The Hockey PDOcast - How the Florida Panthers Went Back-to-Back As Stanley Cup Champions

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to do a post game show for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, and deep dive how the Florida Panthers went back-to-back as champions. 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 PDOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipović. Welcome to the Hockey PEOCast. My name's Dmitri Filipovich and joining me for our final postgame of the 2025 NHF playoffs, my good buddy Thomas Drenz. Tom, it's been quite a journey to get to this point. We've finally reached the finish line. How's it going, man? Yeah, I've anoint a new potential dynasty in the Florida Panthers, now back-to-back champions. They need to do another one before they're more than back-to-back champions, right? This is an incredible title defense. Three consecutive finals. I mean, this team is a monster, an absolute monster right on the fringes of the swamp in South Florida. Very cool to see them win again. And to do so in such dominant, dominant, that is a decent way to describe how the Panthers play,

but such a dominant fashion, right? I mean, this series turned. The first two games, were such Titanic clashes. And then that Oilers comeback in Game 4 kind of obscures maybe the extent to which, as this series went on, the Panthers felt like they solved another elite team. Right. And, you know, the way that they just, I mean, I never thought anyone could make the McDavid dry-sidal Oilers

look like the 2024 New York Rangers in the conference final. Right? I mean, they made them look like a. team with absolutely zero answers, no levers that Nublock could pull, point shot after point shot, zero scoring chances, very limited threat. And, you know, that thread was consistent from, you know, the first period of game five through to the end of the game tonight. You know, even the Oilers start, they started on a mission, some big hits, some good pressure. And that Sam Reinhart play to create the first goal, you know, shades to the hero of game seven coming through

again to sort of call game finishes with four goals, two of them into an empty net. But that play is just such a good encapsulation of, you know, even when the Panthers are on the back foot, they're so good defensively. They're so disciplined. They're not going to be on the back foot for long anyway. But even when they are, they're fine to just pick you apart, wait for their moment. that sequence. It's just the most Reinhart sequence ever where it's not just the read. It's not just the pressure that he applies on, on Echome to force the giveaway. It's not just the move. It's not just the finish. It's the way that even if Echoman made the play, like even if he'd made the play, Reinhardt's positioning in the lane, the way he'd managed it, the stick, the one skate off the ice turned sideways to expand the surface area. There was no. nothing there. There was nothing good there anyway, right? Even if you get it past Reinhart,

that puck's coming in back into the oiler zone at a million miles per hour. And then it's being rimmed around to the weak side. And then Bouchard's going to go back and Bennett and Kachuk are going to be there. And he's going to take a hit. And he's going to have to make another. Like, it's the amount of problems that they pose for their opponents, the amount of pressure that they apply, the fundamental bet that they place, which is if we attack you, you cannot make the plays that are. they're well behind us. And the fact that they're always right. They're always coming up, you know,

they're always winning that bet. That bet is one consistently time and time again all over the ice. And by the time it is, their opponents look drained, broken, solved. And I don't think the Oilers look solved at any point last year. Right? They lost the series

because they couldn't beat Brovsky in the first three games. But at no point did they look solved. They just kind of ran out of time. This felt different. this felt more like the other Panthers series wins have sort of across the last, well, three years, really. Here's the resume for the 25 Florida Panthers that repeats as Stanley Cup champions, 23 playoff games plus 38 goal differential. They led for 51.4% of their total game time during this run. They trailed for less than 18% of all the minutes.

They played, as I said, after game five, they finished. 10 and 3 on the road, including closing out all three of their first series. Away from home, they finished with six, 20 plus points scores. They had six guys between 20 and 23 points, and that doesn't include Lundell and Lusdreenen, who were their most productive five-on-five players, and they fell just short with 18 and 19, respectively. And it was just, I think, what that laundry list of accomplishments and where this cements them all time in terms of the three straight appearances of Stanley Cup finals,

repeating as back-to-back champions. For me, what's right near the top of the list is exactly what you try to capture there and probably more eloquently than I can. How fitting it was that often we see teams that get to this point kind of crawling across the finish line after having played, what, 68 playoff games over the past three years. And yet these last two performances that really stamped their ticket here were vintage performances for the Florida Panthers. if you hadn't watched this team during this entire era,

if you just tuned into these games and especially this closeout game through those first two periods, you would get everything you need to know about them, right? It was a trademark performance. It reflected everything they do that's made them special and successful along the way with how they created the goals, how they just dominated the play. I mean, at 5-1-5, you mentioned since the start of game 5,

those five periods, right? Start all of game 5, and then the first two periods before the goalie pulls and the Oilers trying to kind of make one final last-ditch effort to get back into this series, 85-5-1-5 minutes in those five periods. They held Oilers to just 1.7 total expected goals generated in that time. They just wallop them at even strength. They were controlling.

I know the shots kind of obscured it and make it look more even, but all the high danger chances were in the Panthers favor. And it was just a total team effort. And that's why you and I have been kind of joking about this throughout, but especially as Bobrovsky appeared to be inching towards a shutout in this closeout game and Marshaun and Bennett had opportunities to kind of put one final dagger in the Oilers in that third period with that Marshan dazzling rush against Klingberg and then Bennett had a nice pass from Kachak, that Skinner wound up stopping.

We were wondering whether this would kind of tilt towards Bobrovsky winning the cons might and the difficulty of anointing one player on this team as more valuable than anyone else because there were so many contributions along the way during this playoff run. It ultimately wound up going to Canadian hero, Sam Bennett, and his playoff leading 15 goals, and he was tremendous. We're going to talk more about him,

even in this game, without actually scoring a goal. But there's just so many. Sorry, he had 15 goals, and he had, I think, 150,000 uncles from Woodbridge cursing at their television screens every moment that he came on camera throughout the playoffs. So a salute to one of the great. great heat checks we've seen in contemporary playoff history.

I mean, in that second period, when he off the rush went through the legs and then as he was doing so, Datsuk style lifted Jake Walman's stick and then brought it out for a wrap round that Skinner was able to stop. That was just him completely in his bag. And it really was the heat check of all heat checks. And it was perfect summation of this entire playoff run for him as he heads towards free agency and Shirley breaks the bank. Do you want to get into our three stars here for game six?

We're going to talk about this series kind of as a whole. But let's get into specifically what we saw in game six, and then we're going to pivot maybe in the back half and kind of summarize it all. I do just want to note like Mackie Semiskevich getting the Stanley Cup before the Kahn Smythe winner, before Kachuk. You know, like just to pivot off the idea that it's hard to recognize one person on this team. I saw Frank Saravali, the PhWA president, tweet that 11, of the 18 first place votes went to Sam Bennett, and I think that's fitting.

The award is for more than the final. We were texting about it during the game, and I thought I probably would have voted for Brad Marchand more as sort of a way to recognize what I think was most special about this team over the course of the playoffs, which was the performance of their third line, which I think just encapsulates their preposterous depth. But there's also a feeling you get watching this team behave, watching the relentlessness that they play with, the discipline, the lack of mistakes, the way that even their puck management is in service of their defensive game, how bought in everybody is, the consistent energy,

like there's a, there's a feeling, there's a team energy that this group has that I think is not a secret, like very much a critical component of why they're so successful as a group. And I just felt like that level, you know, we always see the cup go first to a veteran who has want it usually, right? That's common. But for it to go to like the healthy scratches and like the depths that that was sort of went to, how deep into the lineup they went before it went, you know, no one caring about pecking order or who gets the credit. Sasha Barkov's never considered winning playoff MVP as something even cares about, right? And it shows. You can tell, Chuck directing traffic sending Nate Schmidt the long way around to extend his moment carrying the

cup. It's it's all connected. Like that's, that's, part of why this team's able to play the way they're able to play, why they're able to all step on the line, maybe even hump the line without ever actually crossing it in the eyes of the officials. I mean, everything about it is connected. There's just a sense of that. And you got it even from the way that they celebrated their second consecutive championship.

I just wanted to call that out as part of the cons of my discussion. Let's get to the three stars. Well, they did give it. So they gave it to the first timers first after Barkov, obviously, accepted the Stanley Cup trophy. Nate Schmidt was the first one to get it, right? If I don't have that wrong. I mean, I thought that was...

I thought that was very fitting as well, obviously playing in a third pair role and not eating up the minutes that the Jones did. But here's a crazy stat for you in the series. 78 515 minutes of Schmidt and Kulikov. 83% expected goal share for the Panthers in that time. High danger chances were 26 to 5. We've been documenting throughout how he seemingly hasn't had a single bad shift.

continued that in this close-out game to the point where in the second period, he nearly appeared to like bat a puck net front in, which would have been the perfect bow for him in this Stanley Cup final. He was just incredible. He was making all the right decisions. And so it was awesome seeing him get that moment with the Cup, the three stars. You just said that Alexander Barkov has never cared about winning anything individually based and being deemed the, the, MVP for this team, even though you and I both agree that he is the heartbeat of this team and the person that enables all of this to function and allow everyone else to kind of step into a role that they are overqualified for and allow them to all just thrive and look much better

than they have pretty much anywhere else in previous stops. One thing he is going to win is the third star here for me. I thought he was just dominant in this closeout game. In that second period in particular, he had the puck on a string. He was just keeping the oilers. in a torture chamber below the goal line, and it culminated in the 3-0 goal where he has this giving go behind the net with Reinhardt. He just misses it going wide, but then they keep control of it, and then he winds up getting a rebound that Skinner coughed up to him, and he essentially just banks it in off of Reinhardt, and that felt like it was not only the game, but the series, and I thought Barkov, you know, he's never going to have the points that are reflective

necessarily of a true superstar that's carrying his team offensively, but he does so many things and he was tasked once again, even in the games in Edmonton, going head to head with McDavid and trying to pester him and slow it down. And there were times where McDavid's speed was frustrating him and bothering him more than you typically see from Barakov, but you look up at the end of the day and he won those five on five minutes. Yet again, he did his job along with Forrestling in keeping McDavid in check offensively and keeping him off the scoreboard in these big games. And this was his best performance of the Stanley Cup final. It felt like he really, as he could kind of smell blood in the water and see the finish line ahead of them.

He brought them home in that second period by just keeping the puck down low pretty much the entire time he was out there. Yeah, and that three nothing goal shift, right, was just so outrageous. And I know Skinner makes the mistake there and we can get into that further. But that was the culmination of an awful lot of time in this series where Barkov's been, you know, out there against tough matchups or has been able to extend a shift and and keep a defensive pair pinned, you know, nurse and co on the ice for 90 plus seconds and just below the hash marks battle after battle, doing what he did against Carolina on that, you know, ridiculous overtime

winner that kind of told us pretty definitively the direction that that series was going to go. you know, just, I mean, what, that was the backus of, of Datsuk's commentary for me, right? But it's just like along the wall, the, the, the combination of size and skill, just an unbelievably classy defensive presence, right? It's, um, that, that shift in particular, too, felt like the moment you knew the game was over, the moment they became back to back champions, the, the nail in the coffin. And it was just instructive as to sort of how different. difficult it is to play against or beat this Panthers team, right? That we,

Barkov's an elite player who can pass, you know, sort of under the radar, relatively speaking, as this team goes through a Stanley Cup final series. And then you notice in that moment, just how critical he is to what this team does. Are we now at 13 games, 13 Stanley Cup final games across two years? And Connor McDavid and the Oilers have generated two, five, on five goals against Barkov. Yeah, and this... 200 plus head-to-head minutes. In this series, it was 57-37 head-to-head, and it was 2-1 for the Panthers.

And the shots are in favor of the Oilers, certainly, but the expected goals are nearly break-even. And in terms of prevention and risk mitigation and just kind of staying on the right side of the puck, he just did that time and time again and ultimately exerted his will and closed it out. And that's all you can ask for your captain. And watch McDavid play against the top of the top end of every other team's lineup and what it looks like and how much duress they're under the entire time. You know, you want to understand how the Panthers didn't just win two Stanley Cups but defeated the greatest living hockey player in back-to-back Stanley Cup finals.

Those minutes, right? That 100 plus minutes, two goals for the Oilers in Barkov versus McDavid head to head minutes. Like, that's it. That's the number one reason why the Panthers have been able to play. pull this off against Edmonton in this specific matchup. And, you know, that's like, Forzling is a huge part of that too. It's obviously not a head-to-head. Like, it's not man-on-man defense like it would be in the NBA or something.

But the way that Barkov influences the environment is, you know, the headline reason why the Panthers are back-to-back Stanley Cup champions for me. Yeah. I don't want to undersell that point. I think what Gus Forsling did in this series was simply super-heas. human and I'm going to post the mixtape tomorrow kind of highlighting all of his defensive plays. I've already got like 60 clips from the first five games and that's going to grow after adding game six to it. 55 minutes head to head McDavid versus Gus Forzing in the series.

Panthers up 4-1. The Oilers generated eight high danger chances Tom in that time. Now McDavid played 60 minutes away from Gus Forsling 515 and they had 17 high danger chances in that time so more than twice as many just to kind of reflect they were getting shots, a lot of those perimeter based, and his stick was always there in the right place, and then there was the PK stuff, essentially just mirroring, Dreisettled along the way and taken away that threat whenever he could. I thought he was simply immense and did everything that we expect from Gus Forer's.

Like second star, Anton Lundell. And I mentioned off the top kind of this game, just being the perfect representation of what the Panthers do, that two nothing goal. And I know people are going to use it as an opportunity to dunk on, Evan Bouchard, who had a really tough game in this one, unfortunately, for him. But I thought what Lundell did there in terms of the multiple efforts and all three zones domination was why he's baby Barkov.

And if you squinted and didn't look at the nameplate, you might think it was Barkov based on the way he handled that shift. He comes on after sustained pressure. They do that neutral zone regroup. He dances in, just makes Kasperi Kappinan look like he's not even there, gets a rush chance. then he backtracks, catches McDavid, knocks away the initial entry attempt. Then Bouchard tries to challenge him and passes to McDavid to enter the zone. He gets in the way of that.

Then he sprints down the ice, beats everyone there, gets in front of Skinner, takes away his eyes, and allows that kachuk shot to go in. And that's just textbook in terms of how you want your center to handle that entire situation, the effort he exerts to accomplish that. And the play on and off the pocket is something he's been doing all post. season really, but that was the perfect play from him. And I honestly had him as the first star before Ryan Hart's two empty net goals that, you know, give him that slight edge here. But I thought that two-nothing goal was a backbreaker for the Oilers. And it was what makes him so special on this team where

he is the third line center. Now, this is a conversation for another day. But if recent consmite winner, Sam Bennett does go in the market and does take a payday elsewhere, I think the Panthers are certainly going to miss him. But if that means, more Anton Lundell in a scoring role. I think they're also going to be just fine because he clearly has another gear to his game as he enters his prime here. And he's just a tremendous player that really did it all for them this entire postseason. Yeah.

And, you know, there's like an old maxim in hockey. Like who's the best third liner, right? A second liner. Right? The best, the best. So, and, and, you know, you think about Anton Lundell. And I don't think he's a second liner. I think he's like a low-end, first liner.

line center. I think you can go through a lot of teams and a lot of players making eight million plus in terms of their cap hit and he is right there on that level. You know, like a name that always comes up in my mind, given my Canucks bias or sort of colored way of viewing the league is like Bo Horvatt, right? Bo Horvatt's a credible first line center in the NHL. You know, a low end first line center is too dismissive. He's a first line center in the NHL. And it's like, I think Anton Lundel's probably that caliber of player, right? It's, it's, just that he's played so far down the lineup. Given what we saw from Brad Marchand,

Brad Marchand is a first line caliber player. Etu Lus Duranen with 19 5 on 5 points in the playoffs. Like, what are we talking about? Every time I've been describing him as a first line player, I've been saying or qualifying it with like, yeah, but you know, maybe not like a 65 point guy, but we sure? We sure he's not just like some sort of finish answer to Valerie Nachushkin,

if he played in an up-tempo system and got that kind of ice time. And, you know, if he was Matthew in the Matthew Nyes role, we sure he's not hitting 60 points? Like, I think he might. I really do. I really think he might. And I just, so what's interesting is that the Panthers are so well positioned that we probably won't get to see this tested.

Because what it really reminded me of honestly watching them play was the, Chicago Blackhawks in 2010 had that third line with Boland, Andrew Ladd, and I think it was like a mix between Verstieg and Dustin Bufflin. Those guys kind of rotated throughout the playoffs, depending on matchups or what the Blackhawks needed. And, you know, the next year or like that summer, partly because of the fax machine fiasco, which, you know, has some relevance too for the way this Panthers team is constructed. You had sort of Ladd and Bufflin go to Atlanta, move to Winnipeg and immediately be like, well, Buffaloan moved to defense, but

immediately it was like, Bufflin's a first line for our first pair defender and Andrew Ladd's immediately a 60 point winger and Bolin moved to Toronto and you know, he got hurt, but his first 20 games were like completely transcendent and Verstieg went to Toronto and

had 35 points in 53 games and looked phenomenal in that sort of next season, right? And it's just like, oh right, all of these guys are top of the lineup caliber players playing further down the lineup. We're not going to get to see that tested, but I thought you could see that in terms of the level of dominance that that group hit. Really with, you know, I mean, Marchand was the face of it.

How could he not be? What a face. But Lundell's performance tonight was just a reminder, like, are we sure there's a lot of mileage between him and William Carlson? Are we sure there's a lot of mileage between him and, I don't know, um, you know, like Philip Dineau, right? those sorts of guys who you're totally comfortable with playing at the top of the lineup. I don't think there is.

I don't think there is. It's just on a third line. Man, it is an unfair edge. It is just a level of talent that makes you look at this roster and look at even the other great rosters around this league. The Oilers, you know, first and foremost and just say, like, how do you ever get to where this team is in terms of amassing that much talent? Yeah, I don't know if we'll ever see it. not only because of team need and how position they are, but also because he's clearly just gone to the school of Barkov

in terms of not necessarily wanting to play that way all the time, but whether it's similar to Barkov on some of these shootout attempts or some of these individual rushes that he's had throughout this postseason, there's a certain level of puck skills and creativity that shines through and is inevitable that just puts him in such a higher tier in terms of what he's capable of, and he's still just entering his prime and he's remarkable. You mentioned he led this team in 515 scoring along with his linemate,

Etoulouse Trinan, the only player this entire postseason that scored more 515 points was Connor McDavid and he had one more than those guys. They were up 24 to 8 in Lundell's 515 minutes, including 8 to 3, I believe, in this series. And then on top of that, another 37 PK minutes and they gave up just two goals in that time. So Lendell was just unbelievable throughout and deserves all his flowers. The first star is Sam Reinhard, Now, it's funny if you go back and listen to the game two post-game show or even the game one, you and I were commenting at the time about how many opportunities the Panthers were leaving on the table.

Well, I think you should. I think all of them were great. But one of the themes there and through lines was, and this had been a continuation for Reinhardt, this entire postseason of this regression that he was undergoing as a shooter. And then he gets banged up in that hurricane series, misses a game or two, comes back. He had gone a long time without scoring. I believe he scored four goals. in his first 17 playoff games during this run.

And then he scores seven goals in the final four games of this series. He had seven. The Oilers had nine as a team in that time. Caps it off with this four-goal game with the two empty netters. At the end, that entire sequence that you highlighted against Evan Bouchard and Mutea Cicke-Holman, the first. They got them on the board and eased a lot of the nerves, I'm sure, heading into this game for the Panthers was incredible on his part. and just the anticipation, the read, the steal, the move on Eckholm.

He just tortured them on that entire sequence. And Reinhardt is an unbelievable player and entering legendary status too, right, when you combine this with the fact that he scored the Stanley Cup winning goal in game seven against the Oilers last year and then now has this performance to put a cap on another Stanley Cup victory, just a heck of a player and save his best performance for last. And really him and Verhegey to an extent finally turning some of these shows. shots into goals they were creating and manufacturing opportunities and then goals off of that, kind of, in my opinion, turn the tide in the series, right? Because obviously it was two, two

heading into game five. But even before that, through the first couple, it felt like it was much more of a coin flip. And then all of a sudden, them actually getting that shooting efficiency, the Doylers obviously didn't have and they weren't getting the same caliber of opportunities, certainly. But I feel like Reinhart is a great sort of microcosm, I think, of what happened as this series progressed. Yeah, I think you're right. It's so funny to think about how dramatically this series turned when you think about those first two games and the Oilers pushes on home ice, especially in the early part of both

of those games. And the Panthers really needing to rely on like chicanery, right? And special teams effectiveness to keep those games close to claw back to build leads. and then by the end of it, you know, like the Oilers didn't lead for much of game one or two, but they were unfortunate not to, right? It felt like the, and as the series goes along, I mean, Oilers lose their heads in game three. They find something in that second period amazingly in the comeback winning game four,

but by game five and six, man, they looked solved and then it was Reinhardt time. And, you know, you can see the intelligence. Is he the smartest player in hockey from a pure hockey IQ perspective? I think Sam Ryanhart's the smartest player in hockey. I think you can see it all over the eyes, especially when you get a chance to watch him live. Like if you get a chance to watch the Panthers live, just watch Ryanhart off puck. It is wild.

Just the details. I mean, you couldn't, you couldn't find like there was that old story about the statistical model that they built for optimal defensive positioning in the NBA and then LeBron James basically broke it. He was like doing things that the model couldn't anticipate in terms of, and I just feel like that's Reinhardt, except without the extreme athleticism, just with pure positional knowledge, every angle sewn up. It's ridiculous. And he put on an absolute masterclass, a clinic of that tonight. Yeah, the routes, the anticipation, the just the way he sees the ice management with also the hands to like the hand eye of knocking pucks out of the air and stuff and what that allows him to accomplish.

and the finish that he demonstrated while falling on the ice. I mean, he put it all together on that play, and that's why he's one of the best. All right, Tom, let's take our break here. And then when we come back, we will jump right back in. We're going to close our categories from Game 6 and then put a bow on not only the Stanley Cup final,

but the 2025 NHL postseason as well. You're listening to the HockeyPedio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the HockeyPedia cast, doing our game six post game of the Stanley Cup final. Tom, we did our three stars before. four break. The fastball moment of the game, I'm curious if you have a different one. I already described that Anton Lundell sequence that led to a two nothing goal. I think that is a very

worthy entrance, certainly the the Ryanhard one that made a one-nothing as well or even honestly, and this is what made this such a panther's game, the Barkoff play on the three-nothing. All of them were in a vacuum, just perfect encapsulations of what this Panthers team does to you. But I thought that Lundel one, just because there were so many sequences to it along the way, and he hit every single checkpoint. That was my fastball moment of the game. I got another suggestion though. It was McDavid finds himself on a two-on-one with Corey Perry down low. Early in the second.

And early in the second and on broadcast, they say that he babbled the pie. He lost control for just a second. But when you actually go watch it, the positioning on Foresling, the recovery, the four-way mobility, the defensive awareness to just like, you know, it's just, it's not that he actually broke up the play, but he just did enough to be annoying. Yeah, you throw off the rhythm. To be annoying.

Yeah, and to throw up the rhythm of the most dynamic offensive creator in the league. And it was just that repeatedly all series long. And it just felt like an encapsulation of McDavid's series in which, you know, people will say things like, oh, McDavid got shut down in the series. It's like he had a seven points in six games. Like, you know, he was incredible. But that moment for me,

especially when you think about game one, right? And how Foresling and, sorry, Forsling and Eckblad played in that first game and how concerning it looked in that moment. And then what happened thereafter. And I mean, we talked about how this series just felt like the Panthers sort of resting control as it went along. Wasn't that just Foresling taking over? Wasn't that just Forsling's defensive game? Like really starting to be the dominant.

factor at five on five, especially in those top of the lineup minutes. I just felt like that moment, you know, and the fact that the broadcast didn't even quite recognize it or like mention it or note it prominently. Like Forsling, what a great play that was. What great positioning. That just felt like, you know, fastball moment of the game, the sort of sequence that you can extrapolate and it tells a little wider story about what actually happened. To me, that's it.

To me, I think that's my, that's my vote. I'm voting for McDavid Bobbled the puck, but really a world-class defensive play by a world-class defensive player whose fingerprints are all over Florida's six-game win. Yeah, it was a defensive masterclass from him. Even the plays he didn't kill, as you mentioned, he did enough to either bother or throw off the timing of it. And that was one of them. And really within the context of this game as well, right?

Because it's 2-0 heading into a second period. We've seen this script before. You're expecting an Oilers push. And they did in the first couple minutes at second period. and McDavid had that one. Then maybe within that same shift, but shortly thereafter, he has another two on one

that he actually does get past Forsling, who's kind of prone and he gets it to Perry. Perry is a bit too out wide off his angle, and he misses the net, and those were the sequences that Doylers needed to capitalize on. They didn't.

I don't think they had a single scoring chance the rest of the way in that period, and the Panthers ultimately took over and scored the third goal, and that was curtains from the same. that point forward. So I think that's a, that's a good shout certainly. The hard match, obviously no adjustments because this series is done. I think tying the theme together, it was the Panthers being able to establish those matchups, especially in this game, getting Barclav and

Forreling out there against McDavid. And you were kind of noting this to me, text, and this isn't a slight at all because Corey Perry had a wonderful postseason. He scored a number of huge goals. He was awesome around the net. But at this stage of his career, he's 40 years old and just thinking about what it's going to look like 10 to 15 years from now in a time capsule going back and watching these highlights and realizing how reliant they were on him. Now, obviously, that wasn't necessarily their choosing. We've talked about the massive loss that Hyman's absence presented, and he would have likely been in that role. And so not having that really tied their hands, but there was so little optionality as well. You think about what levers Chris Knoblock tried to push in this series

as it went along and mixing in the defenseman or on the fourth line kind of replacing Kaepinan for Arvidson and then getting Skinner in there and actually thought Jeff Skinner had some really nice moments when he got the opportunities in the offensive zone. But relatively speaking, they were just so inconsequential and they just had so few actual meaningful options that they could go back to beyond just play McDavid and Drey Seidel together. And I think you could really see that as this went along and the Panthers were able to lean on them. And the Oilers just didn't really have nearly enough elsewhere to make up for it. Yeah.

And I think the Oilers massive offseason losses didn't matter until they bumped into a team of dynastic quality. Right. You know, they ran roughshod through the West and the upgrades that they made on the back end, I think helped disguise the loss of speed up front. but you get to the pointy end of this series of this season against an opponent that's, you know, this much of a wagon and, you know, Corey Perry with McDavid and Drysidal and it's not, like, it's not that it was Corey Perry with McDavid and Drysiddle. It's that what would you have had No Block do? It's the best option, right?

Like it was a valid, it wasn't just a valid choice. It was the right choice. It was the only option they had to load up that top line, the break glass in case of emergency line. But you lose Hyman injury. I don't think Ekholm had his fastball after he returned from injury. Didn't matter against the stars. But again, the Panthers exposed different stuff, right?

They put you under a different level of pressure and duress. And against this Panthers team, you know, not having McLeod speed, not having Holloway speed, not having Fogel speed, not having more options for to mix and match lines and to just like give your top line a spark and not having Hyman to throw up there with McDavid and Drycidal. Like all of that mattered. Everything matters, right? Against an opponent this good.

And, you know, I think the seams showed a bit in terms of some of the errors made by the Oilers last offseason, which, you know, didn't matter until they did. I agree. I mean, we've spoken about the Oilers' lack of offensive options when they were corralled off the rush, right? And that was very evident in this. game as it had been in the entire series.

I had scoring chances 18 to 6 for the Panthers before all the goalie poles laid in the third. And you can toss all conversations I think about goaltending out the window. But Brodsky was certainly the superior of the three goalies that were

featured in this series. But just in terms of the quality they were tasked with facing, it was night and day, right? And you could see it off of a lot of these set plays that used to work for the Oilers. It would be forcing McDavid to essentially cut back or loop around and not giving them a direct line to the net,

and then them having to fall back into the trap of getting it to the point, and then either at Colm or Bushard going D-D, and then just bombing it and just tearing the paint off the end boards and missing the net, and them not really having anything else beyond that. And I just didn't see any other options for them. You mentioned at Colm, he certainly struggled. We highlighted Marchand just dancing around him, flat-footed, playing on his offside in game five, and how costly that was.

He had the turnover in the neutral zone, leading to the Bennett goal. On this one, it was a great individual effort from Reinhard, but it was also at Kohlm has time. He throws a grenade at his partner. There was like a knee high past the Bouchard. Bouchard struggles to control it. And then Reinhardt steals it and dances around at home.

And so on both ends of the ice, I feel like that was a major liability. And the Panthers just didn't really have those. I talked about what Kulikov and Schmidt did for them in the third pair and how they tilted the ice. They were able to lead on all those guys. And I think part of that was just face. facing a significantly less pressure relatively and not really feeling it as the series went along.

Yeah. Fundamentally, the difference between these teams was not goal tending. I mean, that is a difference between these teams. You'd rather have a durable workhorse starter like Bobrovsky, who obviously inspires a ton of confidence in his teammates in whom you don't have to reset mid-series multiple times over the course of a playoff run, but like even tonight, aside from that ghastly rebound, which I am not trying to minimize. That was a ghastly rebound

and a backbreaking mistake from your goaltender. You can't have it. But there was, there were a lot of good saves from Skinner in this game tonight. Like the Panthers had a lot of high quality chances to make it, you know, to bury the others in the first period, to make it three nothing before they did,

to extend the lead in the third, period. Like there were there were some big Skinner saves in this game saves through traffic. The first goal is an unbelievable shot by a 50 plus goal score, consistent 50 plus goal score. The second one is layered traffic. Kachuk makes no mistake. I mean, layered traffic hit the top of the net. Kevin Woodley will tell you that's basically a tapin, right? You know, the, this was not a game that Skinner, the gap in quality, which exists between Skinner and

Bobrovsky was decisive. And in fact, I thought in the first period, there were multiple occasions where Bobrovsky didn't see the buck at all. He actually looked shaky, settled into the game, I think a little bit over the latter half. But, you know, early on in this one, I was like, oh man, if the Oilers keep shooting from bad angles, if they keep doing what Skinner did with that sort of one chance where he looked like he was crawling back up toward the blue line and then quickly released a shot on. Bobrovsky seemed to catch him a little unaware, made a difficult save. Again, that's one of those chances that doesn't look like a high danger save, but the deception on it from Skinner, I think made it a very high quality save from Brovsky, but it wasn't

made smoothly. I was like, they need to keep testing him like that. Again, he settled into the game. He was great. He was great all playoffs. But, you know, this was not a game decided by goaltending. And I hate that that rebound sort of makes that a conversation point that I'm sure people will have. Why didn't the Oilers get a goaltender and on and on? And, you know, they should have. Like, make no mistake. That was a, that was a flaw, uh, on this roster. They, they needed, um, you know, better goal tending overall. But I also think people shouldn't ignore that over the course of this playoffs, despite some significant hiccups from Stuart Skinner, he mostly provided them with goaltending good enough that they could have won the Stanley Cup, if not for the fact that they

encountered a far superior team that completely shut them down, um, in, in game five, or game five and game six of the Stanley Cup final. Yeah, I thought it was the story for me was just it was a brilliant defensive gambit by the Panthers, right? acknowledging that you're not going to be able to take away everything. And so kind of lulling the oilers into the trap of settling for a lot of shots they did and taking away their primary options and then living with what ensued. And you could really see that throughout you mentioned this wasn't decided by goaltending. I would argue that, you know, Luongo banging the drum before the puck drop just setting the vibes for this. I haven't seen them this excited since our last fantasy football draft.

That was a big key here that I had in my notes here, certainly. Yeah, I mean, listen, the Panthers, as they do to everyone, and, you know, beyond, what was it, game three against the Leafs, where it felt like they were on the ropes a little bit. They were down by a couple goals early. They were down 3-1 in the third period. You're thinking, all right, they might be staring down a 3-0 series deficit here. And then when they turned it on from there, they never really. felt like they were significantly in danger and whenever they would be, they'd eventually

find a way to figure it out. I mean, in the series, they scored multiple goals in every single first period in all six games, right? I think the scoring was 13 to 4 in the first periods in this one. And then as those games progressed, they obviously blew a couple of those late. But that felt like that was the story for me here. And it was a very deserved win by the superior team of the two. I think we need to talk really quickly about Bouchard's nightmare first period.

And I want to discuss it carefully because I think there's a temptation to pile on this player. The truth is that Bouchard needs to be trying to make plays, especially against this Panthers team. That first breakout, right? The Rinehart goal comes on a sequence where, yeah, it's not a good pass from Acombe to Bouchard. That was a terrible pass. Give away. Terrible pass. He was in a bad spot.

But also the breakout that they were trying, the slow movement up ice. the hesitation, textbook exactly how you need to approach beating that Panthers team, right? So Bouchard needs to be, needs to have license to make place. Like, giveaways they're going to be part of that.

But in, in these isolated game situations, I do think, you know, this was one where there was, the turnover that led to the goal. He had the pass to McDavid. Lundell made a great play on it

to set up that second goal in the waning moments of the first, period backbreaker for the oilers. And there was a third giveaway that led to an extended, Panthers, you know, in zone pressure shift, sort of midway through the first period. It just felt like every puck off his stick ended up in the wrong spot. And you see this sometimes with great players.

Great players have to have license to make plays. There's not much you can do about it. But it was just one of those nightmare periods at a moment when the, when the Oilers could least afford it. And that's it. Like, it's not, it's descriptive. it's not like this is who Bouchard is. He's not worth a huge contract. He is worth a huge contract. He's an incredible player. It's not this is why Canada's right to leave him off the Olympic team. Like they should

bring him to the Olympic team. We saw what the Canadian power play looked like when Kail Makar had the flu during the four nations face off. Like they need that right-handed bomb. Anytime Kailmakar is out of the lineup on the power play and international competition, stop it. Bouchard's awesome. Perfectly calibrated to make hay off of the chaos that Drysidlidl and McDavid could create down low. But this was just a nightmare first period for him at a time the Oilers couldn't afford it. And that's just the case. Yeah, the execution wasn't there.

And I do wonder, I mean, he winds up playing 176 minutes in these six games. And especially with the overtimes early on, like what this Panthers team does to you. And part of the brilliance of it is just eventually you're going to crack and break both physically and mentally, right, in terms of the constant pressure having to make all of these high wire decisions. and that wasn't necessarily one of those because I do think the pass really just put them in a tough bind but that kind of happens as these series go along

and I feel like that's what you saw there I mean you could really even see it by the 3-0 goal after the Barkov master class it all started after they had an extended shift there in the offensive zone and then Kulak had an opportunity to clear and we've highlighted this number of times in this series he's on his back end he goes softly up the wall to Skinner, I believe. Kulikov steps in and cuts it off, sends it back down low. They remain hemmed.

And by the end of that shift, you could really see it on not to get to body language doctor here, but basically him and nurse and everyone on the ice oilers head just was tapping out at that point, right? And so Skinner has that blocker rebound, but ultimately no one's getting tied up. And it's just an accumulation of everything that's gone on throughout this series. And so that's where I'm at, That's where I'm at with that. I want to look back and I want to look ahead really quick in talking about this. You want to do both? And I want to do both.

Really quickly I want to look back and then very quickly I want to look forward. And I want to do this as a loving tribute to a back-to-back champion that has brought us a lot of joy that has had, you know, good vibes is a stretch given the chicanery that they deploy to their benefit constantly. you know, given how maddening they are for every fan base that's ever faced them in the playoffs, I'm not going to say that they have good vibes on this podcast because that'll drive every listener who's not a complete neutral hockey junkie, which probably is most of your listeners. But nonetheless, it's going to drive them insane. So, but nonetheless, I think this is a team now of historic significance. This is a team of historic importance.

And in thinking about sort of what brought us here, Like, I'm just thinking about that all of the shots that they took. Like, I think this, I think the key thing in understanding how we got here is not talking about the Reinhart trade or the Bennett trade or the Trocheck trade, which brought back E2 Lus Duranin despite being, frankly, a terrible deal. Like Lusdurian's emergence saved what was a terrible trade, a preceded Bill Zito. you know, it's not the way that they've jettisoned all of their draft picks. Owen Tippett, Spencer Knight to bring in, you know, like winning now players that have fit in perfectly. It's, it's, it's, it's, they've done so much good stuff, but it's not that. Like, for me, I still think this has to go back.

Oh, it's definitely not the state taxes, by the way. I also want to note that. For me, I really do think the genesis of this, like, this Panthers team had signs. Barcov and co, right? That miracle season that they had with Gerard Gallant where they won the Atlantic Division in 2015-16, losing the first round. Barkov's like 21, Eckblad's super young,

Trochecks super young, 23. Hubertos still there, I mean, just this young up-and-coming team. And it was like that summer they bring in Marciusoe and Smith. And it's like, if you look at the next season where Barkov and Ekblad and Huberto almost extended stretches with injury. But you look at that roster

and it's like, man, that team could have been incredible if they hadn't detonated it in a fit of peak during the expansion process. And as I think about Bill Zito's first action because effectively from there on in, having shed Vegas's top line to Vegas, as good as Barcov was and as good as Huberto was and as good as they were together and Trocheck being emerging is like a really high-end second line

center and Aernick Plads contributions and you know Keith Yandel they had the number one power play for a few years in there Mike Hoffman scoring 35 plus like they didn't have the depth they didn't have anything approaching it was like five really good players and a lot of crud and just a poorly assembled roster and, you know, classic, right? Like that's classic. We see so many teams look like this. All of your listeners' favorite team probably look like this, right?

Where there's a few good players and they're effectively betrayed. And then there's a huge gap between those teams and the current iteration of the Florida Panthers where they're just absolutely loaded. And October 2020. And it's key to note that this is like the flat cap's been imposed. Right. We're starting to see teams react to it in terms of shedding salary and that being expensive. And, you know, there was like a six week stretch where no one got signed that offseason at all. Right. Like no one got signed in the month of November 2020, basically.

There was nothing that happened. It wasn't even sure. Like no one was even sure when the league would begin. They required like an additional agreement for a 56 game season. And that's the year that the Panthers kind of have their first step up and start to play well again. and they acquire like Marcus Nudavara from Columbus, and it doesn't work, right? They sign Vinnie Hinoistroza, which doesn't work. Lomburg, they sign Lomburg. That one were signed famously.

Famously. The Radco Gudis, three-year deal. Carter Verhagi gets the two-year contract fresh off of the first Stanley Cup win with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Wendberg, newly bought out. That's become a staple for the. this team, right? Wenberg bought out. Florida signs him to a one year contract. He obviously rebuilds his value and gets a big deal shortly thereafter from Seattle. And then it's Florida,

because Florida was, Florida was willing to spend. Florida had money to spend that no one, everyone else was dollar in dollar out, count, you know, pinching pennies. And the Florida Panthers owned by Vinnie Biolo, has done a phenomenal job. Um, you know, he's an algorithmic trader. The pandemic wasn't as stressful for him as it was for a lot of the NHL ownership, groups who deal mostly mostly in like cash businesses or or oil or what have you, all the businesses that were severely afflicted. They were like the ones that first broke the long freeze in which there had been no player transactions.

They sign Anthony Declare to a one year contract. And it's like so many of the seeds of what this Panthers team has become get kind of, you know, I think like planted in that moment. You know, you have Lomburg who helps establish in my opinion anyway, this sort of identity of this elite puck retrieval team. Gouda stabilizes their defense and brings like a real vibe to this group. You know, Wenberg, again, I think that's signing sort of telegraphs an approach that this club has had to fleshing out the depth of their roster.

I mean, look at that fourth line and look at the salaries of their third pair. Like everyone's slotted right. They're not spending on depth. They're not giving term to depth guys. You know, they're effectively sharps. they're finding for Hagees and like these weird profiles declares to Claire gets traded for Evan Rodriguez. There's a straight line there. And then they go into the season. And again, no one else wants to take on salary. And the Panthers are claiming guys off waivers. And they're claiming

guys with a pretty similar profile. Not all of them work. They traded for Oliolive, damn it. Like Oli Oli O'Levi did not work. But what's the commonality between Olioli O'Levi and Gustav Forsling and Noah Julesen who also didn't work gets traded for you. at high pedigree defenders. They're claiming high pedigree defenders on waivers. They're seeing what sticks. They were betting in volume trying to flesh out their depth. And the fact that they've now emerged here, you know, buying distressed players like Bennett,

the the Kachuk trade, which was a huge, people will forget. But like the day that trade happened, people panned it from a Panthers perspective. Remember we came on and sort of explained that they'd extended their window. We had that trade, Kachuk trade reacts pop. And it was like most people were killing them for that trade. They've weakened their team. They traded the NHL's third leading scorer. They've traded a top pair defenseman.

And, you know, the Bennett trade. Bennett was not a cinch to be this. Sam Reinhardt. Now people look back and think, oh, man, what an obvious one. What a tap in. That wasn't a tapin? Come on. That was a first in Dylan Levi, or sorry, Devin Levi,

who had some incredible Northeastern. He was the best goaltender outside the NHL. He still might end up being a really special player. It doesn't matter for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions who have multiple banners to hang. The way that they've fleshed out this depth, I really do think you can draw a straight line to how they played it in that first Bill Zito offseason that I think is notable and that I think is instructive in terms of what your favorite team should be doing and how they should be looking at, you know, surrounding their star players with the sorts of, you know, guys that can accomplish. something special that can, you know, fill out to fill out, fill out a roster to the point where you're saying things like, man, I feel like they have eight or nine top line caliber forwards. Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, having the, the system and infrastructure in place

and it being so well defined and then just taking a bunch of shots on talent that might be limited in certain areas, but fits into what you do because you ultimately aren't going to ask them to do the stuff that they've struggled with in past stops. I mean, you could include Brandon Montour as well. They're obviously who leveled up and they got for relatively cheap and helped them win a cup last year and then got a big payday in Seattle. You go on and on the pro scouting of a lot of these additions and what it's done for them is huge.

I think also Bill Zito's first move or one of his first moves was taking Antongland and Del 12 overall and we just spent five minutes. Yeah, part of today's show talking about what an impact he made here. So yeah, it goes up and down the lineup and they're obviously going to change this off season, but a lot of the core is going to be back. They have that structure to keep adding to it. And, you know, you joked about Mackie Samaskiewicz and him getting the cup as a healthy scratch. He's going to be able to step in as he did this season when they were banged up and play in a top six scoring role and do it for very cheap as an RFA and just keep the line churning,

I guess. Well, that to me is going to be the canary in the coal mine for how they adjust here. because to me, Samiskevich, he's a 10.2c, black hole RFA. To me, he, like,

in the cap growth era, he's a guy that they should be looking at betting on significantly, right? The easy thing is to have him on a one year or two year show me contract at like a million dollars, and then continuing to build out your roster. But I think the right thing is to,

you know, two and a half three, pay him like Lusteraynan, even if he's, not at that level yet and do it for five or six years like try to get a uf a year out of it and try to hit a home run in terms of i mean i think we we look at him as a guy with serious upside and juice right and they need that they're going to need that as they go about solving their problems and plugging in great players many of whom are going to want to stay there many of whom are going to

want to come there um you know they're going to get another bought out guy right there there is runway here, right? 29 for Barkoff, 27 for Kachuk, 29 for Reinhardt, 23 for Lundel, 26 for Lusd-Rinan, like the windows close faster than you think. And that'll be the case for the Panthers too. I am not by any means suggesting that this is going to go on forever. Forzling, 29. Bavrovsky, 10 million expiring beyond this season. He's 36. Loves it in South Florida, has made a ton of money. I think they maybe can retain Bavrovsky at a much lower cap hit beyond next season, there is a window

for this team to continue to be, I'm not going to say three-ped, I'm not going to say be a real dynasty, I'm not going to say match the 1980s Islanders. I'm not going that far, but mostly because it would be unfair to them. But like this team is not, this team is not under the usual pressure

that we've seen other teams come under as a result of the flat cap era or years in which the cap just hasn't grown as expected. Like this is a team with runway if they continue to be as sharp as they've been. And you're going to make mistakes. The Panthers have made mistakes in getting to this point. The Giroux trade, right? Like there have been losses.

There have been L's for Bill Zito and company on the way. Of course there have been. It's hockey. It's extremely hard to project accurately, right? Like it's really difficult. We're all going to have loser takes. But the way that they bet in volume. the way that they're, you know, counting cards here.

They're just so good at it. They're just, it's a really remarkable achievement what they've done in constructing this team. And I think what's scary is like, this is a benchmark. This is not sort of a great team that's come up and the parody of the NHL is going to force them back. Like all of these teams that are making the company, like only two teams that won the Eastern Conference in six years, right? Every year in the West, it's one of four teams in the conference final. like this is not a anything can happen league in the playoffs anymore the panthers are a benchmark and it's going to require an awful lot of talent accumulation and smart moves and and card counting

and copying their best practice and coaching ingenuity to compete with this team they're not going away uh so congrats to the back to back stanley cup champions because i'm looking forward to seeing them be a measuring stick again for everybody come come the spring of 2026 especially change the way you approached the regular season as we saw this year and I think that's what threw a lot of people off the scent right in terms of really managing the workloads really just not caring who the opposition was or what the path was as long as they had their team intact and it took a chuck a while to get there but he obviously ran into form as they went further in the postseason and so I imagine we'll see more of that from them next year as well we got a lot of time here this off season to talk more team building and stuff so we can circle back to this we got to get out of here got to get some sleep got to got to get this post game out there for people to listen uh in the week of the end of the Stanley Cup final. You got anything to plug, Tom? Canucks off-season coverage, start soon at the Athletic.

Check it out. All right, buddy. The Florida Panthers repeated as Stanley Cup champs cementing their standing as an all-time team. This was an unbelievable accomplishment, and it was a thrill of a lifetime

to get the document it all with you throughout every step of the way doing these post-game shows throughout the Stanley Cup final. It was a blast. I think the listeners enjoyed it as well with depth and detail. We got into,

in breaking up, all of it down. It was so fun. I'm going to be sad not having games here to continue doing that, but we're going to have a lot of fun in the offseason and then obviously have a lot to look forward to next year as well. Give us a five-star review where we listen, join the PDCAST Discord as well for all of the inside jokes and the chatter this offseason. There's nearly 1,500 people in there, so please join us. That's all for today. We'll be back Thursday, I believe, with a mailbag. Friday, we don't have a game 7 to talk about, but we're going to switch gears, get into off-season mode, do our annual mock draft,

and then Tom and I will be back for the first real off-season show of this off-season, and we're going to do our Sunday special, and we're going to maybe blow this conversation out and get more into team-building and all that stuff as we look ahead to an off-season of player movement. Thank you to our program director, Camberra, for sticking around and posting all these shows in a timely manner. I know that some of the early OTs in this series really tested the commitment and patience, but we got it done.

Thank you for the listeners for coming. along for the ride with us. Thank you to Tom for indulging me when I pitched him on this venture and seeing this through with me. This was incredibly fun. And thank you to all the listeners for all the support. We'll be back soon. Thank you for listening to the Hockey Pedioka. Streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.