The Hockey PDOcast - Sam Reinhart’s Magical Year, and Mutually Beneficial Playing Situations

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Darryl Belfry to break down Sam Reinhart's magical season, discuss why his goal scoring binge this year is just an extension of what he'd already been doing so well previously, and highlight the unique ways he and the Panthers have been able to get the best out of each other.This podcast is produced by Dominic Sramaty. 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.

It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovic. Welcome to the Hockey PeeoCast. My name's Dimitri Filippovich, and joining me as my good buddy, Daryl, Belfrey, Daryl. What's going on, man? I'm much happy to return to the state of Florida, where I'm most comfortable here with Sam Reinhardt today. That's right. That's right.

Yes, one of my personal favorites, I assume one of yours as well, has had quite a glow up here recently. and don't let that perception that I think is held by a lot of people fool you because even previous to this season, Sam Reinhardt has been a brilliant hockey player for a long time now and it just happens that he's finally getting credit for it now because the Panthers are atop the league. They made that cup run last year. He's scoring a ton of goals this season, but he's been quietly doing this sort of in the shadows for years now and is finally being rewarded for all those great habits. So I'm such a fan of his game. Hopefully today we're going to be able to

unpack all that, get into some of the tape on what we're seeing from him because I think I'm not sure if you agree with this. Like, obviously you could just put together there a highlight reel of all the goals he scored, and I'll tweet one out later when we put this podcast up. But it feels like he's one of those players where you really need to dig into his tape and maybe even go through a second and a third viewing

to kind of watch what's happening off the puck. And even so in the two or three plays leading up to whatever scoring chance happens to really gain a full appreciation for the subtleties and details in his game and kind of the contributions he had to set those plays up beyond just the actual shot itself. Yeah, that's, I think, the best way to describe it. He very much is a master of subtlety.

You know, he doesn't have really anything overpowering in his game aside from his mind, which is tremendous. And so he finds his way. He'll slide into a space. He can create a passing lane. You know, he's the guy that's going to pull the defenseman stick that opens the passing lane for a guy. He's the guy that's going to set the flash screen at just a perfect time to take the goalie's eyes. He's the guy that's going to set a pick that all of a sudden opens up an opportunity. You know, he's going to skate to space that clears and draw a checker to him that then opens up space for other people. Yeah, he also, I think, excels with familiar. And I think one of the things here, when he's found this home with Barkov and the two of them playing together, you can see like he is a guy that chemistry matters.

He's not a driver of a line in the sense of like grabbing it by the bootstraps and driving it up and down the sheet. That's not really what he what he does. And I think that's out of a blind spot for a lot of us, including myself, where you just want the guy to show his ability and really drive a line and be the reason why. And I find he's a complementary player in the most positive and most elite way you could describe it. Because when you say like complimentary, he's more like a facilitator. He makes things happen is really his art form. But that doesn't always stand out and he can get accused of not being that driver. And that's what's kind of like, I think, suppressed some of this in years past.

It certainly did in Buffalo. I know there was a lot of wars between like the intelligent fans who were kind of following all this stuff and appreciating what he was doing. And maybe some of the people covering the team or people who are just sort of. casually watching and not really being able to appreciate all this stuff we're talking about, right, where they'd watch that team play and it was clearly under-equipped and they were losing and they weren't performing. And this is a guy who was taken really high on the draft. And I think we've sort of grown to have an idea of what that type of player should look like and the impact they should make. And that didn't line up with what he was doing. And so they were like, oh,

what's he really even doing out there? It's not nothing very noticeable, nothing eye-popping. So he must just not be very engaged or involved. And that couldn't have been further from the truth. The two terms that I had written down here for this were, one, I think he's kind of like a perfect force multiplier for this Panthers team, right? Because of the way they play, he sort of makes everything that they're already doing well even better. And then I had mutually beneficial as well, both for his purposes and for Barcoves and the team where they've been able to get the most out of each other over these past couple seasons. But this year in particular, because of all that stuff. So I don't know, do you want to get into him in Barkakov now? Do you want to talk about him on the power play?

There's so many different directions we can take this. I think this is going to be one of our more jam-packed episodes just because there's so much rich material here for what Sam Reinhardt's doing. I think him and Barkoff and the relationship between those two is really critical as it relates to Sam Reinhardt and does explain away some of the issues that he's had in the past. Like if you're going to be on a boss, like his situation really matters to his play. It's either an accelerator to his play. which is what we're seeing in Florida with the quality of the team that they have there

and the way in which he's linked up with Barkoff. But when he's on a bottom team and you're expecting him to drive play, and he's not doing that, he's not overly fast, you keep switching his line mates because he needs that, he's a subtle guy, like he wants to slide into space. He has brilliant timing. But that timing is him understanding who he's, playing with. And so the Barkoff discussion I think is really critical to understand him and players

like him because I think there's a lot more players that are out there that are like him who have been in situations that they weren't as easily getting out of the way he did and got out of Buffalo. Some of these guys get stuck in these spots. They get run into the ground. They maybe start believing that they're not really all that good either, and then they start either changing their game or whatever. I think Reinhardt, there's a lot of, there's a lot of pieces to his game that we can all learn from in trying to find other guys who could potentially be like him. And I think Barkov and his relationship is a great place to start. Well, him and Barkov, I'll give you the stats here. They've played 675 on five minutes together the season. The Panthers have 60% of the shots,

61% of the high danger chances and they're up 40 to 18 on the scoreboard and you watch them play. It really feels like they kind of almost Sedeen style. They're obviously not twins, but they share a brain in a way where you can see they're operating on the same wavelength. And I think that's when hockey is almost distilled into its most beautiful form because it's like two guys who are communicating without actually even necessarily speaking. They just sort of know where the other guys going and they're both moving in such a fluid motion and you just see the way they play off with each other, right? There's so much give and goes.

There's that one goal, Ryanhart scores, which will run on a tape here soon, against the stars where they get in this zone. And I think they hit each other with three or four passes in quick succession back and forth. And the stars, both Jake Odinger and the defense almost doesn't even know which way, who even has the puck anymore. They moved it so many times. And eventually Barton Bing Barkov shoots it. Ryanhart gets a rebound and scores. And that was a great encapsulation of that relationship. They just move into open space. There's so much fluidity to it. It's really final watch. And they do it in all stages of the game as well, right? It's not just five on five. The Panthers are sending them out there as a two-man unit on the penalty kill, and they've

scored a bunch of goals there as well and seemingly get a nod man rush every time short-handed as well. So, yeah, the two of them together just work so beautifully and have been a perfect combination skill set-wise together. Yeah, when you say they share brain, I do believe that's what it is. It's very much two guys who see it similarly over-torn. time. So it's not something where they just woke up one day. They put the two of them together and off they went. It's just that they've been left together for a period of time that allows these chemistry pieces to fit, timing, spacing, you know, where they might go, habits. One thing about Reinhardt is he has very strong habits. He does the same things over and over again.

When you watch his tape, he scores kind of the same way from the same spots over. and over and over again, he has a clear way in which he wants to play. And when you get set with Barkov, Barcoff now, the more he plays with him, he knows where he wants to be. He knows the types of plays he wants to make. He knows the availability of where he should be at certain times. That chemistry creates plays that you won't get when you shuffle the lines around. And that, and then that really does have a negative effect on a guy like Reinhardt who wants to play with someone. And I think that's my favorite part about Reinhart and why I think he's such a great study. Because even in the NHL, even though at the NHL level you need to play as a team,

like it's very difficult to play as an individual. but these chemistry pieces, these high chemistry pieces are so important. And to have a guy like Reinhardt is so in tune with wanting to play with someone, he really finds different ways to make one plus one equals six. And I think that that's a critical piece to the Reinhardt effect on Varkov. And the fact that they've been able to leave them together, it really brings out both guys' strengths. it really does and i think also part of why it works is you know for better or for worse i think

we spoke about this with barcob when we did his uh tape study was there is a bit of a preference in his game certainly to not necessarily defer as much but but distribute more so right and sometimes it can drive fans crazy where it seems like i mean he certainly has the shooting talent himself he's got potential opportunities to attack but instead he's looking for the next best play and sort of dishing it off instead and the reason why right here works for that i don't think it's as simple as putting, all right, we've got this passer, let's put a shooter next to him, because if you put someone without the hockey IQ and the smarts to keep up with Barkov, not only will they not necessarily be in the open positions all the time for Barkov to pass it to him, but I think also

you're going to limit yourself a little bit because that guy is just going to, as soon as he gets a puck to shoot, and it kills a play sometimes there, right? With Reinhard, he's certainly comfortable being the finisher and kind of putting the emphatic stamp on the end of a passing play, but he'll also, he's so poised and controlled as well that he'll hang on to the puck and wait for barkov to do his next move get an open space pass it to him knowing that he's going to get it back eventually in the sequence right so it's not necessarily as simple as one two pass shoot they're kind of working off of each other seeing it through its logical conclusion and then turning a good play into a great play and so it's a rare combination where he's got the shooting talent but he's also got the mind to get into those spots

in these offensive zone possessions and i think that's why he works with barcob more so than just putting any good shooter next to him and expecting these types of results. Yeah, one of the things that I think he does exceptionally well is he plays the game in sequence. So he often has the puck first. He makes a play. He moves to the next best spot.

He gets it back. And then to your point, he finishes to play. And he does those things repetitively. He has certain habits that he does. And it's very predictable to the people that he's playing with, especially when you play with him for a long time. That I think is part of his art is he's able to be predictable. I also think that he has an accelerating effect on a player like Barcoop who can struggle

creating like a hundred point season. That's just not really how his mind works. But a guy like Reinhart can push him along from a point producing perspective because he will move off the puck in extended season. sequences. So when the play is in the offensive zone and Reinhardt gets it, he moves it, he gets it back, he goes to the next spot, moves it again, and all of a sudden there's three, four passes that have happened, it also engages a guy like Barkoff on the offensive side longer. And so one of the things that we talked about with Barkoff is that he does defer defensively.

He's extremely responsible. He'll leave a good offensive. position to go to a better defensive position. And a guy like Reinhardt will hold him in the offensive fight longer because there's a lot more trust there. There's a, the Reinhardt's certainly not irresponsible with a puck. He's patient. He slows the game down. Barkoff can evaluate where he needs to go next and he can stay in the offensive fight longer

without feeling that sense of responsibility to get back. But Barkoff plays with multiple. multiple linemates and he's just getting the run of the mill all the time it's changing. It forces, it creates a much more conservative nature for him because he doesn't have the familiarity. And that's where I think that this is where Reinhardt comes in. He creates that familiarity. He creates very much of a trusting environment. He's not going to throw a box away and holds Barkoff in the fight longer,

which then in turn creates better chances for Reinhardt. So that's where it becomes mutually beneficial, which was your point at the outset, which I thought was a great term for these two. Well, there's also a shared discipline between the two. I think that's where you're hitting at there, where sometimes we can view that as a negative with Barakov because he doesn't have the point total that reflects his true talent, right?

And that's kind of held against him when you're comparing him with the true top players in the game where I think he belongs based on his. impact and his skill, if not the point totals. But part of that, really, is his discipline. I think Reinhardt shares that as well, not only in terms of the sequencing and knowing where to be and then being there diligently, but also, like, you can just see it in, in him holding his position on some of those plays as well, right? We talked about with the Barkov episode where part of the beauty of what the Panthers are doing right now is they're so aggressive on the walls and on the edges of the zone,

that they force you into the middle, and then you've got Barakov there, like a safety to essentially just take care of the rest. And we focus on that through the perspective of Barcov and how he allows him to play that way. But having a guy like Reinhardt to play with Barakov works similarly where he's so good on the wall, he's so tenacious without necessarily overdoing it

and taking penalties. He's very disciplined in that regard. But he'll win so many battles along the wall. He'll force the puck into the middle and kind of shrink the ice. And then all of a sudden you're working, to your advantage where the puck's being funneled towards Barakoff, now Reinhardt can move into the middle himself and you're cooking with gas.

And so I think that's why it works as well. There's so complimentary in that way. And it's really fun to watch because it's almost like, man, these two guys should have just been playing together all along because they fit that well together. But I'm just glad that we got it like sooner rather than later and we actually get to see it. Yeah, one of the habits that I love about Reinhardt is he is exceptional in the off-wing corner in the offensive zone.

He's very good at playmaking coming up the wall. He will attack the net from that area. He makes excellent passes. He can control the game and control the pace of play. He has very strong so he can spin off checks. What that does is that allows Barkoff, who naturally will reload to be in an F3 spot. Well, now you have Reinhardt climbing the wall.

It allows, and this is where the engagement, that I was talking about comes in is all of a sudden now Barkoff is now willing to engage going down to the net where he was coming back up into the top part to be in a dual threat position and be the safety valve now all of a sudden you got Reinhardt climbing the wall and he can make all those passes in place now Barkoff engages goes down towards the net and to your point now there's interchange of position they're starting to move more fluidly and Barkoff gets gets more involved. Reinhardt in the offensive corner on his strong side,

which is his strong side is really the off wing side for him. So he's on his forehand climbing up the wall. He's a elite there. He's very, very good. He makes a lot of strong plays. He can go, he can pass to any part of that zone. He follows his pass to the net. He tends to use a pass to come off the wall

and then land on the backside. Many of his goals are happen-type goals from a rebound at the side of the net. But when you back it up a step, you see that he was the originator, our architect of that play, where he was the one in the corner, he brings it up the wall,

he makes a play maybe to the weak side D. He comes into the middle of the ice. There's a shot taken and look who's there. It's him, Johnny on the spot, sitting on the back post, and tapping those pucks in, that is a common, a very common method in which he utilizes to score. But that whole area of the ice of that, that, that whole area of the ice is, is an area that he is really exceptional. And the other area that he's exceptional is coming to the net or landing at the net.

We've talked about this, almost that nausea by now. Oh, he just net area play. this is another guy in Reinhardt who is exceptional at the net in a different way than maybe we have thought of a net front guy he is very subtle he he is very quiet in his approach he slides into a space you don't really know he's there nobody has him nobody's taking his stick he hasn't taken a single cross check he's standing there all by himself and all of a sudden he puts the fuck in the net Well, that's because he started on one side of the ice. He skated behind the net, undetected, emerges on the other side of the net, shots taken.

There he is, pucks in the back of the net. Or he'll, like, come from one side, slide across the crease while no one's there. Next thing you know, there he is and the pucks of the net. He is a very, very quiet in the way in which he approaches the net front. And he often is undetected when he's doing it. Well, and I think that I described it as calmness, and I think that's one of his greatest traits, particularly within team concept of the Panthers, because one of the big perks of the way they play and why they've had so much success punishing opponents during this entire era of Panthers hockey is the chaos they create by nature, right? And they thrive off these chaotic moments where the puck's bouncing all over the place. They're throwing the body around.

They're forcing turnovers. there's post whistles. They're trying to get you into scrums. They're trying to throw you off your game. I call it like they taking you, dragging you into the deep end and seeing if you can swim with them there. They do that to everyone. Reinhardt is certainly feisty, but there's something so poised and calm and controlled about

his game every step of the way that I think it provides a really nice compliment in that regard where he's almost, he's that calming presence in terms of being able to slow stuff down and enact in a very controlled manner within all that chaos. And that must be very difficult to do. But I think that speaks to a lot of the habits were illustrating and also just the fact that he's so disciplined in his approach and what he wants to accomplish. And so he does that regardless of what's going on around him. And I think that works to his advantage here, right? I think you could see it in that like that overtime winner that he scored against the Leafs in game three, I believe, the last postseason, just the poise he showed in the puck possession and the control. And rather,

than sort of needlessly dumping it in just because he felt a bit of pressure. He sort of circled back, regrouped in the neutral zone, brought it in, purposefully dumped it in, worked his way around the net as you just described there, and then tucked it in. And I think that almost exemplified pretty much every single one of these qualities we're describing. And I think that's what makes them special within, especially the way the Panthers play as a team. You know what? I've never thought of it the way you just described it.

I think as you were describing it, it was a lot of connections. were coming into my mind of exactly what you're what you're talking about because he does play with like an elite calmness like sometimes you got to check him for a pulse which is a lot of times what has been what people have pointed to to criticize him has been he's you know he's too laid back he doesn't drive and now you play on a team that's so like like uptempo doesn't begin to describe these guys like the way they play particularly off the puck and then he gets the puck and you're right he does have this like real calming effect he slows it down he plays with poised and you know he he can make the next best play in a great spot where he creates that scoring

chance rather than maybe to having the chaos just funnel the puck just right away to the net if it goes to his stick he's going to find a you know find the next best play he's He's playing chess. He's moving pieces around. He's doing all that sort of stuff. Like, to your point, while the house is on fire, he's still playing chess in the living room. Like, it's amazing to see. And I didn't really put that connection together until you mentioned it.

But he is kind of that stabilizing piece or, you know, the balance of the chaos. And I think it's a great way to describe it the way you just articulated it. Yeah, I was thinking about that a lot of watching them play because it really stands out, especially aesthetically. And there's so much utility in his game as well. Like he's such a he's such a battle winner that we saw last postseason. They were able to use him in more of a defensive assignment, right? He was kind of playing on a traditional checking line with Anton Mandel and he Toulistarine. And now obviously they still get a lot of defensive responsibilities because he's playing with Bargaw,

but he's been asked to score more and he's kind of doing so. I'm very just intrigued, I guess, by his skill set. this regard, right? And we can lump the, we haven't really talked about the rush yet because the Panthers, they attack certainly a lot off the rush, maybe not as much as two years ago or they've kind of diversified their game. And I think that's been a big reason why they've become so good defensively as a team. But he's still obviously able to attack there. He gets, for a player who isn't a burner or like he moves, as we discussed, the distinction between like skating functionally fast and just skating fast just for the sake of racking up the miles per hour.

he clearly skates functionally well, but he also gets so many odd man rushes, so many breakways without necessarily cheating and flying the zone. And so I'm curious for your take on like how he works within the concept I guess of the Panthers rush attack because he's not necessarily a burner. Yet he does help through a lot of these tendencies, speed them up and still facilitate a lot of what makes them special when they're moving downhill. Yeah, like his, to me it's what stands out is his timing. Like when he goes, Like, you wouldn't accuse him of being a guy that's cheating, but yet he does leave at the right time. He also is a master of the ice geography where he manages his space inside the dots.

He shortens the ring. He makes things a lot easier on himself. I also think he understands leverage. And when you watch him play offense, and I don't just mean like physical level. I mean like when he knows the team has an. advantage or a potential advantage. So when he sees that there's a chance for a two-on-one or a shot was taken in the defensive zone, he knows his guy's going to get there and win that race at 100%.

Rydhart is already left. He's already moving into the next best place to potentially get a breakaway. He just reads the game really well in terms of leverage. when the team is the other team has a little bit of a moment of weakness where maybe they're not positionally sound maybe they you know they went a little bit too much for it maybe they're a little off kilter he uses that to their to the to his advantage and i think he he's a master of leverage in that in that way and i think that that's a big bit of big key to his success where he just appears in a place where all of a sudden, like, it's a two-on-one. Like, I'm watching the clips as we're

going here. That vast clip there against Arizona was perfect. They'd say, here he is. There's nothing going to happen. It looks like a very average play. All of a sudden, he jumps two steps in the right place. Next thing you know, it's a two-on-one. You wouldn't have predicted that a two-on-one was going to be available at that time. But he could see that there was a leverageable, there was a leverageable opportunity to which a two-on-one or that the team was the way in which they were skating left them with a level of exposure that he could take advantage of. You would never accuse him of putting the Panthers in a terrible spot, but he was able, because of the timing, the route, the pattern, and then understanding of leverage, he was able to all of a sudden

create an extremely dangerous playoff the rush. I think that's his, that's a secret. And it's really hard when you're not a burner to be really good off the rush. Like we sometimes make it sound like people can outsmart the rush. And if you're not that fast, it's okay because you can outsmart the rush. The number of people who can outsmart the rush is very, very small. Normally you will need to back it up with some level of acceleration foot speed. And it's not to say Reinhardt is a turtle because he's certainly far from that, but he's definitely not a burner.

But he does outsmart the rush. And he is one of those guys that finds those leverageable pieces. He can see it in advance. He understands vulnerability and he attacks. I just don't, I think we sometimes credit people too much for, well, don't worry because the guy's just really smart. I don't know. That the number of guys that you see that can do that is really low.

This guy is definitely one of them, but we're talking about him like he's rarefied air, which he kind of is. There's not very many people like him. I think that's an important. It certainly is. Okay, we're all like half an hour into this and we got to talk about his goal scoring, right? Because I think that's what people are tuning in for. They want to hear about how he's doing it. He's got the 48 goals in 68 games. He's on pace for 58. He needs 12 more in his final 14 to pass the 58 and 59. that Pavel Burr had in back to the back seasons to become the first panther to get the 60. 27 of those 48 have come on the power play, which is more than the Columbus Blue Jackets have as a team right now.

I mentioned he's also tied with Travis Keneckney and Simon Holmdrumb for the league lead with five short-handed goals as well and the work Kim and Barkov have done there. Now, a lot's been made of the 26 or so percent he's shooting right now and how well-time that is in a contract season and how people are sort of wary of buying too much into that. I sort of want to unpack all of that because I think that is a bit of lazy analysis. Because while I certainly don't think anyone is a 26% shooter, this is a player who, if you look at the quality of shots he's generating, where he's seventh and intersloth shots, fifth and cycle chances, ninth and total scoring chances this season, his track record over the past couple years. And then what the role he's being asked to play within this Panthers power play, I think it makes a lot of sense to me. me that he's scoring a lot of goals. I wouldn't have necessarily thought he'd be second in the

league behind just Austin Matthews. But I think the fact that he's scoring a ton makes a lot of sense when you consider all of that. So let's get into the power play and kind of how they use them and how he scored the majority of his goals because I think there's a lot of fascinating concepts as well in there in terms of what they're doing and kind of how he's getting open in that slot essentially time and time again, despite the fact that I think the other team by now knows what the Panthers are trying to do and they just keep getting away with it. Yeah, I think like he comes back to he has a real subtlety to him in the sense of how he positions himself in the slot. So he doesn't just, he's not a man in the middle that stands between the two hash marks and relies on the passer to find him.

He is always looking for work to find that little passing lane that wasn't there before is all the sudden there. And you'll see him, he uses a lot of little slide steps. So he'll be standing in the slot and then all of a sudden he kind of just slides slightly to his forehand side, which is what opens up that passing lane and then all of a sudden the puck is off of his stick and it's in the back of the net.

He's an excellent shooter in that area also because he doesn't put too many pucks along the ice, which I think is a mistake for what happens a lot to players in that they get in that range. When you're in that range, the goalie is the way you let them off the hook is you put the puck on the ice. It's hard to score along the ice. It's not to say you can't.

It's just hard to score along the ice from that slot pass out to the slot area. You have to get it above the pad and into their hands and make them have to reach and do things with their hands. And Reinhart does a great job of that. And he can shoot also. So it is one-timer. He doesn't use, it's a very much like a very short back swing. It's very controlled the way in which he shoots.

He doesn't. He's not like swinging. It's not like a full-on slap shot. It's not even really a half one-timer. It's very much like the stick is still on the ice. It's like an old school like snapshot release type of look. And he uses downforce to make up for it. So because he's not swinging hard, he still uses the downforce by getting,

you'll often go down on one knee or he'll use a pivot shot that allows him to be able to elevate the puck. And when you watch and you have a really nice compilation here of these goals, all these goals are like a little bit, like they're in the 18 inches to two feet off the ice. sometimes he'll elevate it even higher, get it up into the top part of the net, but when you look at where it crossed the goal line, it was probably in that neighborhood. But he gets it up off of his stick quickly.

And so number one, he's very smart at getting open. And then number two, he has an outstanding shot release that's very controlled. And number three, he elevates the puck. And sometimes like from those distances, If it doesn't hit him, it's in because the reaction time of a goalie at that distance with a shot like that is in, it's a tall order. The reaction time is just too much to ask the guy to be able to reach and make a purposeful save with his hands. He's counting on getting big and hoping the puck hits him.

Reinhard has it a way of being able to make sure that it doesn't end the goalie and gets in these awkward spots, whereas to reach and make a purposeful save, which obviously 20, 6% of the time they're not even to do so. Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. I just love watching them operate

because you're right, just breaking it down. Stepwise, he's really good at sort of sniffing out what the open spots are. I think rather than just kind of standing there, though,

he's really good at sometimes like he'll move off to a wall to keep a puck alive or something, right, just to kind of get himself out of that space, and then he'll come back in. Watching this goal that he scores,

this wasn't even the power play against the Rangers, though, it was the best encapsulation of this in terms of his movement in these sort of tight quarters or small spaces, right? Because just the way he drifts into that and kind of the skating ability there to get open for that and get himself present so that he can receive a pass from Markov and then finish it is just the thing of beauty. I think that's probably underrated to a lot of this, the quick shot, of course, and being able to get it off within these tight spaces. Now on the power play, since they put Carter Rehagi on the left circle, they've been absolutely dynamite.

I've got the stats down here. They have scored 26 power play goals in 102 minutes on a man advantage with that five-man unit of Barkov, Kachuk, Brahege, Montur, and Reinhardt. And part of that is, I think, all of a sudden, there's so many threats now to account for where Reinhart is kind of, isn't playing in a one-time position as the left shot there on the left circle, but he's one of the few players who can beat you with that downhill wrister, and we could honestly probably do a full episode.

just on that and maybe we will one day, but he's got this level of thread and respect that he commands so you can't necessarily cheat off of them. And then the way these three guys with Reinhard in the middle and then the chuck of the goal line and bark over the right flank, work that low triangle is one of my favorite plays at hockey right now. I just cannot get enough of the geometry of it, how they executed, how they put you in a torture chamber essentially where they have such a unique combination of skills that as a penalty killer, I don't really know what you're supposed to do Because if they execute with their timing and their passing, it almost doesn't matter where you stand or how you play. You're at their mercy, right?

Because they're going to be able to essentially work that triangle to perfection every single time like clockwork. And you can't do anything about it because there's two of you. They've isolated you into a thrill-on-two. And you can't get Barkov space because he can step into his shot. He can also, if you give him space, thread a needle back door or dangle in front of the net himself. if he passes it off to kachuk, you have to respect his ability to work the puck out to the front,

shoot between the legs, do all sorts of stuff, bringing it out himself. And so then once you start jumping to those two guys, then Reinhardt's just standing there for the one-timer. And essentially that, I think, is what's been happening. And that's why he keeps being as open as he is.

And it must just be infuriating for these coaches to watch the tape when they're preparing to play the Panthers or when they're working on their special teams and just seeing the way they're essentially just punishing you with that same repetitive motion over and over again. Yeah, I think that's exactly it. So you have the combination of the skills that we described of how good he is and being able to slide in these spaces.

And then you have the other threats that make it difficult for you to just take that away. You can't just take that away because to your point, then you're going to be able to make all these other plays. You can't shade to them because if you do, other people are going to beat you, which sustains the success rate, of course. the more diverse the power play is, the more difficult, difficult situations they can put you in,

the more difficult it is to take any one of those threats away, and that leaves him open for a large percentage of the time. The other thing, too, is, like, we saw it when we were talking about Dylan Larkin, like this whole situation of this man in the middle spot has had a resurgence. It used to be. be the worst spot to be on a power play. You just would never touch the puck there. No one was

passing it into you there. And it was a, and at lower levels of hockey, it is a spot that's a bit of a graveyard for pucks. You just don't get a lot of them. But then you see like Detroit built that whole power play they have around Larkin as their man in the middle. You have the whole thing with Braden Point in Tampa that also does the same thing. And that is a major key to that power play, even though I think Kutraoff is special there, but I also think that points play there can't be understated. And the same thing here now with Reinhart. This man in the middle position is proving to become an extremely important

NHL position on a power play, that you have to have the right guy and the right consideration of a guy who can make those types of plays and can score from that area because you're going to have to be able to create a threat from there. if you can't create a threat from there, that it's going to reduce the threats you have elsewhere. And I think that's one thing. As much as we talk about the value of the other players, like you mentioned, Barkov, Verhege, Kachuk, and their impact on Reinhardt,

the fact that Reinhardt is so good at anchoring that middle of the rank the way that he does also has such a positive effect on them. So it is, again, going back to your term, that mutually beneficial way and they have the right reads. They find the right guy. It feels like every time, like they seem to be able, as soon as you create a vulnerability, maybe I'll have my stick over here, well, then the puck goes over there. Well, maybe I'll have my stick over here.

Well, now the puck goes over there. And it just constantly making it really difficult to block anyone past. But his skill set in that area and the subtlety, the shooting ability, his ability to pass from that area also, I think really lends itself to that whole power play. I think he's an anchor piece there. Well, certainly, not only because it's quite literally the central piece, but also it's just so congested. And if you don't have that timing down on the ability to act quickly,

all of it's going to kind of fall apart. And so he's forcing everyone in, and then that's giving others more space. It is interesting kind of comparing their formation and the way they operate to the lightning you mentioned there, because they also have a similar way of getting the puck into the middle to point there. But their entry point, for a lack of a better term, is obviously a little bit different, right? Because everything is coming from that right flank from Nikita Kuturov. And he's certainly a wizard in terms of his puppet mastery and ability to distribute to all those guys.

But in a way, the Panthers one is even more impressive to me, just purely because so much of it is flowing through. I know this isn't a Matthew Kachukchuk episode, but in watching this, I think you can't help but appreciate the brilliance of what he's doing as a distributor from that goal line because unlike Kutrov, he's not necessarily in an ideal shooting position a lot of the time. I think sometimes he brings it out and sort of just to keep you honest and put it in the back of your mind that he will do it occasionally. He'll bring it out front and kind of do that flashy shot between the legs. And it works about one out of a hundred times. And when it does, it looks really cool. When it doesn't, people get frustrated that he's being overly flashy. But I think he's purely doing that. to just keep it in the back of your mind that you have to respect that, okay, he might bring it out, and that forces you to play him as a shooter, which is what he really wants you to do, because then he actually ideally wants to pass it out. And he doesn't really have a lot of options or wiggle room there, right? He's kind of confined by the fact that he's often actually standing really near the net.

He's kind of at an awkward angle. He's got the boards behind him, and yet he'll still get the puck exactly where he wants to over and over again. And then just kind of prepping for this and watching all the Reinhardt shots and all the goals and everything. I gained an even further appreciation of like what a, what a fine needle he's attempting the thread and doing so with with stunning repeatability. Yeah, you can't overstate Kachuk's passing ability. It is unreal. And to your point, he's not exactly a dual threat from there.

You know, he does have a walkout and he does have a few plays he can have. But a shot from there is relatively low percentage given what else you could do. on a power play. The fact that he's able to thread the needle, he can create just enough misdirection to be able to open up lanes. And he reads people stick and positioning so well. I mean, yeah, it's no accident that Reinhardt is getting those pots

because of how good a guy like Kachuk actually is on the goal line. The other piece about it also is Reinhart, he has such a discipline about him in terms of spacing. One of the things that happens to the guy that's the man in the middle often is when they want to shoot, they tend to come down or crowd the net. So they start moving down towards the net, which of course shortens the space, reduces the passing lane area and all that. This Reinhardt doesn't have that.

He's very disciplined in preserving the shot. And when you really look at his power play goals, there's very few of them on that play that he is below the low hash mark. He's like almost literally between the two ash marks are slightly higher every time. And that's just a tribute to the discipline, positional discipline that he has to keep the shooting space available. So when he does get it and he elevates it a little bit, it's so dangerous to be able to to be able to make that save. And I love that about him is that it speaks to just how smart he really is.

I'm going to a little bit of a rant here before we close out about this idea that what he's done is less impressive because he's doing so much around the power player because he has a high shooting percentage because I just think that's really missing the point of what's made him such an effective player. but also I think it's really been blown out of proportion. I don't necessarily think he's a 60 goal scorer by any means moving forward, and I would never project him to do so again next season. But that's because I don't think anyone other than maybe Matthews and Pastor Nack really are in this league. So obviously he's gotten a bit fortunate in that way. But I just want to note, like, he's got 79 points right now.

He's on pace for 95. He's at 3.44 points per 60 this season. That's actually less that he had in his first year with the Panthers when he had 82 points in 78 games, he just playing a bit more this year. Last four years prior to this one, he averaged 32 goals per 82 games and shot 16%. So this is a bit of a departure from that, but a lot of it has come on the power play where he's scoring, where he's shooting 40%, which sounds crazy, but he's been a 30% shooter on the power play in his past three years.

So it's not actually that outrageous. It's just a matter of getting a bit lucky, but also just benefiting from all of this infrastructure that we just talked about. So I think he's a really, really good player in so many ways that's a 35 to 40 goal score. And that's the way I view him. It's frustrating to me just hearing sort of the conversation about him because every time you point out his stats, people almost view it as like, oh, he's getting so fortunate.

This isn't actually who he is. And I think that's doing a total disservice to what he's been as a player and what he's put on tape and what we've talked about here. So I love Sam Ryanhart's game. I think there's so much fun quality stuff. And I think he's a big reason why the Panthers are as good. as they are right now. Any closing thoughts, Daryl, on on Reinhardt or kind of stuff that you wanted to throw in there in terms of what was he on tape from him or what he does so well? No, I think the last

point I would probably just piggyback on what you said in that one of the major factors that goes into shooting percentage that often gets like discounted is the quality of shot that you're actually taking in terms of like location and circumstance. So, where you're shooting from and how you're shooting and where the chances, how it originates, is a major part of shooting percentage. And I think we often discount that. And so, yes, he's having a phenomenal year. And he's probably, you know, about well above what he probably could or should be doing

if he was trying to do this on his own. The problem is he's not doing it on his own. and he is, this is part of the machine that's going there. And the quality of the chances, given who he's playing with in the circumstances, and the quality of pucks that he's getting, is lending itself to the shooting percentage. So if you look at him only in isolation, only Sam Reinhart, then I think you have an argument. But the game's not played like that. He's playing with, he's playing with five other guys who have an impact on,

his shooting, it will have an indirect impact on his shooting percentage because of the quality of the circumstances than which they're able to create because of how good they are individually and then collectively they're creating a chance that maybe is much higher more frequently, which is what you're seeing

and that's why they're at the top of the league. When you're at the top of the league, you're going to have people that are really doing very well. And the reason is because of what other people are doing in their contribution. He just happens to be a guy who has a skill set that really takes advantage of that. Yeah, previous three seasons, only players

with more power play goals in him, and that's not including this one, so the three years before this one, Leon Dreisaitel, because Benijad, Chris Kreider, in that time he shot 31% on the power play. This year he obviously leads league and power play goals.

He's shooting 40%. I think essentially this season has taken the purest form of everything he does really well and taken it to its utmost extreme and that's how you're getting this person shooting percentage and this goal scoring, but him being a wildly efficient scorer and scoring on the power play and just making everyone better and also finding ways to then turn what his teammates do well into benefiting himself is nothing new to him. And this is just an extension of that. So I hope that's sort of the

takeaway message from here in sort of appreciating the season he's having and what kind of player he is. It's really fun to watch. I can't wait to keep watching more of him and Barkov. Darrell, any plugs that you got here on the way out? We got a couple more minutes here before we got to sign out. Yeah, no, we just have the coaches workshop that we do in Florida. That's happening at the end of June, which might be something of interest. And then also our kids camps go right after that into July. And those probably be the most interesting things to be able to attend if you want to see me work.

And then the other part is that, you know, just. being here every week and being able to break down each of these individual players. It's just such a fun privilege and appreciate being able to do it with you each and every week. Oh, well, I appreciate it as well. And I think the listeners do more so than neither of us. They love these when we get together in chat. So looking forward to keeping it going. I think next week we're going to circle back and we're going to do Nathan McKinnon, a player.

You're obviously very familiar with one who I think everyone is going to want to tune into because that's going to be a really fun one. and we might just play 50 minutes of Nathan McKinnan highlights and not even talk, and we'll just run it as a video compilation of him doing stuff, but we'll try to provide some commentary and some insightful analysis into it as well along the way. Daryl, this is a blast. Looking forward to doing that with you next week. My only plug beyond watching us on the YouTube channel, if you're not, so you can see all the clips of referencing here is joining the PEOCast Discord,

where you can send in mailback questions and chat with us and fellow listeners. And that's all for today. We'll be back soon with plenty more of the HockeyPEDOcast here on the sports at Radio Now.