The Hockey PDOcast - Takeaways From Game 3 of Sabres vs. Bruins and Hurricanes vs. Senators on Thursday Night

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by John Matisz to break down what we saw while watching Game 3 of Sabres vs. Bruins and Hurricanes vs. Senators on Thursday night. 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.

Progressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Demetri Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy John Mattis. John, what's going on, man? A ton. I mean, the weather's turning in Ontario.

We're midway through the first round. It's a very positive time a year. It's also my birthday. I'll just throw that out there. I'm going out for dinner with the family later. So that's got me a little. excited as well. Well, congratulations to you. And yeah, the weather is on an uptick. It's been nice here in Vancouver for a bit, but this weekend is going to be particularly nice and sunny. And it's a perfect backdrop for staying inside and watching hockey all day. As I have, you and I were talking before we went on the air, I was just reflecting on this past week and all I've gotten done from a work perspective. And then I was like, man, the playoffs started last Saturday. So we're not even a full week into the 20. six postseason yet and you could easily tell me it's been a month, two months, however long

since we did the previews. It feels like it's been ages, but round one is always just a wild roller coaster ride and we're going to talk about a couple of the games we watch on Thursday nights and pivotal game threes and break those down stuff we saw kind of maybe talk about the series from a bigger picture perspective as well in looping into that conversation. But I wanted to start with Sabres Bruins with Buffalo going on the road, taking in game three by a 3-1 score to go up to 1. In that series against Boston, they went down for a third straight game

before coming back to tie it up and ultimately get that third period goal from Tuck to win it. I'm curious for your takeaway on what you saw from that one in terms of how it played out, especially within the context of the rest of the series of the first two games in Buffalo, surprises, takeaways, all the stuff that popped out to you all watching this one. Yeah, I got a lot of notes on this series,

but I feel like given when we're talking, we should talk about Noah Oostlin, who Alex Tuck called the masseuse on TNT after the game because of how we massages the puck, which I thought was a bit of a stretch in terms of a nickname, but kind of funny. There's no way that's his actual nickname. The masseuse.

I don't know. That's what I saw. That's what I saw, the masseuse, which is hilarious. So this kid, he's whatever is he, 21, 22. He has the primary assist on Byram's goal. And it was yet another instance. of how the Sabres play off the rush, where you've got one forward streaming down,

let's say the left side, which is what happened in this instance, and the other two forwards heading to the net and sort of taking up a lot of the attention of the defenders. And then there's a, you know, a defenseman trailing, the fourth guy, and he's on the opposite side of the ice, just waiting for that pass. And that's exactly what happened here with the masseuse, Osland,

feeding Byram across, across ice and then just you know byram obviously getting it off quick enough to beat sway and I thought that was notable it's it's one of those plays that I always see Matia Samuelson get involved with but obviously you know whether it's power or Dahlene

or Byram there's certainly instances where other defensemen are the guys pulling the trigger in that instance and then you know Austin also has a sort of spinorama empty netter that comes off of this great

neutral zone sequence for the saber where Zucker hits the puck carrier, I can't remember who it was. Quinn grabs the puck and dumps it while on his knees. And then you've just got, you know, the dog in Osslyn ramping up and him getting the puck and just basically outworking the Bruins who had an extra man at that point. So really interesting from that perspective. And then there was also a sequence earlier in the game

where he was doing this high cycle with Dahlene. at the blue line, Osslyn. And I just find it interesting when like, I suppose non-star players are doing stuff like that. And I just feel like

Oslin is, you know, I think it's fair to say that he's an elite thinker of the game, processor of the game. Like, I don't know if we want to put him in the 90th percentile

in Hockey Sense, but he's certainly up there. And, you know, he obviously has a can and have a shot and he's got this doggedness to him. And he's kind of crafty out there. I just, I know there's a lot of people

whose eyes are opening up to the type of player he is and also the two-way impact he can have. So I thought it was such a fun playoff debut from a guy who was obviously out to start the series and also a guy who even spent some time in the American League this year. He's very kind of new to the NHL and its fans. And that's one of my favorite things about playoff hockey

is you get these guys who, sure, if you're like a beat writer or a hardcore fan of a team, you know all about them, or yourself and I where we try to keep track of the entire league and keep an eye on interesting players. But there's a lot of people out there that didn't know much about Noah O'Slin, but now no plenty. Yeah, I assure you listeners of the show are nodding their heads in agreement

because they're very familiar with Noah O'Slin based on how much we've talked about him this season. And it was incredibly nice to see that performance. Not only jumping into a series in game three after two, very competitive games to open this up where everyone kind of gets their feet wet and feels the rhythm and the pace of playoff hockey, making his playoff debut, but also coming back from essentially missing a month's worth of action and stepping in and fitting in as seamlessly as did and playing the outsized role that he did in this one,

he replaces Josh Norris down the middle playing with PDO cast favorites, Josh Doan, and Zach Benson, and you hit the nail on the head. He's so smooth. I don't know if I'd call him the masseuse, but some beautiful connective plays. I had all those ones that you outlined in my notes as well, just in terms of how he sees the ice and utilizes and plays off his teammates. So well, that interchange up high with Dahlia, where they essentially were giving go, and then he's able to hit Josh Stone down low for a great A chance,

the setup of the 1-1 goal in the second, which comes off this quick neutral zone regroup, and he just immediately re-enters attacks, works the puck down low, and then threads that pass across the Byram, and then the effort on the empty netter. natural statrick had that line of ocelain and don on the ice for nine five on five minutes together 90% expected goals during that time and especially notable that they were essentially matched up against

Boston's version of their kid line with kuznadidav haggins and um and mintin and they just took their lunch money in that head-to-head matchup and benson and don't as well for their part were doing their thing in terms of hounding bruin's defenders on every retrieval seemingly they had to shift in the third against that lower eye Hampus Linholm pair where they were just had both guys in hell and forced turnovers culminating with Doan sort of jump in a lane and stripping the puck from

Lynn home behind the net. Natural Statrick had them down for three combined takeaways. I hate how the league tracks this stat and has all year. I know Don was high in it regardless, but if I was counting it, I'd probably have it. I'd at least double that in this game based on how

many times they forced the change of possession, at least for their team. And so I thought that line was great. And then, you know, we mentioned Byram and the goal he scored. That pair of Byram and power played more 5-15 minutes in this game than anyone on either team. And they were on the ice for both Sabers' 5-1-5 goals and played big roles in them. Byram obviously on the finishing end of the first one. And then the second one I wanted to highlight because there's been a lot of unsurprisingly Owen Power discourse coming out of game two and particularly from coming out of buffalo of fans who I just think of a fundamental misunderstanding of what he is as a player because of his draft slot and size and citing like his hit totals and the way he plays and I think he's been totally fine through the

first two games especially in his bread and butter of breaking the puck out of the zone where he's been very efficient moving the puck up the ice but the play he made on that two one goal that tuck scores where he comes crashing down the wall and seals it off and keeps the puck in and then essentially it works its way to tuck for that goal was a great example of how you could sort of leverage your size and skating ability and that's the type of like functional physicality that I like to see that might not necessarily generate a hit in the stat sheet but ultimately may as well be and is probably more valuable than just one you'd actually get credit for and so I thought it was really nice to see him get rewarded for it. And I thought that pair was great in this game.

Yeah, Power is almost like a perfect example of a guy who will never live up to his draft slot or like how tall and big he is just because of the way he plays and how he's almost like a master of the little things. And that's just not going to grab everyone's attention. That's not going to make too many headlines. And obviously he's, his offense is ticked up over the years. and it's not like this guy is getting 20 points a year or something. But, you know, if he was drafted fifth, instead of first, I feel like some of the discourse wouldn't quite be where it's at currently. And I just feel like, you know, at this point in his career, what is he, 22 or something?

Like, he kind of is what he is as far as the lack of physicality. Can he maybe, you know, be coached into better net front defense? Sure. But, like, you're not going to ever see this guy blow someone up. with an open ice hit or just be overly physical in a one-on-one battles in general because he's just, he's able to accomplish what he wants to accomplish with a stick and his skating. He just happens to be six foot six.

I think we give a lot more leniency and grace to, like, power forward wingers in particular, but just forwards in general that come into the league and have this type of a frame, but like aren't necessarily leveraging their physical tools to the way that we'd expect from it. And then as we've seen, like, think about your eyes, Likovsky, but there's countless examples that just the most recent one of guys who take a couple of years to like figure out the intricacies of the game and how to best use it. And then once they settle into that, we start

seeing them lean on it more and more. And that kind of coincides with them approaching 24, 25 years old when they sort of hit their physical peak, but also just get stronger in general. And we don't think of that for defensemen. That typically, especially one who immediately steps into the league because he was first overall and kind of has to go through all of this development in front of our eyes as opposed to doing it in the AHL or in Europe where we're not necessarily watching it as closely every night. And so I'd expect power to get better at that. He's never going to be Chris Pronger or one of those types of defensemen. But in the modern game, I think he can add little wrinkles there while also retaining all the transition stuff and offensive zone movement and everything that he does already at such a high. level. So I'm not really worried about that for him. The goalies, you want to talk about that a little

bit? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I thought that, I mean, both guys were a great. Lion was making his first start of the series after Rukopekulukin and started the first two, he replaced him halfway through game two. And really, I mean, the only time the ruins beat him in this one was off a Tanner Geno, downhill rister in transition that was a well-play shot, but probably one he should stop. But I think that's fine ultimately because he probably made at least a handful of saves that he wouldn't have been blamed on if he gave up a goal against on it, in particular early on where the Bruins were creating a lot of their looks off of either broken plays or right off the pass, right?

There was the Pasternak play off the end wall early on. There was a couple quick hitting ones in front. I think of the Pabal Zaka kind of shot past tip in front and then the rebound on it where he stretches out his right pad and stops both. And then certainly the blocker save, on Victor Arbitson on the penalty shot to keep it, one nothing in the second before Byram tied it. All those were huge stops.

And so I thought Lion was fantastic in this one and all the counting stats in terms of shots and chances that the Bruins generated probably undersell that a little bit because I thought he was tested quite a bit in the early going. And then Swainman on his part was seemingly impenetrable for the first half of the game yet again. And then the Byram shot beats him now.

And the replay you can certainly see because I remember watching it live. I was like, oh, that was kind of a weird one that he gave up, even though it was from a high danger area off of a pass from behind the net. But it bounces off of James Hagen's stick. He was trying to kind of block it in front. And then Swayman gives him a nice little stare down after being very frustrated by it.

Yeah, I saw that on the replay. And then the tuck shot, which kind of wobbled. And it's tough to tell if it got redirected or tipped at all. It might have just gone straight in. But also you had a behemoth and Tage Thompson just standing right in front of them, essentially. And it was reminiscent of the Samuelson goal in the first game to put it up for Tumor, Zucker was standing in front of him and that's been a big talking point as it is for any goalie like getting traffic and taking away their eyes and making him look around it but particularly

for for swayman with the level he's playing at because it feels like if he's able to line up the shooter one on one and get set and see it he's going to stop it at this point and so I feel like that was a big differentiator there in terms of that tuck shot actually beating him yeah I'd say over the course of the series I would describe the goalies as swayman being pretty business like and then you You've got Lyon who obviously has come in relief, so he has a smaller sample size, but as being, you know, making more 10-bell saves, like a little more athleticism there, a little more hope baked into his game. But it's kind of crazy how the game developed down the stretch in the final eight or so minutes because Dahlene takes that interference penalty where he just blows up McAvoy when the puck is already gone. And they kill that off, the Sabres. And then Tage Thompson takes a trip around the six minute mark where peak actually just steps on his stick.

I mean, I guess it's a little ticky-tucky, but also, you know, that's a trip. And like shortly after that Thompson trip, like the start of that power play, I mean, within about 15 seconds, you had a geeky one time, or then you had a Zaka one time, or then you had a McAvoy one time, or all within such as short period. And line was on top of it. And then in the dying minutes, it felt like the entire game plan for the Bruins was like feed geeky, you know, cross his own passes. And geeky somehow ended up with only five attempts. It seems insane. I feel like he had like four in the final few minutes.

And then obviously had some earlier in the game. But it feels like in a performance where geeky probably lost some sleep in terms of just not converting on any of those gray days. but yeah I mean you got to give lying a ton of credit there where you know that last eight minutes or so he was just completely under siege and down a man for a good chunk of it as well

yeah I thought the special teams I'm glad you brought that up because that was probably the most interesting subplot to this game and maybe even this series as a whole we spent a lot of time talking about it in the preview for it a week ago before it kicked off and

the logic was pretty obvious like the Sabres powerplay had been very mediocre and struggled all year. They finished 21st in goals per 60 with a man advantage throughout the regular season. And they were facing a Bruins team that was short-handed more often than any other team in the league. And so predictably there'd be a lot of power play scenarios, especially with the Bruins trying to get it away from 5 on 5 as often as they can. And the last power play goal, the Saber's score came on March 31st against the Islanders. it is April 24th right now.

And that is hard to fathom. Even though we're only three games into the playoffs still, this is an extended stretch now where they just have not been able to really create anything. And it's not necessarily even a situation where you're like, man, I can't believe they haven't scored because they've gotten looks and they've been unlucky. Like the way you'd say about that Bruin's last power play reference, where they were getting all of these great A's and one-timers and good puck movement.

And it's like, all right, sometimes you just don't score on that. That's not what's happening here. Like you watch all of these and it's understandable that they haven't had anything to show for it despite how long it's been going on for now. And they're over 12 through three games so far in this series. And I've got a couple of notes in terms of what I'd point to as the biggest reasons for it. But I'm curious if you've got any takes in terms of not maybe even just for the series, just stretching it out to the season as well, why a team that has as much firepower as they do and is as good scoring at 515 as they are. has been so stagnant, I guess, with the man advantage when they have all that space and time. And you'd think that some of that shooting talent would really shine through.

Yeah, the strange thing, too, is that the entries haven't really been an issue. Like, obviously, they haven't been perfect. Otherwise, they probably would have scored at this point. But, like, if you look over all the tape, it's like, okay, there you go, nice entry. Okay, they've got possession. But then they've been far too static, far too predictable, which is a hallmark of a struggling power play, where it's almost like every player on the ice is in their own head and not sort of realizing that there needs to be some movement,

both the puck and the bodies on the ice. And yeah, I think you need hit the nail of head in terms of like, it's not like people are overreacting and it's like, well, look at all these quality looks they got last game. Like it will come through. It's not that. They're not getting nearly enough quality looks. And the player or I suppose the position or role that sticks out to me in terms of maybe some adjustments is that sort of Jack Quinn area of sort of sort of on the right flank going downhill.

Like I wonder do you put Oselin there instead? So he's set up better for one timers and perhaps can generate more as a passer as a playmaker. I do at times like how Thompson ends up on the goal line and can. sort of play make from there. And then as we saw in game one, it wasn't on the power play, but how he can come out and do that insane sort of wrap around that is very unique to him. Obviously

Dahlene, you're not doing anything with him as far as, you know, the quarterbacking. That's their best option there. And I think Zucker's a pretty good net front guy. So, you know, I think the one change is probably putting Osslyn in for

Quinn. And yeah, the sort of, I I guess awkward thing is that the second power play unit also hasn't been super effective. Mind you, they don't get a ton of time to spread their wings. But I mean, 0 for 36 and they're, you know, since as you mentioned in April, it's, that's a really tough stretch. And if they lose this series because of that, that's just extremely unfortunate. Yeah, I think for the series, they've won only 10 of 29 face-offs they've taken with a man advantage.

So there's starting a lot of these having to go back and retrieve it and kill time. And you mentioned the entries in the aggregate they haven't been an issue. There have been individual ones, especially the past two games where they've really struggled entering on the left side. And I can think of a couple times where Mark Aslick just sat on that little bump pass, you know, coming down the middle to try to enter along the boards and got either a breakaway or a rush opportunity off of it. And there was one shift in particular here with the man advantage where Jack Quay, and turned it over a couple times to them there. And then the other one is the predictability,

and I'm not sure what the way around us is because they are your two biggest threats, theoretically, but T. Thompson and Dahlian are really the only two shot threats. And so it's kind of very obvious where it's going to go. And not that that's necessarily a death knell for a power play, because we've seen a lot of the top power plays in the league. There's a level of predictability. Like, they're the best players in the world for a reason,

and they're probably going to try to get it to them, and they're going to convert when they do so. But in terms of just kind of standing around and waiting for those guys to shoot it or everything almost seeming like it's a prelude to getting it to Thompson for a one-timer or Dali in shooting from the point, I think that makes it a lot easier for the opposing PK.

And so it's a big issue because, you know, in this series, I think they've averaged like 40 minutes out of the 60 total at 5-on-5. The rest has all been either special teams or four-on-four, and there's been a ton of penalties that you expect from a Bruin series. and they're going to have to figure that out, particularly because the PK as well as something I wanted to discuss with the other end of the ice. And it's a tougher one to talk about because the Sabres have had the results all year.

I think they finished the regular season with the fourth U.S. goals against on a permanent basis while short-handed. And they've given them a couple of power play goals to the Bruins. I think they're two for 12 by comparison, but they held them off the score sheet in this one for successful kills. in a row, yet each of them felt very precarious like they were playing with fire. And we discussed this in the preview as well. There's some tactical stuff in terms of the aggression from the Sabres penalty killers.

And you could see that in this game very evidently. The good is that it leads to some chances potentially. Like Ryan McLeod had a couple. Beck Malenstein had one coming down the wing. And so those are good in terms of squeezing out extra offense there. And it's a calling card for the Stabors team of playing very aggressive all the time, regardless of which personnel is out there. And I love that.

It's part of the charm of this team. But I think there needs to be better, I guess, selection in terms of when you choose to do so. And there were some instances in this one where they're pressuring high in the zone when it's past your neck with the puck. And that's playing right into his hands. Like he desperately wants you to chase him, especially with what he's done as a playmaker this year, seeking out setting up his teammates. And there were a couple times where, like, he would have.

have it near the blue line. McLeod and a defender, I think it was Samuelson, would chase out after him, and he would just absorb that pressure, bump it down, and all of a sudden you have immediate three on two below the hash marks, and it would lead to that bump play, and it would either be Zachar, or geeky with a great A out of it, and that's just self-inflicted stuff that you don't necessarily need to do ultimately, and they might be able to get away with this series, even though the Bruids do have weapons and their power play has been good this year. looking ahead to a potential round two series

against either Tampa Bay or Montreal, both those are significantly scarier from a talent and shot making perspective and I imagine whichever one of those teams wins their matchup and if they do play the Sabres in round two is going to be targeting that pretty aggressively and if the Sabres keep playing that way

I imagine it will eventually catch up to them. Oh, for sure. And to flip it back to the Bruins and you mentioned how undiscipline they are, but right now they're tied with Philly for the most minors in the playoffs after finishing 30th in the regular season in that category 23 minors for Boston in three games and five from Zadora again like another like he got the most in the regular season he's doing it again

and to be fair I think the Flyers got pretty much all of those on that one shift where every single player on the ice got a penalty so and then Zegris went and congratulated them yeah no that's I mean it's just I'm sure it's like infuriating if you work for the Bruins at this point where not only like individually was Zadorov. And I understand he's like a really unique player without Talia's, but like he's been in the league for like 10 years. He's he should know like the line that he can't cross. Um, but then it extends beyond him. So like I just feel like in a way the Bruins beat themselves, uh, some nights in that respect.

But yeah. I guess the interesting thing to watch for will be, you know, I think we know based on historical trends that to start the postseason, but really in the first couple games of any playoff series, the refs really cracked down on this stuff and inflate the penalty totals to try to kind of set a precedent. And then as you get into the later stages, games five to seven, but especially in future rounds, there's fewer penalties by comparison. And there's a lot more leniency.

And so maybe it'll play a smaller role, but also the margin for error is going to decrease because you're going to play better teams. and you're probably going to get burnt. Or if you're not taking advantage of your own opportunities when you get a chance for the man advantage, it's going to come back to cost you and really change the outlook of the game. And so it kind of swings both ways, I think.

Do you want to talk about Victor Robertson? I do. I think you should just be playing more. And I know that they put him on the top power play as this game progressed. That's not necessarily going to be the place he makes the most impact. It's going to be at 5-1-5 when he can kind of fly around. And I also get it from a problem.

perspective of because of his size and his injury history, like you're going to want to manage the minutes to get the most out of him. He's one of those players who on a permanent basis is always going to be more effective than trying to sort of stretch it out to playing top line minutes and getting into the 20s. But I think he's played like 42 minutes through these three games. And he's clearly been their most dangerous player, I guess, aside from Pastornak, but just in terms of the pressure he's putting on the Sabres defense with his speed, kind of flying around, creating chances. He factored into five scoring chances in this game. He's got the two goals that he's scored in game two, drawn a couple penalties, he's gotten a ton of looks. And I feel like I'd be

trying to find ways to get him out there as often as possible because it feels like he's creating something beneficial pretty much every time he's on the ice. Yeah, I don't know if it's just, you know, a small sample size, but I'm finding that his, like, his timing in the neutral zone in terms of like cheating for offense has been really good where that can obviously come back to bite you if you are a little too overzealous but it feels like anytime there's like a dump out or or some sort of moment where the defenseman can hit someone in the neutral zone he's just like right there and turns the corner quickly like it's abundantly clear that he's in such a better place health-wise than whatever the last few years like a lot like it's it's very much shades of you know predators arvinson

back in the day where he was just this dog on the forecheck and kind of this fun smaller player and you know at that point there were fewer of them now of course even in the series there's a handful of smaller players that play a

big player's game but yeah he's he's just really fun to watch and I just I love the arc of him sort of returning to impact player status yeah he's been he's been a ton of fun I love watching him when he's playing And when he's healthy, and he clearly looks like he is right now.

I had a couple other notes on this, and then we can go to break. One is that I really enjoyed a lot of the one-on-one battles we saw between Tage Thompson and Charlie McAvoy. And, you know, they each shared a couple wins along that process. Like, I had that one play circled where I think it was the second period off an offensive zone draw. And Thompson just kind of wins the puck along the wall. And then he's isolated one-on-one against McAvoy. and he had him on skates. I guess all these guys are on skates,

but whatever expression you want to use, where McAvoy was kind of stumbling around, and Dave Thompson was doing all the head fakes and stutter steps and crossovers, and then eventually kind of wrapped around the net and got a great opportunity from the opposite circle. And then there was another play later on where he tried to do that again, and McAvoy just stood him up and knocked him off the puck. And so I love when that dynamic of, like, top forward against top defensemen

and some of the battles they engage in over the course of a game, over the course of a series. I thought Alex Stock had an awesome third period beyond the goal he scored on one of those PK shifts, like knocked a puck away, was using his speed really well to disrupt. And so I thought that was huge. And then I wanted to shout out Beck Malenstein, who's just a heat-seeking missile. I feel like every time he's out there, I'm expecting either someone else to get lit up or himself to get lit up in a hit attempt.

And he had one where he just kind of flying around and he bumps into someone and then he goes flying back and it just feels like absolute chaos where someone is going to take a lot of punishment one way or another. And I'm fascinated by it because we talked a lot about the UFA market and, you know, the Sabres have a guy in tuck that's a higher profile UFO and they're going to have to figure out the Zach Benson second contract as well. And there's a lot of moving parts there for them contractually. But I imagine a lot of teams are watching this and being like, man, we cannot wait for Beck Balinstein to potentially hit the open market as a 28 year old UFO because we have a ton of money to spend. he's going to be a fan favorite.

And so I imagine that's going to be a contract that a lot of people are going to be like, whoa, I cannot believe that this guy got this much, but it's going to be reflective of the market and the changing dynamic in the cap and the fact that he's a very useful player. Yeah, he's quite the glow up this year. Like, I know that he was a player for Washington

and had shown signs, but I feel like just like the role that the Sabres have given him has been really beneficial to, I suppose, as stock. And yeah, to circle back on McAvoy Thompson, it's interesting. This has popped into my mind a couple of times throughout the playoffs where you've got national team teammates going head to head. Like you had Kineckney and Crosby, John at each other.

And obviously they played on Four Nations for Canada, McAvoy and Tage going at it as U.S. Olympians. I just love how that's like a new wrinkle where we didn't have the international hockey at best on best level for so long. and that now, you know, post-wistle scrums are getting a little out of hand in terms of the quantity, but it is a bit fun to see those, you know, little storylines develop. On another note, like one other thing I want to throw at you is, you know, if I watched, you know, 82 Bruins games this year, maybe this would not jump out to me, out to me,

but I found it interesting in game three how many pick plays were successful in the offensive zone for them. So there were two in the first two shifts of the second period. It was a game two or game three? Now I'm drawing a blank on which, oh, it was, yeah, it was game three. It was last night. So the first came on the Geno goal where Castellick takes Timens completely out of the equation by just sort of accidentally on purpose running into him when Janot makes his entry. And then that leads to a goal.

And then literally like a minute later, Pastor Nex gets this glorious chance where, line comes out and really challenges him and throughout his sequence of getting to that point, Pastornak, there's subtle interference happening with his linemates and, you know, we talked about a couple minutes ago about how undisciplined Boston can be. Well, it seems like

in this area they have figured out where the line is and it's obviously a hallmark of playoff hockey in general to sort of just always be in the other players' way, but it was interesting to see in game three it happened consistently with Boston when they enter the ozone. It's like,

okay, I want to find a guy who I can get in front of so my teammate can get to work. Yeah, I think everyone is doing it. I think I can recall Osloen actually got away with one as well over the course of game three. And it's smart because the only times they're really calling those as infractions are around the offense's own blue line on entries on the power play really. when a guy kind of just stands there and waits for a defender to bump into him and they fall and that's when they call it. Or occasionally I was watching Hurricane Centers, which we're going to talk about and off of the offensive zone draw as well if you try to kind of come across and prevent the winger from challenging the blue line. Otherwise, they're letting it go over the course of run of play at 515. And so you should be doing it and leveraging your full advantage.

And I'm fine with it in the offensive zone for the most part. like it bugs me more so on retrievals when the defender just really holds up the forechecker and allows his partner to go back on skate and play the puck the way the panthers have the past couple years those are a bit more frustrating the offense's own stuff ultimately if it's going to create more chances i'm pretty okay with it unless it's very egregious um and dangerous potentially off the puck because it's going to lead to something fun and exciting and more likely to be a goal and i think we're all in favor of that all right let's take our break here and then when we come back we will jump right back in wood and close out today's show. You're listening to the Hockey P.D.

Oh, on the SportsNet Radio Network. All right. We're back in the Ocupedio cast, joined by John Mattis. John, we did Sabres Bruins off the top. I think we exhausted all my notes on it. And I do want to cover some other stuff while we're here today. So do you want to talk a little Senator's Hurricanes and the game three we watched on Thursday night,

but also just that series in general with the hurricanes on the precipice of closing out the senators, not that they're up three, nothing after that win on Thursday and sort of the state of that series and what we saw from that game three in particular. Yeah, like this is a series where there's sort of this element of big brothering going on where you've got the hurricanes playing a certain way. The senators, not being an exact replica of the hurricanes, but there's a lot of overlap in terms of what they're trying to do and sort of the philosophy from the coaching staff. The problem for Ottawa is that Carolina is such a well-oiled machine.

like they're just going to execute at a higher level, especially over a seven-game series, and we've seen it even in three games. But yeah, it's been a very, like, frantic series in terms of like, and this is obviously typical of Hurricanes hockey, but like controlled chaos where like there's so much pressuring from the defensive teams. There's, you know, you need to be hustling to every puck.

But at the end of the day, like, Ottawa has not had a single second of hockey where they're in the lead. And they've actually been trailing for 50. I looked at up, 57% of the series. And, you know, usually those, you know, those sort of numbers are closer to, you know, I don't know, one team up 40%. And then it being tied for, you know, 20%. And then the other team up for the other, you know, whatever percent. So I feel like there's just a real tilting of the ice in terms of execution,

even though if you were to just turn on this series for a five-minute period, you might think, oh, this is anyone's series. I don't know if that makes sense. Like, just Carolina just breaks you down over the course of a 60-minute game with their style of play. And again, with them sort of perfecting this style of play, whereas the center doesn't have quite gotten there and aren't obviously trying to do the exact same thing,

but they're doing something similar. Especially difficult playing against this hurricane team when it's a negative game script and you're having to chase against them because that allows them to modify their risk profile a little bit. Like they're still going to take chances and be aggressive on the forecheck, but ultimately like play their cycle game

and lean towards shot volume and really play to their biggest strengths and kind of grind away at it. And I believe they led for another like 53 minutes in this one essentially after Stankovans. early goal. And so that's a really, you know, it already would have been a tough battle against this hurricane team. But I think an especially massive uphill climb for the senators, the main takeaway for me is just how good this Stankovin Hall and Blake line has been. They combined to create both

their goals here in the three in the game three win. They've combined for five goals between the three of them in this series, which is two more than the senators have as a team, 34 shots on goal between the three of them. They played 38, 5-1-5 minutes together, up 3-0, 80% expected goal share. Shots are 26 to 11, and high-dangered chances are 14 to 4. And they play so well off of each other and really were their best, most consistent line all regular season. But it's nice to see them carry that over and carry the team offensively to start this postseason. Blake hit this spin move on Spence, who's played really well otherwise and made a couple nice defensive plays over the course of this game, but really caught him one-on-one to create a nice score.

chance out front. I love Stankovans, head-to-heads. You know, we're talking about Tatea-Sompson versus McAvoy, a more unheralded one, but him versus Clevin in this one, and Clevin makes his debut in the series as well. Like, they were going head-to-head a bunch of times throughout, and it's a hilarious size mismatch, where Clevin feels like he's twice Stank-Oven's size, but he was just, like, bugging him like a fly buzzing around constantly and winning battles against him in terms of puck races and stuff like that.

And then Taylor Hall's juice, especially off the rush, has been so evident. He's been, I know Stankovin has the goals, and he's been on the finishing end, but it feels like Hall's been their biggest driver in terms of just creation and using his speed to get out in transition. And he sets up that first Stankovin goal with a nice rush where, you know, he cuts from one end of the ice to the other. It gets a look of his own and then comes around the net and then hits Stankovin on the weak side for that goal. And so it's been really fun to watch the three of them. And it's massive for the hurricanes because otherwise you look and, you know, Seth Jarvis had a nice rush in this game, but he's only got six shot attempts through these three games. And it's been held off the score sheets.

Svetchenkov's had many more looks himself, but he also has zero points. And then Niklauilis has just the one assist, despite some of the stuff he's created in transition. And Aho has scored the one two-on-one goal in game two. And that's the extent of the offense you've gotten from all your other top. offensive weapons and it hasn't mattered, partly because they've held the senators in check on their end, but also partly because this line is just creating a couple goals pretty much every game. Yeah, and that two one goal was gorgeous too, where you have Kandre Miller making the entry, he drops it to Taylor Hall. Hall does this curl and then just finds Miller on the, you know,

the other point. Miller goes downhill and no look past the Blake. And the reason why Blake is wide open is because Stan Coven is sort of attracting multiple defenders. in front of the net. So even though that was Miller being part of that equation there, I feel like it was a good illustration of how this line can really stretch the offensive zone. Like, I find they have really, one, really good chemistry in general, but like they're spacing. They're the way that they can have one guy in the corner,

one guy in the slot and one guy at the point or something to that extent is, is interesting. And I also find that like all three of them can like go retrieve a puck. all three of them can play make, all three of them can finish. Like, none of them are like exceptional at any of those three,

but they can all contribute in all three areas. So fascinating from that perspective, and I feel like if you're their hurricanes, you should be pretty confident that like Aho will find the back in that eventually Jarvis will start producing. And, you know,

there's obviously a couple other guys in the forward group that you assume the bounces will go their way soon. So this is a huge plus for that. like just the playoffs as a whole that this Hall-Stankov and Blake line is picking up where they left off in the regular season. Yeah, it's just been such a brutal run of injuries for the Sands on the back end. As I mentioned, Clevin finally returns here.

And Sanderson promptly leaves in the second and doesn't come back, plays only 13 minutes. And this one, Zub's already out. It winds up leaving Shabat playing like nearly 30 minutes. And he's functionally got one arm that he's playing with after the injury. He's suffered in the regular season. and so it's really tough. It's kind of all been coalescing against senators in that regard.

I'm with you because it's been competitive despite the three nothing total. And the numbers aren't necessarily that lopsided in terms of, you know, possession time or chances or anything like that. Games one and three, I thought the senators really struggled to create five-on-five offense. For the most part, game two, they got a ton of looks and were pretty unlucky not to score more than they did. And it's interesting because after that game, I had Kevin Woodley on for a Patreon episode and we were talking about Freddie Anderson

and we had a nice little back and forth about it where I was sort of raising a little bit of a red flag in terms of how he looked. I know the results had been tremendous through the first two games with the shutout and only two goals against at that time. But a lot of the technique looks sloppy in my opinion. Like there were at least four or five times

where the puck sort of dribbled past him and either it was on the goal line or got swept up by a defender or he just was fortunate that it didn't go in. and they had an extra day off in the series as they switched from Carolina, Ottawa with travel, and I thought he looked much smoother in terms of his technique. And really, I mean, the only goal against he came up in this game

was that great A off a broken play where the puck gets sent back in the zone, and Cousins hits Batherson, and he beats him, and you're not going to fault him on that. Otherwise, there were no hairy moments for the most part, and it was really the only high-dangered chance that the senators were able to ultimately test them with in terms of putting it on net, right?

Like it felt like right out of the gate, they got that one off the miscommunication behind the net. It comes out front, Brady Kuchuk has a great A. And then Jacob Slavin's stick is there. And he, Matumbo style just immediately eliminates it. And I thought Slavin did that time and time again, as he always does. But this game, at least four or five times,

where his stick just was devastating for the senator's offense. And that has been a bit of the difference for me, where it feels like the senators have to work so hard to cobble together some of the best chances they've had. had whereas the hurricanes haven't necessarily had that many more grade A chances, but there's been an easiness to their game, especially with that stankov in line where they've been able to just go out, throw them out there and they create a look for them here or there. And the senators really haven't had that for the most part. Yeah. And like, I don't think we should

understate the impact of these injuries on the back end. Like, I mean, it's so obvious watching Thomas Shabbat that he's limited with his shooting ability with that forearm in this injury. And then, as you mentioned, Sanderson leaves game three, and it didn't look good in terms of what may come down the line in terms of his status. Spence is playing well, but probably too much. Manton's probably playing too much. Clevin just comes back for game three. And then you've got, like, Lassie Thompson, Gilbert, karate, you know, because Zub and Jensen are out. Like, I don't know.

It's just they're really, you know, in dire straits back there. So I think if once we do an autopsy of this series, I think that can't be forgotten, even though it shouldn't be like excusing the senators in general. Yeah, and it was really strange. Like, I don't know if you noticed this, but when they pulled their goalie, somehow Cleven was the sixth guy out there.

It's like, how is he your extra attacker? So I don't know what was going on on the bench at that point. And then Carolina just gets a bunch of offensive zone time on five on six. Eilers gets like three quality scoring chances. and including one where he had like an open net from center ice that he just fired over the net. But like I just feel like that was a good sort of illustration of how frustrating this series has been for Ottawa where it's like you put out the wrong guy as your six attacker or as your extra attacker and then you're just sort of behind the eight ball the whole time the net is empty where you're chasing Carolina

when they have one fewer player and you're almost lucky that it didn't the empty netter didn't come earlier. Yeah, I believe that entire time And it was like two minutes worth essentially Where they had the extra attacker out there And they were never really able to gain offensive zone possession And even threaten the hurricanes That was a killer I thought that power play sequence in the second period

Where they had a 513 for a minute and a half Yeah Was absolutely devastating because A couple times like errand passes just cleared the zone And they were never really able to get set up And that was such a promising opportunity for them And it was just an incredibly frustrating game for them and an incredibly frustrating series.

Like, as I said, they were down for 53 minutes in this game. They wind up with 22 shots on net five high danger chances, according to Spore Logic. And that's not going to get it done in this type of a game. So, yeah, I was looking at the time leading this postseason. The senators, as you mentioned, have not led for a single second yet. They're down 3-0. I think the Kings are next at like 3.5 minutes or something

or three minutes or so, and they're down 3-0 in their series. maybe we can quickly touch on that. And then next up in terms of teams that have played three games already are the Buffalo Sabres. We have left for under 20 minutes, and they're up to one and theirs. So that's a fun stat for you. You got anything else on either Cain Sends that we didn't get to

or the Aves Kings and just the Aves Outlook in general, now one game away from taking care of business in round one and essentially waiting for Minnesota and Dallas to beat each other up for another couple games? Yeah, I mean, just a quick note on, to round out the Carolina Ottawa conversation where Travis Green says, you know, was asked about Stutzla and Brady Kachuk

after game three and he says that they've been playing average that they need to be better. And I thought it was one, not only fair, but notable that a coach would say that about a star players and sort of, you know, not hide behind platitudes and cliches and whatnot. And, you know, I think Stutzel has been fine. Brady, I've just, you know, zero points.

he's had a fair amount of chances, but whether it's, you know, the fight off, the opening face off in game one where you're putting, you know, Jordan Stahl in the Plennily box with you, like I think Carolina's going to take that trade off

any day of the week. And then he takes a roughing call later in that game. And then he takes a roughing call in game two that leads to a power play goal for Carolina. And then in game three, you know, sort of a neutral zone cheap shot. Like it's just,

I don't know, know. I feel like maybe it's sort of a straw man sort of commentary, but it feels like he's his head's not in the right place in terms of like, yes, it's fine to be an agitator. It's fine to be aggressive, especially in the playoffs. But like your team needs you to be on the ice. Your team needs to not be also killing penalties constantly. So that's my final thought on that series. And in terms of Colorado, L.A., I mean, I just feel like this is a good a good illustration or summary of how Colorado has rounded out its game over the last few years to a place where they're not really that vulnerable to a team that's just going to completely lock it down defensively

just because Colorado can beat you in so many ways now like if you want to stop them on the rush okay they'll cycle their floor check and I just feel like that their depth is light years better than the king so you know forget about the top end of both. rosters. I feel like the depth is just not even close. So like if you think about like Pittsburgh and Philly, what Philly is doing to Pittsburgh, I feel like they're kind of identifying one thing about the penguins shutting it down and then sort of it's working. Whereas I feel like if you throw a bunch of defensive tactics, a bunch of defensive angles at Colorado, they're probably going to, you know, still penetrate whatever you're trying to stop when your team is the L.A.

Kings. Like obviously further in the playoffs, we'll see. But I just feel like this was a huge mismatch coming in and it's really bore fruit, even though the games haven't been blowouts. Yeah, I'm with you. I think what's really set out is because of the depth, but also just the versatility of all the personnel and the diversity of skill sets within that personnel, there's so much more problem solving available to them now in terms of whatever obstacles you're going to have to face over a long playoff run, you're going to have better solutions for getting around whatever your opponent throws at you. So, you know, I've been watching as I have every series, that one very closely, and I've watched every second of the three games. I haven't talked about it much on the show,

just mostly because I imagine we'll be talking a lot about the as the playoffs progress, and especially when they wrap up this series. And as we look ahead to the round two tilt between whoever comes out of Dallas, Minnesota, we'll spend a lot of time on the PDOCAS, breaking that down. So we'll circle back to that undoubtedly. All right, John, this is a lot of fun. I'm going to let you promote some stuff on the way out. What do you want to let the listeners know about? Yeah, sure. I'm doing a running analysis article in the score app throughout the first round. So I guess just go to your NHL tab and you'll find it there. And Dimitri, really fun chopping it up with you here. Absolutely, man. Great way to close up the week. We will certainly be having you on

plenty throughout the postseason and looking forward to the rest of your coverage at the score and your appearances here on the PDO cast. Hopefully everyone enjoyed today's show. If you did, give us a five-star review wherever you listen. If you're looking for more of the PDO cast, subscribe to the Patreon. We had a couple extra episodes on that feed this week. We had Kevin Woodley on to talk goalies. And that was a fun one breaking down some of the goalie strengths and weaknesses against the opponents they're facing. We'll do that as well with him for round two in a week or so. And then we had Steve Peters on to talk about Wednesday night. games we talk stars wild and flyers penguins so check that out there i hope everyone is a great

weekend enjoy the games this weekend and we'll be back here soon with plenty more thank you for listening to the hockey pdfadrador streaming on the sports net radio network