird day because there's no morning skate.

There's no normal festivities. a little bit of against the Dallas series, but in general, this is unlike any other setup that you'd kind of deal with throughout the regular season. So that was always kind of a bit odd. The other thing that just I really took away from the game and you look at how these two teams are,

and it's like having talked to people around, I know a lot of people will make the case over the, about the non-state tax and everything like that, and that does have an impact and why teams are successful and using their advantages. But having talked to people in Vegas about how they spend and how they spend in the spaces that don't impact the salary cap, how I was talking to people in Vegas about how much they're willing, how there's a higher standard for a salary for, an equipment manager in Vegas than some other NHL teams, how they, they're willing to shell out more for Henderson. And it's, it's, it's those little things where I think you look at like a guy who bought this

team and Bill Foley who said, I want to win a Stanley Cup in six years. I think there really is a money where your mouth thing is where he's really gone and put the, and put the financial resources into play where there isn't a salary cap where no one says, no, no one's limiting whether you can, can how much you can pay your assistant coaches, how much you can bring in, what type of resources you can bring in for your HL team and talking to people around Vegas and talking to players who come there. And that's one of the things that really sticks out to me is once you're really around it and you realize what the norm is for Vegas players, it's, you can see why it's even with,

even with them having a bit of the history of kind of sending guys out a little bit unceremoniously, like when they're there, it's one of the best places in the league where you treat it on a daily basis that way. And this has nothing to do with the state tax or anything. It just literally has to do with an owner who bought a team and bought a paid a big money for an expansion team and was willing to continue to back that up financially. And I think that sometimes gets forgotten. We're not seeing, you're not seeing an ownership group who's going to let a goalie coach walk because of a financial dispute. And I think that's a huge thing for Vegas.

in Vegas. The other thing just with, like I look at it with, with the series, and that's been super interesting for me to kind of come across, is you look at the way, he hasn't really scored much to this series, and it's been obviously so Vegas dominated. But, like, I love watching Barkov on a day. Like, like, if Barkov's one of those guys where, like,

you kind of get lost just when he comes on the ice, you just kind of get lost, just watching him skate, watching his stride. Like we talked about Stone, but like, Barcov's a guy who I know this series has been one-sided so far, but like you just from a pure hockey fandom standpoint, like just watching Florida in person, you just kind of fixate on watching when he goes on the ice. And that's something too that's like it's just been fun. So every single

movement of his is just is butter. Like it's so smooth. Yes. So yeah. And I'm with you on that. I do also like I want to note this Vegas lineup that they're currently using is around $81 million in terms of cap commitments. Every time, you know, you praise, you know, one of their players, I'm like, I pose like a Markstone clip. There's always a couple bozos that are just like jumping dimensions that are like, oh, well, yeah, it must be nice to have this like team that's all this amount of money over the cap. and that, you know, was holding out this guy to, for this moment, it's like, I can't. Well, I don't, there's so much wrong with that, but also like just pure like a, from a math perspective. It's also untrue, right? So I just, yeah, they were jumping through all these hoops so they could have

Jonathan Quick and Teddy Blugert. Like, yeah, that, that's why they were like, they were fake holding. They, they, they forced their captain while they were competing for the number one seat in the West to, to have a second back surgery so that they could acquire Jonathan Quicks and his veteran presence, sitting on the bench and the baseball cap on. It's ridiculous. But yeah, I, you know, it's, I hope the series isn't over, right? I hope there's more twists and turns of this. It's going back to Florida.

We'll see there's certain adjustments to make. I'm going to have our pal Jack Hahn on tomorrow. We're going to get into that from kind of a tactics, X's and O's perspective and sort of break down what Florida can do and what that might look like. So I'm looking forward to that. But it was good to have you on the show, man. and it's good to see that you made it back in one piece from, from Vegas, and that you're going to be covering the rest of the series.

I'll let you plug some stuff here in the way out, let the listeners know what you've been working on and what they can expect from moving forward. Yeah, for sure. We'll be at our place over at EP Rinkside. I'll be watching Game 3 back from the house here, but I'll be back on the series for Game 4 on all the way through the end. And we've got some stuff coming on EP Rinkside all the time. I've got something

At the same time I'm still maintaining shapshots and I've got something coming up this week on USA Hockey goal tending that is kind of interesting just with both a past, present and future look on that that I'm kind of excited about that's coming out

and then yeah it's a good time to a good time of year and a couple weeks we'll be at the draft too so a lot of fun stuff coming up well let's plug you know we both work at appearing side we also just put out the draft guide which everyone should go check out.

It is the gold standard in the industry. And also like if you, you know, there's a lot of like, there's only two fan bases technically that care right now still, right, that are still watching these games with a rooting interest. Everyone else is already, I'm sure half of their mind is thinking about how my team can improve this offseason for a lot of those teams. If they had a disappointing year, that starts with the draft and the future and kind of a longer term view.

And so there's no better resource out there than the elite prospect. expects, ringside draft guide to check out than that. So highly recommend everyone goes, checks that out. We had the flyers trade today, and we were planning on talking about that a little bit. We ran along on this series, and that's totally fine because I still, I'm still in playoff mode. I almost can't wrap my head around offseason movement yet. There's still going to be time for that. So we'll get to it eventually. But Sean, enjoy the rest of this series. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode of the HockeyPediocast, as always streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.