The Hockey PDOcast - How the Oilers and Hurricanes Took 3–1 Leads in Round 2

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Shayna Goldman to break down all of the adjustments the Oilers made to take a stranglehold of their series against Vegas, and what the Hurricanes have done to the Capitals to put themselves just one win away from another appearance in the Eastern Conference Final. 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 Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEOCast. My name is Dimitra Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Shana Goldman. Shane, what's going on? Hey, thanks for having me. So this will be fun. We're going to go through and break down the two games we watched on Monday evening. Let's start with Oilers Golden Nights, especially that first period was rollicking. There's so much to unpack there. I thought, I'm curious if I take on this, coming out of game three, I did a show with Drance on Sunday night. The biggest storyline for me to watch coming out of that game was what we'd seen Bruce Cassidy and the Golden Knights do offensively to adjust from the start of the series,

particularly in the neutral zone, right? They acknowledged what a nightmare trying to wrangle McDavid and Dreisaitle was at five on five. The Oilers were running wild off the rush. And so they shifted to kind of this one-one three in the neutral zone to force more dump-ins from the Oilers, hopefully slow up those entries a little bit. And that made sense because you look at the goal distribution in those first three games. for all the offensive zone possession time, the Oilers had had in game one, nine of the 12 goals they scored in the first three games,

came off the rush. And so I think that was the logic there. And I think this is what makes the NHL playoffs so fun, because we saw Chris Knoblock adjust to that adjustment heading into game four by completely mixing up all four of his forward lines, despite the fact that in their non-McDavid-Drysidal minutes this postseason, the Oilers had done remarkably well with those three lines after that.

He put them all in the blender. he brought in Casperi Caput into the lineup. And I think you could see it immediately paid evidence, right? I think, was it a minute and a half in, they score a goal off of a forecheck with Henrique Alfront. They score another one off of a nice forecheck play later on in the first period. And so I love that component to these playoffs, the in-series adjustments from both sides,

the trickle-down moves that follow for a minute. And I feel like this is one of the best examples of that. Yeah, absolutely. It's always interesting to see how coaches respond, if at all, right because sometimes there aren't that many adjustments you say okay it was a bad game and you go from there and i like that you're seeing you know a change and then a counter to that change so now it's like okay how are you going to do it it's it's a chess match and i think as series go on you're going to see it more than you would i guess in round one because now you're that opponent you know right your Vegas you know what edmonton did in round one when they

had to make adjustments and you have that in your back pocket if you're edmonton as well you can figure out what Vegas did what works what doesn't work and try to go from there so you see it a immediately with that goal and you're getting it, it's not a goal that involves McDavid or George said, right? And that's, that's really huge for them because it's going, okay, so those other middle six adjustments, those are paying off. Okay. And it's like that sign of confidence. And I think that can go for the entire lineup, right? Because, you know, you see how it makes a match. And it's like, you know what, maybe we have the juice tonight after all of that. So it'll be very interesting to see how, if at all Vegas, adjusts because there's one adjustment they can't make.

And I think if this were last year, we would have seen this already, right? We would have seen Aiden Hill probably get pulled for Logan Thompson last year. And the reverse happened in that Star Series in round one. It's the one adjustment they can't make because Samsonoff is too much of a wildcard. And I think his playoff pedigree is just not there. So you have to do every single thing you can in front of the blue paint to try to deal with the oilers, which they didn't do very well last night. Yeah.

So they went, well, they went R&H and Hyman with McDavid. They went put Colson and capping and bringing them into the series with Drysidal. they went Kane and Brown with Henrique and then Perry and Frederick with Yanmark. And the prevailing theme of that was just creating more of these advantageous combinations for getting in on the forecheck, being able to get in quickly and winpox down low. As I said, you saw both of the Henrique goals came off with similar plays, right? The first one was Connor Brown winning a battle against White Cloud behind the net. The second one after a power play, Darnelner dumps it in.

And then they go to work and retrieve it and eventually bring it out and score. And the other, I'm glad you brought in Hill into this conversation. we can talk more about the goaltending here in a second, but one of the trickle downs of doing so in that theme of kind of getting in there more actively and causing chaos around the goal and below the goal line was they clearly had a mandate to get after Aiden Hill right from the jump at every opportunity

and just bug him and crowd him and drive the net hard. You saw Hyman on a rush opportunity, just go full blast toppling over him, certainly Cain, although albeit, you know, Bain McNaught clearly pushing him, from behind and as a PSA, please, as a defender, stop pushing opponents into your own goalie. I hate when players do that. But the plan was clear. They executed it. And Hill was on full tilt in that first period, right? You could see that he was just so preoccupied with going after

Hyman and Yanmark after he had tripped him and trying to slash them and whack them and hit it with his blocker and causing all of these post-wistle scrums. And for the series, I mean, for all the talk that we spend about Pickard and Skinner and the Oilers goal-tending questions. Hill's now giving up 15 goals against in these four games. He's got an 8, 70, say, percentage. And I don't necessarily, I mean, the third goal off the rush by Kane was obviously

a bad one where it was a very 80s goal where it's like along the ice and he's just standing and it goes right through him. The first two certainly weren't his fault. But I did think in coming away from that game, it was that interaction between the two was very fascinating in the first period and it was a big story coming out of that game.

Yeah, just going back to the line before we get to Hill. I also like with the Oilers that they know they have these combinations that works. And this is why I think it's so important that coaches try different things in the regular season. Like going with Ryan Nugent Hopkins, McDavid and Hyman, like, oh, we've seen that line a lot the last year's and same with Pod Coles and you know he works with Drysidal. So it's always good to have that. But yes, I'm going to agree with you. Please stop checking players into your own goaltenders. I will say I did think Keane was going to make contact with Hill regardless of that shove.

So I didn't mind that penalty right there because, you know, you could say, oh, he's really, you know, he's just letting go because he's celebrating the goal. Like, no, that contact was happening no matter what. I just think, I have added some additional force that you don't need. Again, you don't have this all-star backup behind you that you could go, okay, they can jump in as a starter at any time. So they definitely had hill rattled. And you saw that with the collision. But you saw it beforehand, too. Like, there was so much energy in that first period.

It was unbelievable how it just deflated as the game went on. But, you know, it's not fully on 8-0. You look at the expected goals last night, and I think it was 2.96 against, according to natural stat, he allows three goals against. That's 0.04. That's not much. That's an average game.

And I think we've known with Vegas for a long time that their team that, the way that they're built in front of the blue paint, you can get by with average goaltending, right? Some people have taken that away from Pist and the Cup winners, like the aves, like, oh, look, you can have it on an average goalie and be fun. It's like, yes, but you need to have. the right line up in front of the blue paint to be able to manage that. And I think Vegas has. And it's not to knock Hill in any which way. It's just saying they have that really strong

blue line. They have a really good crop of two-way talent up front that they can manage it. But against the Oilers, you need more than average goaltending when you're matching up to them, especially with, you know, whether McDavid and Drysaw together apart, like your goaltender's going to be challenged. And they found a way to challenge Hill. And I think it definitely hurts them because I don't see them making a swap. I think had that Logan Thompson, maybe we would have seen a different goalie before. So it's odd to be talking about the Golden Knights goaltending in the situation

and not the oilers all the sudden. But you could definitely see that, that last, that third goal, that was like the killer. That was like he doesn't have it tonight. And I think you could see it early on. But sometimes, you know, you have a bad start and settle back in. It just didn't seem like he did.

Yeah, I was hand-tracking this game because I was curious to see how to play out and I had scoring chances 18 to 10 for the Oilers through 40 minutes. They generated 25 shots in that time. So they were clearly getting the much better of it offensively. On the other side, good for Stewart Skinner, right? He has that 23 save shot out in game four after sitting out six straight games between rounds one and two, giving up four goals against on 24 shots in game three, including that back breaker with 0.4 seconds left.

I thought not to take anything away from his performance because he stood his ground on a couple of rush shots, right? That's always going to be the question with him. That's something that the Golden Knights clearly targeted in game three. He stood his ground on those. He made a couple big saves early on. And then most importantly, I think, didn't give up any bad ones either, right? There were no softies leaking through.

He did his job. But I thought the Oilers did a really good job defensively in front of him in this one. Out of the 13 scoring chances that the Golden Knights wound up with by the end of the game, I thought at least half of them were either disrupted or pressured by an Oilers stick. There were very few clean looks. The Oilers wound up according to natural stature. keeping the Golden Knights offense under two expected goals generated for the entire game, despite the fact that they were trailing for 58 and a half minutes of those and were on the ropes

and theoretically pushing more offensive than they would otherwise. And so you put it all together and I thought it was, I thought it was an incredible performance from the Oilers, right? It was, I always like to joke on the show about their fastball and how when they're dialed in like this and locked in and applying themselves at both ends, they're just so dominant. And you really saw that for the entirety of this game in different phases, right?

they were pushing more offensively early on. You mentioned the energy deflating late. I think that was by design because they did a good job of not having any classic Oilers defensive mistakes. They were staying above the puck and really playing a responsible game to limit the Golden Knights in that third period push. And so, yeah, I thought their play with and without the puck, but especially defensively was the story here in terms of making life easier for Stewart's getter and enabling this type

of an outcome for him. Yeah, it's kind of similar to the last game too because you look, at some of the glaring plays and you could say like, oh, Stuart Skinner was the story of the game. Like, he wasn't, in my opinion. Like, even that late goal, you know, the defense kind of gave up and William Carlson gets deep in the offensive zone is able to, like, center the puck out. Like, that shouldn't have happened. And it's tough because you're going to freeze frame that goal over and over again and go, where's Stuart Skinner? He sat near the crease. He wasn't. He should have been, but he wasn't the only one that misplated. So it's kind of similar here.

Yes, he gets the shut out, but a lot of the credit goes to the team right or wrong in front of him. I think maybe the most impressive save to me was there's Dorfie of shot in the third period. And that one, I didn't even love how he handled it personally. I saw the save and I thought I could just see that puck bouncing in that moment. But the fact that he even had that one, I was like, okay, like he is in it as he can be. And he brushed off the last game in a much better way than I would have expected because I'm sure as a goaltender, we know how, you know, it's a mental game as much as it is a physical one, that position above all else, that your confidence could be completely blown because not only did

you lose your starting net to Pickard, and this is not someone that's a true one B or anything like that. Like you lost the Tevra to a goalie, no one would have seen coming. And then on top of that, you get the net back only because he's injured. And then you have a game where you make mistakes. It's a tough one. So I think that was a big moment for the Oilers, but more importantly, like they gave their goaltender support. That's been one of the biggest issues the last couple of years.

it's very easy to look at the goaltending and go that has been the oiler's biggest problem. And that's why everyone looked at the trade deadlines of why didn't they go for a goaltender? And you go, this is why, right? Because if they're playing the right way and if they play to their actual capabilities, offensively and even defensively, they don't need perfect goaltending. They just need someone to help them get by. And he did that last night. I think they came out with so much jump in the first period.

They absolutely dominated playing that first period. You go, okay, that's a great response to that last game, that if you can keep that out, that's going to be a good thing. And, you know, their team, they're definitely a tricky defensive team. They definitely have their moments, their breakdowns. I thought maybe the best way that they play defense sometimes is just defensive plays in the offensive zone to extend those offensive opportunities because that's their bread and butter, right? Like, if you're playing so much offense, you don't have to play defense. And that's what's going to work in the oilish favor. And I think

that's when we've seen them take over games both in this series and in the last series. There was a playing the second period like puck holes and keeps the puck in and the oiler stay in the offensive zone for you know another long stretch of time that's exactly what you need to do that's just going to absolutely wear them down you know the tricky part of it then would be well if your goalie isn't facing many shots against are they going to be in a bad position i think the fact that they controlled so much of it especially in that first period and skinner made the timely saves right the key saves at key times which is sometimes all you need to ask for that's a big wouldn't for them. Yeah, one of the, I think a storyline we've seen this postseason ever since, I mean,

round two is ever since the Bennett Stollars incident is the league clearly has made it a point of emphasis of trying to protect goalies a little bit more in terms of whenever there's some sort of a scrum in front of them, they're kind of taking someone out of it and penalizing them and trying to diffuse the situation a bit better. And so one of the byproducts of the oilers, what we said earlier going after Hill was they went down short-handed a couple times in the first period, right? I believe the Golden Knights had three power play opportunities. in the first and maybe this game looks a little bit different if a power play that's generally been very lethal and efficient this year, I believe they were second in the regular season,

was able to capitalize on any of those opportunities. Maybe this is a bit of a different game. You get in Skinner's head early and it's like, oh, no, here we go again. Yet I thought, you know, Eichl hits the post on, I believe, I think the last part of those three power play opportunities when he finally got to step into a shot from the left circle. But other than that, most of those six minutes were spent going back into their own zone, retrieving the puck. I thought the Oilers PK looked like last year's version where they were pressuring a lot,

forcing the issue, just making life more difficult for them and getting established and getting comfortable. And a note that I had here was, you know, we saw once again a lot of McDavid on the penalty kill. He's played over nine minutes on the PK so far this post season after playing less than five minutes short-handed all regular season. In that time, shots are five, three for the Oilers, despite having one fewer player on the ice for Edmonton. And so that's another storyline that I'll be kind of.

of tracking and watching because if the Oilers are going to play this aggressive, they're probably going to spend some time over the course of these games killing penalties. And this was a weakness for them early, especially against the Kings. They've been better and more sound now. And I love having McDavid out there to just kind of cause more of that chaos. You could even see in game three, they didn't wind up scoring. But there were a couple of rush opportunities he created on two-on-ones or potential breaks, just using his speed against Shea-theodore or whatever offensive man is the last guy back for the Golden Knights. And so I loved seeing that from them as well. Yeah, absolutely. It's a risk if you're going to put your offensive guys on the penalty kill. Everyone will say that. But there's a reason for it. Like if anyone knows how to pick a part penalty kill, it's going to be guys like Connor McDavid. Right. Like they know there's only so many power play strategies. And I think it's the one area of the game you can scout better than anything in the series because it's limited time. There's limited strategies and there's limited players you have to account for. So throwing him into the mix is something that maybe Vegas didn't account for with the penalty kill. And I think for McDavid is something he can study and try to find those trigger points to just, you know, create.

a little bit of havoc. But you look at it and you go, Vegas really didn't have the juice on the power play. And it's interesting because, you know, the last game you saw, Victor Olivesen had two powerplay goals, Dorfee has back. So you're not going to have that same formation. You might have had the game before, but there's reason you went with it, but it doesn't work out. The other part of it with the Oilers penalty kill, which you mentioned, it was like a throwback to last year when you're going, oh, it would help to have Dylan Holloway, right? Like in round one, I think that was the most glaring thing. Like, it would have helped to have some of your guys back, some of those good forwards. But I think Connor Brown is such a story, and it's such a reminder of how good he was.

Before he, what was it, a torn ACL? Like, it's recalibrating our expectations for players after they get back from those injuries because there's a difference between being healthy enough to play and healthy enough to be effective. And I think we're seeing him click in all situations when he's asked to and we're seeing the speed and the skating ability that he had, which was such a strength of his game with Ottawa. The other part of it with the PK sticking with Connors is I think it's very interesting that

with Connor McDavid getting these shifts. I wonder if Drysadle was healthy, if he would be the guy getting it because he has a little bit more penalty-killing experience and was so good defensively this year. But I wonder if there's a reason why they opted against giving him those extra minutes and letting him just cook it even strengthened on the power play. I thought Dr. Seidel, you know, he's had a bit of a tricky time in this series finishing on some of the looks. The McDavid's creative for him certainly hasn't been as involved as your become accustomed to clearly is physically ailing in this game in splitting up. the forward lines, they went with McDavid against Carlson. They went with Drysidal against Eichol, and I thought that trisidal line did a phenomenal job in this game.

You talk about defending up the ice and just having the puck and limiting the other team that way. Eichl and Stone were never really able to get going in this game. Ico was so phenomenal as a distributor and playmaker in the first three games. They just didn't really have the puck as much, never really created anything in 515. I believe that they held them to 0.1 expected goals against in nine head to head 515 minutes in this game. You mentioned Port Coulson earlier.

He was awesome. This game is kind of the platonic ideal for a player with his skill set in terms of utilizing that speed and doganus to win battles and extend offensive zone possessions and kind of just disrupting the neutral zone. Kappenden had a couple looks. It's Kappanin, so those looks probably aren't going to go in very often. But I thought that both him and Pottn Kohl's in speed on the wings helps dry Cyttel at this point with some of the puck transportation and not necessarily having to cover as much ice. So that combination really worked for. them and it allowed them to play the Henrique line essentially against Hurdle and that's another story for me in this series the disappointment of Hurdell's finishing and Barberchav's finishing

where despite all the high danger opportunities they've had in the series they haven't really been able to score and you look up and Henrique has two goals in this game he's won that matchup between those lines and that's kind of what this comes down to right because you know what you're going to get in terms of being lopsided territory little McDavid's on the ice they're going to outscore the opposition you look at what William Carlson's done, they're winning his minutes handily. It really comes down to some of that kind of middle six scoring, and the Oilers have gotten a ton of it,

whereas the Golden Knights have had their opportunities and they've been dangerous, they just haven't ultimately been converting on them. Yeah, what you mentioned about the dry saddle line, like he's with two guys who are probably not going to finish their chances. Like you said, like if it's a cappinen shot, it's only going to be... The shot location might be there, the angle, the everything, but the finish just isn't there.

And the same is with Pugolson, right? but those are two guys that just grand down opponents. They are very hardworking players. I think that makes life a little bit easier for dry saddle. And if they can just control play, obviously it'll help to have them score in their minutes and say they do advance to the next round. Like that will be even more important with the stakes even higher.

But if that third line can pick up the pace and just keep chipping in some goals, it's going to take some pressure off dry saddle. So just controlling play. Like it's enough for now, right? But yeah, the hurdle not finishing a chance is interesting. too because like they they gave him dorfeev and olivson the last game too instead of just playing him with guys like sod and dorfeev where you kind of know like okay the two primary shooters are going to be hurdle and dorfeev now the two wangers can be olifson has a specialty one specialty only and it is

scoring goals and he needs um he needs his linemates to do a lot of the leg work but they just got crushed last night in their minutes i think they played together for like five minutes and it's were 13 to 5. Like that is in Edmonton's favor. Like it's less than ideal because that line in the beginning of the series, at least in round one, you could see that was the real difference maker that set the Golden Knights apart from the wild was that second line scoring punch. So they definitely need a little bit more from them.

And it's going to be tough because Dorfiev likely isn't 100% missed a couple of games, even though he's back in the lineup now. So you could just see that frustration boiling. And it's not good for anyone on the Golden Knights if that's happening. But I think that it's so important for that line to produce offensively because Jack Eichol is not going to, right? Like this is the reality of playing him in matchup minutes and the matchup minutes aren't just against anybody. It's against Connemadavit. And you look at two games ago, he contains him really well.

He slows him down. He's doing the work that he needs to do, but it's limiting what he can do offensively. And he was better last game like you mentioned. But if he can't score as much because he's playing these minutes, and that's going to be the case, right? you're so focused on stopping McDavid, you're probably not playing enough offense. It's even more important for someone like Hurtle to do that. So we'll see what happens for the next game. And if everyone can kind of just take a breath,

I know the season's online, but you kind of have to like take a breath because you can see like everything boiling to the point where you're not, you're not going to get everything done. Not everyone can have these spike games, right? Not everyone can play through the emotions that way. So in a way you do need to just find a way like settle the temperature down and let the players try to play to their strengths as much as possible back on home ice.

The splits for, I mean, I was speaking so much about William Carlson and, you know, they gave up the three five-on-five goals against in this game. None of them are with him out there. Very fittingly, he's played 58 minutes in this series. Vegas is up 5-2 in that time at 5-15 when he's been off the ice in 149 minutes. Edmonton's crushing them 11 to 2, and that's partly because Nick Wausline in particular has just had a series from hell, right? He has that absolutely inexplicable major penalty and ejection in the overtime of game 2. He's been outscored 6-1-5-1-5. in this series and so there just hasn't been enough around that Ico line to really pick up the pieces with hurdles line as we mentioned not really finishing my one final note on this is the oilers you know we talked about their team defense and how much better i was i thought their exits in this game as well were really smooth a lot of bouchard like very simple not necessarily flashy stretch passes but like little short bumps to get them out of the zone and work around that vagus forecheck we also saw an adjustment not just for the forwards but on the blue line here as well right they bring in Troy statured or replaced high Emberson and The reason why I think that's important is because for whatever reason, they just weren't trusting Emerson in terms of 515 usage. In the first three games, he played 16 minutes total through games one through three. We saw Stetcher come in here, play with Darnell Nurse. He plays nearly that amount in just this game for alone. We got to see Bouchard play with Kulak and they've been so good together.

And then they kept Walman and Klingberg together. And so in a way, I'm sure, you know, when push comes to shove, if they're down in a series or if they're struggling, we're certainly going to see Noblock go back. to what they had before with Drey Saitle and McDavid playing 5-1-5 and there is some Bouchard out there as much as possible. But in a way, because they were up in this series and because they're at home and able to manage the minutes a little bit more, they kind of stumbled upon this combination that makes a lot of sense. And then you watch the way they play last night in game four. And it's like, all right, this is probably the best version of maximizing everyone's skill sets, at least for the time being. And so I'm curious heading on the road now in game five where it becomes more difficult to manage those minutes to see if they continue with this or if they go back to what they're

are using in the first three games, but it's at least, you know, you mentioned the versatility or optionality, I guess, for Knoblock and the Oilers here. It's nice to see that they have this in their back pocket and can use it, whether it's the rest of this series or heading into the West Final or even the Stanley Cup final down the road. Yeah, and this is why I think goaltending wasn't number one on their list at the deadline, right? Like, they needed help in front of the blue paint. They needed secondary scores and they needed help on the blue line because that defense through most of the season, they had their pairs and they couldn't. mix it up, right? We're talking about the forward group and going, they have all these different

line combination options and they can mix and match like it's no one's business. They can't do that on defense, right? Like, if you want to get Darnell's, Darnell nurse going, he has to be used in a very specific way. If you want to maximize Bouchard's skills, the same goes there, and then you don't have enough left for that third pair. So if Stedric can come in and play with Nurse, and they play together for 13 minutes last night, shots were 17 to 10 in the Oilers' favor. they are 66% of the expected goal share. Like that's a very good thing. And they were the line going up against that hurdle line, which, you know,

no, it's not top competition and it's not Jack Eichael, but that is the next best scoring threat for the golden knight. So if they can play well against them, that's huge. And then you get to keep everything else in place, right? I think if you have Walman and Klingberg clicking, you can keep them together, no problem on your third pair, then you have a little bit more offensive punch with guys who are likely going to match up to the bottom six forwards a little bit more,

and they can help spring them for plays. Like you're mentioning, the exits are cleaner. It's something that they don't have a ton of guys that were great in transition on the back end through the regular season. So if you have defensemen that can help and kind of add that boost to the forward group that would need it, I think it clicks for everybody. So it's a very good thing to have those adjustments. It worked very well for them.

And I'm super curious how it goes, you know, the next game too, because I think we all know the Oilers, there's an element of chaos to it, but I also know we have to throw out everything we learned about the regular season and just watch what they're doing in the postseason because it's so different. Certainly. All right, you got anything else on either this game four or this series before we take a break and switch over to the east? I feel like we covered most of what I had here.

I thought it was a very impressive game, as I said, from the Oilers, right from the jump, changed the way they were playing and really executed perfectly. The adjustments all paid off. So I imagine they're feeling pretty good about themselves, not only being up 3-1 going into Vegas, but just in terms of stumbling upon a recipe that clearly works in this matchup. Yeah, definitely. And listen, like, they probably, the Oilers would have felt a lot better if it wasn't for that late goal in game three.

Like, they have the edge in the series. It's very clear. But I think this series has been so good that I'm not going to complain if Vegas can figure it out for another game or two to keep it going, because the quality is just night and day. I mean, it was like the second it started, it was electric compared to what we were watching earlier than that. So I will not, I absolutely will not be upset if we get a little bit

more of this series. And I think it'll be fun that it's going to the matchups, like the schedule thing is going to change the next few days. We'll see it after the Toronto series that has really brought the energy in the east. Like, it could be so much fun. It could be like the best of the best playoff hockey on Wednesday night if

Vegas can figure out a way to keep this going a little longer and just give us a little bit of a treat. Yeah, you're right. I certainly won't be complaining if we get another couple games of this matchup because these games, even when they've been one-sided for one team's favor, I've still had so much drama and intrigue and fun stuff to parse for us. All right, Shane, now let's take our break here. And then we come back.

We'll close out by going out east covering the Caps, Hurricanes, Game 4 that we watched on Monday night. You're listening to the Hockey-Ocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockeypedo cast, joined by Shana Goldman. Let's talk about Hurricanes Capitals game four. I thought that Washington was very similar. to game three in the sense that they started off strong right in the first two minutes. They get an Alexi Prode's break. He hits the post.

They got a nice rush opportunity from Connor McMichael as well. We're kind of doing a good job of capitalizing on the hurricane's aggression to stretch them out a little bit and get some of these quick attack rush opportunities. And then after that, it really reverted back to the game script we've seen for large chunks of the series where they were stuck in the mud. They weren't able to get out of their zone. They weren't able to really create anything offensively until a bit of a push in the third period. I had scoring chances for this game 14 to 8 for the hurricanes, including 7 to 2 in the

third period. The caps generated just six scoring chances in the final 58 minutes. By my account, I just told you in part one what the Oilers did in their game by comparison and how they, I think they had like 11 in the first period alone to put that into context. What are you seeing from this series? Because I admittedly haven't spent, you know, proportionately as much time talking about these games as I have some of the other ones just because they haven't been either as exciting or as dramatic because it's kind of felt very, you know, it's been conducted in a very neat fashion for the hurricanes for the most part. It hasn't really been in doubt for large stretches. And so I don't find that particularly compelling. But I do want to get into here with you today since we've

got 20 minutes or so here to kind of break down what they're doing to the capitals and why they're up three one in this series and how they got to this position. Yeah, it definitely hasn't been nearly as compelling and which is kind of disappointing because you look at their end of season regular end of regular season matchups and it was like okay this is going to bring the heat we've seen past playoff matchups and i also think too it's because we know what the canes are right and and that's something that works with them and works against them when people talk about the hurricanes right like this is the same old team what are they going to do and they don't have enough finish and they don't have that star player and oh look at what happened this season and those narratives get

talk to death and then you realize there's a reason they stick to their strengths and i think you're seeing it in this series especially because i think it was game one they were talking spencer carbary was talking about it how players were just huffing and puffing at the bench right and they're just exhausted playing the games and it's that style that they play they grind their opponents down they drag them through the mud and it doesn't just come from one line it comes from four lines it's it's a system that every single player on that team has bought into and knows how to play so that makes them a lot tricky, a really tricky opponent. And then you add in the fact that this year they've had a little bit more rush-based attack than years past. And I think it's guys like Jarvis driving that and having

someone like Taylor Hall too. So it adds a little bit more dimension to their game. Like, yes, they're going to dump and chase and battle you along the boards and probably get possession of the puck and pin you in the offensive zone. And even if they're not getting the best quality shots, you don't have control of the puck so it doesn't matter. But I think now that they have a couple more weapons in their back pocket. It helps them. So I think we're seeing the Keynes played to their strengths. And at some points in the series, you know, like the Capitals figured it out in game two, like, okay, we aren't going to win the shot battle. We might not even win the scoring chance battle. But if they amp up the physicality, which I think we saw them do, like to make

the timely hits, right, make the hits to change possession and have someone like McMichael get out there and score, which so big for them, you know, the canes have an answer to it. they've made some lineup adjustments. Jack Rossel that comes in the series and, you know, I think he made the case to stay in and play game four. But they just have the capital's number. And I think the most important thing is they have the number of that Dubois and McMichael combination.

They changed it so it was with Protis instead of Tom Wilson. But I think slowing them down is the key to this series because that's been one of Washington's best lines on both ends of the I saw year. Yeah, when the caps have looked bad in this series, it's been a lot of rim attempts off the boards, just trying to kind of diffuse a bit of this pressure and get out of the zone. Unfortunately, the hurricanes has just been,

as you'd expect, sitting all over that, and then that's allowed them to sustain these just extended grinding offensive zone possessions where they're just piling up the shot attempts. And for all the focus on that and, you know, the low shooting percentage on it and all that, I think what it's accomplishing most importantly and most functionally for them

is it's just completely killing the Capitol's legs. You talk about them huffing and puffing. I think just having to kind of chase them around the zone for 90 seconds to two minutes at a time. By the time they get it, there's no real downhill rush opportunities for them because they're just gas. They just want to get off the ice. And that was something I was looking for heading into this series.

We didn't get to see it with the Hurricanes Round 1 opponent because the devils were so undermanned and so banged up and they just didn't have really the firepower to do it. But we know that this one potential weakness for the hurricanes this year defensively was some of the odd man rushes they were giving up and how the goaltending would hold up in that. And Spor Logic through these four games has Oddman rushes 28 to 14 for the hurricanes. So the caps just really haven't, as the games have gone along, been able to get out on the rush and attack that way. The hurricanes have done a really good job suppressing it.

I think part of it is just those offensive zone possessions. This game, you know, we talk about the excitement. It did finally break open in the third period, which is really fun to watch. We got five goals. We got the Hall breakaway. We got Ovechkin scoring the 5-1-3 goal. We got one of the most bizarre goals you're going to see with Racken's. As Ms. Sandine stick getting stuck and wedged in the boards and then him not being able to get back and Sean Walker

Barrying wanted to put it away. But otherwise beyond that, I thought from halfway through the first when Gossip Spirit scored until the third when the caps started pushing a little more offensively, it was just kind of this cookie cutter like rinse and repeat of what we've seen for large stretches of this series. And so I don't think the you talk about the Keynes having their number. I'm just not sure at this point the capitals really have the personnel. to adjust. They're going home. They're going to control the matchups a little bit more. We know that Spencer Carpery's done a really good job of firing them up and getting them going

when they've looked this poor in the past. I just don't really know what the buttons are to push because of this pace, the hurricanes, and still on them, I don't think it's a surprise that some of the older, slower players like a John Carlson, who I thought had a miserable game three or Lars Eller throughout really this entire postseason

have kind of looked like fish out of the water in terms of struggling with keeping up with what the hurricanes are doing. into them. And so I think that's a massive problem for the caps and any visions they have of sending this one back to game six and Raleigh and doing this all over again. Yeah, absolutely. I think John Carlson's game was, oh my God, what a nightmare game. Like that is a burn the tape kind of night for him. Yeah, I think there's two things to stand up to me. It's that, you know, the capitals have gotten by all year because it's their depth,

right? It's not just one line. It's everybody. And usually that's the Keynes approach going into every series. And we look at it and go, well, the Keynes don't have the best players in this series, right? Like they have Jacob Slavin. He's an elite shot-down defenseman, but this opponent has, you know, and you always find a way to like one up the canes. And this time, I think that's a little bit different. Like, the canes are in a totally different position than they tend to be, because they have the better players, right? They have the depth, but they also have, I think, the slight edge in star power with Tahoe and Jarvis and Slavin. And I think the way Frederick Anderson playing, too, it's like the cherry on top. The other part of it is the injuries for

Washington. I feel like Martin Ferryivari is not your, the name that every, the marquee name that everybody knows and remembers, but I think that it shows how important he is to this blue line, because when he was in the line up, they had no weak links on the back end, and now that he's not there, you're seeing them have to make adjustments on defense, right? In, in round one, that meant a time. Chickren's playing with John Carlson playing matchup minutes. He has no business playing matchup minutes. The reason the capitals, he's worked so well in Washington, is they know where to play him, and that's on the third pair, right? going to shelter him so he can play to his offensive strengths. And I think it, you know, it worked for

guys like Sandin. They could play tough for a minute. So to make the adjustment, now we have Chickren and Roy playing together. And yes, they connect for that goal, right? Roy sets him up with a beautiful pass. There's also, um, a shift where you see them pinned in their own zone and they're both failing to clear the puck against guys like Sebastian Ajo. And it just doesn't, it doesn't work for Washington. I think that they're trying to figure out ways to find the right blue line combinations that they can deploy their guys properly and having home mice will help. But you know, you're going up against three Keynes lines that have a lot of offense. And even the fourth line is contributing. So it just, it's becoming a nightmare for Washington. Well, I think you've seen

that in the usage as well, right, where Washington's being, we're just relying on their guys so much more. And maybe that's part of what's causing the Huffin and Puffin as well, where Chichrin's play 99 minutes through four games. Carlson's played 94. Even Matt Roy's played nine, uh, or Carlson's played 98. Matt Roy's played 94 for the hurricanes by comparison. Slavin's played 86.42 and then Burns and Orlaver at 82. And that's a pretty significant gap in terms of how many minutes they're just having a log and what they can expend in that time. You know, not quite to the extent what we saw from Edmonton that we talked about in par one in today's show, but there was an adjustment by Rod Brindamore in this game and a bit of a

difference in sort of approach up front where he puts Seth Jarvis back on the top line with and Svechnikov, and I thought Jarvis was phenomenal in this game. He was very visible every time he was out there. He had that spinorama pass off the rush to set up a scoring chance. He was just applying back pressure and causing steals and just kind of doing a lot of stuff to stonewall the caps and fuel a lot of what we talked about that's working for the hurricanes, and then he ultimately gets rewarded for all that buzzing around with the rebound goal off the Ajo shot. Svetnikov seals the deal with the empty netter.

he's up to after a very underwhelming regular season. He's up to seven goals and nine playoff games now has double-digit shot attempts in three of his past five games. And so I thought that was an interesting change in approach as well where not only they put Jarvis and kind of load up that top line from a scoring perspective,

but then they actually use them quite willingly against Dubois in this one. And instead they used Stalin-Martinuk against Stroh, Moveschkin in Wilson. And I wonder if part of that was an adjustment to what you said worked for the caps earlier in this series in terms of trying to be more physical and kind of get under their skin and turn it into that type of

game in this one, not only they combat it with size a little bit more, but I just thought they did a good job in general in these two games of not really playing into it and not engaging with some of the antics and shenanigans, right? I saw that clip of Tom Wilson trying to taunt them with the storm surge kind of standing on the ice and the Keynes bench just isn't reacting or responding at all and even acknowledging it. And so it helps when, you know, you let your play on the ice dictated, but also just not really kind of focusing on. their own approach and executing their own game plan as opposed to allow themselves to being kind of dragged into what the caps have to do, I think, to make this a series.

Yeah, I think it was really smart to just load up that top line and let them go against Mick Michael and Dubois and now you have Protis on it. So another very good two-way player who brings a lot of speed. I like the idea of Jarvis against Protis of the two up-encomers we could see go head to head for a long time. But if you look back to game one, the big thing for the Keynes was Aham and Spetschnikov played against Dubois, McMichael, and Wilson, and they absolutely crushed him.

Like, that was the key to the game for the Keynes, who, yes, the game took overtime, but we're the much better team. And I think you saw in game two, the caps kind of find their way against that line a little bit better. But, yeah, I think it's the right call, absolutely, because then you're going to have guys like Martin McInstall, frustrate Tom Wilson. They're going to slow down Ovechkin.

I don't think you're going to have a foot speed issue with that line at all. And they're going to frustrate Wilson. And Tom Wilson's such an interesting player because he can be just a menace in the playoffs and we know it, right? But he has to be the one leading the frustrations, not responding to it. And I think you saw all of the capitals just being annoyed last night. Like John Carlson takes a penalty. And what was it? Carlson and Carrie, I think he's just like punching Carrie in the face.

And they both get, you know, the penalties for it for some odd reason. But you can see like Jordan Stahl is now annoying Tom Wilson and they're just going to go with them into it and get them off their game. The Capitals can play that game if they're starting it, but I don't think that they're the team to finish it if that makes sense. I think that if the Keynes are the ones that are going to engage them that way, especially when they're ahead in the game, like, it's just going to frustrate Washington. So it's a good test for them. You know, like, this is a different capital team. We've talked a lot about how, like, the young talent can help revitalize the core and things like that, but you just see the flaws we know that those core players can have, and that's going to be playing a ton of

minutes and playing against the style of play and now getting frustrated. Like it's really hard to navigate. You also saw, I've mentioned the Hall breakaway goal that made it 3-1 and I think ultimately served as the game winning. There's one that line of him with Stankov and Rasselich, who you mentioned, got inserted into this series after Jankowski's injury, I believe. They were up 6-0 in shots in their minutes. They just completely took Lars Eller's lines, a lunch money with him, Leonard and Mangeapani.

and I do wonder, I'm curious for your take on this, in thinking about kind of where this has gone wrong for the caps and why they've become so disrupted. I was talking a lot after round one about how, you know, Spencer Carberry all year really has had some of the most extreme usage and deployment in terms of getting Strome's line with Ovechkin out there for offensive zone draws, relying on Dowd's line and even Pierre-Luc Dubois line

to an extent for defensive zone draws to help enable that. And in this one, unfortunately, just because, of all that possession time and zone time for the hurricanes, I feel like proportionally there are just fewer offensive zone draws to go around for the caps because they're spending so much time in their own zone and having to take defensive zone draws. And that's kind of discombobulated the usage a little bit as well. I think, you know, you look for the hurricanes and how they've been able to be extreme in terms of their deployment, Roslovich, who's played in the three games since game one,

he's been out there for 16 offensive zone draws and just one defensive zone draw in that time. Shane Gosses-Sparr, who scores the goal. from a nice little point shot where he holds a line and this one has been out for 33 ozone draws but there's just three defensive ones and so in a way the hurricanes have been able to tilt the ice and then get the exact type of deployment they want from their guys

whereas the capitals haven't really been afforded those opportunities just because the puck has been so infrequently actually in the hurricane's zone for them to execute it. Yeah it definitely is hurting the capitals and it's interesting too because in round one Carberry was talking about the Suzuki

show matchup and said he didn't want to get too bogged down by the matchup game and it's like you can say that in theory but you know the numbers from the regular season show that's not the case and you can't control it if you're never in the offensive zone right like and they're having a hard time breaking through so it's just been such a tough series for them and how do you manage that like at this point how do you manage that especially when the gains have the edge right they're deploying who they want where they want when they want and they know for the jack rosselvick line like they are going to shelter them as much as as possible to have that line playing the way that they are, it is such a strength to have to have

that scoring punch on the second line, which is something they haven't had in a long time, right? Like, Koganyami, we've looked at it and go like, ah, it's a little bit suspect. Even when they had guys like Natchez who didn't really perform well in the playoffs, like, they just didn't have this kind of scoring threat. And I think now it has a totally different amount of jump because of their ability off the rush, too. So, but they don't, they don't even need to worry about that. They're just starting them right in the offensive zone. It's a very good thing for the canes to have.

And yes, the Capitals are going to have home ice next game, and they can try to control things a little bit better and see who the Keynes are putting out there and then make their decisions. But if you can't break out of your own zone, it doesn't matter at the end of the day. So we'll see how much they let that matchup game dictate them, right? Because they're saying they didn't want it to happen in round one.

And even in round one, the underlying numbers were not that great for a lot of that series for the Capitals. So how do you manage that number? now against an opponent that you can't just get by, right? Let's talk a little bit about Freddie Anderson. He had the shut out in game three. He's given up six goals against the caps in four games total here. He gives up to two in the third period.

But when a long stretch with a completely clean slate, he's, what, 11 goals against in seven plus games played this postseason. He got hurt in one of those games against the Devils in round one. He's got a 935 save percentage. I think most importantly, he stopped 45 of 48. high dangerous shots he's faced according to natural statrix. So he's just been giving them the stops in those few isolated breakdowns that come up. He's done the job.

That is a crazy number in terms of 45 or 48. That's 938. To put that into perspective, Logan Thompson is second amongst active goalies that are still alive in the postseason in high danger state percentage. And he's at 8.57 himself, which is much more in line with what you'd expect. So I wouldn't necessarily, you know, count on Freddie Anderson to stop nearly 90s. percent of every high danger shot he's going to face the rest of the way but he's been remarkable when called upon so far and i feel like that's a big story here as well because heading into the series you know he wasn't available for the end of that round one matchup against the devil's

i was a bit worried about what kukhov's kind of unpredictable loose style would look like with some of the big bodies the caps have in front and potentially that interchange between the two and that just hasn't been an issue at all because fred a netherson's been healthy he's looked great and I think represents for all the baggage previously in past post seasons, him playing this way behind this team controlling possession the way they have, all of a sudden I do think that's a bit of a different dynamic as we not only think about the rest of this series, but projecting into the Eastern Conference final

and potentially the hurricanes getting over that hump as well in being the East representative in the Stanley Cup final as well. Yeah, when this series was going to start, like, full disclosure, didn't pick the Keynes, did not pick the gains because I was worried about goaltending. It's nothing against Coachakov. He had a good regular season, but you look at his play down the stretch. And it was very discouraging. And I didn't love his game in the postseason when he played against the Devils either. And yes, I know he was sitting on the bench for a while, you know, waiting for his moment because Frederick Anderson was playing really well. But I had a lot

less faith than the Canes with that, even with how they play defensively in mind, right? And the Canes, they're one of the best shots suppressing teams in the postseason right now, right? Like the quality of some of the chances has been, you know, here or there, but at the end of the day, they don't force their goaltenders to be that busy, and I think it works in Anderson's favor. And, you know, he's not against a tougher workload or potentially a tougher opponent, right? Like, maybe this is a different conversation than a shorthanded Devils team and a capital team that can barely get out of their own zone, but he's making key saves at key times. And it's, like we said with Skinner, like you don't have to be the guy.

You don't have to be perfect behind the hurricanes. when you have to come up with the big save, can you do it? And he has. And I think it's even more impressive when you look at how low scoring the canes have kept some of these games, especially at five on five, right? They're not winning a lot of these games by massive margins. And if you look at their goals for, they have 2.1 for goals per 60 at five on five, which is not great relative to the rest of the playoff field. So it shows how important it is to make those timely saves and he's doing it. He's delivering what the canes need him to be right now. keep that up. That's a really promising sign for them. Obviously, it's going to take a lot of work

in front of the blue paint to keep him as insulated as possible. But you know, you still have to do what you can with the workload in front of you, right? Like we talk about it constantly with goalies. There's a reason why we use numbers like goal saved to have expected because it's going to account for the workload they face. And we can account for the fact that someone might be drowning in shots are not facing at time. But you still have to respond well to your workload and he's doing exactly that. It also helps having Jacob Slavin in front of you. He's been everywhere in this series. I think he's played

87 minutes. The caps have scored one goal that time and it was that last 5-on-3 goal by Ovechkin. So before that, he had just completely erased everything they were doing in front of them. I think thinking ahead, we'll see what happens that Florida Toronto series is tied to to. They're playing on game 5 on Wednesday in Toronto.

If the Panthers do come back and win that series though and the caps take care of business here where the canes do, all of a sudden they're going to once again have home mice in the East final against the Panthers. And the reason why that's notable is between the regular season and the playoffs. We spent a lot of time talking about how the Kings were this dominant home team this year. The Keynes are up to 36, 9 and 1 at home with a plus 67 goal differential. And so that's a pretty good spot for them to be in, especially if their boards

are going to be, you know, just completely gobbling up the opponent stick the way they did to Rasmus Sandin in this one. All right, Shane, we're going to get out of here. I'll let you plug some stuff on the way out. What are you up to these days? What can people expect from you in terms of playoff coverage moving forward um the vibe check playoff vibe check coming tomorrow the rest we'll see as it goes it depends what happens in the game i love the playoffs because you get to be a little bit more flexible and just um figure things out but yeah i'll definitely have more playoff coverage here there um probably quick things like that right like they're you could do deep dives into series but everything changed so quickly so we'll see you know what we learn

from opponents in round two and the losing teams who don't always get the focus and things like that Awesome. We'll keep up the great work. Looking forward to that. Looking forward to having you on again later this postseason as well. If you like today's show, please help us out by smashing that five-star button wherever you listen to the PDOCast. You can join us in the PDOCast Discord as well to be part of the conversation and watch these games with us every single night as well. That's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow. We're going to watch Jets Stars game for tonight and then we're going to break that down tomorrow.

So that's going to be a fun one. In the meantime, thank you for listening to the Hockey PEOCast. streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.