The Hockey PDOcast - Takeaways From Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by John Matisz to go through our biggest takeaways from Game 1 of this year's Stanley Cup Final. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey P.D.O.cast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey P.D.O.cast. My name is Dimitri Philpovich. And joining me is my good buddy John Mattis. John. What's going on, man. Hey, Dimitri. Good to chat with you. What a game last night. That's where I'll start. What a phenomenal game won to the Stanley Cup final. It's great to have you back. I believe the last time you were on the show, we were like still in round one. I think we did a deep dive of the Sabres Bruin series,

which feels like a million years ago at this point with how much has happened since then in the NHL playoffs. But we've got you back on. And the plan for today's show is we're going to pretty much just deep dive game one of the Stanley Cup final, which took place on Tuesday night, go through everything we saw, takeaways for both teams,

standouts, adjustments, heading into game two on Thursday, all that good stuff. It was certainly a great first leg of this series. The Golden Knights wind up winning 5-4 with a late goal in the third period. Had the early push from the hurricanes right out of the gate, 25 seconds in with Nicola Euler's scoring. Crowd was going crazy. The Golden Knights cut it to one, heading into intermission, really take over in the second period.

We get a bunch of back and forth exchanging goals in the third and then that late goal. But talking about Sherdell, where do you want to start this conversation? because I've got a million notes for both teams. We can go through all of it. But I want to make sure I give you the four here because it's been forever since you've been on the show. And so I'll let you go with your biggest takeaway or biggest standout from this game one. I mean, it's tempting to start with Nikola Eelers because he was on one in game one. But I feel like we should start with Vegas, considering they did in fact win the game.

So the biggest takeaway for me with Vegas is that when you look back at third, or five goals. All of them came off sort of quick trigger type of sequences where, and like I guess the first one-timer from the point, not quite what I'm talking about. But when you get, you know, their second goal, when you go through it, when you go all, you know, all the way to that fifth goal, second goal, you've got Barbashev off a catch and shoot. He's in the slot. Ikel makes this beautiful pass from the corner. The third goal, Carlson scores, one-timer from the slot, Marner behind the net. He's wide open.

Howden on the fourth goal. You know, it's sort of this like shot past situation with Theodore and Howden's back door. It's a little more of a chaotic play. But nevertheless, it's sort of off his stick immediately. And then hurdle, this, you know, just brilliant give and go with Sizzins to win the game. You get, he ends up getting off, you know, a quick shot from the slot. So if you would like add it up all five of those, you know, sort of puck on stick.

calculations, it'd be super low, it would probably be five seconds. There was no sort of possession involved in those types of executions. So that really stands out to me. And it also is like kind of how you beat this Carolina team. I know that's an easy thing to say when you do, in fact, get a victory in a game where you get those goals. But like, I don't know. When Caroline has this structure in their defensive zone where it's man on man,

and they're just dialed into the structure. Everyone knows it to a T. You know, most players have been around for years. It's very much a matter of putting the puck into unoccupied space and forcing these Carolina defenders to keep skating, keep sort of putting themselves out of position and also kind of confusing them. Like if you're just, you know, kind of playing a puck possession game and, you know, a lot of sort of puck protection, I feel like they can hit.

handle you. They have these strong skaters, these big bodies, these smart players that they can keep up with you if you're just kind of moving around the zone as sort of a one-man show. But if you do start moving that puck into an occupied space and you beat

them to the odd puck, good things will happen. So that that's the sort of number one takeaway for me is sort of how even though it looked tenuous at times for Vegas, like I thought Carolina, based on the first 15 minutes, we're going to blow them out of the rink.

But as John Totorella put it after the game, I thought it was a great quote. He called the NHL a find away league. And, you know, Vegas found a way by executing in the offensive zone in a way that any team that's playing the Carolina Hurricanes should aspire to do. They've certainly found a way this postseason. We've spoken a lot about some of the adjustments they've made, whether it's not. necessarily even tactical stuff. I think more so kind of like an internal recalibration from their players of adjusting to what the opponent's doing and the speed they're coming at them with. And

they played what, four now really quick teams essentially along their way to this point. And it's within game, as you saw here. And it's also within series where it's felt like once you get a couple games under their belt, some of their best performances have come in the later stages now in the West Final. There were only four games. but that game four was clearly their best performance. Yeah, the way they created their offense is really interesting because even in this one, right, they wind up finishing with, what, 23 shots on goal,

but a ton of chances, and I'll get into some of my chance data that I have from this game as we go along with this conversation. That exploitation of the middle of the ice, especially higher in the zone, kind of in that mid-range area, between the two face-off circles essentially was very evident for me in this game. And Carolina at times in the East Final, they just never really were really put in this situation

because they never spent time in their zone and they were always on the front foot attacking at the other end of the ice. But in these moments where, and the Golden Knights do a really good job of maintaining possession without necessarily trying to rack up shots or throw it on the net, like they're specifically waiting for an opportunity where they can really leverage into a high danger area. when they get them chasing a little bit, especially, you know, the Carlson goal is a great example of it, where it's a bit of a broken play off the face-off,

but the puck eventually makes it to Marner, and Keandre Miller is recovering to chase him, and then Aho joins him to try to make it a two-on-one defensively, and that leaves Carlson unintended. Wide open, I thought the hurdle game winner is a great example of this. You know, Gostis Bear loses his footing a little bit, it as he's trying to knock the puck away and that's why he's a step behind and it is always going to be a size mismatch if you're going hurdle versus goss to spare dots down

the way hurdle uses his frame still so effectively but if you go back and watch that play like you can specifically see that carolina's two high defenders i think stank open was the one on the near side and then i'm not sure who was on the far end but both guys are kind of glued to the point essentially. Those are the guys are covering and that's sort of the risk versus reward calculation they make defensively where if the puck goes up there, they're going to try to contest it and go back the other way. We saw Nikola Euler's do that on the first goal. He scores right out of the gate. But that leaves this massive space of unattended ice in between that area where the defenders are. And so all of a sudden, Goss to spare being a step behind, there's just no one

really to cover for him. And hurdle is able to get that shot off. And so I thought the way the Golden Knights utilized that space was really smart and really effective. And that's something they've done all postseason. And that's something I think Carolina is going to need to be really cognizant of. Listen, they've been playing this man-on-man zone, or man-on-man defensive zone structure for years now under Rod Brindon. I'm not expecting all of a sudden some fundamental shift in that strategy. But I think they need to be a bit more careful in terms of leaving some of their defenders on an island like that, because that's how those situations pop up and the Golden Knights did that a bunch, even on the power play.

I can think of a couple instances where Martner would get contested near the blue line and he would just find hurdle essentially in the middle of the ice. And he had this massive space in front of him. And on one of the plays, he did this quick little spin pass to Dorothea, and Anderson wasn't really reacting in time.

And Dorothea just missed the net. But they had a couple of those stacked together along the way. And so they're going to get those opportunities if Carolina doesn't adjust a little bit. Yeah. And ironically, the opening goal from Carolina, of the Nick Eler's electricity out of the gate there was a great illustration of how man-on-man defensive zone hockey can be super beneficial when you have a game breaker like Eilers to

to sort of finish the job. Like how that sequence went was you had Anderson sort of tosses the puck up the wall. Then Dorofi O'Dorfeiev's there to grab it, but Slavin closes them off. And the next thing, you know, stalls closing off Eichel. and then Chadfield closes off, Barbashev and the puck gets knocked loose, Slavin moves it up the boards, Eelers tips it past Theodore,

and then obviously Eelers is off to the races, you know, goal on the first shot of the game. Like it was like, that's the best of Cain's hockey in their defensive zone, and it's like so incredibly effective, you know, 95% of the time. But Vegas was able to sort of pick away at the little edges or the little, I guess,

some downsides to playing that aggressively and that sort of like decisively in terms of like Carolina doesn't just play man on man defense like they're married to it like it's their it's their thing and it obviously is super helpful overall but we saw the best and worst of it in game one okay so the scoring chances for the game I had a 2115 hurricanes at 515 all situations was 24 to 22 for the Golden Knights. And if you break it down, I think it matches the eye test. Certainly in the first period, it was 10 to 2 for the hurricanes.

And, you know, they really swarmed them early on. It felt like the Golden Knights couldn't really string together, passes up the ice. They were getting picked off near their own defensive zone blue line, or at least before they cross center ice every time. And the hurricanes were really playing to their bread and butter. And then eventually, you know, they get that goal from Theodore. and I think they were pretty fortunate and probably pretty happy within that room to be down just to 1 coming out of that period. And then they quickly get the tying goal in the first minute of the second period, get the 3-2 goal, what, within five minutes of the start of the second and really dictated terms from there.

And the expected goals also bear that out, right? First period, 79% share for the hurricanes. Second period, 81% for the Golden Knights. and then third period, 71% again for the Golden Knights. You know, the other thing that's notable to me is, as I mentioned, the Keynes had a slight edge at 5-1-5, but the Golden Knights did all situations. Vegas had three power plays.

Carolina had two. Now neither of the units wound up scoring. And as we said in our preview, I'm not expecting a lot of powerplay goals in this series based on how good both of these PKs have been throughout this run. But scoring chances at special teams were 9 to 1 for the Golden Knights. they created significantly more, I thought, on their opportunities despite not scoring. Got the one Eichl short-handed chance as well, but really on the power play, I can think of a

couple for hurdle. Ikel hits the post twice, or if you have got a couple one-timers, they were really moving the puck well. And so ultimately no production to show for it, but if this series is going to be pretty even at 5-1-5, even some of those slight marginal edges, I think are going to favor the Golden Knights because clearly based on their personnel and their track record, if someone is, is going to win even ever so slightly on the power play it's probably going to be this Vegas unit yeah i found that carolina's six on five game was not impressive either like it's

not like it felt inevitable that they were going to score when they pulled the goalie at whatever it was like 147 left in the game and maybe that's just a reflection of where that aho line is in general right they're integral to the power play they're obviously out there when it's six on five when they have the extra attacker so i don't know if you want to get it into that the whole whole line of it all or what? Yeah, let's do it.

Listen, I've kind of viewed it as a bit of a feature for this team and not necessarily a bug that they got to the Stanley Cup final despite the lack of production particularly a 5-on-5 from that line

because I thought it sort of neatly represented maybe the strides they've made from a talent perspective throughout their lineup where you add a Nikolaeeler's and he scores another two goals in this game. We've certainly seen

what Stankov and Blake and Hall have done throughout this postseason run for them. And so guys have picked up the slack, whereas in previous post seasons, you think back to those Panthers series or even the one against the Rangers previously, for anything you want to say about the top line, like they're contributing on the special teams

and they're creating chances but just not converting and maybe they're even playing the other team's top line to a draw. In the past, if they didn't score and produce offensively, this team was not going to be able to beat the better teams in the league. and they were able to navigate that despite their lack of production through the first three rounds. They will need to get going at some point. And I thought all three guys had pretty poor games. In this one, Jarvis had a couple opportunities, including two good ones, one off a rebound,

another kind of off a play coming off the wall in the third period while it was still tied in Carter Hardstop, both of them. But, you know, Ajo had some very questionable moments. One, I can think of in the third where he's trying to carry the puck out of his zone through the middle of the ice and Dorothea just strips them and gets a good opportunity off of that. Even the six on five you mentioned, they finally get set up in the zone. And Ajo just plays it back to the point and Sean Walker is not there because he's kind of moved towards the middle of the ice and he throws his head up in frustration. Jarvis in the second period had like a three on two opportunity and I thought he had a pretty

clean look on the net. And I get what he's trying to do of going from good to great with sending it to the trailer and in Shane Gosses-Baird. And if that pass goes through, it probably is more likely to be a goal than him just shooting against the goalie one-on-one. But there was so much room from a high-danger area, I probably would have liked to see him shoot that. Now, he's clearly not 100%.

I don't know what's going on with him physically, but he just has not been efficient as a score throughout this post-season. And then Svechnikov was entirely quiet, right? He had the one play where he springs Aho for an opportunity in the second period. But beyond that, I can't think of too many instances where he was very involved at all.

And they just need more from them, especially offensively. Like, they've combined for four, five-on-five goals. in 14 games now. Really three of them because Aho's loan goal was the extension of a penalty kill against the senators, where him and Jordan Stahl go in on a two on one. They're down four to five on five as a line. And they're down in expected goals and high danger chances to a pretty significant degree.

And so Vegas's top players came to plan this one. Like we're going to talk about what Eichel did, what Marner did, hurdle. They really got production from all three of their top lines, whereas Carolina's first line was very quiet. and they're just simply going to need to be better if the hurricanes are going to win this series. Yeah, like I feel like, I mean, some great points there. I'll just build on that a little bit.

I feel like if you're Rod Brindamore, like you can live without the goals at this point, even though you'd like one ASAP. You can live without them if it feels like they're getting unlucky or goalie, and they had decent zone time in game one, but they weren't nearly as dangerous or effective as you'd like to see. Like a ton of it, I don't know if a ton of, or I were, but they had a fair amount of odd man opportunities.

And I feel like almost every time the puck carrier chose the low percentage option, it's like, okay, you've got option A, option B, option C. And option C is like a 20% chance of working out and they chose that one. And then, you know, on top of that, there's just like flat out just not executing. I mean, like sloppy passes, a shot in right into Carter Hart's glove, whiffing on a one-timer. And I mean, for me, like Jarvis seems to be the guy who is like struggling the most. I don't know if it's like purely in his head like you mentioned. Maybe there's an injury there.

But he seems to be really suffering from a lack of confidence or just like is a little tentative. Like there was one point where it was a bit of a weird play. But he was basically set up for a one timer in like the high slot. And he just fell like he like tripped on his own feet. And you know, he ends the game with a 50%. Shot of Temshare, which for a Carolina hurricane is very low. He actually tied Jankowski for the worst on the team. So like there's something going on there with Jarvis.

I don't know what it is. And for the line overall, if they had been shut out but had been like absolutely, you know, dominant in their shifts, it'd be like, okay, the goals are going to come. But at this point, it just seems like they're missing. I don't know if it's like a confidence or a, they need to mix up the lines.

But then, you know, what do you do when you've got the same? staying COVID line absolutely humming and then you've got the stall line doing its thing. There's not no real great answer there. But yeah, like it's a huge storyline at this point. Like it's one thing to get your, you know, put your arms up after a couple of games. But it's been basically all playoffs where you're wondering, okay, when is this lying in a breakthrough?

Yeah, so I check out of one of those rush opportunities where he similarly just whiffed in the puck and didn't get a shot attempt off. And there was a lot of net to shoot at it because it was off an east-west pass coming downhill. I thought it was notable, like, from a matchup perspective, right? I did expect a lot of Jordan Stahl's line against Jack Eichael, partly because they deploy them in their own defensive zone for those draws, but just in general, like, it probably made the most sense. And we saw that here.

Jordan Stahl was out there for 955 of Jack Eichael's 13-07. They scored both their goals. They were up to 1 in that time. Outshot Vegas's top line, 6 to 4. Then you get this trickle down of a, essentially a stank open line versus carlson and Mitch martyr and shots were six one for Carolina in that time which left ahos line to play primarily against Vegas's third line in hurdle stone and cizons and they didn't create nearly enough in that time they were only out there for a

minute and a half against Mitch marter and that included the three two goal that we talked about early in the second period and so if they're going to get those opportunities as well like it be I think it would be one thing if they were being hard matched against say, Martin and Carlson, and if they were just breaking even and getting some looks here or there in transition but not converting on them, ultimately if you come out with a draw on the scoreboard in that, it's not ideal because you're paying these guys a lot to score. And it's been a continued theme, as you mentioned. But I think you can live with that and try to win your minutes elsewhere. But if they're going to be kept away from those top two units and being used against Vegas's third line,

and it's a great third line. I mean, when you have Tomah Shirtle and Mark Stowe, and even if he's not 100%, that's still a force to be reckoned with, they're going to need to win that, I think, more decidedly, and that's going to start with just scoring more goals. On Vegas's front, I thought, Theodore and McNabb were incredible in this game.

Now, it started poorly for theater, 25 seconds in, as I mentioned. He gets kind of caught in no man's land, and Eler's just kind of, tosses the puck past him, skates onto two-on-one, and buries it. But from that point forward, I thought they were really in control of the situation. You know, Theodore scores the goal late in the first. He sets up Howden's goal in the third with a beautiful play.

And that was kind of a weird one because the hurricanes had just killed a penalty, and they had three defensemen out there. And so all of a sudden you're left with Walker contesting Theodore Iron the Zone, and he kind of looked like a fish out of water a little bit on that play. And so I think there was some miscommunication. that led to that one, but they took advantage of it. It was a great play by Theodore, and then McNabb had a couple really notable plays I thought.

Like on the Barbashev goal, he beats Martinuk to that puck as he's trying to clear it and sends it back down to Ikel. He cut off Stankov and on a potential rush opportunity at one time, had another couple keep-ins and just really nice plays from that left side of the ice near the blue line, and both guys finished with three points apiece, had 70-plus percent expected goals here.

were on the ice for four of Vegas's five goals. And so I thought they were awesome. And, you know, I could have easily made a case for both of them being two of the top three stars in this game just because of the role they played in the impact. And I should include McNabb's PK usage as well because him and Lozahn pretty much eat up the entirety of that. And as I mentioned, Carolina on their two opportunities just really didn't generate anything at all. Yeah, and shout out to Jesse Granger, a Piede Ocast guest because he had a story today about how the, Golden Misfits, the original Golden Knights, had a real strong game one.

I thought it was spot on in terms of identifying the players that shine brightest. I mean, you mentioned it, Theodore McNabb, like William Carlson had a really good game. So you go up and down the list of those guys that are still kicking, and I don't think there was one that had, you know, an average game. They were all punching above their weight. So that was massive. That said, like I thought that Eichol was really, you know,

dominant might be strong. but like I feel like he really dictated play when he was out there, which is to be expected. I mean, this is a guy who's, what, a top time player in the world, but he was just from puck drop.

He was having one of those nights where, you just thought, okay, this guy's getting on the score sheet. Like, I don't know how this is going to be an assist. Is it going to be a goal? Like,

what's going to happen here? But it's just that feeling of like he's playing so well. He's such an impactful player. It's coming. And, you know, he misses this backdoor play early in the second. and it's like, ah, is that going to come back to haunt him? It was weird.

I look back on the play-by-play on NHL.com, and they didn't list Eichl hitting the post once, but I could have sworn I heard two posts. He did twice on the power play, yeah. So I don't know how they exactly score that, but yeah, it hits the post twice on the power play. And as you mentioned, no power play goals in this game. So he was the closest to converting there.

And I just, I'm just always so impressed with this guy and his evolution as a player. and he's kind of underrated at this point, which is weird to say about a guy so prominent, but he's on a very short list for me of players that would, like if you're starting a team today, he would be right up there in terms of one of those high picks. Like, just he has a way of controlling shifts

and keeping plays alive, but is also, you know, such a dominant playmaker and it's such a strong skater that he can back check in an instant. I thought he really stood out. Yeah, that backdoor play you mentioned the second that he just narrowly misses the net on was another one of those great keeps by McNabb, and he just fires

a diagonal pass to set him up for that opportunity. I did have him down for two posts, and it's notable to me because in the preview, Jack-on was talking about this Golden Knights power play and how you could essentially treat Eichel as a pure passer because he ideally

is looking to either kind of work that low bumper play from Stone to Hurtle or send at cross ice to Dorofiev and then he steps into two shots and gets good opportunities off with them. And I think him just at least putting that in the back of your mind because we know the release and his shot can certainly be a weapon. He just doesn't use it as much. It's going to be an interesting thing to track. He made the mistake on Eler's a second goal, which kind of an errand pass at a dangerous area of the ice. But I did have him down for, I thought, maybe his most notable play, I guess certainly you can make a case for just that shift to start the second period with him and Barbershev

creating the first four check opportunity and then the goal that resulted. There was a sequence in the first six or seven minutes when it was just all Carolina. And I thought they easily could have scored four or five goals in that stretch because Slavin rings one off the crossbar. Eelers scores the two goals. Eilers had another opportunity off of a misplay by Anderson behind the net where Stahl just sends it to him and he just narrowly misses a wide off a quick hitting opportunity and it felt like they were getting

great looks and then in the midst of that there's this offensive zone draw I think Slavin kind of fires a point shot on and all of a sudden the puck just jumps to Jordan Stahl for a wide open net rebound opportunity and before he can release it, Ikel's there to knock it away and that's part of the defensive

chops you mentioned and then all the stuff he did offensively in terms of scoring chance contribution leaders by team and I think this highlights the differences between the two teams. Vegas's leaders, Jack Eichol with nine, Marner, Dorothea, and Hurtle,

all had seven apiece. Carolina's leaders, Nikla Eilers, Blake and Jarvis, each had four, and then a bunch of guys with three. And I think the usage even bears this out as well, right? Where Vegas leans on Marner and Eichol

to just a much bigger degree than Carolina Hurricanes are going to do with more of their depth approach. Marner and Ikel both nearly play 21 minutes. I believe, you know, Jordan Stahl plays like 1912 for the hurricanes, but then beyond that, it's just a bunch of guys with 16 to 17 minutes, essentially and nothing really differentiating them. And so if Eichl and Marner are going to keep playing this way,

and they've been phenomenal this postseason, I do think that gives them a slight edge in terms of the likelihood they're going to create something. So, yeah, I thought Eichl was great in this game. Yeah, I mean, there were so many instances in this game where it's like, Eichael's line goes out there, has a strong shift, a lot of zone, time and then you know Carolina kind of survives it and then Marner's line is out there and they got to deal with

another sort of quote unquote first line and then when you get further down the depth chart you know that stone hurdle Sisson's line as we've discussed pretty overqualified third line and then when you get to the fourth line I feel like they almost

cancel each other out like I actually felt like William Carey had a really good game for Carolina just keeping plays alive pushing the puck and the right direction just sort of doing those things that a fourth liner should do but at the end of the day like you know the nick dowd line versus carri's line like it's going to be a wash maybe there's one one game where one of these fourth lines sort of is the difference but at the end of the day this is sort of like a three line series as far as how the usage is going to go and if you look at the depth on

Vegas it far outweighs what's going on in carolina at least in terms of like rolling over and keeping possession alive. Like I thought Dorofiev was really effective in this game in terms of just using his strength to, I guess, possess the puck longer than you would expect, if that makes sense. Like he's really blossomed as this puck protection guy versus just like a one-shot shooter.

And I don't know, he just keeps getting better and better every viewing I see in terms of like being an actual difference maker, not a passenger. And, you know, this is an evolution. Like, he hasn't been a passenger for a long time. But I feel like he's leveling up every time I see him in terms of his shift-to-shift impact and being able to drive play separate from like an Ikel and a barbershev. Oh, he had a play in the third period where I think it's Howden just kind of like dumps a puck in harmlessly.

And Chadfield's going back to play it. And Dorifia meets him and out muscles him for it. And Slavin's there as well. He's essentially taking them on one on two and brings it out to the face off circle. gets a good opportunity off of that. And yeah, I thought he was awesome in the forchick. He had that strip of Aho, had a number of opportunities beyond just the shot itself. Let's take a quick break here, John.

And then we jump back in. We're going to go through the rest of the notes we got coming out of game one of the Stanley Cup final. You're listening to the Hockeypedo cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right. We're back here in the Hockeypediocast, joined by John Mattis. Let's keep it going. I still got a bunch of stuff to get through from game one. You know, you mentioned William Carlson.

He's up 7-2 now in his 5-1-5 minutes, and that's after missing, like, what, four or five months worth of hockey since November and just jumping right back in a round two of the playoffs and playing as well as he has on that unit with Marner. He's one of the most certifiable playoff guys I can think of in the league right now in terms of just elevating his game this time of year

and how it translates to postseason hockey. Tomash Hurdle, man, I spent so much time on the show throughout the postseason wondering what was, going on with him really dating back to the Olympics where he struggled for Chequia and he went like 50 games nearly without a five on five goal from January 11th to game five of that duck series has scored three five on five goals now including a couple huge ones in the seven games since and I thought he was excellent in this game as I mentioned like they were using them in the matchup role against Ahos line but on the power play I thought he was creating a ton just the way he

He uses his frame to protect the puck and kind of like spin around. There was that sequence early in the third right after a power play where he just sends this. I don't even know how he saw it or pulled it off from high in the zone, just like a spin pass down to Dorothea. Then he brings it out front and William Carlson gets a great chance off of it. And then he scores the goal ultimately kind of just outmuscling and beating Goss to spare to the spot and converting that shot opportunity. And so he's a big time matchup problem. and if he's scoring goals the way he is now, that's huge, especially playing on a third line, wing role the way he is for this Golden Knights forward group.

And so, yeah, I wanted to shout him out because I thought hurdle was great in this game. Yeah, it's totally fair. And I feel like on paper, Sisson's Hurtle Stone is a bit of a weird line. Like if you just sort of zoom out at and think about their skill sets and their careers. But I feel like when you get deeper into the playoffs and things kind of become a little more grinding, I feel like this is really working to their advantage. Like, don't get me wrong, like Sizzins isn't some superstar out there. But whether it's stones work along the wall or, as you mentioned, hurdles power game,

like they're making it work. A lot of sort of short passes because they're not the burners of the league. But, you know, I just, it's one of those things where it's like, it's almost like Minnesota this year. They didn't have that center depth, but they had these wingers that could really drive lines. and that's just a perfect example of when you've got Sizzins down the middle and hurl and stone on the left and right wings, it almost doesn't matter who the center is,

not to discredit Sizzins to such a great degree, but I really like that it's working out because it seems like a line that was kind of thrown together in a blender, but when you start to see it in action, especially this deep into the playoffs, it's super fun to watch. Yeah, there's a big crossroads moment, and I don't know how much of this was on,

online internet fodder versus like actual substance and conversations, but I do recall a point leading up to last summer's draft where there was a lot of buzz about Tomas Hurdle going to the hurricanes. Because it was clear they had that knee down the middle. This was before they put Stankov in there and he was such a smash success for them. They had the cap space and the assets and the Golden Knights were clearly trying to carve out room to fit in Mitch Barner as a free agent. And so I remember at the time that was a big talking point. and obviously he stays in Vegas, and it's an interesting note within the context of this series. Yeah, I think that line's a great representation, right?

Because you certainly got more pace on the top two units with Eichl and Marner in transition and carrying the puck up the ice, but then you've got this older, slower, third line that's so good at holding on a puck's and kind of exploiting that middle high ice that I talked about off the top and getting it there, it winds up leading to the big goal in this game against this Carolina team that's a bit vulnerable there and they exploited that to full effect.

17 of the 37 scoring chances in this game 5-on-5 came off 4-check by my count, and it's not necessarily surprising both these teams, obviously have great for checks they've leveraged to beat previous opponents. But I did think in general, like, this is such a nightmare series for all defensemen involved, I think, because of the pressure that's going to be coming at them. And I don't think it helps it, especially once you get to this point of the season, the ice conditions aren't the best. It's getting hot outside.

And you could see at times, like, there'd be routine retrievals for defensemen, and they would just either, like, catch an edge or stumble or the puck would bounce. And all of a sudden, they'd have a forward bearing down on them, and it would just become a sketchy play all of a sudden when it had no right being that, really.

And so I'll be tracking that moving forward as well in terms of who's able to kind of best manage that. There were a ton of just kind of those aerial flips into the neutral zone in this game, and both teams are going to try to do that to just alleviate the immediate pressure. And then who wins those battles is probably going to determine

the way the series goes, right? Like, for all the tactics we want to talk about, and listen, I love it. Like I had Jack Han on for the preview. We got into all the nitty-gritty of it. You can even see in this game, like Carolina was just faster to pucks

in the first period, and we're creating a lot off of that. And then Vegas made the adjustments and just started winning more of those battles. And it's a lot of those plays, like I talked about, where Martinuk has a chance to clear it. McNabb beats him there,

sends it back down and a quick goal results off of it. And it's a play that easily just could have been cleared into the neutral zone. But Vegas was first to that puck. And so for all the talk about tactics, really just that effort level, I guess, or execution of who gets to the puck first is probably going to determine which way this goes. I mean, I think it's fair to say the modern NHL is a puck battle league. Like, not that it wasn't over its history, but I feel like it's almost exaggerated right now where the way that the game is called,

you can't hook and hold and all this obstruction stuff that used to be an issue for the league that's gone but then skating is at such a high level and I don't know it's almost like you can quick strike in such an efficient way now that every battle almost has greater importance I don't know if I'm overthinking it over overstating it but it just feels like over the last I don't know four or five years it's become more of a puck battle league and you know we talk all the time on the show about like the dogs that say the sabers have and don't and benson like it feels like it's become in a lot of ways like a dog's league in terms of going to get that puck winning that battle and then you sort of you figure it out from there um the game is just so i guess modernized or so

optimize is the right word, that it's become even more of a game of inches than it was before. And we're seeing fewer goals, say off a shin pad or some weird bounce. And some of it's just pure like capitalizing on an opportunity where the puck squirts loose. And you've got some runway and you have the skill to finish. I think that's a great point. I think the margins in general have kind of shrunk, right? Partly because everyone is just so much more talented in terms of puck skills.

and then also there's just fewer dead spots across lineups, particularly when you get to this stage of the postseason, of course, with the depra seeing. But I think just in generally wide, right? Like obviously with fourth line pure fighters just being eradicated from the game, and you've got fourth lines that have so much utility, but can also chip in offensively. Like, you're not going to have these massive areas of lebris generally

that you can kind of press down upon. And so some of those margins ultimately, terms of who gets to the puck first and wins those battles is going to have an outsized impact. I think one of those guys is certainly Jackson Blake. I wanted to include the play. And I don't think he winds up getting an assist for it on Goss's spares tying goal in the third period. But if you go back and watch that playoff and offensive zone draw, it's pretty much a 50-50 puck because Stankovin against Sizzins, I believe, kind of just plays into a draw on it. And it looks like Theodore is going to have a chance to get it on a stick and clear it. And you could

just see like amidst traffic, Blake gets his stick down and prevents him from doing so and works it back into the middle and then Stankovin gets a little bump and it gets to Gosses Bear and Blake's been doing that all postseason as we've talked about. But he gets so many of those little stick checks and and puck battle wins to create stuff for for the hurricanes. So I want to shout that out because Blake is awesome. I love that too where it's like Blake and Stankov and two smaller players like not afraid to just get right in the mix at the hash marks where you're, you're bound to get blown up. And they just sort of like find their way through where the puck squirts out in an advantageous position for Carolina.

And obviously Gossus Bear makes it count. Now one adjustment as we look ahead to game two, you mentioned some of the hurricanes lines. I think one thing I'd explore if our Rod Bindamore is potentially moving Jordan-Martinuk down into a lower leverage role. and bumping up someone like, say, and Eric Robinson, for example, in that place, I guess the one concern, particularly if you're going to try to hard match Stahl's line against Eichl is clearly, it's going to be a lot of defensive zone starts,

and they very much value Martinuk's responsibility there and doggedness and all that stuff to retrieve possession. So that would be one potential concern, but I just think, like, if you're trying to create more offense and be more efficient, in your opportunities. We're at a point now this postseason where I think Martinuk scored like one goal

on 43 shot attempts, five on five. And generally, especially if you're sharing the ice with the eilers and he's going to be this dangerous, I'd like someone who's more likely to capitalize on that. And, you know, a guy like Robinson and listen,

there's levels to this, right? So playing 10 minutes a night on the fourth line and getting softer matchups and getting offensive zone starts is you're going to look a little bit more effective than maybe if you have to do what Martin Rook's doing on that stall line. but I think he's had a lot of juice

and had another couple good chances in this game and so I'd explore that a little bit and that's probably the one area that I think they could figure it out the most. Maybe the other is getting Gossus Bear out there a bit more with some of their scoring lines like they're kind of sinking that third pair with their fourth

line mostly and you can see the double-edged sword for a guy like Gossus Bear right? Like scores the goal in the third and is going to be one of their more dangerous players in zone but then if he's out in the defensive zone against the Tomah Shirtle, for example, it leaves you a bit vulnerable. So you've got to be careful with that.

But if they're trying to optimize the offense, those are probably the two ways that go about it. Any thought to moving Jarvis down to play with a stall and Eilers? The problem with that is that then who do you put up top? Do you put Martin Knuck up there? And then all of a sudden, Ahlo and Sv and Svashnikov have less to work with when they're struggling. But I feel like Jarvis, like if he's getting fed by Eilers, he's going to break out of this this slump, right? Yeah, I don't mind that.

I mean, honestly, I would just put Eric Robinson up with Svachna Klob and Aho because they are creating a lot of their chances in transition with some of these on-man rush opportunities. And Eric Robinson could certainly fly and has been one of their most dangerous rush players. I guess it's a lot to ask for at this point. But I think that would be interesting. We've seen in the past, like a lot of reps of Jarvis playing with Stahl and then

being effective. So that might not be a bad way to go up. about it. Yeah, I think the usage is going to be interesting as well, right? Because as I mentioned, Vegas is going to lead on their top guys. To a great extent, Keondra Miller plays a tonne. He plays like nearly 24 minutes in this game. But the forwards are really very evenly distributed. And Aho and Jarvis because they play special teams are getting the top end of that ice time distribution. And so they're going to need more out of them. Like I, coming out of this game, I'd like to just see more minutes maybe. I mean, Nikolaeilers finishes this game with 1616, right? Because he's not, he's not. He's not. not PK, but especially with how he looked in the first period, I think you'd probably want to get him out there for more. And then, you know, Stankov and 15 and a half, Blake 15, 22, Taylor Hall, 14, like, those are probably the guys I'd like to get out there a little bit more, even if it comes at the expense of the top line until they figure it out.

Do you want to give Eelers as flowers a little bit more? Like, talk about a couple of these sequences. Like, there was. John, you have no idea how much restraint I've showed today, not just doing 50 minutes on Nikola Eilers. and it didn't feel fitting after the loss, but man, that first period was incredible.

Well, and I think, you know, to a counterpoint to that is like, it was a five-four game. It was really tight. Like, I think we need to focus on Carolina

at a positive light as well because they could easily turn this thing around. It was by no means a bad game by them. So, yeah, Eler's like, honestly, like,

the way I'd put it is like, maximum electricity every time you touch the puck. Like, it wasn't just that first goal or even a second. It was like, all game. And like there was even this really awesome sequence

halfway through the first where he like, he takes the puck out of, um, the corner. He sort of fearlessly drives to the net. The puck's turned over. It's a bit of a broken play.

Vegas goes the other way. And then he takes a hit to make a play on, on the wall deep in Carolina's defensive zone. And then Carolina has a rush opportunity the other way. I just felt like it showed his evolution as a player and just what he can do in Carolina's system where he's not just a perimeter player and he's actually like really good on the wall, which is something you don't always hear about these super skilled players. I was just watching that going like, you know, Eilers is on one tonight.

And then also you mentioned the sort of earlier, you mentioned how he missed the net towards the end of the second there. He had basically like an open net. I love how he flexed his stick after and he's like, it was almost like he's like, what's up with this thing? Like I'm so dialed in right now that you know this this couldn't have possibly been a user error it's got to be my stick i just love like that like literal flex of like i'm i'm really feeling it right now like even made this no look east west backhand pass to stall in the third yeah it was like so nasty but also super risky i was like oh are they going to intercept it but when eilers is uh is in the zone and like the way he was in game one if you're rod brendamara you go you know you make magic happen on

the ice. We'll figure out the rest later. Yeah, worked out on that play. I will say, like, if you just reflect on pretty much all the goals scored in this game and how this series is going to track and progress, those, I mean, every turnover is dangerous, but the ones near the blue lines are particularly so in such high leverage areas of the ice, because generally, you have guys trying to kind of fly out of the zone and get out of position and all of a sudden there's scoring opportunities. So I think both teams are going to have to be careful with that, especially with how aggressive both teams can be near the defensive zone blue line. But yeah, I thought Eelers was incredible.

I think he's been great this entire postseason. Like the counting stats haven't necessarily reflected it, although he gets the big overtime goal against the Habs early in that East Final. But he's been creating so many scoring chances, which unfortunately have kind of been died on a bartender's stick for a lot of the postseason. But he was awesome in this game, the goal of 25 seconds in, the goal shortly thereafter on the breakaway and he needs to play more than 1616. I kind of regret not mentioning this in the series preview because I had given a lot of thought

leading up to it and particularly kind of comparing and contrasting like a similarly talented transition player like a Martin Aches really struggled against this Golden Knights team in the West Final but the two guys do it differently. I think Martin Aches has the blazing straight line speed but generally he's kind of doing it in a craft your way and looking to pass off and against his Vegas team with their sticks and their defensive layers, they can kind of sit on that a little bit and take it away from you and then all of a sudden you're kind of skating on the outside. Whereas Eilers, despite some of the knocks earlier in his career, is so much more of a brute force kind of straight line player in

terms of attacking the middle, getting to the net, being more of a threat one-on-one to beat you out wide. And we saw that in this game. And that's going to be a storyline moving forward as well, because he probably at this point is their easiest path towards creating offense just because of how dynamic he's been. Yeah, so Eler stole the show in the first period, but I thought Slaven was the second best player on the ice. And you mentioned it earlier, like he gave the puck away on the two, two goals. So this guy was not without his faults.

But I thought the first period, if you isolate that, it was like peak Slaven in a lot of ways. Like, first of all, he hits the crossbar off the Stankov and pass early on. Then he has this great stick. check to kill Vegas rush at Carolina's blue line. And it was a type of thing where like the broadcast doesn't even mention it. They like went to a commercial break right away or something. Like it was just sort of like, you know, Slavin being slaving. You know, he makes this stretch pass to Stancoven, gets on a breakaway. You know, Vegas tries the the stretch pass method.

And he's like, nope, that's mine. Like I just, I just feel like Slavin's overall hand-eye coordination smart skating is just so off the charts. And I love seeing them in these high-level average moments like, you know, obviously we saw him flourish at the Four Nations face off, certain parts of the Olympics. So he's one that I'm going to be keeping my eye on because, like I said, first period, phenomenal, but then, you know, a couple of shakier moments as the game progressed. And especially at home, they're going to be getting him out there pretty much every time Michael's over the boards and on the ice.

So, yeah, that'll be interesting to watch for one other note that I had. you know, I mentioned how many of the chances were off the forecheck. I had both teams down for a combined three rebound slash tip chances in this game. And, you know, one is the Houghton goal in the third period off the shot pass from Theodore. Jarvis gets one of those rebounds in the third period off a pass off the pads from Keandre Miller. And then there was a Jackson Blake tip of a Miller shot in the third period as well. And the reason why I bring that up is because that has been general. a source of Carolina's offense in terms of some of those shots from distance and trying to

create traffic and then either jump on rebounds or tip the puck's in front. And this Vegas team does such a good job of taking care of business in front of the net with boxouts and block shots and not really letting you do that. And they frustrated the abs certainly and even the ducks before that in that regard. And so I'm not sure that's going to be a viable path. And that's why I think especially some of those kind of just throw it on net from distance are so dangerous not only because like, you know, they had the golden nights on the ropes early in this game. And it felt like every shot they were getting in the first seven or eight minutes was a great a that was either scoring or just narrowly missing by the thinnest margin.

And then there were a handful of kind of looks like weak and aimless point shots that got easily gobbled up. And they got to be careful with those because they're not only giving away possession, but they're just probably not likely to actually turn into goals in this series. I guess you could include make it four if you wanted to include the theater goal because it was a defensive deflection. I watched that play like a thousand times. I still don't know how Keegan Colissar didn't get a stick on it because it initially looked like he did. But he was pretty adamant giving credit.

Yeah, he immediately was pointing to Theodore, yeah. Yeah, and they wound up scoring it that way. And I guess they viewed it as a defensive deflection. So it did hit a stick in front and change directions a little bit, but wasn't off Colissar, but that was also the only goal in this game that you could register as not a high danger opportunity, right? Like all the other ones were off of quick change of possessions

from the slot typically, and even that one is probably more dangerous than a low danger shot because Colossar is just camped out in front and taken away the goalie's ability to come out, but also see the puck cleanly and it gets redirected. But all the other stuff was in a game where shots were 27 to 23, there were a lot of scoring chances and we got nine goals.

And so I'd expect that to continue because that's the way Vegas plays. Yeah, I think that's why I like this game so much was that the goals were so well earned. And there wasn't any sort of weird things going on in terms of bounces. And both teams played well. Like, I mean, it's pretty obvious when you look at, you know, the 5'4 final score. But I just felt like once Vegas punched back after that really strong, whatever, or 12, 15 minutes from Carolina off the hop. It became this sort of heavyweight tilt of a lot of back and forth.

And I understand that Vegas controlled the expected goals in the final two periods, but it did really feel like that classic cliche of like fighting for every inch and just sort of like everyone playing at a really high level. Maybe aside from the goalies, I felt like neither goalie had their finest performance, which obviously reflects in the score. But like, I'm finding it hard to find too many players on either team. team that I'm like, ooh, this guy was a real goat. Like, Hannathan had a bunch of giveaways.

This was to my eye. I didn't actually look up to what he was credited with or what was sort of. Yeah, well, he had the one on the stall goal notably. But as he's had a pretty tough task this postseason because if you've been watching these games, Rasmus Anderson's getting them into a lot of trouble in terms of retrievals and pinches. And Hanofins really had to cover up a lot. of it. So I'll give him a little bit of the benefit of doubt, but you're right. And I think that's

going to be pervasive for all these defensemen. Like there's going to be quite a few giveaways, I would imagine. Yeah, that's, I think that's all I had. I guess beyond the scheduling, which I think is interesting, right? Like, it's not surprising necessarily, and there's going to be considerations with the NBA final going on to not overlap, of course. So it's not surprising to see that, you know, game two, for example, only has the one day in between. I was a little surprised to see game three though. Also with switching cities, once again, like we're going to get Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for the first three games.

And then there's going to be an extra day off before game four, but then back at it for alternating days heading into game five. And both teams are generally healthy. Like I wouldn't say Mark Stone looks 100% at 515. And as we talked about, I think Seth Jarvis is battling something. But when you get to this late in the season, everyone is kind of banged up a little bit. And at least everyone is available for the most part.

for these teams. So I don't know if it benefits anyone either way necessarily other than I guess these things can move pretty quickly, right, in terms of like if you're not careful with managing momentum and resetting quickly. And I thought it got away from Carolina a little bit in that second period where Vegas really took it to them and probably could have scored a couple more goals on the power play to extend a lead before Jordan Stahl tied it. And that's something that I would nitpick with them in the past where it feels like when

things go bad. Sometimes they go really bad really quickly for them and they lose their composure a little bit. Now when they go good, they generally go really well for them as well. So it's kind of both extremes and you kind of ride that roller coaster. But with the three games happening and what, like a five day, six day span, essentially like I think they're going to need to be a bit careful about not letting this get out of hand and making the necessary adjustments obviously in a big game too because you don't want to go down to nothing going back on the road. Yeah. It's. I mean, just to hit on what you said earlier, like it's,

I love that both teams are relatively healthy. Like I know there's guys who are dinged up, but like there's no superstar on the sidelines. There's no what ifs here. They're just two heavy weights throwing haymakers in a lot of ways here. And what more could you ask for? It's going to be a fun series. Oh,

I guess the last adjustment note that I wanted to make for Vegas was I, you know, I get that they rely on Luzon to kill penalties. And that's been such a strength for them. and you look like three out of his 13 minutes or whatever in this game were short-handed, and they came out with a clean sheet. But I did find it a little surprising because I thought that Corsack Coglin pair was really doing well against Colorado and had great numbers and were being used in

kind of this offensive role and being sheltered as a third pair. And that, you know, by comparison, Lazon and Coglin had a really tough game. And this one, I think Coglin had literally a 0% expected goal share and was on the ice for two goals against. And so maybe they'll stick with it for game two, especially coming off a win. But I do wonder, depending on how that goes, if heading back home, they're able to get Corsac back in there and kind of lean on that pair in more carefully managed minutes with the benefit of last change. Yeah, that's a good show. All right, buddy. Well, this was a lot of fun. It's great to catch up with you and a really fun game to talk about looking forward to the rest of this series as we move forward. I'll let you plug some stuff. What do you want to promote? I got nothing to plug right now.

I'll just plug the PDOCast Discord that I'm going to hop in on more frequently moving forward for the rest of the series here because that's a good place to have intelligent conversations, maybe throw out a joke or two, maybe chirp someone who's a regular in there because there's some good back and forth going on. But yeah, I'll just, I'll plug that, man. I'm a, what do you call it? I'm a homer or I'm a company man, even though. I don't technically work for the PDO cast. Well, there you go.

Well, I won't tease your promotions then. I was trying to set you up, but we'll save it for a later date. I'm sure you're going to be back at it with plenty to promote in the near future here. All right, I'll promote some stuff then beyond the PDO guest discord. It was a five-star review wherever you listen. Also subscribe to the PDO guest Patreon. Right before the start of this game one, I put out a last minute deep dive of the conference finals with a lot of scoring chance data and kind of breaking the,

that down and I think there's interesting nuggets there to kind of transpose onto this series as we move forward. We'll do some more series updates in between games as well in that newsletter. And then I think game three is going to be over the weekend. And so we'll probably do a post game show on that feed for our subscribers. So if you're not in there, join us and enjoy the rest of this post season. And that is all from us for today. We'll be back here on Friday to break down everything we saw in game two of the Stanley Cup final. Thank you for. listening to the Hockey PEOcast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.