The Hockey PDOcast - Post Game Reactions and Takeaways Following Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to sort through everything they saw in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, including Florida bouncing back with a stifling defensive effort and Brad Marchand's incredible individual performance. Then they dish out their 3 Stars for the night, and look ahead to the biggest points of emphasis heading into Game 6 on Tuesday. 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 Philopovin. Welcome to the Hockey PEOCast. My name is Dmitra Filipovich and joining me for our Game 5 postgame show right after the conclusion of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final. My good buddy, Thomas Trans, Tom. What's going on in? Doing well.

An interesting one tonight in that, you know, we've seen the Panthers blow out the Oilers in the series, right? And we've seen them turn up and cause havoc on the forecheck in a way that the Oilers haven't had answers for. But in truth, we've also seen the Oilers in full flight, generating chances, getting looks, you know, holding their own. Like these are two teams trading haymakers, right? These teams both pose problems for the other that neither team has a good solution for.

And most nights, it sort of comes down to execution. This was the first time where it looked like genuinely the Florida Panthers had a higher gear than the Oilers. like the Oilers might really be in trouble, even aside from the fact that they're one game or one loss away from losing in the Stanley Cup final to the same foe for a second consecutive year. And that said, you know, I don't want to overreact to it, right? I think when we consider the first five minutes of this game and that that McDavid chance off the rush, the post that he hit in the second period, the post that the Oilers hit late. when we consider two, you know, the depth advantage that the Panthers have. And this is really one of my key qualifiers.

I sort of look at this game and think, man, as much as I think McDavid's advantage should matter, losing this, losing home ice advantage this significantly, facing this kind of hole, heading back to Florida, and performing like that really, really makes it bleak from a lot of. oiler's perspective and yet, you know, quick turnaround, sunrise or FLL is so far away from the Edmont, from Edmonton, right, that even charters don't fly directly. You stop in like Omaha, Nebraska and refuel on your way, you know, two-day turnaround with that sort of travel. McDavid had played what, how many minutes did he play in game three, Tim? I know you know it off the top of your

head. It was like 30 or 31 or so him and Bushard were both up there, certainly. In game for, right? So Edmonton, Edmonton's sort of star players looking a little more frustrated, maybe making some more interesting decisions, that that cutting edge at the top of the Oilers lineup, not being as sharp tonight. And Florida's depth players really playing up, especially Brad Marchand with a, with a, he was already a legend. So I don't know what this sealed for him, just elevating his legacy as a clutch finals performer, a clutch playoff performer, an endless source of frustration for Canadian hockey fans.

You know, that sort of makes sense there. And so I guess that's the qualifier. Can the Oilers use these two games off and find a way to, you know, stave off elimination in game six? And maybe the home ice advantage that I really thought would be a bigger factor, a bigger edge for Edmonton in this series coming into it. Maybe that matters this year in game seven if they can get it there. Let's break down everything we saw.

There's so much to unpack here. I want to start with this because you mentioned those first five minutes and the Oilers got some looks right early on. Connor Brown got that mini break. Bobrovsky was able to pretty casually gloved down, but it was still a good chance. Then McDavid had the two on one where Eckblad gets a piece of it. Probably the first time all series,

Eckblad didn't get completely put on a poster by McDavid. And he did enough to kind of get his stick on it a little bit. And then McDavid skated by the net and wasn't able to tuck in the rebound. Then there was the giveaway by Bobrovsky behind his net that led to Connor Brown taking it out to the net, McDavid on the follow-up attempt, kind of hitting it off the post and through Bobrovsky's legs. And so you start off in those first five minutes and five seconds, essentially, scoring chances are four-nothing Edmonton.

And you're thinking they're playing with speed, they're breaking out, they're attacking downhill, they're getting looks, this is the way they need to play. And from that point on, the rest of the first period, forget the two goals, the Panthers wind up scoring, which are going to certainly break down as we go along. scoring chances the rest of that period were 9-0, Florida. And for the game at 5-on-5, and don't let the final score out of 5-2

and some of the pressure in the third period as they were mounting a last-ditch effort the Oilers were and then scored a couple goals, fool you because we got 49 minutes and 40 seconds of 5-on-5 play in this game 5. In that time, the Oilers generated 13 shots on goal, three high-danger chances in 0.94 expected goals against and got outscored

by the Panthers 4-1 in actual goals. And I just think the defensive effort you saw pretty much after those first five minutes in that initial flurry by Edmonton is the Panthers at their absolute best in terms of just there'd be stretches throughout this game where four or five minutes would seemingly bleed off the clock and nothing really happened.

And then the Panthers would just get a chance off of a little miscommunication or a little breakdown and then you'd resume to another four or five minutes of nothing happening. And I was just blown away. It shouldn't come as a surprise. We know how, legendary this team already is, regardless of how this series finishes in terms of its result,

making it the three straight Stanley of finals, winning it all last year. But I'm still left blown away by just how relentless they are, regardless of what's happened previously, just how short the memory is in terms of their ability to bounce back, the stick to it of it all, right? You'd think how game four unfolds, you have a chance to go up 3-1 at home, they're up 3-0 in that first period, they blow it, they get the late Reinhardt, goal to send it to overtime. They get some chances in that extra frame. And then Drysidal scores off of a brutal bounce off Mekyll. And you're thinking everything that could have gone

wrong in terms of switching the momentum of this series. Now it's going back to Edmonton. How many, in lesser hands, how many teams would we have seen come out and just completely lay an egg and look flustered and just feel like they let this series out of their grasp? It shouldn't come as a surprise that they're not that type of team. I don't think the Oilers aren't necessarily early. Either we've seeing them bounce back as they did in that game four. And I imagine we'll see a big push from them in game six as well to try to keep this series alive. But man, like just bouncing back after an effort like that and putting together this type of an immaculate detailed defensive performance, I just think was an incredible feat given the stakes, the circumstances on the road and the

opposition and what they can throw at you if you don't manage every single one of those shifts in a perfect manner. I think you're right to point out that sort of element that both teams have, right? That not only are these the most skilled teams, not only are they both exceptional defensively, but they both have that backs up against the wall, zero panic, kind of never,

they're never dead, they're never out of it, in terms of the flow or rhythm of a series. You know, I think that adds to the sense of a, like, Titanic heavyweight clash that we're watching here. the extent to which the Panthers pitched, not a fastball, but a perfect game, right?

I mean, that was as close to a perfect game, especially when you think about the five-on-five defense that they were able to play as you're going to find it this time of year, right? I mean, the answers that they were finding defensively time and time again, and more than that, I thought in the middle stages of that game, especially in that second period, how perfectly they managed the puck, it was flawless, right? I mean,

there was just no mistake that fed like an oiler's rebound shift. And it's not even that the Oilers were playing poorly necessarily. I thought they were maybe a little bit indecisive in some of their decision making early in the third period. I thought they might benefit from playing a little more direct right out of the bat. right out of the gate as that third frame begun. You had sort of McDavid trying to drop pass and Bouchard passing up a shot on consecutive entry attempts.

I didn't love that just from the sense, from the perspective of like, it's not a four nothing game. You don't need a, you don't need a Hail Mary. You don't need a goal fast, right? You just kind of need momentum.

Get the building into it. Start feeling good about yourself. Skate forward for a few shifts. But man, the extent to which I just thought the Panthers never gave them oxen never never made the mistake that resulted in a 90 second shift and then you're on the back foot for your next shift or the puck gets iced and there's mac david over the boards and we didn't get gajovitch off and oh no right i mean they never felt like they were under duress in holding that lead and proactively padded it on multiple occasions to make sure that the oilers were you know that any comeback attempt especially after what we saw in game four what was you know stepped on at a at like a very early evolutionary stage, right? The fish never got out of the ocean.

I just felt coming out of that game forward, that must have been such a kick right to the Balinskises for them and for them to come back and respond this way is just, I think it's remarkable. And we're going to go through all of it. Championship stuff. You want to do, let's do the PioCast three stars. I haven't continued with a bit.

I haven't looked at them yet. So you can update me once I'm done. I got you. I'm done them. It's a late edition, but I already had him as an honorable mention. I bumped him up at the end. I'm going to give the third start our guy, E2, Listerine in here, who finishes this game with a goal. He gets the empty net goal to seal it from his own end.

He gets an assist on Marchand's second goal. We can talk more about that in a second. And I think most importantly, he plays three minutes and one second on the PK in this game out of the six total that the Panthers spent short-handed throughout the contest. And that first PK in particular, I felt like really swung this game. I can step on it right now.

That's going to be my fastball moment of the game. Yeah. Because it felt like, you know, it's won nothing at that time. The Oilers get a powerplay. You're thinking they're going to create something here. And that was probably the worst power play I can really remember the Oilers having throughout this entire era. Like they spend more time in their own zone that they spent in the offensive zone.

They weren't able to really create anything. And it was that loose arena. a Nosec combo on the PK for the Panthers that was just controlling the puck, killing time in the offensive zone. And then what, 22 seconds later, there's an Echholm giveaway at Center Ice that quickly results in the Bennett 2-0 goal. And that was a real backbreaker. And I feel like that really swung this game because it could have gone either way at that

moment in time. And that was just such a dominant PK by them. The Oilers helped him a little bit with, you mentioned kind of not being very decisive and some sloppy puck management along the way, but they forced their hand in doing so. And so I felt like that one really swung it. And Lusirin has been awesome this entire series. We don't need to talk him up anymore necessarily, but I just felt like he was very visible. Some of the stuff he does with his stick in terms of kind of at the point of contact cutting you off before you can make your move. He had a play on the PK where his stick broke and he still was in the passing lane and they were able to eventually

kill that sequence there. I just thought he was immense. He's not going to get a lot of the attention on that line with Lundell and what Marchand's doing. doing certainly, but he's such a key piece of this. And it almost feels like describing those guys as depth, I guess technically they do slot in on this team's third line. But that is, they're so overqualified for that, right? Like they're doing so much heavy lifting here. And that is kind of the difference at this point of this series where we can talk a lot about McDavid and Barkoff scoring and the top of the lineup and all of that. But what they're getting from this line offensively is just something the Oilers and really no other team in the league can replicate at this

point. And that's kind of been the point of divergence, I think, for these two. Well, and, you know, I thought Brad Marchand, we'll talk about him shortly, but the route that he took hanging out wide when the Panthers had a three on two, and that was the tremendous feed that Lus Drainan couldn't quite get a handle on. And you really wish he had from the perspective of getting his, you know, like just desserts, getting the proper share of credit does feel like he's going to need a breakthrough offensive moment for the wider conversation. to begin to center E2 Luster-Reynan, but obviously whiffed on that. Didn't matter. He was, I think, the face of, and that line was the face of this Panthers effort, this perfect game that they were able to put together in game five to put the Oilers on the brink.

But I did think in that moment, you know, that that's the sort of play where, you know, you go from being a guy everyone knows is good to getting some of that like Brian Bicklechine. You know, you need the big playoff horse goal. I think to really sort of have the conversation around you change. Puck knowers understand, though, that this guy is a key element, maybe a first-line caliber winger, frankly, given all of the ways that he impacts the game and helps the Panthers create an environment

where they're able to bury everybody, including, you know, this Oilers juggernaut. He's such a horse. I mean, he's so strong, but also just his puck pursuit is so dogged. And I feel like that really personifies, I guess, what this Panthers team does best. my second star is Sam Bennett, who scores that 2-0-0 goal. He plays 1439 at 5-1-5 in this game.

The Oilers generate 0.1 to expected goals in that time. High danger chances were 5-0, Florida. He had four chances of his own, the seven shots as well. And this crazy stat now, and we can talk more about the cons, my updated odds heading into game six as this series sort of reaches. It's finished at some point over these next two games. he is the current favorite on the betting market. He has, what, 15 goals now in 22 games this postseason,

but even more impressive than that, they said this on the broadcast. He scored in six straight road games. He has eight goals in those six games. He has 13 goals on the road this postseason in 13 games. Next up is Leandro Seidel with six, and then his teammate Brad Marchand was six as well, so he's nearly doubling,

where he is more than doubling the competition there. And I was very curious heading into this game. I think you and I touched on it in terms of our pre-scout for game five after game four, what the matchups would look like, how much they'd play against McDavid. We saw that matchup right off the opening draw. It felt like early on Chris Knobach was trying to send McDavid out there skipping past the regular line rotation whenever Mekyll and Jones would get out there. He wasn't really able to execute it as the game progressed. And I thought that was a big edge for the Panthers as well. They only wound up playing five

or so minutes head to head. So it wasn't necessarily a big feature talking point here. But they did their job in those minutes and they just dominated everything else and some of those looks created. He could have had one at the end of the first period as well and he gave it had a nice backtrack to kind of tie him up on a rebound where Pickard was out of position. So it could have been an even bigger offensive game for him. But as we said, that two nothing goal and the PK that preceded it really set the template for this game and put them in a position to win the way that they did. And so Sam Bennett is my second start tonight. Yeah, he was he was great. I'm going to use the Sam Bennett, you know, we've stopped coming up with villainous analogies and references

for him. And I just want to give credit where it's due because we talked about it at the end of the podcast yesterday. And, you know, so I think fair mention requires that we note that like the referees were perfectly not noticeable tonight. I thought they called the things that needed to be called. I thought they were mostly out of the way. You know, there were a few like, oh, that's interference and on and on, but you expect that at this stage of a Stanley Cup final. I just thought it was a good adjustment. The first sort of game where at no point, did I have a thought, send you a text at any way, throw up my hands about the officiating.

So good. Kudos to the stripes tonight as well. The first stars are very obviously, Brad Marsh, I imagine that'll mirror the official ones as well, the two goals, 10 shot attempts in just 1355. of ice time. I want to break down both the goals specifically, but you mentioned the other play off that three on two rush, where they were kind of doing a little three man weave essentially and executed it perfectly, just kind of fallen short on the loose to reedan redirect. But it feels like in these games, the Panthers have really been trying to look for that backdoor. They had another couple of plays here with those quick real redirects back door where the defenseman's not necessarily tying up that guy's stick and just weren't able to convert them, but they're going back to that well and getting great looks off of it. I mentioned those first five minutes where everything was going the Oilers way. The first real moment the Panthers had in this one was this sneaky play where the Oilers have an offensive zone shift. I think Lundell kind of gets a piece of an at home shot.

They're able to clear the zone. And Trent Frederick, I believe, has Marchand in the train tracks. And he's going and he's full out going to try to absolutely level him. And Marchand very slickly just kind of tucks the puck past him, evades the check. and then is able to execute that give and go with Lundell, and he gets a rush look off of that and then winds up scoring later in the period. And I just had in my notes,

he's been doing this for however long now, but his ability to avoid contact in these close quarters situations where someone has him lined up or it looks like some sort of physical contact is imminent, and he just sort of slips off of it and then goes into space and creates off of it is such a trademark of his, and he did that numerous times in this game really has all postseason. And heading into the,

this series, my one concern about him was he was playing so well as this line was, and they were driving the, driving the play for the Panthers. But I felt like his hands weren't keeping up with his feet at this point. I didn't really know what to attribute that to because usually you figure as a player ages, the hands will stay and the feet might actually be the ones kind of slowing them down or resulting in lower production. And that wasn't the case for him. And his hands have been on full display in this series. He scored a number of goals. What he has six now in these five games. And so he's been tremendous and it felt like he really swung or got them back on track after those rough first couple minutes. And so Marchand was just awesome. And both goals were complete highlight

worthy efforts by him individually. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what else can you say? That line destroyed the Oilers. They destroyed the Oilers. Both of Marchand's goals coming off, really impressive sort of plays crossing over. Like it's not just the slipperiness to avoid hits, right? It's the slipperiness to crossover at home and then crossover Walman and then elude back pressure. Like there was pretty good back pressure from the weak side on both of those rush chances. And, you know, that shot on the first goal was just perfect. I mean, sublime stuff. And then, you know, the sneaky backdoor finish shades of what he did to break Edmonton's heart in game too. Brilliant. Just absolute brilliant stuff from Marchand. And you sort of look at that

those goals come against dry-sidal, right? Like those goals come with some of Edmonton's best players on the ice. And some of Edmonton's most reliable defenders are the ones that he's making elite game winning, Stanley Cup winning potentially plays against. And I mean, to be still at that level at this age, look, he's obviously a big game player. We've known that his entire career. and he's reminding everyone of it right on the EV Free Agency.

So, you know, not just the team accolades, not just the fact that he's maybe put himself in the Kahn-Smith conversation, probably should be in the Kons-Myth conversation, as sort of a secondary mention, I think, for the Florida Panthers at this juncture. And, yeah, I mean, he's also put himself in a hilarious bargaining position. I mean, honestly, I mean, who, what, which team can, benefit from adding a character like this and a winner like this to their lineup.

31 NHL general managers wish they had that guy on their team right now. I had no question about it. Well, the first one, the first goal was very interesting to me because it comes off of a neutral zone draw and center ice, right? And he just immediately jumps, gets inside position on put holes in. And then he dances around a flat foot at Ekeholm. And then, as you said, picks his spot kind of going against the grain, uh, barren in past Pickard.

And I think the note that I have on that is, I believe. believe the oilers had a lefty, lefty pair in Nurse and Eckholm out there together. And Eckholm is filling the spot of the right shot defenseman that. And he's obviously a lefty. And you can kind of see if you go back and watch that frame by frame, his first step takes him to the outside because I think that's just his natural inclination playing the position that he normally does. And that kind of allows Marchand to just quickly beat him through the middle. And obviously, that's a disaster as soon as you give up that middle lane to a guy's dangerous with Marchand. And I think that's why that one's able to materialize.

And then the second one, the 3-0 goal, was probably even more impressive of an individual effort where they have a defensive zone draw. It's 2-0-0. The Oilers are trying to make their push. They load up their five best offensive players, right? They send out McDavid and Drys-Sightle with Perry, and then they put Walman and Bouchard out there together

to try to create something offensively with that offensive zone draw. And he pressures Walman at the point. Walman has to throw an errand pass D-to-D to B. to Bouchard, Lusridden's able to step in and poke it to him. And then he dances around Walman. Wallman actually winds up looking bad on that play, but he gets his stick. Marchand's just able to essentially power through it. And then I believe it's Perry who's applying that back pressure and he holds him off and just

kind of forces the puck through Pickard. And he did it all on that play. And so both those goals were just such backbreakers. They required such impressive individual efforts from one guy. And he'd executed every single thing. you could possibly do on both of them. He kind of called game tonight. I mean, as much as the Panthers,

and this is why, again, I think it's important to, you know, shower the Panthers with praise for the perfect game and the two-way dominance that they managed tonight without sort of overreacting to it or sort of over prescribing some idea that their, that their gear is something that the Oilers are like faded to not be able to solve in game six or, or potentially a game seven if it gets there.

It is just that, as much as the Panthers were, you know, denying everything and so smothering, so suffocating, oppressive in their defensive effort, mistake free with possession of the puck tonight. You know, there were so many moments where that game could have turned, where that game, you know, where the Oilers were right, right on the verge of sort of kicking the front door down. And in some ways, it was multiple individual efforts by Marchand, you know, to open the scoring, especially after the Oilers had had such a powerful push to open the game and then to really kind of, I mean, it was the game winner, but it, but it was spiritually the game winner too. You really knew what the result was at 3-0 in a way you didn't at 2-0 as a result of that second individual effort.

Like Marchand called game tonight and did so in his high leverage a moment on the road against an Oilers team that, you know, I think is a great team of historically, of historical significance. in the NHL at this point. And yeah, it doesn't get any better than that in terms of just a game-breaking performance from Marchand. By the way, you actually had the right three, the right three stars from the NHL's perspective. Oh, wow. They just flipped, they just flipped Lusterainen and Bennett. They had Lusteran and second and Bennett third.

Wait, you're saying that I don't appreciate E.2 Lus Threaten enough compared to the consensus. In fact, the, the, Normy, NHL, the Sportsnet three stars voters, because it's decided by Sportsnet in that barn, put E2 Lusteran and second and Bennett third. So yeah, the PED cast, I would say, has a fade position now on E2 Lusteran. Who would have thought? What are the odds on that, buddy? I never thought I'd see the day.

I consider Barkov for this as well. not that he had a huge game by any means, but the play he makes after McDavid scores the goal to make a 3-1, right? And then 46 seconds later, there's a defensive zone draw off the TV timeout. They work the puck down low. He just grown man style. It's a very trademark bark of,

like him making his imprint on the game in terms of making a play for the Panthers, just wins that battle behind the net, gets it out with a nice little backhand sauce out to Reinhart. He finally hits the mark from that left face off dot and beats Pickard through traffic. And that really alleviated a lot of it, right? Because in my notes, I had, oh, wow, all it takes for the Oilers to get going offensively is to go down 3-0.

And they get that goal. You're expecting a mountain now of offense from them. And they just immediately nipped it in the bud there. So I thought Barcov was great. And he played a bunch of 5-1-5 in this one, including a lot of defensive zone assignments. And the Oilers generated nothing in that time. He won north of 60% of his draws again, as he's pretty much doing it every game in this series. And so he finally came through with a big assist for them at 515 and really sealed the game there as well.

All right, let's take our break here, Tom. And then when we come back, we will jump back into it. We're going to go through the rest of our categories and break down everything we saw in game five of the Stanley Cup final. You're listening to the Hockey-Pedocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right, we're back here in the Hockey PEOCats. Join by Thomas Trans, do an hour game five post-game show as usual. Tom, we did the PEDEOCast three stars before we went to break. I already kind of teased or spoiled the fact that I think my fastball moment of the game

and this one was that first period, PK, for the Panthers that helped set up or change the momentum and set up that 2-0 goal before the end of the frame, do you have, would you have one of the Marshand individual rush? The Marchand's second rush. I think the Marchand's second rush because, look, the Oilers weren't, I don't think, I don't think the Oilers were decisive with the puck in that first few minutes of the third period, but they were certainly flying, right? I mean, they certainly were determined and brought the work rate

and brought everything that, you know, can shape up into a push very quickly, can roll down a hill with incredible momentum when it's a team as talented as the Oilers are. And I just felt like that Marchand goal, you know, the way he combined with loose terrain and on it, that just to me felt like a real knock them back gut punch. And even though the Oilers then rebounded again,

we already praised the resilience of these two teams. And that was a solid example of it, the McDavid goal to make it 3-1. I just felt like that was such a key backbreaker. I do think you're right, though, to identify and we were texting about it during the game, that that EK was, you know, probably the turning point in this contest.

I think without question, that really provided a ton of momentum for a Panthers team that was up one nothing. But, you know, I think until that point had maybe been the second best team on the ice in the first period, aside from one individual moment of brilliance from Marchand, after that P.K. That that wasn't the case. So I think I'll accept yours.

I think I'll concede, capitulate as it were, on this one. I think you're right. The PK should be the fastball moment of the game emblematic of what was as good a defensive effort as we've seen all season long, playoffs, regular season, everything included, and on as big a stage as you can do it. what do you have for the hard match well i think the main thing i want to talk about is the idea of um like just thinking about so sorry i guess i'm blending this here but i i do think it matters the overall sense that i have looking at kind of the matchup data

and and watching these games is i mean i don't know that any line that knob block brought to this fight worked tonight, right? I mean, the Henrique line with Skinner and Trent Frederick, they had a real, what would you say you do here performance this evening? You know, it looked good, obviously in the third period in game four, but dry-sitle with Pod Colson and Perry did not find or generate much in the way of spark or magic in this game. And Ryan Nugent Hopkins with Arvinson who was inserted in the lineup for Capon and I think they're going to need Caponinin speed here

you know with with Evander Kane again not nothing doing now not much was doing for the Oilers period offensively but I don't know that you I don't know that Noblock's going to watch the tape or look at his whiteboard and think that any of those line combos are something he can count on with you know his season

on the line with with like more than just his season on the line, right? I mean, Connor McDavid could be like the NHL's answer to Jerry West if the Oilers can't pull this out here. So this is as big as it gets. And I don't know what the Oilers do up front. I also thought Troy Stetcher had a tough game, right? I thought it was clear that he was targeted physically early on. He was very pointedly and intentionally interfered with by the Panthers, which led to a very funny sequence where he waived Darnell Nurse to stay behind the net. nurse spent 15 seconds assessing the rush and then promptly iced the puck.

And you could just like hear oilers fans across the continent groaning. Right. But yeah, I mean, I just think they've got to strongly consider 11-7. I'll be really curious to see if they do. I don't know. Do you think the Oilers can play more than five defensemen in the series? I think they need to play seven. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head there because you look at the 5-1-5 expected goal shares for the Oilers tonight.

Matiasia, Mark, 4.7, Trent Frederick, 8.7. Troy Stetcher, 8.9. But Cole's in 8.9. Walman and Skinner sub-20%, and then Nurse Arvinson and Echol sub-25%. To put that into context, the only guys in the Panthers under 53% were their fourth line. And I think you made a lot of great points there. I thought Stedcher certainly struggled in the first period. There was that play where Reinhardt just beautifully lifted his stick

and then set it out front for Rehagi for a great A look. And there were some mistakes along the way there. But Colson had a really tough one as well. I thought Matthias Echolm had a really tough game here, right? Got blown up. Yeah. Got blown by by Marchand in the first one, playing is wrong side. The second one, it's right after that PK we talked about.

He skates the puck into trouble, essentially, from a position of optionality into one where he had nothing. there and to make matters worse, the Oilers were executing a line change as well, so they were not in the right positions to recover, and then Bennett's able to get that rush goal. And I did a show on Friday previewing this game five with our pal Steve Peters, and I had four sort of key tactical battlegrounds in this series that have defined it so far and that I was looking for in game five, and one of them was the Oilers in zone offense and how much they'd been resorting to a lot of this perimeter stuff where they just work it to a defenseman and they just throw it on net hoping

for a bounce and Bobrovsky's either stopping it and freezing it or it's missing the net and clearing the zone and alleviating pressure and doing so. And the Oilers had 35 5-on-5 shot attempts in this game. Matias Ekholm accounted for 10 of them. And I might count all of them were ones that at no point thought were threatening at all and in fact killed a lot of promising sequences. And that's not necessarily his fault. That's the way they're playing and really the way they've played for a lot of the season, unfortunately. But that really came to a head here. And I feel like they're not going to need to figure that out

because it's great that you have McDavid and he can have these individual flourishes off the rush and that you can also get out with some of these other guys and potentially attack downhill. But they've had no real answer for me. And it's been masked a little bit by these close games and by some of the high goal totals that even in those moments, the power play has masked a lot of the fact that 5-1-5,

there hasn't really been a coherent game plan here for me in terms of how they're going to break through this Panthers defensive shell when they're structured and all set up and how they're actually going to get it into high danger areas. They just have not been able to do it. And that's been in stark contrast to what they did on their way through the West Western Conference portion of the bracket where they were consistently living

in that high danger area around the net and just feasting off of those rebounds. And that has not been the case in this series at all. Yeah. And I do think there's an element to which, I mean, you think about like there was the one sequence in the second. period where Drysidal had a stick lift and directed the puck on net, but McDavid had just

overstated it. You know what I mean? So there wasn't the opportunity to put it back. You had the one where Bobrovsky couldn't quite glovest. And again, the oilers skater just couldn't quite get to the loose puck. So I think the opportunities are there. They're just not quite getting to it. I just, I think the truth is, is that when this series turns up, there's probably only

five defenders on the Oilers side. that can hang at this pace. And because none of the forward lines are working, I wonder if you just give yourself the option to see like, does Klingberg have it tonight? Can Stetcher keep up tonight? And then you can kind of make your decision as it goes. And I also think it kind of forces you to scramble your lines a bit,

which, you know, you're especially on the road in Florida, whether you're double shifting McDavid or dry-sidal. It makes your line combos a little more unpredictable, tougher for Paul Maurice to get Horsling out, you know, to just sort of stick check and frustrate McDavid. So I like that look, I think, for Edmonton with their back against the wall. You know, McDavid should play 30 minutes in game six, right? Like this is a legacy defining game for the best player in the world.

And to some extent, you're going to jumble up your forward lines. We're going to see the Oilers do, you know, something much like they did. on like even tonight they had seven different forward lines play 90 seconds or more right so you're you're going to see all sorts of odd combinations from the oilers in game six anyway why not formalize it and give yourself some more kicks at the can to find just a defender that can give you something on the back end because i i don't know i don't know who the oiler six guy is right now and i don't think no block does either yeah especially since you're not getting anything from the bottom of the forward lineup and we saw him you know he takes cap and out he puts in both arbids and Skinner. I thought Arvinson had that one nice play where he essentially beat out an icing call against Schmidt and then that led to the Reinhardt delay a game when he tried to clear it

and so that was nice from him but you're just not really getting anything offensively from those guys and ideally you don't want to go down by multiple goals early again for what? That would be the fifth time in six games if it happens in game six again. But worst case scenario, if that does happen I feel like having someone who can

make some plays with a pucked away Klingberghanna and I always struggled early in the same. series before he got pulled, but I feel like that would be a nice plan B to have available to you, especially with no other alternatives. You know, the defenseman, the broadcast here on the Sportsnet channel was talking a lot about this. And I do agree with them in terms of second intermission. They were talking a lot about the Oilers defensemen not really make any plays with the puck. Like they were very conservative and safe, kind of try and avoid the catastrophic turnover that leads to a scoring chance or a goal against.

And I wonder if some of that is just an accumulation of this series in terms of how rough it's been for them and trying to combat it a little bit in terms of nullifying a lot of the risk. And in doing so, you just get trapped in the wall. It's much more difficult to get it in the middle of the ice and attack with some of that speed. They didn't really stick out to me noticeably. Like the turnover chances weren't necessarily that skewed in this game.

There weren't any really dangerous ones other than the Eckholm neutral zone one that led to a Bennett goal. but I do think that's going to be a notable thing in terms of their approach because you said this in our series preview right like that risk profile of needing to be comfortable with the worst case scenario because that's what you need to enable the best case scenario for you to win and you're not going to be able to do so by trying to kind of have your cake and eat it to and essentially just walk down the middle with it and so I'm very curious to see whether they change that up but it was a pretty deliberate effort I thought on their part and it wound up biting him in this game there weren't a lot of turnovers, but also it really, I think the reason why they didn't create anything at 5-15 was just because of how predictable a lot of those breakouts were. Yeah, I do think, too, the Panthers deserve just so much credit for the way that they regroup, right? I do think this Panthers team is most dangerous, not off of a turnover that you make, but off of a safe play that you just get out of the zone. And it's like this red wave that crashes over you. Their forwards are so good. at quickly regrouping and getting those quickups and just sort of beating you.

And, and, you know, sometimes they do it with control, but oftentimes they don't. Like oftentimes they've regrouped quickly. There's a quick up. And then the puck gets rimmed sort of softly. And there's no world in which a defender having tried to move up ice is going to be able to sort of change direction twice and, you know, cleanly win and then execute a play on a retrieval against two forwards bearing down against you. You know, it kind of reminds me of like a Yergen Klopp-Gagin-press, right?

Like there's an element to which the moment of true crisis that the Panthers force you into is not you've made a giveaway into a terrible area of the ice and a grade A chances immediately coming, you know, as a result. But in, although, man, that's a pretty dangerous moment. And so maybe I'm going too far. But I do think the, the Panthers brilliance is it's when you, against most teams,

would feel like you've relieved the pressure that you're secretly at your most vulnerable because they're, they're just so disciplined, so quick and so just ruthless, relentless in terms of how they sort of quickly reset and quick up and get back into the zone off those sort of 50-50s that are just punted into the neutral zone. It's wild to watch, and I thought they were especially good in that facet of the game.

I mean, they're the best in the league anyway, but they were especially on point tonight as they overwhelmed the Oilers. Yeah, I think the play, and obviously it's easier said than done because in the heat of the moment and how fast this stuff's happening, just being that sort of methodical or mindful with it. But during that first five minutes that we like from the Oilers, there was that play where Foresling pinches along the left wall, and there's too much of a gap between him and Connor Brown. and he go back and watch a Connor Brown actually very deliberately takes a little bit of a step back instead of trying to challenge for his again kind of through sheer will just get the puck past him and that usually leads to some sort of a train wreck for the other team against the Panthers and instead he takes that step back he's able to hit McDavid for the two on one and you'd like to see more of that I think certainly but as I said it's it's very easy for you and I to say that's the way you need

to execute in that moment and then actually going out and doing it and the Panthers are banking on the fact that you won't be able to do so and they've had a lot of success with that during this entire run. The McDavid minutes. Yeah, they're right. You know what? They're right. They're right. The math checks out.

Yeah. You mentioned McDavid. He hits that post on a downhill rister on the second period power play. He scores late with a kind of waiting out. Bobrovsky after El muscling, right hard for the puck. He's been dangerous. That was the first goal he scored in this series. He's obviously created a ton.

He's running out of runway here because they quite literally, cannot afford to lose another game this season against this Panthers team. So they're going to need a huge effort from him. I was surprised. I mentioned earlier how right off the bat, the game plan seemed to be, as you'd expect, get him out against Jones and Mikala and hopefully the Bennett line. And then you look at the final tally here. He plays nine minutes, five on five against Jones, but he plays nine minutes as well against Forzing essentially. And his top forward comp is Barkov. And they weren't really able to shake him free from any of those assignments either. and now they're not really going to be able to do so in game six

because we saw how games three and four unfolded in terms of the respective ice time. So I thought that was a bit disappointing from Noblock. There wasn't a lot of thought I think put into trying to free them up. They were just kind of trying to go best on best and hoping they would win out. And they didn't in this one. So we'll see what happens in game six there. But yeah, that was my final sort of a hard match.

No, we can go to, we can close out with the pre-scout if you want. We've had on a lot of the key themes. Yeah, if this, if they do get a game seven, right, they need more than, then now he did pretty well in the minutes that they got him out against the Lendell line, right? I mean, that was that was sort of the matchup that worked. But against Bennett, one shot on goal in five and a half minutes and against, you know, Noshik, Greer and Gajivitz, you know, one shot against Nosek, two against the other fourth

liners. So, you know, there just wasn't like there, there was some minutes there. I mean, there was seven or eight minutes, five on five, isolated against, you know, the sort of quote unquote bottom six, although the Panthers third line is hardly a traditional bottom six line. They're all real good. And I don't know that there was just sort of enough push from the Oilers. Like, I don't know that they made enough hay out of it. And you're right. Now he's out of runway.

My final, I had a note about, we've spoken way too much about it in this series. And it didn't really matter in this one. but Panthers P.P1 versus P2 continues to just be with them mean. That was the case again. Very limited opportunities in this one, but once again, it was pretty clear to anyone watching

just the difference in the two units and how dangerous they are. It's a good bit. It's hilarious. A couple of Panthers stats for you here. On the road this postseason, 13 games. They're up 61 to 31 in those 13 road games. 10 and 3.

They've led for 59% of the game time. They've led for 487 minutes. They've trailed for 136. Remarkably, and then total time leading in the series through five games. Panthers 200 minutes and 25 seconds. The Oilers, 33 minutes and 51 seconds. So obviously, I think the Oilers have given up multiple goals in every first period in the series. And so that would be a pretty good one in terms of the pre-scout for game six to, I know it's a good bit to be like, all right, they need to go down before they really turn it on.

And that's when they're at their best. but I feel like a better start would go a long way here, certainly, for them. You got any other things we haven't hit on, either from this game or the pre-scout, looking ahead to game six, that we do have an extra day off traveling back to Florida here. Game six is going to be on Tuesday night, which I feel like will benefit the Oilers, because you look at the third period usage and with them trailing, Bouchard played 10 and a half minutes, McDavid played 945. They've played 152 and 143 minutes, respectively, in five games.

They've just been leaning on them to such an absurd degree. and I don't think we've necessarily seen an accumulation of that wear and tear or anything because they've played well and they're the only guys really with their head above water in this series 5-on-5. But I feel like an extra day off will, I mean, this was a tall task for both teeth, right? The travel after an overtime game four with how not only physically but mentally taxing that was and then jumping right back into this game five to allow it to be on a Saturday night broadcast and stay away from the NBA. I feel like that game 6 on Tuesday will be a bit of a different element to it. Yeah, I just think if you're an Oilers fan looking for a silver lining, I think the story you want to tell yourself is this was the game where three overtimes and four across this series so far caught up to the shallower team.

But at the end of the day, every hand these teams play, the Oilers have a couple of aces in their hand, but one, you know, absolutely atomic ace in McDavid. And I mean, this is going to be the biggest game of his life. All they have to do is survive one more, win one more. And you get a chance to play a do-or-die game for the Stanley Cup for a second consecutive year against the team that beat you the year prior. Man, I can't wait.

Like, I'm just setting it up like that. I'm like, oh, man, two days. I'm glad for the quality of the game that they're getting this break. But I'm kind of sad for us, bud. I'm going to be looking forward to Tuesday, basically from the moment we finish this podcast, until the moment the puck drops. You're going to be in Palm Springs, the narcos meme from back in the day. Just aren't your hands intertwined. Yeah, an empty pool, just hands behind your back, just sitting on a bench lonely by yourself, just waiting for this game six to come.

Remarkably, if you care about this, if you're a true degenerate, the three overrender for this game was six and a half. And the first four games that had seven, nine, seven and nine goals. and it's two nothing heading into the third and then all of a sudden Perry scores with the goal he pulled and then Lusterene against the empty net in sure enough if this one hits seven as well so plenty of goals to go around

do I do quickly do we got a five more minutes here so do I do a cons might update here as we head into the final leg here and so let's let's talk about I think it would be fun to talk about do the top five from before the game because I sent you the image from before the game and we were discussing it via text

but but fan duels updated their odds. So I actually have the updated one. So we can talk about how much this game moved the line based off of what we've seen. And then I think that's a good way to caption it. So go pregame and I'll go post game. Well, I think it moved dramatically. Pregame, I had Bennett as the leader in the clubhouse plus 145, Dreis Eidel plus 230, McDavid plus 260, Marshand plus 2200, and then Kachuk as well. And then Barakov and Bobrovsky behind that. And our guy, Gus Forsling, some how plus 50,000, the same as Connor Brown and Evan Rodriguez, because people don't know how to evaluate defense.

Yeah, the same as Calvin Pickard, too. Sam Bennett is now a minus 200 favorite. Brad Marshand up to plus 410 coming off of that incredible individual effort in game five. Leon Dreisidel plus 900, Connor McDavid plus 900, and then everyone else is really long odds. Bobrovsky, of course, and McDavid were the favorite. entering this series. They're now fourth and fifth, respectively, and you can get like 100 plus to one,

120 to 1 on Babrovsky at this point. I think the angle here, if you're playing it, is plus 900 for the Oilers, or sorry, for McDavid to win the Con Smyth, to me is interesting just from the perspective of if you look at the to win the series odds, right? You're probably getting a better price at plus 900 than you are on the Oilers.

to win the series, like to win the Stanley Cup outright at this point with the Oilers sort of facing elimination here. And I think there's, I think that's, yeah, it's plus 300 to win the cup for the Oilers. So if you figure it's going to take something incredible, something truly jaw-dropping and astonishing

for McDavid for the Oilers to claw back out of this hole. And if they do it, the voters are going to recognize McDavid. And realistically, you can even sprinkle on both McDavid and Drysidal as like a proxy bet on if you think the Oilers can win it. I think that's the way to sort of like I think that's the way to play an Oilers win, right? Oilers win the Stanley Cup. If you want to bet on that, you can get plus 900 versus plus 300 to actually win the series in that outright's market. So to me, that's just sort of the

obvious angle to play here if you think that the Oilers are capable of doing it. I think it's probably a good thing that Bobrovsky. I just think it's a more accurate way to capture the essence of this Panthers team. This Panthers team, you know, for me anyway, it should be Foresling or it should be Barkov. I think those guys are the key environmental drivers for this team. But, you know, I think it's a really tough team to award an MVP too because it's just such a deep, complete team with such a kind of cool. collectivist mentality to them.

And I think, you know, the fact that arguably they're, they're two most important guys are guys who are so important because they blanket you as opposed to because they put up a ton of points or crooked numbers themselves. And because they're kind of quiet personalities, they can kind of fly beneath the radar. I think that says a lot about sort of the composition and makeup of this team. I think that's sort of why they're so difficult to handicap for, Con Smyth in some ways. I agree. Yet at the same time as you hit on,

none of this is possible without what Barcov and Foresling do. And you mentioned their fastball in the perfect game they threw in this one. It all starts with the defense and the suffocating effort and not giving anything 5-1-5. And those guys are the drivers of that. And so that's what I keep coming back to. But I mean, Sam Bennett, if he scores two more goals in this series, he'll finish the postseason with more goals than he's had in six of his 10 regular seasons,

which is just remarkable. And I mentioned the road stuff and how they've been winning so much in dramatic fashion of the road and he's been a heavy lifter for that. The Marshan one is interesting to me as well because that third line was pretty clearly their best forward group

all the way through to the series. And then Marshaun has five goals in this one and just had a superhuman game five performance on the road. And so I think that's a very compelling story to tell as well. If the Oilers weren't able to come back, you'd think that it would just be some sort of a nuke performance from McDavid.

I will say, though, it would also require some heavy lifting from a goal scoring front from Dreisaitle. And especially if it came with another overtime winner, just adding to his already historic OT season that he's had, but combining both the regular season in playoffs, he already has 10 OT goals there. And he just missed out on the heart as well.

I feel like you could spend an interesting story there. But yeah, I feel like that price at McDavid is still interesting, despite the fact that it looks pretty bleak right now for the Oilers. It's just the way to play it. If you want to bet an oilers, come back win, right? You'll get better odds on the two horses to win the consmite than you will to actually just bet the oilers outright. And so I always like when there's an exploitable market like that.

I like to underline that for the P.D.O.cast listeners, or at least the degenerates among the P.D.O.cast listeners. And what's more on brand than you having all these grand inspirations and then one of Sam Bennett or Brad Marchand just dashing all of your dreams, the way they've done? it would be very, very fitting. All right, Tom. I feel like we did our due diligence, covered everything that we saw in Game 5,

looked ahead to Game 6 as well. Anything to plug on the way out? Just this podcast after Game 7, or Game 6, excuse me, on Tuesday. It's been a blast to do it. We've loved all the response from all our loyal listeners. And so thanks for joining us to recap these games every night. We've really enjoyed watching them with you guys

and watching them together and having a chance to discuss it all here. So I'm going to plug this show. I love it. Well, keep the reviews coming. I got a couple here for you recent ones because they're pretty good. James Cameron, who knows a thing or two about fastballs obviously, says this is the fastest fastball to ever fastball. So I like that. Very, very simple. I love that point. Now, this one from Dallas Dolly is interesting. Says, fairly new hockey fan here found this pod on a Reddit recommendation list. Dimitri does a great job of merging informational with entertaining. We'll continue to listen. Great review. it ended with a one star.

So please, come on. That was quite a plot twist. I wasn't expecting. I think there were a good intention, certainly there from Dallas Dolly, but we love the reviews, but we also love the five-star review specifically. So let's get on that.

We're not doing a Sunday special this week for obvious reasons. The two of us will be right back here on Tuesday night after the final buzzer at game six with the Stanley Cup in the building to break it all down with our post-game shows. Hopefully it won't be the final one yet, just because I love doing these so much with you, and I can definitely go for,

at least two more of these. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Father's Day to all those celebrating. And thank you for listening to the Hockey Ocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.